This photo seems so long ago now...last night's layout.

When I was about 10 years old my dad bought me a white bookcase for my bedroom. Over 20 years later, those bookshelves made nine or ten moves through moving with my family, my college years, and moving with Ethan. They made their final move from my basement scrapbooking room to my guest room scrapbooking area. I put all my cool supplies on them, but they were leaning in a serious way. Ethan suggested that I find something new before they crashed to the ground, taking all my gemstones, textured paints, and silk flowers with them. On my brother's advice, I got some cool gently used Ikea Expedit shelves. Charles recommended the 4 cube by 4 cube set but I was lucky enough to find the 5 by 5 set on craigslist. All of a sudden I have sooo much space! I am enjoying filling my cubes up with all the crafty stuff I love. I would highly recommend these to any scrapbooker - they hold a ton of stuff, and fit 12 by 12 papers and albums easily! My old shelves will get nailed together and won't be so attractive, but they'll make good storage for our camping gear in the basement.

I just finished an incredibly interesting book. It wasn't just about the cholera epidemic of the 1850s, but about how epidemiology was developed. It told the personal story of two men who we can thank for a major advancement in medicine. As I type this, it sound a bit dry, but believe me, it was fascinating and suspenseful! This book was both entertaining and extremely educational - a great read! I'd highly recommend it!

I had a harder time choosing who to vote for this year than usual. I was okay with almost all the choices, so it made it hard to narrow down a final candidate to get behind. I finally decided - good thing, because I had to vote today! Our family is going for Barack Obama! I'm ready for a really intelligent president, and I like his ideas, so I finally committed and gave him my vote! If he is the Democratic candidate for president I even have some signs ready to hang up on my fence.

I can't believe how busy I've been since I finished my long-term assignment! I thought once I stopped working every day I would have tons of time on my hands. I guess I forgot what real life is like, and how quickly days fill up! I have been doing a variety of different things. Our Girl Scout troop is finally up and running, I've been working on homeschooling lesson plans, finally seeing some friends, cooking more, etc.

I was excited that I lost approximately 16 pounds during my long-term assignment. I have a new doctor who was very encouraging. He gave me good advice about what I can do to stay on the same track. The most major thing I'm doing is giving up having soda at home. I've always drunk tons of soda, and when the doctor and I sat down and added up the calories I take in every week just in soda, I was amazed. Also, watching Super Size Me really opened my eyes to how bad soda is for you! So NO MORE soda in our home. We're going to try to teach Esme not to get hooked on the stuff either.