Copelands visit Copelands

For Adam's birthday weekend,his parents visited us in Harrisonburg. We had a WONDERFUL visit--chatting, eating delicious meals, exploring Harrisonburg, seeing The King's Speech and just enjoying time together!

On Saturday, we went to the Arboretum on quite the blustery day. Here's a windblown shot of my husband's delightful parents.

It was a fun visit, and I know how lucky I am to have such caring, cheerful in-laws. Although it was a short visit, we felt blessed that they made the trek and got to be guests in our house.

Even Oliver got in this group shot

The favorite son?? j/k Anna, Luke, & Bethany!

Happy birthday to Adam! Thank goodness (for me!) that your parents decided to have you. :)

Marginalia

My apologies for my lapse in blogging. I've got some pictures from Valentine's Day and from a wonderful visit with Adam's parents, but I've got just a few more papers to grade! In the meantime, I found this lovely article about marginalia.

Marginalia is the description for things written in the margins of (usually) printed texts. Of utmost fun is when a famous author writes marginalia in their books or in others (this article talks about Mark Twain's snarky comments). I studied quite a bit of this in graduate school, and I do miss studying these extra-textual events. Perhaps I'll just start doing some dissertation-level research...without the hassle of the dissertation! After all, just reading this article brought a huge smile to my face and sparked thousands of interesting questions and ideas into my mind. And my mind has been lacking that stimulation for a bit...maybe it's time to get back in mental acuity shape! :)

Props to February!

When I was growing up, February was kind of a boring month. It was short, still cold, and there weren't really any fun holidays for me to celebrate. I have a healthy dislike of weather-predicting rodents; I don't think that we got Presidents' Day off; and it wasn't like Valentine's Day was all that. Sure, sending/receiving Valentine's Day cards in elementary school was fun and my parents bought us a bit of chocolate, but it wasn't like Christmas or Easter or (glory of glories) Hallowe'en. Plus, there's that whole creepy lovey-dovey vibe. Since my dad wouldn't let me date until I was 16, and since I didn't have a date until I was 18--I was firmly on the "love is so silly/trite/idiotic" train for awhile. :)

Now, though, February is actually a pretty cool month! My nephew, Ethan, was born five years ago on February 15th....he shares a birthday with Galileo (who shares a birth year with my buddy William Shakespeare!). Two-and-a-half years ago, I met another fabulous February birthday boy: my husband Adam! And, every year, on February 20th, he finally catches up to me, age-wise, until my August b-day rolls around. In addition, I kinda like Valentine's Day now that I have someone who will give me love and happiness year-round. Uh-oh, my 15-year-old self is sneering at my 31-year-old self!!

So, February, you're doing pretty all right. I've got a steady job and steady household. I'm looking forward to the following this month: a fun (and tasty) superbowl party, a weekend visit from my wonderful in-laws, a Valentine's Day dinner at CrossKeys Vineyards (where we tied the knot last March), many fun birthdays to celebrate, possible snow-tubing or skiing at Massanutten Resort, planning for our upcoming trip to San Antonio, drinks with friends, appreciating Harrisonburg's apparent no-snow-allowed policy, and a happy dog who doesn't have to walk outside in bad weather. To some, it may not be much. To me, it's Februtastic! Huzzah!

My February birthday boys!