Heard on December 25, 2011 “Merry Christmas, you’re going somewhere in a month!”

We went to the They Might Be Giants Special Family Show at UCLA on the 28th, and visited both Legoland and the Carlsbad State Beach twice. It was great fun, with some learning experiences to be mindful of next time.

(Duncan & I are still recovering from our physical/mental ordeal in the ocean. Suffice it to say we know more about how powerful riptides and how sharp mussel covered jetties are first hand. This is painful to type as my fingertips shredded trying to get any sort of hold as the waves pounded me into the rocks. Thankfully there was a former lifeguard nearby who came to our rescue, and that the children still playing on shore had no idea what was going on…)

As I post pictures I can go into more detail about our vacation. I would like to go back again before our three month passes expire, probably the weekend after standardized tests. Give the oldest children something to look forward to after hell week =)

Some video clips that have amused or amazed me recently:

Jesus comes to visit Tim Tebow on Saturday Night Live

Top Ten things Mitt Romney wants to say to America  (The Rick Perry one from a little while back was amusing too)

Jon Huntsman on Weekend Update

The first trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Bards, Beers & Longbeards–music videos created from The Lord of the Rings Online

Alec Baldwin’s American Airlines Apology

A very funny column with some visuals  The best of  Regret The Error for 2011  (Example: Typo of the year–Osama/Obama)

And last, Eric D. Snider’s Rejected Breaking Dawn part 1 Screenplay  (love me my Snide Remarks)

It’s the little things, between running and prepping everywhere, that let me smile…

Much gratitude to my sister who makes all things bloggy possible.(Except for the content, of which she is completely absolved). Blogiversaries can come and go unnoticed for months, but my sister should not be in the shadows unrecognized (unless she wants to be, taking pictures and all that). We couldn’t be tooting without you.

I love you, sis. Thanks.

The Family at Sonic, for our traditional Halloween meal of cheap corn dogs, tater tots and, of course, the free ice cream. Mmmmm!

November 13th–I bought milk this morning stamped with that use-by date. Where did my year go?

I ordered School T-shirts for our entire family, in what I thought would be a size too large so they could wear them for two years. Curse you, irregular size fashion industry! What they use only Small, Medium, Large and so on for these shirts, I tried to match them to numbers we’ve used as sizes. Turns out all the children’s shirts are about 2 sizes above what they wear, so nobody should be growing out of these shirts for a while. Oh well. It’s still fun for us as a group.

Duncan’s class field trip to the YMCA camp earlier this month was filled with high flying fun. He thought it was the best two days of school he never had. Lots of outdoor activities, team building exercises and so on.

We had the piano tuned this month, and it looks like it may have been the first time since 1972, according to the card stapled under the piano lid. The tuner loved it, said you really can’t beat an old upright like this in good condition. When he comes back next time he will fix the broken hammers–those keys have been out as long as I can remember playing around in my grandparents’ basement.

Emma is back safe and sound from her 3 day trip to the Marine Institute on Santa Catalina Island. More details and pics to follow.

Tonight marks the 4th Halloween activity our family has participated in, and that’s only because we missed two others we were invited to, and does not count the adults-only party Richard and I went to the previous weekend. Duncan was the lone one in choosing to wear his costume to school today, and I think the girls were starting to regret it as they saw other classmates in costume during drop-off. We’ll see if they change their minds next year. By the way, no treats at school today. Just report cards  =)

I discovered that again last week (I’d say learned, but it’s a repeated mistake, so probably not learned just yet). I forgot to make my follow-up doctor visit back in August, and ran out of a prescription medicine that helps me sleep at night, among other things. So I think, things are going well enough, I can make it until next week’s appt no problem.
[collective headsmack from reading audience]

WRONG.

By Thursday I was a foggy shell of myself, desparate for sleep and unable to take care of most any thing. Thankfully Richard’s morning routine is flexible enough he could drive the children to school. My visiting teacher noticed I was off right away, told me call my doctor and she would go get the medicine for me as soon as it was ready. I felt so embarrassed that it ended up in such a mess, but felt much improved withing 16 hours of taking that next dose.

When I saw the doctor yesterday he asked where I even got the idea that I could just stop for a few days and be fine. Just me and my silly brain. A brain that’s grateful to have a body getting back in whack =)

We have a few more Halloween activities coming up this week, and the children might even wear costumes to school on Monday. Their treat at school? Report cards. Oh yeah!

