Unhistoric Acts

just so you know...

If you're like me, you read your blogs in googlereader...or some sort of reader. So, I'm just letting you know that I have made two major changes to my blog.

#1 - I have removed twitter from the sidebar. Even though it was rather amusing to me to see what I was thinking/doing 128 days ago, I felt perhaps I had milked that for all it was worth.

#2 - Under 'books I'm reading' I've included the list of neo-victorian novels I'm reading for the directed study class I'm taking this spring. I've listed them chronologically as this is the order I've chosen to read them in...for really no particular reason. I have yet to add The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde because I've haven't found a place with the book in stock. Well, I've yet to locate a place with a new book in stock. I'll have to order it used somewhere. 

That's it. So, if you're looking for something new to read...read along with me. I can personally recommend Possession and Alias Grace...the others are new to me as well.

the lap desk...a necessity

A few weeks ago I shared my deep childhood attachment to the reading lamp. So, it seems only fair to continue on with random memories by bringing up the lapdesk. Once I've gotten to the reading pillow (you know, the big one...with arms) I will have completed my walk down Nerd-Lane. I like to keep things spicy.

Upon embarking upon the pencil roll adventure, I thought the lap desk would be a perfect add-on. My kids love to color and draw while watching movies, so once the girls and I spied the Jonathan Adler lap desks at Barnes and Noble, I knew it was a match made in heaven. Dramatic, no?

Still, I was at the stage in the game where I was coming up with Christmas presents, so the lapdesk filled a need.

These lap desks and I had quite the tango. Even though I had seen them in the store, I went ahead and ordered them online because I was already ordering some hard-to-find books and figured...'what the heck'...free shipping and they bring them to me. Not the best idea I ever had. You see, even though they were "in stock" and it was three weeks before Christmas...the shipping was continually postponed. On Christmas Eve Eve, when I had only received one...still missing two...I broke down, drove to Barnes and Noble, and picked up two more. THEN (here is where it gets really exciting) on Christmas Eve...the other two magically arrived. Shoot. So now I had five lap desks.

But they are really cool lap desks.

Luckily, when Parker announced that he, too, needed a lap desk, I was well equipped. He's actually posing for me here..."pretending" to write. This kid is a trooper when it comes to blog pictures. He's modeling the "boy" lap desk, as we like to call it. It has manly colors. Also, even though you can't see it here, the desk has a clipboard clip on one side. You know...to hold your important documents steady while coloring and watching tv. That Jonathan Adler, he thinks of everything.

Did you know I went to the Jonathan Adler store when I was in San Francisco? 

Of course, I couldn't afford to buy anything there...but I marched myself right through there just like I could! Take that Jonathan.

Okay, one last pic:

Paperwhites!! I like them because they have the word paper in them. Should we take bets on how long it takes me to kill them? Because rest assured...I will kill them.

making stuff

I'm getting a little better with the mac. I'm not exactly whizzing around, but I feel fairly confident I can pull up the pictures I've edited for this post. Do you ever feel like you're too old of a dog to learn new tricks? In the past I would have emphatically answered NO. But this time around I'm all like, "Man...I already had photoshop and my computer figured out...and now I have to figure it out all again." And then I feel bummed and a little weary. I think it's because I'm an old dog. I can remember just after Sterling and I were first married...my grandmother came over to our little, skanky apartment for dinner. We had some sort of gaming system at the time with a Jeopardy game. And because my grandmother LOVED Jeopardy, I tried to get her to play with us. It didn't work out quite as well as you might think because my grandmother was not hip to video games and so manipulating the game was laborious for her, rather than intuitive. At the time I shook my head and vowed never to fall behind the technological times. But now...I feel ya grandmother. And she was probably 80 at that time. I'm failing quickly.

Anyway...on to making stuff. Here's what I made this morning:

Yes, waffles. I know...I'm really going out on a limb. Knocking myself out. Do you like this photo kind of vintagy-like? The coloring...it's the coloring that is supposed to be vintagy-like. Are you feeling it? OR does it just say BLAND WAFFLES. Because they weren't bland. They were tasty.

But what I really wanted to talk about was a gift I MADE for my kiddos for Christmas. For some strange and unknown reason, when I'm in the trenches with schoolwork (ie writing papers) I long to make something with my hands...like whittling, or weaving branches into baskets, or knitting....I'd really LOVE to learn how to knit. It just seems...somehow...attractive. So, in the midst of a paper-writing frenzy I decided my children MUST have these pencil rolls.

