Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has been enjoying their holidays. We've had a good amount of snow here and we would have had a white Christmas in Seattle if we had stayed home this year. Yep, it snowed there today. Little Mal didn't sleep very long last night and has been a cranky pants today. Poor guy :( He's 20 weeks old today.

It has been really nice hanging out with the family this week. Our vacation here has flown by - I can't believe we leave for Seattle in the morning. It really feels like we just got here. We're going to have fun when we get back. A long-time internet friend, Jayne, is flying in from Australia tomorrow night. She'll be hanging out in Seattle for about a week before she heads up to Whistler for snowboarding fun. We're going to be throwing a little holiday potluck on Sunday afternoon to celebrate the holidays with our friends. It should be fun!

Utah for the Holidays

We're in Utah visiting Tony's family for the holidays. Gosh it's cold here. There was a snowstorm last night that was pretty crazy. We've been having fun with the family - here's a picture of the two cousins that are 4 days apart:

Two quarters down...many more to go

Fall quarter is over without too much grief. Management of IT = done! Here's my review of the class: The instructor, Dr. Diane Lockwood, is very knowledgeable and experienced in the IT field. She assigned us very useful readings. However, the lectures were repetitive and a bit boring. A big part of our grade (30%) was participation in class discussion. Unfortunately, I personally didn't find many of the lectures interesting enough to provoke discussion. The structure of the lectures was pretty much the same for every class. I also didn't like that we didn't receive grades on anything until the end of the class. I did like it when she mixed it up and brought in a guest speaker. Overall, I did gain some good knowledge from the class that will be useful in my career.

I got a B+ on my final and a B+ on the group presentation. I'm expecting a B overall in the class. Of course I would have liked an A, but I wasn't inspired enough to try and force myself to find things to discuss in the class. I was a little surprised that I got a B+ on the case part of my final (I thought it was A work) but am pleased with the grade because I wasn't that confident in the answers I gave to the questions part of the final.

The group presentation is always more of a challenge because your grade depends on the quality of work that each group member puts forth. I felt like everyone put forth a really good effort, but you could tell that we had different presentation styles. When we actually presented, I gave the introduction and the conclusion. Unfortunately, some other members talked too much during their sections and we were pretty much out of time when it was time for me to give the conclusion. Oh well...it happens. It's done and I'm happy that we got a B+.

I'm taking Business Statistics next quarter. I was also going to take Legal & Regulatory Environment, but decided against it because I've been told that it's a ton of reading. I know plenty of people who have struggled with Statistics and I feared overwhelming myself. Although I do have some time during the day to do schoolwork, I never know how much time I'll have.

Little one just woke up from the phone ringing. I'm going to go with Julie & Jeremiah to Babies R Us to help them register. They found out this week that they are going to have a little girl!

4-month letter

My little Mal,

Your Daddy got a job this month so now it's just you and me hanging out during the days. When your Daddy gets home from work, you are so excited to see him. Sometimes, though, you don't take an afternoon nap so when he gets home, he finds himself coaxing you to sleep while I cook dinner.

You improved very quickly with controlling your arms and hands and like to grab things constantly. It's fun because now you can entertain yourself with toys. It seems that you have inherited the talkative gene from your Daddy. This past month, you figured out how to squeal so loudly that people react by covering their ears. You sure do enjoy using your voice! Your sounds have expanded to the cutest coos that make my heart melt.

Now that you are getting stronger, tummy time isn't so bad. I expect you and Collin to be wrestling when we go visit family next week. Everyone is very excited to meet you.

Can we talk about the drool? It's getting a little out of hand. I have to change your bib 2 to 3 times a day - what's it going to be like when you start teething? Now it's your job to figure out how to start swallowing your spit 'cause your Momma is tired of her shirts being wet all the time.

Love,
Mommy

Soup Swap = Delish

Last night, I attended my first Soup Swap and I sure do hope it's not my last. I just finished a bowl of Great Northern Bean & Kale soup and it was very yummy. I love soup! Since my crock pot is only 3 quarts, I made 2 different kinds of soup: Black Bean and Lentil. I should have made 2 batches of Black Bean because I think there were 4 lentil soups there. It was a vegetarian swap, too. I scored the previously mentioned Bean & Kale soup, a spicy tomato soup, a bean extravaganza soup, french onion soup, miso soup and a bean & barley soup.

A spare moment for a quick update

Mal's appointment with his new pediatrician went great. He has no concern with Mal's weight because it's consistently on the same curve. He said that the little guy is exactly where he needs to be in regards to his development and remarked on how strong and vocal he is. Good things! He's currently 11 pounds, 13.6 ounces and 24 1/2 inches tall. I really like his new doctor. He actually took time to explain the vaccines to me and why each one might have side effects.

The company I've been doing the contract work for wants me to do even more stuff for them on a longer-term basis. Horray! Unfortunately, I can't work as many hours as they would like, so I hope it works out. It helps when you have friends in high places.

The Loss of Kitty Companions

I have had two dear friends lose feline companions recently - one to an automobile and another to cancer. My heart hurts for them both. When you have an animal companion in your life for a period of time, you become quite attached to him or her and many people consider their animals a part of their family and most of those people would tell you that they love their pets.

So when your pet dies, it hurts a lot. A big piece of your life is gone.

Both of our kittums are getting up in age and I worry about their health. Fortunately, the vet says they are both quite healthy for their age (both are around 12 years old). I hope they are around for many more years.

Whew!

I've been reluctant to post anything until it was finalized: Tony got a job! Here's the story: he had a phone interview and in-person interview for a Quality Assurance Analyst position at Classmates.com before the Thanksgiving holiday. That Wednesday, they told him they would be offering him the job and sending him the official offer on Monday. Our friends, Cathy and Eric, both work at the company and worked hard at getting him the interview and had a big influence on the hiring manager's decision. Tony hasn't done QA in about 7 years, so his experience is rusty.

He also had a phone interview the Wednesday before the holiday with a small, Microsoft-owned company doing PHP & MySQL Web Development which is what he's been going for this whole time. The phone interview went better than he expected because he honestly didn't believe he was fully qualified for the position. His face-to-face interview with the company was this past Monday. He was upfront with them from the beginning regarding the job offer with Classmates. The interview went really well and they presented him with a job offer on Tuesday morning.

Imagine that - after 3.5 months of job hunting, he gets two job offers. He accepted the Web Development job and started on Friday. The compensation is what he was looking for and the location is just a 15 minute bus ride from our house so we won't need to get a second car. The Classmates job was south of the city and would have been an hour and a half bus ride each way. His first day went really well; he's very excited about the work environment and says that all of the people that work there seem to work together well.

We can now breathe a sigh of relief.

My final was more challenging than expected, but it's done. Malcolm is doing really great - I haven't been taking as many pictures lately. Shame on me! He has his 4-month well-baby appointment next Wednesday. I'm anxious to see how his weight gain has been. He's still a lanky tike, but he does have more pudge and is definitely growing in length.

We might get snow in the city this weekend and the local ski resorts have started opening. It's killing me a bit because I am DYING to go snowboarding but have no clue how to do so while breastfeeding.