Flood update

Well, looks like I spoke too soon: the Puyallup River is expected to crest OVER the River and Levee Roads in the next few hours - so the fire dept is going door to door, evacuating people. This is different from the warning from the dear weather service:

THE PUYALLUP RIVER AT PUYALLUP... * AT 9 AM TUESDAY THE STAGE WAS 28.2 FEET * FLOOD STAGE IS 30.0 FEET * FORECAST...THE RIVER WILL RISE TO NEAR 28.7 FEET LATE THIS AFTERNOON.

I repeat, however, this is not in my section of the city. However, our friend Norm has his automotive shop over there so A. is going to see if he can help him move things up and out of the way. (edit: A. couldn't get down there, so no go.) I hope he comes to get us so I can take some pictures. (edit: He did!)

Here's a couple photos taken with my camera!
This is taken from Levee Road into Fife, looking south over to River Road. If the levee weren't there, all of Fife would be underwater!!




This, again, is from Levee Road, looking at the 66th Street bridge which joins River with Levee, and Puyallup with Fife.

Interesting things we saw floating down the river into the Puget Sound: much timber, a cooler, and ...a washing machine!


Okay, enough weather education for today....must move on to grammar - helping verbs, and the use of "bring" v. "take."
fun fun fun!

Pineapple Express

If you've watched the news lately and know where I live, you might think that we're all knee-deep in alligators by now.

We're not; however, I won't deny that it's been VERY wet around here! Yesterday there was a great deal of standing water on the roads, which made for very slow driving as people did not want to flood out their cars. (I've done that before--the mechanic had to take the car apart, and use his air hose to blow dry all the parts/connections. THAT WAS EXPENSIVE!)

Anyway, the nearby Puyallup River is flooding up in the town of Orting. It's about 3x higher than usual. We live about a mile and a half from the river, and about 8 miles from Orting, so no worries for us. It's all on its way down.

A. wants to go down to the river and watch the flotsam go by. I remember one wet year we saw a shed floating away down the river, on its way out to the sea. Wonder what became of it!

ANYway, this wet front is what's known around these parts as a "Pineapple Express." Basically, a warm wet system is coming up from Hawaii and drenching us. When a Pineapple Express converges with a big cold front down from Alaska/Canada is when we get a huge dump of snow. In the absence of a cold front, we just get warm, windy rain. Too bad we had that hard frost last week; we'd still be harvesting the garden otherwise! :)

Time to begin the day. Ciao!

What is it about mud?

This morning I was out, being a piano teacher Mary-type, sitting at the feet of a piano pedagogue and learning and taking notes. The WHY of technique. The HOW of scales.

Returning home to make lunch, A. tells me the kids are in the backyard. In the mud. Like, a pig wallow-sized amount of mud. Of course, S. is wearing pink and white. Why does it always have to be pink and white?? Probably to be more piggie like, I guess, but it's wretched to clean up I tell you. *(A's comment to me when I was whining about pink and white and mud: "That's all she EVER wears!")

So, out comes the spray nozzle, set to "jet" - we have to pressure wash the kids before they can set foot inside the house again! I tossed the wet clothes onto the garage floor with the other mounds of laundry (I have NOT been doing a "load a day," therefore I'm backed up again! argh. baby steps~! restarting!)

So now they're eating lunch (bread, butter and jam)(I'm out of cashew butter) - and it's time for school. Hopefully math will be as good as it was yesterday, nice and quick! I think D is finally getting the hang of regrouping.

Trepidation

I've just made the switch to beta blogger. Haven't tried to look at my template yet to see how bad off it is......or if I've lost pictures or data.....gulp!


..........whew. looks okey dokey. But I see that the template is all HTML coded, like the last one. That'll make it easier to tweak this particular look; I'm glad. I know that the beta blogger has basically drag and drop WYSIWYG editing, so I'm glad I didn't lose the html capability. Was thinking I'd lose all my daisies and popcorn, I was!

Dinner tonight

Oookay! It's been a DAY. Morning was taken up by piano lessons. Afternoon was taken up with school. Then I took the kids 30 minutes out to Graham for karate lessons......where Sensei made them sit out, because they forgot to bring their kicks. AAAAAAAAAaaaah!

So I will share the thing that went right tonight: DINNER. AND it's cheap and easy too.

First, I made some brown rice. This takes longer than basmati or jasmine rice, if you don't want it to be crunchy. About 50 minutes in the pot. Then I heated up some organic vegetarian refried beans, and did a quick saute of chicken breast (cut in strips), green onion, and just a titch of green pepper (which the kids can't really eat).

Wrap it all up in an organic tortilla and VOILA! You don't even need a fork.

Filled with wellbeing and joie de vivre, I will now turn my attention to the mounds of laundry that need folding. Ciao.

Tomorrow perhaps I will post pictures of our new living room blinds! :) A. has to finish installing them, however. Then you can see our completely remodeled living room.

Baby, it's cold outside

This morning I checked the outside temp by looking at my computer: 19º F!

Until now I have avoided turning on the heat in my house because natural gas is so expensive and last winter's heating bills were exorbitant......but checking the indoor thermostat, my house was a toasty 55º . (Yikes!)

A. lit a fire in the fireplace, and we are all bundled up in flannels and blankets. Can't turn on the heat yet; it's not November! Actually, I begged A. to go get the air filters out of the furnace so I could clean them, then reinstall them and TURN ON THE DUMB HEAT! I'm breaking my own silly rule (more like guidelines, anyway). We almost made it to November! ;)

Because I am so cold, I am contemplating knitting some socks and mittens. But since I can only knit and purl and don't know how to read patterns, I think I'll just have to wear what I've already got. Not like I'd be able to finish them before it warms up a little bit anyway~!


Augh. been sitting here too long. Have to get up and move around!!

Because of the hard frost, today all the leaves will fall off the walnut tree in the front yard. Very nice for cleanup. One WHUMP and it's all done. It's rather like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree in that respect. I don't know if any other trees do that - lose all their leaves at once, rather than shedding them a few at a time in the wind and rain. Oh wait, a ginkgo tree does that too - WHUMP, hey presto, no leaves!

Mmmkay, it's time to go sit in the spot of sunshine in the living room and do some math. Lesson today is carrying over twice--though the trendy term now is "regrouping." 14 ones is "regrouped" as 1 ten, 4 ones. 12 tens is "regrouped" as 1 hundred, 2 tens. I still like "carrying over" and "borrowing" better.

MY NOSE IS COLD! I need to knit a nose warmer to tie around my head. I KNOW these have been made before because I've seen them.

Fall Frolic Recital and Mummy Cookies

D and S were in a piano recital this afternoon! S played Halloween Boo by Melody Bober, and Ghosties in the Graveyard by one of the Noonas. S was in several recitals last year, so this is old stuff for her. She was poised and did beautifully. (I know, I'm so impartial, but it's really true.)

D, however, experienced his first recital today. He played Grasshoppers on Parade by Susan Ogilvy. I have been on his case all week to slow down, mind the staccatos, slow down, where are the dynamics, slow down, etc. but to no avail. And, the way you practice is the way you'll perform, right?

Wrong.

He was petrified going up there. Sober as an AA meeting. Bowed solemnly to the audience, then began. Perfect tempo, absolutely perfect staccatos, mindful of dynamics... was this the same piece--or the same child? D finished the song, took another solemn bow, walked with poise back to the pew where we were, and then collapsed, head on my lap. "I almost flunked the recital!!" he whispered to me.

Really? Could've fooled me!

Sometimes a little stage fright is a healthy thing to keep a presumably ADHD boy focused.


Oh, and here are some mummy cookies we made and brought for sharing afterwards:

You need some cutout cookie dough, a gingerbread man cutter, some white frosting, and basketweaving tip 48 (using the smooth, not serrated side). Then pipe on tip 3 eyes and mouth in chocolate frosting (I cheated by opening a can of Betty Crocker frosting) - voila!

For the record, I really stink at making cutout cookies. So it was good these were all wrapped in bandages so you couldn't see their deformities! lol

An unfortunate refrigerator meme event

Mrs. Blythe tagged me to do this fridge meme a couple days ago, only I'm a little bit behind on life right now! So here is my fridge, which I did not alter in any way except to straighten the detritus on there so it was more mondrian. (I've been reading too much lately!)


