A weekend of good food, good music and celebrating all things Elizabeth

The photos in the slideshow in the right side rail are from dinner at Cat's house on Saturday and Monica and Elizabeth's house on Sunday for Elizabeth's birthday. For those of you who were there, it was great to spend time with you this weekend. For those of you who weren't, we missed you all.

Elizabeth, I hope you had a great weekend. And thanks for sharing it with us all. And Cat and Monica, thank you very much for the great food. I should have brought home doggie bags.

It's official, I'm a winner

I finally cashed in my winning lottery tickets today from Christmas. I am now $15 richer than I was! Thanks Cat and Martha and Michael!

Of course, being part of this family is where I receive my true riches.

I hope everyone is doing well and having a great weekend.

Can you picture it?

I added a couple of photo slideshows to the side rail. One has some photos Suzanna took at the Hermiston watermelon giveaway in Portland this summer. The other is the photos I've uploaded to the blog so far.

Check them out and feel free to share your own photos for those of you who have signed up for the blog.

Is anybody home?

OK, people, where are all the new posts from our new contributors?

Sarah? Suzanna? Queen M? I'm talking to you in particular!

Tell us about your day. What's happening at work or at school.

I will try to post here regularly, but I also added my own personal blog, where I plan to post from time to time. If you want to check it out, here's the link. I made a post there about what I have to do tomorrow, which is serve on jury duty (yippee!).

Speaking of other blogs, if anyone knows of any other blogs they like that we should link to from this site, let me know. Also let me know if anyone else wants to share administrative duties with me on here. That will allow you to make changes to the template and other stuff.

Music for a wet weekend

A couple of years ago, Suzanna had an iPod on her Christmas list, and she got one, which was my first real introduction to the little gizmos. Before Suzanna got hers, and I got a chance to see a little bit about how they worked, I couldn't really see myself ever using one. They seemed awfully expensive. But not long after Suzanna got hers, I got one for myself, and now realize how great of an investment it was.

After putting music from my CD collection into the computer, I soon found myself listening to music I had not listened to in years. I also like the ability to just buy song I like, without having to buy whole CDs to get the one or two hits I want.

There is also a cool feature as part of iTunes that lets you share music with others. So, on a stormy, rainy weekend, I thought I would share one of my playlists with the family. It seems appropriate for a stormy weekend.

If any of you have any iMixes out there you have created, I'd like to check them out too.

In the meantime, stay warm, stay dry, and cuddle up with some songs about rain.

January celebrations

Well, here it is, early January, near the beginning of a New Year. It seems like I should be doing something. It seems like I should be celebrating something? What ever could that be?

Oh, yes, I know. I think there are some birthday's this month!

Happy birthday Michael (Jan. 6); my brother Ron (Jan. 18); and Elizabeth (Jan. 21)!

The partying just doesn't stop!

Great start to '08

Wow, 2008. Can you believe it?

The new year got off to a nice start, thanks to lovely hostesses Catarina, Maya and Isabel. Great munchies were served, but I am suspecting the fix was in during the games portion of the evening, as twice I was on the team with the early lead, only to have the teams Maya was on steal victory in the end.

But, I shant pout, because it was too much fun!

I am sad to report that I did not take my camera along, so I have no photos of the evening, including Suzanna's stylish new hairstyle nor do I have evidence of Isa wearing her new Christmas outfit. So, hopefully Cat will share some of her photos.

Also, since I haven't make a post in a while, I wanted to say it was great to see so all you desert dwellers on the web camera on Christmas day (I'm sorry you ended up watching us eat). But it was very nice to see and hear everyone, even if we all could not be together on Christmas.

I've been busy in the days since Christmas enjoying all my cool gifts as much as possible and scratching lottery tickets. I can't report any new-found massive wealth, but I do think there were a few winners in there. I'll have to take them in and get them checked, because some of those games were far too complicated for my simple mind to figure out. I need a ticket that just says "You Win" or You Lose" I guess. Either that, or I should have stayed in college longer and got an advanced degree to figure out all the rules, regulations, etc. When did scratch tickets get so complicated?

Anyway, I hope everyone's new year is off to a fantastic start so far. And I'm sorry to hear that Monica and Suzanna are sick (especially since I got hugs from both of them on New Year's Eve!) Now I'm going to be all freaked out every time my nose tickles for the next week or so.

Happy New Year all!

Happy New Year!

Here goes my addition to the family blog! I would like to first thank Gary for putting this together for our technologically challenged family.

Second, i would like to thank Cat for throwing a fabulous New Years Eve party! Thanks Cat!!! A great time was had by all of us and I can't wait for next year to see if you can outdo 2007!

Third, I just want everyone to get on their computers and add to this so we have something to entertain us!!!!

That's all for now....

By the way, Suzanna and I are sick again....hope you all don't get it, and you know who you all are......

Much love! Auntie Nina!!!!! otherwise known as Monica