Preston had his Chinese program today for the Chinese New Year. He has made us so proud this year and has really started to pick up the language. Anne took some video of him counting and writing the characters in Chinese.

The finished worksheet:

Last August I set myself a goal to lose 50 pounds. It’s been challenging, but I finally accomplished it this weekend. Anne has been super supportive and I couldn’t have done it without her. I think Preston and Skyler are a little sad that their dad doesn’t have a fat belly anymore.

The weirdest part was realizing that I’d need a new wardrobe. I had to replace all my shirts and pants and I even ended up having to buy a new suit. I had to put three more notches in my belt but the good news is that my shoes should last a lot longer now. I walk a little funny and tend to wear the soles of my left shoes unevenly, but I suspect that won’t be as much of a problem now. My new goal is to maintain my weight and I’m grateful to say that I’m signing up through my employer for a race this summer that should keep me working hard on the treadmill. And now I’ve officially broken my arm patting myself on the back.

Preston gave his first talk in Primary on Sunday. I wasn’t sure it would happen, since he was sick Friday night and spent Saturday in bed resting. Not to mention Anne left me in charge of writing the talk and going over it with him. But there I was Saturday afternoon typing it up and then sitting down with him to go over it so he wouldn’t stumble over any unfamiliar words. And this was the result:

He seems so small up there. Makes me want to give him a big hug.

Great Grandma moved into a retirement community place this year and during the holidays they have a visit from Santa Claus, so we decided to stop by and spend some time visiting and getting in our wishes. Both boys seemed to handle it very well, which I believe was a first for us.

We have an annual tradition of making gingerbread houses at Grandma’s house and this year was no exception. Sadly, due to an seemingly insane desire to reduce the amount of food storage I carry around in the form of fat cells, I did not partake in this year’s festivities. Skyler and Preston, however, produced a pair of masterpieces any architect would envy.

Preston started kindergarten this year and Skyler entered the second grade. We have been really excited for Preston because he’s in a Chinese immersion program and is learning to speak Chinese from a native speaker. He already knows a number of phrases and characters, while Anne has picked up quite a bit from volunteering in the classroom.

Skyler has become a great reader and enjoys reading Goosebumps books.

Last spring after some discussion, Anne gave our old labrador-mix mutt back to her mom and we adopted a German Shepherd puppy. We named him Brashen (after the character in the Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb) and we call him Brash. Anne has been doing Schutzund training with him and quite enjoys spending her Saturdays out doing tracking, obedience, and bite work.

We also took some longish, and probably not very entertaining, videos of us teaching him how to track by placing little bits of hot dog in our footprints.

Anne took an off-hand comment of mine as a challenge this year and created costumes for our boys from scratch.

just read The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir and it is hilarious and a little sad. I was really worried it would bash Mormons too much but it was too honest for that. No hate here, no prejudice, just honest reality. I liked it a lot. As someone who has actually thought about my faith and grappled with its major questions and problems, but have still chosen to be Mormon, I can really relate to her. But at one point of the book a guy the author dated asks her about cloning. It really throws her and she doesn’t have a good answer, except that it’s not possible to clone a real thinking person. I can see why she thought this but she is wrong. I wrote a response to her: what I would like to tell her in person.