For all the P and P fans out there

I know a decent chunk of my readership are fans of Pride and Prejudice; a decent chunk are also members of Facebook. And since I joined Facebook only yesterday, it seems a most wonderful coincidence that I found this link today, and I just can't resist sharing. So here you go: Pride and Prejudice, the Facebook news feed version. It had me laughing out loud.

New Year, and Reflections on the Old

Wow, is 2008 over already? It seems like such a short time since I was welcoming 2008 and marveling that it was finally the year in which I would become a parent. To say that life changed this year would be an understatement. I understand now how caring for a newborn can take every minute of your day, even though on the surface feeding, diapering, and napping doesn't sound like so much. I understand now that "sleeping through the night" is a relative term. I understand now that burp cloths are a girl's best friend...and cheap shirts that can afford to get spit up on. I understand how selfish I really am, but how God gives grace to overcome that. I understand the joy of seeing your child smile for the first time. I am starting to understand the awesomeness of the responsibility of introducing Austin to God.


Here at the end of Austin's first calendar year, I want to say a special thank you to all my mommy friends, especially all you girls out west that I haven't seen in so long. The phone calls, emails, and blog comments encouraged me so much and have helped me through some really tough times. I am so blessed by your friendship and wisdom.


I thought it would be fun to do a little photo retrospective to see just how much Austin has changed in the 267 days since he joined our family. Amazing, is all I can say after looking at these pics myself.

Austin's First Christmas

Life is good when you're eight month old Austin Collins and it's Christmas. So many new toys! So much wrapping paper! So many ribbons! Such cute pajamas! And of course, so many pictures.

Gran and Pops watched Austin open their gift via Skype. He loves to spin the football, and has already figured out how to put the basketball in the hoop.

Unwrapping presents Austin-style actually took so long that we had to take a nap break. As Grandpa pointed out, this will be the last year Austin will let anything interrupt the gift-giving!

Our little elf playing with some of his new toys

Austin loves his ride-on bulldozer from Grandma and Grandpa. He started pushing himself backward and forward with his feet right away. I better watch out when he has the balance to ride around by himself! Check out the little Converse shoes...too cute, huh?

Getting to open so many gifts can really take it out of a guy. Austin fell asleep in Daddy's lap for awhile before lunch. It's been a while since that happened!

Traditions, New and Old

My parents (aka Grandma Susan and Grandpa Russ) have been visiting us since Saturday. We have had a wonderful time enjoying each other's company and, of course, playing with Austin. He just eats up the attention...he is one loved little boy.

Mom and I made cinnamon rolls yesterday, in keeping with longstanding family tradition. One little twist, though--we ate them for breakfast this morning while un-stuffing our stockings instead of as part of a Christmas brunch. Who wants to wait until 11AM? They were delicious as always and I'm looking forward to leftover cinnamon rolls tomorrow...or maybe tonight.

Zach and I decided to start a new family tradition, too. We made nativity scene cookies and decorated them, then used them to tell the Christmas story. Austin was not really an active participant this year but we hope in the future it will be a way to keep the true reason for Christmas at the forefront of his mind. I know, we're not going to win any awards for our decorating skills but they tasted good and we enjoyed sharing the Christmas story together.

Austin's Secret

Saturday morning I was trying to get a few things done and Austin was tired of playing by himself in his room, so I brought him into my room. I put him in the laundry basket and started looking around for things that might keep him occupied. Things that he hasn't seen before, maybe something colorful, something with some interesting textures, all that stuff that's good for babies. I found what I was looking for.

Yep, Austin is playing with some bras from the back of my drawer. The fun ones I used to wear before the ability to nurse while wearing became a fashion priority. I'm sure he'll just love pictures like this when he's older.

Christmas Tree

Zach, Austin, and I got our first Christmas tree this weekend! Zach and I have never bothered to put one up before because we have always traveled for the holidays. But now that we have a child, it seemed like a much higher priority. And as I sit here in the living room and gaze at the pretty tree across the room, I can't imagine why we didn't do this sooner.

