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I've Known and Now Believe

2010-08-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

Excruciating but temporary pain is better than recurring pain spread over years. I'm sure there's a more poetic way of saying it, but I know this to be true.

On an unrelated note, something I've believed and now know:

Democrats are the party of tax more, spend more. Republicans are the party of spend more.

My thoughts for today.

Father's Day

2010-06-20T13:59:00.000-07:00

Any guy can be a father. It takes a man to be a dad.

The Numbers

According to 2009 U.S. Census Bureau data, over 24 million children live apart from their biological fathers. That is 1 out of every 3 (33%) children in America. Nearly 2 in 3 (64%) African American children live in father-absent homes. One in three (34%) Hispanic children, and 1 in 4 (25%) white children live in father-absent homes.

In 1960, only 11% of children lived in father-absent homes.

The Consequences

Children who live absent their biological fathers are, on average, at least two to three times more than their peers who live with their married, biological (or adoptive) parents to:

Be poor

Use drugs

Experience educational problems

Experience health problems
Experience emotional problems
Experience behavioral problems

Be victims of child abuse

Engage in criminal behavior
(source: National Fatherhood Initiative, fatherhood.org)

chicken bacon artichoke sandwiches

2010-04-29T18:17:00.000-07:00

So here's the quick dinner I came up with tonight. Because I couldn't make myself eat macaroni and cheese.

Into the food processor went:

chicken breast that Bryan grilled last night and hacked it into about five pieces (so it would fit)

bacon that I microwaved and chopped up

jarred artichoke hearts

mayo

salt

white pepper (somewhat milder in flavor than black, which i don't like)

garlic powder

Whirrrrrrr. Just briefly. Out came chicken-bacon-artichokey goodness with which to top some homemade whole wheat bread. And on top of that... Cheddar of course. Two minutes under the broiler and voila... Chicken Bacon Artichoke Open-Faced Sandwich Dinner.

(Would've posted a picture but we were so hungry there wasn't time to take one!)

Cake Mania, or Adventures in Caking

2010-04-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

This April is a busy one. Yesterday was Caleb's birthday (don't get me started) and his birthday party is on Friday. Saturday morning is Andi's baby shower. For some reason, probably early-onset senility, I wanted to bake both cakes. I have never really made fancy from-scratch birthday cakes before. My mom is SO good at it, I can usually talk her into doing it. Alas, my mom is out of the country so I am on my own. But I love a challenge (in theory) so off I went.

On Tuesday I bake two layers for Caleb's chocolate cake using this recipe from AllRecipes.com. I did change it a little, though. I used oil instead of shortening as some other reviewers suggested (which is one of the things I love about AllRecipes.com), and cake flour instead of all purpose. (I have a collection of four or five types of flour right now, thanks to my baking adventures.) The other big change I made was baking it in a round cake pan instead of the 9x13 baking dish. I'm not sure what it is about 9x13's. They don't feel very party-ish to me. I use my 9x13 for all kinds of stuff. Just not birthday cakes.

So after a little research, I decided to bake in a 9" round, 3" high round cake pan that my mom conveniently owns. I also read that wrapping a strip of wet (not dripping) towel around the cake and pinning it in place will allow the sides of the cake to rise better. The end result is that the cake is flatter (not domed) across the top.

Success! The cake came out almost perfectly flat across the top, plus nice and tall. This means I"ll have to cut very little off the top to stack the layers. Today I'll be icing the cake. Wish me luck!

For Andi's cake, I am using Nigella Lawson's "My Mother's Madeira Cake" recipe. Madeira cake is a British thing, so finding a recipe with American cooking measurements was the hard part. I first became aware of Madeira cake when my mom (of course) baked a sample cake for my friend Sara's wedding. She had a different recipe which called for milk instead of lemon juice, but she did add lemon zest.

I just happen to know that Andi loves lemon stuff, especially when she's pregnant, (like me!) so I thought this would be great. It's moist and slighly more pound-cake-ish than store-made cakes which are fluffier and drier. This is what makes it a good cake to decorate because it won't split under the weight of decorations. Plus its delicious. :)

I also had to adapt this to use the same pan that I had for Caleb's cake, because the original recipe is for a loaf pan (apparently in England they like to have this cake with tea?). It's in the oven right now... In about an hour I'll find out if the cake came out well!

I hope they both turn out great, so I can post pictures for you to ooh and aah about. :)

An afterschool chat with Caleb, and my reflections upon it.

2010-03-03T16:05:00.000-08:00

I just had the classic after-school-with-milk-and-cookies chat with Caleb. Except it was milk and carrot muffin. Micah, Bryan, and Doodle are napping, so the house was nice and quiet (for once).

I found out his grade won the school-wide reading contest and they had an ice-cream party. I was hoping they had the classic ice cream cups. You remember those? Half vanilla ice cream and half orange sherbet. Those were so completely awesome when I was in school. They even came with a little peanut-shaped wooden paddle to eat it with. Unfortunately he had no idea what I was talking about, which means that's not what they had.

He also brought home a permission slip for the Missoula Children's Theater auditions. This year they are doing Pinocchio. We had a short chat about how a lot of kids don't get picked, and how every part is important, even if there is not a lot of talking. So he'll be trying out next Monday.

I am a little surprised that he wanted to to do it. He used to love being the center of attention, but recently has shied away from it. Two summers ago I signed him up for a little three-day drama camp at the Children's Museum, and when I saw him, he had designated himself the curtain guy. So he would open and close the curtains, but he didn't want to be in the little play. That's fine. I could relate.

We always encourage him to do things that are just outside his comfort zone without being forceful or making him feel guilty if he doesn't want to. I think a lot of us would be bolder people if we had just tried and seen things weren't as bad as we feared. I think that confident people -- people who are willing to try to do what most of us wouldn't dare (within the parameters of decency and the law!) -- earn respect a little more readily and worry less.

But if you try something you're just not good at... Oh well! Nothing is lost. Actually you have saved yourself from wondering if you COULD have, so you're better off either way. Everybody is really good at SOMETHING, right? Most people are at least moderately good at multiple things. Some of us aren't good at what we wish we were. But if we think about it, and can be honest about it, we're at least pretty darn good at something.

So we try to encourage the boy. And if he just doesn't like it... There are always Legos. And that's something he's good at. :)

The Dream

2010-01-18T22:43:00.000-08:00

I Have A Dream By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
(Audio Of Speech)

Betcha Didn't Know

2009-12-06T21:22:00.001-08:00

So here is something I learned today. At the ER. With Micah. Because he stuck a piece of raw carrot up his nose. And a nurse told me this. I am not making it up.

He said when this happens, you can plug the other side by pressing the nostril with your finger, then doing a CPR-style mouth breath. He said this can make quite a snotty mess on your cheek, but also often can dislodge whatever is in the obstructed nostril. Of course this did not work for Micah when we tried, because in the nurse's professional opinion, "Carrots are harder."

So it took a little bit of work of Micah blowing and sneezing, and the doctor suctioning. When the chunk was close to being out, he yanked it (gently) with a pair of forceps.

I was surprised at the size of the carrot. I was picturing something pea-sized yet more squarish. It was at least two or three peas worth (by volume) of carrot, in the oddest shape. I don't know how he got it to fit, but I'm not surprised it was hard to get out, regardless of how mucus coated it was.

The doc offered to put it in a little container so we could take it home for Micah to show off, but I suggested we'd had about enough with this particular bit of vegetable, so he threw it out. Which brought to mind Micah's question when I told him we'd have to go to the hospital for them to take it out: "And then I can eat it again?"

Nope, I don't think you'd want to.

Little Monkeys' Wishlist

2009-12-03T23:06:00.000-08:00

(in random order)

LeapFrog Tag Reader books (Star Wars, Spiderman, UP, The Cat In the Hat, I Spy)
LeapFrog Leapster2 games (Star Wars Jedi Reading, Batman, UP)
Legos (City Construction, City Firefighters/truck, Star Wars, Batman)
Toy Story (movie, Woody, Buzz Lightyear)
Lego Indiana Jones (I) Wii Game

That's all I can think of.

Time to dust off the ol' blog

2009-12-01T22:02:00.000-08:00

It's been since July that I posted? Wow, that is a while. You can thank Gina for bringing it to mind.

Not that I have all that much to post about. Which is not to say that nothing has happened. It's more like my brain leaks memory like an old car leaks oil. Not all at once, just in steady drips.

So... What have I done since July?

Well.... In August, Bryan and I celebrated our 8th anniversary. He had to work on our actual anniveresary (of course) but we had a nice dinner out the night before. We rarely go out just the two of us, which we've been told is called a "date", but it was fun to do it. We would go out more often if we could, but we don't believe in pawning off our children all the time. They are OURS after all. And with Bryan's ever-changing schedule, some day Caleb (since he goes to school) only see him for minutes.

In September, Caleb started the first grade at a new school. He really enjoys his teacher, is making great progress with his reading, and has made new friends. His fear of missing his friends at his old school has largely subsided. He occasionally mentions his old teacher, or says he wishes he was still in kindergarten, but when I remind him how much he likes his new teacher, he admits he likes BOTH of them and he likes his school.

In October, the boys dressed up for Halloween. Caleb was a policeman, and Micah was a fireman. Michelle trick-or-treated with us and Bryan even got off work a little early and made a loop with Caleb after Micah got tired of clomping around the neighborhood in rubber boots.

In November I turned 28. I had to pause to do the math. I'm not old enough to forget how old I am, but since I forget everything, I might as well forget that too. All I know is Bryan is a year and three months older than me, and that's what counts.

I also went to very part time at the Children's Museum. Five hours a week, in charge of the gift shop. Basically I'm a stay-at-home mom again, but I didn't want to let the museum go completely since I love it. They were kind enough to create a position for me that was mutually beneficial. I will be going in tomorrow to check on the store.

Now it's December, and we already have some great stuff planned for it. I am organizing a cookie decorating party for a local homeless shelter. We don't have a lot of people or a lot of money, but we are committed to serving our community. Every little bit of goodwill toward men counts, especially when its cold outside for so many and we're feeling so festive and and cozy in our homes.

I feel like this year has been a good one overall. We have come to love all of the new friends we've met at The Reach. We have seen Claudia and Mark move away. Bryan is loving his new career. We have suffered with some people very close to us.

God is seeing us through each and every day, and we look forward with excitement at what the rest of 2009 will bring us, and what surprises lie ahead in 2010.

Maybe I'll post again in LESS than five months!

Catch-Up Part 2: Work & Play

2009-07-21T23:34:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I ever mentioned I got promoted at work a few months ago. I should stop having ideas for things, because then I end up doing them. :) I really enjoy my work 97% of the time.

My boss went on vacation at the end of June and I had to be on-call. That was interesting. Some days things apparently went smoothly, some days I'd get 5-6 calls. No rhyme or reason to it, either. But all in all things worked out well and we hadn't had the place shut down by the time she got back. And I was glad she was back!

Right after that I went on a trip to meet up with some friends/downhere fans (also known as "downhomies", a term coined by the band's singer/guitarist/pianist Jason Germain) in Nashville for a few days. A few of the people I have talked to for a long time, some were fairly new to me. But everybody was really nice, and a lot of fun was had.

One of the days we volunteered with the downhere guys at a charity called Feed The Children. They provide nonperishable food, toiletry, and "luxuries" boxes to poor children and families. Luxuries... like little Avon lotion and a candy bar. Hmm. Makes you think a little bit about that ___ you just HAVE to have.

Anyway, they didn't need any boxes filled at that moment, apparently a large event in town needed a few thousand, and the volunteer groups before us had taken care of those. So they were low on all sorts of things needed to make the boxes. Part of our group split off to box up a over 1000 pairs of Crocs for that event. Kudos to them for donating so many new pairs of shoes. After we were done, we set to folding and taping new, empty boxes into shape for the next set of volunteers. We must have done a few hundred of those. I didn't count, but there were tons.

The other part of the group set to removing the tops from cases of donated food so it could be arranged for the assembly line setup they have for putting food boxes together. A couple of guys even compacted old boxes to be recycled. There were a lot of things to do, but the Feed The Children staff seem to have everything down to a science. Nothing is wasted, everything is organized. It seems to be a well-oiled machine, down to having volunteers coming in regularly to do this sort of thing.

