Happy Holidays From the Lindgrens

I can't believe it has almost been a month since my last entry. I'm not doing a very good job of achieving my once a week goal at this point. I'm hoping this will improve in '09. My excuse for this is my energy level is really low and I'm back to needing to sleep a lot. So, the time I have available is being sucked up by work and then preparing things for the baby's arrival.

On that note, I did not send out Holiday cards this year, which is highly unusual for me, but I just couldn't get around to it; and then time had ran out. So, this will serve as the Lindgren Holiday greeting. We wish you a wonderful holiday season with your friends and family; and hope that '09 will bring you great joy and happiness.

So. . .what have we been up to since my last post?

- Maren and I have been growing, growing, growing. I pass people on the street and they tell me I must be due any day now; and I have to let them know we're hanging in there until February. I usually receive a shocked look at this and very frequently, especially Asian women, will tell me there is no way. The baby will come before February. So, we will see. Also, they very frequently say I'm having a boy, which at this point has caused me to start questioning the ultrasound given it has come up so often. But I feel like it's Maren that's in there and if it's not, then we'll make some last minute adjustments. :)
- Our landscaping is finished and looks great; however, we've had freakishly cold weather in the Bay Area lately, so now I'm a little paranoid the plants may die from the freezing temperatures that were not set to arrive until January. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that will not be the case.
- Maren's room is under way. I'm spent a ton of time getting all of my stuff out of the room and trying to find places to put it in our tiny little house. By some miracle, I think it's now all under control. Most of the furniture is here and all of the bedding is ready. This weekend is the weekend things really get started. Nicole has graciously volunteered to paint the room. So, I purchased everything last week and painting will begin shortly. I can't wait to see how it turns out. The colors are brown, white, lime green and pink.
- And rates are low folks, so get out there and refinance. This is always a lovely experience of digging up a ton of paperwork and preparing things, but the reward or a lower mortgage payment is what is pushing me forward on this one.
- Derek has been in nesting mode for quite a while now. He has a new project to work on every weekend. And when there isn't a project, he goes into a little bit of a panic mode thinking he must be forgetting something. This month he has finished our window seals in the kitchen, hung wood blinds, hauled all of my Christmas decor in and out of the garage for me so I could decorate, purchased and put together new dressers and shelves for our bedroom and this weekend he is patching and priming the room to be painted and re-grouting the tile on our bathroom counter top. He is quite the handy man around the house and I am thankful for that.
- Griffin has recovered fully from his Thanksgiving craziness and is back to his old self. He was able to hit the trails with his dog group again this week and I can tell he's a much happier guy because of it. He loves to get out there and just run.
- And some exciting news. . .we had dinner with Jason (the best man at our wedding) and Joe on Thursday night and they surprised us with their Christmas card announcing they were married on September 22nd. So, they made it in before prop 8 was passed. We're very happy for them and can't wait for them to have a big celebration bash. Congratulations Jason and Joe. And we have two other friends that have gotten engaged Susie (one of my bridesmaids) and Nikki. So, we're going to be spending lots of time at weddings in '09.

Happy Holidays to everyone!
Shana, Derek and Griffin