Spring Cleaning

I want to update the look of this blog. I've found some really pretty things on other people's blogs, but I don't quite know how far I can go in tweaking this template; I might mess up some javascript or css and then I'd be up a creek not knowing how to fix it. (CSS and javascript illiterate, though I'm ok with html).

Update on kids: Influenza B lasts 7 to 8 days before the 102-103º fevers return to normal. I had to take S in to the Dr. on Thursday because she acquired a secondary infection: pinkeye!

Poor kid.

Thursday night A. coughed all night long (sleep was but a fond hope, not a reality) - so Fri. I got him into the Dr. to get some meds for bronchitis. He walked out of there with 3 prescriptions - 1 inhaler, 1 cough syrup with codeine, and 1 gel pill. Plus a sampler for another inhaler.

Friday night, loaded up with medication, A. proceeded to cough all night long. PFUI!
Saturday morning, with his temp at 101.7 º we made arrangements for a "substitute preacher" for today, and he "slept" last night in the living room partially sitting up in the recliner---still coughing.

So for this particular bug, Albuterol, Tessalon, and CoTylenol are not effective.

Praising God, though, that D and S are 98.6 and 99.5 (and coughing) That's good enough to start school again tomorrow! We're now a week behind. Spring break is the first week of April and I don't want to skip it, so we're going to double up as much as possible this upcoming week. We'll see how much grief I get from D and S. I think I can pull off 3 history lessons and 3 science lessons - then if I do that on two other days, I'll be in good shape. Then on the short days (Tu and Wed) we'll do some extra LA, Math and Art. (Just thinking out loud here... now I'll be able to remember what I've planned!)

I went to Sunday school alone this morning, but came home right afterward, because really, A was in no condition to be the "adult in charge" of two kids on the mend. I figured I had about an hour, then I didn't want to risk it any further.

I am so sleepy right now. I think I might just sleep in the living room myself, first putting in some earplugs to tune out all the hacking.

I keep reading Tammy's blog and thinking I need a hobby that I can do sitting down. (those monthly ladies' craft saturdays are nagging at me). I guess I don't have the sticktoitiveness though; all I've ever managed to crochet (and it was a BIG DEAL, I assure you!) was some scarves for D and S. I was proud of those! But it seemed like they took forever. So I don't think crochet or knitting is the way for me to go. (sigh)

I'll just sit here at the computer and play neopets I guess. :)

Tales of Blah in Vivid Language

I haven't posted in quite some time! Not because I haven't had anything to say; I HAVE, but just have been unable to get here to jot it down. Now that the kids are in bed (again) I've a few spare minutes to sit in the La-Z-Girl recliner with my laptop and relax a bit.

Yes, the kids. D had fever and chills Sat afternoon; S woke up Sun. am, threw up, then had fever and chills. We're talking 102, 103 degrees! Yesterday afternoon I took D in to the Dr's office with a 103.5 fever; motrin, liquids and bed rest were doing nothing for him--he was still sleepy, feverish, and miserable. Dear Doctor tells me if only I'd brought him in Sat or Sun we could ahve started him on Tamiflu, but as it is, D will have to just be miserable for another 2-3 days. Both kids are pretty miserable, and it's been very quiet around here, except for the sniffing and coughs.

I am keeping an eagle eye out for any symptoms in A or myself; I will GO GET THE MEDICINE rather than be knocked on my rump for 5 straight days, which is what's happened to the kids. They migrate between their beds and the couches, very little else.

Yesterday we got a call from someone in our old youth group - John! He, his wife and daughter are up here in WA visiting his parents (who now live in Sequim) - and they were going to come to Puyallup to catch up! Too bad that my family's under quarantine. A. was able to go to Cattins with them for dinner tonight, though. John hasn't changed much. :) His wife and daughter are beautiful; he's a fortunate man. I did get a chance to chat with them for about 15 minutes, standing in my driveway in the rain. (I didn't want to expose them to any lovely virii that are floating airborne in my home).

Last week or so A. gave me the evening off and I went out to Borders to sit and read a book. I remember now, it was March 7. (Eeeep! It HAS been a while!) There was a ginormous number of teens there in the coffee shop (Seattle's Best!), so the noise level was pretty high, even in the back of the store, where I usually roost.

Overheard: "Dude, did you hear about the guy who shot himself in the leg TWICE??"

"No freakin' way!! Why!?!"

"Like, he said he wanted to find out if it hurt as bad the second time!"

Me: *snort, snort, snicker*

I do not know if the shooting was an actual event, or if that was supposed to be a joke, but I certainly found it funny!

