Continuing with the time travel, back to October briefly, and Todd's parents' fall visit:
Here's Todd and his dad hanging out and no doubt hatching up some plan, as they always do:
And Todd's mom cleaning up the dinner dishes. Aren't I a great hostess, making the guests work? Actually, we've worked out a plan when they visit, wherein I do the cooking and she does the cleaning up--it's beyond wonderful. At least it is for me--I hope it is for her! I think she enjoys not having to cook, and I totally enjoy not having to clean up.
In November, we went to visit my brother and his family, since we wouldn't be seeing them at Thanksgiving. My brother is a fanatical geocacher, so we went out into the woods one day to look for a couple of caches.
Here's my SIL Tracy and my niece Natalie (I love Nat's little red Crocs!):
My brother digging for the treasure:
Me and Miss Marissa:
We never did find the cache in this pile of rocks:
More later!
I've got about three months' worth of photos to catch up on here at the blog. Return with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear...October 2007:
Here I am on my 37th birthday, in Smithfield, VA, on a luncheon-and-shopping day with my mother-in-law and my friend Cheryl. It's been three months and I still haven't come to terms with being 37 yet. By the time I do, 38 will be right around the corner!
Smithfield is a fun, old little town, famous for its ham and pork products, and booming around the edges with lots of brand-new homes and ugly shopping centers. But the downtown has some great old homes and storefronts:
It was one of those gorgeous blue-sky fall days, and WARM! We browsed through an antique mall and had lunch in a terrific cafe/bakery downtown. I seem to recall coconut cake...mmmmm...
More pictures later.
Isn't is sad, sad, sad about Heath Ledger? There's this really selfish part of me that hates it when actors die tragically, because scenes that I formerly enjoyed in their movies will now be forever tinged with sadness over their death. I'll never be able to totally enjoy "10 Things I Hate About You" again, when he leaps down the bleachers singing to Julia Stiles. Selfish, I know. What a life he could have had...it's a waste.
Todd is downstairs catching up on the last season of "Gilmore Girls" and I'm poking around on the computer in my study for the first time in a long time. For those who have asked--I will get back to my aborted Christmas journal, I promise. I just have to get some of the other piles of chores attended to first!
A few quick pictures:
Here's our former guest bath light fixture. We're re-doing this room a piece at a time, and this nasty wood-and-bulbs vanity light needed an update:
And here's what we replaced it with. (We put this same fixture in our master bath, too, replacing a vanity light so cheap and ridiculously ugly that it wasn't worth recording in photo or in words!)
Todd is on a ladder in the first picture, replacing the ceiling fixture as well, but it is so basic that it didn't seem worth getting a picture of it. The old one was brass with a frosted squat globe and the new one is white with a bulbous glass globe. Picture a boob made of ribbed glass, complete with white metal nipple. and you'll have it. We went dirt cheap for the ceiling fixture since I, for one, never look at it.
Did you notice the ducks? The undoubtedly-gorgeous-in-1987-but beyond-ugly-in-2008 ducks in the wallpaper border up top?
Aren't they cute? No? I don't think so, either. I've been threatening them for two years, and their days are numbered. I just have to get the arm power back to strip them down, but when I do, oh, down they'll come.
The floor is no friend of mine, either...you can see it on the left, and then the flooring I've picked to cover it on the right:
I know, as I plan these changes, that in another 20 years someone will be ripping out all our hard work and declaring how ugly it is--but that's okay. How else would the home improvement stores stay in business?
So the guest bath will be going from brown and tan, with ducks, to sage green, soft yellow and lavender, with lots of vintage girly stuff. Here's my prototype shelf:
I don't have everything arranged how I want it yet, but it's my inspiration area. Someday it will look just perfect in this bathroom, instead of odd and misplaced!
More pictures later!
I can remember reading these newspaper columns by Larry King in which he'd just ramble along in a total stream-of-consciousness mode...I don't know if he still writes them, but think of this as my Larry King-style catch-up.
We spent two weeks away from home over the holidays, and it all went great. We had some unexpected car trouble while home in Ohio, but it happened while we were close enough to home to get it taken care of easily--and it ended up being a problem that was covered under an extended warranty. On an eight-year-old car. Talk about your Christmas miracles!
