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  • TAG!

    Ja, I got tagged in the 4th picture thing by BigToePeople. And I’m intrigued to find out what my fourth of fourth picture is.

    Ummm…? I have no idea what this is or even who drew it.  It’s obviously someone in a swimming pool. Drawn in orange whiteboard marker.

    Let’s try the fourth dated folder to see if I have better success. (browse, browse, browse) Oh, this is my living room before we painted and got new furniture. Yeah, boring, too.

    So, now I’m going to tag. Maybe you pictures will be more interesting.  Here are the rules:

    The object of 4th picture tag is to:

    1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

    2) Select the 4th picture in the folder

    3) Explain the picture

    4) Tag 4 people to do the same (except I tagged more)

  • The Writer’s Almanac

    I subscribe to Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac. It gives me a daily dose of poetry and some trivia about writers and events. Over the past few days, there have been some interesting ones.

    From January 3

    **It’s the birthday of the ornithologist James Bond born on this day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1900). He was the leading expert on birds of the Caribbean, and his book Birds of the West Indies (1936) is still in print today.

    The novelist Ian Fleming was an enthusiastic bird-watcher, and he was living in Jamaica and came across a copy of Birds of the West Indies. Fleming was writing a thriller and decided to use the name James Bond for the protagonist, agent 007. That thriller was Casino Royale (1953), the first of Fleming’s 12 James Bond novels.


    From January 4

    **It was on this day in 1825 that the writer Alexandre Dumas fought his first duel. He was 23 years old, and he had gotten into a fight with a soldier over a game of billiards. They had a duel with swords. Not only did Alexandre Dumas lose the duel, but his pants fell off in the middle of it.

    But 20 years later, he became famous as the author of The Three Musketeers (1844) and The Count of Monte Cristo (1845).

    **And it’s the birthday of Jack Norworth born in Philadelphia in 1879. Jack Norworth had never been to a baseball game, but one day in 1908, he was riding the subway and he saw a sign that said “Baseball Today — Polo Grounds,” and he started thinking of baseball lyrics. He wrote them down on a piece of scratch paper, and then took them to the composer Albert Von Tilzer, another man who had never seen a baseball game, who went ahead and wrote the music. And the song became very famous: “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

  • Maybe It’s a Blessing?

    I’ve somehow gotten myself sick, the illness that makes you sleep poorly with visions of chicken pox, baking cookies, and endless driving cavorting through you restless head.  It’s the kind of disease that makes you want to be mean and curl up and cry all at the same time. Of course, you have to sneeze through all of it with a feeble cough like a dainty consumption patient sniffing ragweed.

    I’m not alone in my contagion. Hunter and Wit have head colds, and Gockle has some weird illness which is like a cold, but he just randomly throws up every now and again.  But, there is no fever, little dampening of spirits, and he seems to be able to eat. 

    Tomorrow starts school again, which will be quite a challenge since we’ve been sleeping in until ten or twelve on some days.  But, perhaps these illnesses are a blessing. I have a perfect excuse for everyone to go to bed early and to take it pretty easy tomorrow. And, I have yellow cake, hot tea, a soft mattress, hot water with bubbles, lots of books, my magic pajamas and robe, and a snow cone machine.

    Are you a sickie, too? What’s making you feel cozy?

  • January 3rd

    Some dates stick out in your mind. September 11. December 7. July 4.  It only takes an instant–a wrong turn of a car wheel, the test results called in, a last breath–to change a date from ordinary into laden with meaning.

    January 3rd is just a day to me, just an ordinary day. And for that, I am praising God!

    Now, January 1 was more memorable. This year we had 119 people for the New Year’s Eve party and 18 people slept over. (Word of my Jiffy Mix pancakes must be getting out.)   With that many people, there were a lot of mini-parties going on. There was the “stand in the kitchen and talk” group. (Photo courtesy the panorama feature on my new Christmas camera, which turned out to be defective and had to be mailed back to Kodak.)




    The “women playing games” group. (Of which I was a part and have no pictures. So here’s some of the food instead.)

    The “college students chatting and collapsing” group.





    And there was a group of teens having a fine time in the basement playing dress up…




    And seeing who could hold him/herself horizontal on a pole in the basement for the longest
    time, among other things.





    A few seconds before it was time for the ball to drop, people tried to gather around the two televisions and mostly succeeded.



    When the Texas Hold Em’ game finally ended around 4:40 and the last car full left, kids started to collapse in the living room.  I read them all some bedtime stories (Tales of Beedle the Bard)…

     


    And then kicked the boys into the basement where nine of them got to smash onto three mattresses and the girls upstairs onto the various couches, chairs, and carpeted floors. I got up to bed around 5:20, but falling asleep was difficult. (So much caffeine!)