That evening downhere's label, Centricity Music, hosted a little "marketing meeting" with us. They picked our brains about how we get our music, what we like, what we don't, ideas, challenges, etc. It was an interesting insight into this world I know very little about. I mean, I get the idea of marketing, the question of how best to connect consumers to your product. Anyway, I learned a bit and was glad to know I'm not the only one frustrated with the local Christian radio station (KCMS - boo!).

Then we went out to dinner, which they graciously covered as well. It was delicious, too.
Pretty much felt spoiled. Afterward we celebrated two birthdays with delicious cupcakes from Ivey Cake in Franklin, and walking into the room where we were all gathering, we heard a familiar voice singing... It was the band's upcoming Christmas album playing.

We were very excited to hear it, but with all the talking it was hard to. Especially for me, since I was sitting on the complete opposite side of the room from where the music emanated. But never ones to disappoint, after another chat session and downhere playing an intimate acoustic set of songs by request, the fabulous Centricity guys handed us all advance copies of the cd! You can just imagine (maybe?) the ensuing chatter. There was much excitement that entire day, and it was the perfect way to wrap it up. Talk about a souvenir.

I only finally got to listen on the way home on the plane, but then my MP3 player's batteries died, since I hadn't recharged them after using it all the way to TN. I did get to listen one time through and love, LOVE, LOOOOVED all of it. I keep getting Good King Wenceslas stuck in my head, as well as God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

We also got copies of a new artist to their label, Matt Papa. What I've heard of it, I've liked. I need to really sit down in some peace and quiet to really let it absorb into my brain. Maybe it'll knock the Christmas tunes out of there so they can be fresh again come November. :)

We rounded out the weekend with a hilarious photo scavenger hunt and a bit of church in one of the hotel rooms. And lots of twitter. It was an amazing and one-of-a-kind experience... That I hope for more of in the future!

Catch-Up Part 1: New House

2009-07-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

Or do you say catsup?

Ok, now it's really been a long time since I blogged. Since my last post, quite a bit has transpired.

We moved into our new house. It really is great to be here. It's not the biggest house we looked at, but it suits us, and the back yard is great. The kids go out there just about every day.

The boys are sharing a bedroom still, and the other bedroom they're using as a playroom. This has served to make bedtime a lot easier, no more last-minute cleanups so we can just reach the bed! They have also been good about cleaning up their messes in the playroom, especially Caleb.

Another thing that has helped with that is the newest addition to our family, Rooby the Roomba. It's a vacuum-cleaning robot! Bryan got it for me (a great deal on woot!) soon after we moved in. All I have to do is push a button and confine it to a room using the lighthouse virtual wall (right) and it goes to work. When it's done, it goes back to the docking station (left) to charge. Later, I take two minutes to empty the dust bin and clean the brushes (of my hair, mostly). Then it's ready to go. I can't wait til we get laminate floors in the living room and hallway, I'll have to clean the brushes less.

But I digress. I taught the kids the first day we got the Roomba that if there are things left on the floor, Roomba might suck them up, or they might break it. So whenever I tell them that they need to pick up their room so Rooby can clean, they hop right to it!

It's also been great to have a kitchen we can actually cook in. Dinner is back! I have yet to do some baking, but it's just been too hot in the afternoons. Hotter in the house than out, because of no air conditioning. People from around the country are always so surprised that the average house in WA doesn't have A/C. I would like to have a couple of ceiling fans wired, but alas, that is for later as well. Probably when it starts getting cold again.

Keys & Moving

2009-05-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted in a while, and this one will be brief.

We went and signed papers yesterday for the house. I called and arranged for a wire transfer for our closing costs yesterday afternoon. Then I began taking apart furniture and packing boxes. I had started on boxes before but I really got a chunk done. Today we should be getting the keys, and starting to move our stuff over there.

We're turning in our cable modem to the cable company today (they will pick it up before noon). So we'll be sans internet and home phone (VOIP) for a few days. Still have the cell phones though!

Ok back to work!

Hit & Run

2009-05-14T19:27:00.000-07:00

I am the latest victim of a hit & run. Well, not me. Not my car either. Read on.

We live on a fairly curvy country road, on which the posted speed limit is 35mph. Many people read that backwards, though.

Anyway, I'm getting the boys ready for bed when I hear a car drive by and loud noise. I think maybe the local walk-all-over-the-road dog was hit, so I peer out between the mini blinds to see what I can see (see, see).

My garbage can. Which is not actually mine, it came with the house we rent. But still. It had my trash in it. It's lying on its side about three or four feet from its original spot, bag spilling out. The lid is a good six feet (maybe more) from it.

I really hope that its not broken (I haven't been out to check yet, bedtime prep is still on). It would not be cool to either have no garbage can or to buy a new can when we're only going to be here a couple more weeks (the new house comes with garbage and recycling cans, with wheels!).

I just texted Bryan to tell him to bring his forensics kit home. Maybe we can get some paint transfer to analyze. There may be tire impressions in the soil next to the road. Who knows.

I'm a little sorry I didn't have the blinds open to see the perpetrator, but maybe carelessness is its own reward and they have a little dent in their bumper to remember me by.

Stupidity is its own reward

2009-05-14T17:44:00.000-07:00

You know the saying "If it's too good to be true, it probably is"?

Every once in a while I'll get into a conversation with somebody and it will lead to scams. People have been scamming people for their money basically forever. There are all sorts of schemes. My favorite one, though, I heard about when we lived in California.

A man was selling "flat screen TVs" out of the back of his van. Only when the box was opened, the steal-of-a-deal turned out to just be a steal: a black used oven door. When the cops caught up with the con artist, he also had boxes of "laptops" with floor tiles inside. And he's not the only one... (Story I heard in '07, story I found today, and another story I found today.)

1981

2009-05-14T16:49:00.000-07:00

That's the year I was born.

I have decided that although movie watching is not a top priority in my life (on the bottom half of the list) I should watch some of these movies. I know that I have a serious pop-culture knowledge gap because I don't watch movies. It doesn't bother me. But Bryan is a movie buff. Getting married (to me, who doesn't care a whole lot about movies) and having kids has definitely put a damper on his efforts at knowing every movie word for word. I think he's going to like this.

So here is my pledge: Between now and my birthday, I will watch five of these movies. I got the list from Film.com.

The 10 Best Movies of 1981

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark

2. Chariots of Fire

3. The Cannonball Run

4. Superman II

5. The Great Muppet Caper

6. Escape from New York

7. Body Heat

8. Arthur

9. Endless Love

10. The Fox and the Hound

Actually, I saw The Fox and the Hound when Michelle was little (in the 90's). So I've only got 9 choices. Any suggestions?

Happy Mother's [hack, hack]

2009-05-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was the boys and I went to my brother-and-sister-in-law's for my niece's seventh birthday party. They had a pinata there, which is a favorite birthday activity for all of us. The boys came home with goody bags laden with all sorts of candy, luckily all nut-free. We got home fairly late in the evening that night, for little boys at least. Plus, they'd already been sugared up plenty, so I took the candy and put it up.

Then yesterday was Mother's Day. Bryan had to work, so we went over to my mom's where we had a tea party with my mom, stepdad, sisters, my sister's boyfriend, and Bryan's mom. A great time was had by all and in the evening the boys and I returned home.

The boys were filthy from playing outside, so they had a bath. After getting clean jammies on, Caleb asked for a snack. While I toasted them an english muffin, Micah disappeared into his room, where he apparently had stashed some of the birthday candy. He came out with a ring-shaped candy in his mouth, so as a good mom I told him to go sit in his chair. It was big enough that I could probably have slipped it over my own finger. It drives me crazy when they walk around with food in their mouths. This is something we've been working on with Micah, who is fond of stuffing his face full and walking around to do other things.

I went into the kitchen (about eight steps away) to put away the cream cheese and english muffins, but apparently the english muffin looked so good to him, he decided to swallow the candy so he could get started. The only problem is that he hadn't chewed it up yet, which I found out when I heard him crying strangely and ran back to the table.

He had tons of saliva streaming out of his mouth, he was obviously panicking and coughing like crazy. He was clearly still getting air, so I asked him if the candy was stuck. He nodded between coughs, gags, and tears. So then I asked him to point to where it was stuck. He opened his mouth wide and pointed down his throat, but I couldn't see the candy in there. I tried tilting him downward and pounding his back, to no avail. This all took less than a minute.

Next I called 911. He continued to cough, gag, cry, and have thick strings of saliva pour out of his mouth. as I held him and talked to the dispacher. She asked a few questions, and during our brief conversation he stopped coughing and gagging. I asked him if he swallowed it, and he nodded and rested his head on my shoulder. I told the dispacher what happened, but of course once you call and report a problem, they come anyway.

Caleb was the lookout. One ambulace and two pickup trucks* arrived a minute later, parking in our ample driveway. We stepped outside, me with Micah in my arms and Caleb with curiosity on his face. They asked a few questions of me, then asked Micah if he could talk. He replied with a small and raspy yes. One of the paramedics gave each of the boys a teddy bear while another told me that he'd probably have a sore throat for a day or so and to take him to the doctor if he had any further problems.

I closed the door and sighed. *I felt so thankful that we live in a small community (not even a town) with its own fire station with ambulance, on top of dedicated volunteers who are ready in an instant. If he hadn't been able to cough and gag it down on his own, they would've been able to help him so quickly. This is the first time we've ever had to call an ambulance to our home, and hopefully the last.

After much hugging, I tucked the boys into bed with their new teddy bears. When I bend down to give Micah his kiss goodnight, he turned to me and said softly, "Happy Mudder's Day, Mommy."

My Mom

2009-05-10T19:32:00.001-07:00

We may have a different world view, we do. We may not agree on all things, we don't. But she's my mom. I wouldn't ever want another one. The brought me into this world and sacrificed for me. I am a mother myself because of her. I love her.

My Mother In Law

2009-05-10T19:30:00.000-07:00

She modeled love and taught Bryan about God's love. We might not always be on the same page, but at least we're always in the same book. I love her.

Quiz40

2009-05-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

What color is your favorite hoodie? Black (one of only three I have)
Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? Yep (Caleb)
Do you plan outfits? Sorta (but the plan often changes)
How are you feeling RIGHT now? Longing (for sleep, thanks to that Excedrin I took earlier)
Whats the closest thing to you that's red? Bob the Builder stickers.
Tell me about the last dream you remember having? None.
Have you ever counted to 1,000? No, but I counted to 300 with Caleb while waiting for the doctor at Urgent Care.
Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it? Lick.
Do you like your hair? Not usually.
Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush? Only if he's buying.
What are you listening to right now? A&G Podcast
Are your parents strict? They were... But alas, it WAS for my own good!
Would you go sky diving? No. Way.
Do you like cottage cheese? With honey. Or apples.
Do you rent movies often? Just about never.
Is there anything sparkly in the room you're in? Maybe, but it's dark so I can't tell.
How many countries have you visited? Three, two of them I live(d) in!
Ever been on a train? Yes, Thomas the Tank Engine... and the one in Old Sacramento.
Brown or white eggs? I don't discriminate. :)
Do you have a cell-phone? Yes, if I haven't lost it on any given day.
Do you own a gun? Not personally.
Can you use chopsticks? Moderately well.
What was the last question you asked? Do you want me to get it for you? (To Caleb when he woke up thirsty and was going to get water.)
Do you have any tattoos? No. They say never say never. But never.
Are you sarcastic? Never!
What was the last CD you bought? Downhere's Ending is Beginning
Do looks matter? Under certain circumstances.
Is your phone bill sky high? No... Vonage!
Do you like your life right now? Can't complain!
Do you sleep with the TV on? Yes, but I put it on a timer because eventually it would wake me up.
Can you handle the truth? I'd like to think so.
Do you have good vision? No... it's terrrrrrible.
Do you hate or dislike more than 3 people? No, its more like a few people bug me. Negative people.
How often do you talk on the phone? If you count at work, one thousand times a day. On average. :)
What are you wearing? Jeans, tshirt shirt, zip hoodie
Can you hula hoop? As long as it's like riding a bike... Yes. But it's been years.
Do you have a job? Yes... "Guest Services Supervisor"
What was the most recent thing you bought? Mother's Day gifts
Have you ever crawled through a window? Yes.... A very small and high one.
Do you have a wired or wireless mouse? Wireless. And the keyboard. But a tablet that's wired.