Only Blogger is stalling out on the photo part, so I'll edit it in later. In the meantime, you'll have to suffer through the blow-by-blow explanation of what's on the fridge, unless of course you do the sensible thing and skip this post entirely, as it will only be mindboggling dull. (I sound like Lemony Snicket, don't I? I've just finished all 13 books of his in the last week).


Okay, so for future reference (when I get the photo to upload,that is!)

1. Dry-eraseable shopping list
2. Family photo taken two years ago, where Costco's photo developing department gave my husband a lobotomy.
3. Photo of Kevin and Tammy
4. Photo of my brother-in-law and family (cool church web site, whoever made it.)
5. An older photo of my son, when he still had his baby teeth. (Hey, where's my daughter's photo?)
6. A Far Side cartoon: "Hey, everybody look at me! I'm a cowboy! Howdy, howdy, howdy!" This reminds me of my friend Wally. I think I might have even gotten it from him in high school, can't remember. In which case, it's almost 20 years old. (GACK. AM I THAT OLD?)
   
7. Two postcards of the Spruce Goose purchased by my son when we went to the McMinnville, OR, Aviation Museum
8. A year-old photo of Grandma K. and my two halflings
9. A photo of fall color joined with a photo of Lora and Dave's wedding picture at the beach
10. Kiddie art. Of course. Color wheel made solely by mixing the primary colors of red, blue and yellow.
11. D's list of laws. This deserves its own post. He wrote this down one Sunday morning. It's rather interesting to see how the mind of this 9 year old boy works.

There it is!

Territorial Altos: Junior High Repeat

Last night at choir, the director voiced our alto section. Basically, we went in the Aylen band room, sang a few bars, then he'd rearrange us into power clusters so the dominant singers are in the center front.

Now, realize that this is only my second semester in this choir; but at the first, even I experienced what could only be called territorial behavior by some of the more insecure altos in the section. My first rehearsal, an alto very sweetly told me that I couldn't sit between her and another singer, because she "had" to hear the other person sing.

I smiled to myself and let her have her way. This sounds arrogant of me, but I know what I'm capable of vocally, and knew that she'd only benefit by my standing on the other side of her. Anyway, that was last January.

Skip forward to last night. New semester, new music, and most importantly, new members to fit in and voice. Of our twenty altos, eighteen were there, so the director went ahead and voiced our section, beginning with the first row. He got them all sorted out in their new places, and sent them back in to where the rest of the choir were rehearsing with the accompanist. Then he voiced my row, got us all settled, and shipped us back in to rehearsal.

When I reentered the choir, my tenor friend, sotto voce, told me that the territorial altos had rearranged themselves and bumped one of the new members back to the far end of the row - NOT where the director had just placed her moments before. So very junior high! (The guilty party/parties were the ones who had informed me where I couldn't sit during my first rehearsal.)

Clearly this was a time to be bold. And, I'm the alto section leader, so I have the clout to do something about it.

Now, the denouement of this is not very dramatic at all; I just mentioned out loud to the director that apparently the front row altos had gotten confused because they sure weren't sitting where he had just placed them... and so the territorial altos, feigning confusion and uncertainty, allowed the new member to move back to her rightful place. And the most territorial alto? End of the row.

All this figurative scratching and clawing for what? An assigned seat? Are you in choir to sit by your buddy, or are you there to produce the best sound that you are capable of? Get your mind off yourself and your insecurities and get it back on the group where it belongs. Sheesh.

Anyway, problem solved, new member's feelings assuaged, and the territorial alto? I don't know yet. We'll see if I end up on her black list. But when I know I'm right, I'm pertinacious.

Word of the day.

The latest Snopes

Recently I was all fired up about forwarded email messages that were hoaxes.

This morning I received yet another one--about how to beat an email worm (should you happen to get one - update daily, my dears) by having the email address aaaaaaa@aaa.aaa in your address book. Since worms supposedly go in alphabetical order, the first email would bounce, and thereby cause the worm to stop emailing all the rest of your real friends.


Again, a hoax.


Your PSA for the weekend. Cheers, all!

Mod Math Monsters from the Id

On Monday I introduced my kids to the concept of circle math - and had no idea why. They did just fine; I went into a tailspin trying to determine what possible purpose this serves.

Since then I've been trying to figure out the WHY of circle math and it's been a brainstretcher for me. I'd never heard of it, even. Came thisclose to emailing Crystal, but then decided to snoop around on my own first. Looks like we can thank Herr Gauss for this concept (he whose name is used as a unit of measuring the strength of a magnetic field)

I still don't understand it enough to explain it (therefore, I don't have a good grasp of it yet), but the lights are beginning to come on for me.

So Crystal, you and your bevy of math teacher friends.....did you ever use circle math/modular math in your classes? Either teaching or taking?

I never thought I'd find it in third grade!

I think I need to improve my mind by taking another math class. I feel like I've just been submitted to the Brain Booster machine used by the Krell on Forbidden Planet.

Sweeet!

My mom-in-law calls this afternoon, hyperventilating:

"I GET TO GO TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!"

She's leaving Seattle on Saturday morning; arriving at the Detroit airport I-don't-know-when; is being picked up by my brother-in-law; and they are going straight to Tiger Stadium. Comerica Park. Whatever.

To quote Napoleon Dynamite: "Luckyyyyyyyyyy!!"


Other odds 'n' ends - piano player for South Sound Classical Choir couldn't make it last night. He emailed the backup piano player, who either didn't get his message, or didn't get it in TIME, because she was in Leavenworth. So guess who found out she was playing third-string piano a mere hour before rehearsal?

At least I didn't have time to work myself up into a nervous, barfing wreck. It went okay. And of course, the choir members were kind to me.

Today we took a field trip to the Seattle Aquarium. I love to watch the sea otters and moon jellies; kids liked the tide pools where you could touch the sea cucumbers, sea urchins, stars, etc. Parts of it were under construction so not everything was available.

After the aquarium we ate lunch at Red Robin. Woot! Haven't been there in ages. We used to take the youth group there on Sunday nights sometimes, just because their french fries have free refills. I was good this time; I had a chicken caesar wrap. Now I need to go to DWLZ to find out how many Weight Watchers points that really was!

Taught a new student this afternoon. He's new to the area and a transfer student. We will have to do some serious review. He's in a method book that I have (over time) determined I do not like AT ALL, so I'll be moving him to one I do. His former teacher seems like she took a rather "whatever" approach, so he has tons of books that he can't really play from well at all. Very nice family.

And since we ate out this afternoon, dinner tonight was on the light side of things. A. ate a bowl of grape nuts, declaring that to be his supper. I made grilled cheese sandwiches for the rest of us.

Now this evening, piano, knitting, and relaxing.

OVERALL, A GREAT DAY! :)

golden watermelon

Eeeeek! I just checked my receipt from yesterday's grocery shopping excursion. I had S. with me, and I usually let her pick out a piece of fruit to buy (instead of candy) to enjoy as we drive around.

Well yesterday she chose a watermelon. :) So I said, "sure, why not?" and we tossed it (Carefully) in the cart.

I did not pay attention while checking out. That watermelon was seedless, cost $.69 a pound, and weighed 15. 9 lbs!

Doing the math for you: That was a $10.97 piece of fruit!!!!

We will be treating this watermelon as gold, yesss precioussssss.



...and I will be looking at prices before buying ~!

braintwistedness and NCTMs

You know, I DID use my college degree for about five years before having kiddoes. But now that I'm a stay at home monster, I've had to do the ol' career switch, falling back on something I thought I'd neeever, eeever use.

Referring, of course, to the fact that I teach piano lessons from my home twice a week. My dear friend Di commented to me once, "How do you expect your students to practice when you never practiced yourself?"


An astute question, that.

REGARDLESS of the answer to that, which I am still pondering in various shapes and forms, as evidenced by my weekly parade of non-practicing students.... the fact remains that there are some serious gaps in my musical education, inasmuch as I chose to major in English/science and take a break from music when I was in college.

So--skip forward a decade, and into my life enters Mimi, and lessons with her. First class lesson, she started talking about scale modes like lydian, dorian, aeolian, etc., and I'm saying...."uh...WHAT?!" Clearly, I have some gaps to fill. She just spews knowledge out left and right, and occasionally some of it sinks into my thick head.

So several of the music teachers and I are taking classes with Mimi, specifically for the purpose of becoming Nationally Certified Teachers of Music (NCTM), which is offered through the Music Teachers' National Association. As for me, I don't really care about being "Anne Cognito, NCTM" --it's really more about HOW to teach piano, pianistically. Applied technique. Music history. All those things rolled up together.

