Sarah is over the throw up bug, and we are settling into life quite well in our new house. Sarah's passport came the other day - her picture is HILARIOUS - she looks like a china doll! Getting a 1-year-old's passport picture is not the easiest thing ... we sat her on the back of the chair, and Jon helped hold her up with his hand. The nice library lady was so patient, taking a bunch of pictures in an attempt to get Sarah looking at the camera and to not have Jon's fingers showing.

For those that don't know, we're going skiing in Austria at the end of February with my side of the family. We figure this is our window to go because Sarah can come free (once she turns 2 we'd have to pay, so after December 11, 2008 no more airplane rides for a while) and there is no #2. My Mom doesn't ski, so she'll get lots of Sarah time while we all hit the slopes! Since the night I met Jon (literally) I've been hearing about how amazing St Anton is and how no ski resort in North America can even come close in comparison. I can't wait to experience the Austrian Alps for myself!! We both have such a love for other cultures and the picture of God's creativity in them, and what He teaches us about ourselves while in another culture. I've also been very impressed with Jon's German as he emails back and forth setting up our accommodation and I'm looking forward to seeing him in action as he leads us around one of his favorite places on earth!

Yet there is a 26.2 mile race to be run in between now and our ski trip. On February 17th I'll set out to accomplish a long time goal of running a marathon. Training has been going really well, but I do at times feel crazy ... like when I ran 18 miles 2 weeks ago, and the thought of running 20 miles tomorrow. There is a big part of me that is ready for this marathon to be over! At the same time, I've wanted to run one for years and it feels good to be so close and to feel so ready.

Jon got a spiffy new digital camera for Christmas but we're afraid the new software my send our aging laptop over the edge, so for now all of our great pictures with the high tech camera remain on the camera. Maybe by the time I can get those pictures, I'll figure out how to put a slide show on here. But here are a few pictures from our old cheep camera:

Sarah is back to her old self - eating us out of the house! I have never known a child to be such a good eater. It's amazing!

She has a book shelf in her room (unlike at our old house) and her latest thing is to crawl in her room, shut the door, and cozy up with her books! It's so funny, but does make us a bit nervous to think that if at 13 months she goes in her room and shuts the door ... what do we have coming when she's a teenager??? This morning when I heard the door shut, I went to investigate and instead of reading books, she was sitting in her little rocker all smiles. It's truly amazing to see her little personality develop more and more.