The Most Sustainable Gadgets Are No Gadgets: Last Year's Model and the i-wood 3B

2009-04-29T22:16:00.001-07:00

The Most Sustainable Gadgets Are No Gadgets: Last Year's Model and the i-wood 3B

Posted using ShareThis

Vote for my design!

2009-04-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

Our grocery/everything store is hosting a reusable bag design contest and I submitted my entry last night. If you would be so kind as to vote for it here (http://www.designareusablebag.com/vote-for-designs/bag.aspx?BagId=42512&banner=fredmeyer), I would REALLY appreciate it. The grand prize is a $1000 gift card to that store (Fred Meyer, which is owned by Kroger). My dear friend Andi told me about the contest, so let me plug her design as well! (http://www.designareusablebag.com/vote-for-designs/bag.aspx?BagId=24239&sr=1)

I thought I might enter another design that was less girly, but I don't know. I am guessing the judges will be mostly men, but the people who would buy reusable bags would mostly be women? I don't know. The birdy design was originally a Blogger theme I was working on but gave up on. Here he has breathed new life as an Earth advocate. :)

At any rate, the contest ends May 15th, but you can* vote every day between now and then. The top vote-getter doesn't automatically win. As I mentioned before, there will be judges who choose the eventual winners.

(*and should! Just sayin'.)

Cool things

2009-04-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

Even though I have probably close to a dozen reusable grocery bags, half the time I forget to put them back in the car and I don't realize it until I'm in the checkout line. So I have a plastic grocery bag full of plastic grocery bags in my kitchen. We used to use them as trash can liners but no longer have trash cans that small, so as I prepare to clean my kitchen, I wonder what to do with them.

Enter Google.

Check out these two fun craft projects using plastic bags!

Plastic Bag Yarn

Knit or crochet cool stuff out of recycled plastic bags. The process of making the "yarn" is simple, then you can make anything you want! Check it out at gooseflesh.

Fused Plastic

Or, if you're not a knitter or crocheter, but have an iron handy, try fusing bags into a thick and durable material which can be sewn or fused into neato bags and stuff! Instructions over at etsy labs.

I have to try these... Just because I don't have anywhere to iron, I'll probably try the yarn project first. :) Make a durable bag out of disposable one!

French Toast Casserole

2009-04-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

We like to have breakfast for dinner every once in a while at our house. Sometimes it's pancakes, sometimes it's bacon, eggs and toast. Today I made a repeat of the latest potluck hit, and here it is, with some modifications*:

French Toast Casserole

Ingredients

5 cups bread cubes (I used Vanilla Raisin Bread)
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup white sugar, divided (I used a little less)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon butter, softened (I use Smart Balance)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Lightly butter (I sprayed) an 8x8 inch baking dish.
Line bottom of dish with bread cubes.
In a medium bowl, beat together eggs, milk, 2 tablespoons sugar, salt and vanilla until well blended. Pour over bread. Dot with butter; let stand for 10 minutes to allow mixture to soak into bread well.
Combine remaining sugar with cinnamon and nutmeg. Sprinkle over the top. Bake in preheated oven about 45 to 50 minutes, until top is golden Serve with real maple syrup.

(*The original version is from AllRecipes.)

House, Part 3

2009-04-20T22:03:00.001-07:00

So bummer! Bryan talked to the bank tonight and they are so busy with mortages that they won't be able to close our loan in time for our set closing date with the sellers (May 7). They are saying they can close it by May 28. That's an extra three weeks.

The downside of that is that the sellers can back out of the offer if they don't like this change in plans. And that we were really looking forward to getting out of here sooner than later. But as long as the sellers hang in with us, we can be patient and wait three weeks longer.

The upside is that it makes getting Caleb to and from school a little easier for three more weeks. We're moving out of this school's area, so we have to drive him to and fro every day once we move. We don't mind, of course. It's way too late in the school year to make him change schools. It's going to be hard enough for him, we don't want to make it worse!

So right now we are praying that the couple who is selling the house sticks with the offer and agrees to the new date. We don't want to lose the house because the bank couldn't get their ct together in time!

The House, Part 2

2009-04-19T15:58:00.001-07:00

We had the inspection done last week, now we're just waiting on the financing to come through. Aside from that, all systems are go for closing on May 7. Which means that we could be moving the following weekend!

Let me tell you I am NOT looking forward to packing up the house. This will be move #6 since we got married in 2001. We have done all the moves ourselves except the one from WA to CA in 2006. Let me tell you (again) that I am NOT looking forward to packing up the house.

Sure, this house is smaller and a good half of our belongings (and most of our furniture) is still in storage in my mom's barn. But still. Let me tell you (yet again) that I'm not looking forward to packing.

Bryan will be on swing shift, which means he'll be heading off to work around 1:30pm every day. Not sure what the word is on which days off he'll have. So I might be on my own for the UNpacking as well. Great!

This time, I'm having a friend of my sister help me with the cleaning of this house after we move out. I am willing to pay handsomely (sorta) for this favor. I've done the post-move cleaning enough times that I know I'm not going to want to go it alone.

On the upside, my little sister (our most faithful moving helper) has volunteered her horse trailer. Sounds yucky on the outset, but she said she'd sweep and hose it out first. And that thing fits like two full grown horses and then some. That would more than cover even the biggest pieces of our furniture. Plus, it has a great ramp to make loading big and heavy items easier than into a pickup truck. Speaking of which, they have a big, big truck to tow the trailer, which means more room to put boxes and other smaller pieces of furniture.

So as long as enough of our friends and family love us (or are collecting brownie points for return favors, which I'm willing to entertain), I think I will survive this move... Even though I'm not looking forward to it.

Dreaming of Kitchen Renovations

2009-04-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

I've been dreaming of how to personalize and upgrade our kitchen-to-be. It's plain and boring in pale wood cabinetry and faux-wood trim, soft white paint, and blah vinyl flooring. Of course this is not a project we can afford to undertake anytime soon, but it's fun to dream and plan and suppose.

There are some cool materials out there these days that I'd never heard of. On top of being awesome looking, they'd make your kitchen (or wherever you used them) rather unique.

My favorite find: IceStone

This is really cool stuff. It's made of recycled glass and concrete. Super earth-friendly. This "Heirloom Grey" is my favorite shade of it which is rather neutral, actually, but still interesting.

They have lots of fun colors, but knowing myself, if I were going to have something fairly permanent installed in my house, whatever fun color I like today I may be sick of next year. So I'd pair this with a fun paint color on the walls, which I can change relatively cheaply when I'm thoroughly done with it!

See all the colors: www.IceStone.biz

Also Really Cool: Pebble Tile

These are individual pebbles (some varieties are rounded pebbles, some are flat) glued onto a mesh backing, something like those tiny 1-inch tiles you may have seen on home remodeling shows on tv (or real life if you're handy with a trowel). They don't have rectangular edges, though, so you can interlock the "tiles" without any seams to give away the fact that it was easier to install than it looked.

I haven't picked a favorite on these, they are all really cool and look so high-end, like some craftsman painstakingly mortared each and every piece into place.

See supercool varieties:
www.NaturalPebbleTile.com

The House

2009-04-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

We made our offer on the house, and the seller made a counter offer... So we put in another counter offer and.... It was accepted! We are buying the house!

This Thursday will be the home inspection. Bryan will be meeting the home inspector at the house and the guy will go over everything to see if anything major (or minor) needs repair or will need repair in the future. There was a spot of moisture we noticed in one of the windows in the kitchen, so for sure that will be checked. The inspector takes photos, so we have not only his report but images to go on.

If there is anything that needs attention, we will ask the current owners to repair/replace the items, and they may choose to fix all, some, or none of the items. The home appears to be in great shape so we are not too worried, but it's a necessary step.

House Hunting, Part 2

2009-03-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

The Buying Phase

So we think we've found the right house. Bryan is calling our bank right now, trying to get our interest rate locked in and our pre-approval letter re-written to the amount we're going to offer. They pre-approved us for $120,000 MORE than we figure we can comfortably afford, and if we go in with that higher amount, the seller's agent (apparently) can find out what that is and use that as a tool against us.

So we are actually getting TWO pre-approval letters. The first one is for the amount we're going to initially offer. The second one is for about $5,000 more, to allow for bargaining room. This way if they counter-offer, we'll be ready and won't have to call the bank again. That is the strategy, anyway.

The house seems to be in pristine condition. It's only had one owner, a lovely elderly couple who have taken excellent care of it inside and out. It's has three bedrooms, one and three-quarter bathrooms (second bath has sink, toilet, and stand-up shower), a decently sized kitchen, and a two car garage with built-in storage. The window you see on the far left is the master bedroom, the second and third bedrooms are on the back side of the house. Most importantly, it's in a quiet neighborhood off a dead-end street and has a great back yard. They have a bird feeder near the kitchen window, and when we visited the house the second time, there were birds flying around in the back yard and eating from it.

I'm trying not to think of it as my own yet, since it certainly isn't... But it's hard not to start daydreaming about furniture placement, cooking breakfast for the boys, letting them go play in the back yard, or watching them ride their bikes on the sidewalk. Take a deep breath! Settle down!

We have an appointment with our (fabulous) agents today. They are a married couple who work together in a larger real estate office. The wife has showed us the houses, match-making is her strong suit (except this one, the first time we saw it she already had an appointment so her husband took us in). The husband will soon take over with the contract writing and negotiating process, as that is his strong suit. What a great idea.

At the appointment we'll be making the offer, and we'll be hearing back within two days of the seller's response. They could accept, turn it down, or counter-offer. We're expecting a counter offer, which is where the second (higher) pre-approval letter would come in!

Will update soon!

4by4

2009-03-29T20:42:00.000-07:00

Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Cashier at McDonald's
2. Retail sales associate
3. Office assistant for a lawyer
4. Guest services supervisor (now)

Four movies I've watched more than once:

1. Down Periscope
2. Wally
3. Star Wars
4. Finding Nemo

Four places I have lived:

1. Peru
2. NV
3. TX
4. CA

Four places I have been:

1. Miami, FL
2. Albuquerque, NM
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Columbus, OH

Four Favorite drinks

1. Fruit smoothies
2. Strawberry or Meyer Lemon Lemonade
3. Apple cider
4. Inka Cola

People who email me regularly:

1. My boss
2. Spammers
3. My dad
4. My sister

Four of your favorite foods:

1. Sushi
2. Ceviche
3. Garlic bread
4. Milk chocolate

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. a new house
2. a movie theater
3. Hawaii
4. in a spa getting a massage

Four things I am looking forward to this year:

1. buying a house
2. trip to nashville
3. anniversary #8
4. summer!

Four TV shows that I watch:

1. Lost (but dvr, way after the fact)
2. NCIS
3. Numbers
4. CSI.

Woah

2009-03-29T01:04:00.000-07:00

So I just blogged about Caleb's latest artwork, and I remembered that not long ago I was reminiscing about Micah and how much he's changed in a year. So I went back through the archive of the boys' blog to March of 2006, before Micah was born...

Friday, March 17, 2006

Eating Ankles?
This morning my mommy said I had to get my diaper changed. So I got a diaper out of my drawer. I picked a Blue's Clues diaper with Blue and Mailbox on it. It is my favorite one. Mommy sat on my bed and I tried to throw myself on it too. I bonked my head on her and gave her an owie! It was an accident.

Mommy said, "Ouch! You hit my ankle!"

I said, "Anko. Anko. Eat anko?"

Mommy said, "Eat ankle?"

I said, "Anko. Mango! Eat mango?"

And Mommy laughed. Why is that so funny? Mangos are good!

Later, I was on the phone with my Grandma Marisa. I saw my mom's ankle and I said, "Owie mango." My mommy laughed and told Grandma about the accident earlier, and they both laughed. I still don't get it.

Some New Art from Caleb

2009-03-29T01:01:00.000-07:00

Caleb drew a really great picture of his dad, the policeman. It was so good, I scanned it in and it's on his blog. Check it out here.

House Hunting

2009-03-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

Bryan and I have been looking for houses with a great agent recommended to us by my mom. We've looked at probably a dozen houses by now, most of which were mild to moderate disappointments. One was a severe disappointment and a health and safety hazard. Somebody should really call the EPA about some of the smells that emanated from that (foreclosed) house. One of those "get back at the bank" jobs perpetrated by the evicted tenants.

