Valentine`s Day

Second year of Mary and Iain + 1.

We all had an enjoyable day. Callum celebrated at the daycare with a Valentine Party. Mum and Dad enjoyed some one-on-one time with a nice Cheese Fondu and a movie and chocolates.

It is hard to believe that almost 5 years of marriage has already passed, I appreciate Mary more and more; both as a wife and as mother. I enjoy every minute we are together and I am slowly adapting to sharing much of her time.

I look forward to sharing another milestone next week when she turns 30.

Already Mary has a succesful career, a wonderful husband : ) and a little boy named Callum.

I am looking forward to the future together.

Iain

Snow Bunnies

As the second winter storm passes, and we are left with upwards of 17 inches, I'll post that we had a fabulous weekend with the Speggen/Nutt family. Thanks to Jeff's massive 4 wheel drive vehicle, they made the trip from SWPA to SCPA via the turnpike late Friday afternoon. Although it was slow at times, they didn't have any real major problems getting here. We had fun playing games, watching TV, entertaining the little ones and even sled riding in our backyard. Jen and I bundled Callum and Dante up so much that both of them fell down, respectively in the dining room, as well as out in the snow. Callum wasn't too bothered about sledding but he watched everyone else go up and down the hill. It took him awhile before he'd let me put him down (do you blame him? The snow was over his head), but once I did, he played happily for about 10 minutes before taking a dive face first into the snow. He didn't like that. We went inside, wiped his face and then went right back out. The little boys did a great job playing together and the big boys cleared the sidewalks, driveway and cars so we should be all set to get to work tomorrow (BOO). It was a very fun and relaxing weekend. Callum is battling a nasty head cold and chest congestion so I had the pleasure of sleeping on the floor in his room last night. He kept waking up between 8 and midnight so I figure it was best to just hang out there. Fortunately, he slept the rest of the night and he is presently napping. I am praying that nap lasts at least three hours because he got NO shut eye yesterday afternoon. Oh well. Hope you have a warm house and power as many people have lost it from what I understand! Enjoy the pics.

Bye Bye Car

So far the new year has brought some interesting issues to our lives. Work is B.U.S.Y. with a capital B. After recovering from my trip, I went right into international student issues, challenges and some downright problems. Iain's been up to his eyeballs in safety and sometimes the lack there of. We're both thankful for being busy *job security*. Our personal challenge has been the fact that our car died a few weeks ago. It had been nickel and diming us for months and we had hoped that it would just hang on until summer. No such luck. So let me reminisce in the fact that this car meant a lot to me because we bought it after my mom's accident and I have virtually driven everywhere in it. That car has been all over the state of PA, as well as WV, DE, NJ, VA, MD, NC and SC. I believe the furthest journey was Parris Island, SC for a Marine Corps graduation. Goodness, was that a LONG trip. I learned to drive in that car and it was my car during some tough times (working at the Holiday Inn after grad school) and some great ones (hanging out with friends and traveling). It was a great car and I really had some pangs of sadness when we finally gave the keys up to our mechanic who is junking her for us. We're now down to one car and are flexing our work schedules to make this work. It isn't ideal but until the car is paid off, this is what we'll do. Fortunately that isn't too long from now.

Callum's been working hard on word pronunciation and short sentences. And dear Lord does he love Thomas the Tank Engine (see pic above of him watching Thomas). I read his Thomas book 7 times before he would go to bed tonight. He has several trains he lines up every day and he watches at least one Thomas cartoon every morning before school. Other current favorites include Hop on Pop and Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess. It surprises me that he will sit still for these books but we read them almost every night. He still loves his Mickey rider as well as his new Tonka truck and animal zoo. Almost all of his baby teeth have come in but he has had a few rough nights and mornings (awake at 4:30 a.m. today). But those buggers have almost made their way through on both the top and bottom. Finally, my little guy had his third haircut and behaved like an absolute angel. My hairdresser told me he's been one of the best behaved toddlers she's ever cut hair for. I do wish she would have thought those words in her head instead of saying them out loud though. We'll be doomed at the next appointment...