Next Year

should be better. This year started with surgery for me, and things pretty much lurched from one disaster to another. It was also funny, and we had fun, but I'd really like to see things get a little boring for a bit. (Like that will happen.) I am writing these here because I want to remember and check back next New Year's Eve.

I'm not going to make resolutions, per se, but I do have things that I want to try/do/happen in 2008.

This year
--I'm going to exercise at least 3 times a week. I started out doing well last year, but then spent from March to August in a splint or cast. That kind of put a damper on exercise. I always feel better when I exercise any way.

--I am going to do things to the house because I want to, not because I have to. Even if we move this year, I am going to enjoy my house while we are here. (I started doing this already. I have made curtains for all of the bed rooms this year.)

--I am going to get rid of the clutter in our house. The Wiz is six, and we don't need baby/toddler/preschooler items any more. We also have more stuff than we need. I'm getting rid of it. I'm going to organize what we have and work on making my life easier.

--I am going to work on reducing our carbon foot print more. We already do the light bulbs, and I'm replacing wrapping paper with gift bags (mostly cloth ones). I want to put baskets on my Dew and use it more around town. I am going to grow more vegetables this year.

--I am not going to stress out over things as much. I am too anxious about things that I can't control, and I'm going to attempt to let things go. No one follows the scripts I write in my head, so I'm going to stop writing them.

--I hope that the job situation gets sorted out this year. I'm tired of not feeling any of it is secure.

--I am going to floss every day. I used to do this, and keep falling out of the habit because of it making me throw up (pregnancy, twice), thumb injuries, surgery, etc. None of that will happen this year, right? (Right? Please?)


That's a start.

Christmas, Part II

I left off at brunch. After brunch, we really began to open our presents. I think that once the presents are under the tree, they breed or something.

I have some where upwards of 100 pictures, but I won't subject you to that! I'll just show you a few.

There is Game Boy in his Italian soccer club jersey (a huge hit--he actually stripped off his shirt to put it on) from his Aunt E and Uncle F. He also received a huge lego set with a Star Wars transport. That took him two days to build.

The Wiz is holding his Fur Berry, which turned out to be his favorite gift. It also smells nice, which led to some surreal/strange comments. G/G gave him a pot and saute pan which will last him forever. He's made himself eggs, already.

All of the adults received gifts too, but they are never as interesting as gifts for children.

When we were finished, The Collar hooked up our family Christmas gift (bigger and high definition tv--we watch lots of movies) and then everyone rested. I did so by chopping vegetables. There's something meditative about dicing, and I was able to listen to Sing You Sinners by Erin McKeown.

We ate an early dinner. The menu hasn't changed in 4 years. We had shrimp cocktail or pickled herring, pork tenderloin, swedish cabbage and apples, and roasted root vegetables. It's a very colorful meal. For dessert, we had creme brulee and then opened our crackers. The Collar's parents had to go home this year after dinner. After dinner, we went downstairs and watched A Christmas Story (our DVD, not TBS). It was a very nice day.

I hope that yours was nice too.

We interrupt Christmas

to show you our glasses.

The Wiz now has different glasses as his first pair broke when they were being adjusted.

Game Boy's came too.

Here are mine. I'm getting used to them. Periodically, my eyes will do some weird shift. The other thing is that every flat surface looks very slanted. I remember that from the first time I got eyeglasses. It was cloudy and dark, so I don't know how the transitions coating works, yet. I can easily get the sunglasses on though. This picture was taken by Game Boy.

This last picture is the Wiz and the Collar reading. I think it's cute.

Christmas at Clever Name

We let the boys wake us up at 6:30 am. This is hard on us because the Collar never makes it home until after midnight. For some strange reason, I don't go to bed until he comes home. Next year, we aren't letting them get up until 7:00! Notice how chipper they are. There are no pictures of the grown ups because we hadn't had coffee yet.