A week or two ago we saw one that had almost everything we were looking for, and the more we thought about it after we left, the more we thought we might want to buy it. So today we looked at it again and at least I felt convinced. Bryan wanted to look at one last house, but that one was a no-go, so we decided to make an offer on it. Of course Bryan had to shoot off to work (no pun intended) so we have an appointment with our agent for Monday to get that taken care of!

Dinner with the boys

2009-03-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

A year ago, maybe even 9 months ago, Micah was my eater. He would eat anything and everything, and often. I'm not sure what precipitated the change, there are many theories. But these days, he hardly ever wants to eat what's put in front of him at the table, especially at lunch and dinner. Luckily, he still loves his veggies (except tomato) and adores all fruit.

Caleb has never been too picky at all, but often ate like a bird. His only exceptions used to be with spaghetti and pizza. Lately he's been eating nearly as much or sometimes more than I do! He doesn't seem to be putting on any chunk, but he must be growing because it's gotta be going somewhere!

So imagine my surprise when I made open-faced tuna melt sandwiches tonight (Micah's without tomato) and Caleb dilly dallied about eating his, while Micah scarfed it right down!

Simple Tuna Melts

2 English muffins, split and toasted
1 can Tuna (I used chunk light tuna)
Mayo (however much til you get the consistency you like)
Pepper (to taste)
Tomato, sliced into rounds
Cheese (I used Finlandia Double Gloucester cheese on mine and Finlandia Havarti cheese -naturally lactose free!- on the boys')

Heat oven to broil. Mix the tuna, mayo, and pepper. Spread on toasted muffins, top with a tomato slice and a slice of cheese. Place on a cookie sheet and broil for 1 1/2-2 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Catch Up

2009-03-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a while since I posted much of anything, so here's a wrap-up of what's been going on lately.

Bryan started at the department (on swing shift) two days after graduating from the academy. He's enjoying the job and is definitely seeing the waiting and working toward this as a good investment. He almost got to chase a suspect last week, but as the rookie had to stay with the car while his FTO (field training officer) ran down and tackled the guy. Maybe next time, hun.

Caleb and Micah are elated to have Daddy home. Micah hangs with Bryan while I take Caleb to school and go to work. Then when Caleb gets off the bus, Bryan is here to welcome him home. He goes to work while I'm at work, and I'm usually still up when he gets home. So even on swing shift, we're seeing a LOT more of him than we were while he was at the academy. He'll be rotating to the graveyard shift soon, and will take some adjustment by all parties involved, but at least day shift is after that! After he's done with his FTO period, the rotations will be farther apart.

At work I was asked to join our Education Coordinator at a workshop in Houston in April. A bit short-notice, but the Executive Director was unable to attend as originally planned. So I plan to be gone for two and a half days, only to turn around the next day and head off to a women's (mini) retreat called Bloom that our church is putting on. I'll probably miss the sleepover portion of it (bummer!!!!) but at least I'll be able to make it to the "important stuff".

So that's just about all that's new.... One more post to come!

Made-Up Pasta Dinner

2009-03-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

We had some leftover noodles in the fridge tonight so I decided to use them, because my boys will eat anything with pasta. So this is what I came up with, using stuff I had in the kitchen already, and avoiding milk or cream since that tends to not agree with Micah.

I sauteed about 1 tsp of minced garlic we buy in jars in some olive oil. Then I added about 1 1/2 cups of reconstituted "Better Than Boullion". You could use regular chicken broth. I simmered that for a bit, then I thickened the sauce with about less than a tablespoon of corn starch, but you could also use flour if you had to, just twice as much.

While that was simmering, I microwaved some bacon (under three paper towels to absorb the grease) and chopped it up into mini bite size pieces. I added the cold, cooked noodles to the sauce, stirred it up, and then added the bacon.

I then tasted it, and it seemed to be missing something. So I added a several turns of seasoning from our "Italian Seasoning Blend" grinder and two tablespoons of canned diced tomatoes.

We had enough noodles and made-up sauce for the three of us to have dinner. As I type this, Caleb is on his second kid-sized helping, and Micah is actually eating, so I consider this a success!

Caleb's Tanks

2009-03-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

We had some delicious french dip sandwiches for dinner, with baby carrots on the side. Caleb scarfed his just-over-half sandwich down and asked for more while finishing his carrots. I agree to make him another one (the more this stickboy eats, the better!)

So I ask him, "Caleb, do you want any more carrots?"

He this about this for two seconds before replying, "No... My carrot tanks are full."

Big Day Tomorrow

2009-03-04T22:33:00.000-08:00

So I've dropped the boys off at my mom's so she and my stepdad can drive them down to the graduation in the morning. I get to wake up extra early (6am) and make the trek by myself. Which means stopping for a nice smoothie on the way, and loading up on podcasts tonight so I have something to keep me company on the ride down south.

I didn't find a dress to wear (for some reason!) today so I am going with pants and a nice shirt. I'm sure, this being Washington, that there will be people dressed much more casually so I'm not worrying about it. I did buy a new pair of heels, but hopefully Bryan won't notice. ;-)

Goodnight, blogland, I'm off to try to get the last few things done that I need, and hopefully get some sleep!

Conversation with Micah

2009-03-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

Micah and I were reading Curious George and the Dump Truck last night. This is one of his favorite books so we read it several times a week. Therefore, after I finished reading it, I asked him if he would read it to me. Of course, he's two years old, so he doesn't know how to read, and he told me so. But I told he could pretend to read.

So he did, and he remembered a phrase or two from each page, enough of the story to "read" all the way to the end. On the last page, he said to me:

"The sky is blue."

"Yep, it's blue," I said.

"That means it's daytime."

"It sure does."

Being a kid would be so much easier

2009-03-03T16:15:00.000-08:00

or... having a dishwasher would be so much easier.

I have this pile of dishes that lives with me. In the sink. I wash dishes, but apparently not fast enough. Because it's always there. Sometimes I think the pile decides to take a break, because I'll wash the last dish, and then they're all clean. But then it comes back, sooner that I would if I were taking a break. I think the dishpile needs to go on a diet, because sometimes it looks really big. But we're not supposed to tell people they need to go on a diet, not PC and all, so I don't.

So instead of looking around some favorite stores for something to wear to Bryan's graduation on Thursday, which I should have thought to do sooner, I'm washing dishes while my inlaws take the boys out to dinner.

A Girl's Dillemma

2009-03-02T19:44:00.000-08:00

The dillema: What does one wear to a Police Academy Graduation?

I have no idea.

Steak & Lentil Soup

2009-02-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

So this is not quite a recipe, exactly, but more of a recipe idea that is really simple.

Start with a steak, hacked into bit-sized pieces. Season with salt & pepper, or mexican carne asada seasoning if you have any. (We got some a tiny local mexican store.)

Saute about a teaspoon of chopped garlic (or more, if you want) and 1/4 of a medium onion in olive oil. Add the steak pieces and cook them to your liking... Remember small pieces of steak take much less time to cook, this should only take a few minutes.

Then add a can of your favorite lentil soup. You could make your own, but we like semi-homemade around here lately for a quick lunch. I use a 14.5 oz can of Amy's Organic lentil soup. It has carrots in it.

This makes (just) enough for me to share with the boys, who love it, and it's very meaty. If you want it more soupy, just add another can of soup.

I love to eat this (and almost everything) with a crusty bread, but when I made it today we didn't have any and it was good anyway. :)

Strange, but a little scary

2009-02-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning with quite a headache, but I was glad I have the day off work (TGIF!). So I decided to be lazy and not get dressed to take Caleb to school. I just put my coat over my pjs and headed out the door. Micah was the last one out of the house, and he closed the door*.

We drove over to school, which is about 1.4 minutes away.

Let me stop here to describe where we live. We live in the county, between a city of about 30,000 and a city of 9,000. Caleb's school is in a "community"... Which means it has a school, a post office, a tavern, and two churches... and a population of 95 people, but no city government and it is under the county's jurisdiction. Well we happen to be not within this community but in the small area served by the school. Like I said, we're very close to the school, so you can imagine how small the area is. We're about 4 minutes from either city, on a road is not a highway, but that is popular for folks going back and forth from one to the other.

Back to the story.

Caleb hopped out of the car after giving me the mandatory kiss, and began his routine of "directing" me via hand signals to back up and out of the parking lot. Well, when I turned to look back before backing up (Side note: A pet peeve of mine is when people only use their mirrors when backing up. So dangerous!) I saw a pickup truck pull up behind me and stop in my way! A bit annoyed, I watched as the gray-haired man rolled down his window. So I rolled mine down, to see what he would say. I did not expect the following.

"I just drove by your house and your front door was wide open."

So I had several thoughts shoot through my brain at roughly the same time:

1. How do you know where I live?
2. Why is the door open?
3. Did somebody open the door?
4. *Micah must've not closed the door all the way.
5. Who is this guy?
6. He must be a grandpa dropping of a kid at school.
7. Have I seen this truck driving by my house?
8. I hope no animals are perusing the house.
9. Good thing I'm not headed to work but back home.
10. Thanks!

Luckily brains work very quickly and don't frequently spit out the wrong answer at the wrong time. I said, "Oh! Thanks!" and he pulled forward out so I could go on my way.

Ok so it's a little scary that strangers know where I live. Sure, the road a frequently traveled, just-over-1-and-1/2-mile stretch with about 7 houses. Sure, my house is about 8 feet off the road. And the guy probably drives by my house regularly, sees me at the school regularly. It's still a little creepy. I have friends and family who don't know where I live, but this stranger does. Sure, he's a nice "neighborly" guy, concerned that my house was wide open to the not-so-neighborly types, but it does make me wonder who ELSE knows where I live and where I go when I leave there.

Things to do, Revisited

2009-02-23T22:33:00.001-08:00

So far I'd say I have a good start on my 2009 to-do list. I completed #4 yesterday. Of course completed is used loosely, as I'm sure I'll be tweaking a few things on the template to make it just right. But completed enough to satisfy The List.

As for the rest of the list... Here is a brief status update

1. Not yet.

2. Not yet. I wish.

3. Got my airline ticket. See you in July!

4. Done!

5. Nope. Still working on the fluffly gray scarf. Micah keeps unravelling it. I have quit knitting by tv-light since I kept accidentally increasing.

6. Nope. Need more space for the amp & just room in general for this endevour. I would like but can't afford lessons yet either. Gonna have to wait til #2 is done.

7. Ditto.

8. Working on it! 33 so far. Might need to pick up the pace a little!

9. Can't wait. Summer, come quickly!

10. If I want Bryan to come, this might just be an overnighter. He's not going to have much time off for the next 12 months, including weekends. Boooo! Anybody else up for it?

soulsofia|stitch operational!

2009-02-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

Cross #4 off the list! I have officially made a blogger template. You can check it here!

I plan to release it to be used by others who would like to in the near future, after some inevitable tweaking. I also have one other design finished that needs to be bloggered up!

soulsofia|stitch

2009-02-21T17:20:00.000-08:00

Coming soon, a blogger template made by me, called soulsofia|stitch! I designed it today (the css took me a while!) and hopefully soon I will be able to insert the blogger coding to make it work with the blog and widgets. Here's a sneak preview... (note it looks nothing like my original idea!). I have actually worked on two designs but this one is the first one that I was able to make the css work. :)

click to enlarge pic

Caleb, the Engineer

2009-02-20T18:08:00.001-08:00

Yes this is about trains. But no, not about driving trains. Caleb and I have had several interesting mini-conversations lately, as you can tell by reading some of my recent posts. Let me set this up for you, first, and then the conversation.

Caleb has always been really into trains, but his innate skill at setting up his Thomas & Friends train tracks. His designs are different every time, spanning a room or two, always different and creative. Ups, downs, around furniture legs and using other toys as buildings, tunnels, and sheds. I really need to capture this on (digital) film.

I am looking right now at the one he's set up in the last 15 minutes. It has a large "loop" in his room and a branch that goes out into the living room here.

Me: Caleb, you're really good at making different track set-ups.

Caleb: I just think of them in my brain (puts both hands up to temples) and I see what I want it to look like, and then I build it.

Me: Well, that's really good.

Seriously, this kid has a talent here. I think that's something he inherited from his Papa Steve, and Bryan too. I'm more of a 2-D person. At any rate, I'll endeavor to photograph his work soon.

Don't Believe What You Hear

2009-02-20T17:14:00.001-08:00

or, Don't Believe What You Hear is the Whole Story.

