A thought about Christmas.
Did you ever stop to consider during Christmas that the greatest miracle isn’t that Christ was resurrected but that as Mark says – And the Word became flesh? The condescension of God is what we really celebrate. We say that we’re celebrating His birth but do we really stop to consider what that means? God who exists from the beginning of Time agreed to take on Mortality with all the pain and suffering it entails to save us from our own stupidity.
Do you ever wonder if that’s the difference between the Old Testament and every thing after? Now that we know He experienced mortality with its perceived hardships, we demand mercy rather than the rages of the Old Testament.
Sorry for the delay
I've been really busy getting things done and working hard. I haven't even had surfing time at work and this is the time of the month that I usually do have nothing to do.
I did it again
Every year I think that I'm done shopping and when I sort it out the one that I think I bought the most for has the fewest presents.
Just a question as we go into the holiday stretch...
Do you have a comfort level with cash? Do you feel like you have a hole in your pocket and spend all you can if you get over a certain level in your bank account or if you have under a certain amount on your credit cards?
Do you waste money on stupid stuff and think, "I really should return that?" but find it's just too much bother?
I would really appreciate comments on this because it's something I've been really thinking about since I heard Suze Orman say something.
I really shouldn't complain but...
What genius authorized low level night maneuvers last night? The helicopters kept me up all night
A thought to ponder.
You’ve just got to love a weekend when the morning after the party at your house starts with a telephone call containing the question, “and just how do you bail someone out of jail?”
Would you read a book with this opening paragraph?
Once upon a time I visited my Grandma’s house and sat beneath the clothes line handing her wet things out of the basket while she hung them and talked to her neighbor, Mrs. Hutchins, over the rose bushes. Mrs. Hutchins would be trimming the roses or hanging her laundry and I would play with the clothes pins while they talked of boring things like who was sick, who just had a baby and what the teenagers were doing to cause trouble.
This was a long time ago back when it was safe for a girl of 10 to ride her bike 3 miles to her Grandmother’s house. Back in a time when clothes dryers were expensive to run so women hung clothes on the line while they talked over the back fence or the rose bush hedge to the women next door.
Summer Camps
Yes, I know its December but some of the science summer camps have waiting lists and registration starts now, which is strange since many of the ones with open registration don’t even have 2006 schedules yet.
I just fired off 4 or 5 emails to places that my son has expressed interest in. The robotics camp in New Hampshire, the Atomic energy camp in Tennessee, the engineering camp in Michigan, and the general math and science in Idaho are the main ones he’s looking at. What’s wild is that the Engineering camps website doesn’t have anything for Utah at all. You would think with our population being mainly kids, we would have more camps at the colleges than other places. But then again, BYU does religious camps all summer and the U of U tries to pretend that we don’t have the demographics that we do.
A confession for you
I have a Guilt Wall.
It's that point when you look at what you're doing and say "What the F***?" Why am I here? I should be doing X,Y, or Z? I should have put this money toward
(fill in your personal blank here)? I should be
(put in the chore you should have done) instead of
(insert favorite hobby or timewaster here).Tonight I hit the Guilt Wall when I looked up from my Sudoku puzzle at the dirty dishes and messy kitchen. I knew I should have been cleaning the house for my Christmas party on Friday or doing the dishes or working on my stitching model. Usually I hit the Guilt Wall full head on, tonight however wasn't bad since I could yell at kids to do the dishes, put the puzzle up and still have time to do a couple threads in the model after I cleaned up the TV room. There are nights I hit the Guilt Wall with such force that all I can do is stand there and cry.So am I the only one with a Guilt Wall? If you don't call that feeling of being overwhelmed for wasting time "hitting the Guilt Wall" What do you call it? If you have a Guilt Wall what does it look like?
I should add, that mine does have lots of indentations from the times that I've hit it full force with no air bag in place.
Working late?
It’s kind of frightening to be the only person in the office at night. It’s comforting to know that you can protect yourself. It’s not fun when you co-workers forget that you’re there and set the alarm so that you set off the motion sensors when you go to pick up your paperwork from the printer.
What hobbies, these are obsessions...
My oldest son is the reason that I started quilting. Four years ago he wanted to make a quilt in response to his teachers request for a project related to 2 Caldecott books the child was to choose and read. The two books he chose were The Quiltmaker’s Gift and Joseph had a Little Overcoat. He was certain that he could make a quilt. I took him to a quilt shop open house, I was sure they would tell him that he was too small and too young to make a quilt. Instead, they signed him up for an “I spy” quilt class. He ended up having a birthday party and I went to the class. I completed the quilt top in the 2 hour class period. So the teacher stayed a bit later, explained how to put the 3 pieces together and explained how to machine quilt the “sandwich.” 22 hours later I had a completed quilt. My son finished his top in about 16 hours. I had it quilted professionally. I have to admit that 22 hours compared to the 100’s of hours a stitching piece takes was quite intoxicating. It led to Quilt of the Month classes, an appliqué class, a strip piecing class, a crazy quilting class, and lots and lots of unfinished projects. A couple of months ago, it led to joining the Sandy Stitchers which is a local chapter of the Utah Quilt Guild. For the Christmas Party, I ended up bringing the reason that I started quilting and he brought the first quilt that he made. Apparently, a 12 year old male quilter is quite a hit because people kept giving him free stuff and trying to get him to eat more food.