Last week (now I have my dates on straight) A. went to the FBFI conference up in Monroe. Kids and I had a pretty good time holding down the fort. It's amazing how one person less makes a big difference in the dynamics of the family. First, I was able to get all caught up on laundry. Second, I made it to the gym every single day, because I made reservations in the Bally's Kids' Club for my halflings. We also went out to dinner at Pizza Hut (which makes A. sick, so we never go there when he's home). AND best of all, he came home early Weds morning, instead of Weds. night like I was thinking. Probably with all the outside running around I did with the kids, they picked up the flu during that time; it hit on Saturday, so the incubation would be about right, I think. :( The disadvantage of homeschooling: they don't always develop immunities to common illnesses.

Then again, do I really want them to be in an enclosed bldg. all day getting exposed to who-knows-what? I was reading an article today re: public schools needing to make emergency plans for pandemic outbreaks - just HOW will schooling continue if the school needs to literally, physically close down for a month or more until the outbreak is controlled?

Praise God that we currently have the answer to that, and it's called the Steilacoom Virtual Academy. We go online, we communicate by email, telephone and Elluminate, and we complete our coursework at home. I'm tellin ya, it's great. I think more public schools should use this as a viablel, reasonable option for education.

D. has just migrated again back to the living room couch. "I feel weightless," he declares, snuffily. He wants some applesauce to eat. I think this is the first thing he's asked for today; everything else has been a concerned mommy giving him water, banana, toast, yogurt, WHATEVER he'd nibble... and it's all pretty much been nibbled once or twice then put aside. So this means I'm closing for now. I will leave you with some doggerel I wrote back in 2002 which I found this morning while perusing an old journal: (sorry about the formatting, I can't make it do what I want to!)

1. A life: boiled down

vaporized, wafting
extracted painfully
puffing a phrase here
thought there
fragment, fragment, fragment
to find what?
Meaning? Pattern lost amid
myriad insignificance
Tale of blah in vivid language

2. I write,
therefore I have nothing to say.

3. Carpe diem! Before I forget
Just what the heck I've ever done
worth writing about.
Carpal tunnel! Too late.

4. Create, my heart said.
What? my mind replied.
A chasing of the wind, a desire to leave a mark
indelible
on the heart of another
touching mind with
penstroke

5. The phrase that
escapes me at present
will surely
come back tonight
in spectral garb--
A dream forgotten later--
but
leaving the shade
of a soul
unexpressed--
unshriven.

6. Blunt-tipped words
Held in place by
an obliging piece of paper
and corresponding blunt wit.

Minesweeper Update

My best time is now 298 seconds on expert. :)

Ho, Ho, Ho!

My Christmas cards are now in the mail, en route to diverse points in the Continental US and abroad.

I take heart that it isn't the Fourth of July as I write this.

Now the next task, and pronto: Get the taxes done!!

training cavies

My dear daughter came up with a great game for the guinea pigs this morning. The young Snippet, who was an early Christmas present, was chewing the bars of the cage because cavies need to chew to wear down their ever-growing incisors. I suggested to S. that she put an empty tp roll in their cage to play with, chew, etc. Then S. came up with a good idea: put a small carrot in the center of the roll, and see how long it takes the guinea pigs to get at it!

We had a great time watching the pigs bump the roll around, fight over it, struggle to get that nugget of orange goodness...

So I'm not sure if it was really a game for the pigs, or just entertainment for humans. I think both!

The weather has warmed up to mid 30's, but with it, the humidity has jumped back up too, making it feel much colder. A. has been stomping all over the house trying to keep warm and complaining about Cispus-like conditions. Cispus is a learning center/campground in SW Washington where I swear they NEVER turn their heat above 60 in the buildings/dorms, so you spend your time there wrapped up in flannel shirts and sweats, clinging to your cup o' joe not only for its caffeine content, but also for its WARMTH. The tip of your nose is red and drippy, and chaperones huddle together in small groups, wondering when the educational experience will be over so you can take the 8th graders back home and you can WARM UP. That is Cispus, in a nutshell.

Science today involved a review/assessment of simple machines: lever, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined plane, screw, and wedge. Then there was a link to Rube Goldberg devices, and now the kids are drawing inventions, making simple things more difficult by the use of machines. Rather creative! D came up with a balloon-popping device involving scissors, a pulley, an anvil, a balance, a broom and a knife.

and it was snowing briefly today!

OK! I'm off to the gym, I think. I'm ready to get out of the house, because we did 2 days' worth of science and 4 days of history all today, so we're DONE. I love playing catch-up! :p not.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind

With sunny days and bitter cold nights around here, somehow some fronts got all tangled up and we had quite the windstorm here yesterday in the South Puget Sound. We lost power several times for a few moments over the course of 10 hours, then about noon it went down for good until nearly 4 pm.

