Christmas Windows

Here are some Christmas windows I didn't get on my other blog. Enjoy as you prepare for the big day.

Magician

Disco Muppets

Cinderella's Carriage

Santa and the Mrs. ready for a night out on the town

Fireplace

This is a feature of our new house that I was super excited about. We have never had a wood-burning fireplace and I was really looking forward to the smell of it in the winter.

Our house inspector couldn't get the damper open so we had the buyers get it cleaned and inspected. He found a crack in the chimney, making it inoperable.

The sellers offered to either give us the money to fix it, or put in a gas log. It was a tough choice but we went with the gas log. This way it will be done before we move in and we won't procrastinate on fixing it.

Hubby did talk to the man doing the work and told him not to cut the damper, so we can convert it back to wood in the future if we want. It gives us one more project to think about for the future.

Music Man

The girls went off to visit friends in Alabama, so Mr. C and I were left to our own devices. We went to the Creative Discovery Museum. I remember bringing him here in his stroller and he was too little to do anything. Now he's almost too old for most of the activities. He did enjoy the music area. He played Twinkle, Twinkle on the marked steel drum, then taught himself how to play it on the unmarked drum.

Intercom System

To build up the excitement of moving to our new house I will highlight some of its features over the next couple of weeks.
Today I want to point out the intercom system that is located in the kitchen. The buttons at the top correspond to the different rooms in the house, and the front and back doors. There are various knobs that do who knows what. There is also a functioning AM/FM radio and analog clock. I can feel your envy as you read this!!!
Also noticeable in this photo are the handicap push light switches as well as the corded phone. "Marsha! Your groovy boyfriend is on the line!" (No, it doesn't come with the cast of The Brady Bunch, but how cool would that be?!)

New Eating Experience

Hubby had a Christmas dinner thing with his group from work, so I took the kids out to The Acropolis, a Greek restaurant. They had American food and Italian food, but I was feeling adventurous. You can see my plate above. Let me explain what everything is.

Greek salad: Regular salad with feta cheese
Dolmathakia: Traditional grape vine leaves rolled with herb seasoned ground sirloin and rice with sautéed onion, topped with avgolemono sauce.
Moussaka: Layered baby eggplant, thinly sliced potatoes, seasoned ground sirloin, fresh herbs, and parmesan cheese and topped with creamy béchamel sauce.
Spanakopita: A spinache-feta cheese mixture seasoned with fresh herbs and sautéed Spanish onions and wrapped in light filo pastry dough.
Greek dip: I have no idea what is in this. Maybe chickpeas?

I am glad that I tried everything. I think that it is an aquired taste. Something (maybe the avgolemono sauce?) was very sour and made my eye do that thing that it does when I eat Sweet Tarts.

M had lasagne and Mr. C had a club sandwich.

The Metropolitan Bells

We went to a special music presentation at church on Tuesday. My camera refused to take non-blurry pictures so I apologize for the quality.

This was a group called The Falcon Four who came to perform one song. They are from Athens, TN and have won several awards. Their song was Caroler's Hoedown and it was fun.

The Metropolitan Bells is an auditioned group of bell ringers from the Chattanooga area. M's teacher is one of them and she gave bonus points to the students for attending. (We would have gone anyway!) I was especially impressed with the size of these huge bells.

I give up trying to upload the video!!! Blogger you've won this one, but I'll be back! (Yes, I am going a little insane now.)

And here is a video that is about 1 minute long. I got the kid in front of me as well. He was getting antsy toward the end, but I thought he was very well behaved for the first hour (the concert lasted about an hour and 20 minutes).

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Mr. C received this Charlie Brown Christmas tree from Grandma O. in the mail yesterday. He carried it around, sitting it next to him as he ate supper and watched TV. What Christmas spirit!

What is Mr. Creativity Up To?

Mr. C continues to be busy with whatever can hold his attention. I wish it was his school work. This morning I had to make an extra trip to school to drop off an assignment he left at home--unfinished. I thought about not taking it and hoping he would learn to take more responsibility. But I don't think he would have learned a lesson. He drives me to...what's the word for extreme frustration?

Yesterday he prepared a pomegranate. This is a very complex thing to do, but Mr. C loves pomegranates. Although he promised to be careful, there was juice on the counter, the floor, and his shirt. I went along behind him cleaning, to avoid as much staining as possible.

He is also ready for Christmas. He has bought and wrapped all his presents. The rest of us need to get busy. Only 19 days left.