Which brings me to last night's choir practice. We were singing Mendelssohn's "Behold a Star" - and at one point, he throws in this funky chord. Some kind of augmented sixth thing, functioning as a V7. So the director and I were bantering back and forth about whether it was a German, Italian, or French 6th. Now that I look at it again, it's a diminished chord; so does that still make it an augmented sixth? This makes my brain hurt.

I can't keep them all straight in my head. I have to see it on a sheet of paper and plunk it on the keyboard. The German sixth SOUNDS just like a V7 chord, but it's spelled as a sixth on the staff, and it resolves up and OUTward, instead of down. The Italian is like the German, except no 3rd degree... I think? And the French is something entirely different altogether, which I'm sure would please the French. I think it involves a tritone. I've been looking at a Wiki article to try to nail it down in my head, but so far, no dice.

ARGH. So all this braintwistedness in my head had better be straightened out if I'm ever going to have those four letters after my name.

Enjoying the journey...

Where in the World?

Yesterday at the Best Store Ever (Value Village), dear hubby picked up a CD-ROM of "Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego?" for the kids.

Last night and today, all I'm hearing is, "Mama, where is Mobile? Mama, where is Annapolis? Mama?? Mama??"

And sometimes when they ask, I DON'T KNOW!

(For the record, I do know where the two places above-mentioned are located!)

I rot at geography. But I live with someone who's a whiz at it. Just ask him where anything is and you get a dissertation on climate, ecosystem, flora, fauna, and geopolitics of the region.


In family news, something big just happened. The Detroit Tigers have made it to the American League Championship Series. My daughter is proudly wearing her Tigers cap (provided to her by Grandma Karen, of course), having virtually no clue about the game of baseball, but it's all good with her. In two weeks when Grandma Karen is here, we will be watching baseball. This afternoon she grilled me as to whether I would be supporting Oakland or Detroit. No worries, Mom! Detroit! (On principle, Seattle fans hate Oakland). I think we got three long-distance phone calls today during the game with on-the spot updates: "It's the top of the 4th, 4-0 Tigers!!" "It's the bottom of the 6th, and 6-0 Tigers!!!!!!"


And I got a private (well, not now) chuckle about Alex Rodriguez being 0 for 4 today and getting the last out of the division series! Gee, stiff two other teams (*coughSeattlecoughTexas*) to claw your way to the Yankees to earn a ring, and perform like bollocks! Woot. Veeeery nice, 8-Rod!

So I wonder if my brother-in-law is following this? He used to be rabid about the Tigers, but when the players' strike of 1995 happened, his fervor cooled. His quote: "I didn't leave baseball; baseball left ME."


We shall see.

Don't be so gullible, McFly,..

<>
If there's one thing that irritates me about the vast majority of Christians, it's that they're sheep.

And I don't mean sheep in the Biblical sense, as in "The Lord is my shepherd [ergo, I am a sheep], I shall not want." This is the proper position of the child of God: Following his/her Master, trusting that He will provide.

What I'm ranting about today is The Lemming Factor. The blind following of the Masses, no matter what cliff they're heading toward (or over). The group-think.

All right. I'll spell it out plainly. HOAX EMAILS. Nothing makes Christians look more stupid than their use of the "Forward" button for every heart-tugging, emotional slosh that comes down the 'net--or even worse, the hyped-up panic about some incorrectly researched article.

This morning I received one of the emotional glurge emails, about how AOL and ZDNet are tracking the number of forwards, donating $.30 each time to a family whose daughter has leukemia. Usually there's a statement like "if you delete this, then you have no heart" or other such rot, but unusually, this one did not have that.


As I scanned the header, I found no fewer than ten people I knew on there. It originated from a well-meaning but MISINFORMED Christian who didn't want to be considered heartless, I suppose.


PEOPLE.
THINK before you hit "forward." AOL will never know or CARE about what happens to this email.

Another notorious one that made Christians look like blithering idiots was the furor over a supposed interview with J.K.Rowling and the children who read Harry Potter were becoming satanists. This interview included such infamous statements as "Jesus died because he was weak and stupid," and "Harry is an absolute god send to our cause," (from a supposed Satanic High Priest in Salem, MA). (Erm, did you catch that? "God send" ?? hel-LOOOO. can you say... "irony" ??)

And Christians were in a tizzy. HOW DARE SHE SAY THAT!!! Hysterical emails flew back and forth across all American Christendom.

Yet if they had used their God given common sense and researched the facts, they would have found that the article in question was really from The Onion, an online satirical magazine.

In other words, IT WASN'T TRUE.


There is a solution, folks. You MUST add snopes.com to your list of favorites. And you must patiently, graciously educate those who send around such nonsense. After all, I'm sure you've been taken in once or twice. I know I have been guilty of this occasionally.

And because I don't like the fashion of wearing egg on my face, I habitually check Snopes WHENEVER I get something like this. And you know what? 95% of these emails that are circulated again and again are hoaxes.

Don't be a sheep.

End of Public Service Announcement.
< /ranting font >

Volcanoes, How Exotic!

Here you go, Mrs. Blythe; this is what I see all around the streets where I live. "Volcano Evacuation Route" !! These signs are stolen rather often, I must add. (Blurry picture from my camera phone)

Interestingly enough, on Tuesday the lahar sirens went off. I didn't worry; they always go off a little after 10 a.m. on the test days. However, none of the shorter people in the family would rest before I double checked the city web site to be sure it REALLY WAS a test. I also had to turn on KOMO 1000 news radio to prove it.

I would include a photograph of Mt. Rainier, the volcano I can see from my front yard, only it hasn't been out the last several days. This means we're getting rain soon- if the mountain's "wearing a hat" --or in this case, completely occluded.



Volcanoes and earthquakes and tsunamis--oh my! Livin' on the Pacific Rim is fun fun fun!

must... have... coffee....

Went to a WSMTA leadership conference this weekend up at Snoqualmie Summit. I arrived late, due to a command performance at Mr. Willis' 90th birthday party on Saturday afternoon, which was a NO MISS thing. (After all, you only are ninety once!)

So after the shindig, I barrelled up Hwy 18 to I-90 and up to the summit. Made it in about 1 hr flat. Do not ask how fast I drove. Let us just say that traffic was light!

It looks beautiful up there right now! Leaves are beginning to change color, and I'd estimate that they're about three weeks ahead of us as far as fall weather goes. There was definitely a nip in the air.


I arrived just in time for dinner, and then there were meetings with the various music teacher chapter presidents and vice presidents. I was a mere acolyte, soaking in How Things Work In The State.

After the meetings I just hung out with Sharon and Mimi. I brought my camping airbed along so nobody would have to share beds :) - so I ended up on the floor underneath the open window.

Did I mention that this is elevation 3000' ? It was COLD there, sucker! I burrowed down as best I could, avoiding the draft as much as possible. As I drifted into a non-peaceful, light sleep, it occurred to me that if I wanted to be cold, I might just as well have stayed at home, where our bed is perched right underneath an open window so the cold air can drift down on me.

Let me clarify that the cold air is not MY preferred sleeping conditions, oh no. It is my dear husband's requirement. He does not like it hot. Nor do I, for that matter, but it has to be tepid so I can at least let my muscles relax, instead of having to shiver to maintain my internal body temperature~!


Anyway. The last time I checked the microwave time in the hotel room, it was about 12:30 a.m. Odd, fitful dreams. Cold air.

5:11 a.m.:
aaaaaaaAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OAAAaaaaaaaaaa
aAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OAAAAAaaaaaa
aaaAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOAaaaaaaa

!?!??!!!!!! It sounded like the lahar sirens tests we have monthly here in Puyallup.

But people at 3000 feet are not in risk of lahar.

My two roommates slept on, blissfully unaware of this hill-shaking, nerve wracking siren. (They had earplugs, I was later to learn.)

That concluded my night's sleep. I lay there, half awake, noodling out what it could be for, and the only thing I could come up with was "avalanche warnings."

Later on this morning, the man at the front desk confirmed my theory. There's a training session going on right now for ski patrol, and they used the siren to get them up and ready to respond.

They certainly got ME up too!

The man further said that the siren sometimes goes off seven, eight times a day during the winter skiing season. Car accidents, fires, avalanche, it's all covered. yuck. I'd hate to live up there.

So, receiving only about 5 fitful hours of sleep, I really needed some caffeine to make it through the day.