Yep, that’s Ephraim’s baby tooth you don’t see there (not that he was able to give us a good shot without a little assistance.) When it’s one of the top, I won’t have to get my hands in there. Of course, by then, it will be old news.

Sometimes there are little phrases that people say that cut a little bit, and after the most recent one, I feel I should write this down to help me remember to mind what I say, and what I’m not saying.

Discovering you are not really considered a friend: Talking outside the church one night, and she’s excitedly sharing plans about the party she’s planning for her husband. Delineating the menu, the great music, what a wonderful surprise it’s going to be since she’s invited “all of [their] friends”. Awkward pause as this sinks in. “See you later sometime,” she calls out as she cheerfully bounds into the building.

Along the same lines, a friend texts one night to say she’s having a hard time and there’s no chocolate in the house. The next day you drop by with a bag of sweets and her favorite cold beverage. “Oh… someone already brought me chocolate,” she says, “after I posted it on Facebook.”  Wanting to celebrate a special occasion, she vents that “none of my friends can go out with me.”  Heart sinks as it dawns that you were not on that list.

So basically, I want to remember that absolutes with friendship are better left unspoken. Qualifiers are great things.

That is all…

…er, maybe not.  ;-)

My hair is pretty long right now. I’ve been keeping it in clips for most of the summer because my neck gets so hot, but I do like to wear it down when I can. It’s very very straight, unless it was wet when it went in the clip and then it gets this funky curly look.

A couple of years ago a friend went to work with a spiral curling iron, and this was the initial result:

She kind of frizzed it up intentionally, as she was trying to make me look like a character for a themed party she was throwing. (Side note: never accept an assignment when the phone call isn’t crystal clear. I thought I was going to be dressing up in a “victorian” style)

Lately I’ve been trying to do something more with my hair. I never learned to braid like my grandmother or my sister, so my attempts to do that look very amateurish. Or I can get the braid part to work but the positioning on my head keeps coming undone. In any case, it’s not as cute as I’d like. So I’m thinking about getting a spiral perm, just to do something to it.

That’s a big step. It means my hair will be shorter (both from the curl and from trimming that which will not curl), damaged, and potentially more frizzy. If it goes wrong there are all sorts of Annie or Ronald jokes waiting to happen, and I will have spent good money for the privilege. On the other hand, I have enjoyed the times I’ve tried to curl my hair for special occasions (like prom). Curly hair can look good with minimal effort from day to day. It would be ‘styled’ already.

I’m torn. I’m vain. I’m not swimming in time or money. I’m loathe to make a mistake. I’m doing nothing for the time being.

This is my navel, er, follicle-gazing post of the day. That is all…

Taking my children to the dental clinic affords me lots of time to think, and while I’m there, some time to read as well. Each visit can last around 3 hours, so that’s a lot of time to be in a waiting room.

Now, I’m fairly certain, dear reader, that you are not there with me. I have almost the same degree of certainty that you do not engage in the same horrifying behaviour. But, if by chance the lovely woman in the white tank-top, jean shorts and sparkly flip-flops is perusing this page, please do me, and the world, this favor:

STOP TALKING LOUDLY ON YOUR CELLPHONE IN A WAITING ROOM!

Now, perhaps there can be some excuse here. It was perhaps a little hot to step outside to take/make a phone call. But there can be no excuse for the details, and I mean DETAILS, you were sharing with the world. I didn’t want to know what role you thought your boyfriend’s ethnicity played in his behaviour, or his family’s, or in why he didn’t want to get Asian food with you the night before. I really didn’t want to know anything about your sex life whatsoever, frequency, positions, accessories, what you’ve tried to teach to the person on the other end of that conversation, I wanted none of it. By the time I realized what you were yammering on about I felt too horrified to lean over and say something, so I made a sarcastic remark to the students and receptionist instead. They walked me back to my seat just to hear what you were talking about–one of them joked about taking notes. Thankfully you were winding down after an hour or so. Maybe your lungs were tired from the extended workout. I know my ears were grateful.

Just know that next time, I won’t be so gracious. I will say something, and I will be smiling while I tell you to move out or shut up.

That is all…