February Update

Things have been going well in the Shibata Household lately. I say this mostly because we've all been healthy, despite the colds and stomach flu that seems to have been going around amongst many of our friends. Lord willing, that will continue...

We had a nice quick visit from Grandma and Grandpa Meinhart over Valentine's Day weekend. The primary reason for their trip was to scope out rehearsal dinner options, but we never turn down an opportunity for them to stay with us for awhile. While they were out looking at restaurants, our god-daughters Rosie (3 years) and Lilly (1 1/2 years) came over with their parents. We had gotten rid of our snow, but wouldn't you know it we got more that morning...perfect for a few trips down the hill.

It warmed up enough the following week to melt almost all of the snow. But, true to Michigan form, we got another ~3 inches this past Saturday morning, so out we went again. Marie never gets tired of it!! It's a good thing that Jon doesn't either.

On Sunday after church, our good friend Doug came over for lunch. Some of you may remember him as the pianist and music coordinator at our wedding. We enjoyed getting to catch up with him and also got a kick out of the fact that Marie has dubbed him "Rubber Duckie." We aren't exactly sure where this came from, but it sure explains why a few weeks ago she was pointing toward the front of church saying, "Rubber Duckie, Rubber Duckie." Doug is a good sport and has taken to his new nickname.

Other than that, things are good. Marie, Joey, and I have been taking our weekly visits to the library for story time. Marie is usually quite shy during the organized part, but really enjoys it afterward when she can work on puzzles and pick out books to bring home. The librarians always get a kick out of it when she comes in and chats with them.

I will be venturing back into the workforce in March. I'll still be working part-time and I plan to bring Joey into the office with me at least once a week. I am really quite fortunate that my employer is so flexible. We'll see how quickly I can get my brain back into work-mode.

In case you hadn't noticed, we don't have any pictures to share this time around. Our camera went on the fritz. We took it to a repair shop and found out that there had been a recall on our camera. We sent it in to be fixed; hopefully that will do the job. But, for a couple more weeks, we'll be without our digital camera. It feels so strange not to have one....we'll just have to hope that the kids don't do anything too extraordinary!