Yep, it's a roll. And there are pencils inside.

Behold.

So, as you can see, I tried to match up the fabric behind each pocket with a color that matched the pencils. Color matching, it's a good thing.

Ooooooh. Pretty colors. 

And this is how I made myself crazy AFTER I finished making myself crazy with my school work. 

Actually, while the project did make me crazy a little bit, I partnered with my friend Andrea who would not allow for my usual degree of procrastination. She wanted these suckers finished. So instead of madly sewing on Christmas Eve, they were signed, sealed, and delivered a full week before Christmas. I keep telling Andrea that I'm an adrenaline junky. 

But things worked out fine in that area anyway...since we were wrapping until nearly 1 AM. Oh, and I had to sharpen 100 pencils. That was good fun.

still workin' out the kinks

I finally got photoshop in the mail today. Since it is an updated version there are some changes to figure out. Those, along with the Mac differences, are causing me some problems...nothing I can't work out, but still, it's taking some time. For instance, what's the differences between the iphoto library and the 'pictures' file under my name? Huh? I'm used to 'my pictures' and then pictures imported by date. I haven't quite gotten the hang of picture importing and organization just yet.

However, I did manage to upload and edit a few pics for my parents of GRANDKIDS '08.

For instance...when I just went to upload this picture...and clicked 'pictures' the iphoto icon is gray and non-clickable. So, out of pure ignorance I go down to 'media' and click photos, but the edited photos don't show up! Do you know those two guys on the apple commercials? The 'cool' young guy and the old guy with glasses? And how you think I AM NOT THE OLD GUY WITH GLASSES? Well, the old guy with glasses knows where his photos are. I'm sure the young, cool guy knows where his photos are...I just wish he could throw me a hint. Or two.

Not that I'm complaining. I'm still giving young, cool guy a chance.

Like now.

Just a subtle difference in editing. Because I was an impatient cool, young guy-wanna-be on Christmas morning I ripped my old Dell out of the wall before moving over my actions and other such important stuff. So, now I got nothin'. Except I quickly downloaded Pioneer Woman's actions. They're free. I like free. Free is my favorite.

Ooooh. Now I'm cooking with oil. Because cool, young guy has figured out where he needs to go. I just hope he remembers for next time. Ummm...are Sofie's eyes closed in the above pics? I'm going to need to look into that further. If her eyes ARE closed my sister might hurt me. She's done it before.

Needless to say, I feel much more myself with full photo capabilities at my fingertips. And if you could pass along some photo organization tips I'd be very appreciative. I might even send Sonic love.

In a baggie.

waiting on pics...

Still waiting on photoshop for the mac around here. It said two day air...but currently has my arrival date as December 30th. I could post an old picture that is rattling around on my external hard drive. But that would require creativity and ingenuity, and I'm just not feeling it.

The day after Christmas (yesterday) is fast becoming my favorite day of December. Not that I don't love Christmas. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing I love more than a giant ball of stress and excitement. I live for such situations. However, the day after Christmas...when I no longer feel the need to make every moment "special," when I don't have to meet anyone's needs, when I can't sit and chain-watch Hallmark Christmas movies -- now THAT is a good time as well.

So, I chain watched lame Hallmark Christmas movies, and in between I surfed the web. I felt that I needed to show Sterling my true appreciation for his gift. And what better way could I show said appreciation than parking my ever-expanding self in front of the computer for hours on end? There is no better way I tell you. So...what with all of the leftover tamales from Christmas Eve, and control of Uverse, and a new computer...I was in couch potato heaven. Unfortunately, I have to teach in church tomorrow, so my days of couch potato-ing are quite limited.

I did go out for a few hours last night to see about some after Christmas sales. 

Here is the problem with me and after Christmas sales.

By after-Christmas I am sick and tired of STUFF. So adding more stuff to the stuff I already need to pack away for next year seems a less than appealing purchase. Plus, after Christmas...the Christmas deco just looks tired and worn and I just can't get on board. So, I bought one rather fantastic pink, mercury-glass ornament and called it a night. Before long the girls are going to drag me to the mall to exchange their clothing gifts...I can hardly wait.

One last thing...one of my tasks to accomplish between semesters is to get my blog printed. I've started this job at least twice before, but it is a time-consuming, daunting job, to say the least. Now that I have three full years of blogging behind me I figure I better work out a way to archive it. It is already a three-headed monster and growing (even as I type). I slurped 2006 at Blurb and got this message box:

"Wow. That's quite a blog. Our limit is 440 pages per book."

