The McMillins

Gretchen stayed up late last night doing our taxes. She loves doing that sort of stuff. She finished them pretty quickly, tho. We printed them out today. We're going to just review them over the weekend and send them off on Monday! We like to have our taxes done early so we don't have to worry about it.

Both Corey and Gretchen are sick. Corey started feeling bad at the beginning of the week and now just has a cough. Gretchen started with a slight stomach virus last night. Corey told her NOT to clean today and to just relax. She has only picked up around the house, did some laundry, did dishes and made the bed. She has a piano lesson this afternoon and she just wanted to make sure the house looked "decent". She feels a little bit better after taking a shower but her head hurts.

Many of you know that Gretchen was trying to lose weight. When we went to Maryland last year she was 138 or 139 lbs. Her goal was 135 lbs. Well, she surpassed it and with being sick last night she's now down to 131 lbs. Corey and her both want to see what she looks like at 130 lbs but she's pretty happy where she's at. She'll probably gain some of that weight back on the trip, tho. :)

Gretchen has given Zach 4 piano lessons since the beginning of the year. She has to hold him back from learning so much at one time because he likes to keep going. He's now finished his whole first book of piano lessons (47 pages). He's moving on to the next book. Amazingly, he loves taking piano lessons. Gretchen's taking advantage of it while she can. :)

From the day after Christmas, Gretchen has been doing a lot of cleaning. Although, don't let her fool you because she loves cleaning. She took down all the decorations (except the trees), the day after Christmas. Both her and Corey were starting to feel like their house was "cluttered". Then, she cleaned out the "Guest Bedroom" and moved our book shelf out in the family room upstairs. She went through all the books and organized them according to category. Then, she took down the Christmas trees on New Year's Eve.

Now, she has a big pile of "stuff" that needs to be sold and/or given away. She still needs to take pictures of everything to put it on ebay or craigslist.

Last weekend she went through Zach's summer clothes and got his clothes ready for Hawaii. Then, she went through both Corey's and her own summer clothes and washed the ones that needed to be washed. She's got our clothes all layed out and ready to be packed. She's afraid to put them in a suit case yet, tho, because she doesn't want them getting wrinkled. There's some stuff that can't be packed until the last minute. You probably know what those are tho, huh? :)

So, how many of you actually stayed up to watch the ball drop? I know we did. This is the first New Year's that we have been together for. The past 2 years, Corey has had to work on New Year's Eve. This year, since it was our first, we decided to stay up and watch the ball drop. It was nice but we were very tired this morning.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone! We love and miss you all!! Thank you all for the gifts. We love them! :)

Corey and Zach went shopping the other day to get one more gift. When they came home, Corey put what he bought in a box and went upstairs where Gretchen was. He asked for the wrapping paper, scissors and tape. Gretchen said, "Well, since you have another gift that I can open on Christmas morning, are you sure you just don't want to give it to me now?". It didn't take much thought for Corey to say, "Yes". He is always anxious to give his gifts to Gretchen. Plus, it saved him from wrapping it (Corey isn't the BEST wrapper, lol).

He gave Gretchen a Garmin StreetPilot (GPS) for the car. Now, some of you may be laughing thinking that a "woman needs it" but Corey really likes this gift too. You can plug in addresses to save and it can tell you h0w to get there (directing you each step of the way), how fast you're going, how many miles to your destination, averages of almost everything (speed, miles per hour, etc) AND you can look up things in the area like restaurants, lodging, entertainment, intersections, etc. Gretchen wasn't expecting him to get that for her but she and him are both glad that he did. Wasn't that so sweet? :)

Gretchen's parents came down to see us last Thursday. They had a chance to look at some houses that they were interested in. They are "thinking" about moving down here in 2 to 5 years, after Gretchen's mom is able to retire. Then on Friday, Corey and Gretchen's Dad left to go to Promise Keepers.

As soon as the guys left for PK, Gretchen, her mom and Zach went shopping. They stopped and got milkshakes and rented a movie. They ordered in pizza while they watched a movie. Then, they all got in Gretchen's bed and went to sleep early. The next morning they went to Walmart to do some more shopping and get some donuts for breakfast.

The guys had a good time being by themselves, too. They had some really good talks to and from the Center. They had to drive 2 hours to where PK was. They went to the conference Friday evening and then back to the hotel where they stayed. They went back to the conference the following morning and then came home. They both had a REALLY good time together. Corey definitely wants to go back to PK with Gretchen's Dad again. We think Gretchen's Dad loves being called "Dad" by Corey.

It's always good to see Gretchen's parents but it's definitely especially good that they spoil us by taking us out to eat. Of course, we'll probably do that to Zach when he gets married too. :)