Remember the story, oh so long ago now, of the lady who sued McDonald's for burning herself on hot coffee? Remember how audacious and ridiculous it sounded, and outrageous when she won the case?

Well let me let you in on a (not so)little (not so) secret. The "News" has a vested interest in making things sound outrageous. With a lot of talk about media bias these days, which definitely exists in both directions depending on the channel, let me tell you what I have discovered.

There is media bias. The bias is toward conflict and controversy.

I heard "the full story" on talk radio about a year ago, and have been meaning to post about it for a while now. So with that, I leave you to read the full story of the (not so) audacious McDonald's coffee lawsuit. Pardon the atrocious web page... But it has the facts!

Master of the Domain

2009-02-20T16:34:00.000-08:00

I have been considering purchasing a domain name (www.______.com) for a while. I would like to have one for various reasons, but have been holding out for a while now. It's not terribly expensive to register the name only, and a good hosting plan is not much at all as I learned when shopping around for The Reach. However, it's not a necessary expenditure and I'm waiting until some other more important one-time expenses are out of the way.

The real question is, though, what to brand the darn thing. Options I've contemplated include a variant of one of my names (****4, etc), a made up word with one of my names in it (a la "Calebration"), my online nom de plume, or a play on words using either real or fake name.

Tis a bit akward doing this without posting my last name. I believe I've gone 333 post without mentioning it, used to be for OpSec (operational security) now it's just habit. I'm pretty sure it would be easy to figure out who I am, at least my full name, being that I'm online on a lot of sites, and even link to my own facebook page up top there.

Oh well. Keeping with the habit doesn't hurt anybody, just makes it harder to post witty domain ideas.

Negotiation

2009-02-20T08:24:00.000-08:00

Caleb has been wearing a lift on his left shoe since he started walking after his surgery in 2007. Last week, the lift from his regular shoe started to separate in the front. I recently bought him some rubber rain boots that are styled like a cowboy boot. Very adorable. So he wore them to school for three days last week while a new shoe was getting a new lift. (This boy grows!!) He's been wearing the new shoes for two days now.

So today...

Me: Caleb, get your shoesies on for school.

Caleb: Ok. I'm gonna wear my rain boots.

Me: Why do you want to wear your boots?

Caleb: (pause - with pleading look on face) But they're so cuuuuute!

Me: (smile) Yeah, they are. Ok.

Caleb, the Funnyman

2009-02-17T07:52:00.000-08:00

Caleb: Mom, I'm going to tell you a joke. What do you call a horse eating?

Me: What?

Caleb: Popcorn! [laugh] He was eating popcorn in the house!!

Police catch suspect through DNA on doughnut

2009-02-14T00:26:00.000-08:00

Some people are not only not the brightest crayons in the box. Some people are raw umber. Dull.

Take this fellow, 22 years old, who breaks into a church to steal instruments, takes a bite of their donuts, and then leaves the evidence... (here)

It's kinda funny to me that he wouldn't think of such a thing. When I have to lick an envelope at work, I actually refer to it as DNA evidence. Too bad this guy hadn't watched as much CSI as I have.

On the other hand, I've been the victim of a break-in of my home where irreplaceable things of value were stolen, and although the police did come and take fingerprints from wherever they could think to, I knew (and the cop probably knew but didn't want to tell me) they would never catch whomever did it. There are just too many of those types of crimes. Besides, in California you probably would have to get permission from the suspect and three priests to run the fingerprints, let alone keep a searchable database on hand for such a need. I highly doubt the system is as quick and effective as on CSI.

Maybe next time I go out of town, I'll leave a box of donuts lying around as insurance.

Logophiles Unite!

2009-02-09T18:37:00.001-08:00

I have adopted a word at http://www.savethewords.org!

(adj.)
ill mannered; ill tempered

Save The Words

Images

2009-02-08T21:04:00.000-08:00

So as you can see, I was able to restore the images for this blogger theme. Apparently the creator has them on photobucket, where they were presumably being used by multiple bloggers. The bandwidth limits were exceeded, which kindly causes their images to turn to ugly banners for photobucket. Well... I was able to shift these images to a new account and hopefully we won't be exceeding the limit. :)

Layout Problems

2009-02-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know... The images used on this template were hosted by the creator at Photobucket and apparently they've exceeded their bandwidth. I'll get it fixed asap.

My Son is Boy

2009-02-06T00:47:00.000-08:00

A conversation from Thursday.

Caleb: Somebody telled on us at school. We were talking about yucky stuff.

Me: What were you talking about?

Caleb: Poop and... Just poop.

Me: What were you saying about poop?

Caleb: We were just saying it.

Me: You were just saying the word "poop"?

Caleb: Yeah.

Me: Who were you saying it to?

Caleb: Nobody. Me and (other boy) and another boy were just saying it at recess.

Me: And somebody heard you say it and told the teacher?

Caleb: Yes.

Me: What did the teacher say to you?

Caleb: Nothing.

Me: Well you know potty stuff... is not something we say... People don't like to hear about potty stuff.

Caleb: OK, Mommy.

Me: Ok.

25 Random - You Have Not Been Tagged

2009-02-04T22:03:00.000-08:00

There's been a string of "25 Things About Me" posts on Facebook lately. The idea is that you post 25 completely random (right up my alley) things about yourself, then randomly "tag" friends on it (it's a facebook thing) which then notifies them on their facebook homepage that they've been tagged, and therefore they pop on over to your post to see what it says.

I'm pretty much against posting things that tell me to post them. Whether it's all in good fun, or to prove I'm a "real friend" or "true Christian", or because Bill Gates is tracking the number of forwards... I just don't ever get down with that sort of thing. So if you're sending me something in hopes that I'll forward it... Sorry. But I digress.

I like the idea that my friend Gina had, born of this Facebook tag-o-rama, she turned the list into a list of 25 things to pray for. So going from there, here is my list of 25 people to pray for. Although I cheated, because the some are for multiple people. But they are all at least in random order.

1. For me, ready for transition phase 73, moving into our own home, and are waiting for God to give us just the right one for us.

2. For Sara, and the future God's planned for her.

3. For Anna, and the future self that God's preparing her to be.

4 For Gina, and her beautiful prayerful heart.

5. For Lori, and that which lies ahead, with Jesus.

6. For Armando, and the unknown that can be so frightening.

7&8. For Caleb and Micah, and the little men that God's raising up.

9. For Summer, and the answers we all need.

10. For Kendra, and the hopes for a brighter tomorrow.

11. For Bryan, and his safety in his new job.

12. For Janet, and strength.

13&14. For Norman and Amanda, and faithfulness to God's calling.

15. For Liam, and the man God will make him.

16. For Stephanie, and the tiny life God's created.

17. For Sarah, and joy.

18. For Mark, and rest.

19. For downhere, and euphonic ministry.

20. For Dena, and healthy babies.

21. For Hannah, and a bit of certainty and a lot of satisfaction.

22. For Andi, and peace and resolution.

23. For N., and health.

24. For D., and hope for eternity.

25. For Barak Obama, and the mess we've allowed ourselves to get into.

What happens when government spends beyond its means

2009-02-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

Calif. tax refunds to be delayed starting Feb. 1

Friday, January 16, 2009

(01-16) 11:43 PST SACRAMENTO, (AP) --

California's controller says he will begin a 30-day delay on tax refunds and other payments starting Feb. 1 because the state is running out of money.

Controller John Chiang said Friday he will have no choice but to delay $3.7 billion in payments next month because lawmakers have so far failed to address California's growing deficit.

The state is on the brink of issuing IOUs as it faces a $41.6 billion shortfall over the next year-and-a-half.

Chiang says his office must continue education and debt payments but will defer money for tax refunds, student aid, social services and mental health programs.

A severe drop in tax revenue has left the state's main bank account depleted. The state had been relying on borrowing from special funds and Wall Street investors, but those options are no longer available.

Bryan, In Uniform

2009-01-27T22:59:00.000-08:00

(L-R) Cop I Don't Know, Cop I Don't Know, Bryan, Cop I
Don't Know, Cop I Don't Know, and Cop I Don't Know

Today was picture day at the academy. Another recruit snapped this photo of a few members of the class in between formal photos. All of these guys are from different departments around the state, so I have never met any of them (as the caption might suggest).

Bryan has less than six weeks left at the academy. Thanks to everybody who has prayed for him during the seemingly endless hiring process and especially during the last three+ months. Hopefully he'll have some good stories (and dare we hope, photos) when he finally returns home that I can share with you.

The boys are certainly going to enjoy seeing some pictures of Dad looking like a police officer. Micah is getting especially anxious for Bryan to be done already, and has even taken to asking every morning if it's Friday, so we can pick up Daddy from the police station. Caleb, being older, is looking forward to the graduation day when he can go visit the academy and see where Bryan has been spending so much time. He has already talked about wanting to be a police officer like his dad. He actually said that for the first time BEFORE Bryan left for the academy, but he's saying it more and more often.

Both of the boys got toy metal handcuffs in their Christmas stockings from Grandma J, and they enjoy handcuffing friends and family as well as themselves and each other. Even Micah's stuffed Mickey Mouse has been handcuffed for the crime of having been "bad". They both threaten to put the other in jail, which is under the table with the chair surrounding or sometimes a corner blocked off with a box.

I suppose, though, with Caleb's increasing knowledge and exponentially growing curiosity, we'll have to have a good talk to him about what law is, guns, why people do "bad" things... It could go on and on. Seems like the kind of things I'd LOVE for him to be blissfully unaware about, but I think he already knows cops carry guns... He's a deep thinker and will mull things over for quite a while sometimes before asking just the right question to catch me off guard. I want to be able answer his questions sincerely without making him worry. Which worries me, because I'm not quite sure how I/we will do that!

For now, he's content that Dad's got a job and soon we'll be looking for a bigger house to live in where we're not literally stepping on eachother's stuff on a regular basis. And surely when I show him the photo in the morning, he'll want to print it off(he knows how to print now, this FIVE year old!) so he can have it. And Micah will too.

Ok sorry for the rambling post, I keep saying it, but I'm really going to sleep... Now!

Micah: A Year Ago

2009-01-25T21:45:00.001-08:00

I can't belive this picture was taken a year ago. We were packing up our house in California, so Micah took the opportunity to climb into his empty dresser drawer. He is 18 months in this photo.

Stovetop Grill

2009-01-25T20:00:00.001-08:00

We were at my mom's house for lunch today, and she made chicken and some steaks that we brought over on this odd circular pan-thing. Well, SHE didn't know what it was called, but the food tasted just like it had been grilled! So tonight as the boys are finishing up their soup dinner (with leftover steak from lunch) I Google "stove top grill", and low and behold, I find it!

It's one of those as-seen-on-tv sort of items, which tend to be hit or miss (at best) on quality, but this seems to be a winner! It is a two-part design. There is a stainless steel ring with a reservoir where you put a little water and which also serves as a drip pan. This is the lip of the pan that you see from above. The cooking surface is heavy duty and convex so that the fat runs into the slots and collects in the drip pan below.

My mom uses a gas stove and our (current) stove is electric. I have some concern that it wouldn't work as well on an electric stove, but the sales pitch claims it works on electric too. (Not recommended for glass-top stoves, though.) So when we move out of this place into a house where I have room to cook and store cooking stuff, I'm totally going to get one of these! I can't wait to eat the chicken leftovers tomorrow...

In case you don't already feel akward

2009-01-22T22:25:00.000-08:00

You have to see these photos. Sheeesh!

British gym replaces dumbbells with human weights
Wed Jan 21, 2009 7:27pm GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - A British gym is trying to add human interest to otherwise dreary workouts by replacing traditional dumbbell weights with human ones. [READ MORE...]

More Knitting

2009-01-22T21:59:00.000-08:00

I have the yarn for my next project. Of course this is a scarf, I'm not quite ready to move ahead on that front, but I will be making one for myself this time. I found this great yarn at the craft store, but they only had one skein. It's really chunky yarn, but it was not long enough for a scarf.

So I went Googled the type of yarn (Patron brand "Pooch" in "lamb" color) and ordered what I needed at Knitting W arehouse and it came two days later! Of course I'm not able to start my new scarf yet but I'm really excited about it. If you're not the kind of person who makes crafts or has that innate NEED to create things, then I don't know how to explain it to you. :) But I'm looking forward to my weekend (starting tomorrow) so I can start this project!