Luckily, the way their software populated the book...there were a number of blank pages and tons of formatting to go through. So, it won't be quite 400 pages...but close. I'm currently on about pg. 137 in terms of formatting. The software is a bit clumsy and slow moving. I'm going to print 2006 before moving on as I suspect that at 400 pages...it will be costly to print. I might have to sacrifice some chocolate donuts and Lee Press On Nails to work my way up to 2007 and 2008. We'll see. I"ll be sure to report on the finished project here.

Once I've archived it all...I'll be moving to WordPress. But don't worry...the transition will be seamless since my url is not a typepad address. BUT I can save the 10 bucks a month I spend at Typepad. Now...this whole thing makes sense right?  Pay hundreds of dollars to print one's blog...to save ten bucks a month digitally publishing it. Yes, as usual, my thinking is flawed.

No surprise there.

merry christmas!!

Our kids slept in until 7 this morning -- definitely a new record. I woke up about six and spent some time lying in bed worrying about why the children weren't up. The best I could come up with was carbon monoxide poisoning...which freaked me out just a bit. By seven I was growing increasingly concerned and went up to check on them. Jordan was just getting out of bed and the rest of the crew were sleeping soundly.

Huh?

Usually they are up by five on Christmas morning.

Jordan and I roused everyone and we started in on the present extravaganza. I haven't taken any pictures just yet...but I'll be sure to get a pic of the living room while it is still buried in a sea of STUFF. Everyone seems happy with their haul. We will be doing a bit of clothing returning though...for Becca (aka the clothes horse). This I expected.

Sterling made gingerbread waffles (on his new waffle maker) and I whipped up some buttermilk syrup to go with them. I first heard of buttermilk syrup from my friend Andrea. If you have never heard of buttermilk syrup, take yourself into the backyard and lash yourself three times...because you are missing out, sista. So good. I'll post the recipe later. 

Jordan got an itouch for Christmas and wanted, of course, to immediately hook up with itunes and get things cooking. Thing is...Sterling crossed over to the "dark side" and got me an new imac for Christmas (even though about 8 months ago he vowed he was a pc person through and through). So I wanted to get itunes set up on the new computer and keep everyone off of my laptop. It's my laptop for goodness sakes. Well, I have LIMITED  experience with a mac, so transferring our itunes library from one computer (a pc) to the mac was really beyond my techno capacity. And while I'm trying to figure it out, Jordan is sitting next to me, jumping up and down, saying CAN I HOOK UP MY IPOD NOW? NOW? NOW? UM, MOM?

YES?

CAN I HOOK UP MY IPOD NOW?

And my response?

"Well, honey, if you can tell me where to find 'my computer' on this blasted machine...we may be able to transfer our music library. Also...if you can find me some type of data device to transfer 8 gigs of music...that would also be helpful.

I finally did manage to get the majority moved over. Enough to pacify Jordan anyway. She has music and movies and ordered up some stuff for herself as well. 

Any mac help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I still need to order the mac version of Photoshop...so pictures may be a few days comin'.

Parker and Sterling are now in the next room building a gigantic Star Wars ship out of legos. Occasionally Parker wanders into the family room to play with his millenium falcon (a gigantic piece of plastic). During these times Sterling continues construction. On my way to the study, noticing Sterling building legos by his lonesome, I paused and asked, "Were the legos for you or for Parker."

Sterling: "For me."

Nuff said.

Hope everyone is having a great Christmas!! I just have one thing to ask...

Who is going to clean up all of this Christmas mess?

christmas eve eve

I just got back from seeing Seven Pounds (with Will Smith). I cannot tell a lie...it wasn't a bad movie. But I couldn't necessarily recommend it either. It was incredibly stressful to watch, and well, depressing. But thought-provoking...I'll give it thought-provoking at the very least.

So, how is Christmas progressing at your house? Ours is on course for the most part...still LOTS of wrapping to do. I keep telling Sterling that we need to have a serious wrapping session, and we both agree and do a lot of head nodding and invoke mutual fears of a repeat of last year...wherein we wrapped and constructed through three consecutive showings of The Christmas Story. No. We don't want a repeat of THAT. But then we both go on our merry way and magically...no wrapping is accomplished.