All this would be well and good, were it not for the fact that I had a church banquet to prepare for. Fortunately the church did not lose power, and I was able to proceed as planned with my end of the cooking.

A, however, had a rough time with the grilling. His job was to grill pork ribs and marinated chicken, but with the winds howling and the wind chill somewhere around 3º, the flame kept blowing out! It was a grueling grill gig. (wuahah)

The meal we were preparing featured Southern comfort foods: pork ribs, chicken, coleslaw, baked macaroni and cheese, cornbread - and banana pudding and peach cobbler for dessert. I received a phone call from A. a little after 4 (the power had come back on at the house; I was cooking at the church). He'd had so much trouble with the chicken - he had put it on like 45 minutes before and it was still raw after 45 minutes of grill time. He walked back into the house for 15 min (who wants to stay outside in that nasty wind?) - came back out, and the chicken was charred black.

!!! What to do!? That's half of the banquet right there~!! He was just sick at heart. So, using his noggin and his car, he blazed a trail to Famous Dave's and got two grilled chickens to go!! Oh, the accolades from the dinner guests!!

Meanwhile with the wind storm, virtually all of South Hill was without power; parts of it are still without power even now. 6 people called and cancelled their reservations at the banquet, so we have tons of leftover food. Woot~ no cooking fo me!

I think the most popular menu items were the macaroni and cheese and the banana pudding. I have no leftovers of the banana pudding, sadly. I'll have to make some more; it was truly scrumptious. I got the recipe from Lori, whose MIL is a southerner. I also used her green beans recipe, which I love. That reminds me, some of the food is still on the back porch. Hey, if it's in the low low 30's, it's not going to go bad, and my fridge was rather full.

So the banquet was a success, cooking-wise. It was one of the more relaxing banquets, because much of the food was made in advance (coleslaw, muffins, desserts) and the only cooking I did on the day of the banquet was the mac, the beans, and the cobbler. A. had the harder job of grilling all that meat.

Today, driving up to South Hill, I thought I'd save time and take 94th instead of Meridian. BAD CHOICE. Power out at 128th caused a long long backup. Took me 45 minutes to get to 152nd street. Fir branches everywhere!! And many people out with their yard waste cans, wheel barrows, chippers, what-have-you, just to deal with the mess. I am so glad we do not have many fir trees near us anymore. D and S were playing in the backyard when the next-door-neighbors' fir tree decided to drop a largish branch right next to David! The fir tree does not hang over the fence; it BLEW over into our yard! I told them to play on the WEST side of the yard after that, because the winds were coming from the NE.

I am glad I didn't have all the tree litter to pick up, but I did do a fair amount of picking up everyone's recyclables from down the street......cans, papers, cardboard, etc. I know someone had to pick up mine, too, because my recycle can was not as full as when I'd first pushed it out there!

Now the winds are calm, and we're expecting low 20's/teens tonight. The guinea pigs are in the living room so they don't turn into hairy ice cubes. And I'm heating up leftover mac and cheese.

Life is good!

Diamonds in the Rough

Yesterday, upon returning from their weekly walk to the library, David presented me with a paper lunch bag with the label "DIMONDS (EMRALDS)"

When opening the bag, I saw some lovely broken auto glass that had broken into gem-sized pieces. They had a slightly bluish-green cast to them, so they did indeed look a little bit like diamonds/emeralds.

I've never gotten a sack full of gems before! What a thoughtful Valentine's present.

Valentine's Rant and a Tribute

Why I think Valentine's Day is a load of tripe:

1. Because it's supposed to be all about me, darn it, and nobody else but myself realizes it!


There. Rant accomplished.

Today was not very Valentiney. I'd bought doughnuts at Top Foods after choir practice last night so I wouldn't have to cook breakfast - present #1 to myself. While there I also bought some cinnamon jelly hearts - present #2 (I love cinnamon things). Today I rushed the kids through LA and Science, plus a smidge of Math (we're finally moving on past double-digit addition with regrouping, yay!). Lest one read this and think I only valentined myself (I love backformation - creating new words from existing ones) - I did indeed make sure that the 3 beloved ones in my home received a modicum of chocolate to sustain them. The little heart-shaped boxes went to the kids, and the medium box of Dove milk chocolate with almonds went to the hubby. and like I said, I'd made sure I got what I wanted. :) I have experience in these matters.

Hurried the kids over to a babysitter so Andy and I could attend Sharon's funeral --mom of Crystal and Richard, former kids in our youth group who are no longer kids, but GROWNUPS. It was a good funeral. God was magnified. Richard read scripture from Job and Isaiah 40; Crystal delivered part of the eulogy. She made it through until the end. I was proud of her to be able to do such a hard thing.

