Dreary Weather

Heavy rain created a temporary lake in our backyard this morning. Strong winds helped to bring down most of the leaves. Temperatures were close to 70 when we woke up, but will be in the 30s later today. What an ugly day!

Marvelous' Christmas Village

House (2007), Post Office (2008), Toy Store (2009)

When Marvelous was 12 she became interested in the Christmas villages. So for Christmas that year we bought her a little house. She enjoyed it so much that we decided it would be a tradition to buy her a new building each year. By the time she moves out she'll have a nice-sized village of her own.

The only glitch in our plan came as I was getting Christmas stuff down from the attic. Last year, in a fit of frugality, we bought this year's building at an after Christmas sale. I couldn't remember which one was the new one. After consulting everyone, except M, I came to the conclusion that we gave her the Toy Store last year.

Happy Thanksgiving

I didn't get a picture of the pretty food presentation at lunch, but here the kiddos are enjoying leftovers. Everything was close to perfect. The turkey wasn't completely thawed, but I put it in water and it only set us a little behind schedule. I did burn the marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes, but I always do that. Dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, rolls, and pumpkin pie rounded out the dinner.
We had wonderful weather today! We were able to get out and walk off our large meal, and Mr. C played basketball with the neighbor for a long time. We all sat down and played euchre (sp?) and Apples to Apples. So a great family Thanksgiving. The only thing that would have made it better would be to have spent it with extended family. I hope all of you out there had a great day!

The Big Announcement

The kids have been told and work has been given notice, so it is now safe to make it public that we will be moving...again. Hubby has taken a job with VW in Chattanooga and he's very excited about it. He starts work in a couple of weeks but the kids and I stay here until the end of the school year. It's only a little over an hour away, so he will be home on the weekends.

I know most of you are shaking your heads thinking, 'Not again!' But there are others of you out there who know how much I have not enjoyed living in Alabama and how happy I will be to move on.

The kids' reactions. S doesn't really care. She will be somewhere else next year, so it doesn't affect her. She will be an Alabama resident if she chooses a state school, as long as she never takes more than a year off. Mr. C wasn't too excited one way or the other. He just wanted to make sure he would still be going to Space Camp in May with his class, and we assured him he is. M is the one who broke down. Not surprising, since she's half-way through high school. She pulled it together pretty quickly. It helps that one of her best friends is moving to Florida next summer, so she's not the only one leaving.

Sorry if you thought my big announcement would be more earth shattering, like a true and lasting Middle East peace treaty. 

Weekend Cocktail

Hubby, Mr. C, M, (+M's friend  & her mom) and I went to see Harry Potter together this weekend. S went to a later show with one of her friends. I didn't let the girls go to the midnight premier because it was a school night. They were apparently the only people who didn't get to see the premier--boo hoo! I was sooooo much more pleased with this movie than the last one. Sure there are some things left out, but at least everything comes from the book.

I met M's coronation date and his family. I don't know if I've written about coronation before. The first Friday in December the high school has a coronation dance. It is formal and a huge deal--to the kids and quite a few parents. It is bigger than prom in the spring. All 4 grades can attend. You can go solo or with a date. Anyway, M is taking a boy from a local private Christian school. We had to fill out some form and have both families and both schools sign for this to happen. Two of M's best friends are taking boys from the same school, but none of them are "dating". I thought M's date was sweet and his parents were very normal.

Hubby got an early start to the weekend. He was sick Friday and stayed home to go to the doctor. He found out he had bronchitis, got two shots and some medicine. He slept a lot and is feeling a bit better, although his voice is about shot.

The kids are on vacation all next week. Monday we're planning to drive around checking out college campuses, Tuesday we go to the dentist, and Thursday we get to stuff ourselves with all kinds of starchy foods. So obviously a busy week ahead.

Stay tuned--big announcement coming tomorrow!

Fall Colors

This is a sweet and sour post. First the sweet: some pictures of the fall color around our house.

Burning Bush

Flower box in my front window

Now for the sour: a conversation overheard in the checkout line at the bookstore.
Older lady (to younger lady and her @ 3 year old son): Oh, it looks like you got a boo-boo on your head.
Younger lady: Yes. Yesterday we were walking in the parking lot and he said 'Mama a car.' and I said 'Go ahead, it'll stop.' But it didn't and it hit him and he said 'I told you car.'
Both women laughed at that. I just stood there thinking...Well, I'll let you imagine what I was thinking.

The kids are out for a whole week!

