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Thursday, December 08, 2005

Seven sevens

I must be feeling a little bit better; I can at least do a meme now. This is a sort of hybrid of a few of these "Seven" things I've seen going around.

Seven things I'm good at:

1. Cooking. I'm not brilliant at it, but I manage to keep myself in size twelves. And my husband in size 36s.
   
2. Sewing, and a very few assorted other craft-ish things.
   
3. I usually say 'mothering', but I have not felt like a good mother lately. I have felt like Joan Crawford might feel if she were less obsessive and more lazy. And also far less physically attractive. OK, not THAT bad. But I've been a bit grouchy, maybe. I'm sorry, children.
   
4. Typing
   
5. Spelling
   
6. OK, I will say it, I think I'm good at taking pictures. That sounds so -- so full of myself. I will qualify it: I'm good at taking pictures that I like to look at afterward. Whether anyone else wants to look at them is perhaps a separate issue.
   
7. Physical labor. I can mix concrete and haul it around in five-gallon buckets. I can clear brush and haul wood. I can paint a room all by myself. I can string the Christmas lights on the eaves. I may not be very ornamental, but at least I'm useful. :)
   

seven things I'm terrible at

1. Keeping my house clean
   
2. Inspiring my kids to keep their parts of the house clean without losing my cool
   
3. Making quick decisions. Give me time and I can make a good plan for most anything, find the holes in it, and fix them. Give me five seconds to decide whether to go to Burger King or Applebee's and I may just cause a traffic accident.
   
4. Shopping
   
5. Writing fiction
   
6. keeping my temper under stress
   
7. Budgeting
   

seven things I'd like to be very good at

1. taking photographs
   
2. debating
   
3. mothering
   
4. loving
   
5. keeping my house clean
   
6. playing the piano (again)
   
7. keeping my temper under stress
   

Seven A partial list of novels/series I've read more than twice and will probably read several more times, at least, over the course of my life (I had to stop or this would have taken all night):

1. Jane Eyre (almost time to pull this one out again) by Charlotte Brontë
   
2. Pride and Prejudice (and everything else) by Jane Austen
   
3. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
   
4. Into the Wilderness and those following by Sara Donati
   
5. A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
   
6. The Narnia series by C.S. Lewis
   
7. Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
   
8. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
   
9. Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
   
10. The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
    
11. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Richard C. O'Brien
    
12. Watership Down by Richard Adams
    

Seven favorite movies:

1. Pride and Prejudice (1995)
   
2. Return to Me
   
3. The Black Stallion (for pure eye-candy reasons, if nothing else)
   
4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
   
5. Persuasion (with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds)
   
6. While You Were Sleeping
   
7. Amadeus
   

Seven things I'd like to do before I die:

1. See my children grow into Christ-loving adults who lead happy lives and bring up Godly children
   
2. Spend a long, comfortable, relaxed retirement with my husband
   
3. Live in a place we own and love
   
4. Watch the Nutcracker at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House
   
5. Spend more time with my friends who live far away
   
6. Further my education, possibly earning a degree and taking on a career, post-children
   
7. Travel outside the United States
   

seven role models

1. My mother, who is the one who taught me how to be a mom
   
2. My husband, who has so much faith in God, and love for Him, and willingness to serve Him and others -- and is just generally the perfect man for God to have sent into my life to help me grow closer to Him (and have a really blissful life in the meantime)
   
3. My children, each in his or her own way
   
4. My dad, who is always in pain and yet always has a cheerful attitude and is so generous with his time, labor, love, and resources
   
5. Jesus (no, really?)
   
6. My maternal grandmother, who raised seven children on a shoestring, has worked hard her whole life, and never complains about anything as far as I know
   
7. My paternal (step-)grandmother, dead now, whose voice I hear telling me to stand up straight and tuck in my tummy every time I slouch, and who loved us with a tenacity that I never understood or believed until after she was gone
   

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

childhood survey

Lifted from KiwiRia, bien sûr!

1. What was the first car your family had?
The first one I remember was a light-green Maverick. We owned a series of old rattle-trap sorts of cars until I was ten or so, when they started getting better.

2. What was the name of your first pet and why?
Again, the first one I remember was Belle, an old black mutt of a dog, who was very sweet-tempered.

