Long time reader, first time blogger

Hi all- D here.
I realized that it had been awhile since we had posted, and since J is on his way home from Northern California, I thought I would take the opportunity to say hello. You might be a bit surprised to see me posting, but I thought it was time to throw my two cents into the mix.

My main reason for blogging tonight is to share with you something for which I am very proud. As many of you know, I am the adviser to my school's newspaper, the Lancer Express. It is something I started a few years ago and it has become my passion. My students are amazing and I am incredibly impressed by the work they do.

I have become addicted to blogging through our whole ordeal and decided that it would be a great medium for my student journalists. Our world is becoming more digital by the day, so I asked my students to join the world of internet journalism. In addition to our monthly-ish newspaper, we will also be blogging an article a day. I would love for you to meet my fabulous students through their journalism blog. I hope you will be as impressed as I am. You can read their articles at their blog Lancer Express Daily (www.ledaily.blogspot.com)

On a personal note, we are slowly getting back into our normal routine. J will be traveling significantly over the next few weeks, though he does have to go to dreaded jury duty on Valentine's Day. Hopefully they will show him some love and not put him on a case. Though I wouldn't at all complain about having him home for a few weeks while he sits on some fascinating trial.

In addition to my teaching duties, I also coach frosh/soph softball and will be starting that up again in the next few weeks. On my days off, I have been grading and continuing my work in the backyard. Today, I planted some beautiful gerber daisies and a lovely little gardenia that J's mom gave me. Next up will be the iceberg roses and camellias that I recently bought.

This weekend, J and I, along with a few friends, will be heading to Julian to celebrate my 30th birthday. That's right folks, I am going to be 30 on Friday. Though my life isn't exactly where I thought it would be by this birthday, I look forward to starting a new decade with more joy than sorrow and more happy days than sad.

I wanted to tell you all thank you for the love and support you have given us. We are truly blessed to have such an incredible group of family and friends and I hope you all realize how grateful we are for your kind words, thoughts, prayers, cards, flowers, gifts, etc. over the last eight months. Everyone of you has made my life brighter. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!