However, the Boyd's coffee provided by the lodge just didn't cut it. Not even French Roast.

So now that it's 11 pm almost, I might as well just give up on the coffee idea and go to bed undrugged.

WITH THE WINDOW SHUT.

Money, Money

This charming morning, my dear husband volunteered to take the kids to piano lessons, allowing me to do some things at home.

Instead of staying home, however, I went to the bank, where I had an account to settle. :) literally.

On Monday afternoon, a new teller had failed to make a split deposit correctly. I noticed it after I left the bank (it was getting late and dinner was calling my name, "make meee, make meeee" - so I didn't go back to make sure it was corrected). Since then, I've been waiting to see if the error would straighten itself out (by checking my online banking), but alas, it has not. So not only did the teller screw up, so did the proofing department (or whatever the double-checkers are called. Rebecca, can you enlighten me?)

So this morning, as soon as the doors opened, I went in, armed with my information. Fortunately "my" banker was there, and she was able to pull up a proof of the deposit slip, where very clearly I had designated a certain amount to go to a different acct. In doing some checking, she was at a loss to see where my money had gone! So, she went ahead and made the deposit for me, using Bank of America's money.

That was a tidy 45 minutes gone, but not entirely wasted.

ON TO SCHOOL. We began math at 11:30 this morning. Skill to be learned: Counting back change. I had all these paper cutouts of $1, $5 and $10 bills, as well as real change from our change jar littering the table as we played "store." I would "buy" a plate of tortilla chips for $5.56, give the kids a $10 and make them give me change. If they did it right, they got to eat the chips (or what have you). And inflation/deflation was rampant. Sometimes the chips cost $12.23 and I gave them a $10 and a $5. Other times it cost $.49.

We took a break at 12:30. Confusion abounding. Lights coming on in S's head, but not D's.

Resumed at 1:30. AUGH. *Pounding head on table*

It's now 3:30. We just finished math. I think I'm going to hang out on this lesson a few more days.

But I'm gonna have to take a prozac first.


Money pressures can be very stressful!!!

It's a Doozy

The Fair ended two days ago, and I REJOICE in that fact. The insanity factor trebles around Puyallup for the 17 days of the fair. You just can't get around downtown conveniently, and that happens to be where I live and shop. However, I don't live close enough to offer Fair Parking in my front yard, the way some do. (I bet those people pay off their property taxes and go on a Caribbean vacation with the booty they receieve those 17 days!)

And, the Fair has changed the way you can enter the home-grown vegetables/fruit competition. No longer do they send out premium books; you have to go online and look at the PDF files to find out entry times. AND...They moved the entry deadline back by one day; therefore, we were unable to submit vegetables to get our Exhibitors' Passes (the only way our family of four can afford to go to the fair!!)

I was irritated at myself for not checking sooner, and irritated at The Fair for being so, so, so...I dunno. I was just irritated.

We still went for free (if you get there before noon) on the first day. And so did about 60,000 other people. I have never seen an opening day so packed. The scone wagon line went back 50 feet. Earthquake's line wasn't as bad, but they were moving slowly. We purchased only scones, burgers, and drinks, dropping a tidy $46. And the kids wanted to know why they couldn't ride rides! Ha.

September 16 was the Junior Gardeners Exhibition day. Your vegetable is your ticket into the fair! So we got in free a second time. D and S had chosen their prime vegetables the day before the fair started; most unfortunately we had also PICKED them that day, based on previous years' entry times. We could have left them to grow for another 10 days! But oh well. So, D and S both entered the "Largest Zucchini" contest. It was a wrench for D, having to give up "Walter," but he managed to keep control.

So, I'll let the photos tell the story from here:

D. and "Walter"















And for some stupid reason Blogger is being lame and won't let me post the piece de resistance. I'll save it for another post I guess.

It's a Doozy II

This is the photo I couldn't get on the first Doozy post :)

Second place!! We'dve PWNED the competition if only we'd left the zukes on the vine until the 16th!!

Ah well. Happy Child. :)

Mount Washmore

I woke up at 5 am on Monday, unable to sleep, thinking about the detritus remaining on the living room floor following our weekly Sunday night picnic and movie ("Another Thin Man").

So I figured I'd make good use of the quiet and aloneness of the early hour, and tiptoed out into the kitchen. A minute later, I heard my husband's footsteps and the sound of our bedroom door slowly creaking open. I peered around the corner of the kitchen to find my husband cautiously peering back at me.
"Oh, it's you," the relief evident in his voice. "What are you doing?"
"Can't sleep. House is a mess."
"Well, be quiet, ok?" and he shuffled back to bed.

Excuse me!!

So from 5:30 - 7 I did two loads of laundry, picked up the living room floor, and cleared off all the kitchen countertops. AND made coffee. :) At 7 I sat down to watch next week's video Bible study so I could make some preliminary notes, and by 7:35 I was sound asleep, scrunched into a shape that would help me fit on the loveseat couch.

8 am signaled the restart of the day when the rest of the household began filtering into the living room.

I got some checklists together for the kids' school, and headed over to Dr. J's to do the weekly cleaning. Moving furniture is such fun! Mimi dislocated her hip (5th time) two weeks ago, while she was teaching a lesson, so I am doing all the big stuff for her so she doesn't blow it again.

Returned home about 1 to find that dear husband had continued in the laundry tradition, so that there were about six loads of clean laundry on the couch! :) Now, I know that I preach the values of doing ONE LOAD A DAY, and it's very true, it's the only way I can stay on top of the laundry of four messy, dirty people....but I fall off the wagon occasionally often, I can't lie.


So this morning was Fold The Laundry And Put It Away.

Now I'm sitting across the dining room table, ignoring the child who is steadfastly refusing to do his math in a timely fashion. I have just informed him that he has 5 more minutes to finish up this particular assignment, and then anything else left over will be homework, done on HIS time, not mine. "There is no such thing as homework," he maintains.

Mess with me, child, and I will win.

I have just started the timer.

I love the tabbed browsing that Firefox has! I can have one browser window open with many different tabs at the top with different pages open. Hence I can switch back and forth between k12 screens and here rather quickly and easily.

Oh, joy! The child is now Focused, Intent, and Working Diligently. WOOHOO!

Argh. It's so difficult not to get an argumentative spirit sometimes, or to respond in kind when the children are grousing about school (the old "martyr" routine; "Look what I'm sacrificing so I can stay home with you!" does nobody any good, least of all me.)

Ah. Number One has finished his math, so it's lunch break now!

not blogging time

A. left this page up on the puter screen, which is a silent way of saying "update this please!"

Meanwhile my two halflings have flown the coop and school awaits.


Clearly, this is not a good time to blog.
Ciao.

eating beans from a can...

You know I had to do this twice: once for my online name, once for my REAL PERSONA.

I thought the online result was extremely apropos:

Anne -- [noun]: A real life muppet 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

But there's juuuuuuust no escaping the sad truth about myself:

[mysecretidentity] -- [adjective]: Like in nature to a train-riding hobo 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Notes from the schoolroom

...which in reality, is my dining room table. We're currently working on vocabulary (Wordly Wise 3000). Did you know that "astrominers" discover stars? At least, according to the child on my left, that's what they do.


Earlier when we were beginning a new unit in science (vertebrates), D. ended up teaching the lesson, though unintentionally. We started off with a discussion of the three kinds of fish: jawless, cartilaginous, and bony. D. launches into a lecture about the hagfish, a jawless fish that produces large amounts of slime to escape predators. Then it ties itself into a knot to remove all that yucky slime stuff.

One click of the mouse later, and there it was: D's spiel about the hagfish's ability to escape predators, down to the very knot! You could almost see the child preening himself, so pleased he was to have "outsmarted" k12's science.

I predict this unit will be one that he finishes with flying colors.

Avast, ye scurvy dogs!

Tomorrow be September 19, which be National Talk Like a Pirate Day! Arrrr! So ye scallywags better be keepin' a sharp lookout for them what sounds like pirates and give em a hearty gutting from the scurvy wench Bloody Anne Vane.


Arrrrgh!

My First Woot

I've been running over to Woot.com daily to see what marvy bit of techno-geek coolness is being offered at a ridiculously low price.....and that I actually wanted/needed.

So, getting a jump on Christmas shopping, I bought my son a waterproof 35mm camera for $9.99. Waterproof is necessary with this child. Bear in mind this is the boy who demolished my $375 Pentax by tossing it willy-nilly into the turtle pond.