Bryan and I catch up on our TV shows on the weekend after the boys go to sleep, so it's a great opportunity to multi-task. I'm getting better at being able to knit without looking, but sometimes the shows suck me in and I forget about knitting until he goes to fast forward the commercials. :) But if I'm lucky, I may be able to fit in some knitting tomorrow during the day, too.

Good Quote

2009-01-21T21:34:00.000-08:00

I was listening to some talk radio on the topic of MLK's I Have A Dream Speech and President Obama. I'm part of a generation that never thought a black person COULDN'T be president.

But have we acheived Dr. King's Dream? That's the question I keep hearing. Some say yes, some say we're on our way, some say we have yet to begin. Still some say no, but not because of a belief that America is racist, but because many have gone so far in the opposite direction. We're not judging by the content of anyone's character, because they may be labeled a minority, and we'd be labeled racist to judge at all.

Sure, I do believe there ARE racist people out there, I have actually experienced a tiny taste of that even. But I think its a dying trend. It may have its strongholds, but as every person who got any airtime yesterday pointed out, the inauguration of a man of color into the presidency is evidence that a majority of us don't subscribe to such hate.

So, on to the quote, which I found to be succinct and profound:

"Labels are for soup cans." --Joe Getty

Blessed Be

2009-01-19T22:38:00.001-08:00

Bryan was listening to this earlier, and now it's stuck in my head. We really like Jason Gray, labelmate to downhere.

Blessed Be
Words & Music: JG & Joel Hanson

Matt 5:1-16
There seems to be a special blessing available only to the poor in spirit, the meek, those who mourn, or in a word: the losers. It’s a shame that most times we are deathly afraid of becoming the kind of person Jesus described as eligible for this blessing.

Losers
All the lovely losers
Who never thought you’d hear your name
Oustide
Always on the outside
Empty at the wishing well
But time will tell

Blessed be
The ones who know that they are weak
They shall see
The Kingdom come to the broken ones
Blessed be

Thirsty
Like you’re drinking from a salt sea
But one day you’ll be satisfied
Hungry
For the taste of mercy
If only you could have your fill
One day you will

Blessed be
The ones who know that they are weak
They shall see
The Kingdom come to the broken ones
Blessed be

Not for the strong, the beautiful, the brave
Not for the ones who think they’ve got it made
It’s for the poor, the broken, and the meek
It’s for the ones who look a lot like you and me

Blessed be
The ones who know that they are weak
They shall see
The Kingdom come to the broken ones
Blessed be

House Envy

2009-01-19T22:12:00.001-08:00

So the last house I fell in love with didn't work out at all, but now I might be falling in love with another house. Bryan and I were looking through all the listings on the MLS that meet our criteria. There actually aren't that many in our price range, though. We want:

Three+ bedrooms
More than one bathroom (preferring a master bath)
A good size kitchen (updated recently would be nice)
A good size yard
An attached garage (a must in this weather)
A separate family/bonus room for the boys to play
Within or near the city limits (don't want to have to drive far)

But we decided to start the process next month, so if we're able to walk through this one, it could be THE ONE! Of course the prime rule of real estate is Location (x3), and this one isn't in any premium neighborhood. It's in an older section of town, but it's in town, has what seems to be a great yard, and a fantastic kitchen. We'll just see, I guess!

Also, my mom gave me the name of a good real estate agent that they have worked with in the past. That alleviates my trepidation about finding somebody we can trust, who won't bug us regularly!

The Evolution

2009-01-13T00:07:00.000-08:00

True to my #4 To Do, I have begun the design phase of my future first blogger template, a project I'm for now calling "soulsofiadigital". Who knows what it will be called when its finished, let alone what it might actually look like when it is born, but I had fun playing with a new image editing program (GIMP), since I can't find my Photoshop cd. God bless Open Source!

I somewhat feel like I don't want to reveal what I have now... Something like an artist needing to showcase only the finished work... But at the same time I would like to chronicle the progress since this is my first blog template design of my own creation. (I've changed graphics and colors on existing ones many times, but that's not that hard.)

I suppose that helps my #8 To Do, so here is a little chunk of what I just finished working on, which doesn't look like much. This is sets the color scheme and feel I'm working with. It's actually a cropped bit of it, at a low-resolution, but you get the gist. More to come.

My Slacker Radio Station

2009-01-11T20:15:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Gina for the tip!

I set up my own radio station, which I can customize as I listen to it by banning songs or artists, or adding new artists. As I add artists, it adds similar artists' songs to the playlist. We listened to it last night as we were setting up Caleb's new bed (post on that later), and Bryan discovered a new band he likes! It's a really cool concept! Check it out or Create your own Slacker Station now

Quiztionairre

2009-01-09T16:20:00.001-08:00

What was the last thing you watched on television?
The First 48

Will tomorrow be better than today?
Things are looking that way

Is your shirt yellow?
No

Do you want to see somebody right now?
Bryan & Claudia

Can you live without your cell phone?
Totally. I had been, for years.

Who do you have a question for right now?
Nothing comes to mind

Sometimes, does it feel like your life isn't going anywhere?
No, but I feel like it's going somewhere great really slowly

Do you ignore people when you're mad/ upset with them?
Just Bryan. Odd.

Do you believe in love at first sight?
I can't imagine it.

Is it easy to make you smile?
Usually

Do you open up to alot of people?
Several, but not always.

Are you shy?
Kinda

Do you sleep with one leg out from under the covers?
Only if its hot

Do you have a bad habit?
Yeah

How' s your heart lately?
Lately good

Are you starting to realize anything?
God has more resolve than me.

One thing you're looking forward to?
Bryan's graduation from the police academy

How was your day?
So far boring. Such is a day in a small house. But have plans for later!

Why did you cry the last time you did?
Couple of weeks ago.

Have you ever blocked someone on Myspace before?
Plenty. And on twitter.

Who have you talked to today?
Caleb, Micah, Claudia

What are you going to do after this survey?
Set the boys up with an art project and then do dishes

Would you rather fly, drive or travel by train?
Fly, except on holidays. But I've always wanted to go somewhere by train.

Do you like Adam Sandler?
Not really

Do you have to sleep with a television on?
Just to fall asleep, then the sleep timer does its job.

How many peoples top eights are you on?
I don't know

What IM messenger do you use?
I have MSN/Live messenger but I rarely use it. Also use lame-o Facebook chat.

What is hanging from your rear view mirror in your car?
nothing

How many people's houses do you have keys to?
Just mine

What' s the wallpaper to your cellphone?
a poppy

Are you drifting away from any friends?
maybe?

Do you have anything in your pockets right now?
not anymore, I had to take me cell phone out to see what the wallpaper is

Are you comfortable with answering personal questions?
Depends on the question!

Do you believe ex's can really ever be "just friends?"
Not all but the rarest cases

Would you consider yourself to be spoiled?
No. But blessed, yes.

Where were you at 2:00 this morning?
In my bed sleeping

Did you go to sleep last night smiling?
No. Is that physically possible?

What do the majority of people in your life call you?
Carla

Who did you last say "I love you" to ?
Caleb

Do you have trust issues?
Why do you ask? ;-)

What was the last drink you had?
Sparkling apple cider

Have you ever driven without a license?
Without it physically on my person? Yes. Whilst unlicensed? No.

Did the one person who hurt you the most in your life apologize?
Yes

Have you ever had your heart broken?
Not broken

Will you be in a relationship next month?
And the next, and the next, and the next....

Do you think someone is thinking about you right now?
I'd hope so

Have you ever kissed someone whose name started with an A?
I don't think so

Have any tattoos/ piercings?
Just once per earlobe

Honestly, if you could go back 1 month and change something, would you?
I suppose, but I don't know what

How has the week been?
Decent

Is it okay for guys to wear pink?
Not usually

When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper?
Over a year ago!

Do you cry and throw a fit until you get your own way?
No

How many windows are open on your computer?
1 window, two tabs

Where did you buy the shirt you are wearing?
Ross

Are you a loud person?
Not at all

Are you high?
No, we only have a one story house. :-P

What makes you happy in life?
God, family, friends, food

Does every one deserve a second chance?
No, but everyone needs forgiveness

Do you have a best friend?
I guess I don't exactly

Would you ever date your second top friend?
On myspace? That is my sister. That is unthinkable.

Do you believe that every one has a soul- mate?
Yes, but not in the cheesy romanticized way.

What' s your current problem?
I hate doing dishes.

What is your favorite color?
Spring green, fuchsia, lavender.... there are so many

Do you like your first name?
Sure why not

Baseball or football?
Neither, but if I had to choose, baseball.

Who was that last person you had a phone call with longer than 5 minutes?
Bryan

What was the last thing you spent your money on?
Getting links taken out of a watch I got for Christmas.

Things to do

2009-01-09T13:14:00.001-08:00

I am somewhat against New Year's resolutions.

I feel like if God is giving us breath each morning, He is giving us the opportunity to improve. And so, waiting for the Gregorian calendar to flip to January 1 to start taking action in an area of life in which we feel we lack... Seems a little silly to me. If it works for you, then good for you.

I am reminded of something I said jokingly to somebody who was telling about how he failed at his resolution to quit smoking, only later to break their back in a work-related accident. During recovery, he essentially had to quit smoking and has stuck with it ever since.

"God has more resolve than you."

I said it jokingly, but it turned out to have a profound truth in it that has stuck with me. If there is something that we feel like is a hindrance in our lifes or an area in which we'd like to improve, asking God (any time of the year) to help is really the way to go. He'll have a plan, and even if we quit, He won't ever give up on us.

But I digress.

Instead of a really making a New Year's resolution, I decided to make a list of the things I'd like to do this year. It's not some sort of crazy I-must-do-all-these-things-or-I'm-a-failure sort of list, it's more of writing everything down that I'd like to do. I will try to do them all. If I don't get to do them all this year, there's nothing magical about Dec. 31. I'll just keep working on it.

So here is my progress:

1. Downloaded the form.
2. Waiting for Bryan to finish the academy.
3. Gina's working on it. :)
4. Looked into it. Need to reinstall Photoshop.
5. Knitting one last scarf with the same stitch. Bookmarked tutorials on expertvillage.com
6. Bookmarked some lessons online. Need to find a good time for this during the week and get my bass from storage.
7. This one's going to have to wait for the new house... Not much room to cook/bake here.
8. This one IS 2009-specific. I'm up to 7 including this post. So far so good.
9. This one will have to wait for warm weather... June, July, August, September
10. Again, waiting for warmer weather. But this could be in the spring, depending on the destination.

You may have just been lied to

2009-01-08T08:40:00.000-08:00

You may have heard on the news this week that teens who take virginity pledges are just as likely to engage in premarital sex as other teens. As this article from the Wall Street Journal by William McGurn explains how, if you heard that, you were plain, flat-out lied to. (FYI, grownup words are used in the article.)

Like a Virgin: The Press Take On Teenage Sex

Yes, attitudes do make a difference in behavior.

The chain reaction was something out of central casting. A medical journal starts it off by announcing a study comparing teens who take a pledge of virginity until marriage with those who don't. Lo and behold, when they crunch the numbers, they find not much difference between pledgers and nonpledgers: most do not make it to the marriage bed as virgins.

Like a pack of randy 15-year-old boys, the press dives right in.

"Virginity Pledges Don't Stop Teen Sex," screams CBS News. "Virginity pledges don't mean much," adds CNN. "Study questions virginity pledges," says the Chicago Tribune. "Premarital Abstinence Pledges Ineffective, Study Finds," heralds the Washington Post. "Virginity Pledges Fail to Trump Teen Lust in Look at Older Data," reports Bloomberg. And on it goes.

In other words, teens will be teens, and moms or dads who believe that concepts such as restraint or morality have any application today are living in a dream world. Typical was the lead for the CBS News story: "Teenagers who take virginity pledges are no less sexually active than other teens, according to a new study."

Here's the rub: It just isn't true.

In fact, the only way the study's author, Janet Elise Rosenbaum of Johns Hopkins University, could reach such results was by comparing teens who take a virginity pledge with a very small subset of other teens: those who are just as religious and conservative as the pledge-takers. The study is called "Patient Teenagers? A Comparison of the Sexual Behavior of Virginity Pledgers and Matched Nonpledgers," and it was published in the Jan. 1 edition of Pediatrics.