The first thing they do is make rolls. They (The Collar, The BBFs, Game Boy, and The Wiz) all have cinnamon and/or orange rolls. This year I had gluten free scones. More importantly, I make a pot of coffee for the grown ups. This year, all four of us wore red pajamas for Christmas. My parents gave them to us. I have children who would wear pajamas all day long if I would let them. Generally my rule is you can't have lunch until you put on regular clothes. (I think that both boys will make fine college students.)

When the rolls are done, we move everything downstairs to the family room and eat breakfast and open our Christmas stockings. Our stockings this year were really great. All of us involved seemed to have a lot of luck finding really good things for our stockings. I didn't get too many pictures, because I was busy helping the Wiz.

Both boys had a great time. After we finished, we all dressed and went to the 10:00 am casual Christmas Eucharist. The Collar doesn't even wear clericals for this service. It's quite nice.

When that is over, we went home, and the Wiz helped me make egg, cheese, and sausage pie (crustless quiche). While that's baking, we opened more presents. I'll blog that later.

The Gear Up to Christmas

I'm behind. Here's a photo collection for our preparations to Christmas.

A stocking meatloaf
A Christmas treeFour finished pairs of socks. From left to right: The Wiz's socks, Game Boy's Socks, Eleanor Socks for MIL, and FIL's socks. I didn't finish the Collar's.

Cloth gift bags, since I'm tired of cutting down trees. (Well, not personally.)

No one can see here

Game Boy had his eye exam today. (All four of us have been to the eye doctor in the last four weeks.) He also needs reading glasses. Apparently, the last eye exam was most likely wrong (that doctor said he outgrew his farsightedness). Strangely, he and the Wiz have the same prescription.

Game Boy also has a convergence problem. He sees double from a very long distance (over a foot away from his eyes--most of us don't see double until close to our noses). Glasses will help with all of that and we are supposed to do exercises to improve that. He must have a really hard time at school.

Anyway, they tried to make his glasses. They had his prescription in stock (unlike mine, which must be ground specifically for me) and worked on them. His left lens was cut in half by the edging machine. The left lens on the Wiz's glasses did the same thing. Both boys' glasses did this twice. This time, Game Boy's glasses are going to be sent off to another lab to fix. (So, of four pairs of glasses, only the Collar's were made while we waited. The Wiz's and Game Boy's should have been, but the machine broke. My glasses just take a loooooooooong time.)

While we were there, we had the Wiz's glasses adjusted, because they are a little bit big. Guess what! The ear piece broke as they were adjusting the fit. So now his glasses are being sent to another lab also. He may wind up with different glasses though, because the frames have been discontinued and the company is gone. Who knows?

I'm finding this pretty funny. What else can I do?

All three of us should have our new glasses by next Friday. I hope! I really wanted to get used to my bifocals (progressive lenses, natch!) before school started. We shall see.

General Catch Up

Three Good Things:

My grades are turned in.
We are not moving in February.
I received an SP package from Kent, England. (Pictures tomorrow!)

Three Bad Things:

I have to start wearing bifocals.
My Christmas shopping is woefully behind. (But who needs more stuff?)
It's really cold here.

Three So/so Things:

The boys start winter break on Friday.
All of the Christmas decorations are out of the garage and in the house.
The Collar and I are going shopping together this afternoon.

Ooookay.

It's 72 degrees outside. Last week, it was snowing (but the Collar and I were in Florida).

I finished another Christmas present. I only have one left now. Do you want to see? Of course you do! These are for the Wiz.
I've added another gift to the queue, but I'm not going to worry about it.

One more final to give, and then I can really begin to work on grades. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Pictures from a Week

New glasses.

New club.

Big lizards.

Big city.

Big sky.

Odd(s) and Ends

First, Game Boy wants you to see this:

He connected two words with the word "drives" on a triple word score and earned a cool 84 points. It was a coup!

I finished a hat for the Wiz. He's wearing a scarf I made for his baby long, long ago. It is the only thing I've ever knitted from novelty yarn.