3. What did you want to be when you grew up?
A teacher, most of the time. A mom, all of the time.

4. What was the name of your elementary school?
It was just [name of our town] Elementary School. I'm sure if you're interested in stalking me (because I totally am stalking material, no? with my vivacious personality and ravishing good looks?) you could put stuff together and figure it out. But I'm not going to just hand it to you.

5. Who was your first best friend?
In fourth grade there was a girl named Lawana Hayes. She and her sister April were my best friends for a year or two.

6. Are you still friends today, and if not, what happened?
No. They moved away. This was like a disease with me in elementary school. It was hard enough for me to make friends, and when I did, right away they'd move away. This happened like four times in a row. April and Lawana started the trend. Maybe they knew something I didn't.

7. What was your favorite board game?
Hmm. Payday, I think.

8. Did you play house or other make believe games?
Yes. Plenty of 'house', and also army, and fort, and school, and lots of horses with April Hayes and our friend Amber R. (who also moved away, and then back, and then away, and then back, and then away). We would gallop around the school field, neighing. Sometimes on our hands and knees. In case you ever wondered why I was so popular with my schoolmates as a child, that was probably a small part of the reason.

9. Were you a Dungeons and Dragons geek?
No. I was lots of various other kinds of geek, though.

10. Did you sleep with stuffed animals as a kid?
Mostly I slept with books. Not so comfortable but a lot more useful.

11. Do you still sleep with stuffed animals?
I still sleep with books. :D

12. Who was the first person you looked up to when you were younger?
Aside from family members, I had a sort of friend-crush on my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. A____. I wanted to be JUST LIKE HER.

13. Who was your favorite relative?
My mom and dad. We had a huge extended family and I really liked some of those, but you said 'favorite'.

14. Were you short or tall in elementary school?
Tall. I was 4'10" in 4th grade, 5'0" in fifth grade, 5'3" in sixth grade, and then I reached my adult height of 5'8 1/2" in eighth grade. I was elephantine.

15. Were you teased in school?
Oh dear me yes. That was among the major defining facts of my life, especially in elementary school and junior high.

16. What was the name of your favorite teacher?
After Mrs. A____ in fourth grade, my favorites in high school were probably my AP English teacher, my French teacher, her husband who taught physics, chemistry, and geometry, and my music teacher.

17. What was the name of your least favorite teacher?
you know, I had several whom I disliked at the time, but living in the same small town my whole life, I like or respect pretty much all of them as adults. I did not get along at all well with my second- and third-grade teacher, but I've lived in her neighborhood my entire adult life and I like her just fine now.

18. What was your best subject in school?
In early school, when there was such a subject, reading and spelling. Later on, I was pretty good at most subjects, but just about the only ones to which I really gave a real effort were music, physics, English, and French. So those were the only ones where I got consistently good grades.

19. What was your worst subject in school?
Analytic geometry, eleventh grade. It was the class where my awful study habits finally caught up with me, and I couldn't do well enough on the tests and quizzes to make up for my utter failure to do homework. I FAILED IT. As in, WITH AN F. Plus there were all these rose curves, and I was SO BAD at them, because they involved drawing these pretty, perfect shapes, and I can't even write my name the same way each time.

20. Did you do well in Physical Education?
Most parts of it. I wasn't a star, by any means, but I could do well enough to get good grades in the classes.

21. Were you clumsy when you were younger?
Yes. I was the cousin who spilled her Kool-Aid at every meal at Grandma's house. (I am still clumsy, but not AS much.)

22. Who was your favorite band as a kid?
Oh, I was such a nerd. I liked Roger Whittaker. I liked classical music. I liked choral music. I liked 70's easy listening. You can again perceive how it was that I attained such dizzying heights of popularity.

23. What was your favorite movie as a kid?
You know, I don't remember. There was a series on HBO called "Dot and the Kangaroo"; I got really obsessed with that for a while when I was really young. When I was in sixth grade, "Top Gun" came out, and I was quite fixated on that.

24. Did your parents read to you?
Yes, lots.

25. Did you have a favorite book?
I had tons. The Little House books, the Narnia books, Beverly Cleary, Trixie Belden, the Hardy Boys, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, Anne of Green Gables etc. And many many more.

