Quick Update

First, I got 100% on Friday's test!!!!!! The scores were adjusted so that the 3rd-highest score became 100%, so I don't know what my raw score actually was. Life often seems unfair, but I'm really grateful for this injustice. Holy cow. I hope the rest of my classmates did just as well.

Hershey's Bliss Creme de Menthe chocolates are one of the best candies ever. Well done, Hershey's.

We visited a neighbor on Saturday, and she was really happy to see us! Yay for making friends.

Inspired by a couple acquaintances, I decided to celebrate Valentine's Day for the first two weeks of the month by making a valentine for my husband every day. I wasn't able to make it in time for yesterday, and I don't know if I'll be able to today, but I've made a heart-shaped pouch out of red felt for the first three days with a note folded up inside. I'll try to take a picture of all 14 hearts on Valentine's Day (provided I can make all of them). Because I know my husband, I suggested that on Valentine's Day we redistribute the hearts and give them to others instead of keeping them for ourselves. We'll see how that goes.

We've been more social lately, attending dinner and hosting dinner with various degrees of prior planning. It's been really fun. We also went to a movie night with a couple friends from my study abroad and watched Laputa: Castle in the Sky (a Miyzaki film).

On Sunday I was helping a friend with her baby during church, and one of the moms told me that I was "a natural." Awesome :) It's been about a decade since I had everyday contact with babies, and I feel super rusty.

Yesterday I spent all of my not-in-class time reading The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. I had no idea that it was a novel before a musical, and it was an extremely interesting narrative. Leroux's professional experience was mostly as a journalist, and he compiled this novel from actual events and his imagination, so the story feels true and logical as you read. Raoul and Christine are frightened and impetuous children to me (especially Raoul in the book), but the depth and complexity of the other characters was intriguing.

So busy!!! Time to get back to work.

**And I need to add Howl's Moving Castle to my book list. I kind of want to add The Phantom of the Opera too just so I can cross off a classic.