My Boys

*I adore Michael's profile. He is gorgeous.*

Fake Eyelashes (just a note)

Fake eyelashes! And I colored my mole (blush blush)...because otherwise, I don't like it.

The eyelashes are the type that come in tiny bundles, not as one strip for the entire eye. So I put on maybe ten per eye.

And guess what....

No one noticed. Is that good? I had to point it out to Michael, but once he realized how much longer they looked, he really liked it.

I felt very daring!

Before & After - Kitchen

The sad part is: I can't find the BEFORE picture! Isn't that silly? So imagine my sink piled high (about a foot and half higher than the edge) and every surface of the counter covered with yet more dishes. I know, it's embarrassing. The original Before had Ender in it, too, just so you could be distracted by his cuteness. ;) Love how his hair looks like it's all piled on top.


*the date on the bottom right corner is totally wrong. Dumb camera--it's been spazzing.
And AFTER! Those are laundry keys on the counter. It's a cute kitchen, isn't it? It's also very little. There's nothing next to the stove besides my fridge. Not much to work with! But I liked it. And I really did keep it about this clean most days.

SPUDNIK: Potatoes Handled Like Babies

I know I just posted, but guess what!!!

MICHAEL IS DONE WITH SPUD HARVEST!!!!!

No more 16+ hour work days!!!

SPUDNIK, thanks for the job.

We're so glad it's done, though.

We'll get to be together more! Ender will get to see his Daddy more! A LOT more!!!

This totally calls for celebration.

Christmas at Halloween

You know how it's kind of annoying that stores decorate two holidays ahead? They're ready to sell ornaments before it's even Halloween...
Well, this year I've decided to tame my typical annoyance and be grateful that it's getting me to think ahead. :) And here's what I did today when I had some time to relax after cleaning the bathroom and bedroom!

My Christmas Wishlist
My style is to give specifics so that it's easier for the giver. I also list a good number of things so that there are at least a few things to choose from.

• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma (#3), by Trenton Lee Stewart (paperback, please)
• New Journal (with nice pens, preferrably black Pilot)
• Chocolate (I love Hershey's with no nuts; Kisses; Snickers; Milky Way; 3 Musketeers, etc.)
• Perhaps a clothing budget ($30 is actually plenty sufficient. Even $20 is. Heck, $10 is nice). OR fabric budget (no clue $$)
• Germaine Tailleferre's Harp Concertino sheet music, Piano Reduction
  OR Nicolas Flagello Harp Sonata sheet music (for any other sheet music, ask Michael)
• Tempera paints (so far, my favorite to play with--I've never owned any; I'd like to expand my art skills)
• Wristwatch: either simple, pretty and water-resistant analog (silver or silver & gold) OR plain waterproof sports watch with timer and stopwatch, digital. A dainty, pretty watch with all the sports watch features would be ideal, but those things are usually so stinking expensive!!!
• Audrey Hepburn movie (not How To Steal a Million, we own that) or pretty much any movie from that classic period
• Cute socks! Ankle or knee-high
• Pretty scarves (decorative/accessory, not winter--although I wouldn't object to those)

I promise I'm not too picky. If you're concerned, you could talk to Michael. ;) In any case, I'm not posting this to guilt you all into getting me presents already! It was just a fun thing for me to do today. Besides, I like Christmas a whole lot more than Halloween.

Visualizing

My sister Rae ran a marathon!!!
And wow, what a powerful woman she is. So much so that while I read, I knew a marathon is somewhere in my future. I looked at her beautiful victorious pictures and wondered how I'd feel at the end of a marathon.
I'm silly, so get ready: I wondered what I would do once I saw the finish line... and I decided I'd probably be about to fall over but I'd grit my teeth, a ferocious fire glowing in my give-up-less eyes, and I'd belt out a great big hurrah of a roar (or something, you know), and then I would bolt to the finish line with all the heroism of a True Marathoner. And because I'm the only one home... and Ender is asleep... I actually made the sound! And the face! It made me blush.
I also wondered about what crossing that line would feel like. Maybe I'd throw my arms up in a huge Y and yell!!! Just a yell of victory, accomplishment, the last strains of strength! And yeah, you guessed it, I actually tried it out.
It was terribly silly-sounding, but it made me laugh. Besides, I'll sound cooler when I'm actually doing the running to accompany it.
I have to visualize, don't I? :D
If I do end up looking/sounding so cool (hahhahaha!) like I've described, just be sure it's genuine. I don't think I'd be able to pretend something like that at the end of 26+ miles.
Rae, you're my hero.

New Habits

Living with the family, I've finally built up some habits that should have been deeply instilled a long time ago.
Any mommy has a day where she simply doesn't want to do the dishes--and simply decides not to. Same goes for laundry. And any cleaning, any chores.
Because I don't want to leave a trail of debris in the way of the rest of the family, I've tried particularly hard to clean up messes right away.
I've always known that a lot of times it's just the Starting of the Job that is the hardest to get past, but passing that block over and over every day has really proved it to me. The Start can't trick me anymore! :)
So now it has become quite natural for me to simply do the dishes (and then the question of wanting to never really comes up). Laundry? Done. Folded and put away, even!
I still have some days that I don't want to pursue as many cleaning adventures, but messes don't get in my way anymore. It's a nice feeling.

I know this is a short blog; I'll have more later, including an old set of before/after pictures I took one day of my kitchen, insanely messy and then brilliantly clean. I don't even live there anymore, but whatever! It's still exciting to see the result of good work! So gratifying.

Medieval Ages

I've been reading some books by Karen Cushman, mainly the ones she's written based in the Medieval Ages (ca. 1290s). They're sort of historical fiction. In an author's note, Karen concluded from her studies that most people of the era didn't have the same sense of individuality that we have now; medieval people didn't have as much reason to think of the future in the sense of the next few years because their lives weren't affected in that pattern as much as they followed a circle of seasons and a tradition of lifestyle that went unchanged for such a long time.
She explained it really well--convincingly--but I just have to disagree. I have to at least hope that People can't help but be very involved in their individuality. Who's to say it was unusual for a peasant to wish they were given a different lot in life? Why ever would they just decide being born a peasant meant an entire lifetime of misery? *not that peasants were all miserable*
I just have to think that every person has wanted to search themselves deeply and find purpose for their existence...and then do something about it...
I know there are some dull people here and there, but I really have a hard time believing an entire mass of people throughout the Medieval Ages were like that.
Maybe that's just because I'm so accustomed to a very free life. Maybe I'm just a little shortsighted as far as the world goes, and there are countries with people as unquestioning now as they were in the Medieval Ages.

Well, then. I will just conclude that no matter what time I lived in, I would be me. My personality would have different highlights depending on situations, but I would be me.

(And thank heaven for living in this age where toilets flush and medicine is based on more than superstitions).