Then there was the open mic time. I thought about what I could say to 200-odd assembled people and decided I'd rather share it here in my blog, where there's an edit button. I did share some of this with Richard afterwards, too, so these thoughts are not just entering the void, so to speak.

I will always remember Sharon as loving her children passionately. I remember Crystal and Richard referring to her, eyes rolling, as the "ball and chain," because teens do not understand (nor can they, really) the depth of love/caring/fear that parents have for their children. Sharon was very protective of her children. She was also quick-witted and sharp-tongued. :) Andy found that out when Richard, the quietest kid in the youth group, was accidentally left at the top of Mount Hood while the remaining youth group vans drove down the hill to Sandy, OR. Yes, Richard was retrieved and made it home safely, but Sharon had plenty to say once they got home. (I was not there at the time; still finishing my senior year of college).

Sharon taught me and Crystal how to make jam. She'd been diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993 and was undergoing treatment. Her hair was gone, and she was wearing a little terry-knit cap on her head, but she still took the time to teach me and Crystal how to make strawberry jam. I know now it must have been tiring for her, but she never mentioned it. Crystal and I wandered off at one point, and when we came back to the kitchen, Sharon's cap was off, and on the back of her bald head was a beautiful tattoo of a butterfly!! (temporary). I didn't quite know what to say or do (what is the proper protocol for admiring one's head tattoo??) but Sharon jumped in and brought it up by saying "do you like my tattoo?" I stammered out some funny gibberish, yeah-that's-really-interesting-type comment, then Sharon said, in a confidential tone, "Rex is not amused." (Rex being her husband).

I will always remember Sharon with that butterfly, and in the back of my mind, Rex just rolling his eyes at her.

So Sharon is finally well and whole and free of cancer. Would that we all could live our lives realizing that we're not on our way to the land of the dying, we're on our way to the land of the living.

My Candy Heart says:

Your Candy Heart Says "Get Real"

You're a bit of a cynic when it comes to love. You don't lose your head, and hardly anyone penetrates your heart. Your ideal Valentine's Day date: is all about the person you're seeing (with no mentions of v-day!) Your flirting style: honest and even slightly sarcastic What turns you off: romantic expectations and "greeting card" holidays Why you're hot: you don't just play hard to get - you are hard to get

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

Never Underestimate Your Children

Somehow I've managed to get tendonitis or something in my right wrist. This is interfering with my Schumann and Beethoven. So Mimi's taken me off the big boomy, chordal sounds and put me into Czernys and various etudes that involve an overemphasis on wrist rotation so I do not aggravate the issue further. She encouraged me to look at a Rondo by Bartok and Trois pieces pour la legende doree by Pepin in my Celebration Series Repertoire book.

Darn it, and I was getting good at the Schumann, too. But it was painful to play, and piano shouldn't hurt.

Had a lovely practice this afternoon with a soloist at church who's been classically trained. Together we are working on Panis Angelicus/O Lord We Pray to Thee, and she's planning to sing a Dvorak solo ("I Will Sing New Songs") in the South Sound Classical Choir concerts in May, so I was helping her through some trouble spots.

Friday I went on a field trip with the kids to the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma. The docent got us all seated in the media room for orientation before we got started, and began her presentation talking about artifacts. "Do you know what artifacts are?" Well, in a room full of homeschoolers, duh, yes, there's several junior/junior high boys that can tell you exactly what artifacts are, and they proceeded to do so. Perhaps a little surprised that we rube homeschooling families knew what artifacts are, she continued on...."what artifacts do you think our generation will be remembered by, 500 years from now?"

A few seconds of silence, while the students pondered. Being helpful, the docent volunteers ideas: "Who in here has a Playstation?"


Silence.

"An X-box?"

Crickets chirp.

Desperation in voice: "a computer??!"

And every hand shot up. Of course we have computers, we use k12!

The docent then drew the conclusion that years from now, archaeologists may find our computers as artifacts, yada yada. But I got a secret chuckle over the fact that there were no playstations or xboxes in our group.

It got better though. The docent then began to discuss some things we would see in the museum upstairs, one exciting find being some Clovis Points (they look like stone spearheads) found near Wenatchee just after the Ice Age 16000 years ago.

David's hand shoots up.

"Uhm, yes?" the docent asks politely.

"Only one problem..." David begins, with the air of explaining something to one who is slow.

"What's that?" the puzzled docent responds.

"It wasn't 16000 years ago." He is certain.
I smile inwardly.

