Month: October 2007

  • Boo!

    What did the boy say when he bit into an inflated hot dog?   “Oh, a hollow weiner!”  (Was it obvious that I made up that monstrosity?)   Yes, indeed, tomorrow we can all be Hollow Weiners and dress up as princesses and Jack Sparrows and really scary homeschool moms.  I read the kids a Jack Prelutsky Halloween poetry book today.  I had a spooky poem book when I was a kid, although it is long gone now.  (I loved those Scholastic book order pages.) This poem was my favorite, and I memorized it.

    DUST

    Agatha Morely all her life,

    Grumbled at dust like a good wife.

    Dust on the table dust on the chair,

    Dust on the mantle she couldn’t bear.

    She forgave faults of man and child,

    But a dusty shelf would set her wild.

    She abhorred sin without protest,

    But dust thoughts preyed upon her rest.

    Agatha Morely is sleeping sound,

    Six feet under the moldy ground.

    Six feet under the Earth she lies,

    With dust at her feet and dust in her eyes.

    If you are dressing up Wednesday, what is your costume? If you had the choice of any costume in the world (not necessarily for Halloween), what would you choose?  I think I might go for a Regency costume, perhaps one like the burgundy dress Caroline Bingley wore in the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice. 

  • Now, for the Answers…

    First of all, here’s Little Miss yesterday on her 8th birthday!




    Unlike TheTheologiansCafe, who got 200 questions, I got a much smaller number. Still, it will make for a long enough entry for sure! I’ll do a brief answer for the skimmers and a more detailed answer underneath for those who want to know.

    What motivated you to start your Xanga?
    Lord Jabez
     
    Lord and Lady Jabez had moved back to Xenia from State College a few years ago. Lord Jabez had a Xanga blog, and I wanted to make a comment. So, I set up my account.  Why did I keep at it?  Need you ask, you fellow bloggers? It’s great fun.  Plus, I’ve “met” all you wonderful people and have been able to keep in touch with my dear, far-flung friends (and the ones closer to home).

    What do you think you will miss most about the US when you are in England for 6 months?
    Er…Jax Cheese Twists and my small appliances?

    Truly, I’m not sure what I’ll miss the most except familiar foods in the grocery store and handy electrical appliances and my baking stone. Of course, I’ll miss my church and my friends and my library, but knowing I am coming home again will make the loss less.  I bet I will also miss my minivan very much after a while as we will have no car over there.

    What are you most “dying to do” while in England?
    Not have to drive everywhere.

    Seriously though, I am so much looking forward to loosing all the responsibilities. This will be the sixth time we’ve temporarily moved from home. (The other times were over the summer for about two months to San Antonio three times, La Jolla, CA, once, and Norman, OK, once. Oh, a college professor and his summer jobs…) It’s so wonderful to have minimal housework and a clean slate of activities every day.

    In terms of things to do in England, I want to take the kids to the British Museum and Kensington Gardens and various and sundry other places.  Yes, I sound very dull.

    What, if anything, do you miss about Xenia?
    Sara Arnovitz and the other hiking trail near Cedarville with the waterfalls.

    I missed those places so, so much when we left!  I also missed AWANA a great deal and all my dear friends.

    Did you do the quilting on the wall in picture of Wit and guitar?
    I did the double wedding ring one (the circle one).

    I am a so-so quilter with several half-finished quilts. I have three finished ones hanging in my dining room. The triangle one I won at a library raffle. The other one in the picture was made by my great aunt.

    Any plans to visit Cambridge? The Moors? Stonehenge since you’ll be so close?
    We’ll be living in Cambridge. I’d love to go to the Bronte Museum and to Stonehenge, even though I’ve been told it’s really not much once you are there.

    The kids are all keen to go to Ireland, so we’ll see about nipping over there for a brief jaunt.

    How can I get four hours of free housecleaning a week?
    Hee hee. I wish I could get this benefit regularly as well!

    What is your Bible translation of preference?
    I’m a New American Standard girl.

    Our church uses the NASB, so I use it as well. It does a good job. I listen to the NIV on CD, which accounts for a large percentage of my Bible time, though.

    What is one thing you would like to do before you die?
    Er…um…live a long, full life?  Write a book? Have several dozen grandchildren? 

    If you had to change your hair color, what would you choose?
    Of all the questions that were asked, this is the one I pondered the longest. (Mostly because I missed seeing FaithCD’s question at first)

    I actually have dark brown hair. All my life, I wanted to have hair the color of caramel.  Now I do.  I am happy. So, I have already changed my color.  But, if I had to change it to go into a witness protection program or something, I suppose I’d have to pick dark brown just because it would seem unobtrusive.

