Paloma loves to play peek-a-boo, even with me behind the camera.

Paloma had her first food yesterday, banana. We planned on waiting until she was 6 months, but we started 2 weeks early because she was begging!

Sorry, no pics today. The connection is unbelievably slow.

Elvis & Amy

When we went to Red Hot & Blue with Amy & Brian (our friends) we ran into Amy & Brian (my sister and brother in law) there! That was fun... they all know each other.

We parked in our usual spot... I took a picture of the sign for the blog. We've never gotten towed (yet)!

Mark your calendars for March 2, 7 P.M.!

Carmen has a solo in the Kindergarten musical, E-I-E-I Oops!

She's been singing songs for weeks and is now sharing some choreography with us to numbers like "Ham it Up".

They are also performing it during school twice--Weds. March 1 at 1:45 P.M. and Thursday March 2nd at 8:45.

She's also still obsessed with playing the piano, picking out songs from church, the Backyardigans, and this week, the Queen song "Somebody to Love". She heard it in the movie "Ella Enchanted". I plan to start her in Midi (keyboarding) lessons next year.

She is going to be in Spanish Immersion for 1st grade--all Spanish, all day, every day, except for P.E., music & art. We're excited about it!

Here's a picture she made today. Yesterday I got her a Disney Princess magazine because we were going to be in the car awhile.

Gabe still can't get enough of Paloma. Usually this is a good thing, but here is an example of why she's going to have to be tough--he turns her head with his hand!

My Funny Valentines

This morning before I even left the house for school, my cell phone rang and it was one of my editors, Morgan, calling to tell me horrible news. I still can't believe it. This whole day has seemed like a dream sequence.

One of my former yearbook staffers was killed in a car wreck early this morning. Jordan Weryavah graduated from Bell last year and was a freshman at Stephen F. Austin. She was beautiful, smart, and artistic. Her mom, Jan, is a good friend of mine that I've worked with at both Bell and Hurst for the past 7 years. Last year, Jordan used to go out for lunch and bring back lunch for her mom & me.

Very little information has been available so far, but the two reports I've seen have conflicting info:

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/13804743.htm
http://www.nbc5i.com/news/6783530/detail.html

I am just sick, and so sad.

It's the last week of the trimester. Grades are due, yearbook pages are due, final exams start on Wednesday, so this morning I had a great deal to do, but suddenly, nothing seemed very important anymore. How fragile life is, how fleeting. Last week Jan was excited that Jordan was coming home for the weekend. Now her life will never be the same.

My prayers are with Jan and Jordan's older sister, Kellen.

Oliver is missing

Our cat Oliver has been missing for over three weeks now. She has been our pet
since she was a stray kitten; she wandered into the Cortland House when David
was moving out his last things in July of 1998. She went missing one other
time, when Carmen was a baby. She was gone two weeks, but we got her back on Mother's Day (David trapped her with a trap we borrowed from the city). She
appeared to have been in the creek the whole time--very dirty and very skinny.
This time, David has been setting up a trap again, but we only seem to get
neighbors' cats. And of the three cats we've seen come and eat some of the food
in the trap, only one has set it off, so who knows if we'd catch her if she came
up, anyway. The other night, Gabe prayed for Oliver to come back.

Here is the last picture I took of her--all cozy on Paloma's boppy!

Paloma is 5 months old! No more leaving her alone with the mobile. :o( She is growing so fast, it makes me a little sad!

But, she can sit up, chew on her feet, and give kisses, and she cut her first tooth a couple of weeks ago.

She loves Gabe's Slinky dog and stares at a large poster of JFK in the den.