"Oh, well...um, that's what I have on my information sheet." The docent hurriedly got us up and started on our self-guided tour, no doubt glad to wash her hands of this weird homeschooling group.

Later on I thanked David for standing up for his beliefs, but reminded him that it might have been better received had he not corrected an adult in public.

Five minutes later we're upstairs and in the first section of the museum--how Washington looked 17 million years ago. Sammie chimes in loudly: "But Washington wasn't even HERE 17 million years ago!!"

I know of the 5 or 6 families that came on this museum trip, four of them are families of faith, so we all had about the same perspective on the old earth viewpoint.

I need to arm my children with more facts so they can defend their faith against an unbelieving world. This means I need more education in this area myself. I can't just depend on Andy to do it all/answer all the questions. but doggone it, this has been a lifelong passion for him. Me, I didn't even believe dinosaurs existed until I was in late in my high school years, no doubt due to other people like myself who didn't consider themselves qualified to deal with the dinosaur/ice age/history of the world from a Creationist viewpoint. So there is a great silence in my particular history of the world. Andy throws out certain words at me and I have to sort through whether it's an evolutionary term, or if it is a legitimate description of an actual era of world history.

So many things to learn, and only one lifetime to do it. *sigh*

Repost: The Pirate Who Doesn't Do Anything

My pirate name is:

Bloody Anne Vane

Every pirate lives for something different. For some, it's the open sea. For others (the masochists), it's the food. For you, it's definitely the fighting. You tend to blend into the background occaisionally, but that's okay, because it's much easier to sneak up on people and disembowel them that way. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Just for the record!

Ain't I somethin' ?

I love taking these useless internet tests. Thanks to grisaleen (nope, don't know her personally) for leaving a link on her site!

are you ready for some football?

OK so I did it. I watched the Superbowl. I am not a Seahawks fan, but when your hometown team does something right, you support them when you can. So I plugged in the cable for the afternoon. D and S were really hyped up, OOH BOY< CABLE!! FOOTBALL!! COOL!!

(for the record, I have a cable internet connection. It is marginally cheaper when you get it with the basic cable TV package deal. Because I turn into a TV zombie if it's on, I unplug the cable so I don't watch TV. Make sense? I don't need the hindrance in my life.) (LOL, the Internet is bad enough of a hindrance for me!!)

Anyway, when I first turned on KOMO, there was Stevie Wonder singing Motown favorites during the pregame show. Man has he gotten big! We watched/listened for about 5 minutes, then David voiced the opinion for all of us: "I've had about enough of this." So I found the Hallmark Channel and we watched about 20 min of Little House on the Prairie.

Back to Channel 4! I missed the kickoff, but only just. It was all Seahawks in the 1st Q. But my stars, the refereeing!! Hm, a little biased?! I am glad I do not wrap my life around pro sports any longer as I used to----because it was bad enough NOT being a fan and getting extremely hyped up at the horrible horrible reffing. Standing and shouting at the TV, I was. Shaking my fist and jumping up and down. Take away that touchdown for offensive pass interference? GADS that was an incredibly lame call.

Oh and don't forget that NON Touchdown by the Steelers --the guy never even crossed the line until after the down! What was that all about? I'd love to know that ref's bookie.

Anyway, LIKE I SAID, I'm glad I don't follow pro sports on a regular basis. It's a real snare! LOL.


To be honest, though, I must confess: It's all about the commercials for me. The corporate megabucks spent on advertising ensures a VERY entertaining afternoon. There were 4 or 5 that were VERY good. So here's the list:

The Five Best Commercials During the Superbowl (ranked from lowest to highest, but I can't turn it around to make it say 5-1!):

1. Jackie Chan and Diet Pepsi: Stunt Double
2. Bud Light: Bear Attack
3. Fed Ex: Caveman
4. Bud Light: Magic Fridge
5. Budweiser: The Clydesdale Football Game

Honorable Mention: Michelob: A Little Darker ("You were open, but now you are CLOSED!")
(I am waiting for D to try this on S very soon)

Now I need to go unplug the cable before I forget and discover my kids watching Dr. Phil or some such thing.

making butter

I had some heavy cream left over from a 1/2 gallon jug (that's how it comes at Costco!!) so A. suggested I make butter with it when it looked like I wasn't going to be able to use it all up. I mean, really, what do you do with a HALF GALLON of whipping cream, besides get arteriosclerosis?

So this morning after making waffles, I decided it was time to give it a shot. But how? A. suggested put it in the mixer on low. Then I remembered waaaay back when I was teaching, the 2nd grade teacher actually made butter with her kiddies by pouring cream into baby food jars, and having the kids shake the jars until the butter formed. I thought that was worth a try. So into a tupperware bowl the leftover cream went!