Speaking of 19 days, that is how long until the Doctor Who Christmas special: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe. I know you are all as excited as we are! (haha) I have been shopping online for a Tardis poster for Mr. C. There is a 6 foot one that will be great for his new bedroom. Only 30 days until we close on our house!

Coronation 2011

Marvelous went back to Alabama for the annual Coronation Dance. You'd think we'd be done with that since we moved 100 miles away. But she has kept the boyfriend (remember Young Skywalker) so she went to the dance.

The handsome couple.

The college girls came to see all the high school kids dressed up. They even helped with the pre-dance dinner at the church.

Several of the kids got together to take pictures before the dance. This shows the back of M's dress nicely.

I made a cape to keep M warm when she was outside. If you ever have the desire to sew faux mink, you should know that it sheds like crazy!

O Christmas Tree

This weekend we had tons of flooding rain. I worked up the nerve to get the small tree out of the garage and bring it upstairs. I wasn't about to get drenched going back for ornaments, so we had a naked tree for a few days. The kids got tired of it and decorated it as best they could, with what they could scrounge up.

I love this shot of the reflection in the coffee table!

I got the point and dragged up a couple of boxes today and "fixed" it while they were in school. Mr. C says he misses the coon hat.

Drama, the Middle School Kind

GreenBlue negotiates with Agent Pink for the release of Molly Pitcher, Davy Crockett, and John Henry

We went to Mr. C's drama performance last night. There were 18 different skits by 6th and 7th graders. Eighteen. The students wrote, made props and backdrops, and wore costumes. There were some laughs. It was what you would expect from middle schoolers. Mr. C's play was about tall tale figures being held prisoner in the future. He was Davy Crockett, with a coon hat and cardboard rifle. I don't think Davy Crockett is a tall tale character, but he appeared in most of the 6th grade plays. The 7th graders had to use Greek gods.

Getting Ready for Christmas

While in Indiana I took the opportunity to get Granny and Grandpa ready for Christmas. Since I live so far away, I don't get the chance to decorate the graves very often.

Hubby and I won't have any such fancy graves. The kids already have instructions what to do with us. He gets cremated and scattered somewhere scenic, like Yosemite. I get taken to a green cemetery in South Carolina and dumped in the ground as soon as possible, because I won't be injected with all kinds of preservatives.(Preservatives for dead people?)

Thanksgiving Visit

We had a good trip to Indiana. We met a new nephew/cousin.

We saw lots of cousins, but didn't have them sit for a "traditional" photo. This is the most I could get at one time.

We visited and played games. I was never on a winning trivial pursuit team or euchre team, but I'm sure there was plenty of cheating going on. That's the only explanation for it I can think of! We all had a good time anyway.

Odds and Ends

There is a lot going on here. The big thing is that Smarty is home for the week. Yeah! I would put a picture of her on here, but it would be her sleeping and she probably wouldn't appreciate that.

These two have gone off to Atlanta today, to tour Georgia Tech. M is pretty sure she doesn't want to go there, but she was invited for a female technology day and I thought it would be a good experience to see the campus.

This is what my camera looks like. The battery door doesn't stay shut, so I've fixed it with a rubberband. How ingenious. Maybe I should go to Georgia Tech. I am so whiny about my camera because I started a new blog and am very irritated with the quality (lack thereof) of my pictures. I'm sure there are more important things.

Oh, and I should probably mention that we bought a house. Here it is. We will close on it, January 5th. We have already put our 60 day notice in to the apartment complex! This house is in our very favorite neighborhood. So while we won't be building and getting mountain views, we will live in a great area--lots of kids, nice neighbors, pool, close to school.

That about does it for now. Since we are heading to Indiana for Thanksgiving, I'll probably take a break from this blog for awhile.

Another Reason to Be Proud

At least for Hubby. I don't have a picture to go along with this article. I always get irritated with people who comment on the end of articles. I think they are competing to see who can sound like the biggest dumbass. Anyway, Congrats VW!!!

Mutlitasking

Some things I could be doing besides waiting on the phone.

I am currently on hold with a mortgage company. Our bank sold our loan and we have to send payments to a new bank, but the new bank hasn't contacted us with where to send the payments. Nice. I have been on hold for10 minutes and 29 seconds and counting. Right now I am listening to the theme song from Gone With the Wind, intermittently interrupted by a robowoman telling me my call is important and someone will be right with me.

