Update

Hello Everyone!

First of all, Tony, love the clip you posted. Although it was sad and made me want to cry. THANKS!

Working is really cutting into my computer time. Things are going well though albeit very busy with all of our schedule wrangling. We had a houseful here at Thanksgiving. Chaotic, but always a nice time. We are taking a little rest until everyone arrives again for Christmas. This will be the first year we have hosted Christmas in our home and we are really looking forward to it.

The job is going just fine. I cut my hours back a bit which is very nice. I was pretty wiped out by the end of the day. There really isn't much stress and the pay is pretty good. I can't complain. Although I admit, I miss my alone time.

Cristina is doing great. She just got her hair permed. Very cute! She is getting awesome grades and stays super busy. She seems to thrive in a very active schedule, so we are doing our best to accomodate her while trying to keep our sanity.

Amanda is also doing great. She misses her friends in Maryland quite a bit which is hard. We are trying to forge some friendships here in the neighborhood. She is thinking of taking up Karate. We will see how that goes.

Carlos is doing well. He was offered a job opportunity in Tennessee....see I don't even know if I spelled that right....so he can't work there! Well, the problem, is that he would be away for at least a year....we are not too keen on that prospect. Career-wise, it could be a good move, but it isn't imperative for his advancement. It just opens up some possibilities for our retirement. What this has done, is force us to really talk about where we want to retire. We had thought that it would be here in Northern Virginia, but now we are thinking that we may land elsewhere. He has asked to have his name taken off the list after much soul searching. It may end up with him having to take this job anyway, but for now, we are out of the running.

Well everyone, I will try to catch up on my e-mails tomorrow as I have the day off...although to be honest, a day filled with TiVo looks very appealing! I love you all!

~Monica