I've spent my afternoon shaking the cream, off and on. A little ways into it, it stopped shaking and sounding liquidy. I pulled off the lid: whipped cream. Not good enough! So off and on again, I went back to smacking the bowl around. And HEY! it worked! Finally it started to sound watery inside the bowl, and voila! I now have butter and buttermilk!

So now I have to decide what to do with said butter. But still, cool!

My computer just made a thunderstorm sound at me. My weather.com alert went off. High winds on Saturday with wet, soggy soils means trees down and power outages, according to the National Weather Service. Fun!

The "best" windstorm ever was on Bill Clinton's inauguration day in January of 1993. I've never experienced anything like it. It was so powerful and awesome.

I do want to be careful here. I know that the Gulf Coast states experience this thing all too often and that most people certainly would not use any words like "best" in association with a wind event, and that I really have no clue as to what a "real" windstorm (hurricane) is all about.

But with my limited experience, I'd never witnessed such raw power before, and it was exhilarating; both fear-trembly and exciting at the same time.

My dear son is sitting next to me on my bed, grousing about math and school in general. Addition with regrouping (carrying over) is the current bane of my--and my children's existence. We're spending lots of time but not getting very far! All in good time, I suppose.

Meanwhile, A. has found his sermon title for Sunday: "Another Night With the Frogs." Moses is the current Sunday morning message series, and this is a reference to Pharaoh begging Moses to withdraw the plague of frogs from the land. Moses asks Pharaoh just when he would like them removed, and Pharaoh responds, "tomorrow." WHat's up with that?! Why not, "RIGHT NOW!!" ?

I'm out of here. I'm going to the gym. My jeans do not fit!! rgh.

Snurgles and--surprise, surprise...rain showers!

This a.m. D. woke up with a plugged nose and a gross, chunky sounding cough. I kept him home from church so as not to share the blessing with others.

It was a nice, lovely quiet morning; I was able to have some quiet time and relax, listening/watching the rain fall, then I did some exercises on the body ball to strengthen my weak lower back and abs.

Enter the rest of the family home from church. It ceased being a quiet day at that point! D. may be battling the effects of some cold bug, but he certainly hasn't diminished in the ability of making his sister angry. I have spent my day refereeing and sending various children back to their corners of the ring.

To calm things down a bit, I read Little House on the Prairie to them. As I read on, my living room became filled with 4 kitchen chairs and assorted blankets covering the chairs, to simulate the Ingalls' covered wagon. S. grabbed some dry kindling and firewood and made a suitable "campfire" and they played in and around their wagon as I read. 4 or 5 chapters later I had to bow out, hoarse.

So next came the Atari game that S. got for Christmas! I love this thing for nostalgic reasons. The whole game is contained in the joystick. You plug it into your TV and voila! you have Yar's Revenge, Adventure, Breakout, Pong, Carnival, and several others. All these games I played at my best friend Karen's house when I was a kid! (she always got the cool toys) D. and S. played Adventure for a bit. It's a maze-type thing; you have to find the arrow to kill the dragons, find the keys to unlock gates, find the chalice that's guarded by the dragons, etc. The kids have done pretty well at figuring out the secrets and codes, etc., but it wasn't too long before one was irritated with the other for not playing the game "right." Begorrah! Turn OFF the TV and GO TO YOUR ROOMS. but first, take down the wagon!

If we can keep a truce going long enough, we'll watch A Day at the Races with the Marx brothers. D/S love these guys and so do I :) But any more sniping and the halflings will go OFF TO BED while A. and I enjoy a nice evening on the loveseat!

Beeping Slooty and a rant about powdered sugar

By the way, the rain finally ceased last Saturday, after 34 days of measurable rainfall. Sunday took itself literally, Monday and Tuesday copied their predecessor, and Wednesday a new storm system moved in. But three days of sun helped IMMENSELY.

I have been meaning to post for the last week but I haven't gotten to this screen. So you know, I decorate cakes for fun and profit. Mostly fun, but the profit is mighty nice too. (Go see! Sweet Finales) ANYwho, 'round Christmas time someone borrowed Betty (my mixer) and my last 2# bag of C&H powdered sugar, since she only had 1# of the store brand called Western Family pwd sug. and she needed to make a double batch of frosting.

Long story short: I had a birthday cake to make last weekend. The ever-popular and best selling caramel apple spice cake with cream cheese frosting, for Al's 82nd birthday. I pulled out the Western Family powdered sugar, butter, cream cheese, vanilla, etc. and went to work. Hm. runny texture. The recipe calls for 3 cups of powdered sugar, mind you, and a pound of powdered sugar is a little over 4 cups. I emptied the remaining sugar into the bowl. Runny. I grabbed an open bag of C & H I've had for a while - added 2 more cups of sugar. A little soft, perhaps, but should work for covering the cake, even if not for piping. I frost the cake and smooth it, and put it in the garage fridge to set up.