But I am willing to let bygones be bygones......and, come December 25, he'll be able to chuck his OWN dern camera into any pond he chooses!

Celebrate Good Times, Come on!

The happy child herself. We selected a table far away from the madding crowds at Chuck E. Cheese's so my dear husband would be enticed to stay longer than he normally would. His tolerance for such places is rather low.



Difficult to get a regular photo of this child nowadays. This is a fairly typical pose for him. His definition of Chuck E's as a "kids casino" will definitely become part of the family repertoire.



You would not believe how long it took us to round up all the kids to get them back upstairs to even bother with cake! 20 tokens to play games takes a long time for inexperienced youngsters to get through. The luau cake came out rather nicely, I must say. Thanks to Jennifer for the use of her palm trees, hula guy/gal and fishies. Oh, and for you moms out there, the cake is ridiculously easy to make. Just bake a 9x13, toss on your favorite frosting, spray on some blue Color Mist (Wilton) for the ocean, and sprinkle cinnamon sugar for the beach part. I also threw on some white chocolate shells made in candy molds. Voila. Anybody can do it. I did!



A small, yet simple party, NOT at my home (woot), and happy, tired kids.

We drove in silence all the way home, and kept the TV off when we got there. Sensory overload. Especially since we knew that the following morning we would be off to THE FAIR! Photos later.

Hasta!

I knew it. I just knew it.

You scored as Geek/Nerd. Haha! ok. go computer geeks! Geek/Nerd 80% Jock 40% Hot 40% Emo Kid 33% Loner 27% Prep 20% Punk 20% Goth 13% "Ghetto" 13% Stoner 0% What Highschool Clique Do You Belong To? created with QuizFarm.com

Shameless plug

Bluebird Blogs is having a contest for a free blog design! Go enter!

And I'm shamelessly promoting this because she'll give 5 extra entries to me for putting this on my blog. Wuahah.

Savvy bizness!


Even if I don't win, I can still live with the daisies and popcorn for a while longer before I need to make a new theme.

On painting...

As my four readers will remember, I vowed to eschew all beiges, eggshells, and off-whites in the repainting of our home.
Behold "before":

We went to Wally World to select colors. I needed A's artistic ability. He chose a lovely buttery yellow for the dining room/hallway and a "scotch yellow" as an accent wall behind the piano which I was "hmm..." about. He reminded me of my pledge to USE COLOR! So I gave in.

The pictures do not do justice to the intensity, the severity, the gagaciousness of the color~~ but here, in its glorious hideousness, I present to you:

The Nacho Cheese Wall Incident










And a better (worse?) shot, from another angle:










You see the lovely contrast with the remaining parts of the house:










We left it up for about 12 hours, to see if it got any better. It didn't. It reminded me of the interior color of the concessions stand at our home-town drive-in theatre. A. ran back up to WalMart, became infuriated by their lack of knowledge and lack of staffing("I refuse to give my money to incompetence"), and scooted to McLendon's instead to get a more livable color.

Here's what's up now: caramel. Again, the light doesn't do it justice. It is a great improvement on the former color! Nachos have their place, but not on my wall.











More photos to come of the completed project (i.e., everything back in place, with crown moulding put up) - plus photos of the completed living room (colors: angel ivory and olive branch).

Rebecca seemed to approve of them! :)

Happy Birthday S!

Spawn No. 2 is EIGHT today. And just for the record, I am NOT MIDDLE AGED, contrary to what my doctor said. (JERK!)


I welched out on the party business. I'm not as organized as Crystal is, the way she sent out Evites (argh, which I still have to respond to!) - like, one month in advance of her kidlet's party ... here I was on Sunday night (5 days before the event) waffling on what to do, where to go to celebrate this ONCE IN A LIFETIME EVENT! So it's helpful to have friends like Audra: "Juuuuust go to The Mouse."

So we're going to Chuck E. Cheese's tonight. I bribed all the adults with earplugs and ibuprofen. When I told D what we were going to do, he observed, "Oh, great! We're going to a Kids' Casino!"


.....where did he come up with THAT?? Because, really, he's right! I know Washington's full of casinos and Indian gaming, but how that kid figured out what a casino is like, I have no clue.

So the cake's in the oven, the kid is in the shower, and I'm listening to Rush Limbaugh and blogging instead of being profitable.

You see how it is? MUST GET UP. Pictures later!

A "Dear John" funny

A young girl on a years training course in South Africa recently received a
"Dear John" letter from her boyfriend back home. It read as follows:

Dear Mary:

I can no longer continue our relationship. The distance between us is just
too great. I must admit that I have cheated on you twice since you've been
gone, and it's not fair to either of us. I'm sorry. Please return the
picture of me that I sent to you.
Love,
John.

Mary, with hurt feelings, asked her colleagues for any snapshots they could
spare of their boyfriends, brothers, ex-boyfriends, uncles, cousins etc. In
addition to the picture of John, Mary included all the other pictures of the
handsome lads she had collected from her buddies.

There were 57 photos in that envelope....along with this note:

Dear John,

I'm so sorry, but I can't quite remember who you are. Please take
your picture from the pile, and send the rest back to me.
Take Care,
Mary

Chai Recipe

OOOoooh, there is a GREAT recipe on the back of the Stash Tea boxes for how to make chai tea...it tastes just like the expensive stuff you can buy in the box cartons!

For 1/2 gallon:

• Bring 7 cups cold water to a rolling boil. Remove from heat.


• Add 10 chai tea bags; steep 3-5 minutes.


• Pour into 1/2 gallon pitcher. Add 1 cup milk and 1/2 cup sugar.

Enjoy hot or cold!

And if you use nonfat milk with Splenda or stevia....that's like almost zero points per cup!

A. says, "It tastes like Christmas." He's right!

photeaux~part deux

Gonna print this one and hang it up! Good shot from Audra's camera.
Chicken boy rides horse; looks happy.

Photeaux

What good is it living in Washington State if you don't have a apple tree?! :) Here is my family, harvesting our first apple crop large enough to do something with! These are Zabergau Reinette apples, which I'll use to can apple pie filling. In the background is Jonafree, which is like Jonathan, but resistant to the various diseases that apples (and roses) are prone to.



"One....two...threeeee....JUMP!!" Only my darling boy DIDN"T jump, leaving S. and friend N. to get all wet. It's ok, he ended up in the lake later on. It was so quiet and CLEAN and lovely there at the lake, which is just 2 miles down the road from Jennifer's house. It's a private lake with a gate, so it's just wonderful.


Sam the Happy Cowgirl! She's riding "Rowdy," Miss Jennifer's new horse. Except Ashley INSISTS that she's now changed the horse's name to "Carter." (As if that name's any better?) As I led Rowdy around the pasture, he nibbled the back of my shirt! Bad horse! D. was rather sketchy about riding the horse; he's only been on pony rides, and that when he was 4 or so. Audra has pics of that, must remember to get them from her.

More to come! Still have to show you the nacho cheese wall.

Got Tea?

Last night after K4T/Bible study, a man from church offered me some tea. He drives for a trucking firm, and he sometimes is able to take damaged freight that would be unsaleable (is that a word?).

Long story short....I now have three cases of Chai Tea.



Anybody want some? It's just the outer shipping cardboard that's damaged; the inside boxes are still intact, just a little dinged up.



I mean, I love chai and all... but...3 cases!! I'd better make some chai tea lattes, double quick!

playing catch-up

Sometimes I get all set to post here and think, "omigosh, I've got too much to say, I don't have time to say all that!!" and fail to post anything. So, in the true Flylady spirit, I'm taking babysteps and posting just a little bit at a time to get all caught up!

First and foremost, school has started again, and along with it, piano lessons. I had one lesson yesterday and four today. (Parents are easing into the schedule). And I taught my own two kids last Thursday, yesterday, and...NOT TODAY! :) A. graciously offered to help teach the kids since my figurative plate-spinning has doubled up now that it's September. He'll cover History and Art with the kiddoes. I get everything else. WOOHOO!

Chewelah was a fun but tiring trip. Everything's on "mañana time" over there at my dear friend's house. Breakfast at 11, lunch at 3, dinner at 9. Bedtime? Whenever. Kids got to ride horses (must get pics from Audra), feed (and get pecked by) chickens, swim in the lake down the road from the farm, and sleep out in the tent for two glorious, chilly nights.

