COUNCIL TO CARPET

Lots of excitement here at the Duncan household!
Brian was just appointed (right after my last post!) to Syracuse City Council.  Here's the link to a newspaper article http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/02/28/duncan-fills-vacancy-syracuse-city-council. 

Though we didn't sleep much the night we found out thinking of how weighty an assignment this is, the more he's researched city issues and talked to other professionals and citizens, the more into the groove he's gotten, and as most all of you may know, politics is SO his groove--it's fun to see him take it on and put so many of his talents to use.  He was well supported by a lot of longtime locals here who encouraged him to apply after hearing a lot of his comments at previous meetings, and also shared their support with the City Council, who appointed him.  Because it was due to a recent vacancy, there was no election held--just a 3 minute speech at a City Council meeting, and an application turned in.  His little "speech" was GREAT--I asked him after if he'd worked hard on it, or practiced in the shower, etc.?  No, he told me--he wasn't sure what he'd say until he stood up!

Also,
This is what our house has looked like all week, as we got new carpet installed!! It is WONDERFUL!! and a HUGE improvement!! Quite an adventure shoving all of our furniture into 2 rooms (the kids loved waking up early to run around on the bare wood floor, dancing, doing headstands, etc. before 7AM, and then again when it was newly soft), but well worth the craziness! The carpet company is a client of Brian's law firm, and they traded this service for the legal work--Hooray! The last picture is of the new carpet--it feels like we're walking on giant marshmallows, it's so soft.  The day the installers came (of course they showed up as I was throwing my clothes into the wash, and my only other clothes were wedged in a drawer between my mattress and a wall!!)--I camped out w/ Lucy and Anne in the basement LAUNDERING every bit of clothing and bedding I could, and having a "picnic" for lunch.  They finished right after the kids got home, when Brent told me his Regional B-Ball game was in an hour, w/ Maddie's right after, so the vacuuming and furniture moving was drawn out a bit, but we are now back to normal, and feeling more de-cluttered and set up than normal. (I'd include after shots, but all the furniture ended up just where it was before)

Other tidbits:
Brent had his first YURT campout a few weeks ago, camping and cross-country skiing in the snow, and while he was there, I took the rest of the children up to visit Great G&G Mildenhall, then we tried exploring Willard Bay (of the Great Salt Lake) on the way home.  The two park entrances were closed for the winter, but we did find a dirt road along some preserve range, and pulled the van over to the lip of the bay, where we could hike up a hill and see the water.  It was cold, and not much of a beach or anything, but who doesn't love a little adventure?! I treated them to Pace's 50 cent corndogs and ice cream after their patience with me :)

Spencer had his 2nd grade program--he got to play the drum, and I got to try and control my emotions while they sang and did sign language to the Preamble to the Constitution.  School programs do it to me every time! Those aren't crazy hairdos by Spencer--he just got to stand next to Abe Lincoln and George Washington :).

We also finally got to spend time w/ Dad & Kathy, who have been in Salt Lake for about 3 weeks for Kathy's radiation treatment--it seemed perfect to have them so much closer, but all of our plans have been sideswiped by someone getting sick at the last minute, or schedules being too crazy.  They came for dinner and games last Sunday night w/ Nate & Stacey's family, which was so nice, and they also brought some fun Valentine's goodies for the kids and cute outfits for Lucy's birthday.  Lucy insisted on wearing almost all of them at once to bed that night, and I insisted on taking a picture--which was a bit of a joke--she WAS looking when I snapped all of these shots, but you can see Lucy v/s my Shutter speed!