Happy New Year!

Good morning! We hope this finds you all warm and toasty, enjoying the year 2007.

We've been thankful for some quiet time around the house this week. We celebrated Christmas with the McKinney family on Saturday and had a great time. One of the advantages to having a non-traditional family structure is getting to open presents a few different times rather than just once. ;) We rang in the New Year with some good friends, games, and, of course, a few beverages and lots of food.

Brandon and I have talked a lot about our New Year's Resolutions. We've taken immediate action by starting Phase One of the South Beach Diet. This is a diet that we tried two years ago after rave reviews from our good friends Jason and Dana. I lost about 20 pounds and Brandon didn't have any luck at all. After two weeks of Phase One, eating high protein, low-carb food, this meat and potatotes man was (understandably) not happy about his lack of results. However, since he's so good natured, we're giving it another go together. I asked Brandon what his goal for the diet was, and he replied "Progress. Of any kind." Here's to hoping this works!! We're on day three and after stuffing ourselves silly with sugar and bread over the holidays, it's painful. Only 11 more days to go until we can add "good carbs" back into the diet.

We've been in bowl game heaven around here this week. After a disappointing KSU-Rutgers game last week, we've enjoyed watching the other bowls (even if we do have to snack on celery instead of the traditional nachos and little smokies while watching). Brandon was pretty charged after the Boise State-Oklahoma game, as any true college football fan would have been. He's soaking up every minute of pigskin action and already lamenting the long basketball season that's coming. ;)

Every so often, I ask Brandon to rate our marriage on a scale of 1 to 10--10 being the highest. This is a fun conversation starter for us, and it's a quick, honest, and objective way to gauge how we're feeling about things. Last night, as we were getting ready for bed, I posed the rating question, and he responded "12". I asked "Really?". "Absolutely" he replied. "What about you?" he asked. "12 for me, too". As he tucked me in and turned out the light (late nights are his "cave time" and I turn into a pumpkin at about 10:00, so I go to bed earlier than he does), I said a prayer of thanks for the gift God has given me in my husband--that even after all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, managing a sick child, putting up and taking down Christmas lights, accompanying me on many Christmas shopping outings, he still loves me--and perhaps more importantly, we really LIKE each other.

What a way to ring in the New Year. Here's to a great 2007!!