26. What was your favorite restaurant as a kid?
The Sugar Pine. It was a little diner in town. I still miss it. It was my favorite from the days of brunch between Sunday School and church with my grandparents where I would order a "Fish Wish" because I liked the name, up through high school, when it was the restaurant I was in the first (and only) time I ever wrote my phone number on a napkin for a guy. You could get a big, sharing-size order of fries and two delicious chocolate milkshakes in tall glasses (with the remainder in their frosty metal canisters) for $6.31 including tax but not tip. Let's have a moment of silence for The Sugar Pine, shall we?

27. What TV or movie star did you have a crush on?
I don't remember having real crushes on any. I kind of made myself have a few -- on Johnny's cousin Billy in Dirty Dancing, on Goose in Top Gun (did I not consider myself good enough to fabricate crushes on the actual stars?) because it seemed like The Thing To Do and because my cousin Becky always had a crush on one celebrity or another. Whereas I just had crushes on book characters.

28. Do you now wonder what you were thinking?
No, as you can see above, I now know what I was thinking. :)

29. Who was your first crush in school?
Jenn is going to keel over if she remembers who this is. Likewise Debi. It was Chad Benson. In first grade (he was in second).

30. As a child, what kind of car did you want when you grew up?
I have no idea.

31. Did your parents spank you?
Yes, but not much. They were more into talking-to. And I was easily disciplined without spankings because I wanted so badly to please everyone.

32. Did your parents fight a lot when you were a kid?
They went through a couple of stages where there was a lot of arguing, but overall, no.

33. Did your parents get divorced or stay married?
Still married after 34 years, and I think they're more in love than ever.

34. If they got divorced, how old were you when it happened?
n/a

35. Did you ever run away from home?
Not exactly. I packed my things several times when I was a little girl and made a big show out of preparing to Run Away. And when I was a teenager I got so mad at my mom that I walked (barefoot) five miles to my best friend's house and spent the night there.

36. How old were you when/if you first got glasses?
I was fourteen.

37. Did you need braces or a retainer?
No.

38. If you're male, how old were you when you had your first wet dream?
um, n/a. Gross.

39. Both sexes when did you start shaving?
Eighth grade, I think.

40. Girls when did you start wearing a bra?
Ditto with the eighth grade.

41. What was your first kiss like?
My first real kiss (because there were guys who kissed me before this but I didn't know what I was doing really, and didn't like it) was when I was fourteen and my then-boyfriend and I went on a little date to the movies. If I remember correctly, Jenn was there as well, and she pretended to time the kiss on her watch.

42. What did you do on your first date?
I just described it.

43. How old were you when you first drank?
well, before I was born I drank a little amniotic fluid... (seriously, alcohol-wise, aside from occasional sips of Kahlua or beer when Dad was having some, I drank a couple of beers on a couple of different occasions the summer I was sixteen and that's pretty much it. Ever. Cause I am so virtuous and all. [Really, I disliked the taste and after that, just never saw the point.])

44. Where was your first house?
When I was born, my parents lived in a little trailer park. It's about two miles down the road from where my husband works now, although our particular house is gone, I think.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

What Rachel Needs

I shamelessly lifted this from Thicket Dweller. For once, here's a meme that I'm doing not because I feel like I need to write in my journal, but because it looked like so darn much fun. Like googlisms, before the googlism lists got full of duplicates from people blogging about their googlisms. Here's the drill: You google "[your name] needs", except of course that you replace [your name] with, well, your name. Then you look at the search results, and you laugh. (You might want to turn on the "Family filter" or whatever it is that Google calls that. Because there are apparently some people out there who think you need stuff that, uh, you don't need. Or at least, you probably don't want to read about needing it on the Internet.)

So. Without further ado, here's what Google thinks I need:

• Rachel needs your prayers!!!!!!! Well, maybe I do. But not with seven exclamation points. I don't need anything with seven exclamation points. It pains me even to copy and paste seven exclamation points. Ouch.
  
• Rachel needs help when she enters Manhattan's meat-packing district to help
  three t r a n s v e s t i t e h o o k e r s find out who murdered one of their friends. Oh my. Yeah, I guess I would need help with that.
  
• Rachel needs £5000. Who doesn't?
  
• During all stages of application development, Rachel needs to refer to Web sites, manuals, and a variety of documentation— Maybe that's why my application development never works out. Thanks, download.microsoft.com.
  
