mmm, cookies...

mmm, cookies...
Originally uploaded by jmsmall2005.

Whew, it's been a while since we posted! Since our last post, we have:
--worked
--gone to church
--been to the movies ("Good Shepherd," eh.)
--reread "Pride and Prejudice"
--played "Call of Duty 2"
--slept in.

It's been pretty exciting, lemme tell ya. Of course, as we speak Jason is in southern Sudan, so that's exciting. And I am taking advantage of his absence to watch a lot of "Friends" and leave dishes in the sink. And counting the days until Friday, when he comes home.

To help me pass the time, Mom hopped on a plane last week and came to spend the weekend with me. It was freezing and snowy here (first snow, nice change from the 70 degree weather last week), so we bundled up in sweats and blankets, made cookies, and stayed up late watching movies and admiring the new shoes we had purchased. I adore my mom. Yesterday I had to send her back to Dad, but we had such a great time! Unfortunately, I've now eaten all the cookies...

Of course, I'm currently interrupting my "Friends" marathon to watch the State of the Union address. I don't say that to elicit political commentary (please), but just to give a picture of the day here. The SOTU is like the Super Bowl in this town, and I had at least three party invites to watch it. I opted to stay home, but it always ends up paying off job-wise to have paid attention to the speech. Luckily, a few weeks ago it also paid off job-wise to watch the fantastic Fiesta Bowl victory by the Boise State Broncos. I sort of have a weird job, I guess...

Back to Life...

...go ahead, finish the song in your head, you know you want to. But "back to reality" has been the real-life theme around here the past few days. I am three days into my new job, which, considering my distaste for change, is going quite well. We are also three days into no longer having a clean house, not knowing what to make for dinner, and dropping exhausted into bed at 9:30 or so. Yikes! I long for the time, two weeks from now, when my body is adjusted to sitting at a desk and trotting in high heels and I'm not plagued with the uncertainties of being the "new girl." But of course then I will be starting grad school...

Otherwise it's been pretty uneventful around here, thus the lack of entries this week. We spent part of our New Year break dragging out the last remnants of our single lives and sorting them from "his and hers" into "ours." Take, for example, our CDs. No longer is there a box of Jason's early 90's rap CDs and a case of Missy's early 90's country CDs. (I'm not sure what it says about us as a couple when we only had to get rid of two duplicate CDs.) Now my Moby CD is residing next to Jason's Mike E, and Randy Travis shares a page with T-Bone. It is a bit disconcerting, really...

Belly-Dancing in the New Year

Decked out to Pary
Originally uploaded by jmsmall2005.

Welcome to 2007, a year marked by one question: should or should one not go to one's 10 year high school reunion?

Okay, so maybe the success of the entire year is actually NOT hanging in the balance of that one question.

We spent the last few moments of 2006 marveling at a superb belly-dance show at the Lebanese Taverna, where we participated in Mezza Madness (translation: eating kibbeh, fatoush, and hommos until very very ill). Between dances, we discussed the highlights of the year (travel to Abuja for Jason, rereading the "Emily" books and organizing the hall closet for me) and the possibilities for 2007. Jason does not believe in making new years resolutions, but here are a couple of mine:

1. Learn to make croissants. (A very dangerous thing to do if one cares about carb intake, alas.)
2. Read something by Virginia Woolf from cover to cover. (As opposed to the frightened, incomplete dabbling I've done for the past two years.)
3. Call my Gramps and write my Grandad. (The least I can do as a grateful grandchild.)
4. Take a dance lesson. (Belly dance? Ah, but my Nazarene hips simply cannot move that fast. Perhaps I can lure Jason to a ballroom class...)
5. Fly fish. (Just once, just to try it again. Who knows, maybe I'll turn out to be a Johnson after all!)

In the spirit of newness, I've given us a whole new look. Thoughts? Hate it? Love it? Also, the photo album is enhanced as well. Enjoy!