The End in Sight

What a productive week! Finally things have progressed towards getting our house. We accomplished more this week than we have the whole month! Monday morning I got a call that said, "Hi, Farah, I've got nothing but bad news for you." What a way to start off the week. But we persevered, signed papers, bought toilet chains, initialed here, wired money, and drove over 200 miles to do it all! Whew! Now we wait for our keys, which hopefully shouldn't take too long. For those of you have been praying with us, thanks...and keep praying! I will not rest until I have a set of keys in my hand. Then I will truly utter, "It is finished!"

A Perfect Day

It's only 9:40am on this Saturday morning, but honestly, I already know it's going to be a perfect day. Do you ever wake up in the morning and just have this feeling that it's going to be a wonderful day? Maybe you woke up in an adventurous mood, or the weather was just what you wanted, or you woke up with someone who loved you. All of the above are true to me this morning. The weather is gray and damp, finally January. I feel thrilled and content. And I woke up with someone who is very much in love with me and vice/versa. We have started the day at Panera for a few toasted cinnamon bagels (amazing) and savory coffee and internet access :) Next we'll venture to the movie theater to begin our Oscar nomination movie watching (we have a few to catch up on before the Oscars). The day will conclude with dinner and games in the company of good friends. And amidst all these fun outings, there is a sense of coziness and contentment....All the ingredients of a perfect day!

I Have a Dream...

Well, nothing like the great Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream. But I have been having the weirdest dreams ever this past week. And that's saying something because usually my dreams are very unexciting, very mundane, and are not worth even remembering (and rarely I do). But this past week, my dreams have been engaged in full adventures at strange settings (like an old Disneyland). There's always somewhat of a sinister undertone to the dreams. And the strangest part yet: scores of people are in my dreams, participating as characters, BUT I have never seen these people before in my life! Yet they have faces and full personalities, some mixed ethnic groups. So strange because these people are no one I know or have seen before. Anyways, I have no idea what these dreams mean, or what I am eating before bed to spur them on.

But I have dreams...

A House?

You may or may not know that we've been having ridiculous problems with buying our house. As of today, everything is fine and we'll hopefully be moved in by the end of January. But there was a time when we thought we would have to forsake the notion of home-owning. And we came up with a list of things we would do with all our extra money. Here it goes:

Pay for internet at home
Sign up for Netflix
Pay for cable AND T-Vo
Buy our own garbage cans
Purchase pounds of steak and learn how to cook it through trial and error
Buy John and Morgan's Vespa

But looks like we'll be owning a house and won't be able to afford anything on this list and more. The benefit? Living in a home we own until who knows when. No more throwing away rent!

Fine in '09

I think I have somewhat of a New Year's Resolution. Goes along with this last year's resolution. I plan to still read a book a month at least, but my resolution this year is to read at least six great classics in literature and read a few ancient books I have that I have absolutely no idea what they're about! (ie, this very old book called Why Not? Seriously...) I've been kicking off the new year with Count of Monte Cristo--excellent! I will be putting a list together of great classics to read this year; please contribute.

Next part of my New Year's resolution is to memorize a passage of scripture a month. I believe this is one area in my life that always needs to be enriched!

Whoo-hoo! Let the New Year begin!

Through the Looking Glass

Well, folks, I did it. I kept my New Year's resolution: to read at least one book a month. I feel very accomplished, enriched, and empowered that I not only kept a resolution, but I that I read books this year! Here is a list of all that I read this year. I decided to use just a quick star-rating, encouraging you to check them out if you haven't already.

January kicki-off: The Mysterious Benedict Society **
February-March: The Lord of the Rings trilogy ****
April: A Study in Scarlet & The Sign of the Four (Sherlock Holmes) ****
May: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey ** and Freaky Friday **
June: Grace in Thine Eyes ***
July: The Scarlet Pimpernel **** and The Importance of Being Ernest **** and the Chronicles of Narnia series ***
August: Twilight series ***
September: The Dumb Witness (Agatha Christie mystery) **
October: Dealing with Dragons *** and The Westing Game ***
November: Tales of Terror from the Black Ship **** and Uncle Montegue's Tales of Terror ****
December: The Tale of Despereaux *** and currently the Count of Monte Cristo ****

I plan to continue this resolute in 2009 in hopes of making it a habit. And now for an '09 resolution....Hmm...