• Rachel needs guidance and normal supervision. A person that has a rapport with Rachel can easily redirect her. Relationships are very important to Rachel. I am so high-maintenance.
  
• Rachel needs help with a question on "Value Laddering"... I certainly would, if I had the slightest clue what that was.
  
• Rachel needs to have blush that is very bright and colorful. Ack, noooooo.
  
• Rachel needs $180.70 ($580.70 minus $400) to bring her income up to the OSIPM standard.
  
• I told Ellen that Rachel needs to be responsible for her own behavior. Good thinking.

  And last but not least:

• Rachel needs to stop being so loud. Got that one right, at least.
  

Sunday, October 09, 2005

ten secrets

Here's a meme I lifted from Jenn.

TEN NOT-SO DARK SECRETS ABOUT ME

ten not-so-dark secrets

1) You know how when you're driving down the highway and you forget to dim your lights for an oncoming car, the driver of said oncoming car will blink his lights at you to remind you? When that happens, I dim my lights, say "whoops, I'm sorry", and wave. They can neither see nor hear me, and every time I swear I'm not going to do that again, but every time, I do. It's like a reflex.

2) I am really easily amused. For example, I think it's really funny when I lift up the cash door on the ATM before it spits the money out, and the cash shoots across the little mini-counter and into my waiting hand. This is just one small example.

3) We have eaten Burger King food so many times that every time I clean out the kids' toybox (once or twice a year), I throw away a grocery sack full of kids' meal toys. (Rationalization: Burger King is the only quick, cheap food available in our town. If we need to pick up something on the way somewhere, or if for whatever reason I'm not cooking, Burger King is pretty much it. All you whole-foods people can call child-protective services now.)

4) I almost always use a mix to make brownies or gravy. Brownies because it's cheaper that way, and gravy because it makes way better gravy than scratch.

5) I make my bed maybe one day a week. For a while I did it regularly, but I got out of the habit.

6) I'm supposed to be on "computer restriction" right now. If the kids see me riffling the pages of my book as I read, I get a day of computer restriction (it's a deal we struck to make it a little less onerous for them to break some of their own bad habits.). I was caught fair and square earlier today. Yet here I sit. I think they've forgotten.

7) The only romantic dreams I have had in years about anyone other than my husband (don't you HATE when you have those; it feels so -- squicky) have been about Mr. Rochester (from Jane Eyre).

8) I have athlete's foot.

9) When I was fifteen and only had a learner's permit, I took my parents' car to town while they were gone so that my fourteen-year-old friend could buy cigarettes for my seventeen-year-old brother.

10) Since I tend to babble on in here so much about anything and everything, it's hard to come up with anything else that might be considered a "secret" that's not actually too private to share here. :)

Friday, August 19, 2005

survey I borrowed from Carrie, whose journal is usually locked so I won't link it

Top 10 Favorite TV Shows, Ever
I don't know if I can come up with 10.  I'll try.
1. Who's the Boss?
2. Between the Lions (it's educational TV. It has to be good for you.)
3. Sesame Street
4. Jeopardy!
5. um, the winter Olympics? that doesn't count, does it.
6. Little House on the Prairie
7. Whose Line Is It Anyway?

And that's all I can think of.  Really.  I mean, if I were to come up with TV shows that I liked at one time but wouldn't watch now unless I had to, that list might include:

8. Saved by the Bell (SHUT UP.)
9. Doogie Howser, M.D.
10. Coach


Top 9 Favorite Movies, Ever
1. Pride and Prejudice (the 1995 BBC version)
2. Persuasion (Amanda Root, also 1995 I think)
3. Return to Me
4. It's A Wonderful Life
5. The Phantom of the Opera
6. Amadeus
7. While You Were Sleeping
8. To Kill A Mockingbird
9. Sleepless in Seattle

Top 8 Favorite Books, ever
1. Persuasion (Austen)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Austen)
3. Anne of Green Gables and those following (L.M. Montgomery)
4. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
5. Fifteen (Beverly Cleary)
6. Into the Wilderness (Sara Donati)
7. David Copperfield (Dickens)
8. the Bible (which is actually 66 books, but who's counting)