We got to cram in a few quality moments with most of the people we love, too. Which was also great. Pictures will be forthcoming.
I started emptying cupboards and closets as soon as we got home on January 2, and then lost my momentum about halfway through. Right about the time I dropped two heavy books spine-down on my toe, come to think of it. The toe still hurts, and now I have no clue what to do for it since it's been almost two weeks. Do I wrap it, ice it, or what?
Today is my niece Natalie's fifth birthday, and we would have been there with her except that I came down with a touch of flu on Friday morning, thus derailing our weekend plans. I'm feeling mostly better today, except for the "aunt guilt." Sorry, sweetie pie! Keep a lookout for your present in the mail!
Todd had his performance review and got promoted from "project supervisor" to "engineering manager." Now he just needs to find out exactly what that will entail. But it's still cool, and I'm proud of him!
We bought eleven interior doors on sale today, and now we need to find some doorknobs and then paint them, install knobs, and hang them. It's going to make a big difference to go from brown "wood" hollow-core doors to white "wood" six-panel doors. I'm looking forward to it!
We also hung new light fixtures in the upstairs bathrooms, and they look awesome. And I found the flooring I want for the guest bath, and decided on a color for the walls.
We got about two inches of snow yesterday, and it was just gorgeous. I sat on the couch and watched it fall all afternoon and evening, and each of the trees in our yard had that light coating of snow on each branch that just makes them glow and shows off their shapes. Today it all melted, but it was a thing of beauty while it lasted.
This week I'll try to find some moments on the upstairs computer so I can post pictures of all our recent doings.
Well, we are getting packed and ready to go on our fortnight of crazy traveling! Tomorrow morning we're headed up to Aberdeen, MD (4-5 hours) for Todd to do some work this week. Then we'll leave there Friday and run up to visit Todd's sister Lisa and her family in Wilkes-Barre, PA (3 hours). Then we'll drive out to my folks' house on Sunday morning (5-6 hours) and stay there through Christmas, spending some quality time with my brother and sister and their families, too. And my extended family.
The day after Christmas, we'll hop on down to Columbus (3 hours) and spend a couple days with Todd's sister Julie's family. Then we'll drive back up to my parents' house (3 hours back) and try to squeeze in all the relatives we didn't get to see on our first short stay, including Todd's parents, who we'll be passing on the freeway as we leave Lisa's house in PA and they head to it for Christmas earlier that week.Sick of the car yet? Well, don't be, 'cause there's a 9-hour drive back to good old Virginia on New Year's Day! Hee hee!
I figure there's a 50/50 chance Todd and I can come out of this with our marriage intact. (KIDDING!) As long as the weather cooperates, it should all be okay.
I worked ahead on my Christmas journal, so here are the next three days' worth of entries. I was going to try to take it all with me on my travels, but if we cram one more thing in the car it might just collapse, so I'll catch up with the rest of it when we get back home.
Wish us good traveling weather and good fellow travelers as we all barrel down the highways together, okay? I'll check in from Maryland later this week.
Looking at our travel plans all written out makes me want to curl up in bed until Martin Luther King Day! It's going to be nuts! We're doing laundry and packing up the car this weekend.
Today's topic: gifts and how they're handed out in your family. Again, I tweaked it a little so I could include another bit from one of my favorite Christmas stories.
I decided to go with a different topic today, and get a few of my holiday recipes into the book. These are the most delicious sugar cookies ever!
Today's journal topic is Christmas traditions, and I had a hard time with that last year, because we honestly don't seem to do much the same way from year to year. And in last year's journal, I did list the few things I could think of that could be called traditions.
Since this year I want to put a few excerpts from favorite Christmas stories into the book, I decided to use a snippet from A Christmas Carol, which for quite a few years was a tradition for us to view as a play. I've also read the story many times, and as I mentioned in my journaling, I find it more touching every year. Scrooge is one of those characters that you want to laugh at, and cry for, at the same time.
Here's yesterday's journal entry, too. I was waiting for some sunshine to get my photo of our front door. I painted it red right before Thanksgiving--isn't it festive?