In the morning: the cake looks like the saggy baggy elephant! AGHRGGH! So I chop pecans up, press them into the sides of the cake to hide the multitude of frosting sins, and attempt to do some "finish work" - shell borders, writing, etc. on the remainder of the cake. The shell borders do not hold, but rather form a nondescript blobby pool at sequential intervals. AUGHGHHH!!!
THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use anything but the BEST - C & H Pure Cane Powdered Sugar From Hawaii Growin' in the SUN! western family is on my blacklist for powdered sugar!!

When Tracy came to pick up the cake I told him this was NOT representative of my work and I would not charge him the full price, but when he wrote the check out, he went ahead and gave me close to the original price. He's a guy; what does he care how it looks, as long as it tastes good? Still, my resolve is firm. C & H for me. I should do their commercials.

Also last weekend, pre-cake, I went out to my old teaching/coaching haunt by the request of the current cheerleading coach to help her cheerleaders with some stunting. They seriously needed to get back to some fundamentals, so we went back to basic shoulder stands, as far as how bases should pull down on the back of the flyers' calves just below the knee for added stability and support. Also in how to get OUT of stunts, "shake right, shake left" - the hand grips needed and the proper support to get their friends SAFELY down to the ground. I then showed them a "cooler" way of getting into a shoulder stand via a calf pop. I'd show you what it looks like but I don't see any examples of it on Varsity.com. Basically the base stands in a forward lunge position, and the flyer uses the base's back leg as a sort of mini tramp to get up to the shoulders. One pair of stunters was able to get this technique so I felt that was a job well done. That, in addition to teaching them the proper grip. I firmly emphasized the need for them to go to a good cheerleading camp to get proper training in technique to spare themselves injury, if they plan to do stunting like they want to do. Becky (the coach) mentioned that they couldn't do an elevator extension so after watching the girls try a couple of preps, I made a few suggestions (they really could do it all along, they just didn't know they could, you know?) and the first time they tried it, ZING, right up the flyer went, locked and held solidly in her first ever extension. You know, in cheerleading that used to be a BIG deal, but now it's a pretty basic stunt. The thing a squad needs to be elite nowadays is a ground-up liberty extension. I think *one* stunting team on my squad got that one down, but I don't think we used it in any games because it was a little shaky.

OK, that's enough cheerleading. A. would rather watch grass grow than have anything to do with it, but I can't help it, I love it, especially the stunting and acrobatic parts.

Today we went up to the Seattle Children's Theatre and saw Sleeping Beauty. This was not the Disney version. It had more Scottish overtones in it (accents too!) and instead of three fairies trying to undo the spell of Maleficent, there were two sister witches ("one bright, one dark") who, in their personal conflict, make Briar Rose the fulcrum of their success/failure. The dark witch was rather a conflicted soul; the writer of the play made it clear there was personal bitterness between the sisters. "I am who I was made to be" I think was a line repeated more than once. I don't think I'm quoting it correctly.
Anyway, after that we went to the Pacific Science Center and goofed off there for a bit. I don't know what the most popular exhibit was for the kids, but I was having a good time looking at the digital human scans/3D computer anatomy.

And now I am wondering why I'm sitting here fully dressed when I could be in jammies with a bowl of popcorn......or, ooo, hot chocolate, that sounds even better. The kids are watching Lilo and Stitch and I just might go watch it to see Lilo educating Stitch on how to be a model citizen like Elvis.

yeeeeep.... 31 days

Amendment to my post earlier: it's raining. So now we're at 31 days of rainfall.

here comes the rain again

Well. I woke up at 4:30 this morning, flopped around until 5:30, gave up sleeping as a hopeless endeavor, and came out to the living room to tidy up, do some laundry, make some coffee, read my BIBLE WITH NO INTERRUPTIONS and in general have some alone time.

I will pay for this substantially later on, I know, but for now, it's all good.

I love having a laptop with a wireless connection!

My new thing:

South Sound Classical Choir! I love this so far. I've been to two rehearsals and we're doing some lovely works:

1. Awake The Harp, Haydn (from The Creation)
2. O Domine Jesu Christe, Palestrina
3. How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place, Brahms
4. Zion's Walls, Copland
5. The Last Words of David, Thompson
6. Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Thy Peace, St. Francis of Assisi, music by Rutter
7. Libera Me, Faure (MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE - incredibly rich melody in Dm)
8. "See, the conqu'ring hero comes!" from Judas Maccabeus, Handel (you might recognize the tune in your hymnal as Thine Be the Glory)
9. "Sing unto God" (also from Judas Maccabeus)
10. In Paradisum (from Requiem), another Faure.

