For the holidays, we were lucky enough to go out to Arizona to visit with Jacob's family for the majority of the time and stay with Whitney's grandparents for a few days as well. As we packed, we filled four suitcases full. Gifts for others seemed to take up more room than what was originally planned. Anyway, we figured that on the way home we would just put an empty bag inside of another. Much to our surprise, we came home with more than we left with. Jacob's brother, Ammon, and his wife, Penny, had us for the gift exchange. They gave us their Game Cube and PS2, along with games, controllers, and a DDR dance pad. When we opened it, Whitney said to Ammon that he really didn't want Jacob to actually get through graduate school. Nobody really thought it was a very funny comment...Anyway, these large, heavy gifts were joined by two air mattresses for camping (to go along with the 3 room 8 man tent that Jacob's parents had shipped to our apartment), and lots of random little gifts. We had a great time with family, as well as thoroughly enjoying our time off work. We went to see Enchanted, and National Treasure 2 with Jacob's family, and took advantage of small town life in Thatcher, Arizona.
We flew back to Ohio and jumped right back into real life, again.
For the past week, we were babysitting for a friend from church. Jacob's schedule was pretty open which allowed him to play mom while the kid's parents were getting sun burned on their cruise around the Gulf of Mexico. Whitney enjoyed being able to watch Disney Channel on a regular basis, including catching up on the High School Musical Phenomenon (with a little prompting by Jacob). We hadn't seen either of the movies until this past week.
Jacob successfully finished his first semester as a grad student, leaving only 5 more to go! (Or 2 full years, whichever takes longer of course!) He is still working as a shoe salesman at JC Penney, albeit the end to the holidays took a toll on his hours. We just look at it as a chance for Jacob to really focus on his school work...we hope.
Whitney finally finished her senior thesis, which leaves only two online classes for her to finish before being able to graduate--finally! She plans on graduating in April, then only to get on with her life. She is still working full time at Kids Academy of Copley, potty training and fighting with kicking and screaming two year olds.
So Jacob didn't have to work today, but Whitney did. Since there were so few kids, Whitney got to leave a little more than an hour early. Yea for holidays! With his free time, Jacob cleaned up around the house, including finally putting the rest of the Christmas decorations away. After a little evening shopping, Jacob hung a new curtain in the bedroom and Whitney finished reading the Dan Brown novel, Deception Point.
And there you have it, the exciting lives of Jacob and Whitney Lauritzen for the last two months. Unbelievable excitement, we know! Wahoo!
A while ago, Whitney had made some signs ("I love you a bushel and a peck" and "Families are Forever") for our apartment, but we didn't have a way to hang them. Jacob used his new power drill (which Whitney gave him for Christmas) to make some holes to hang them with.
Now we just need someone to visit us!
(Hint Hint)
(Hint Hint)