    What’s your most favorite item of clothing?
    Oooh, good one.  I love my ratty, green barn coat dearly. 

    In the summer, my three-quarter length sleeve black cardigan and my black flowered dress. In the winter, turtleneck sweaters. I’m also prodigiously fond of the red silky polka dot pajamas I’m currently wearing (not to be confused with the solid red silky jammies of the previous post).

    Worst book you’ve ever read?
    I stopped reading The Golden Compass because it was so anti-Christian. (Not planning to see the movie!). But, as for books I actually finished, Lady Chatterly’s Lover has to be it. I detested that creepy book. Please, spare me the details.

    ?: Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers?
    I have read one Agatha Christie book, Murder on the Orient Express, and zero Sayers books.  So, I have to say Stephenie Meyers or Julia Quinn.

    I liked Murder… well enough, but I’m not much of a murder mystery fan in general.

    I am guessing you will only be there for a short period of time (?) but
    what is the one thing you want to bring back with you from this stay
    there?
    A souvenir sort of thing? Hmm…lots of pictures? Happy children?  An appreciation for another culture? Crumpets?

    Hmmm…how do you think the young-uns are going to like it?
    I suppose they’ll like it well enough while they are there. I anticipate the usual amount of grousing and complaining, but they should enjoy it. They WILL enjoy it.

    What is your favorite trait in each one of your kids? :)
    Excellent question. I wish I had been pondering it for several days.

    Hunter–His easygoing nature
    Wit–His practical intelligence and, well, wit.
    LibbyK–Her helpful heart
    Gockle–His sensitivity to others
    LittleMiss–Her bossiness will turn out well someday…(too much like her mom!)

    What’s TGD a doctor of?
    He’s a Math Doctor.

    TGD got his Ph.D. in math from Penn State. He studies combinatorics and discrete math and things like that. He is also a math professor at Penn State and runs the undergraduate math office.

    Is that a snake on the neck of Wit’s new guitar? 
    Yes. But, it doesn’t look that scary or creepy.

    Does the rental in
    England have Internet connection (is it linked somehow to the cable you
    mentioned)?
    That I do not know, but if not, we will certainly have to hook it up.

    How do you find the time to ‘Xanga’?
    We all find time for that which we love the most.  (grin)
    What is y
    our favorite Jane Austen book after P&P and why?
    Northanger Abbey

    How could anyone resist the charms of a book which contains Catherine Moorland, the character whom I am most like on every Austen quiz, Henry Tillney, the Austen hero whom I would most enjoy hanging out with in real life, and a biting social commentary via Miss Jane.  Excellent!

    How do you stay thin when you love chocolate chip cookies & seem to make them often?
    Truth be told, I’m not really thin. (I do wear a size 12.) I just give the IMPRESSION of being thin, and for that, I credit good genetics and finally finding clothing styles that suit my rather odd figure.

    Also, other than the junk, I don’t really eat many calories a day. One day, I went sugar free, and I barely had 1200 calories!  I also subscribe to the philosophy touted in French Women Don’t Get Fat, which is that one can eat whatever one wants in any quantity. But, the next day (or week), one eats lightly to counteract it.

    There. Now you know. Don’t you feel like taking a trivia quiz or something? (Yes, I love trivia quizzes!)

  • Grand Theft Xanga

    I am going to steal an excellent idea from AimeeAnne.  Instead of doing one of those survey thingies, I turn to you, dear readers, to ask me the questions which I shall answer in my next post.  Ask me whatever you’d like–silly or serious.

    I was going to post some pictures from the inside of our England house, but they removed the listing, and hence, the pictures. It mostly looks like a rental house with mis-matched furniture. But, how wonderful it will be to me!  (Did I mention this rental comes with four free hours of housecleaning each week? And a washer, dryer, and dishwasher? And cable and a DVD player? And a piano? Spoiled, spoiled me.)

    Wit on his birthday with new guitar and snazzy shirt

    Wit’s birthday cake, a quadruple layer made by Gockle–only four days late

     


  • How Many People Can I Greet in my Pajamas?

    Happy Saturday to you! 

    Today, I woke at 5:53 to get ready and out the door for the NYFL Cheer Competition. (I’m an assistant senior coach.) The girls did quite well.  Little Miss had two solo toe-touch jumps in her non-competitive routine and was the one who got to call “Ready” for all the cheers. (According to her, “I’ve got the loudest voice.”)  LibbyK and her squad had an extremely difficult routine with tons of mounts and things.  And, they took first place!  Huzzah!  I even got a medal placed around my neck by Marcy Rylan. (I didn’t know who she was either until this competition.)