When Things Are Beyond My Control

The reason I have been stressing out lately is that S did not make a 30 on the ACT. If you don't have teenage children then you probably don't realize the importance of this. Several schools offer scholarships based on test scores. At 30, Auburn pays full tuition for 4 years. Here is a list of what it costs to attend Auburn for one year. Some of the items they list for cost to attend are negotiable, but not tuition. Plus, tuition has a habit of going up each year. So that is why the 30 is so important.

Since she had taken the test several times, and saw her score go up each time, we were expecting that 30 to turn up before the December 1 deadline. Unfortunately she seems to have topped out at 29. Still respectable, but only worth $2,500 a year. To add to my worries she had no back-up plan. She hadn't applied to any other schools or applied for any other scholarships. (That's a lie--she has applied to a few "lottery" style scholarships where they just pull a name out of a hat.)

In the last week she has applied to another state school--Montevallo-- and a private school--Birmingham Southern College. She has signed up to take the ACT in December with the hope she can still get that 1 lousy point. The deadline for both of these other schools is in January. I also took matters into my own hands and called Auburn. They said they might look at her new score, but wouldn't guarantee anything.

So that is what has been bothering me.

Now, why shouldn't I be worried? Because no matter how bad things have ever looked in the past, they have always worked out. God has always provided for us--economically and emotionally. So why would this situation be any different? I am thankful for such amazing kids. I am thankful they are so well-adjusted after we have dragged them all over the place. I am thankful that they are so smart. I am thankful they have good juudgement. I am thankful that every night before they go to bed they give me a hug and say "I love you." I am thankful for their health. I am thankful for the joy I see in each of their lives. I am thankful that even when I am blowing things out of proportion, they keep life in perspective. I am thankful that even though I don't deserve such wonderful kids, they are mine anyway--at least for a little while. How's that for an early Thanksgiving?

Weekend Cocktail

This weekend we went to Chattanooga. By we I mean Hubby, Mr. C, and me. Marvelous spent the day with a friend and Smarty had lots of homework. If you've never been to Chattanooga then I hope you enjoy these pictures. If you've been there yourself, I'm sure you won't mind revisiting such an amazing place.

This is a pedestrian bridge (disregard the golf cart) crossing the Tennessee River. The Delta Queen can be seen in the river.

This is a view of the Tennessee Aquarium from the pedestrian bridge. There is a funky fountain that empties into the river.

Hubby and Mr. C relax in the shade at Coolidge Park in North Chattanooga. It was surprisingly warm for November.

Mr. C sits atop a turtle fountain. The animal fountains would come on at random intervals. As soon as Mr. C climbed down and walked in front of the turtle, it sprayed him. He dried out pretty quickly.

One of the things I love about Chattanooga is the unique architecture, sculptures, and urban design. This is a stairway. Notice how the handicap ramp is woven into the steps.

I think this is where the Trail of Tears began. I would have to do some research to be positive. The water starts by flowing out of the wall at the top of the stairs and then continuing to run down to the river (remember the fountain in the first picture?). The mosaics on the wall are Native American designs and there are inscriptions on the sidewalk explaining the symbolism of each one. You can walk in the water, but not if your mom tells you it's too cold!

We left the enchanting city and returned home. Later that night some of the neighbor boys decided to "confetti" our yard. This involves spreading cut up toilet paper, index cards, and notebook paper around the yard. I'm soooo glad we live here (extreme sarcasm here). When can we go back to Chattanooga?!?

Sunday was Mr. C's first time to serve as an acolyte at church. I thought it would be tacky to take a picture in church, so you'll just have to imagine him in his white robe and carrying the torch to light the candles.

Spellin', Writin', N Textin'

Mr. C has commented on the "drive thru" that is open "late nites". He wanted to know why the restaurant would spell the words wrong. And if they could, then why does he have to practice his spelling words for school. What do you tell a kid? I usually say those people are lazy idiots and if you don't want to be one then you need to learn how to spell properly. I almost always add that I'm just joking and they are spelling things wrong to get your attention--look how well it worked!

I am slowly beginning to pick up on texting--a necessity for staying in touch with teenagers--but I refuse to pick up the asinine abbreviations like: C U L8r for See you later. I am glad that my girls also text with complete words and proper spelling. They have told me that they really don't know anyone who uses that texting shorthand because everyone has a full keyboard on their phones now. Thank goodness for that.