I went to see Christmas lights along the boardwalk in Virginia Beach with my friend Bev last night, and it was so fun. All the hotels put up displays, and you drive along the boardwalk and listen to a Christmas CD they give you at the entrance, and look at the lights. Much of it was beach-themed...very cool.
Today's journal entry is about holiday to-do lists, organization, etc...but most of my to-do list consists of shopping. And then wrapping. So my shopping list is inside this funny card that I found at a fancy paper store in Alexandria a couple of weeks ago.
Other than the shopping and the wrapping, what's left for me to do is to get packed and travel-ready. This is going to be a crazy traveling Christmas for us!
The topic for today's journal entry is to write about good and not-so-good memories of Christmas. Since I did that last year, I decided to focus on two good memories--mine and someone else's. The story in the journaling block is Laura Ingalls Wilder's Christmas memory from Little House on the Prairie, of the Christmas she and her sister Mary received candy and a cake AND a penny and were completely delighted. And my memory is in the little tab on the side, of receiving that book for Christmas as a child!
I got today's entry done quickly this morning...now on to laundry and housecleaning! (This entry is much more sparkly in real life, by the way...)
Oh my, it's cold and crazy out there! I'm glad I don't have much more Christmas shopping to do!
Today's journal topic is "the perfect Christmas"...I can honestly say I don't think much about perfection any more. What would make this Christmas perfect for me is good, solid quality time with all the different people I love, without feeling rushed or sad that my time with all of them is so limited. I'm going to do my best to accomplish that, and everything else is just gravy!
Although it was 60 degrees this morning, it's been blustery enough to feel wintry! The wind is threatening to take the Christmas bows off the windows of the house--the only decorating we've gotten around to! And now tonight it's gotten cold, perfect weather for snuggling up in bed with a book, which I think I may do once I post this.
Here's journal entry #3. Pretty dull...the prompt is about cards and I haven't picked any out, nor do I really feel like sending any. I like getting them, though!
I'm doing a minimum of journaling this year...it feels weird not to write a lot, but I'm just not feeling verbose this time around. I'm focusing more on the art elements and the mood of the book. Wish we would get some snow!
...time for Shimelle Laine's "Journal Your Christmas" class! One entry every day from December 1 to January 6 (although I bailed right after Christmas last year)!
I found a small house-shaped album from 7Gypsies for this year's book. I took it off the spiral, and I'm covering up the spine holes with papers. Then once it's all done, I'll punch just three holes and bind it with binder rings.
I'm having my usual case of "cover block" on decorating the cover (I never did get last year's journal cover decorated!) But here's the entry for December 1. We're supposed to write our Christmas manifesto for this year, but I'm not really a manifesto kind of girl. So this is my laid-back, feel-good, non-lofty goal for Christmas this year:
My library date stamp, which I got in like, 2000, when they were all the rage, only has the years up to 2006. Chuh! So I'm just stamping the date and then the handy AM/PM option, for each day's entry. It didn't come out too clear, but it's off to the right near the bottom. Next time I'll remember to rock the stamp.
I just waved Todd and his co-worker R. J. off to a big poker game, so I have the evening all to myself.
It has finally, finally gotten chilly-ish here, and now I'm ready for fall. Unfortunately, now that Halloween has passed, the rest of the world has moved right along to Christmas, which I am assuredly NOT ready for.
We had a fun little Halloween evening here. Todd pulled on his suit of armor and stood on the driveway waving at the trick-or-treaters and pointing them up to the front porch where I waited with the candy bucket. Some of the kids thought he was a robot or Robo-Cop. And the toddlers were mostly scared of him. However, he did get challenged to a couple of duels, so there are obviously a few kids out there who recognize a knight when they see one.
We had about 60-65 kids come by. I just love seeing their costumes and ogling their full bags of candy. We didn't live in a neighborhood when I was a kid, and my mom had a niggling feeling that Halloween was of the devil, I think, so we didn't do much trick-or-treating when I was little. The result is that every Halloween I just want to grab a pillowcase and make a costume and go out and hit the streets with the rest of the kids. Of course I can't really do that, so I have to just console myself with the leftover Halloween candy (Tootsie Roll pops.)
