NEW TESTAMENT!

Today we finished the New Testament as a family. One of our goals for 2009 was to read it as a family, but at year end we decided to re-evaluate and extend our time frame to the end of January. Well, today at 3:26 pm Central Standard Time we finished the 21st verse of the 22nd chapter of Revelation. It's been an interesting and enlightening journey, but I can't lie—we're excited to launch into some more modernly translated scripture for the rest of 2010!

Oh, Jacob

It's an inevitable phase. The picking—the method by which a tiny scratch morphs into an oozing pustule. argh.

Bathroom

Well, I finally got tired of our bathroom and its weird old split mirror and glaring lights that threaten to poke me in the eye when I lean in too close. On top of that, the mirror smudges every time you open or close the vanity—such a brilliant design. So, armed with our Christmas gift from Packards (thank you! thank you!) I set out to change it. Here's what we had:

I disconnected the electrical, then took out the two whole screws that were holding that puppy on there. We discovered something exciting after it came down:

Apparently before the giant split-mirror contraption we inherited, there was a small, almost non-existent recessed medicine cabinet in there. The studs are even cut away to make room for it. So, the hole is still there, but I simply consider it an easy way to access the shower in the other bathroom should the need arise. You should notice that I installed that light all by myself, including moving it a foot higher than it was before. Black to black, white to white, ground to ground. I was a little nervous turning the power back on, but Liz, who was on spark patrol, gave a clean report when I returned to check it out.

The next step was to replace the mirror because, quite frankly, we like to see ourselves in the morning. You can also notice that I hung it too high when compared with height of the vanity. That's my tall person prerogative; what's the point of doing it yourself if it's not just right for you when you're done? Ideally it would be both higher and lower, but it was a pretty cheap mirror; maybe one day I'll swap it out for one that fills that little gap more suitably. All finished, here is our new vanity space:

With our cabinet now gone, we needed a place for all our stuff, so up went the shelves. I think I'll add another at the bottom to even it out, but they look great, as you see here:

So there it is, our two hour bathroom, just a little better than it was before. You can use the comment box to congratulate me on not burning down the house. Joshua likes the new mirror:

Michael on the move

Michael's been growing up miraculously, and as evidence we have him here in his first suit (thanks, Heather!) and playing his first season of basketball.

Winter Weather

Unfortunately, I didn't capture the best of our winter beauty with this week's ice, but here are a few shots of our winter wonder, including Michael's excellent shoveling work.

What we're doing today

Today's Michael's first game. He's in the yellow shorts; easy to spot!



-- Post From My iPhone