New Year - well almost!
2006 - the year of new twins, Amy coming home
from Turkey to start at the University of Alabama
(Book Arts - which I learned doesn't mean
illustrating books but rather the publishing
end of things. I keep telling her to just write
her Best Seller and get on with it!), PFC Michael
and Heather moving to New Mexico and teaching
and re-learning Advanced
Chemistry. And that's just in my world.

Saddam is gone. I wish the war was but
we'll watch and wait and see. I
know a lot of Army Moms who worry
and pray as do I..

Auburn plays Nebraska tomorrow. War Eagle!

And Daddy has cancer of the esophagus
and while the cancer is gone he is still very sick.
I got mother a portable DVD player for
Christmas. I wasn't sure she'd use it but I
find she loves it. She got the whole first
season of "Everybody Loves Raymond"
and is happily watching it. And to think I went
and bought her a copy of "Pride and
Prejudice" and she hasn't even opened it yet.
I need to get over there and introduce
her to Netflix! So Daddy can sit and watch
Bonanza and John Wayne
reruns and she can watch other things.

Christmas was fun. 24 Brocks and Hills all
together in our house. An odd mix but a fun one.
Loud too. Niece Erin's little boy Jackson (3) is
SO cute, Darcy (2), Elijah (niece Leigh's little
boy) (1), Jeremiah and Jacob (9 months
who just happily rolled around on the floor
unless someone picked them up
to cuddle them - which they both love to do!.
Even Adam came (nephew - out of the Air
Force now). Patty and Steve with their
two dd's - Heather and Paige.
Heather and Amy could be twins!
It's uncanny the resemblance. Of course they
are related!

Duane fried another turkey without mishap
(meaning burning the house down).

John and Joyce were up from Florida and Aunt
Helen and Uncle Johnny came
too (with that thing they call a dog - Chuckie...
they love him though and that's
all that matters). John and Joyce
brought Little Bit too. Poor Aslan just spent
Christmas under Grandma's bed.

Joyce and I went with Amy to Christmas
Mass at the Greek Orthodox Church
she has been attending. It was really good.
The Priest is a good preacher.
While I didn't understand the Greek part
you couldn't help but feel the presence
of God in the place. It was a full church too.
The Priest seemed surprised and
delighted to see all the people there! A beautiful
church - I knew the Greek population of Birmingham
was large and had been to their food festivals before
(GREAT food!) but this was the first time
I had been in their cathedral. It
is beautiful. The artwork and stained glass
windows are wonderful.

Duane and I are looking for a church. We
attended Church of the Highlands
last week and it was really good. I think
Grandma would like it too.
Kingwood is good but they moved all the
Sunday School classes upstairs
and Grandma can't do stairs. That just ruined it for us.

School resumes next week and I almost can't wait.
I love these homeschooled
kids! I need to be reading ahead in Advanced
Chemistry though. I got a graphing calculator for
Christmas when I realized the old little
calculator just wasn't going to do the math
needed for this class. I should have bought one
long ago. This thing is great but I have to learn
all the tricks now. One of my students has written
a program for doing quadratic equations that I'll get
from him when we get back in session.
Eric is a genius. He made a 35 (out
of 36) on the ACT and he's just a junior.
He says he's going to UAB but I
succeeded in getting him to apply to MIT.

Well, that's enough rambling for a first entry on a
new blog..

Pax