Big Snow

I found all the cords and waited a billion years for the films to upload to the computer, another million to convert them to a blogger approved format...so here is the first video. Rachael in our first really big snow of the season...last November.

The Post That Patrick Was Supposed to Write

This picture was taken at the annual Melaleuca Christmas party, where Patrick was awarded the President's award (highest award they have). The people in the picture are his manager, the bigger manager, the CIO, Patrick, and Frank Van Der Sloot-the president. He got the award for writing computer programs that automate the deployment process for the company's computer stuff, i.e. anytime there is a change to a database, a code change for various internal software, or for the website instead of taking over 100 man hours to incorporate the change, it might take 2. (If Patrick is reading this, I know I don't have accurate numbers)

Patrick works hard and enjoys what he does. I'm very proud of him. And now he doesn't have to brag about himself.

Lifted

For those of you who don't know the saga, here is the sweet & condensed version. Before Patrick and I were married, I bought and lived in a nice little condo. Upon becoming a Gunerud, I moved into Patrick's house with the plan that we would rent out the condo as an investment. Check the date: early 2008. Our fabulous friends rented from us for not quite a year before they bought a home of their own. We're now in April 2009. We list the condo for sale and for rent and wait until October for a renter. Fast forward to June of 2010. Our renter dies in the condo and isn't found until a week later. We decide, "this is for the birds" and put the condo up for sale the beginning of July (after we paint and re-carpet). Remember our timeline: 2008 housing bubble bursts; 2009 housing market sucks rocks; and 2010 no recovery in sight. Due to many miracles, we were able to make 2 mortgages for a total of 11 months of the past 2 years. The biggest miracle, however, is that someone made a cash offer the week before Thanksgiving and we closed on November 30. It is such a relief and a blessing to have this burden lifted from us and to be that much closer to "debt-free".

Fwoo Fwoo

Rachael is PDC... Pretty Darn Cute! When she wants to bark, she says "fwoo" instead of "woof". The rest of this is random and from my cell phone. She figured out she could put her fork in her straw.

Being silly.

And, she pretty much loves rocks. (Note the teeth in this picture. She got 2 more on the bottom last week to bring the total to 10)

Okay, okay

Fine. Since no one likes reading, here you go.

Poll Time

It's that time...I go for an ultrasound in less than 3 weeks. So let's have your gender guesses. And if you're feeling really creative, you can suggest names* as well.

*any and all suggestions are veto-able.

We're Having Fun!

I just looked at my post for September 11 about Rachael's new teeth. It's been about 2 1/2 weeks since then. She now has a total of 7 teeth--she had just 2 prior to that post. Yowza. On the upside, we've been working on biting pieces of food off instead of shoving everything in all at once. That seems to be going well. Sorry, I don't have a picture for you, she doesn't show her teeth on demand.

Alrighty Then

Yesterday, just a while after I wrote the last post about Rachael's 2 new teeth, we went to the park to play. While swinging, Rachael tipped her head back to laugh. That's when I saw another tooth, I'm not sure, but I think it's a molar. It has emerged even more than the 2 I knew about. Bizarre. Well, no wonder she's been more screamy than usual. Apparently she is going to be quite the individual and not do things the way everyone else does.