Indiana County is the "Christmas Tree Capital of the World" (at least according to Indiana County residents) so there are tons of places to get trees. Saturday afternoon, on one of the coldest days of the year so far, we headed to a farm outside of town to get our tree. Austin was a real trooper--as the only true Pennsylvanian in the family, he doesn't seem to mind the cold. We looked at dozens of trees--they always look perfect from across the field--and finally found one that was just right.

It was fun to finally put up all the ornaments that we've been collecting for six years. I have already bought several more to give as gifts. (Don't tell Austin about the adorable Very Hungry Caterpillar one I found for him today.) Ahhh. A beautiful tree inside, snow on the ground outside...it definitely is feeling like the holidays around here.

Some before and after pictures. Sorry the second one is blurry; our camera doesn't like to focus on the tree and I couldn't be bothered to try and fix it.

How "Walkable" is Your Neighborhood?

I discovered a nifty site called Walkscore yesterday. It calculates the distance from your home to restaurants, schools, grocery stores, etc. and assigns your address a score from 1 to 100, with 1 meaning you're completely car-dependent and 100 meaning you live in a "walker's paradise." The site is very candid about the strengths and weaknesses of its algorithm. For example, it doesn't take into consideration whether or not there are any sidewalks around your neighborhood, or whether the businesses that seem to be close by are actually on the other side of a freeway. Still, it's kind of fun to see what score your home gets.

My current home gets a 71, which makes it "Very Walkable." I would agree, or perhaps even give it a higher score. After all, we lived without a car for nearly a month and found that we could get by walking almost everywhere we needed to go. Our duplex in Burbank was apparently even better--it scored an 83. Again, pretty accurate. We walked a lot of places on a regular basis in Burbank. The weaknesses of the system became apparent when I put in my parents' address, though. It got a 60, "Somewhat Walkable." But there are no sidewalks in that neighborhood, and nearly all of the businesses mentioned are located on a major street that also has no sidewalks. Growing up I hardly walked anywhere--it just wasn't safe or practical.

So here's a little discussion starter for my blog readers. What's your home's walkscore? Do you agree or disagree with it? Leave a comment--I'd love to hear what other people think of the site.

Pictures from our Trip to Texas

We are home now after spending a week in Texas. It was such a fun trip. Austin was predictably the center of attention, to everyone's delight. Our time there produced a plethora of cute pictures, mostly from my mother-in-law's camera. There's something about her flash that keeps a smile on Austin's face, whereas our camera tends to catch him with his eyes half-closed. Anyway, I had a hard time choosing which pics to include so this post might get kind of long!

During this trip we met Great-Aunt Debbie's fiance, Paddy. He will make a great Great-Uncle to Austin!

Austin quite appropriately tasted turkey for the first time on Thanksgiving Day. It was mixed with another seasonal classic, sweet potatoes, and he seemed to like it.


Chillin' with Uncle Heath

"Look, Mom, Pops did my hair!"

Gran quickly became one of Austin's favorite people.

Four generations of the Collins family

Cute clothes from Gran and Pops

Gran is trying to turn Austin into a fellow Mavericks fan!

I'll Admit it...I'm Hooked

For years I have said that I would never want a video game system in my home. I grew up without one and sure, I liked playing video games when I went to friends' houses, but I have always felt that they are pretty unnecessary. I would rather my kids spend hours reading or listening to music or playing outside or any number of other activities besides pushing buttons and staring at a screen.

But oh my. I think my feelings may have changed. Bill and Becky (my in-laws; we're in Texas right now) recently bought a Wii. And it is so fun! I am especially hooked on Wii fit. I spent about an hour this morning exploring all the activities and watching the balance in my Fit Bank go up. Man, that little thing is motivational! "Oh boy, I just unlocked 10 reps!" "Great, a new yoga pose!" I would think. And I would just want to keep going.

Now Zach and I certainly have better things to spend $250 on right now than a Wii, but for the first time in my life I am tempted. I never thought I would see this day.

