My Kinect

I have now had the connect for about a week and so far it’s everything they say it is and more. I haven’t had time to play many games on it (not surprising when they’re $50 a pop), but the two most popular games I have played and already find myself near addiction.

Sports is a lot of fun. The motion is very intuitive and the Kinect sensor is sensitive enough to pick up your natural movements. I dislike bowling, in part because it’s inconsistent (possible user error there) and in part because it requires the least amount of energy. This may be the same reason it endears the game to others but I prefer to get my body up and moving. My favorite Sport is probably Beach Volleyball. Though we’ve already had two incidents with the ceiling and ceiling fan. You have to be careful when you jump up to spike the ball over the net.

Dance Central is by far the most fun. Some of the moves are tricky but I like how they organize them in an easy to learn way. I enjoy learning the basic steps and then working my way up through the skill levels. It takes a couple runs through each dance for the choreography to feel natural, but once that happens I’m able to relax and feel the beat and have a lot of fun. I’m hoping for this to turn me into a confident dancer that graces the dance floor with my amazing moves. Or at least gives me the nerve to get out on the dance floor when a fast song plays.

I think the Kinect is a great game console to have for playing with friends and family. The extra exercise is added bonus!

I plan on checking out the Zumba game and get into some kind of regular dance workout routine right from the comfort of my living room. Does exercise get any better than that?

The stomach bug blues

My family has been passing along the stomach bug for about a week. It started with my brother-in-law, then my niece, then my sister, then my parents and other sister, and finally me. It's a nasty little thing and I don't think "bug" is a strong enough word to describe it. It's more like a monster.

I went to bed Tuesday night feeling great from a day off. I bought my e-reader, collected maple syrup, and had a good time with the neighbors. At 2:30am the following morning everything changed when I woke up in the middle of the night feeling absolutely miserable and losing everything that was in me. It was terrible.

But looking back on it there's something I will always cherish, and that is how my husband took care of me. He really hates it when I'm sick. He would do anything to fix me if he could. While I was up emptying the contents of my stomach, he was up reading about he could make me better. He would comfort me, talk with me and bring me whatever I needed. What a guy!

He even offered a little comic relief. During an, ahem, "episode", he met me in the bathroom with some Peptobismol, hoping it would settle the yuckies in my tummy. I didn't have my glasses on and I don't see very well without them but when he came real close to me I saw that he was wearing something very familiar to me. My pink, fluffy bathrobe!

In his haste to get me something to settle my stomach, he grabbed the closest thing to him and dashed down the stairs. It wasn't until later he realized what he had grabbed. The sweet, thoughtfulness of the gesture, as well as the amusement of seeing him in the pink robe, made my heart smile.

What more can a girl ask for than a husband who loves her and takes care of her? I am so blessed.

My Nook

I have wanted an e-reader for quite some time. The way I see it, it's an easy way to carry an entire library in your bag. And if you know where to find some great, free e-books, then the whole world is at your finger tips.

My husband gave me a choice for my birthday. He had some work points saved up that he could use to buy an item from his work's "store" and graciously offered to use all his points to get me what I wanted. The choices were an Xbox with the Kinect, an e-reader, or an iPad. And boy did I ever deliberate over this choice. All three have great things about them and I wanted each of them for different reasons.

I decided on the Xbox with the Kinect because I love that it's a game that requires you to use your whole body. When you sit at work all day and sit at home most of the evening, the body tends reject movement. A body at rest will stay at rest. I refuse to let this be lifestyle of me and my family so I wanted something fun that would get us moving around a bit. So we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Xbox so we can get our game on!

The real surprise came when my husband brought up the idea of me using some money I received from my birthday to buy the e-reader of my choice. So when we had our random Tuesday off of work, we went out shopping to check out the Kindle and the Nook. After some brief deliberation, I opted to buy the Nook.

So now I've got my little e-reader and I plan on spending many hours getting to know it. I love that it's so small, fits so nicely in my Vera bag, and can carry so many books at once! The only thing I would like even better is to have more Christian books available for free download. Now that would be a sweet deal.

A day off and maple syrup

Monday afternoon my husband texted me and said he had the next day off and hoped I could get it off too. Though it was incredibly last minute, I called my boss and he agreed that if I came to work in the morning to get a few things done then I could have the rest of the day off. That sounded like a great deal to me so I immediately accepted.

Tuesday morning I went to work and got caught up on all the important stuff, got a hair cut, and headed home. My husband was visiting with our neighbors, who farm the land around us and are some of the most wonderful people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, so I walked over to chat a while too.

