Jeff and Nicole Tied the Knot

On February 7th, my brother Jeff married his best gal, Nicole. It was a great wedding! The wedding was at a church in Silverado Canyon in Southern California, and in the tradition of Eichman weddings, it poured rain. Kent performed the ceremony and did a great job, as usual. I was a bridesmaid, and I got to make the wedding cake! It was a lot of fun, and I am thankful to have a great new sister in Nicole. I will try to post some pictures soon. Until then, here they are at halloween :-)

(I can't figure out how to delete this photo, so oh well.)

Sick Girl, na-na-na-na, Sick Girl

Not much going on here. Last week Kent was super sick, and guess what... This week I am sick! I feel like I am incubating the plague and like death warmed over. My only respite is Dayquil and watching all my DVR'd reality shows that I love so much. I was able to make it through work all week somehow, and thank God I can crash all weekend. I bought a book to read, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers, but I am depressed by the plot already. I think I will start reading "Marley & Me", though I think I know how that one ends too...

Kent started sanding the deck yesterday to stain it. It is looking kinda gross because the previous owners never put a stain on it, and it has gotten gray and gross. So he rented a gigantor sander yesterday for $80... and then it rained. Go figure. Anyway, just another task in the long and laborious "facelift" of our house.

Our 4 year anniversary is coming up in March, and we are planning a trip to New Orleans for a few days. It is hard to plan a trip to a place we have never been. I think we are going to stay in the French Quarter so we can walk everywhere. We are going to go to the National WWII museum one day, and hang out on Bourbon Street another day. Any suggestions???

That's all friends. Jana out :-)

All HAIL THE COMPUTER!!!

The Latest Family Portrait

THANK GOODNESS, Kent and I bought a "gently used" laptop computer for Christmas. Merry Christmas to us. Yes, it is fun using the iPhone to look up stuff online, but it loses it luster quickly. I do have to admit that having Wikipedia at my fingetips all day is so fun and convenient.

Smug Teen: "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade came out in 1985."
Me: "No it didn't. It was in the late eighties. Like '89 or maybe 1990."
Smug Teen: "No- trust me I know. I like, LOVE those movies."
Me: (thinking inner thoughts) What a brat. He wasn't even born then. I don't presume to tell oldies when their movies came out!) "Let's look it up right now!"

Anyway, the computer is great, and came with a full library of 2nd hand music on iTunes, even if some of it is not my thing (ZZ Top, Seriously?)

So, now that nobody is reading this anymore, I wil have to send out those little emails reminding people that care (moms- are you listening?)

Since we last posted, here are some updates:

August: I (Jana) started teaching again, this time trying wee ones at Ford Elementary in Oak Ridge. I thought it would be easier than high school, ha ha ha. I work part-time (clarification: I only get paid for part-time, but I work full-time!), M-F, 8-12. Good times. I teach 3rd grade special ed. kiddos who are adorable but cry a lot. Some don't know the alphabet. From Orwell, Homer and Shakespeare to doing lessons brought to you by the letter "J". I am adjusting. I have also decided that the worse smell on earth is a 3rd grade boy's bathroom at 3:30 PM.

September: Hurricane Ike came, busted stuff up, knocked over our fence, and dropped trees on everyone. Then the Crowes came to live with us while their relatives house (which they were living in) was repaired. Today (4 months later) is their last day here, and I am sad. The house seems empty. Now Kent can walk around in his underwear again :-) Just kidding. I posted a short and unexciting video of the Hurricane below. It was actually a HUGE deal here, rightly so. I will post more pics later.




October: Mom Eichman and Aunt Cheryl came to visit so we could go to Antique Week in Round Top. We had a lot of fun and scored some good junk. Aunt Cheryl bought a cow hide, mom bought miscellaneous doo-dahs, and I FINALLY found some 1950's schoolhouse pendant lights for the kitchen and breakfast nook. They hung in a tiny Baptist church in north Texas for 50 years. May they hang for another 50. Thanks to Kentie for rewiring them and installing them :-) They are perfection.
November: We celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends Brooke and Justin Ulmer at their parent's ranch: The Burnt Bisquit. We fed Cuddles the bull, escaped from him on a golf cart, helped put the guineas in their coop, and rode horses. Very nice :-) Thanks to Carolyn and Leroy for taking in family-less orphans like us during the holidays.

Californians: Click here to see what a guinea is.

December: The usual Christmas preparations. We flew to Las Vegas for Christmas to be with Kent's family, then I flew to Orange County to be with my family some. Mom and I threw a bridal shower for Nicole, my brother Jeff's fiance. We also drove up to Bass Lake for New Years and enjoyed snow. I miss mountains! Kent flew back to Texas early for a big New Year's Eve bash for high school and junior high kiddos. And he wants me to note in caps that HE INSTALLED A "GENTLY USED" DISHWASHER ALL BY HIMSELF, AND IT WORKS GREAT. Thank you to the Lees for donating it to our gradual "remodel".

January: Freezing our butts off in Texas :)

PS: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: 1989!!!!

Alaska

Hey Friends!

Just a quick stop into the blog to post a couple of pics from our recent cruise from Seattle to various points in Alaska and British Columbia. We still have not bought a new computer, so I have to come to Kent's office at night to use one. I figure a couple more paychecks and we will rejoin this century. Until then, so sorry!

Pike Place Fish market in Seattle

White Pass Train Ride from Skagway, Alaska into the Yukon Territory, B.C.

Some glacier behind us, on Tracy Arm Fjord

Kent and the inside passage of B.C.

Prince Rupert, B.C. at the Butze Rapids