Top 7 Favorite Albums, ever
oh sheesh.  I haven't bought albums in AGES. I loved when downloading music became possible, because I hated paying full price for an album on which I'd generally like three or four songs.
1. the original cast recording CD of Phantom of the Opera
2. Evanescence
3. my "Masters of Classical Music" series.  That's ten albums. Whoops.
4. George Winston: December
5. Alison Krauss and Union Station: Now That I've Found You
6. Chanticleer: Sing We Christmas
7. the P&P soundtrack

Top 6 Favorite Foods, ever
1. Chicken Scampi from the Olive Garden
2. the garlic/mushroom/swiss burger at Denny's
3. really good meatloaf (with wine gravy, not tomato sauce)
4. a really good steak
5. fried zucchini sticks with garlic ranch to dip them in
6. philly cheese steak sandwiches -- good and greasy

Top 5 Favorite Drinks, ever
1. Diet Cherry Coke
2. Diet Coke
3. plain strong iced tea
4. peach Snapple, regular or diet
5. a chocolate milkshake

Top 4 Favorite Desserts, ever
1. warm brownies with a hot fudge sundae on top
2. mint chocolate chip ice cream
3. chocolate mousse
4. pudding/whipped cream parfait

Top 3 Favorite Holidays, ever
1. Christmas
2. Thanksgiving
3. any day that T has off work :)

Top 2 Favorite Restaurants, ever
1. The Olive Garden
2. The Red Fox (little local restaurant)

Favorite Quote, ever
This is hard.  I used to keep a collection of quotes I liked, but I haven't in a long time... I find it harder to think in soundbites, I guess.  But here's a line I like a lot from Austen.  It's in Sense and Sensibility, when Elinor is having a conversation with an utter dolt (who happens to be the brother of the man she loves), and he says something that is typically (for him) doltish. And... "Elinor agreed to it; she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition."  BLISS. That is a great example of why I love Austen -- the language, the sly wit, the irony. Yay Jane.

What was I doing 10 years ago?
I'd been married a year and a half (almost); I was six weeks pregnant and hence just starting to have morning sickness.  I was working as a nanny three days a week and as a teacher's aide for two days a week.

What was I doing 5 years ago?
I was nursing C, who was almost a year old, getting ready for the start of LT's first year of sit-down school (he was 4 1/2; I was a very eager first-time homeschooler).

What was I doing 1 year ago?
The same kind of thing I'm doing this summer, really.  Blogging, living in the same house, everyone healthy, same old same old.  Oh, wait, I just checked my old journal to find out if anything else was going on, and that reminded me that I was also sewing a dress for my friend's wedding which was to be the first of September.  This was quite a project.

What was I doing yesterday?
Went up to visit T at work and then into Yosemite Valley with the kids to spend the afternoon.  Took a few pictures, none of which made me go WOW. Between the two of us, LT and I managed to drop my Nikon manual and my filter case (with only one filter in it, fortunately; the others were on my camera) into running water; I managed to barely rescue them before they could be swept into a culvert and under a road.

What am I doing today?
Today was crazy.  I went to the valley with the kids, and on the way there I discovered my cell phone wasn't working, so I tried to have it replaced while I was down there, but it was no longer under warranty, and I didn't have $150 lying around to buy a new phone. In fact, I barely had $35 lying around to buy groceries. On the way home it occurred to me that based on evidence, it was probably just the speaker that wasn't working, so in the evening we went BACK to the valley (this time with T, who needed derby car parts) and I spent $10 on a hands-free headset.  Problem solved.  In January I can upgrade my phone for free.  Anyway.  The first trip down there was very stressful.  It was one of those days when the laws of physics (especially that bit about gravity) conspired against me, and for some reason C kept stepping on my feet (I: sandals; she: clunky tennis shoes), and the crowds and the noise and the unhelpful salespeople and augh.  Wal-Mart twice in one day, I'm surprised my hair's not white.

What will I do tomorrow?
Hopefully nothing beyond the bare necessities of housework and people-feeding, with considerable sitting-around-reading, and I want to go out and take moonrise pictures in the evening.

Five snacks I enjoy:

1. potato chips
   
2. peaches
   
3. cheese sticks
   
4. ice cream
   
5. cold cereal (yes, for a snack. so sue me.)

Five bands I like:

1. Evanescence
   
2. Alison Krauss and Union Station
   
3. the Marine band (ha ha)
   
4. Rubber bands (ha ha ha)
   
5. um... bands. Oh. The Cranberries, I like them too.

