Hello Family!

Hayley, this is a good idea! I'm so glad you did it but I'm not sure how many other family members will do it. You'll have to show Grandma Donna how to do it. I wasn't going to bring my computer to Ohio but I may now so you can show me how to do all kinds of things. I want to set up a website for my sewing/quilts and just haven't had time to play with it much. I hope someone else looks at this to get all my news.

Swimming has started for Krista. Last night was the first meet and we won. She was close to qualifying for state in the 50 free so she will definitely do that. She needs to break a minute for the 100 free and she was 1:03 last night but she said she swallowed lots of water on her turn so hopefully next time she will do better. Krista was voted CAPTAIN with 2 other girls for the team. I was hoping she would make Captain, Stephanie was also her senior year! Our next meet is Thurs. at 1,500 feet higher than what we are used to but they usually do pretty well. Then a bunch of us went for pizza after the meet with the coaches. Our coaches are awesome and fun. We had a BIG discussion last night about Sebastian from the Little Mermaid. Is he a crab or a lobster. We were looking on Larry's blackberry and it came up a crab but the adults swear he looks like a lobster. He has the lobster tail. I'm going to be doing some sewing today and I'm going to watch The Little Mermaid. What do you think? Is he a lobster or a crab??

We are doing some remodeling in our house and Larry is always in a bad mood with it and he's not even here all day to put up with them. The other day I came home and the house smelled like a barnyard and we can't seem to get the smell out and we don't know what it is. I assume it has to do with what they are doing but we don't know. He's really pissed about that. The contractor can't figure it out either.

We are redoing our master bath and updating it. It really looked old. We are re-tiling the shower stall and putting euro doors on. Taking up the carpet and putting Travertine tile down with the heated floor underneath so it's warmer to walk on. New tile around the bath tub. New toilet. New cabinets, faucets, towel bars, etc. And then re-texturing the walls and ceiling to match the rest of the house which we did about 3 years ago. Then paint. In the master bedroom we are re-texturing the walls and re-painting. Putting hardwood floor down in the little office off the bedroom. And then re-doing the fireplace. There was just tile around the fireplace and we are putting up the fake stone with a mantle and mounting a new flat screen TV above the mantle. I like that because now I can get rid of the counsel TV that is in my sewing room and put the old TV we had in our bedroom down there. The counsel is about 25 years old. The one from the bedroom is ONLY 10 years old so I'm excited. The counsel is still working just fine. When you first turn it on though the picture is not as clear. It has to warm up then the picture is fine. lol So that's about about all from here. They are supposed to be done by Christmas but I know they won't be. Oh Well! We won't be here anyway!

I like how this automatically saves your draft because knowing me I would touch the wrong key and screw something up.

Stephanie is working on finals over the next 2 weeks then she'll be home around the 13th. She's also working on getting all her side trips planned for her Semester at Sea! She has all her visas and shots. There is a parent trip we got info on and Larry and I are considering it. I wanted to go somewhere exotic for our spring break because Krista is going to Paris for spring break and we would be alone. I was originally thinking Costa Rica but then this trip came up and lo and behold it's the same time as Krista's spring break!! I was so excited. We would be going to Bangkok, Ho Chi Min City, and Cambodia! We would meet up with Steph in Ho Chi Min City and do a side trip with her. It's 10 days and Krista will be gone 7 but I really want to do it. We have to decide by Dec.12 and Larry is having a fit (typical Lance) because we are spending so much money on this remodeling. I have to keep working on him! I sure hope we do it. I've only been to side of the world (Canada & Mexico) so traveling to the other side of the world would be awesome. I figure if Steph & Krista can do it...we should be able to also.

Our spring break is March 22-29 and Krista is going to Paris with another family who goes there ALL the time and with 5 other friends of hers. She is excited about that! She was in Holland this past summer with People to People, swimming. She met a really nice girl her age from Seattle and they've been communicating and texting each other all the time. We are sending a swim T-Shirt from Krista's team that the seniors designed this year.

Well that's about all from Colorado. It's been cold here but no snow so to speak. Vail got about a foot this week but that's all. I know not everyone will read this so can I save all this and e-mail people? I will have to figure out how to put pictures on this and I can you show you all our bathroom and bedroom when it's finished. You can help me with that Hayley at Christmas. I'm so glad you are going to be in Ohio for Christmas! We will have so much fun. I didn't know you liked to do crafts.

Well I'm almost out of battery so need to plug in! Everyone have a GREAT weekend and we'll see you all soon.
Love,
Larry, Carol, Stephanie & Krista