And finally, a tiny little sweater for my SP. I need to make a hanger for it, but there it is.

The next week is going to be very busy. It's the last week of classes, and we have a trip from Wednesday to Friday.

And it's a

hat.
Well, at least he has an orange hat.

Back to doing work.

Since I'm busy

Here's a song:



I love this song. The end makes me cry, because the Wiz is already trying to not be a girl anymore at school. :(

And I'm thankful for

A full house for Thanksgiving dinner.Well, almost full. The BB fanatics came down for dinner. To me, that's a pretty full house! We used our china (we use it for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Maybe we'll add my birthday some time.) and our stemware.

And for this: The Wiz's magic cream (aka Lidocaine and Prilocaine). We may not be able to use it for blood draws and for IVs, but we can and do use it for infusions. There are other things I'm thankful for, too, but they are too weird to go into.

I wish

moar funny pictures

that the boys worried like this!

Thankful List

--That Game Boy is healthy and happy and smart and a downright neat kid.
--That The Wiz is flexible and optimistic and capable of dealing with medical stuff that most adults can't handle.
--That The Collar is challenged by his work and enjoys it (most days!).
--That I am not crazy (yet) from teaching 15 credit hours.
--That our house, even though it suffers from an infestation of boys, is still standing.
--That we have a support system, even if it is mostly far away.
--That the turkey is almost thawed, the corn bread for stuffing is thawing, the soup is made, and that the GF dessert is ready.


All these things, I thank you, Oh Lord.

Cold Night

means warm mittens.
Or mitten. The latest in meatloaf art. (I knew those cookie cutters would come in handy some day!)

Favorite

My favorite dog, in her favorite spot. (She likes to lie on the windowsill and survey the front yard below.)

Birds and Creeps

That's the conversation for today.

On the way up to rehearsal, the boys talked about birds. They've decided that Lex has more starlings than people. The sheer number of birds apparently reminded P 0f the London bombings, so that started a conversation about starlings being bombers. These boys are 10, 8, and 6. You can imagine the what the bombs are.

On the trip back home, they decided to be creeps, and after everything they said, they added the word Ladies in a deep voice. Then it wound up being about birds and Ladies. It's very strange. I do not think that I understand anything that they talk about.

If you want to learn about your kids, don't actually talk to them. Take them and their friends in a car pool. They'll talk amongst themselves, and you'll learn so much more!

Organized

I like my "stuff" to be organized. I hate that I don't have an office any more for all of my teaching paraphernalia. I don't like having my knitting gear (yarn, needles, stitch markers, etc.) all scattered around because then I can't find anything. I'd like for the rest of my house to be organized, too, but I live with three people who think organized means having something in the general area of where it belongs.

So here is my knitting gear, books, and so on, all in one place and organized.My office (corner) still needs a chair, and a cork board/calendar. It's almost there. No pictures, right now. Maybe when I actually have everything done.

Knitting is still stuff that I can't show you. Sigh.

Hat and Mittens

Here's a picture of a finished object! (Most of what I've been finishing has been for other people. Christmas gifts, so I can't post them as I know that someone would see their present!)

I didn't post this set because I made it for my friend, P, who wanted a hat for some cards (we have swapped knitted stuff for hand stamped cards before). I decided she needed mittens to go with the hat, and I wanted it to be a surprise. I think it was!

I think the colors (iris, rhubarb, and asparagus) are nice and bright for those grey southern winters. Everyone who saw this hat wanted one!

After Choir Conversation

Last night's conversation (all three boys took part--a few were monopolized and those are noted):

Why it's a bad idea to smoke.
Who starts smoking.
Cool things they do on Fun (or Fab) Fridays.
Who their friends are at school.
How many birds are around.
Worry about whether or not he (Game Boy) made academic team. (He did! He found out today.)
If Game Boy is going to have a solo or not for Lessons and Carols.
If The Wiz is going to go to Gatti Town.
What P (the other chorister) would do with the money he got from the tooth fairy if he found the mammath tooth fossil that the 3 year old found.
Digging for fossils at school (P again--we don't have as much rock on our playground).
What their favorite pieces of music that they are now practicing for Lessons and Carols. (Game Boy wants to sing The Holly Has a Berry--among other pieces.)
Why taking your lunch to school is better than buying it.