Fun story: In the dark hours of the night, a horse whinnied near the tent. And my dear darling D announced that that wasn't a REAL horse--it was the GHOST of a horse who died on the farm last year! Which sent the other two kids into the freaks. Mission accomplished.

Jennifer made some Sneaky Apple Pie with a monstrous zucchini. Her garden is going gangbusters and I plowed through a pint of cherry tomatoes before I knew what I was doing. And, surprisingly, my mouth didn't feel raw afterwards! They were SO sweet and tasty.

The six-hours drive back to Puyallup on Sunday afternoon needed a coffee break inserted somewhere around Ellensburg so we could make it home in one piece. Kids and I slept VERY soundly and had a refreshing Labor Day.

Tonight after piano lessons, we ate a lovely dinner prepared by my husband (Spanish Rice), and got ready for our first ever Kids 4 Truth Club meeting, and the beginning of the Ladies' Bible Study (doing Dr. Berg's Quieting a Noisy Soul. Back to back! :) Kids are excited about the club, and it went pretty well. We're covering The Bible for the next six weeks, and tonight we learned the Key Truth: The Bible is the only book that is God's Word to us.

OK, baby steps accomplished. More later! and photos too!

hiatus

The days have been FULL, O my four readers. When time permits, I must describe Lora and Dave's wedding reception at Pioneer Park Pavilion, the saga of the textured ceilings, the agonizing over wall color choices, the nacho cheese wall incident, and our trip to Chewelah.

Oh wait, I can mention that last one now! Kids and I are leaving for Chewelah (in Eastern WA) tomorrow at 8 am with Audra to visit our friend Jennifer and her family. We'll be back Sunday night.

So I'll have a different reason not to post: I won't even be here!

Then again, I haven't really been "all there" for a long time anyway.

warning: danger of suffocation

I had three panic attacks today.


I'm usually a pretty calm person, but not today. You see, Thursday we re-hung all the plastic sheeting from ceiling to floor. Then Thursday night, Audra's hubby Matt the Contractor ("can we fix it? YES WE CAN!") (sorry, flashback)...where was I? Oh yes. Matt came over and sprayed ceiling texture (NOT POPCORN) back on the ceilings.

It dried overnight. We left the plastic up. I stayed in my bedroom that night, trying not to think about all the plastic, trapping me like a turkey roasting bag on Thanksgiving.

Friday morning I was up and out the door to a Randall Faber piano teachers' workshop in Olympia. Fabulous pedagogue. Reinforced much of what I'm learning from Mimi, as well as giving me new and creative ways to reach and teach younger kids proper technique while keeping it fun. (Not to mention that these workshops are really promos for FJH's new piano materials, didja bring yer wallet? But I didn't mind.)

But alas, I had to come home to the plastic tomb again, armed with three gallons of Parker Paint's "linen white." (Hey, I have to use a white on the ceilings. I haven't wimped out on the use of color, honest!) So Friday afternoon, A. and I (mostly A) painted. And painted. And the texture would sometimes pull away from the ceiling, leaving little, pencil-eraser-sized bare spots behind, almost like a bald spot on a mangy bear. (I'm trying to be descriptive here, and it's just sounding reeeediculous. Bear with me. Ha.)

Got the first coat up, but had to let it dry/set overnight. One more night in the shopping bag nightmare.

I woke up, sweating bullets, around 3 am. There was no air in the house! or so it seemed. Heart pounding out of my chest, panting, and panicking. No fun.

I did some deep breathing exercises and was able to calm my heart rate down.

This morning, going out to the kitchen (taped completely off by plastic), I had another panic attack by the coffeemaker, and again a few minutes later in my bedroom.


I just can't handle plastic, I guess! I've spent the day either in the living room, which is the most spacious of the rooms, or here at the computer, distracting myself by learning more about CSS so I can revamp two different web sites that I maintain.

I'm trying not to think about the chaos, or I'm trying to reason myself back to reality, that this is only temporary.

But I tell you, in about one hour I'm going to rip down all that plastic before I go postal!

w00t! A surprise in my comments section...

Anonymous said...
Ok - This is the first time I've been here, and the first time I've heard of 'blogger'. So you'll just have to excuse my naivity(?) and probably spelling.

SNIP

DianaBarry, you found me!

...and I'm using your AOL screenname just because I don't know what level of privacy you like to maintain whilst on the Net. :)

How to explain Blogger and its myriad of clones? There's a bzillion bloggers (meaning, people who blog) out there. I have links only to a few of them, and mainly it's because I already know them in real life! The exception is Mrs. Blythe. (And just guess where she got HER name? lol)

There are informative, encouraging, challenging, witty, entertaining, and mentally-stimulating blogs out there in the "blogosphere."


And then there's this one. Run by jus' me. I started it a long time ago, but kept up with it only sporadically until I was challenged by my friend Amy when she started her own blog on the event of her husband being shipped out to Iraq. (Interestingly enough, she doesn't blog now. Too busy writing her next book, I assume.) Anyway, that was the kick in the pants to get me writing on a more consistent basis.

So here it is. Take a look around. And give me some ideas on what to paint my living room, dining room, and hallways while you're at it. I'm hopeless at home decorating.

Sneaky Apple Pie

Now is the time of year that you do not want to leave your car windows open. Do not leave your front porch unattended. Put up construction barriers to keep visitors off your front porch. And, if you see your neighbor coming across the street holding a large grocery sack, do NOT open the door to her. Do not make a sound, just pretend you are not home.

Why all the paranoia? Because it's....

ZUCCHINI SEASON!

In the event that all your precautions fail, however, I do have a Plan B for you. This is a recipe I got from Jennifer last September, and it's so good that your family/guests will never know it's zucchini.

Unless, of course, you tell them! Then you can sit back and enjoy the "oohs" and "aaahs" of amazement. It's that good.

So here it is - a recipe originally given the blasé title of "Zucchini Dessert Bars," but which I forthwith renamed

SNEAKY APPLE PIE
Crust:

• 4 c flour
• 2 c sugar
• 1 ½ c cold butter
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt

Mix together and cut in butter. Reserve 3 cups and pat remaining in 9x13 pan. Bake @ 375 for 10-12 minutes

Filling:

• 8-10 c. zucchini (peeled, seeded, and cubed)
• 2/3 c. lemon juice
• 1 c sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg

Boil zucchini and lemon juice 6-8 minutes. Add sugar & spices. Simmer 5 min. Pour over crust and sprinkle remaining crust mixture on top. Bake 40-45 min @ 375.


I plan to make this very soon. I had enough zucchini last week, but unfortunately I let the zucchini/lemon juice boil too long, and I scorched it. And in removing it from the stove and setting it in the sink, I scorched myself!

So I'm waiting until after Lora's reception is over with. I know I'll be inundated with zucchini by then! So you'd better keep your car windows rolled up when I'm around...

"...and lots of popcorn"

One thing that was very apparent to us when we moved into our home 11 years ago was that Carol Brady must have been the interior designer.

Pumpkin orange kitchen countertops. Avocado-colored dishwasher (the kind you hook up to the kitchen sink). Yellow drapes in the living room affixed to these huge cornices that stood a foot out from the window, to give the illusion of depth. Carpet: brown and avocado. Back porch: teal green. Overall house color: barn brown with white accents.

The first thing we axed was the kitchen. I, having an appreciation of color, but deathly afraid to USE something so permanent in decorating - went with a whitish grey formica countertop, a white linoleum floor with flecks of blue and grey, got a black dishwasher.

Over time, we lost the teal porch and brown house (now it's Cape Cod grey, thank you. More neutral colors...) - the yellow drapes were replaced with a soft green tab curtains with one of those beige sheers you toss over the curtain rail (I am SO not a decorator, so forgive my imprecision!)

Each bedroom has been recarpeted and repainted. (Except D's, but his turn is coming soon once I have an extra $700 for carpet.) The master bath has been renovated - fixing the tub enclosure where the idiots who built the house used regular DRYWALL instead of greenboard, thereby creating a serious water problem... the subfloor had to be replaced, because I didn't want a crop of mushrooms in the bathroom anymore...

And we replaced the western fence back in June/July.

So we are chipping away at fixing "what was wrong" with the house.

But a major aspect of the 60's and 70's houses was what went on their ceilings: "popcorn" texture. GADS, if ever there were a dust collector, that is it. There is simply no way to clean it. And if you bump the ceiling, little kernels of the stuff drop all over you. And it might have asbestos in it. Joy.