I want to end this post with something that goes along with the one I wrote about different dialects and vocabulary. One more word that I want to mention is toboggan. I grew up thinking a toboggan was a type of sled. Down here a toboggan is a knit winter hat. I have no idea how that came about.

Do Midwesterners overuse the word that? I have been editing as I go along and removed several superfluous thats and I still have some in here.

I also want to recognize the one Southern convention that I do try to adhere to: ma'am and sir. This is something that is absolutely necessary to use in the South. I do insist that my students use these words and I try to get my own kids to use them. Not using ma'am and sir is a sure sign of disrespect.

*If I don't post anything for awhile, just know that things around here are crap to the nth degree. Since I don't want to litter this blog up with any bitching and worrying, I'm going to take a break until I can get my emotions back to a better place.

The Air We Breathe

Clean air at Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite, CA

Air is something we all take for granted. So is breathing. Yesterday while at Walmart I started having a funny feeling in my throat and couldn't help but cough. Being around the food I was very self-consious and coughed into my elbow. "Great," I thought, "I haven't coughed all season and it hits me right when I'm in the middle of the grocery store." I tried swallowing to get rid of the dry tickle, but since that didn't work I shopped quickly to get out of the store as soon as possible.

In the checkout line, the lady in front of me was coughing a great deal.  The customer told the cashier that several people in the store were coughing uncontrollably. My eavesdropping ears perked up as as the cashier informed her that management was reviewing surveillance tapes. Usually I don't butt into others' conversations, but I was intrigued (and a little anxious that I would be blamed for starting a cold epidemic by coughing in the food section). The cashier informed me that someone had sprayed pepper spray in the store and hopefully the culprit would be caught.

Whew! I was off the hook. But on the other hand I was upset that I was subjected to something so ugly. Just how safe is the air we breathe? How can we protect ourselves from stupid people who think it's funny to spray pepper spray in public? Even more important, how can we protect ourselves from someone dangerous who sprays something more toxic into our air? Luckily, my coughing cleared up shortly after leaving the store.

Advertising

My kids are suckers for advertising. They memorize all the ads and jingles from TV and the radio. Then they relate them to life in all kinds of ways. When M was small she was sitting in the car with Grandma, stuck in traffic. Grandma said, "It looks like we're gonna be awhile." M answered, "We should have a Snickers." At the time, that was the catch phrase for Snickers.

Today we went down to the Big City to do some shopping. Mr. C wanted to go to Dick's Sporting Goods. I asked him what he wanted to look at. He answered he didn't know. I told him we usually just go to stores with a purpose, in order to look at something specific. He replied, "It's like Ancestry.com. You don't have to know what you're looking for. You just have to look."

Preserving Our Linguistic Heritage

I was reading on someone else's blog about how his culture is losing it's language. I think that is happening everywhere. We live in an area where people are holding on dearly to their dialect and I often kid about it, but I'm glad that someone is trying to preserve who they are. Our language is becoming so generalized here in America. I can tell when I watch old black and white movies from the 50s just how much our language has changed. We use a very limited vocabulary now, compared to a few decades ago.

I think we need to read and make sure our kids do too. Then use those words we pick up from books.

In my case I am going to keep reinforcing to my kids their linguistic heritage by speaking in the northern dialect and using a northern vocabulary. (I consider my kids Northerners, even though Mr. C lived in the North less than 10 weeks.)We will use shopping carts (not buggies), water the flowers with the hose (not hosepipe), turn the lights on (not cut them on), and push buttons (not mash them). And if they decide to cover a neighbor's trees with toilet paper they will TP the house (not roll it). (And then they will get in trouble for it afterwards, no matter what they call it.) We use short vowels in words with the CVC and VC patterns: dog instead of doe-g and on instead of own. And we will pronounce the long I as I instead of ah. With that being said, I am glad that they are being exposed to another culture's language. I believe that more and varied experiences can only improve who we are and broaden our knowledge of who we share this small planet with.

This is a humorous conversation I overheard in the shower house the last time we went camping at Yosemite.  I was  listening to a group of teenage girls from the UK.
Girl 1: Why do you think they call cutlery, silverware?
Girl 2: Maybe because it looks silver.
Girl 3: No. They even call the plastic kind silverware.
Girl 1: How strange!

Change of the Seasons

This time of year I switch the clothes around. When you have growing children this involves not only putting up shorts and T-shirts, but also getting rid of things that no longer fit. About a month ago I cleaned out Mr. C's old clothes and sent them north to my nephew, Boisterous. All of sudden, Mr. C didn't have any clothes and I was looking at an expensive trip to the mall. Then one day our neighbor across the street started sending her son over with loads of his old clothes. Now Mr. C's closet is full to overflowing and it didn't cost a thing. Don't you just love it when good things happen unexpectedly?

