It doesn’t seem that along ago we just brought her home. She’s growing up fast it seems and it’s the same with Anya as well.

Before I know it it’ll be time to start scaring boys at the door. I do not look forward to that.

Well, maybe a part of me can’t wait for the scaring part.

Anya managed to get sick the last couple of days and not pass it on to the rest of us.

Arwen is into everything as usual. She loves the Christmas tree. And she turns one on Thursday, how the time has flown by!

Allison is still working on being mommy again to a baby. Getting used to having a toddler and then suddenly a baby again is not always easy. But she’s doing good and hopefully she’ll be repaid soon with a full night’s sleep.

We got new lights for the tree and they are the new fancy LED based lights. I wasn’t sure about them at first but I have to say I like them. They are bigger than the normal lights so they have an old fashioned feel to them.

I’m amazed at how bad people are about discussing politics. The hateful us-versus-them attitudes I see is just not productive nor beneficial. If this isn’t resolved I fear it will eventually tear us apart as a country. The current crop of politicians we have in Washington, Executive and Legislative, is not really helping in this. For instance, the majority constantly blaming the minority for everything even though they have no ability whatsoever to do anything to prevent the majority from doing whatever they want. It’s madness.

Friday was a hang out in the house day as Allison went shopping during the Black Friday sales. Personally I avoid going out into that nonsense myself but she likes it sometimes. That Alabama/Auburn game sure was entertaining, a good game to watch. Even though I’m an Auburn fan I was disappointed in Alabama’s performance. For the number two team in the nation playing a non-ranked team with a new coach to finish that close to the wire was not good. They better figure out what happened before they play Florida.

For Saturday we went out for lunch at a Mexican place we liked but I doubt we’ll return anytime soon. Has got to be the fattiest tacos (including the chicken!) that I have ever seen. We tried making up for it by going to a somewhat new Asian place, Stix, we haven’t gone to yet for dinner. I have to say it was rather good but the Kung Pao didn’t agree with me, I’ll have to try something else next time. We’ll probably see about taking Anya to the Japanese steak house part, she would probably like it.

Today we did some cleaning up around the house and I did some yard work while Anya played since it was a pretty day. The ground in our yard is still somewhat soggy from all the rain we’ve gotten and I doubt it’ll totally dry out before Spring. I wonder what’ll happen if we get a hard freeze? Allison is cooking a lasagna we watched Guy Fierri make on his show on Food Network. I helped a bit and therefore I shall have ended the weekend by slicing a chunk of the end of my left thumb off while slicing the garlic.

I kinda liked it but Allison didn’t care for that much cheese as it usually bothers her.

We also have a Bojangles opening soon so we’ll have another option for food around here. One day the county may go wet (allow sales of alcohol) so that some restaurants might move in. Then we only have to convince Bangkok 9 to move from Vegas to Cullman.

Yesterday we were riding through Birmingham trying to locate the church where one of my cousins shall be married this weekend (Anya is to be a flower girl) and I noticed an oddity or three. People, both businesses and residents, were already putting up Christmas decorations.

And last time I looked we’re still  about a week and a half out from Thanksgiving.

I can understand stores starting to put out Christmas merchandise as they probably do not make a great deal from Thanksgiving decorations. But I find it odd that people are putting up Christmas trees, or for those of you easily and needlessly offended, Holiday Trees.

Never mind, be offended.

Anyway, what’s the point of that? Even some of the city offices were putting up their Christmas trees. In mid-November. I just don’t get it.

Should we just go ahead and forget Thanksgiving as a holiday in this country? At the rate we’re going with it we might as well.

Now I just have to decide if I want to use Pods to put my web tutorials back up here or not. I really have to think it over because a few things with Pods would make it annoying.

Anya had her last soccer game of the short season today. It was an interesting day as it sometimes felt quite nice outside and then suddenly it would cool down quite a bit. But then to only warm back up. Weather to make you sick for sure. Anya scored a goal and almost scored another right at the end. Unfortunately I didn’t get to film all this because the battery in the camera died on me. She seemed to have fun with soccer even if she didn’t always understand the concept of teams and opposing players. Maybe she’ll want to do it again next year.

Arwen is a pill, she’s crawling everywhere and getting into everything. Chance is back to his nervous state he was in four years ago when Anya was at that stage.

Our issues with the never-ending rain continues. I doubt I’ll have to mow the lawn again because of the colder weather but I believe our yard is officially mud with a layer of grass holding it in place. Hopefully next year the weather will be more average so we can attempt to repair the yard and let the girls actually play on it. Anya’s poor swing set outside has barely even been used because it just keeps raining.

Again.

Shows we’re watching right now are Hell’s Kitchen, House, Flash Forward, Grey’s Anatomy, Amazing Race and Heroes. Hell’s Kitchen is fun but I liked Ramsay’s F Word on the BBC better, his attitude is much different on that show. The first episode of House this season was good but the second one didn’t do much for me. Grey’s is, well, Grey’s. We have to watch Amazing Race every season because it’s rather fun for a reality show. Heroes is just habit at this point but so far it isn’t too bad this season. I’m not watching Fringe at the moment because it conflicts with Grey’s and Flash Forward, I’ll just have to catch up later. Then the final season of Lost where we might finally get to find out what the crap has been going on.

But somehow I doubt it…

Anya had another soccer game this past Tuesday and she did much better this time. She’s still very polite about not wanting to get in the crowd to get the ball but if she gets a hold of it she does fairly good. She even scored a goal and almost scored another by driving the ball down the entire length of the field. But we still had a teary moment because one of the girls accidentally kicked her hand as she bent down to pick up the ball. It was more of a brush of the foot but it was enough to discourage her.

At first I tried making things work using the templates feature but quickly decided I didn’t like that. But I did come across a better coding layout for the site when doing this so it wasn’t totally wasted. We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully I can get the rest of my missing content up here in the near future.

Anya had a soccer match the other night in which I filled in as coach as our usual one was out of town. The other team had a few born-to-play soccer girls so our girls were dominated. They just don’t have an aggressive bone in their bodies so whenever the other girls approach they come up short and let the other girls run off with the ball. They can play, it’s just the concept of competition just isn’t there. But at least they seem to have fun.

But from the experience I think I wouldn’t enjoy being a coach too well. But it was only the one time so maybe I’m being a little early in that judgment.