They were in the process of boiling sap to make maple syrup. It's quite the long process and I truly appreciate all the time and energy poured into it. The sap gets collected into a big 350 gallon drum than pumped into a "washtub" where it then can drain into the evaporator in the appropriate amounts. The evaporator is fired by a wood stove underneath it that needs to continually be fed. It's a great, rewarding process, but one that requires a keen interest and a lot of patience.

My husband has taken a particular interest in how the whole process works so we like to spend time over there whenever we can. Tuesday evening we were able to go out and help collect the sap - which was awesome! If you love the outdoors and you love the natural exercise then you'd love collecting sap. I was surprised at how tired I actually was when we were all finished. There's just something about those buckets that beckons me to fill them to the top - even if it does make them a little too heavy for comfort.

So we are thoroughly enjoying our maple syrup and hope to experiment on new ways to use it. Some use it in their coffee and some use it place of sugar when baking. We plan on trying it all!

Vera Bradley - A dream come true

I have long admired Vera Bradley bags but would never cough up the money to buy it. Maybe if I was still single I would have thought about it, but I know my husband would not agree to spending that much money on a bag and I honestly have a hard time justifying it when my other bags work just fine. So for the past year I have admired my friend's Vera bags from afar and have complemented every pattern I see her carry.

Monday mornings are never my favorite. Life is filled with so many good things when I'm home on the weekend that it seems sad to leave it and go to work. But this past Monday was a little different. It was my birthday. So I walked through the door with a spring in my step that morning, looking forward to a lunch with a few friends and  a cake that afternoon with my coworkers.

My good friend, Ali, gave me quite the surprise when she presented me with a gift bag. We had exchanged books and other small things in the past but this gift bag was bigger than all those small things put together. I peeked inside and my jaw just about hit the floor - she bought me a Vera bag!

The pattern is "Sittin' in a tree" and I love it! It holds all my stuff plus a book and a water bottle, something Ali and I both feel are very important to have with you at all times. So my birthday was off to a great start and so many people helped make it truly special. The older I get the more I realize that a pleasant and genuine "Happy Birthday!" can warm your heart more than just about anything.

I am truly blessed to have such great friends and family. How did I get so lucky?

Bella's Sleepover

The week Abbi was born was a big transition week for little Bella. She spent a night with each set of grandparents and with me too. It was a night I was long looking forward to and we had so much fun! Nieces are so special.

I made sure we had time to do all the stuff I was looking forward to doing with here - those special Aunt moments - so after she played a while and we got a VeggieTales video out of the way, I grabbed the nail polish. She sat still as could be while I painted her nails. I would paint one nail at a time and together we'd blow. She was such a sport. Of course, ever the toddler, she did stick her finger into some nail polish remover then proceed to stick that same finger in her mouth. Her happy "Mmmm" proved that she was quite happy with herself.

Later that night I wanted to give her a bath in our jacuzzi - bubbles, jets and all! I donned my bathing suit, filled the tub, and grabbed Bella, anticipating an hour of girly fun. But this hour of fun only lasted minutes due to my poor planning. After a couple of minutes in the tub, when I was sure Bella was warmed up to being in something so big, I flipped the switch to turn the jets on. Bad idea.

Bella jumped across the tub, wrapped her arms and legs around me, and wouldn't settle down even after I turned the jets back off. No matter what I tried to calm her with, she persisted on climbing out of the tub to safety so I took her out and tried coaxing her into our "boring" bath tub. That too was too much for her right then because she refused to get in the tub. If you knew how much Bella loved a bath you'd know how scared this poor little girl was.

Fortunately, the scarring didn't last too long because the next morning she let me give her a bath before church with out so much as a fuss. She was a bit clingy, maybe a little whiny, but if I was with her she was fine. And that, of course, I didn't mind at all.

Little Abbi joins the world

This is a long overdue post, but the news is still too good to not share. My niece, Abigail Grace, was born early in the morning on March 1. She's beautiful and lovable and absolutely squeezable! My sister and brother-in-law are two very blessed parents, and I am one very blessed Aunt.

I got the call around 12:15am, March 1, that my brother-in-law was taking my sister to the hospital and that this was finally the real deal. Because the labor for my older niece, Bella, took a while, I didn't expect to hear anything else until late that morning. You can imagine my surprise when my sister called at 3:45am to say that Abbi was here. What a way to wake up!

My husband and I got right out bed and made our way to the hospital to see how everyone was doing and to welcome the little sweetie into the world. It was a long day for everyone but filled with so much joy. Abbi and Bella are great sisters already. And there's something so special about the bond  between sisters.