January

This month was fairly uneventful. In our household, and many in the Peoria area, the thinking is that no news is good news so uneventful is good. So we are glad to report that we have no news. Nick is still getting up very early every morning to go to work and staying there late. 11 hour days at the office are not uncommon. The important thing is that he has an office to go to. One thing I have noticed is a reduction in the amount of complaining about getting up to go to work. That could also be in part because the amount of complaining has gone up on my end. Being unemployed does not sit well with me. I have officially filed for unemployment making me a statistic in this ever crazy economy.

It's not all gloom and doom and complaining around here though. We did have a lot of fun this month. Mostly thanks to Nick's mom Karla who for Christmas gave us movie gift certificates thus giving us an excuse to "date" again! It was great to go out just the two of us for a few evenings. Nick even got Martin Luther King Day off work so we had a relaxing long weekend. We also spent many an evening playing cards and games with Tom, Jordan, Andy and Sarina. Our newest game obsession is called Acquire. Although Andy's latest game purchase is giving it some stiff competition. He recently brought a game called Puerto Rico into the mix and it seems to be a hit. Ok, so we are a little dorky with all our game playing but we have a lot of fun getting together and Sarina and I enjoy cooking and baking together.

Probably the most eventful day of the month was an event for the nation, not just us. We greatly enjoyed watching the inauguration of Barak Obama. It was such a moving experience to see our nation come together that way. One of the perks of being unemployed was having the availability to watch every aspect of the day as it unfolded. Nick probably got tired of me sending him text message updates every five minutes. You may or may not know it (but you could be interested in seeing it) but President Obama does a weekly address to the country that you can find on the White House website under The Briefing Room. Anyway, I really feel we have entered a new era. One that is more than anything, filled with hope. Something I think this country needs a big dose of.