    I was surprised to see all the boys troop out of the basement promptly at 9:30 eagerly searching for pancakes. Those that stayed long enough got hotdogs and sauerkraut for lunch because, as my mom once answered when I asked her why we ate sauerkraut and pork on New Year’s Day, “If you don’t, you will die.”

    Happy 2009!

  • Ringing in the New

    Happy New Year’s Eve Day!  Things are all a-flurry at Teacherperson’s house today as we prepare for our big New Year’s bash.  Last year, we had 121 people. The year before, 108. What will this year bring?  I’ve laid in a stock of 2 L sodas, five bags of ice, over 200 cups and paper plates,  two boxes of brownie mix, and fixings for pancakes for everyone who stays over. Lord willing, our guests will bring the rest of the food.

    What will we do? Play games, chat, eat food, laugh, and generally have a fine time.  I’m excited to use my new Christmas camera which takes panorama shots, so I can finally get everyone in a room during the ball drop into the picture all at once.

    If you don’t have anything going on, feel free to join us! Oh, and enjoy your Leap Second!


     


    Links to previous years…

    Happy 2008!

    Happy 2007!


  •


    Happy Christmas to All!

    And to all a good day! Er, good night?  Ah, here it is, Christmas Eve day. We are all iced in, and I’m glad we’ve no place to go. Well, we are planning to go to our church’s Christmas Eve service tonight, but if this ice keeps up, I think it would be unwise.  When you can’t make it to the car without falling down, then you might just want to stay home.

    We had a lovely Christmas time with my dad’s family last night. My stepmom is an excellent cook, so we were fed well. Plus, we just had a lot of fun visiting.

    Today, we have done this and that around the house. We are all eagerly looking forward to the last load of laundry being dry so we can have a Christmas Eve Afternoon family bonding time of sorting nine loads of laundry.  The kids are more excited about that event than about Christmas morning, I bet!

    The kids who want to are planning to open one present later today. I’ll have to think about what we have for supper–no special feast planned as of yet.  We’ll read Luke 2 and some will sleep downstairs under the Christmas tree. 

    May your day be merry and bright, and may you have a blessed Christmas Eve tonight!

     

  • Shooting the Wise Men


    Shooting the Wise Men

    Saturday dawned fair and bright and was a perfect day to get together with my brother and his family at my mom’s for our yearly Christmas Celebration O’ Fun.

    I got to my mom’s around noon, and I was irrationally starving. I had a decent breakfast, but I could have eaten the north end of a southbound skunk. Thankfully, the food my mom had lined up was a bit tastier.  Did you ever read a description of a feast in a book and think, “Wow. I wish I could have been there!”  Wish on.  Shrimp, lasagna, ham, stuffed shells, salad, pickled eggs, hot rolls, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate mousse thingies, candied walnuts, cookies, peanut M-n-Ms…mmmmmmm.

     
    After we foundered ourselves, it was time for Cousin Pictures in Front of the Tree.  This year, they even posed with Grammy Peep and PapaJohn.

     


    Once the torture of being photographed was over, it was time for…presents! My sister-in-law made me a gorgeous quilt.  It has on it key dates in TGD and my life together: when we were born, our first date, marriage, kids’ birthdays, homes purchased, jobs TGD has held, etc.  The first square says, “All because two people fell in love” and the last one says, “And the best is yet to come.” 







    All the children scattered to put together new Lego sets or to find more food or a football game.  Grammy Peep soon called everyone back to tell them a story she wrote. Here are the essential details, although it’s my version of the tale, not hers exactly.


    “Today, I’m going to tell you the story of this nativity set. (The one at her feet.) Many years ago, Grandma and Pop Pop got several boxes in the mail from Aunt Edie. Most of the boxes were marked, “For Christmas,” but one box was labeled, “Open now.” Inside the box was this nativity set: Mary and Joseph and three Wise Men. But there was no baby Jesus. We thought this was strange, but then we thought that Aunt Edie was going to have them open a box with baby Jesus in it on Christmas day. That was just the sort of thing she might do.

    Christmas morning came and all the boxes were open, but no baby Jesus!  I (Grammy Peep) called Edie and said, “Where’s baby Jesus?”  She laughed, thinking I was joking, but I explained to her how the nativity had arrived with no baby nor a manger. “But, Jesus was there,” she insisted. “I wrapped him up carefully and put him in the bottom of the box.”  When the box was opened, Grandma and PopPop must have thought the wrapped baby was just a pile of packing material.

    I called them and explained that Jesus was in the box.  “But, we threw that box out weeks ago!” they cried. 

