Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Yet another semester bites the dust for Wayne. He finished up finals and final projects this past week, including a 10-page paper for Thursday and a journal article Monday. He was a little worried he wouldn't finish because he didn't start on things as far in advance as usual, but I knew he'd get it done and get done he did.

We celebrated on Friday by running errands with me and Paela all day. We certainly know how to boogie, don't we? We finally got passport applications submitted, after only our third attempt to do so. The third time's the charm, as they say. Now we need to plan a trip so our efforts aren't in vain. I think it's great that I get my first passport at the same time Paela gets her first passport.

Our other big errand was getting physicals for both me and Wayne Friday morning and Paela's two-month checkup today. Nothing unusual...I just learned it's "free" (with our insurance plan), so we might as well, right? They weighed all of us in, but I'll only report on Paela's stats and let you guess about the rest. She weighs as much as our cat does now. at 11 pounds 5 ounces. She's got a 40 cm head and 23 1/4 inch height. This puts her about in the 75th percentile, a little less than that for weight. So she's growing well. And so far is sleeping the day away to recover from shots. Let's hope she still sleeps tonight for us!

Lest you think we just worked this week, we have had fun and games as well. We had our first taco-truck experience Monday. Lots of visiting teaching and being visit taught yesterday (hence the delay in our email). Wednesday Paela and I went window-shopping with my friend Kate, leaving Wayne to work on his paper in peace. We went to our friends' house, Chris and Alyssa, on Friday and watched a very silly Christmas special. (What does Star Wars have to do with Christmas? Nothing. And that's why the rest of you have never seen this tv special and probably don't want to.) [I laughed until my sides hurt and tears streamed down my face -wayne] Saturday we babysat our nephew Thomas. It was one of the easiest baby-sitting gigs I've ever had. They even gave us pizza. And I've read several good books this week. I should write up what I thought of them. Someday.

And now we count down until Christmas, continuing our story-a-day until then (and chocolate-a-day!). We leave for Austin on Wednesday. No, we're not expecting a white Christmas.