Todd's parents were here for a week in mid-October, and we had a great time with them, as we always do. They are such low-maintenance houseguests--they can take care of and entertain themselves if necessary, and they just fit into the flow of life here really well. Todd and his dad got to do some fishing, and we all just hung out, puttered around, hit a few sights and shops, and otherwise relaxed. Very nice. And they were here for my birthday, so that was nice, too.
Yes, I had another birthday...I haven't figured out how to avoid it yet. It was pretty painless this year. My mom sent along some great presents with my in-laws, so I had those to open first thing in the morning. My mother-in-law and I went to Smithfield with my friend Cheryl, and we did a little walking, a little antique shopping, and had a fabulous lunch at the bakery there. And I was inundated with phone calls from my loved ones all day, plus some great handmade cards and pictures from a few of the nieces and nephews. I also had a couple very interesting renditions of "Happy Birthday" sung to me over the phone by my nieces Natalie and Marissa. So it was a good birthday. Sometimes it's easy for me to forget how blessed I am, and how often the biggest blessings are the ones that seem the smallest.
This week we ordered some new bedroom furniture, which I still can't quite believe. We have a whole bedroom full of hand-me-down furniture, and not one piece goes with any other piece to the tiniest degree. I've been okay with it for fifteen years, but suddenly a couple weeks ago, I was not okay with it any more! So we shopped around and ended up with this set from Bassett: Eastbrook. We got the bed, two nightstands, the tall chest, and the "door dresser," without the mirror. It will be very interesting to cram it all into our bedroom. It will all fit, except the bed. We currently sleep in a double, so I think the bed frame will go into the attic until we're ready to splash out on a queen mattress/box spring set. Anyway, it'll be exciting to put all our stuff into new dressers!
Now I think I'll read for the rest of the evening. I have an enormous stack of to-be-read books, courtesy of Paperback Swap, and it's great to just go grab a new book whenever I'm ready for it.
Thanks for the good thoughts for Bev's big move...she's been here a week and is getting unpacked and settled. The trip went super-smoothly, and the weather cooperated--if anything, it was too hot!--but at least it didn't rain.
We are having a gorgeous day here today, and it actually feels like fall now. The nights are chilly and the past few days have been cooler. The sky is bright, bright blue, and the leaves at the top of our tallest backyard trees are starting to turn golden. I'd take a picture, but the loss of my Epson printer also meant the loss of my memory card intake or whatever you call it, so I can't quickly upload pictures just now. I'm writing from the laptop right now, anyway. I guess I could stick a memory card into this thing, but who knows which slot? Could I be more clueless?
Anyway, no pictures just now. I know blogs are way more interesting with pictures!
I went through the kitchen today and did some knick-knack rearranging, getting in the mood for some fall decorating, maybe. I can finally start thinking about Halloween and Thanksgiving now that it's semi-cool outside! It's also time for the fall cleaning and moving-things-around ritual. Spring and fall are good times to look around and pull the house back into order.
Every few weeks, when I can haul myself out of bed early enough, we hit whatever yard sales look good, but I haven't found anything worthwhile in ages and ages. But yesterday I really hit the jackpot: I got two pretty antique plates and two vintage embroidered linen dresser scarves, a Black and Decker rice/veggie steamer, which I've been thinking about getting for ages ($3.00!), four old blue Ball/Atlas canning jars with the metal tops, a vintage saltines tin, and a green t-shirt with fall appliques, two old soft sweatshirts, and a gorgeous moss green corduroy button-up jacket. Almost everything was an absolute steal. Very exciting!
I took a very fun class from my friend Beth Fye at the scrapbook store yesterday, after yard sale-ing, and we made a little Halloween book chock-full of great embellishments and papers, mostly from the new Making Memories Halloween collection, which I love. It's meant to have photos put in it, but I don't have very many Halloween photos. I was thinking about putting in some Halloween poems and quotes, and maybe some recipes, like pumpkin bars or hot apple cider.
If you have a favorite Halloween-themed poem, quote or recipe, put it in the comments section! I'll send everyone who comments a little Halloween goodie, that will be fun!