My suggestion to businesses who have long wait times is to put something entertaining on while you wait. Maybe Ellen DeGeneres or Graham Norton. Then people wouldn't be in such a bad mood when they finally get to talk to a real person.

Still waiting. Fourteen minutes and 41 seconds...

The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same

Look closely and you can see "fringy" at the bottom of the pic.

And this is where you can find it today.

Friday is my sheet washing day. I have learned that when I make up M's bed she likes her "fringy" blanket under the flat sheet.
Today she is off to Alabama for her monthly visit with friends. It's almost like we share custody with them.

Traffic Revision

This post goes out to my cousin, who thought that it was interesting to find "speed humps" in Belize. This sign is on a road in Georgia, warning of a speed hump ahead.

***New topic
I don't usually comment on real stuff, like the news, but here is a story that you may have seen today. What a mess our country is in financially. It is hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel. The problems in Alabama are caused by corrupt politicians, no doubt about that. But does that mean that this kind of thing is confined to Alabama? Unfortunately I don't think so.

Back in Class, Sort Of

This is a cow at a rest stop. I am not writing about a cow at a rest stop.

I started a journey back in September. In order to renew my Tennessee teaching license I have to take a class. I figured since I had to go back to school, I would start working on my Master's degree.

It would be totally boring for me to list all the hoops I've jumped through to get to the point of registering for classes. If you have ever dealt with anything remotely bureaucratic then you can imagine all the paperwork, phone calls, meetings, emails, etc.

Fast forward to today. Before I clicked on the final button to register for class, I decided to call the state licensing agency to make sure the class I had chosen would fulfill the requirement for licensing. This is the conversation that followed:

Licensing Lady or LL: How much are you paying to take this class?
Me: Over $1000, for three credit hours and all the fees.
LL: Have you heard of ed2go?
Me: No.
LL: It has professional development courses that you can take for $90 each. They take six weeks to complete. If you take two that will fulfill the requirement to get your license renewed.
She gave me the website and detailed instructions for the paperwork she would need when I complete the courses.

I signed up around 12:30 and finished my first lesson before 1:30, with a 100 on the quiz. Yeah me! Only 11 more lessons (and another course) and I'll have my license back. Then I get to go out job hunting again.

Oh, about graduate school. I plan on going eventually, once I have a job and can pay for it. I've been accepted into the School Leadership: Reading Specialist program which is 36 hours. That's a lot.

My Little Brit Kids

M in her new formal dress. Nothing to do with this post.

When we moved, we had to get rid of our dish and switch to cable. The package we have has about 1,286 channels. That may be a low-ball estimate. Anyway there are so many channels that we can't ever find anything to watch. It is overwhelming.

We have found the channels that are our old stand-bys. Discovery, History, the networks for news. I still have a hard time finding the Weather Channel and I can only watch HGTV if I come across it by accident. We do have a guide, but it takes so long to scroll through that it isn't much good.

The upside to this is that we have found and memorized the number for the BBC, which we have never had. I think the BBC is our new favorite channel. We have become total Whovians, and even caught up on all the old episodes of Doctor Who on Netflix. Mr. C loves Top Gear. There is an American version, but he prefers the British version.

The result of all this Brit TV is that the kids have started saying things like, "I think we should go on holiday to Montana." Mom has become Mum or Mummy (especially as Mr. C imitates The Empty Child from The Doctor "Are you my mummy?"). Every once in awhile an unexpected word or phrase pops out of them. It keeps life interesting.

More Rowing

We went out to watch the Head of the Hooch Saturday. Weather was perfect. Even though I don't know anything about rowing, it is very entertaining to go and see them race. This is the second largest race, behind Head of the Charles, in America. Enjoy the pics.

1965 boats entered to race and 15000 people in town to compete or support their team

Bringing the boats in after a race. The lady in the orange pants was directing traffic from two docks. The boats need a lot of clearance to get lined up.

Three teams passing close to each other. The boat in the middle dropped behind right after this shot. They move so quickly that it is hard to get them in the picture.

View from the bridge

Building?

We met with a builder today. His business has several floor plans to choose from. I found one that I liked better online so he is going to draw up plans that combine one of his plans and the plan I like. We are trying to stay close to 2000 square feet, although we have to put it on a partial basement (due to the slope) that adds about 1500 unfinished space.

Here is the plan I like. Only take off the screened in porch, deck, and one of the garage bays.

Here is the plan that we are adapting it from.