We do have a mighty fine party planned at our house for tomorrow night. There will be 24 people for tamales. We have an appointment to pick up said tamales at 1 PM tomorrow. Each year I'm afraid they will have lost our reservation and Sterling will return home with no tamales. I reserve these uber-special tamales weeks in advance...and without them...it might be Christmas Eve taco salad...which would be a bummer. Part of this fear stems from the year they DID lose my reservation. However, the look on my face at the mention of NO RESERVATION must have scared them silly...because they rustled up some tamales for me pronto.

Parker is growing increasingly excited/agitated over the whole present situation. Currently, he is maintaining that he will open NO presents on Christmas Eve. He wants to save them ALL for Christmas Day. I've explained to him that I will need him to open his pajamas Christmas Eve, and the rockin' Chinese gift exchange we'll be doing at our party needs to be opened then as well. However, aside from those two presents I have promised that I will not force him to open other presents against his will. I have this funny feeling that he might be like my older brother. He's the guy that would wait while the rest of the younger siblings ripped through their presents. After the wrapping paper settled he would meticulously and slowly open each of his presents in front of his captive audience. Every year I swore I would not be thwarted by him...I would outwait him. Every year I lasted about 10 minutes before deciding that his waiting-thing was STUPID....and I'd open my presents. Then I'd be forced to watch his sinister display of present opening. It was torture. Will Parker be like that? How can I stop the madness?

happy 15th jordan!

 
Jordan, our first born, turned 15 on Saturday. I'm a bit late with the post due to a day filled with birthday celebrating. After her father had the patience and determination to let her drive around an empty high school parking lot for an HOUR AND A HALF, he took her to Denny's for breakfast. Back home I was dressing and scurrying around so we could leave for the Woodlands Mall and a birthday shopping trip. We returned home from shopping just in time to dress up for the kids' piano recital, and then afterwards the whole family, with Big Momma, Big Daddy, and Jenny went to Macaroni Grill -- Jordan's choice. By the end of all of that she could only eat one bite of her chocolate cake. So much birthday; so much food.

Jordan's first-born status is a lucky position (in my opinion). I, personally, always wanted to be the first-born...a situation that has forever been thwarted by the birth of my older brother...just 14 months before my own birth. And now that I'm a parent, it has been confirmed to me that there is a certain level of excitement afforded to the first-born during integral first-step occurrences. Like driving, for instance. The thought of Jordan driving is mind-boggling to me. The fact that I might one day hand over the keys to a one ton mass of moving metal, and entrust my child to climb inside and navigate the tricky by-ways of Houston...seems, well, rather foolish. But the days is coming. Of this I'm sure. Perhaps by the time Parker is of driving age...we'll simply toss the keys from our lazy-boy recliners and get back to napping, but for Jordan, driving will be all about nail-biting and well, a certain level of anxiety and excitement.

The excitement part is about the freedom, really. I suppose it's exciting because she is ready for freedom (in responsibly controlled bursts). She's a good kid who has made good choices so far. She has a good understanding of where she is heading and what she needs to do to get there. Sure, she still fights with her sisters and procrastinates school projects (occasionally). But she also rises early each morning (on her own, without fail) to attend early morning seminary. She is enthusiastic about church and church activities. She lets boys know immediately that she won't be dating until she's 16. She gets good grades. And let's face it...the girl has some quality hair. She knows it. I know it. And now you know it.

Jordan still finds humor in I Love Lucy and although her mother embarrasses her to no end...her friends tell her I'm funny (duh). She is becoming quite the musician and her violin skills are racing to meet up with the finesse of her piano playing. She will be competing in the UIL piano competition this Spring and has just been selected to play a violin duet in the chamber recital in January, which is a fairly big deal for a freshman. She toyed with the idea of trying out for drill team, but was just not ready to put her music on the back burner -- which the drill team commitment would have required. She SAYS she cannot pursue her goal of being a doctor if it means cutting up a cadavar, but I'm secretly hoping she gets over her dread of cutting up dead people and moves on with medical school.

I find it hard to believe that in only 15 years that squirmy, red newborn could turn into this magnificent person -- someone who knows that WHAM sings "Last Christmas" and can quote Elf (the movie) extensively. A girl who can whip up cinammon scones from a rogue recipe on the Internet and put together a beautiful poster on the affliction of color blindness for Biology. That the newborn who refused to nurse, the toddler who refused to eat anything but chicken nuggets, the preschooler who refused to wear PANTS....would one day sit down at the piano and play the most beautiful rendition of "Jessica's Theme" from The Man From Snowy River makes me weepy and nostalgic and thankful that I've been priveleged to witness this transformation from tiny little cocoon to full-fledged butterfly. The wonder of it all makes me want to shake the dust from my own wings. And maybe that's part of the beauty of having kids...that along with the bickering and vomiting and expensive orthodontia....there is a witness to the growth of a life.