Plain and simple, it had to go. We had already removed it from each of the bedrooms by using a squirt bottle, a large putty knife, and a handy dustpan.......but now, how to do the vast areas remaining: living room, dining room, and hallways?

Clearly, this was not the time to be timid. Bold steps were taken. Abandoning the wimpy squirt bottle, we grabbed the GARDEN HOSE! (insert "Tim-the-Toolman Taylor" auh auh auh sounds here). I taped plastic over my piano, the hutch, the filing cabinets, and the bookcases; A. spread out a big painter's dropcloth over the floor, and, with the nozzle setting on "mist" - he went to town, hosing down the ceilings. Then, once the popcorn was soft, he scraped it off. And scraped, and scraped. He was on a roll, but even so, it took from Monday - Wednesday to get it all done.

There are 5 or 6 garbage bags full of scraped-off popcorn sitting outside next to the trash now! It looks so much better now that it's gone.

However. Now we have to retexture said ceilings! The GOAL was to do that on Friday and Saturday. However, A. being a pastor and all, he's got to get ready for Sunday. And on Monday and Tuesday, I'm getting ready for Lora's wedding reception, baking cakes to feed 200.

Originally I had left the plastic up, thinking I'd just have to leave it up for texturing anyway, but last night I kept waking up, heart pounding, thinking about that stupid popcorn. I vacuumed and vacuumed in my dream, but popcorn still kept dropping on that BROWN carpet (another thing that will be replaced as soon as we are able!) Most of our furniture has been moved; the house is in a general state of destruction/construction - no wonder I was having nightmares!

So, first thing this morning, I went around the house and took down all the plastic. I couldn't face leaving it up until next Wednesday. I felt trapped in my own house with all that stuff up. Stress level down now!

So now, to make white chocolate seashells and coral for Lora's wedding cake! Reception Tuesday night; texture ceilings Wednesday... then PAINTING Thursday-Saturday!! w00t.


And this time I resolve to be BOLD in my use of color!! No more off-whites, beiges, or pale eggshells for me. I WILL USE COLOR!!

...but will someone please help me!

Boy, am I ever slow!

Gee, just on a whim I clicked on the Technorati link on Carla Rolfe's blog and decided I'd do a look-see to see if anybody I didn't know linked to me here.

And now that it's literally ONE MONTH LATER, I would officially like to thank those of you who nominated me for Sallie's Blogs of Beauty award in 2006 for Best Recipes and Best Humor. w00t!

I had no clue.

So, thanks, to whichever one of my four readers who nominated me! Does this mean I can use this picture in my sidebar now? especially now that it's all over??


Roffle my waffles!! I should have paid closer attention!

4 things about me

I'm turning an email meme from my best friend Diane's mom into a BLOG meme, because.....well, just because! Probably because my best friend doesn't even know I have a blog, and this is an indirect way of telling her (hiding).


(Just wait until my MOM finds out I have a blog.)

(running and hiding)

Things you may not have known about me . . .


A) Four jobs/employers I have had in my life:

"Volunteen" at Marian Medical Center, Santa Maria, CA (read: Candy Striper)

Pioneer Chicken restaurant. Ugh. Hated it.

Office chick/Receptionist/Cashier/Girl Friday at Toyota of Santa Maria. Best. Job. Evah.

Middle School English and Science teacher at Tacoma Baptist Schools. Best. Job. Evah. (didn't I just say that, though?)

B) Four movies you could watch over and over:

Pride and Prejudice (BBC 1995)

Sabrina (the one with Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond

The entire Lord of the Rings series

The Philadelphia Story (Grant, Hepburn, and Stewart)

Napoleon Dynamite, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Princess Bride, erhmmm...oh, my limit's up!

C) Four places you have lived:
Sorry, only three.

Santa Maria, CA

Greenville, SC

Puyallup, WA

D) Four TV shows you love to watch:
u know I don't watch TV much!! Only DVD's/videotapes, really. HOWEVER>....

Monk! I own 4 seasons of it on DVD. "It's a jungle out there..."

Nero Wolfe. Yeah, I know, A&E cancelled it ages ago.

Reruns of M*A*S*H

The A-Team. just kidding. Though I still laugh about the show.

E) Four places you have been on vacation:

Orlando, FL. Best. Vacation. Evah. lol

Israel and Greece

Yellowstone National Park, WY

Reno, NV/Lake Tahoe, CA

Visits to MI and NY are sort-of vacations too, where we artfully weave in familial visits with sightseeing.

F) Websites you visit daily ( ok so maybe not every day! )

Drudge

See that sidebar over there <----- ?? All those.

k12

neopets (not so much lately)

G) Four of my favorite foods:

Mexican cuisine

Italian cuisine

Katsudon, thanks to Kathy~! (up here in Seattle I've only found it as tonkatsu.

Popcorn, of course~

H) Four places I would rather be right now:

In the bathtub with a book

At the beach with a book

Disneyworld

Mountain cabin by a stream. Again, with a book.

I) Four friends I think will respond:
I have no clue, but please let me know if you do by posting a link in the comments below so I can go see it! :)

Update on Prayer Request

I got another email from Amy this morning with news of her brother, her grandfather, and this dear lady Angie - God is good all the time.

Erin,

Well things are going pretty good. Lord willing James will be coming home with my parents on Sat. It's going to be a hard trip for him physically and mentally. Aaron and baby gracie's funeral is on Sat. so he will not be able to attend. James is doing pretty well. He got up yesterday and was able to see my grandpa but was just exhausted after a few mintues. Last night was a rough night for him too. He was throwing up most of the night.
My Dad and Aunt went to see Angie yesterday. They said she is doing really well. They couldn't believe how well she was handling everything. She did break her back and is in a back brace. She also broke her thumb and it might require surgery. So just keep praying for everyone, I know you will. It's going to be a long road but God is in control and will supply all our needs!! Thank you for all your prayers.

love,
Amy

Prayer Needed

I never know how many people actually read this blog, but I know some of you are fellow believers in Christ, and can pray for this situation.

We received an email this morning from Amy, a former church member who moved last summer with her family to Idaho. Her grandfather (an unbeliever) had a massive heart attack. So Jim and Debbie (Amy's parents) flew back to Michigan to be with grandpa. James, Amy's brother, also flew out to see grandpa. From here on out I'll let Amy tell in in her own words (from her email):

On last Friday my grandpa Bliss had a massive heart attack and they transported him to the hospital and he had another one. They weren't sure he was going to make it so my parents got on a plane to Michigan. My Brother James also wanted to go so he flew out Sat. Well for right now my grandpa is stable but still not out of the woods. So please pray for his recovery!

Now for the second part. James arrived on Sat. afternoon and his best friend Aaron picked him up from the airport. They went to Aarons house and picked up his wife, and 3 kids. They were on their way to the hospital to see my grandpa and a drunk driver in a pick up truck hit them head on. Aaron's 3 month old baby was thrown from the minivan and killed instantly. James was pinned in the car but was able to tear out the dash and bust open his door. Angie, the mom, was histerical and James went looking for the baby. He found her across the street and handed her to a Nurse that was on her way to work. He went back and helped Angie get the other 2 kids out. Then he went back to comfort Aaron who was knocked unconcious and stuck in the car. Then James collapsed because he had injuries himself. They used the jaws of life to get Aaron out. They had to do surgery on Aaron, but his injuries were too severe and he also died. James has a broken knee, broken collar bone, fractured his neck, and has possibly broken his elbow. He might have to have surgery, before he can come back to boise, on his neck. He is in a neck brace and will have to remain in one for 16 weeks, and will have to wear the knee immobilizer for 16-18 weeks. We just PRAISE GOD HE IS ALIVE!! They said that nobody in the minivan should have live. Aaron and Angie's 2 other kids are fine, and angie has a broken neck also, a lacerated liver, and did have internal bleeding. So please pray for all of them. Angie has lost her husband and 3 month old baby girl. She really needs our prayers!! Please be praying for James and Tawnya [James' wife] too. Tawnya is still here and waiting to see what they are going to do. She will be flying out if they are going to do surgery. We are all devestated about this and Aaron was a very close family friend. If anyone would like to contact James he is at McClearn hospital in Flint Michigan. He is in Room 825. Angie is at Hurley hospital but I don't know what room or anything. If anyone would like her address to send cards let me know. Thank you for all your prayers.

Love to you all,
Amy

My heart is full for these people. If you feel so led, please pray for them. The "connectedness" of the WWW makes it possible for literally thousands of believers to pray for other believers, so pass the word. I know if I were in Angie's place, I would need all the prayer support I could get.