Five things I would do with a million dollars:

1. Buy a house
   
2. pay off our bills and my parents' bills
   
3. buy a Nikon D70
   
4. make a nice donation to our library, and several middle-ish ones to Christian charities like homeless missions etc.
   
5. buy my husband a new Dodge Ram diesel crew cab dually, and myself a Chrysler Sebring convertible

Five locations I would like to run away to:

1. Morro Bay
   
2. Bailey Flats (nobody's heard of this place and that's a large part of the reason it's on this list)
   
3. San Francisco, if I had a ton of money to spend there and could leave when said money was gone
   
4. Florida
   
5. the library

Five bad habits I have:

1. Overeating
   
2. Talking too much
   
3. procrastinating, especially as regards housework
   
4. tuning out people who talk to me while I'm reading (I hesitate to put this down, because really, aren't they asking for it?)
   
5. Spending too much time in front of this machine

Five things I like doing:

1. Reading
   
2. Going for walks, with my camera or my family or both
   
3. singing
   
4. taking photographs
   
5. looking at photographs other people have taken

Five TV shows I like:
n/a

Five famous people I would like to meet:
Is it OK if some of them are dead? Also, my desire to meet these people is tempered by two things: 1) the realization that I would make an utter fool of myself if ever I did meet them, and 2) the fact that I might be disappointed once I knew them as real people with flaws like everyone else.  Maybe not, though.  Anyway.  Shut up Rachel and get on with the list.

1. C.S. Lewis
   
2. Condoleeza Rice
   
3. Jane Austen
   
4. getupgrrl
   
5. Jim Henson

Five joys in my life at the moment:

1. My family, the way we all love each other so much and are getting along really well
   
2. the fact that my husband never leaves in the morning without kissing me, and calls me a few times a day just to hear my voice
   
3. that there are two books coming out this fall that I've been looking forward to for quite some time (Outlander #6 and the last Mitford book from Jan Karon)
   
4. playing the flute and the piano again, a little
   
5. singing with C, who has decided that in addition to her careers as mom, zookeeper, horse trainer, and "seller" (person who works at a store), she's also going to play Christine on stage

Five favorite toys:

1. my Nikon Coolpix 5400
   
2. my cell phone
   
3. my N50 (film SLR)
   
4. I can't think of any others...

Five people to tag:
I won't tag anyone but I can think of a few people who have been neglecting their journals; perhaps this would be a good excuse for you to write again, hmm?  You know who you are. :)

Sunday, August 07, 2005

one hundred things I like

This is going around right now and I couldn't resist.

1. California winter
2. geese flying overhead
3. freckles on children
4. board games
5. good books
6. accents
7. red licorice
8. the moment when the focus is just right, just before the shutter clicks
9. old letters (mine and other people's)
10. air conditioning on a hot day
11. the library
12. the smell of insect repellent
13. horses
14. old barns
15. long hair
16. woodsmoke
17. pie
18. old friends
19. new friends
20. old books
21. new books
22. weddings
23. towels dried on the clothesline
24. blackberries
25. sunflowers
26. narcissus
27. ladybugs
28. earnest worship
29. piano music
30. sunrise
31. shopping
32. changes in the weather
33. sewing
34. rain -- the sight, smell, feel, and sound of it
35. losing myself in a story
36. cats in twilight
37. hazel eyes
38. beavers
39. long car rides
40. female friendship
41. the beach
42. ordering things online
43. romantic comedies
44. strong winds
45. sunset
46. wit
47. going for walks alone
48. making something organized
49. singing
50. the astounding intricacy and creativity of God's creation
51. blue eyes
52. pleasant music, loud in the car
53. finishing a project
54. going for walks with my family
55. clothes that fit
56. holding hands
57. the freedom to stop to take a picture if I want to
58. the sound of a car driving on a wet road
59. planning something fun
60. swimming
61. Sunday-afternoon naps
62. cinnamon toothpaste
63. losing weight
64. brown eyes
65. astronomy photographs
66. comfortable new sandals
67. great-smelling shampoo
68. getting up early to go somewhere to have fun
69. my parents' relationship
70. prepaid prints at snapfish
71. Yosemite
72. book recommendations
73. capri pants
74. long, deep discussions
75. occasionally looking pretty
76. new hair gadgets
77. long shadows
78. going to sleep in a place that's miles and miles and miles from where I woke up
79. the right kind of sentimentality
80. butterflies and bumblebees
81. intuition
82. eating outdoors on a summer evening
83. visiting new and interesting places, even cities
84. compliments (giving and receiving them)
85. my children singing
86. a nicely set table
87. being a mother
88. spontaneity
89. knowing people really well
90. stories of other people's childhoods
91. logic
92. evening sunshine
93. clean, wet laundry, hanging on the clothesline with the afternoon sunlight shining through it
94. long loose skirts
95. affectionate banter
96. my hair off my neck
97. cadbury roast almond bars
98. doing something right for a change
99. interesting architecture
100. making lists