We are just at the beginning of this very long process, so who knows how it will all turn out.

Boats Coming In For the Evening

We went out to look at the leaves this weekend. We have had cool (cold-30s) nights and warm days. Perfect for creating a fall tapestry.

Posting

 Mr. C and Mr. Socks came up with a new game this week.

There wasn't much to post about last week. I am so tired of living in an apartment. We are stepping up efforts to find a house and do what we can to get out of here. It will mean a stiff fee to get out of our lease but...
 
One of the reasons I want to move is the huge dent in our van that one of the other tenants put there on Friday. I try to park on the end of the row so I only have one side exposed to other cars. My theory in the past has also been to park next to really nice cars, because they will be less likely to want to mess up their own car. Well I got dinged by a white Lexus SUV, so forget that theory. I will not be asking them to fix it. When one of our other neighbors tried to get someone to fixed her car after the same thing, her car ended up severely keyed.

Speaking of driving, M got her Tennessee license on Friday. I took her to the DMV and it only took 2 hours. Have I posted of our awful DMV experiences? This was my 7th trip there (to get my license and M's). The longest I have waited is from 9:45am to 1:15pm, so that is why it didn't seem like that long on this final trip.

Hopefully this will be a better week with lots of pretty fall pictures to post!

Back to School--Again

Three lanes in, three lanes out of the school driveway

Well the kiddos are back to school this morning. The traffic was pretty light, so I'm not sure if everyone else remembered to get up and go today. I thought I would treat you to an artsy photo of their school. "Artsy" is the nice way of saying "crappy". If I had a good camera then I would be able to take awesome photos, even in the dark. As it is, I get blurry light blobs. I also probably shouldn't be taking pictures while driving, but we were stopped at the time.

Back to the topic of school. The school website has a scrolling list of information about upcoming events, and it is pretty long and detailed. It contains things like when there are sports try-outs, which clubs are selling t-shirts or candy, and various college rep visits. However, when they don't get something on the list they do the robocalling thing. These are usually things that parents have to do, like come to a meeting at school at a specific time in a specific room and you better have a pen and paper ready when they call because this is the only warning you will get. With that being said, I think I have a conference on Thursday, but I'm not sure. Oh, well.

The Joys of Parenthood

I wonder if everyone else's kids embarrass them in public. I thought once the kids got to be a certain age the parents were supposed to do all the embarrassing.

Yesterday M was on a kick about "spankin's". She thought everyone and everything deserved a spankin'. She especially enjoyed telling her brother he was going to get one. When I finally told her to cut it out she came up with an acronym for "You're about to get a spankin'"--Yatgas. Now, when you say "yatgas" it sounds like "Ya had gas." So we walked around Target while the kids repeatedly told each other "yatgas."

When I had enough of that and told them to stop, Mr. C informed me that everyone has their secret words they say. He used his dad's favorite expression--scheize*--to illustrate his point. M and I immediately told him not to use that word so loudly in public, since we have a pretty big German population here. Right then an adorable mom and dad with two little preschoolers came around the aisle speaking German. Ugg--I could only hope they hadn't heard Mr. C's explicative. We hurried and left.

Only two more days until the kids go back to school.

*German for sh*t

Fall Break

The weather for the beginning of the kids' fall break has been wonderful. Unfortunately, last night a rainy cold front moved through and we are stuck inside today. It has been nice to be able to sleep in. Marvelous has been studying for the ACT (under lots of parental pressure) which is this Saturday. Mr. C has been watching as much Doctor Who as he can. We've also been able to go to the park and skip stones. Mr. C's discovery this week is that when you plop a stone into the rapids it creates a circular ripple pattern that travels downstream with the current. I really think he has a future in physics.

Dear Son

You are purposely responsible for all the gray hair I hide beneath layers of color. You make me crazy when you argue that the cereal says "Crackle, Snap, Pop" instead of "Snap, Crackle, Pop." You make me want to scream (and if we weren't living in an apartment right now I probably would) when it is 9:42pm and you are still up fiddling with magnets even though you were put to bed at 9. You make my heart stop when I look out our second story window and see you in the tree outside. You make me so tired when I am repeating myself for the umpteenth time and you swear you never heard me.

In short, you are you and I wouldn't change that for anything in the whole world!

A Step Toward the Edge of the Nest

I'm strong, I'm confident, I can do this!