Keep in mind this is about a half hour in the car. These things were discussed in detail. (Oooh, boy, were they.)

Finished things

1.) All of the concerts are finished. Game Boy did a great job. If you want to hear Mozart's Requiem, go here.

2. The Wiz went to see his GI yesterday. He is up to 41 pounds and is at 3 feet, 9 inches. He's on his 10th percentile weight curve still, so Dr. GI is happy. We are finished with specialists for awhile.3. I finished another baby hat and thumbless mitten set for the SDS silent auction.
4. I also finished P's hat. I'll post pictures of that after she receives it, since I want her to see it first!

5. The election is over, so we are finished with election ads and the like for awhile.

6. I'm caught up on grading until Friday.

Things to do while waiting for the pump to *beep*

Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Serenity (Firefly) You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you. I really need to watch this show.

Happy Halloween!

Even if the Wiz couldn't go out, we could still eat this!

It couldn't last

The Wiz's stretch of good health, that is.

Since he started having SCIG infusions last fall, the Wiz has been remarkably healthy. He didn't have his usual bronchial infections or anything else.

The record stopped today. Last night, he started coughing, and coughing, and still hasn't quit. He has bronchitis AND croup (how do you get both?!) so no trick-or-treating for him tonight. He probably won't be able to go to our All Hallow's Eve service and party tomorrow, either.

The trick or treating tonight is a rant in itself. Some of the churches around here asked for Halloween to be moved from Wednesday because it's a church night. These same churches are having trunk or treat at their church parking lots TOMORROW night because a.) Halloween is evil!, b.) dressing up and walking to your neighbors house is evil!, c.) and begging for candy on Halloween is evil! However, apparently, dressing up, going to your church parking lot and getting candy without the exercise, is not evil! Whodathunk? And it is so very different from Halloween, too!

He is very cheerful, though. I bought him cupcakes, so he's not too unhappy about any of this. I'm not thrilled, but at least it's him and not Game Boy. That would be a disaster.

Not-SCIG

I realized that my last two posts were SCIG related posts. So this one is not!

It's cooler now. So I am cooking warm meals, like big pots of chili. (Tonight, we had a pot roast. The Wiz says he will serve it in his restaurant.)I have also been knitting. Besides finishing a sweater last week for The Wiz, this week I've been working on a hat for my friend P,and finishing Christmas presents socks for Game Boy.
Now I will start a new Christmas present, and finish up the hat. Of course, I'm also doing lots of teaching. But that's okay. Busy is good.

The Wiz's SCIG Day

Before you ask, The Wiz asked me to blog about getting SCIG. He wanted all of you to know that it's not so bad, and that he doesn't mind it at all. In fact, he says it's worth it.

First off, he says you need to see his leg, before the IG has moved from the syringe into his leg.
This is all of the stuff that we need to set up.I can't take pictures of him while I put in the needle, but here he is, sitting and relaxing to television. The sucker helps him concentrate on something other than the needle.
This picture is a close up of the pump and tubing. He usually doesn't hold the pump, but wanted to for the picture.Finally, here is today's hulk muscle. He's so proud of them. I still think it looks like he has an extra knee up on his thigh.
We put the needle in his thigh because he has slightly more fat there than he does on his stomach. When we put the needle in his stomach, it would leak. This works much better.

Fall is Here!

SCIG has started. Here's the Wiz's giant hulk muscle.

The Wiz now has a new sweater.Once the hood went on, it seems to fit him better. He really likes it.I know it's not perfect, but he likes it.