Tracy's First

Now that Darryl has given me the keys to the kingdom...I mean, the keys to our blog, I wanted to my make first entry. Those of you who know me will not find it at all surprising that my first post will be to clear up a few things that Darryl has posted :) Seriously, so far, so good. Darryl's a great writer, but we don't get to see his writing nearly often enough, so this will be fun. Today's his birthday (Big 5-1), and as luck would have it (HIS luck, that is), he is really sick. Actually, he sounds a little better than he has this past week, but I can assure you that he's still having no fun.

We did go as a family to get the Christmas tree a few days ago, but Darryl barely left the bedroom on Sunday (his lovely tenor voice was actually a croaky "basso profundo," so he opted not to go to choir practice). Erica's boyfriend (am I supposed to call him that yet?) Joseph helped out by putting the tree up in the living room Sunday night, and Lauren put up the lights so the kids could decorate. FHE is still pending at this point. I know Lindsay has some things she wants to share, so we'll be getting to that as soon as we can carve out some time.

Now that we've lived in Virginia for 2 1/2 years, I can safely say that I really love it here. I miss California because my roots are there (and seriously, the Atlantic is NOTHING like the Pacific) but also because my oldest daughter Michele, her husband Lito, and their daughter Skye (my only grandbaby!) are there. Also, most of Darryl's family is in Utah, as is my sister. My brother and his family, along with my mom, live in Washington state. If only it was feasible to drive across country from time to time for a visit! But back to Virginia....strangely enough, all but one of my kids live here. Erica, Lindsay, Lauren, Scott, and Kristina live with us, and Aaron rents a room with his girlfriend's family in the neighboring county. Now that Mom and Dad Barksdale are temporarily living in Centreville, it almost feels like home! We had a full house for Thanksgiving, and only one of the guests was not a relative. That was fun.

So if I can get my husband to take his shower and get dressed, I think I'll spirit him away for a birthday lunch since he has his class tonight (from EMT to Paramedic) and won't be available to go out for dinner. Trust me, there will be more later!!!