February 25 , 2005

Our biggest news is the completion of the addition. See pictures here. Val has mostly moved in, and we're just finishing up the final punch list items. Doing laundry is *so* much nicer! As soon as we were done we had all of the windows and doors replaced with Andersen wood windows. It makes a world of difference in terms of keeping out sound and weather, and they just look so much nicer than the old aluminum windows which never worked right. Now we're looking at fixing up the existing bathrooms and bedrooms, and starting our landscaping plan. Phase 2 of the work on the house!!

Our holidays were relatively quiet. I took some time off and hung out. The girls spent Christmas with Kathie and a couple of nights at Grandma Adrien's over New Year's. We had visits from Michelle and her twins, Terry, Glynis and Susan, and Judy and Donna.

The new year started with my work being completely crazy, and Val's continued to be busy too. But we found time to get some down-time around the house with the kids, enjoying the new space.

My old friend Harold came to visit January 18th. Harold and I worked together at Xerox 20 years ago, and were roommates for a few years. He now lives in Montana.

Katelyn continues to attend religious school at Peninsula Temple Sholom each Sunday. Her class participated in a special Shabbat dinner and service on January 28. We try to attend the children's services once or twice a month, and I attend occasional adult education and Sholom Women's events.

Val and I spent Superbowl Sunday moving her bed into her new room, and then watched the Superbowl with her dad, Gavin.

Val's birthday was on February 14th, the double celebration with Valentine's Day. It's a good thing we had a nice dinner out on the 13th, since a senior exec from her company was in town and she had to attend a business dinner on the 14th - pretty inconsiderate, eh? But we had a nice time, and sang Happy Birthday to her both at the restaurant and then with the girls on Tuesday night.

On February 17th we did a day trip down to Mission Viejo to visit Grandma (Nana) Frances for her 98th birthday. It's amazing how alert she is! I love that the girls are old enough that they will have memories of her. They each made her a birthday card. We took her to her favorite restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory, and then returned back to Heritage Pointe where the kids entertained her: Katelyn played the piano while Haley danced. It was a long day, as we flew back the same day, but Katelyn had no school that day and the next, so the kids just went late to day care the next day, and had a nice evening with Val that night while I went to a meeting.

On Sunday February 20th we had an Open House to show all of our friends and family the addition. We had a fun time, and it was nice to have friends, colleagues, family, etc., all mingling to help us celebrate the new part of our home.