M will be leaving after school today to drive herself back to Alabama. She is going to visit friends this weekend and come home Sunday. We have practiced driving through town every day for the last week. She should know how and when to change lanes to get on the right interstates.

She has to go through the 75/24 split, then be careful as 24N merges onto her road, then make sure she is in the left lanes so she doesn't get dumped into downtown, and finally after rounding Lookout Mountain she will have to split off of 24 to catch 59S to Alabama. Leaving town is easier than coming home. When she comes back on Sunday she will have to make a quick two lane move to the right to get off at our exit. We practiced going up to another exit in case she can't get over in time. You have to be a little aggressive to make it and she is not aggressive at all.

Most 16 year olds would be completely ready for this by now. Unfortunately, M still hates to drive and only does it when forced. So I am understandably apprehensive about her taking this huge step.

Wherever you are, please be patient with all the other drivers on the road today.

Video of the Light Show (I can't type next to the video. Hope you enjoy!)

A Brilliant Burn

To wrap up the River Rocks Festival there was an artistic burn. The guy standing next to us was from California and said it was like the Burning Man, but it wasn't quite that big. They just burned one sculpture. We had a great view from the bridge overlooking the park, but the picture doesn't do it justice. Watch this video if you want to see the whole thing, including the juggler-people with all their cool fire props. I think you can see us at the beginning of the video: we are up on the bridge directly over those white tents. The disappointing thing about my picture and the video is that you can't see the different colors of the flames. At intervals the fire would glow purple, blue, or green. Very nice.

Weekend Entertainment

We went downtown to a concert and light show on Friday. I used my phone to take videos of both, but now I can't get them onto the computer. So just use your imagination. The light show was cool. It was displayed on the Hunter Art Museum. My favorite part was when it looked like the whole museum filled up with water and fish started swimming past all the windows.

The Chattanooga Head Race is going on all day Saturday. We went down to see them. There are teams from all the area schools. When I say area I mean the Southeast. We saw Clemson, Georgia, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, as well as some high school groups. There are supposed to be 1200 participants. Lots of people! M is going to go to the summer camp next year and try to get on the local club team. At least that is the plan for now. She has wanted to try rowing for a long time, but this is the first time we've lived somewhere that she could try it out.

Another Awesome VW Commercial

Remember the Darth Vader VW Passat commercial during the Super Bowl this year? I think this one is just as good.
Hubby has told me all the numbers, but of course I can't remember them. I do know that Volkswagen is now the number two auto manufacturer. Yeah! And they aren't far off from becoming number one. We'll see what happens between now and next year. So far the Passat sales numbers are higher than the projections. All good news for those of us who depend on it to put food on our table.

Weekend Visit

M's best friend, New Orleans, came to visit this weekend. She and her mom drove up on Saturday morning and we spent the day shopping and looking around downtown.

N found a formal dress for the Coronation dance in December. Both girls had fun trying on lots of dresses at the mall. They really liked these $200 hats--for fun anyway.

We went downtown to get some ice cream at The Ice Cream Show. Afterward we walked along the bridge where they were having Wine Over Water, but we didn't sample any. We did watch the paddle board race on the river below. The River Rocks Festival is going on all this week and the race and wine tasting were part of the events. We looked for the hot air balloons Saturday, but I guess it was too windy for them.

Inventions, Inventions, Everywhere!

Mr. C's junk drawer and dresser top

At church this past weekend, the pastor talked about how we all have these plastic, perfect facades we put on for the world. There was some point about taking them off, but I happen to like my plastic family. They are so much prettier than the real-life versions.

In real life Mr. C was making an F in Language Arts up until last week. He has since pulled it up to a C. This is not the kind of info I usual brag about on the blog. But I thought I would make an effort to portray the reality a bit more realistically. What doesn't make sense to me is how such a bright kid can be doing so poorly in school. Is it him? The school? Me? All of the above?

This is the kind of thing that Mr. C spends hours on.

Mr. C's invention for a magnetic motor. Hubby looked at it and said it is how an electric motor works. But how did this get inside an 11 year old's head? And yes, "magnet" is spelled "magnent". UGGG!

He is constantly inventing things. And not just on paper. He takes things apart all the time to get to the small pieces inside. Maybe he can use them for something he's working on. Does he care that we need all the parts to make the TV remote work? He isn't too concerned about it at the time.

I was lamenting about his Language Arts to Hubby this morning and his response was, "He doesn't really need all that Language Arts. If he gets the basics he'll be fine." OK. Take a deep breath and let go a little.