    And so, we don’t have a baby Jesus for our nativity. We’ve looked and looked to find one, but none seem to match the set.

    How many of us throw out Jesus?  Instead of keeping Him the focus of Christmas, we toss Him out with the wrappings.”

    It was a great story.  And then, we shot the Wise Men.

    Gockle had just gotten a Nerf 20-shot gun thing earlier that day.  After the story, somehow a Wise Man got pegged. We all thought this was pretty funny and had a competition. Who could shoot down all the Wise Men?


    Mary and Joseph were exempt from the carnage, but the poor, unnamed Wise Men were fair game.


    We had a first round, and if you shot down all three Wise men, you made it into the finals.  Gockle, Uncle Brad, Cousin Em, and Hunter were vying for the title. 


    The winner?  Cousin Em who only took 12 shots to knock down all three Wise Men! (That’s her dad, Uncle Brad, pouting beside her.)



    My mom, who has a little bit of everything, quickly got her hands on three medals for our awards ceremony.  Someone even hummed The Star Spangled Banner. (Unfortunately, if you had a giant head, the medal didn’t quite fit over it…)

    After that rousing match which left some “physically and emotionally drained and needing a nap,” the Christmas Charades game was brought out.

    Cindy Lou Who?

     

    As if this weren’t enough laughter and fun in the day, LibbyK and Cousin Em went to the computer and made some Elf Yourself movies. (http://www.elfyourself.com/)  If you’ve not yet seen a movie or made one yourself, I highly recommend it for some free holiday laughs. Just a hint–when choosing your pictures, pick faces with expression: anger, silliness, surprise, etc.  Smiles are great, but when an angry elf appears and starts doing the Charleston, it’s hilarious!

    Although the evening ended on a somewhat damp note with the toilet breaking and overflowing onto the downstairs computer, we really enjoyed the day.

    May your Christmas be as merry and bright! And may Santa not shoot you with a Uzi tonight.

        


  • PersonifiCATion

    You may have recalled my mentioning our new(ish) kitten, Jasper. He is still the loudest cat I’ve have ever heard, setting up yowling meows for all sorts of reasons and for no apparent reason.


    Wild Jungle Cat hangs out on human tree branch


    Like most folks, we give our critters nicknames. Lately Little Miss has been calling Jasper “Pastor.”  I though it was just a rhyme for his name until today.

    LM: Mom, do you know why I call him “Pastor”?
    Me: Nope.
    LM: Because he always has a lot to say.

     

  • A Day to Myself

    When the children were little, I never even thought much about being by myself in the house. My time alone was at meetings or late-night grocery runs. But now that the kids are older, I seem to have time by myself more and more now that the older four are in school full-to-part time and when TGD takes Little Miss in to his office for the day. It makes me want to start writing a novel.

    But, today, the only thing I plan to write is this Xanga entry. I have a doctor’s appointment, blood test stuff (routine, both of them), lunch at Panera with Abby B. to discuss which play we’ll put on this spring, a quick trip to Wal-Mart for printer cartridges, and lots and lots of laundry to fold. Right now, I’m trying to burn my pictures to CDs. Besides the fact that if my computer crashed, I’d lose a year’s worth of pictures, my hard drive is in the red zone for not having enough empty space. 

    Do you get much time alone? Too much time alone?


  • Are You 3%?

    This afternoon, we participated in Angel Tree with the Youth Group. What I enjoy most about the way our church does Angel Tree is that the teens get the opportunity to share the gospel with other kids when they deliver the presents. 

    A lady in my Sunday school shared the statistic that 97% of Christians will never share the gospel with another person.  Wow. That’s sobering. But, how many times have I shared this month? This year? This lifetime? What a joy and blessing it is to give teens the opportunity and mandate to share with someone else!

    How about you? Who are you sharing with? Have you ever sat down and shared the message of salvation with someone?  One way that I have “sneaked in” sharing the gospel was to tell someone I needed to practice my testimony and sharing Christ. (Which was totally true. I did and do!) I then got to sit down with the person (a friend or relative) and explain salvation without all the pressure. It was just “practice” after all! 

    Don’t let fear rule you. You’d tell where you got the best bargains for Christmas shopping, wouldn’t you? Or if someone were giving away free $100 bills, you’d let everyone know. Why not share the love of Christ? It’s not our job to convince people. We just have to be faithful to share.

    Ezekiel 2:4-7
    “I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’ “As for them, whether they listen or not–for they are a rebellious house–they will know that a prophet has been among them.

     ”And you, son of man, neither  fear them nor fear their words, though thistles  and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions; neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence, for they are a rebellious house.  “But you shall speak  My words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.