God bless.

Newberys

A few weeks back I set myself a goal of reading all the Newbery award winning books that I hadn't yet read--and getting it done by December 31 of this year.

Yesterday I realized that I haven't done very much toward accomplishing said goal! So I went to the library to pick up a few books.

I'm posting this list here for my own personal benefit; I'll put a link to it on the sidebar over there <--------- so you can see how I'm doing at polishing off the list. The ground rule is: if I can't remember the basic plot of the book, I have to read it again. There's a few books on the list that I KNOW I've read, but I can't summarize them. Therefore, back on the list they go. Here, in reverse year order, is what I've got to read within the next 4 1/2 months. Remember I read reallyfast, so this, in theory, SHOULD BE doable. That's the point of setting goals, right? Pushing yourself a bit?
John Newbery Award Books, 1922- Present
2007 The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
2006 Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
2005 Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
2004 The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
2003 Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
2002 A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
2001 A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

2000 Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

1999 Holes by Louis Sachar

1998 Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

1997 The View From Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg

1996 The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

1995 Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

1994 The Giver by Lois Lowry

1993 Missing May by Cynthia Rylant

1992 Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

1991 Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

1990 Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

1989 Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman

1988 Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

1987 The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

1986 Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia Maclachlan

1985 The Hero and the Crown by Robin Mckinley

1984 Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary

1983 Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt

1982 A Visit To William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard

1981 Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson

1980 A Gathering of Days by Joan W. Blos

1979 The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

1978 Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

1977 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

1976 The Grey King by Susan Cooper

1975 M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton

1974 The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox

1973 Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

1972 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (aladdin) by Robert C. O'brien

1971 The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Cromer Byars

1970 Sounder by William H. Armstrong

1969 The High King by Lloyd Alexander

1968 From the Mixed-up File of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

1967 Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt

1966 I, Juan De Pareja by Elizabeth Borton De Trevino

1965 Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska

1964 It's Like This, Cat by Emily Cheney Neville

1963 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'engle

1962 The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

1961 Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'dell

1960 Onion John by Joseph Krumgold

1959 The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

1958 Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith

1957 Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Eggertsen Sorensen

1956 Carry on Mr Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham

1955 The Wheel on the School by Meindert De Jong

1954 And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold

1953 Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark

1952 Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes

1951 Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates

1950 The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli

1949 King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry

1948 The Twenty-one Balloons by William Paene Du Bois

1947 Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey

1946 Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

1945 Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson

1944 Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

1943 Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray

1942 The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds

1941 Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry

1940 Daniel Boone by James Daugherty

1939 Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright

1938 The White Stag by Kate Seredy

1937 Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer

1936 Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink

1935 Dobry by Monica Shannon

1934 Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs

1933 Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis

1932 Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer

1931 The Cat Who Went To Heaven by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

1930 Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field

1929 The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly

1928 Gay Neck by Dhan Gopal Mukerji

1927 Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James

1926 Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman

1925 Tales From the Silver Lands by Charles Finger

1924 The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes

1923 The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

1922 The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem Van Loon

Public Service Announcement

Ain't it great being in your 30's?

Golly Moses, when did I get so old?

ANYway, hope it's happy. No more toilet brush incidents!! :)

Odds and Ends

Haven't posted in a bit because my parents are visiting. Been challenging to get to the computer, though I have done some reading/posting on other blog buddies.


Not much to report, honestly! The parents took the Amtrak (train) up from California. Being a government-run entity, the train was 5 1/2 hours late, arriving around 3 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time in Tacoma. yick.

Since then, been running here and there, hither and yon. Grandma has bought both kids new sheets/comforters for their beds.
Their old sheets were very worn out, and their comforter blankets didn't fit their new beds. Still, we were making do. Bedding is pricey, so we are thankful to Grandma. D. was all for going to Goodwill or Value Village to get some "old sheets" (he also wanted old shoes and an old school backpack, rather than buying new--we've trained him well! LOL) - and it really took some convincing that Grandma was willing and able to buy him NEW ones, a real treat! So he was delighted to get Spiderman sheets/comforter.








S. was a little more difficult. She wanted baseball sheets at first (a new interest for her), but the sheets we found didn't look like they'd suit her room (which is purplish). And I am NOT going to have that Bratz trash in my daughter's room! (excuse me.) She's outgrown Dora; Disney Princesses are just OK (plus I hate buying into the Disney empire; they own too much of childhood as it is); Spongebob is too .... yellow....what to do? We finally settled on a butterfly theme that's pale green and white with pink/blue butterflies.
Looks perfect with that girly room.







The other thing that S. got that she's been begging for is HIGH TOP CONVERSE ALL-STAR SHOES. 2 tone, coral and pink. We happened to find shoes on clearance at Fred Meyer with 40% off the lowest marked price, so, what were originally $40 shoes (too much for a 7 year old who grows fast!) - were now $17. Much better, still too much for this cheap mommy, but Grandma was doing the buying.


I'll post pictures later. We had our annual church barbecue today and I am exhausted.


edited Monday, August 7 at 5:35 p.m.: added photos

Overheard at home

D. was in the middle of his afternoon potty break. This is usually a 20-30 minute affair, where he sits...and sits... and sits.... I don't know how much "business" is going on in there (9 year olds like their privacy), but I'm sure there's a fair bit of daydreaming that occurs while he's sitting.

I liken it to Grandpa and his Hut in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Anyway, my daughter, becoming annoyed with D's long delay, stomped into the living room and announced:

"This is a good example of why you should chew your food."

Guest Blogger: Overdue Thank-You Note

dear kevin, ilove the airplane. thank you. guss what, two snakes are what we got in the garden. david.

The Watch Maker

Kids 4 Truth put this "dynamation" out. I think it's really good! My church is going to start a Weds night children's program using Kids 4 Truth beginning in September! :)


Yep, I get to lead it. The joys of a small church! :)

Embracing my inner Velma

You scored as Velma. Your Inner Scooby-Doo character is Velma! You are very smart, courageous, and are always there for your friends!=) Fred 60% Velma 60% Scooby-Doo 55% Daphne 45% Shaggy 35% Scrappy 20% What Scooby Doo Character is inside you??(Pics) created with QuizFarm.com

Brick Walls

As I sit here, waiting for some documents to finish printing, I'm reading through blogs and musing.

Ever have someone that you love dearly just up and.....quit....responding to you? You send emails, you text message, you leave messages on their phone, and......zero response.

You panic. Something MUST be wrong; why would they not answer phone calls and emails? But they are shutting you out, deliberately. Brick wall. Start climbing.

You take a casual approach. Send email every 6 mos or so with newsy news about family and mutual friends.

Zilch.

That's the scenario in which I find myself (going on over a year now), and today my heart is twingeing because of it. Most days I can brush it off and think, well, when she's ready, she'll come to me and talk about whatever it is that's keeping her away.

But today, ah, today.....

Brick walls. Should I keep climbing?

News of the small...

This morning as I was making blueberry pancakes (by request), I turned around to find No. 1 Son scoping out my behind with a magnifying glass.


This encouraged me no end! If you have to use a magnifying glass to find it, it must be pretty small, right??


Livin' in my delusional world.... :O)



News of the second offspring: this afternoon I needed to make a stop at Fred Meyer for some cake baking supplies. S. wanted to use one of those racecar kiddie shopping carts, never mind the fact that her knees go up to her nose when she sits in the cab part. Plus the things are virtually impossible to steer. I've been in more cart wrecks with those beasts than I care to count. However, why not? She's only 7 for one year, and that year is dwindling rapidly.

So she goes to the cart return in the parking lot and begins the arduous task of wrestling one out, against all the other carts in the way. She tugs and pulls; she pushes and shoves. D. and I are standing about 50 feet away, waiting for her to emerge, triumphant, with car cart. Finally after about two minutes of wrestling (I am biting my tongue so I don't crab at her to "hurry UP") - she comes out with the cart backwards. I feel her pain, those carts are not designed for mobility. About that time a grandfatherly person approaches her: "Would you like some help?" "Yes, please!" chirrups my daughter.

The kindly older gentleman proceeds to disentangle the cart, straighten it around.......

then put it right back in the cart return.


D and I double over with laughter at this unexpected twist. S thanks the gentleman, most sincerely, but she too sees the humor in the situation, and rejoins us, also laughing.

We found another race car cart inside the door, and the kids commandeered that one.