The first to notice something lost in the translation was Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of both the Red Cross and the National Institutes of Health. Today she serves as health editor for U.S. News & World Report. And in her dispatch on this study, Dr. Healy pointed out that "virginity pledging teens were considerably more conservative in their overall sexual behaviors than teens in general -- a fact that many media reports have missed cold."

What Dr. Healy was getting at is that the pledge itself is not what distinguishes these kids from most other teenagers. The real difference is their more conservative and religious home and social environment. As she notes, when you compare both groups in this study with teens at large, the behavioral differences are striking. Here are just a few:

- These teens generally have less risky sex, i.e., fewer sexual partners.

- These teens are less likely to have a teenage pregnancy, or to have friends who use drugs.

- These teens have less premarital vaginal sex.

- When these teens lose their virginity they tend to do so at age 21 -- compared to 17 for the typical American teen.

- And very much overlooked, one out of four of these teens do in fact keep the pledge to remain chaste -- amid much cheap ridicule and just about zero support outside their homes or churches.

Let's put this another way. The real headline from this study is this: "Religious Teens Differ Little in Sexual Behavior Whether or Not They Take a Pledge."

Now, whatever the shock that might occasion at CBS or the Washington Post, it comes as no surprise to parents. Most parents appreciate that a pledge of virginity -- a one-time event that might be made at an emotional moment in a teen's life -- is not some talisman that will magically shield their sons and daughters from the strong and normal desires that grow as they discover their sexuality. What these parents hope to do is direct these desires in a way that recognizes sex as a great gift, which in the right circumstances fosters genuine intimacy between a man and a woman and at its freest offers the possibility of new life.

This is not the prevailing view, of course. And these parents know it. Far from conformists living in a comfortable world where their beliefs are never challenged, these families live in an environment where most everything that is popular -- television, the movies, the Internet -- encourages children to grow up as quickly as possible while adults remain locked in perpetual adolescence.

Nor do these families believe their children are better than other kids. Unlike the majority of health experts and their supporters in the press, however, they don't believe that the proper use of the condom is the be all and end all. For these parents, the good news here is that the striking behavioral differences between the average American teen and the two teen groups in this study show that homes and families still exert a powerful influence.

That, alas, is not something you're likely to read in the headlines. For when it comes to challenging the conventional wisdom on issues of sexuality, the American media suddenly become as coy as a cloistered virgin.

Write to MainStreet@wsj.com

School's Canceled!

2009-01-07T21:05:00.000-08:00

We're having some big flooding in our area due to the freakishly long-lasting snow now melting in endless rain. My sister in law is trapped at her house due to a mud slide blocking the only highway into town. The (same) highway that I take (in a different location) to get to church had water going over it (the first I've ever seen that happen) already, and there is still more rain to come and more snow to melt.

School is canceled for tomorrow for the entire district. Thank goodness for the internet age, there is a website that lists over 70 school districts in Washington and any cancellations and delays for each district. Check it out if you have kids in school here, or if you soon will it might be a good thing to bookmark for the future: http://www.schoolreport.org/

(If you live outside of Washington, there may be a similar website that serves your area. Google It!)

Poisonous children's clothing?

2009-01-04T19:36:00.000-08:00

Barring a reprieve, regulations set to take effect next month could force thousands of clothing retailers and thrift stores to throw away trunkloads of children's clothing.

The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger -- including clothing -- be tested for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable. Those that haven't been tested will be considered hazardous, regardless of whether they actually contain lead. (read more here...)

I'm a PC

2009-01-04T09:50:00.000-08:00

Knitting 102: A Scarf Is Born

2009-01-03T23:17:00.000-08:00

Ok so my second scarf I made for my dear friend. The first scarf wasn't quite as neat in the beginning rows but this one came out well. Also on the first scarf I didn't attempt a fringe, but thanks to a tutorial on expertvillage.com (also found at youtube and on my knitting playlist a couple of posts back) I found it was actually not so hard! I couldn't locate my crochet hook but a pair of tweezers worked just fine. So here are some close ups of the knitting, the fringe, and of her actually wearing the scarf.

(left) The rows aren't perfectly straight, because the yarn was kinda curly.
( right) Curly yarn made for a really happily puffy and soft fringe.

A new scarf.

Bailout Provides More Mental Health Coverage

2009-01-01T13:18:00.000-08:00

Sure heard a lot about the "bailout", but nothing of this...

Washington

Bailout Provides More Mental Health Coverage

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: October 6, 2008

The new law, which will affect more than one-third of all Americans, comes after 12 years of advocacy by friends and relatives of people with mental illness and addictions....(read the rest of the story)

Caleb's classes at the Children's Museum

2008-12-30T22:00:00.001-08:00

Since Caleb is on Christmas break from school, I signed him up for a couple of classes at the museum. There were two, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and it worked out that he was able to come to work with me, have lunch with me between classes, and be done at the same time as I was done with work for two days.

It was really nice to have that little extra chatting time in peace in the car as well as during my lunch break.

They were really long days for him. His school schedule only has him in class for just under three hours, and then he gets to hang with one of his grandmas or me afterward. The schedule for the last two days was a five-hour one. But he had a good time and only really seemed to be too tired to focus and behave well for the last hour or so today.

His morning class was called "Paints, Prints, and Dyes". There were about eight kids in his class. I wish I hadn't been working so I could have observed more, but from what I could see they were experimenting with colors for a good portion of the class. One of the stations had little bowls with diluted (I assume) food coloring and shaving cream. The kids would take a dropper and mix shaving cream and color.

In this class Caleb made a lovely hat, primarily out of construction paper and many colors of glitter glue. I proudly walked across the museum garnering jealous stares. Or stares of some kind, anyway. :)

Happy Dancers

2008-12-30T21:55:00.000-08:00

from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

(from http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080722.html:)

Explanation: What are these humans doing? Dancing. Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend political boundaries and occur in practically every human society. Above, Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, started dancing, and filmed the result. The video is perhaps a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious -- few people are able to watch the above video without smiling.

Knitting 101

2008-12-27T23:18:00.000-08:00

I learned how to knit in elementary school after my class read a story in which the main character learns how to knit. I can't remember the story after all these years, but I remember everyone in the class knitting... But alas, I didn't keep it up and eventually the how to of it faded from my memory. (As so much does.)

When I was pregnant with Caleb I tried to re-learn but I could only remember how to start. Needless to say I didn't get very far. I think I still have that ball of yarn in one of my boxes that are packed full of craft supplies in my mom's barn.

Well this year she bought me a really nice red yarn for my Christmas stocking, but since we didn't do gifts, the stocking was full and the yarn didn't fit. So she gave it to me, along with some lovely fat wooden knitting needles (the same ones I learned on in elementary school). I think I have to give those back, but I'll be slow about it.

So she and I together were able to remember how to start the knitting, and it started coming back to me. Caleb came into my room while I was knitting away, and asked me what I was making.

"A scarf, I think," I said.

"Can you make me a scarf when you're done with that one?" he asked.

"You can have this one!" I replied.

So I knit a bit more until I had a scarf of a reasonable length for a small boy. Then I took my work back to my mom so she could show me how to finish it off.

Let me take a break here to let you know how much I am finding that I am just like my mom. I look at her and figure in time I will BE her. Sometimes that is scary. This was one of those times.

"I know you have to cross them over," That is all she could remember after trying a couple of times to start the finishing process. "I can see myself crossing them somehow in my memory."

I am so like that.

Luckily, Bryan was there. "Check on YouTube," he said.

So I checked on YouTube yesterday and sure enough, there are some excellent tutorials on knitting. And I thought the only thing on YouTube was downhere videos and people hurting themselves in one way or another.

So as a service to all three of my readers, here is how I knit my scarf, courtesy of YouTube. The videos are from "ExpertVillage" featuring a lady named Michelle. I didn't like the ways she showed how to cast on (start) so I found another lady showing just how I remembered how to do it.

Coupon: Children's Museum

2008-12-27T14:27:00.000-08:00

Buy one admission and get one free at the Children's Museum of Skagit County through the month of January! Print the online coupon and bring it in to get the discount (exp. 1/31/09). See you there!

How Many Kings

2008-12-22T19:54:00.000-08:00

...featuring your favorite Monkey Brothers and moi, along with other die-hard downhere fans!

World's Smallest Political Quiz

2008-12-21T19:07:00.000-08:00

The ORIGINAL Internet Political Quiz
Take the Quiz now and find out where you fit on the political map!

According to your answers, the political group that agrees with you most is...

CENTRISTS espouse a "middle ground" regarding government control of the economy and personal behavior. Depending on the issue, they sometimes favor government intervention and sometimes support individual freedom of choice.

Centrists pride themselves on keeping an open mind,

tend to oppose "political extremes," and emphasize what

they describe as "practical" solutions to problems.

Quiztionnaire

2008-12-21T18:54:00.000-08:00

1. What time did you get up this morning?
8:00am

2. Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the theater?
Wall-E

4. What is your favorite TV show?
CSI, House, Cold Case Files, COPS

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?
Sadly, usually nothing.

6. What is your middle name?
Sofia

7. Favourite food?
Sushi, ceviche, and right now, Paneton

8. What foods do you dislike?
Cooked green vegetables

9. What is your favorite chip flavor?
Tim's Cascade Steak & Onion, but it's discontinued now

10. What is your favorite song at the moment?
Something Heavenly by downhere (and the rest of the Ending is Beginning album)

11. What kind of car do you drive?
Subaru Forester, red

12. Favorite sandwich?
Grilled panini from Ristretto

13. What characteristics do you despise?
Dishonesty

14. Favorite item or outfit?
Tall brown boots. New winter coat. Thanks hun!

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where?
Europe (vague, I know) but when it's warm

16. What color is your bathroom?
White, in theory

17. Favorite brand of clothing?
I don't really care about brands

18. Where would you retire to?
Close to here, I guess, to be close to fam.

19. Favorite sport to watch?
Baseball, if I had to.

20. Furthest place you are sending this?
Google/Blogger servers.

21. Goal you have for yourself?
Become a sonographer

22. Who do you least expect to send this back to you?
Everybody, since I'm not emailing it

23. Person you expect to send it back first?
Nobody, see above

24. When is your birthday?
Nov 3

25. Favorite flowers?
Gerbera daisies, Lily of the Valley, Plumeria

26. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Well if it weren't for the fact that i have to get up for work, I'd be a night person.

27. What did you want to be when you were little?
A teacher or children's author.

28. How are you today?
Sick. ;( Wah.

29. What is a date on your calendar you are looking forward to?
March 6 - Bryan's grad date from the academy.

Christmas Cookies

2008-12-15T19:54:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago I posted about a cookie exchange that I hosted at our house in California. I love baking at Christmas time, and so now I wish I had my big kitchen now to bake in. Our kitchen here is so uninspiring, I can't even get inspired to take a picture of it to show you.

I made two kinds of cookies for that cookie exchange, one of them being one I really want to bake now... Shaped Vanilla Cookies with Sugar Cookie Frosting from the recipe I used at Allrecipes, my favorite recipe website. (Bryan and I both use it regularly!) Think of those big thick cookies with the pink frosting you often see at coffee shops... But with a much MUCH tastier cookies and fantastic frosting. They were a lot of fun to decorate, too.

I have to admit I haven't gotten much into the Christmasy mood this year, and I think baking some Christmas cookies might help!I might have to take over my mom's fabulous kitchen to make these this year.

Photoshopping: Before & After

2008-12-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: I take it back, I think the hills are not in the USA after all.

As a follow-up to my previous post, here are the "Before" and "After" versions of yesterday's photo. (FYI, I got the background on the Stock.XCHNG website, my favorite stock photography site. I believe the hills are in Wisconsin.)

In front of the barn at my mom's..... In front of beautiful hills in a field...

Photoshopping

2008-12-14T23:02:00.001-08:00

Michelle and I really liked one of the photos we took during her senior pic photoshoot, but the background was so bad. The side of the new barn, the camping trailer, the general unbeauty of that side of the property... So since the boys are sleeping over at my MIL's house, I worked on this while catching up on LOST at the same time.

From Michelle's Senior Pictures Photoshoot

Global Colding

2008-12-14T18:01:00.000-08:00

Winter is here. It started to snow yesterday afternoon, and by the time we woke up this morning, there were about four inches of snow on top of the cars, a bit less on the ground. Not sure how that works. Regarless, we're having some of the coldest weather in 20 years or so. Which is longer than I've lived here. It's really cold!