Just poking my head in to say that I am off to Columbus for six days to help my friend Beverly get packed and loaded, and then we'll be moving her down to Virginia Beach this coming weekend. Any good thoughts you have for safe traveling would be appreciated! It will be so nice to have her down here and get to see her more than once a year.
I've greatly curtailed my computer time, as my shoulder/arm pain has come back and typing and mousing really seems to exacerbate it. So a couple minutes in the morning and evening to check my e-mail and that's just about all I'll allow myself. Maybe a total computer break for a few days is just what the doctor called for.
See ya next week!
So let's say it's finally starting to feel...not like fall, exactly, but maybe late summer, at your house. And you're starting to think about spicy cinnamon baked goods. And you're trying to eat a little healthier, so you're looking for something non-gooey and non-overloaded with bad stuff.
Why not try Whole-Wheat Snickerdoodles II at Allrecipes? I made a batch earlier this week and we scarfed them down so fast, I decided to make a double batch today. The house smells great!
I added extra cinnamon to the batter, as well as a dash of cloves, just to make the cookie itself spicier before rolling it in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. I also substituted applesauce for a bit of the butter, say 1/4 of the amount called for. And I forgot to flatten the cookies both times, so they were puffier than the picture shows, but still yummy. They're a little dry and crumbly because of the whole-wheat flour, but good with a glass of milk or cup of tea. And they taste good warm out of the oven, but even better the next day.
And if you and a significant other scarf down ten or twelve cookies while watching TV, telling yourself all the while that it's okay because they're "healthy," well, that will be our little secret.
I've got these yoga pants that I mostly love. Except when I have to do any actual exertion in them. It's cooled off here the last few days, so I've been wearing pants instead of shorts for my daily walk, and I don't know who decided that exercisewear should be as unabsorbent as possible, but I'd like to smack him. Because you just know it was a him.
My yoga pants are rare and prized possessions, because if you think plus-size exercise clothes are hard to come by--and they are--they're nothing compared to plus-size petite exercise clothes. It's apparently crossed very few people's minds that there may be some short pudgy girls out there in the world and that they might want to get some exercise to rectify their pudginess, since there's obviously nothing they can do about their shortness.
So I got a wonderful pair of petite XL yoga pants at Land's End several years ago, and then because Land's End stopped making the wonderful yoga pants before I could get any more (of course), I also have two slightly less wonderful pairs from L. L. Bean.
I checked the label on my Land's End pants after my walk today and they're apparently 39% cotton, which you'd think would have some sort of cooling effect. However, they're also 48% nylon, and that's where the problem lies. These pants feel exactly like the navy blue polyester bellbottoms I used to wear in grade school, when I'd go out and play a hearty game of kickball at recess and then come inside and sit in a damp, gooey waist-to-ankles mass of man-made "fabric" that never dried.
That's exactly how these pants feel. And grade school flashbacks are seldom enjoyable for me.
I just can't understand why clothes made for sweating should be made of the worst possible material for letting sweat evaporate.
If you know of any flattering black petite XL exercise pants made for short pudgy girls who actually sweat, let me know, won't you?
Our printer died a quiet death the other day and now we have to replace it. We bought it three or four years ago, and I remember telling someone at the time that if it were possible to marry an inanimate object, I'd marry that printer.
It printed hundreds and hundreds of gorgeous photos for me, in every size imaginable, and although it had gotten a little cantankerous in its old age, I still loved it dearly. It took me far, far away from the limitations of film cameras and Wal-Mart 4x6" photo processing, into a world where I could take a picture, crop it, print it as big or small as I wanted, and have a scrapbook page completed, all in an hour's time.
So goodbye, old friend. As we throw you into the garbage can, remember that we didn't want to, but your warranty was just too short.
And Todd's mom cleaning up the dinner dishes. Aren't I a great hostess, making the guests work? Actually, we've worked out a plan when they visit, wherein I do the cooking and she does the cleaning up--it's beyond wonderful. At least it is for me--I hope it is for her! I think she enjoys not having to cook, and I totally enjoy not having to clean up.
In November, we went to visit my brother and his family, since we wouldn't be seeing them at Thanksgiving. My brother is a fanatical geocacher, so we went out into the woods one day to look for a couple of caches.
My brother digging for the treasure:
More later!
