Henry and the Christmas Baking Adventure

Henry the Polar Bear, a true value if there ever was one, now resides in our front yard. His leg lights are lame, and his head ones were dead, but I added a bunch so he lights up pretty much all over, if you pretend that the bottom part of his legs are stilts. He was almost extinct, I guess you could say.




This is David, sneaking things from the kitchen during the Christmas Baking Adventure.


And this is me, heading up the C.B.A. Immediately after this, the white chocolate in the microwave went beyond the melty, gooey stage and into the crusty, over-radiated stage. Silly magazine recipe for truffles. Why do I think I can make you? Although . . . they do TASTE good, even if there is crusty-ness not listed in the recipe.

Oh, and it shall snow tonight again! Yay! a fresh dusting of snow for a pre-party evening. Love it.

What!? Christmas?

We are two weeks away from Christmas. I think it came awfully fast this year. . . oh wait. The store has had trees up since September. Nevermind. It's a long time coming, and I'm so excited it's finally imminent! Last year my Christmas was sort of smashed between graduating from college, saying goodbye to my friends, getting married to and moving in with my David. I was a little distracted.

But not this year! I'm reveling in the songs, the colours, my husband's efficient help in writing/folding/stuffing Christmas letters. . . I am completely content.

And this year I'm really celebrating Happy Birthday Jesus time--2000 years and he still matters. Come, worship the King!

For Papa

He always called me "My girl" when we stopped by--How's my girl? He probably said that to all the nurses. . . the girls. . . but I didn't care. I knew he liked me plenty good, his most recently acquired granddaughter.

I hope he knew that every time I said "Goodbye, Papa, you be good!" that I really meant, "Take care of yourself, because we wanna keep you around."

I miss you, Papa; I miss the visits that I needed to keep learning about you and from you.

Now I suppose I will have to wait until I get to Jerusalem the Golden til I see you. Hope you're keeping it sprayed up there.

Proof, for starters

See, here he is! My tightrope walker neighbor.

What else? No blog since Halloween. I guess I've been too busy singing and choiring and wife-ing. And reading, some of that too.

I can't think of anything else. Long past are the days when I pulled 6 page papers out of thin air for British Lit courses! Guess I'm out of practice. I'll be back when something important happens. Something amazing and blogworthy. Like maybe tonight when I practice using my dishwasher again--take two. I've never had one before. This new house of ours is full of modern things, I tell ya!

Heffalumps and Woozles

Business isn't very busy tonight at our house, but it is very cute nonetheless. This is Addison the Elephant.
Other guests include Superman, a Black Cat, Army Dude, three teens with painted bloody faces who were "just trying to hold on to their childhood," and a nervous little cowboy.
True Value also entertained some cute dinosaurs, several dozen princesses (all on their way to the church next door), a witch, a pirate-ess (is that politically incorrect?), a couple chickens, and two football players with their buddy in camouflage--Tanner, Michael, and Michael.

Excerpt from Tanner, Michael & Michael:
T: Whoa! those are Jolly Rancher tootsie pops? I didn't know they even had those!
Smart-alec M (half the size of T): Read the cover . . . "Jolly" "Rancher" DUH!
M2: why don't we just go now. . . I guess we have to say it don't we. . . [mutters]. . uhh, trick or treat.

Happy Halloween indeed.

Blips from days gone by

Dordt College, A8,
Exam week of Spring 2007 term, studying so hard. . . .

"Read me, read me!"

I sure miss those days sometimes!

Magic Squirrel

My new neighbor is an african-american squirrel who happens to be a magnificent tightrope walker. He traverses the powerlines outside. Fun stuff. I'll try and snap a picture so you believe me.

In other news, the candy corn is disappearing at an alarming rate.

Also, we are currently watching the movie Enchanted. . . it's one of the only movies I insisted on David taking me to the theatre for! And we sat in the second to last row and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It didn't require much concentration then . . . and it doesn't now either!!

A final point: if I could sing a few notes and have love doves come and clean my house, it would make my wonderful life just one little speck better!

Adieu

The Day Off

1. Finished painting border in the bedroom--it looks quite nice. David says he feels like he lives in a magazine bedroom. (Other than the pile of unsorted laundry that I leave for him.)














2. Spent 28 dollars at Safeway--SAVED 27 dollars. This is a positive sign--spend more, save more.

3. Would have saved even more with hippie shopping bags (5 cent credit per bag from Food Pavilion, then dump everything into the car and go to Safeway, where we get 3 more cents a bag--sweet gig) unfortunately we needed more kitchen trash bags.

4. Cleaned and washed and laundered and cooked various things, respectively, the bathroom, the stairwell walls, the socks and onderbroeks, and pasta casserole with garlic bread and leftover
beans. WooHoo! I was being very wifely.


5. Had parents over for a look at our niewe gezellig huisje. It is starting to look quite homey; I guess we really get used to Our Own Things, and once they are in Their Place, it looks like Home. Like pictures on the walls! and candles, and bookcases full of piano music. Yes!














6. Oh, we sold our hot tub and deck too! Make more $ that way than going to work--too bad we don't have more hot tubs--I could go part time. . . .


7. Sneaked a shot of somebody sneaking some candy--silly husband. I see you!

Here I Go Again!

It took me all afternoon to pick a good name for my new blog--I always end up picking something noisy. Nothing like bells and whistles! (lnrnhnnnk.blogspot.com is my depository of thoughts from Dordt days--time to move on, I guess!)

Here is the motivation behind a new blog:

"The secret to being a writer is that you have to write. It's not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future life as an author. You really have to lock yourself away, alone, and get to work." --Augusten Burroughs

Ok, here's to getting back on the horse. I'm so out of practice that I don't know where to start, but I might as well begin with a treatise on the indubitable certainty of soporific Sunday afternoons.

Or I could just let it slip that I'm a little sleepy and be done with it. Let's do that.