During the day we had some sun today so much of the snow melted, only to refreeze into a lovely blanket of ice everywhere. Great! The main roads were all clear when we drove home from the Reach's Christgiving Dinner, but who knows that they'll be like tomorrow when I take Caleb to school, Micah to Grandma Janet's, and go off to work. I'm sure this is nothing to some people, but I am REALLY missing my California weather right about now.

Anyway, to make this an educational experience, after breakfast Bryan went out and snapped an 18-inch icicle off the edge of the roof so the boys could take a closer look. We talked about how they're made, and especially Caleb was very fascinated by it. We then threw it outside onto the porch so he could see it break. Just like a boy!

Standing up to Sexual Harassment

2008-12-14T12:50:00.000-08:00

The latest post on Lav's Blog turned me to the blog of Jason Gray, labelmate of my favorite band in the whole universe, downhere. He posted a blog about an experience they had last night on the Bethlehem Skyline tour. I had the pleasure of hearing Jason Gray's story and music, and then meeting him while he was in town with downhere and Shawn McDonald earlier this year and I have to say I am not surprised at his response to an uncomfortable (to say the least) situation. Some of the members of the band downhere were also involved, and this also just makes me love them more! What an amazing example of godly men standing together.

Read here: http://blog.myspace.com/jasongraymusic

I heard it today...

2008-12-08T16:22:00.000-08:00

"He struck me as being as dumb as a box of hair."

Aside from the quandary of what one would do with a box of hair, when I heard this on the radio it made me giggle.

Blog Widget

2008-11-30T23:59:00.001-08:00

New! Get The Reach Church blog widget for your myspace, facebook, blogger, typepad, wordpress, livejournal, or iGoogle page! (Or pretty much any other page!)

www.thereachchurch.com/bloggreat free widgetsWidgetbox

Lavs Blog: Downhere Chords

2008-11-29T23:00:00.000-08:00

I wish I knew how to play an instrument so I could use this link!
Lavs Blog: Downhere Chords

I do have my bass sitting in the barn at my mom's house, but I haven't had the time/$$ to take lessons. Someday!

No Go

2008-11-29T18:36:00.000-08:00

They jacked up the price on the house so I guess we won't have to figure out how to fit it under the tree.

What I want for Christmas...

2008-11-25T22:29:00.000-08:00

"Formal living/dining rooms and master w/full bath & walk in closet on main level with slider to deck. Large rec room, extra/bonus room w/bar, 2 bedrooms, full bath and workshop on lower level. Priced to Sell!!"

Bryan found this while window shopping for houses online today. It's in the same town as our church, about 10 minutes from where we live now. It appears to be a bank owned (forclosure?) and the price is SOOOOOOO good (less than 2/3 its appraised value). Of course part of me is thinking it must be infested with termites or something, but Bryan says it's because the bank wants to get rid of it. It is listed as a 5 bd 3 bath built in 1990 and is on a dead-end street almost on the edge of town.

It could be perfect!

Win an Ergo Carrier

2008-11-24T21:05:00.000-08:00

Win a Free Organic Embroidered
Ergo Baby Carrier Hands Free System
from Along for the Ride

These are the BEST and MOST COMFORTABLE carriers out there. At work I see moms with their babies in them and everyone agrees, they're the best thing since sliced bread. Micah lived in his for the first 6-8 months of his life!

The Mouse War Chronicles: Plotting Revenge

2008-11-20T19:43:00.000-08:00

Some advice I was given, as Osamouse is now holed up in the attic and have not even touched any of the bait as far as I can tell. (Note to self: Check bait again.)

I would suggest getting a cat or using a "wheel of death" to get a lot of them at a time. Mice LOVE peanut butter. It works way better than cheese or store bought bait. Using a five gallon bucket and wheel (an empty pop can works well with holes in both ends) suspended with fishing line. Then you put some peanut butter on the can and your set. Make a path to the top of the five gallon bucket, a stick or a board work. The mice try to jump from the board onto the wheel and of coarse in rolls and they cant hang on and end up in the bucket. If you don't want them for pets then put about 2 or 3 inches of water in the bottom of the bucket, let's just say they get a little soggy.

Let's just say I don't particularly want a bucketful of deceased "soggy" mice, but I guess I would rather that then live mice with a penchant for drywall.

So I guess now I have to rope some helpful gentleman into building one of these contraptions for me. I don't know where I would put this thing. I'm picturing a 5-gallon bucket and a stick taking up a good space on the floor, maybe three feet by two feet. I don't really have six square feet to give up inside the house, and I don't really want to be LURING Osamouse back into the house if he's not coming in now. So I'm kinda picturing it outside the back of the house, actually just outside the laundry room from whence it got its first snackrel*.

*(I bet that's the first time you've seen the words "whence" and "snackrel" in the same sentence.)

Let others let God

2008-11-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

Sometimes God burdens our heart for somebody we know. We desire in our hearts to help that person however we can. Sometimes you're the somebody. And refusing the acts of kindness and love is in fact contradicting God's will.

New website

2008-11-17T23:54:00.000-08:00

The past few nights, after the boys are finally sleeping, I have been working on The Reach's new website. We had a "Christian" web host before but I really actually hated it. It was very limiting from a web design standpoint and terribly difficult to use with its outdated UI*. So we finally made the move over to another host (for 1/8th the cost per month) where we have the freedom to make our website however we like.

The only downside of that is that I had never installed a Content Management System (CMS) before and there are a TON of open-source (read: free) CMS programs out there. Once I found one that I liked really well, I downloaded it and proceeded to try to install it on our server. This was almost a month ago. I failed miserably, since I had no idea what I was doing. Finally after finding some help on the forums and asking in IRC (internet relay chat) for some more help, and trying and failing and trying and finally getting it, the website is finally real. :)

So here it is, although it's not quite done, it's finally at a stage where it can be unveiled, like the Boeing 787... Pretty but note entirely assembled. Actually proportionately, we're farther along than the 787 was at its unveiling. Anyway, back to internet stuff...

We are using Lunarpages. They offer an excellent price on a great basic hosting package. They are out of New Zealand, I believe, but their web support is pretty quick at replying and ready to help. Plus nice, so that's a bonus.

The CMS we are using now is called Silverstripe. I'd only really used WordPress on a server, which was good for a blog but had to be modified so much to use it as a CMS substitute. Also they had upgrades like every five days. But it was a lot more easy to install and upgrade without much modification by hand at all.

Silverstripe is a lot more user friendly after it's set up, but the setup was a killer. I gave up twice, but I'm worse at quitting than I am at failing, so now it works. Which is good because there may be others using it to post contect to the website that are not nearly as patient and persistent as I am when it comes to webthings.

So if you know a thing or two about PHP (I don't really, so that's probably why it took so long) and FTP, I recommend Silverstripe for you. And I really recommend Lunarpages too.

...We now return you to your regular programming...

*user interface

The Mouse War Chronicles

2008-11-12T23:44:00.000-08:00

We live in a fairly rural/wooded area near town, but with none of the luxuries of country living. Our neighbor has a death metal band that practices at his house (weekly, I think). We have been able to hear the music (and I use the term loosely) ever since we moved in. And now we can hear his growling especially well now that the woods between our houses have been chopped down.

But my favorite (and I use the term facetiously) part is the mice. We moved into this house at the end of February of last year. There were two dead mice decomposing in the washer to welcome us into the home. Sometime since then, probably May-ish, one mouse got into the house and trapped itself in the one kitchen cabinet we don't use. Bryan was then unemployed so he was able to knock it silly with some bait and dispose of it without me ever having to see it.

Well of course, now that my personal exterminator is out of the house, the mice are back to undermine my domain.

Last night as I was getting ready to go to bed, I heard some little scratching sounds. I thought they were coming from the bathroom area of the house. We're only talking about 600 square feet of house, so I couldn't be sure if it was actually the bathroom or the laundry room or perhaps the storage area adjoining it.

I went to investigate and after a couple of minutes of hearing nothing (no way was I going in there) I sighed and decided it might have been the rain hitting something outside. I decided wrong.

This morning I woke up to what sounded like bits of paper being ripped. In my sleep-induced stupor I was about to attribute it to Micah having gotten out of bed and into something, but then I heard him roll over in his bed. (His and Caleb's mattresses have distinct sounds.)

So I get up and arm myself with the mop as I pass through the kitchen to follow the sounds, this time I distinctly hear it in the laundry room, which is also where we keep a shelving unit to store most of our non-perishables. The sound then stops. We have an invisible Mexican standoff for a couple of minutes. I don't want to hop the baby gate and start moving things around to have this rodent come jumping out at me. He doesn't want to run for his life and get mopped.

I decide he must've gnawed a hole to the Outside and made a clean break for it. This would be bad, though, since I like the walls to keep cold (and mice) out. But for some reason I make myself believe it enough to go start getting ready for work. I have a late start at it but still the boys are sleeping so I try to move quickly to make up for lost time.

As I'm pulling on a sweater, I hear teeny disgusting mouse feet skittering across the laminate flooring of the kitchen, and then again I hear nothing. I tell myself I am not a brilliant strategist. So far the mouse is winning. So I rearm with the mop and head for the bathroom, and I hear another mouse feet sound but inside the bathroom. But when I look inside, no mouse. I do find his port of entry and block it off with about two feet of wadded-up foil, for lack of immediate human-rodent combat weaponry.

Operation BadMickey: Wave 1

After work I pick up steel wool and spray insulation to block off his hole and a couple of disposible baits. For some reason mouseholes were cute on Tom & Jerry, but in real life they make me shiver. Now the hole is sealed.

Later Bryan calls and I breif him. He tells me there is some D-Con (sp?) in the storage area. I hope I don't have to use it. When it's about time for bed, we hang up. IMMEDIATELY I hear gnawing. It sounds to be in the vicinity of the steel wool/insulation barricade. They are trying to get through, but I think it's working, because then I hear some noises in the wall between the kitchen and laundry room.

Operation BadMickey: Wave 2

I set one of those D-Con pouches in the opening to the crawlspace under the house, one by the drainage spout for the washer (remembering the shenanigans of mice past), and one by the back door for good measure. I set the other bait that I bought strategically inside the house where the kids won't get at it. The whole bait thing creeps me out. It means the mice will be back to scurry and defile my home some more, then crawl somewhere to die and decompose.

Micah wakes up and I go hug him for a few minutes, and as I sit in the dark I hear It in the wall between the boys' room and the living room (or perhaps in the junction between the aforementioned rooms, the kitchen, and the bathrom. Either way, the thought of It chewing through into my babies' room gives me the ultimate creeps and I start considering how much rent in an apartment in town would cost. Maybe I could rent a place with friend A or friend B. Perhaps we could just stay at my mom's house until It is gone.

Then the thought comes to me, maybe It is Them. Shiver. Is midnight too late to start calling around for vacancies?

So this Osamouse Bin Laden is terrorizing me now. The house is small and quiet and if I can hear It gnawing away on the walls, how can I ever sleep. My self appointed bedtime is 1030pm and now it's almost 1230. I can't relax.

I'd trade one mouse for three deathmetal neighbors.

Something about gas prices

2008-11-12T19:32:00.001-08:00

I filled up the Legacy last Thursday for $2.29/gal. Today I filled up the Forester for $2.09/gal.
I like what I see. But I know the prices ebb and flow and I don't trust Big Oil or OPEC. We need go to renewable.

And is it just me or do all the alternative vehicles start out looking way too ugly or ridiculous? (2001 Prius, 2001 Insight, 2008 Smart Fortwo) Sure, there are now hybrid versions of popular cars, but is it too much to ask that we be original, earth-friendly, affordable, AND stylish?

An Unusual Playlist

2008-10-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

Heard in my boys' room this evening:

Los Pollitos Dicen, Traditional Latin American Lullaby
Jesus Loves Me, Traditional Sunday School Song
Come With Me by Phil Phillips and the Starlights (1959)
The Family of God by William & Gloria Gaither (1970)
The More by Downhere (2006)

Senior Pics

2008-10-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

My sister is graduating in a mere eight months. Scary. She is 9 years younger than me. So since she loved the other picture that I took for her a while ago, she asked me to take her senior pictures. Here are a few that are finished now. We took all three of these on my mom's property.

Edit: I just finished one more, so here it is. This one is on the old property, the barn in the background is over 100 years old, I believe.