Election Day

I try to steer away from volatile subjects like politics, but today is election day so I figure it's a good day to get on my soapbox and alienate a few of you out there. Seriously, I'm the same person I've always been, you're just hearing some things I don't usually share with you.

Here are some statistics I've found online: The spending in 2010 for the Department of Defense was 708 Billion dollars (this figure doesn't include spending for Homeland Security or Veterans Affairs). The last year I could find statistics for education spending was 2005 and we (nationally) spent 14 Billion dollars. Most education funding comes from the states and we all know how well they are doing. So there are your American priorities. I found a pie chart with the percentage that goes out to Social Security and Medicare. It's higher than education, but lower than defense.

I also found figures on the national deficit compared to the GDP. We were in pretty good shape until GW came along. And although Obama has let loose on the spending, I remember that it was late 2008 that GW decided to bail out the banks and left that on the table as he scooted back to the ranch.

 House Republicans, in their “Pledge to America” agenda announced in September, promised to cut $100 billion in domestic spending programs if they take power. The unspecified cuts would come from non-defense domestic discretionary programs, which totaled $477 billion in the 2010 budget. Social Security and Medicare would be excluded from the proposed 21 percent reductions. (from businessweek.com) So that looks like education and healthcare will be the ones to be cut. Oh, boy!

And I'm always assailed by the moral issues by my friends at church so here are my views on that. You may be against abortion and gay marriage, and the Republicans may pay those issues lipservice, but what have they done about it? While they had control of the presidency and congress they didn't outlaw abortion and gay marriage actually started gaining legal rights in some states. So keep that in mind, when you listen to their rhetoric. And as for those ads with all the religious references, and there are plenty of them in Alabama, just let me say that my faith is not a commodity. Don't try to buy my votes with my belief in God.

Some insights from each of my kids that I've heard in the last few weeks.

S: "I'm starting to see the differences between Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats want to help people and the Republicans want to make money."

M: "They are saying if they get rid of those tax breaks for people making over $250,00 a year it will hurt small businesses. But we learned at school that most small businesses aren't even affected by that because they have their own exemptions. So I think they are just saying that to get people upset and vote the way they tell them to." (I believe her "they" are Republicans.)
Mr. C: "I don't know why we have to have Democrats and Republicans. It's just something to make Americans separated."

Whether you're a Democrat, Republican, or partying in The Elephant's Ass (aka Tea Party), get out there and express yourself today: VOTE!

New Design

I was ready for a change. Hope you enjoy the new design!

I was reading over some of my previous posts. My goodness! Apostrophes left out, wrong endings on words, misspellings, & words left out. I'm glad this isn't for a grade!

Weekend Cocktail

I am doing my monthly hair coloring. The box instructs to leave hair color on roots for 20 minutes or 30 minutes for resistant grays. It doesn't say how long to leave it on shockingly premature white hair. I've said I will stop coloring my hair when Mr. C goes to college. Just think how fried my brain will be in eight years from all these chemicals. So I've got 30 minutes to recap the weekend.

We found a neighborhood that did trick-or-treating, so Mr. C suited up on Saturday to get some more candy. It reminded me of the neighborhood where I grew up. Not every house had a light on, but most did. I was somewhat concerned by the house where several adults were sitting outside at what appeared to be the kitchen table. The table was littered with several beer bottles, mostly empty. They were thrilled to see "Earl" and wanted to know where "Randy" was. I was afraid they might offer Mr. C a beer, but they just gave hime a handful of candy. At another house they were so tickled by his costume they got out cell phones and took his picture. I thought it was nice of them to ask me first if they could photograph him.

S wrapped up the Narnia play this weekend. We went to see her Saturday afternoon. It was a very nice production, especially considering we live in such a small, remote area. The poster shows the actual kids who were in the play here. The lion in the play didn't look so realistic. But well done all around.

Talladega was this weekend. Traffic comes to a standstill in our tiny town after the race as everyone is trying to get back to the interstate. We live eight miles south of the interstate and the race track is 25 miles south of the interstate, so anyone from up north has to pass by us to get to the track. It was a huge mess trying to get across the bridge to church Sunday evening. I would have skipped it, but it was our week to cook supper for the youth.