So Happy Birthday my little Jordan. You'll always be a beautiful butterfly to me.

Love,
Momma

gingerbread house: check

 
You'll have to excuse the flash pictures...by the time this day made it to camera mode...the sun had long gone down. Here is our gingerbread house...modeled on our our own home. This was so hard and took so many hours. I'm not sure we'd do it again, but it was fun for the first go-round. Part of the complicated nature of this project stems from the part you don't see here: the back of the house. Because...it was to scale...and included "most" of the real parts of the house.

 
The only part of the actual house we didn't include is Jordan's room, which pops out of the back part of the house on the second story. Despite Sterling's early protestations that the house be an exact replica, he eventually came to see that popping a room out the back of a gingerbread roof had its own set of problems. He did include the master bedroom which juts out the back. I thought we could just lop that off...but no...the footprint of the house itself retains its integrity.

 
For my part...I came up with the shiny lights (from HEB) and the gingerpeople. Here you see four ginger kids...one boy (in shorts) and three girls (in dresses). Sterling and I are on the other side of the house by the garage. I wanted us all together but there just wasn't room enough. The board we built the house on didn't allow for family unity. We'll have to adjust that for next year.

If there is a next year. (speaking strictly in gingerbread terms)

 
Parker also got to visit with Santa at our church Christmas party. He was pretending to be cool about the whole Santa thing...except for the asking 27 times when Santa would be there. When asked what he would like for Christmas he responded, "I don't know." Hmmm....that's not what I've been hearing for the past month. He got all humble-like on Santa.

Later today...Jordan's birthday post. She and Sterling are off right now on a daddy-daughter breakfast. I got a text about 30 minutes ago that HE LET HER DRIVE THE CAR. And no, she doesn't have her permit yet, but driver's ed is in her immediate future. I believe his plan was to take my little white truck to the big high school parking lot and give her a quick lesson. I'll have to get the details later.

the day that never ended

Yesterday was a LONG day...jam-packed with Christmas stuff and birthday stuff and just plain living stuff.

To start the day off with a bang, Sterling and I had been invited (or summoned really) to Jordan's early-morning church class to celebrate her birthday. We were to bring treats (breakfast food) for her classmates and share some nice (and hopefully embarrassing) info on our soon-to-be 15 year old. This was all well and good except for the fact that such a celebration necessitated me rising at 5 AM to bake danish to take to the 6 AM class. But I'm a morning person, so that part of the day went well enough.

After the kids got home from school Parker, Jordan and I ran to piano lessons while Sterling worked on this:
 
Yes, gingerbread. Some people have commented (in person...since only Julie is kind enough to comment on the blog itself) that I wrote the gingerbread house was from "old" house plans. Actually, the house is a replica of the house we are now living in. I suppose I wrote old...because we got the plans over three years ago??? Regardless...gingerbread house= our house now.

From the plans we had all of the front and back and side pieces, but Sterling would have to come up with the roof dimensions on his own. Wow. Nothing makes you appreciate the architecture of your own home more than trying to recreate it out of gingerbread. Our roof is quite complicated...lots of peaks turns and joints. Plus we have two extra mini-rooves -- one over the porch and another that juts out from the garage. All of this meant Sterling was constructing until 1 in the morning! Poor guy. I was trying to help, but fell asleep on the couch sometime after 11.

The gingerbread making was somewhat interrupted by Madison's choir concert, Jordan's TWO  major projects that were due the next day, and both Jordan and Madison's annual making-o'-the-treats for their school friends. There were so many pretzel/rolo treats lining the counters I dreamt I had walked into some bad Willie Wonka remake.

Seriously, so much going on yesterday that I vacillated between grumpy, stressed, and laughing hysterically. After the concert though...when Jordan and Madison were working on their treats and Sterling and I were working on the gingerbread house...and we were all chatting in the kitchen together...I thought THIS is what Christmas is all about. Staying up late and making crazy stuff and doing it together.

I have warned everyone though...there will be naps for the older girls this afternoon to avoid possible cat-fights. And hopefully one for the mother as well.

Now I'm off to work on the gingerbread house decorating. Oh, and attend two elementary school Christmas parties. Oh, and make rosettes for our church Christmas party. Oh, and try to unearth the kitchen from all of the above activities.

I'm getting the feeling that napping is not going to happen. Hmmmm.