Baby Foosball

Zach, Austin, and I were playing with his ball before bed tonight. He likes to watch Mommy or Daddy roll the ball to him but he doesn't know how to roll it back yet. We also tried getting him to kick the ball but without much success. Then we tried this and the real fun began.

Who else thinks this would be a fun playdate idea? Can you just picture a whole roomful of babies kicking the ball back and forth?

My Fame Continues

So my loyal blog readers already know how I got my picture in the paper for getting a flu shot. The days following were full of friends and neighbors commenting on my appearance in print. But things like getting a flu shot don't keep you in the spotlight for long.

But apparently this exciting moment in my life was not quite over. Yesterday I got a laminated copy of the picture with a handwritten note from Don White, the Pennsylvania state senator representing the Indiana area. He is glad I got my flu shot and hopes others will do the same to stay healthy this winter. Wow! Perhaps this is just a little technique to butter up his constituents but if so it worked! I immediately felt warm fuzzies for my state senator. I wonder if he does that for everyone whose picture makes it in the paper? That could keep a guy busy, you know?

Example #3

Zach is still grading, and the funny papers just keep coming. Here's the latest he found amusing enough to pass over to me.

On what one would assume was a cold day, January 27, 1756, a baby was born and named Johannes Chrysostomos Wolfgang Theophilus Amadeus.

You can just picture baby Mozart being born, with the snow swirling outside, can't you?

How Zach Earns a Living

In addition to being a tuba/euphonium teacher, Zach teaches a large lecture class called Introduction to Music. It's for non-music majors, mostly freshman getting their general ed. fine arts credit. He recently assigned a little project that involved students writing a short bio on a composer, then listening to a piece by that composer and writing a response. He has been grading these projects for the last few days. With over 100 students in the class, you can imagine that it gets a little tedious, but there are always some that are good for a few laughs.

Example #1 (about composer John Adams)

"This was considered his best piece ever. Out of all of the music he wrote prior to this, this song was the best of them all."

Good thing he explained that...I wasn't really sure what "best piece ever" meant.

Example #2 (about composer Franz Joseph Haydn)

"He was a very well-known composer in the classical period, although he did dapple in the late baroque and early 19th century romanticism periods.
...which is what makes him one of the most famous composers of the 20th century."

Who knew that Haydn lived for about 400 years? And "dappling" sounds fun, whatever it is.

You kind of hope these kids are also enrolled in a good English course, don't you?

Lots of Cuteness Going On

Zach says it's time for a mostly-pictures post because there's "a whole lot of cuteness going on" around here. I agree so here we go.

Austin is sitting up on his own...



...for at least a few seconds, anyway! A little bit longer every day, I think.

Yesterday I was putting away laundry in Austin's room and Zach mentioned that the laundry basket was one of his favorite "toys" when he was younger. He put Austin in it for fun. Genius! Austin can sit up in it and it doesn't let him tip too much to the side; put some toys in there and he's good to go for awhile. He loved it when Daddy gave him a ride around his room, too.

Do you think maybe Austin is getting too big for his bouncer? (This picture is actually from a few weeks ago. I don't think Austin has sat in the seat since, although it is still sitting there in the kitchen.)

On a slightly unrelated note, I got to do something really great tonight. I went to the grocery store by myself! And the store was really uncrowded because it was Sunday night and most of western Pennsylvania was at home, the Steelers game having just finished. I never would have thought that going to the store by myself would lift my spirits quite so much but there you go. Just one of the ways life changes when you have a baby.

The Secret to Quick Voting...

Bring a baby! I arrived at my polling place (a building on IUP's campus) to find quite a long line, made up mostly of college students. I came prepared to wait: Austin had just woken up from a nap and he wasn't hungry. But an election official saw me with my stroller and offered to escort me to the front of the line. In and out in about ten minutes. Works for me!

By the way, the Girl Talk blog posted a great clip of John Piper putting the election in perspective. Check it out.