    Afterward, we went out to Quaker Steak (mmmm!) to celebrate.  Then, my mom and I did a bit of shopping.  I got home at 4:45 or so and changed into my pajamas.  Bliss. 

    But, who’s that knocking on the door? Buscuit’s Mom? Why?  AAAH!  We forgot! Wit and Hunter had a costume birthday party to go to and neither one was ready nor had any idea for a costume.  I went into screamy-mom mode, flinging costumes at people and squalling in general.  Ten minutes later, Hunter was in their van.  I threw TGD’s jacket over my silky red jammies (pants and top) and went to the van to tell them that Wit was not going togo.  Turns out, Biscuit’s Dad was also in the van. “Hey, here I am in my pajamas. Er…”

    I was feeling agitated from all the chaos, so I decided to drown my mind in work on the journaling in my England scrapbook. “Mom, someone’s coming down the driveway. I don’t  know who it is.”  (Throw on sweatshirt over jammies)  

    Ding-dong.
    “Hello, I’m Blah Blah Blah, and I’m running for Register of Wills…” 
    Great, another person, this one a male stranger running for public office, sees me in my pajamas.

    So you will not have to suffer the ignominy of seeing me in my jammies like the rest of the world, I’ll show you a picture or two of LibbyK’s squad. (She’s the one in the top picture with the long, blonde ponytail in the middle. The lady in the back was a spotter in case someone fell on her head.)

    “Yell out our colors! Stand up and cheer!”

    “Bulldogs!”  (The ending stunt)

  • Rejoice with Me!

    Thank you for your prayers!  I’m just rejoicing all over the place for the wonderful 24 hours or so I’ve had.  I’ll tell you all the good things in the order they happened.

    1. We didn’t have cheerleading practice last night, so I had an hour and a half to myself while waiting for the other kiddos to be done with practice. I got to clean out the van (14 empty and half-empty water bottles in the trash!) and take a half an hour walk around the park.

    2.  It was Wit’s birthday, and we got Pearl Harbor on DVD and watched it once the younger three were in bed.

    3. This morning, we all got to sleep in since we stayed up late watching the movie.

    4. The book I needed for homeschool this week, Theras and His Town, which was lost for a week and a half was found!  I had torn the house apart for so many days and was despairing.

    5.  LibbyK and I went out to lunch with TGD which was yummy and fun.

    6. I found out my dear friend Linda U. is expecting baby #8.

    7.  We got an email from Cambridge.  It read, “I can now confirm that my wife and I would be happy to let Conduit Tail to you
    for the five months from January to May 2008 and look forward to meeting
    you.”  The house is ours!  I’m so excited. 

    Here’s a picture of the house. Isn’t it so spiffy and Englishy?

    For those of you who are confused, we are moving to Cambridge for TGD’s sabbatical January through May of 2008. Then, we will return to PA.  We are not moving for good.

    What has you rejoicing of late?

  • Prayers, Please!

    We found the most lovely house in Cambridge to rent. But, someone is coming to see it Tuesday (10/16). We’re praying they don’t want the house.  Would you join us in prayer?  And, if God wills that this is not the house for us, we pray that we would find just the perfect home.
    Thanks!

    Also, Tuesday (10/16) is Wit’s birthday.  Feel free to wish him many happy returns of the day HERE.

  • You Asked for It, You Got It…

    Kudos if you know the next word in that jingle!

    I
    have uploaded the prize-winning video of the five we made this
    afternoon. (We give out paper plate awards.) If you don’t have a
    high-speed connection, I’m not sure that you’ll be able to watch it. 
    It’s about six minutes long, I think. 

    To set you up for the
    plot of this cinematic masterpiece, last year WonderBoy and
    ConstructoMan were in a video together which was quite funny. This
    year, they did a sequel which you have before you. Hunter is WonderBoy,
    in case you thought he looked familiar.  The other characters are Sugar
    Daddy,  SideKick,  Her, and, of course, ConstructoMan. 

    The other movies made were James Bond: The Grapes of Wrath which involved some explosive grapes, lots of guns, and Michael C. in drag (hilarious!),  Charlie’s Angels
    featuring our own BlueSmurfGirl and KleineKatz (who had the best line ever–”I’m a good girl! I don’t deserve this!”), Middle Earth, Middle Earth, Let Down
    Your Celebrities     which involved rival rock bands (FenderFanatic) caught in a tornado
    and transported to Middle Earth where they had to destroy a Rubick’s
    Cube by throwing it into the street, and The Amazing Chase which was a
    treasure hunt with clues.  That one had me in it, in a wig with a lisp.
    Maybe I’ll try to get that one uploaded, too. Maybe not!

