The McMurry Family: Happy Christmas!

This is our Christmas newsletter. Some of you might have received and read the paper version. Others of you might have gotten it in an email. And there are others who are reading it here. Whatever...just happy christmas, everyone.
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Well, here we are in Illinois. We moved here in August, and it has been interesting. We are about 2 hours from Chicago, 2 hours from Nauvoo, 2 hours from St. Louis, and 2 hours from Indianapolis. That is 2 hours from 2 major airports, and 2 hours from 3 temples. But we still feel like it is the middle of nowhere. And it is very cold.

About Us

Ben is working on a PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has decided to emphasize in computational linguistics, and hopes to someday work for Google. Or maybe Microsoft. Or maybe AT&T. He also plans to learn Arabic, and has been offered a scholarship for the next school year if he takes Arabic language classes. The department chair recommended that we spend the summer of 2007 in an Arabic speaking country, and suggested Morocco. So we are considering it.

Alison is still looking for a job here in Champaign. She would like to do something related to her degree in education, but there are not a lot of options here. While she looks and waits, she does things around the house and sews and talks a lot with the cats. She thought about writing a novel, but hasn’t had any great ideas yet. She reads a lot of books and keeps the house organized. I think she has rearranged the furniture every month. I guess that is what happens when you are home alone all day. There are weeks where she doesn’t go outside for days at a time. Maybe she is becoming a recluse?

ATTN: If you think pets are not part of the family, stop reading now. Merry Christmas!

About the Cats

In August, Baxter weighed 18 lbs. For a cat, that is a LOT. So he has been on a diet. We can tell he has lost weight, but haven’t been to the vet yet to get weighed. Unfortunately, he has started chewing on things. This started around the end of November. He chews on wires and our Christmas tree and paper. What is his problem? Any cat behaviorists out there that can explain this behavior?

Beatrice is more hyperactive since we moved to Champaign. In Utah, we had a house with stairs, and she spent a lot of time playing on the stairs. We also had a basement that she ran around in. Now we have a very very very small apartment with no stairs and no basement and no place to run. So she climbs on things a lot and watches out the windows. There is a squirrel that sometimes peers in our front windows that makes her very excited. And sometimes crickets get in the house, which is also very exciting.