We're home, Carmen's napping, I'm cleaning ... life is back to normal!  It seems I found the sweet spot for Carmen's nap today - she went down without a fuss.  Of course, a little bit of pre-nap snuggle time helps. :)  Also sleeping in your own crib (after a month!!) is awesome.

Thanksgiving weekend was awesome.  First of all, it snowed on Monday and school was cancelled all week.  Logan and Torrey got some extra Carmen play time!  We left around noon on Wednesday and traffic was BAAAAAD all the way to Olympia.  That's when I stopped paying attention to how bad the traffic was.  We stopped a few times for food, and finally got to Nehalem around 7:30.  It's interesting how sitting in the back seat of the car changes how much attention you pay to the road.  Suddenly I was one of the kids again, blissfully unaware of where we were, how much farther we had to go, and what the road conditions were like.

Mark's brother, Nate, is going to school at the University of Washington, and he came to the Nehalem house, too.  He picked Mark and Marissa up from the Portland airport.  They flew in together from Salt Lake City.  The flight was delayed by an hour or so and the family considered having them stay in Hillsboro with Mark's aunts (called "The Aunties") but Mark wanted to see us so badly he convinced Nate to drive to the coast.  YAY it was great to see him!

Unfortunately, I spent the whole weekend uber sick with a nasty cold and slept 12-14 hours a day and spent most of my waking hours wiped out on the couch cross-stitching.  I'd wanted to help prepare food, clean, play games, and otherwise be a pleasant person, but I guess phlegm happens.

I had planned on doing a ton of writing in my down time (I have the energy to type!) but I was in for a shock when I turned my laptop on at the coast house ...

Somehow, my laptop got crushed in transit and the LCD screen cracked. You can see the two big holes where there was pressure on the screen, and you can kind of see the u-shaped crack on the left hand side of the screen.

I almost had a heart attack when I discovered my precious Lappy was maimed, but it's otherwise completely functional.  It's annoying to type and look around big black holes, but what the heck.  I was planning on getting a Netbook some time soon anyway.  Does anyone know if it's possible to replace a laptop/LCD screen?  And does it NOT cost as much as another laptop?

I could always tell people I got shot at and my laptop saved me.

Anyway.  I've got some kitchen projects I'm working on (okay, I just bought new canisters to store sugar and flour and stuff in and I want to see if I like it), and we have to buy a Christmas tree and put up Christmas decorations, and I have to dust and vacuum and all of that good stuff, and I want to look into buying new carpet/flooring in general (does anyone have experience with this?), and the kindergartner I tend before school is coming back tomorrow, so I might be a little busy ... but I love writing and I'll probably be posting a lot this upcoming month!

I'll write about how funny Carmen is and post videos! And pictures! And I will talk about how to make money doing online surveys! And how I save money! And I'll tell stupid stories about myself so you can feel better about the dumb things you do! And talk about my favorite funny things! YAY!