Here's what we did... yesterday.

I got a new laptop yesterday. The bulk of my evening was spent setting it up and copying files. It's up and running now, which makes me very happy. We also ordered a new computer for Nate, but it will take at least a week to arrive.

Now lest you think we've gone on some spending spree, I want to clarify that both of our current/old computers are dying. They have been on life support for quite some time -- Nate's been nursing his computer for a year, I've been struggling for 8-9 months with my computer. So we did our best to hold off on the new purchases, we took the old machines to the repair shop, and when we finally got new ones we didn't buy anything fancy. They are very moderate, practical computers. As soon as his new computer arrives, oh! It will be such a relief to no longer stress about our broken machines.

For about an hour, I had my old and new laptops up and running simultaneously. My work laptop was sitting off to my left, and my netbook was off to my right. Then Nate came in to fire up his computer. So I decided to bring my tablet in from the bedroom and take a picture of the whole family:

I should have grabbed my older laptop (from college) and set it up too, just for fun. And Nate could have pulled out his work laptop. Maybe next week when Nate's new computer comes we can get all nine machines together for a photo. Hahahhahaha. I'm totes kidding.

We also went to visit Nate's dad yesterday. Nate's mom is out of town, visiting her sister in another state, so poor "poppi" is home alone. He's been over for dinner a couple of times and we've gone to visit him a couple of times. He's a very nice man, very easy to talk with, and we enjoy seeing him.

Do you remember that hideous pine tree in the back yard that we cut down? The stump is still in the ground and Nate decided that yesterday was a good day to start attacking, so a friend from church came over and they spent a couple of hours digging and chopping the roots. Apparently it has some very tough roots because they did not get very far. (And apparently the ax is also over-due for sharpening.)

They did not plan to wear matching outfits, it just happened:

While the boys worked on Mr. Stump, I cleaned up my office. My desk has been a disorganized mess for awhile now. After a couple of hours of cleaning and purging and moving stuff, it's still not my ideal, but it is much better. I just need to hold on to less crap -- paper, specifically. I have way to many scraps and notes and pictures and documents cluttering up my space. (I get this bad habit from my dad, who was.... and is... bad about piling up stacks of papery things in the kitchen. Growing up, I always thought this was my mom's bad habit, but I recently accused her of being a packrat and she pointed firmly at my dad as the culprit.)

Speaking of paper, I happened to get a Uline catalog in the mail yesterday (random!) and so I donated it to the baby. She has loved ripping the pages out of it, then ripping up the pages. I probably should not be permitting this activity -- she's probably learning an awful habit -- but dang if it's not super cute.

Just like everything else about her!

Her. Baby Girl. She turns one year old this week! It's surreal. Where did the year go? A year ago Tuesday, I started having contractions; 41 hours of labor later, my daughter was born. One year later, here we are! I've been thinking for a week now about what I want to write to her in her one-year letter but I just can't get my head around the idea. She's still just a baby. As I was telling Amy (in SIL) last week, I never imagined my one-year-old would still be a baby. I thought she'd be walking and talking, and eating mostly solid foods by now. Instead we're still waiting for a first word, she doesn't even want to stand up (forget about walking) and she still nurses for half her meals. I thought she'd be toddlerish, but nope. Baby. Maybe that's why I'm no longer feeling the next-baby urge, because this one is still a baby? Who knows.

She sure is great, though.