Friday, May 20, 2005

"Friday Feast"

This is from Friday's Feast" via Kristen.

Appetizer
Approximately how many hours per day do you spend watching television?
None, unless it happens to be a week when we happen to visit, say, my in-laws' house, where the TV is generally always on. I do watch somewhere between two and ten hours of videos or DVDs a week, though, almost all from our home collection or from the library, usually while I'm doing something else, like crocheting. And most of that is the kids watching something and me just happening to be there.

Soup
Which colors decorate your kitchen?
Cobalt blue and white. If you can call it "decorate".

Salad
Name 2 brand names you buy on a regular basis, and what do you like about them?
Um. Diet Coke, because, well, it is perfection in a carbonated beverage (NO ASPARTAME RANTS, PLEASE, I've heard it all before, thanks). And also... man, I am not much of a brand-names person -- Grape Nuts cereal, because the generic version is awful.

Main Course
What is your biggest fear?
I don't even like to think about it long enough to type it, but I imagine every mother (or anyone who knows any mothers) knows what it is.

Dessert
If you could wake up tomorrow and find yourself in another location, where would you want to be?
Hmm. Morro Bay? I'm assuming I could take my family with me and come back when I wanted to?

Bonus Birthday Question
What's your favorite flavor of birthday cake?
I like Costco's chocolate cake with their chocolate mousse filling and chocolate whipped icing. Thank you so much, that nice healthy stew I just ate for lunch seems a lot less appealing now.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

if I could be...

Kristen "tagged" me with this a while ago, and I'm just now getting around to doing it.

How to play: I have to pick 5 occupations out of the list below and post my answers. Then I tag 3 other people to post their answers on their blog. If I tag you, and you don't want to be a part of this, then that is okay. Just let me know and I'll tag someone else.

The Questions: If I could be a scientist...If I could be a farmer...If I could be a musician...If I could be a doctor...If I could be a painter...If I could be a gardener...If I could be a missionary...If I could be a chef...If I could be an architect...If I could be a linguist...If I could be a psychologist...If I could be a librarian...If I could be an athlete...If I could be a lawyer...If I could be an inn-keeper...If I could be a professor...If I could be a writer...If I could be a llama-rider...If I could be a bonnie pirate...If I could be an astronaut...If I could be a world famous blogger...If I could be a justice on any one court in the world...If I could be married to any current famous political figure...

Well, I was going to get all smart-alecky and say that this being twenty-first century America, I could be any of these things if I really, really wanted to be, but my priorities are such that I am... um, not. However, I won't be a smart-alec, I'll just do the meme the way it was meant to be done. :) (except that I'll skip the "tagging" part, and just let people copy it if they want to.)

If I could be a scientist: I would work for the Institute for Creation Research, and I would make a HUGE effort to let the world know exactly how bad a fit Darwinian evolution is with the fossil record.

If I could be a farmer: I wouldn't. No way would I want my livelihood and that of my family to depend so completely on the weather and other unpredictable natural events. Which shows that I need to trust God more, I guess, or else that I read the Little House series too many times as a little girl.

If I could be a librarian: I think I might someday. I would be friendly to everyone, especially the kids, have sugarless suckers behind my desk, recommend really good books to everyone, and smell the books when nobody was looking.

If I could be a gardener: Nobody would want me to. I kill plants just by looking at them.

