It's February!

So. How's it going? I'm pretty excited it's February, are you?

On February 1st I did my Valentines shopping. Bought a gift for my one-and-only, a little something to send to my sister in the mission field, and super cute supplies for making Valentines for my friends and family! My mental list of people I'm sending Valentines to is nebulous and keeps expanding. If you want to make sure I send you a Valentine, just holler. Chances are I'm already planning on sending you a one, but if you tell me you want one particularly it will put a little "bold underline star star" next to your name on my mental list.

Yesterday Benjamin and I went to the grocery store. We forgot it was the day before the Superbowl. As we were navigating the crowd Benjamin asked, "Do all the daddies go to Meijer on Saturday?" I had to laugh. I explained that lots of these daddies were having parties tomorrow. "Is our Daddy having a party?" "No." "Why?" Hmmm. Because he's not interested in the game, because he isn't going to watch it, because he only cares about college football (and really only about BYU football) and because it's Sunday. Secretly I have always wanted to have a Superbowl party. Maybe because I love bean dip? We had some friends over for soup and cookies, instead.

Levi is now in the habit of saying "Ready, set, go!" Before he does almost anything. Often it sounds like "Reh, seh, go!" but I did hear him get the second syllable on to his "ready" today.  Friday he was consciously practicing taking a step down, ready-set-going all the time. First at the playground, from a higher platform to a lower one, then at a friend's house on their front stoop. I have to say the best was when he scootched right up to the step, said "reh, seh, go!" and then did a slow biff onto the grass. He only got half his foot off the step, so the knee went down, then the other knee and finally he had fully fallen. Jacob and I both witnessed and laughed. The slow biff is performance art.

Jacob has decided to do a post doc after our time here comes to a close. He still has anywhere from a year and a half to 2.5 years left here, but before we had been clinging to the idea that we could possibly get him into a faculty job without the post doc. Turns out that with Chemistry those cases are few and far between. He's taking a class this semester called something like "how to get ready to become an awesome professor" or something. Oh, apparently it's "Preparing Future Faculty." ;) He's been working on his CV (Curriculum Vitae -- like a portfolio sized resume) piece by piece.

I am having so much fun working and playing on Everead. I'm super excited for the giveaway we've got going on right now -- it's been forever since I've done one!

I've also been enjoying following Downton Abbey. The acting is really stellar. The show just kind of sits in my brain all week, pretending to be real. Someone mentioned a Matthew someone-or-other in church today. I got a mental image of Matthew Crawley. Fun times.

This week on Everead

A comic series for babies!

Ta da! Princess Academy is going to have a sequel, so we're doing a giveaway!

p.s. How early is too early to start giving away Valentines?