I experienced a little winter while driving home from Flag - the skies turned from blue to gray and the temperature dropped from 60 to 38 in a couple of hours. As soon as I started driving out of town flurries started, then heavy snow which stuck to the windshield and road. Since I was headed downhill, within 30 minutes it was rain and after I climbed out of the Verde Valley, the sun was again shining and it was clear at home.

I enjoyed my overnight in Flag - Darlene has an adorable old house right downtown so we walked to restaurants and even for shopping. I'd never experienced Flag from the perspective of a resident - it is really a cool place and I would even consider living there but not particularly attracted to it though. What does attract me is red rock and desert! I saw a picture of Terry Tempest Williams (author) seated outside her Castle Valley (isn't that a cool name?) UT home (outside of Moab) which included spires of red rock and I was immediately envious and had to look it up on the web. She is coming to Changing Hands Thursday so maybe I can talk to her. One of these days I hope to fulfill this dream of living in such a place.

I'm watching less TV these days because I got rid of my cable recorder. More reading, more listening to radio and music. I still catch Oprah most nights.

Hooray - I did several hours of filing, purging, tossing in my office and it feels so good to have all that done! Now I can just shred and file as things come in, thereby avoiding such a back log. I'm learning to make it easier = moving the files that I need to the spot where I go through my mail (laundry room), instead of creating a pile in the laundry room or on my desk to be sorted some months down the road.

That sure was a lot of leaves Doug!

Halloween

Kendall was Dorothy for Halloween this year. She had a lot of fun trick or treating. Rosie went as Toto. As you all heard, I painstakingly sewed this costume (with help from Mary and phone consultations with Mom). I think it turned out pretty good despite the fact that I had to sew her into the dress for her first costume party on Tuesday. It was just like an episode of "Project Runway" as I rushed to finish her dress in time. You can't even see the blood stains on the sleeve bands from my pricked fingers. If I start now, maybe I can finish next year's costume without as much stress.

Love,

Anne

Leaves, leaves and more leaves

Yesterday I spent 3 hours mowing the leaves and dumping them in the woods. (I love having a compost pile in my backyard!) Today...it looks just like it did BEFORE I started! I see another couple hours of yard work today. Yippee.

2 Hours In Line We'll Never Forget

The lines were a block and a half long and as diverse as one can imagine- what a great place to witness history and the best time to start a family.
Love and Hope- Scott & Alice

Dawn of a New Day

Carmen and I stayed up to watch Obama's acceptance speech. It was inspirational...to say the least. It's still a bit surreal. I too, have never been so emotionally vested in an election. I don't think the nation has ever been so emotionally vested. I don't recall a similar level of celebration by millions across the country for any previous President. I certainly don't recall caring this much in the past, other than being really, really disappointed that this country re-elected W.

McCain was relatively gracious. His crowd was disappointing, though...with their boos. McCain should have scolded them. I would have liked to have seen an apology from him as well. After running such a dishonorable campaign, I hope that he slips into obscurity and retires soon.

It's the dawn of a new day. We have a new President, and he has a lot of work to do to rebuild our economy and rebuild respect in the international community.

I feel like I am sitting on pins and needles over this election - I have never felt so invested emotionally in an election. It's hard to believe the whole thing will be over by tonight! And probably no one will read the blog for days...

I love the picture of Alice and the blanket and seeing her big belly - more excitement there and the unknown there too -in just two months we'll have another little being in our family and we'll finally know what it is!

I'm at work and a patient didn't show up so I had time to talk to Anne, who is getting everyone ready to go to Disneyland for a few days.

We had fun making Rosie the little vest. Rosie seemed to enjoy the fittings and rolling around in the fabric as we were sewing. She is so adorable.

I am impressed with Anne's willingness to tackle sewing, especially with something as challenging as the Dorothy outfit for Kendall's Halloween costume. It was fun having her call me for a consultation every few hours! Sewing can be tedious and frustrating, but fun too when you like the finished product. I am enjoying sewing and knitting more these days, after many years of not really doing either one. In a way I feel like I've returned to myself, as needlework was such an important part of my young life until I went to nursing school, started working, and pretty much stopped making things.

I had my yard all cleaned up and everything is trimmed way back (remember the rats?) and surprisingly it doesn't look too scalped and bare. Julio seems to have a good sense of design the way he can trim an out of control bush down to two sticks and have it look good. Sort of a zen approach. Anyway, I am very relieved because I have decided to hire Julio for monthly maintenance so I never have to have yardwork hanging over my head again.

My next project( and then I hope to have no more unpleasant projects), is to eliminate all my unncessary papers , statements, etc from my filing. The barrage of paper related to investments is ridiculous. The town of Tempe is having a Shred- a -thon coming up in two weeks and I am using that as my target date to rid my office of all unnecessary old papers with my social security number and privacy information on them. I can take it all to the shred a thon and get rid of it all at once! Yeay! I will feel so much lighter when that is done and my office will be once again under control. Now its under piles of papers.

The weather is lovely - in the mid 80s during the day, 60s at night.

I will be going to Flagstaff saturday (brrr) to see my friend Darlene NP who moved there a month ago for a job. That will be nice to go up there, and fun to see her. I'll have a chance to break in those winter clothes before going to NY in January for the birth.

Hopefully we'll be talking about President Obama after today!

Obama Fever

Hi everyone-
As the election gets closer, we can really feel the energy and the support for Obama here in NY. It's all very exciting!
Scott will be shooting tomorrow night at the Daily Show with John Stewart. I may go to friends to watch the election coverage.
We had our birthing class yesterday, which was very informative. Now that there's no hiding the fact that I'm REALLY pregnant (this thing is huge), a lot of our neighbors in the building are noticing. The ones with kids are especially excited for us and it's nice to know that there are so many other families and feel that sense of community. I am feeling really good in general, more energetic.
Speaking of the baby, check out the beautiful blankie that Patricia knitted for him/ her...it is so soft and cozy I have been using it myself!