Snippets

My family and I took a poll and it's unanimous -- Sky High is much better than Zoom: Academy for Super Heroes. Unfortunately, Santa brought the latter. Ah, well...

As I check my email and delete my spam, I wonder why I get nothing but ads for male enlargement. Part of me gets frustrated as I don't have that particular piece of anatomy so why do I need products to make it bigger? The feminist in me argues that there should be equal spam time for some sort of female experience enhancement medication or device or something along those lines.

I am exhausted. Lulu's birthday, Thanksgiving, my father-in-law's birthday, Christmas, Rhys' birthday and tonight is New Year's. I'm always happy when January rolls around as it provides a month's reprieve from holidays, birthdays and family functions.

My daughter was engaging to watch as we signed the family Christmas newsletter. She began trying to write her full name. (She can write E-M-M-A and I helped her with Louise). Then she moved toward writing a large E (one straight vertical line crossed by as many horizontal lines as she could fit, usually four) followed by squiggles. Next it was just squiggles, then just E's, then she colored in a snowflake at the bottom, then she practiced her lowercase a's (which really looked like q's) and she ended by just drawing a straight line across the bottom of the page. I love the honesty of a 4-year-old (a sentence I find ironic as she has a strong tendency to lie). She is not concerned about what others will think. She doesn't care if her name looks the prettiest or the best. She just does what she can and leaves the rest. Oh that I could be that honest and brave.

Robert got me the complete Calvin and Hobbes for Christmas. As I read the strips, I'm amazed at how much I really do love the rascally 6-year-old (hmmm...whom does he remind me of?) and his real, live, stuffed tiger. I read one strip where Hobbes asked Calvin if there really was a God. Calvin replied, "Well, I know someone's out to get me."

Rhys just had his ninth birthday (egads!) and his aunt gave him Peter and the Starcatchers and we gave him Gregor and the Code of the Claw. I love that he is old enough, and enough of a book lover, that I can now give him books for gifts. Of course, he did also get a skateboard with a King Cobra on the back. ("Sweet!")

I also need to record for posterity that Robert was right and I was wrong. For some reason this past weekend my right wrist flared up. I wrapped, iced and ibuprofened it all Saturday. By Sunday it was feeling much better. I was helping Robert with our experimental Seafood Lasagna (for Rhys’ birthday dinner -- which, by the way, was very rich but very delicious! He also requested brussel sprouts -- you know, you try to raise them right...) and I volunteered to grate the cheese. Robert, ever so wisely, suggested that I get down the ol’ meat grinder/cheese grater machine but I didn’t want to lug the heavy thing off the shelf, use it (it’s very noisy), clean it and put it back. “Oh no,” thought stubborn, independent I, “I will be fine.” My wrist woke me up at 5:30am (a great time on New Year’s Eve to be awake, particularly since my children have decided they are old enough to stay up until midnight) and has been killing me all day despite the wrap, ice and ibuprofen. I told Robert that he was right and I had been wrong and terribly stubborn and that I should have listened to him. He just requested a tape recorder.

I had to give a talk in church on Sunday. It went well but in my concluding remarks as I bore my testimony I expressed gratitude for my children and neglected to mention my husband. I have much greater sympathy for Sarah Jessica Parker now. I tried to convince Robert that I failed to mention him because we are one, as the Bible suggests we should be, and so mentioning him would be like saying, "I'm thankful for me," which one does not generally say in public. He didn't really buy it but appreciated the effort.

We missed our kids' Christmas Sing-a-long for the 2nd year in a row. Last year I went to a play and Robert and the kids got stuck for 45 min behind a train as they were leaving for the concert. This year, we all just plumb forgot. Rhys forgot. Quinn forgot. Robert forgot. I forgot (not so shocking there). Grandma and Grandpa even forgot! (Happily. I had nightmares of my in-laws waiting for us at the concert and not being particularly pleased with my latest memory lapse.) Quinn was distraught. We had a very long conversation as I tried to console him that concluded with me promising, multiple times, that we would go to next year's Christmas Sing-a-long. I'm really praying that we make that one. It's a scary thing to promise something a year in advance knowing how well my mind has been working of late.

I learned that cats have deciduous teeth. Robert was holding Jenny and she bit him. He pulled his finger out of her mouth only to have one tooth tweak as he did so. We checked the tooth and it was loose and pointing out of her mouth instead of straight up. We were very paranoid, "What should we do?" We decided (at this point we didn't know she should be loosing teeth) that there wasn't anything to do as we weren't going to have kitten orthodontics. (Can you even imagine the bill?!) The next morning the tooth was completely gone but there was the crown of a new incisor poking through her gums. I googled cat teeth and sure enough, kittens lose their teeth. Whew, sigh of relief. Robert doesn't feel like a big, blue meanie now.

We had ice on the roads and cars this morning. It was enchanting to learn that when freezing temps follow rain, spider webs become strings of crystal beads.

Lulu, Robert and I were all playing after her bath tonight. Lulu started laughing and snorting. "I'm laughing like a pig," she said. Then she got serious, leaned over Robert and said, "There's something in your nose. Stay still." And quick as a wink she reached in and grabbed something. I thought she had found a bogie but, to Robert's dismay, she pulled on one of his nose hairs. Just the thing Robert wants me to blog.

I've scared Rhys twice today. Heh, heh, heh.

These last few weeks, I've been quite happy with only tinges of depression. Yea!

I've tried to write a short story a few times and I find it amazing how difficult it is to create engaging dialogue, something I do naturally on a daily basis (alright, perhaps engaging is stretching it, but dialogue is accurate). An authoress I will probably never be but I've decided writing is good for my soul even if I write the same way I tell jokes: I'm the only one who laughs.

I supposed I've snipped all the ettes I could find in my life, which only leaves one last thing:

Happy New Year!