57 people in this choir, and it is bone-chillingly beautiful. The choir already knows Awake the Harp and Zion's Walls, but the other 8 songs they are just beginning to learn so I'm not too far out of it. Fortunately I sightread well and I'm a pretty quick study. Still, this isn't going to be a cakewalk; I am way (!) out of vocal shape. Where did my breath support go?! It'll come back, though.

And another nice thing is I'm being exposed to composers I'd only heard of (Faure) and now I want to hear more more more.

Now, technically I think our rainy streak ended at 27 days, because Sunday at SeaTac they didn't get enough to measure. BUT it rained in Puyallup. So though "officially" the streak has ended for Seattle, it hasn't quit here; although yesterday there was some occasional (very occasional) sunshine. And oh yes, rain. Looking out the window right now in the early morning light: ground is wet, but I don't see any drops splashing in the puddles in front of my house right now. So as of yesterday, 3o days of rain in Puyallup. Gads. I need a light box, therapy, something. I mean, for a California girl, I'm pretty acclimated to the Pac NW now, but this is getting very challenging. I'm having pity on those with S.A.D. I can fully understand the desire to move to Tuscon. Get back, Jo Jo. (gratuitous Beatles reference).

Hm. almost 8 am. Still silent in the recesses of the house. Better grab myself another cuppa before A wakes up and filches his 75% of the Daily Brew. (Sideline comment: I love the word filch. And I love the character Argus Filch in the HP series - well no, not the character, but his name is just so darn appropriate, KWIM? Argus, the mythological creature of thousands of eyes; Filch, to take, steal, commandeer, what-have-you.....and you have the perfect name of the caretaker at Hogwarts who snoops around the halls and corridors looking for students who have fanged frisbees, dungbombs, etc.) That was a long parenthetical aside, boy howdy.

This am is our monthly Chapter meeting of the WSMTA. Business meeting at 9:30, then I have a student coming at 10:30 to demonstrate the adjudications process with Dr J. My lovely student will play one of her pieces, then Dr. J. will demonstrate how/what an adjudicator will do. This will be very helpful for both me and my student: adjudications are new to me this year, as well as my student. So we get a free trial run, so to speak. Plus my student gets to skip classes at school, always a benefit! :) I think I'll get her a McD's Arch Card for her willingness to be a guinea pig.

I've babbled on long enough; time to refill my St. Elmo, CO mug and start the wakeup process of the rest of the family. Yeah, we get up late around here. Lazy Homeschooling family, u know.
I always sing the Silly Song "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" but make some changes:
We are the homeschoolers who don't do anything--
We just stay at home and lie around---
If you ask us to do anything...
We'll just tell you.....
We don't do anything!!

What a laugh though, our schedule is packed with lots of things! :)

Bumper Sticker Chuckle

You've all probably seen the bumper sticker that says "Run, Hilary, Run"

But what you DIDN'T know is that the target market is for BOTH Democrats and Republicans!

Democrats put it on their back bumpers--
Republicans put it on their front.

New Year, Restarting

I meant to post this last week but was too darn sore. I went to the gym last week and took the PowerFlex class for the first time in 3 mos. Wouldn't you know it, it involved tons of squats and lunges. That used to be my strong point; I could go on forever and carry on a conversation with the person next to me while the other fitness gods and demigods were dropping like flies.
NOT this time! It was starting from ground zero for me, like a year ago. Quivery and weak when finished. Ok, I can handle that, the key thing is to keep moving, right? So the very next day, I wasn't going to lift weights, oh no, I was just going to get a good cardio workout in the Cycling class.

*smacking head* LEGS, numbskull, LEGS.

Two hour-long classes in two consecutive days contrived to make me walk like Herman Munster. And excuse my lack of discretion, but THEEEEEE worst part was trying to sit down on the Necessary. Took me 3 days to get back to normal.

I waited until today before heading back to the gym, same class. This time I was more cautious, but the focus was more on upper body, chest, shoulders and arms. I can handle that. Who cares if I can't lift my fork to my mouth? That's a good thing, right? :O) And tomorrow I will be doing advanced step aerobics, not cycling (don't wanna get up that early).

Following the Powerflex class I met up with Audra for our weekly Starbucks encounter. I had the caramel apple cider drink. yum.

School today consisted of "art" and "organizational skills" - translated, clean your rooms OR ELSE.

25 straight days of rain here! The front yard feels like a sponge.