    But, now it is time to sit back and enjoy the show! (The bloopers at the end are worth watching the whole thing!)

    Presenting–The Rise of ConstructoMan!

  • A Cookie Kind of Day

    Today, we woke to gray, overcast skies.  It was a perfect day to sleep in, so I did. I had a strange and never-before-experienced leg cramp in the middle of the night, so I felt justified in milking that episode for an extra hour of sleep.  The school day progressed well, primarily because my attitude toward things was better. (Praise God, and thank you, dear friends!) That attitude was well-needed as someone (yes, just one person) flunked two math lessons, a history test, a vocabulary lesson, and a grammar page.  Of course, this was not accomplished without a great deal of “back-chat” (new word from a poem we read today).

    But, not to be daunted, I forged ahead and baked some toffee chip cookies.  Mmmm! I’m planning leftovers for supper since we’ve eaten home-cooked meals the past THREE nights in a row!  This may make most folks say, “Yeah, so?” But, for us during football season, three in a row (about to be four) is quite an accomplishment.

    I’ve been sneezing my head off all day.  Oh, the joys of allergies…perhaps it will turn into a full-blown misery.  If it does, I hope it waits until…um…next Wednesday. I suppose I could fit a sick day in this Friday as well.  Saturday would not work as the usual hoards of teens and friends descend on our house for Make a Movie Night. This misnamed event takes place from 1:00 to 8:00. We turn the teens loose on our house and yard and they come up with a movie–plot, costumes, special effects, etc.–and film it.  The finished products are usually about five minutes, but they take hours and hours to put together. My main rules are simple–No climbing on the roof.  No burning or exploding something without first checking with me.  (Of course, nudity is also frowned upon.) It’s a lot of fun.

    How are you spending your weekend?

  • Happy Birthday, LibbyK!

    Today LibbyK turned 13. She is now a legal Xangan. Woo!  She got the usual complement of presents for a 13 year old–clothes, earrings, clothes, earrings, and clothes.  I don’t think it was her best birthday ever in terms of thrill and excitement, but it wasn’t so bad, I hope. Mel and JAndrews (hee hee) gave her presents, which also brightened up the day. (And IcePrincess already gave her some!)

    We met TGD on campus and had dinner and her birthday cake. Guess who forgot to bring the camera? 

    I had a cold thing going on all day–nose like a garden hose, body which ached, and sleepiness.  After a diet Pepsi tonight, I feel pretty perky, which is a bad thing, as I should be sleeping for speedy healing.

    I have a whole pile of Tristan and Isolde books to read and Le Morte D’Arthur. (It’s fun to say D’Arthur. Darthur. Darthur. Darthur. Enough.)  That’s a hefty volume, that Malory. It’s a collection of many stories, but I feel like I’d be cheating to just read the Tristan ones. When I get a book, I feel compelled to read the whole thing, else I can’t write it in my book log.  So, I usually slog through the whole thing–dull, exciting, or useless.

    Do you keep a book log?  Do you feel compelled to finish a book once you’ve started?


  • Groan

    I ate too much this evening. I didn’t intend to do so, but we went to Target this afternoon and got the $1 popcorn and soda deal. (Best deal ever!) Then, we came home and had pizza for supper. Then I had a big milkshake. Groan. Too full!  I’d fast somewhat tomorrow, but my mom is taking LibbyK, Little Miss, and me out for a day of shopping which of course means a dinner out somewhere and a snack!  It also means new clothes for my birthday (in November) and maybe some boots which aren’t quite as high-heeled as the brown ones I bought the other day.  They are nice looking, though.

    This evening, for the first time in…forever?…we had a totally free evening. I planned ahead and got Fantastic 4 and the sequel. We all cuddled up in the living room, eating our pizza to the glow of Ioan Gruffudd.  When the first movie was done, we had a break while I made milkshakes. Then, it was back to more Ioan Gruffudd. . . er, Fantastic 4.   (Just kidding. I like my husband a lot better than IG.)

    I started to read the trilogy Tristan and Isolde, and it is just what I imagined it would be, sort of a druid/fantasy thingie. I should be reading The Shining Company so I can discuss it with Hunter and Wit as it is their current Sonlight reader. But, I’ve not yet started it.  Oh, the “should do’s” of life!

    What should you do, and what are you doing instead?

    PS–I decided to keep the profile picture and change the site to match it.  Obviously.