Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you are all having a great holiday.
Here's a pic I took from my front door of some lucky ones who avoided the oven this Thanksgiving.

Conny had her baby!

Love your blog, especially all the pics of Ephraim and Salome. They are so adorable! It looks like you are doing a lot of work of your house. I wish I could see it. We'd like to do more but the buying of the house has sucked all our money out of our accounts so if we can't just paint it we aren't doing it until the spring.

My mom and her two sisters from Japan were just out here for about two weeks. It was so much fun to show them around the city and this area. I miss having them around. It was nice to have family back in my life. I hadn't seen my aunts in over seven years and my mom for over a year and a half. I miss you all too! I love life out here but it would be nice to have a little Colorado in it.

My life is back to boring right now. I work and then come home from work to get right back on the computer to submit my resume to whatever new positions have popped up on the publishing job boards.

No work on wedding plans. I've actually been trying to stress B out about planning so he will agree to elope. The only reason I've agreed to a wedding is because it would be my only chance to get all of you, my family, etc. to a party. B's mom wants this to be a sacrament for him but since I am an unbaptized heathen and refuse to convert, this is a bit of a problem. He is in charge of finding out if there's any way a priest will marry us in a church without me agreeing to anything or lying to a man of the cloth. Once we figure that out we can concentrate on how to pull together a wedding that is going to be a minimum of 200 people (damn huge Irish catholic family) on our budget of $0.00. I am waiting to win the lotto or find out that his mom or my parents have been holding out on us and are in fact secretly fabulously wealthy

checking in

Hi all! So I really have no news, but wanted to put up a new post. Maki, when is the wedding? What are the details? Will any old friends say from Colorado get to be invited? Or is it going to be a smallish private affair? Have you planned anything at all, or are you still working out a date. No pressure obviously, but I am curious.

I started a blog for our relatives and far away friends. so if your bored check it out. We are plugging away at a kitchen remodel. Our house is 100+ so this is the biggest project thus far in its renovation. So it is a bit of a record of that progress and of our kids growth. http://thebloyd.blogspot.com/

I can't think of a thing to write about right now... just thinking about you all and wondering what is going on. Wendy, how is life with two? It was a HUGE adjustment for us. It took almost a full year to fully adjust I think. What is going on with everyone else?

New News

Brian and I are going to make it official. We had already been talking about doing it next year but he did the whole getting on his knees proposal on my b-day. We will try to get it all together by late spring. We are going with the Swedish tradition of both of wearing bands from the engagement. He got some temps but we turned them back in at the jewelers yesterday when we picked out what we wanted.The first two pics are of Boscobel where we were. And then there is Mish supervising the paint job in the kitchen. That's the primer color. The final color is a a dark but warm red.

Here are some long promised pics of our house. It's not much to look at but we love the land. We'll have our hands full fixing it up.

About time I suppose

I finally got a new car! I have not yet adjusted to the feeling that my car is actually reliable & will not randomly break down. It has only been a few days though--maybe it will seem normal in a couple of weeks. It is hard to believe that I drove the other car for 14 years--especially since it started having problems many, many years ago. I wish I could post a picture of the new one, but I have refused to join the modern world & do not have a digital camera. My theory is that if I had a camera I would just use it to take numerous pictures of my cats anyway so I seem less "crazy cat lady"-like without one.

I work way too much so I never have anything to report. Well, unless you want to hear about work, I guess. I don't even want to hear about work so I assume no one else does. I keep thinking that I will have something vaguely interesting happen one of these days so I can post something, but it hasn't happened yet so I may have to give up on that dream.

I am so happy that everyone is doing so well!!! I am kind of proud of us.

WENDY. WE NEED A BABY UPDATE ASAP!!!!!

Congratulations, Jo, on your final year... and my sympathies for your move to Wyoming. It sounds like you are going to be crazy busy for the next year. Little Lucy is looking as cute as ever. Is she going with you on your travels?

Ephraim is starting pre-school! Is he excited? I remember that party with Mike's new wife. That seems like ages ago.

Wendy, definitely let me know when you are in New Haven. We could meet in the city! I would love to go to Italy. This house has wiped me out of funds but I haven't taken a vacation in so long. Anyone out there feel like trying to scrape together pennies to visit Wendy during whenever is the cheapest time of year to go? This is probably just wishful thinking but it's nice to dream. You are headed back there after your time in the U.S., right? You do know you are not allowed to move back to the states until we all get a chance to visit?

I'll take pics of the house soon. It's a walkout ranch with white vinyl siding so it's not really much to look at right now. What we love is the location. It is right across the street from Fahnestock State Park, a trailhead is approximately 60 feet from our house. The other side is on a ridge that looks out to more protected land. The house sits on 2+ acres. Half of it is lawn and the other half is in the woods. The town is... I guess charming is the word that best describes it. Here's a link to the town website www.coldspringliving.com

I don't want to send pics of the inside yet because we are painting and we have little to no furniture. I guess it's better than when we first saw the house. We walked into one of the bedrooms to see that they had made it into a playroom for the grandkids. Little plastic tables, coloring books, tv with disney movies piled nearby, and, in the corner, and little armoir with glassdoors. On the doors was one of those little, yellow, suction cup, baby-on-board signs that said, "Protected by a .357 magnum." Inside were 6-8 rifles. A few minutes later I found a nice big closet filled with camo gear and unbelievable amounts of ammo. When we met the owners (who are very nice) the husband complained that their broker made him take down all his animal heads. I silently thanked the broker.

I am going to try to make a promise to update this blog once a week. Even if it's just to tell you that I have nothing to say and that I am just slacking at work like I am right now. Speaking of work I should really get back to it.

Hello All

Wow! So I totally disappeared for awhile. Life has been crazy busy. School has just started so I am already writing papers and reading plenty. I am up for a promotion at work, we will see if it really happens though.

I have begun dabbling in politics here. Ok that is an understatement. I have jumped off the high board into the deep end of politics locally. It is the most awesome experience. I am currently campaign manager for 2 candidates and 1 initiative. I was called by two of the Congressional candidates and asked to work on their campaigns. It is so much fun. I went to a fundraiser last night and worked the room all night. Funny to think of me in politics and working an entire room schmoozing. :) It is so much fun. My mom loves it because I now know more people then she does in the city.....and I actually have to dress up now.


This is CD4 Candidate Angie Paccione and my School Board Candidate Nancy Tellez

Well, I should get back to work now. Hope you are all well.