"A Problem Page For All!"

...so it seemed like a good time to check in here.

Ryland is coming tonight and leaving tomorrow morning. We're cooking spaghetti, I'm supposed to hunt up some sheets for the fold-out couch bed, and I've vowed to be on my very best behavior and keep my mouth shut unless I can say something polite and trite and proper!

Jimmy, Rachel, and I are hosting a New Year's party for about 20 of our NBTSC friends, and I also invited Caitlin to come if she could. It's exciting to think about seeing her again!

I've been feeling kind of lousy for a while, so tomorrow I have an appointment with some natural-health practitioners (not "doctors" because they haven't been to med. school, but they're certified in lots of natural-health stuff) to have my blood drawn and looked at, so maybe I can get a diagnosis. I'm afraid they're going to find something frightfully wrong with me, but knowing has got to be better than not, right?! (Right?)

The weather is really nice -- warmish in the days, cool in the nights. I love fall!

I still can't decide whether to do National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org) next month. It's exciting to think about, but also a little overwhelming. I was thrilled when I succeeded last year, but my failure from 2002 is also there in my past, and I'm not sure I want to invest the time, brain cells, energy, and emotional output it would take to write a novel next month!

Jimmy has a virus and looks really awful. I hate seeing my baby brother with big black rings around his eyes and his skin pale! Ack! I'm also really hoping we don't make Ryland sick. Sigh. I guess that's his problem.

More news...I'm thinking of giving up swapping (slams, decos, etc.) because it costs so much. I really adore swapping, but I'm spending more than half of my postage budget on swapping alone. If I quit and just sent letters and whatever else, I'd save like $150 a year. Not a lot in the long run, except that I feel really guilty about spending it, because the family budget pays for my stamps. We were talking about me starting to pay for my own postage, and then I'd have to probably give up swapping, 'cause I'm dirt poor (by choice, I might add, but still).

The apple cake smells really good, so I should rescue it from the oven before it burns!

Love to all!