If I could be a musician: I would have studied the piano really thoroughly and not taken a twelve-year-and-counting hiatus from it after finishing high school. I would perhaps conduct a medium-major orchestra, or else play the flute for one. Whichever it was I would never tire of the way the air vibrates when the cello plays, and the feeling it makes in my chest like being in love. I would live in a house with hardwood floors and slanting sunlight, tastefully decorated, with a whole room dedicated to music which would contain a gleaming Steinway grand piano. I would have a complete personality transplant so that I could be surrounded by lots and lots of interesting friends and be at ease with them, and we would get together on weekends and make music together. And I would be really lonely and wish I had the friendly, crazy, happy life I have now, with my family around me in my lived-in little house.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

where I'm from

(edited about a gajillion times since I first posted it)

I shamelessly ripped off this idea from The Happy Husband, which I thought I had found through Amy's blog but now that I look I see that I must have been wrong, as she has no link to it. (ed: yes she does, Rachel, you idiot.) Anyone who can tell me how I did come across The Happy Husband, please do so, thanks (from a person whose brain decided to go on permanent vacation as a 30th-birthday present). Anyway. Without further ado:

I am from
playing outside and dusty summers
riding horses and bicycles and in the backs of pickup trucks
I am from sunburns and peeling cheeks
from car-hood sleds on pine needles
from tarweed and peach brush and dirty faces

I am from sawdust and pine tar and pulling brush and bonfires
from swimming and fishing in creeks
from reading on rocks
and sleeping outdoors

I am from unruly hair and hand-me-downs
rats-nests and more interesting things to do than think about how I look
from schoolyard torture and you're so ugly
from "i'll be your friend when nobody else is around to see"
I am from daily sobbing heartbreak

I am from anne of green gables and trixie belden and the hardy boys
and marguerite henry and laura ingalls wilder and black beauty and the black stallion
from cynthia voigt and beverly cleary and judy blume
and jane austen and jane eyre and john steinbeck and charles dickens
from horse books and books about growing up and books about gymnasts or ballerinas
and a thousand others
I am from long summer days spent in the library sucking on butterscotch disks
reading through one shelf at a time

I am from spelling bees, from math competitions
from trophies and family pride
from small-town people who never forget (and unfortunately neither do their kids)
I am from no traffic lights and no movie house and no wal-mart
from golden grass and green oaks as far as you can see
from stickers in my socks and freckles on my shoulders

I am from rattly old cars
from all-day trips with the windows down
from "mistress shady" and "who stole the cookie" and "twenty questions"
I am from signal peak and morro bay and monterey and bagby grade and coulterville
and everywhere else within $20 worth of gas
I am from getting lost on purpose
from "i spy" and "ninety-nine bottles of coke" and "i met a fair maiden out walking one day" and "my grandfather's clock"

I am from parents who hug
from stories read out loud, from hard-working people
I am from a brother who teases and cousins who play pranks
I am from family secrets and little dramas and tension
and from reconciliation
I am from so much love

I am from junior high dances
from "hair band" ballads and very bad dancing and searing crushes
from giggling friends and bubble skirts
high tops and big shirts and rolled-cuff cutoffs

I am from underachieving
from "performs below potential" and "disorganized" and 99th-percentile SATs
from driving to the river and swimming in the moonlight
from midnight walks and deep conversations about love and eternity
and whether you think he really likes me

I am from surrender
from flaming enthusiasm for Jesus and singing hymns and praise
I am from deep abiding joy

I am from the world's happiest marriages
(that's two generations' worth)
I am from our own private language
from a thousand loving nicknames and as much affection as I can handle
(and that's a lot)
from Candy Land and Homer Price and Goodnight Moon
I am from sticky kisses and dandelion bouquets

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

We are going to make a poem.

(this is my THIRD ENTRY for this calendar day. I am firing them out, it seems.)

If you've been reading online journals for more than five minutes or so you've probably seen the meme where you ask your readers to grab a book and read the such and such line from such and such page and post it in their blogs. I just saw a little twist on it over at someone else's journal, where you ask the people to post the answers in the comments and then add them all together to make a little poem. Such a clever idea that I had to steal it.

So. Grab the nearest book to you (you know the drill, no going to the bookshelf and pulling off your copy of Plato, seriously the one that's really closest to you at your computer), and open it to page -- let's say 18. In case someone ends up using a children's book, it'll be sure to have at least that many pages. Find the first complete sentence on that page and quote it in my comments section. And then if you want to do this on your own journal you're more than welcome to do it there too. :)

Thank you for humoring me. :)
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