Hmmm...

I keep thinking I need to update my blog, but I can't think of anything newsworthy to write about. So I've been racking my brain and checking to see if I've even taken any pictures since Christmas. So, uh, yeah, here you go:

This would be an old steel flagpole (in three pieces) that is anxiously awaiting its transformation into an awesome windmill tower. It's been sitting out in front of the shop for a while now, and I happened to take this picture when I was out snapping a few more of the never-ending trench project.

Back to the windmill project. We've known since we moved here that we need to do something with all this wind we get at our house. Besides having it blow doors shut and whip our hair around and stuff like that. Brian's been researching windmills and we were able to get one through a friend-of-a-friend sort of thing (actually it was more of a relative-of-a-relative). Brian's parents stopped in Utah to pick up the pieces in their truck when they drove down here in November. Brian and his dad have been planning and engineering pretty much non-stop since then on how to build a tower for it and how to engineer the tower so it can be raised and then also lowered (for maintenance). Not an easy engineering job when you're looking at 50-60 feet.

While Brian's dad was here, they visited a steel place and found this old flagpole that they thought would be suitable for a tower. They'll have to do some welding and some modifications and I certainly don't claim to follow all of their plans. I'm not even sure how soon it will get up. But it will be an exciting day!

So you can see from these pictures that life has been quite exciting around here the past couple of weeks. We had a very quiet and relaxing Christmas break. I quite enjoyed it. We didn't go anywhere and no one came to visit this year -- we didn't even really get out of the house much. We did take the kids to the Discovery Center one morning, but that was about the extent of our outings. Lots of sleeping in (which I'm having major withdrawals over!), lots of reading and playing and just spending time together. It was great.

On New Year's Eve, McKay begged to stay up until midnight this year, so we let him. The girls went to bed and then the three of us played a game of Settlers of Catan. Another nice, quiet evening.

I became hooked on the Twilight series of books over the break and read all four of them as fast as I could get my hands on them. Yeah, I know, it took me long enough (but this way, I didn't have to wait for any of them!). I've also enjoyed a few other books and am rediscovering reading "for pleasure" -- something I haven't done in a long time. And it's mainly because I tend to get so caught up in books that it's hard to pay attention to other things in my life, like dirty floors and laundry. But I'm working on some balance there.

The kids are back in school now and we're trying to get back into the routine of things. Hannah's 8th birthday is coming up on Saturday. She's having a party, which I still haven't planned, so I'm getting a little stressed about that. She's also so excited to start attending Activity Days at church and get baptized (not exactly sure of the date yet -- probably within the next couple of weeks). So there will definitely be many picture-worthy events happening soon! Stay tuned!