You would think, however, that I would remember what happens when I take my oldest son with me to quilt shops. I have 2 unstarted fully kitted quilts upstairs in my stash. One is a paper pieced jewel tone green quilt and the other is a Round the World quilt with the Quiltmaker’s Gift fabric. Now I have 3 unstarted fully kitted projects. DD#1 found a book on making fat Quarter quilts and the rest of the supplies to make a quilt from the pattern book. I ended up walking out $50 poorer but, DD#1 has one of his Christmas presents. Guess what we’re doing on New Year’s Eve?
Another Survey
Elrond
A stern yet benevolent organizer who often knows best, your wits are keenly fixed on aiding efforts you deem worthy.
Now at this last we must take a hard road, a road unforeseen. There lies our hope, if hope it be. To walk into peril to Mordor.
Elrond is a character in the Middle-Earth universe.
Are they really anti-smoking ads?
Do the anti-smoking ads with Bill and Svarnick play in your neck of the woods?
I watch these ads and they bring to mind a book by Christopher Buckley called “
Thank you for Smoking.” In Buckley’s book, the tobacco companies designed their anti-smoking campaigns in a manner that would actually encourage teenagers to start smoking. I watch the Bill and Svarnick ads and wonder if that’s the plan. After all, the only kids in the anti-smoking ads that I see are geeks and losers. They don’t show any of the jocks and the cheerleaders and the popular kids promoting anti-smoking. They have two D&D rejects (get real, we never wore campaign clothes to school). They have another ad where 2 guys are together during the day. The one guy’s car backfires and sends off smoke, in cooking class the same guy’s turkey is burned and covered in a cloud. During science class, the 2nd kid has to get a fire extinguisher to put out the first guy’s experiment. The final scene is the 2nd kid watching the 1st kid light up a cigarette and the narrator said, “Think there’s a connection?” The ad still contains subtle messages; the smoking kid is dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. The 2nd kid is in slacks and a button down shirt. What teenager wears slacks and a dress shirt to school if they don’t have too?
I just can’t help but think that a lot of the anti-smoking ads are just a reverse Joe Camel. They’re designed to make teenagers think that only freaks don’t smoke.
Shopping in a snow storm
So in the midst of the first snow storm of the year, I took Ixy to get a dress for the winter formal. We started at Dancing Crane where we found a great dress for church but it isn't quite right for a formal dance. It was back out into the snow and ice where everyone was driving like they forgot that it snows in Utah in the winter. For heavens sake people, it's snowing and there is ice, it happens every year, slow down and increase the distance between you and the car in front. Slow down does not mean 3 miles an hour though. If you're going that slow, replace the tires or let someone else drive. After taking an hour to go 10 miles, we found the perfect dress at Frenze Bridal. It’s a purple sheath with cap sleeves that shimmers to blue when she moves. We found the perfect shoes (they light up when she steps down.) Friday she’ll have the alterations done (she's short like her mom). I’m finding it fun to shop for these things that would have been a nightmare to shop for with my mom. I thought about what it would have been like to be in the shop with my mom, and shivered. Ixy caught the movement and asked what was wrong. I answered, I just thought of what it would have been like to be here with Grandma. She recoiled and responded with a shudder of her own. "Don't do that, Mom. It will give me nightmares now." My mom would have lost it because I let her try on strapless gowns and some with spaghetti straps. I actually really liked a black strapless dress but she felt uncomfortable with it. So I'm glad she found one with sleeves (and showing no cleavage with which she is comfortable). I do hope that as she gets older, she becomes more comfortable with the fact that she is gifted with a nice bust. There are girls her age who have surgery to reach that D cup she despises. I do hope that she has clothes in college next year that will show a little cleavage or at least hint at it. She tells me that she worries about guys looking down her shirt since she's short. I can see her point. I also wonder where she got so uptight since it didn't come from me or her dad for sure.
I set a hair appointment for her and I’m so hoping that she has fun at the dance. I do find it appropriate that my little dragon’s first date is with a Gryphon (Griffin). She met him in social dance class. The first thing she checked in all the shoes she tried on was that she could waltz in them. She says she’s not too worried about having to swing dance in the dress since Griff wasn’t in the swing club but she is really hoping to waltz with him.
Fun with TSA
Just so you know, the TSA screeners in Phoenix will still make you take your shoes (without heels) off to pass through screening. I didn’t have to take my flats off at LAX, John Wayne International, or Salt Lake City. But I had to take them off in Phoenix. Phoenix, however, did let me keep my embroidery scissors (under 4 inch blade) when all the other airports made me put them in the checked luggage. So, I guess that’s a good trade off.
