Test 2

Holden is now officially signed-up for kindergarten.  He'll be starting at Charles Longer Elementary School in the fall.  The school itself is a scant 0.07 miles from our humble abode here in the borough of Hollidaysburg.  I will greatly enjoy walking him to and fro -- at least while the weather is pleasant.  

We have also enrolled Holden in swimming lessons at the YMCA beginning in early March.  We attempted to self-teach him how to swim when we lived in West Milton, but the pool at Bucknell was cold and deep.  We are hoping to have much greater success in this newer, warmer and more shallow swimming environment.

Fiona is finally starting to show progress on the potty-training front.  Prior to the wicked sickness that ran it's course through the famiy, Fiona had gone nearly a week without wearing any kind of diapers (in the daytime hours).  Due to the 'explosive' nature of the stomach bug, it was necessary to regress to daytime diaper usage.  This was disappointing, to say the least.  However, we have seen great improvement since then.  Fiona rarely has a wet Pull-up and I think that starting tomorrow, we may try to get her back into her little girl underwear -- sans diaper.  YAY!

Melissa is still loving her work -- but has spent several late nights on campus this week.  While she loves to be on campus and see the 'fruits of her labor', she has been tired.  I think that it has become clear that we are no longer 18-year-old college kids who stay up late all of the time.

Lastly, we went to church today.  I think that we have found our new church home here in Hollidaysburg -- which is extremely pleasing.  One of the reasons that we never really felt 'at home' in West Milton/Lewisburg was because we never got involved in the community.  Melissa had her work, and I took care of the kids, but we never really 'connected' with anything outside of our family.  I think that things appear to be very different here.  Both Holden and Fiona had a great time in Sunday School while Melissa and I attended the worship service.  We even ran into one of Holden's friend's parents (whose family is also new to the area).  Things just felt right.

I guess that's about it for now.  I hope anyone who might be reading this is happy and healthy, just as we McBrayers are!

After over a week of sickness being passed around the house, everyone is better... well, for the most part anyway.

Holden started us off with a bug that he brought home from school (we think it was the Rota Virus -- good stuff).  Last Sunday (Feb. 1st), Fiona started to show symptoms of the same bug -- vomiting and diarrhea.  Melissa came home from work on Tuesday (Feb. 3rd) complaining of flu-like symptoms which (inevitably) led to the stomach bug-business later that same evening.  Finally, Bert was stricken with the bug by Thursday morning and was down and out until late on Saturday.

Most of us were only affected for about 48 hours, but the bug seems to really be giving Fiona the worst of the lot.  She seems to still be fighting the nastiness more-than-a week later.  

As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing worse than a bad stomach virus.  Cold and flu I can take care of -- make the stricken one comfortable with relative ease.  But stomach are a completely different animal.  You can only set a bowl in front of the victim, and hope they have good aim.

For the record, Fiona has terrible aim.

The good news is all of this mass-illness?  MOVIES!

Last weekend, the entire family watched Surf's Up (which was surprisingly good) and Bert and Melissa watched Pineapple Express.  Both films were heartily enjoyed by each audience.

This weekend the family enjoyed an out-of-this-world adventure with Wall-E...

...and good times were had by all.

I hope that your family does not have to endure the icky-ness that we have had this past week.  Despite all of this, we are still thankful for our collective health -- emphasis on the ability to defeat the nasty virus.