Girl Scouts!

For the first time in TEN YEARS I met up with my old Girl Scout troop! Our leaders were also there.left to right: Trudi (Rebecca's mom), Jane (Mary's mom), Mary, Rebecca, Theresa, Heather, me!

I have many happy memories with these gals, and will share just a couple.

Rebecca and I went on a Girl Scouts / Girl Guides trip to Mexico with girls from as far away as Greece! We learned Cielito Lindo and Hey Mickey (You're so Fine) in Spanish together. :)

Rebecca and I (with bangs) in Mexico... such cool uniforms! ;)

Theresa was not only an awesome leader, but also my incredible fourth grade math teacher, Ms. O! She's now a college prof. up in Maine! I could share hundreds of happy stories, but most of all it amazes me how absolutely wonderful she was to me, despite my behavior in her class. What love and patience!

Oh, and Merry Christmas! I'll have another holiday post soon. :)

News, C.S. Lewis, and Christmas

It's been a long time since I've posted about an article I've read, and I think I've earned a post. I've shown great restraint on articles about chocolate making and a teacher assigning math homework (if those two had been combined, I couldn't have been so strong). :)

I encourage you to read this very short Opinion article in the NY Times. It's about C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the way we celebrate Christmas. The author is not a Christian, but likes (their opinion of) Lewis' approach to the holiday - a mixture of various pagan celebrations. It's something I hadn't thought about in relation to the Narnia books, and I'd love to hear your opinions!

Winter has come!

First, we put an end to Fall with good food for Thanksgiving Day (most of which was prepared by Joe's wonderful sister Emily)...
Then, lots of dessert! Emily's mouth-watering couer de creme...and my cake (I've recently discovered mint chocolate Irish Cream, my current favorite surprise ingredient).

Just last week we had a rare welcome to winter - no, not the almost 80 degree weather Tuesday - snow on Wednesday!

Joe woke me up with news that it was snowing! Once we determined a suitable punishment if it was not actually snowing and he was just plotting to get me out of the warm bed, I got up and looked outside to see this:

I wrote this on our deck...and received a surprise snowball in the back!

Later, Joe called at work to tell me to look outside. It was snowing like crazy!!! I don't remember the last time I've seen it snow like that during the day, but I bet my age was in the single digits. Joe and NEVER seen snow like that (hey, he's lived in Houston and L.A.)! It was exciting. My German and Kansasian? (from Kansas, not Kans - Asian) neighbors at work didn't show proper enthusiasm, but I went outside with my coat and camera.

from my window... I like the dancing-couple sculpture
and from outsideI wasn't the only one who didn't expect the snow!
We had a safe drive home in the snow...and stopped by the creek a block from our house - it was beautiful!

Who knows if we'll ever see our home with this much snow on it again?!? It was still snowing when we got home from work.

Joe won the snowball fight.Finally, Joe and I put up our Christmas tree last night!

Welcome winter! Feel free to stick with the 70 degree days!

Fun at Work, Part 4

We had snow Wednesday - LOTS of snow! But that's not what this post is about. Sorry.

I work in a small medical research lab. Sometimes we have students rotate through, but generally there were three of us in the lab and my boss who is also a department head (so I usually see him briefly a few times a day). Recently, the other woman in the lab graduated (with her Ph.D.) and is currently moving out of state. For her last day, we had cake and this balloon lab person waiting at her desk when she came in. I made it. Give me some credit - it's a lot harder to draw a face on a balloon than one would think. And I don't draw noses.


So now there are only two of us in the lab! It's quite different, but good. It wasn't that long ago when I was hesitant to talk about my co-workers for fear it sounded like I worked at a strip club (seriously - there was Candi, Angel, Honey, and me - Kat).

work story #2

Thursday morning I woke up not feeling great, especially when I tried to coax my body out of the warm bed. So I sleep in a little, skipped my shower, and threw on a gray sweatshirt (one of Joe's old ones, no less) and jeans for work. I don't typically interact with other people much, so it doesn't matter how I dress. (I know, that's the sort of thing they'd freak out over someone saying on What Not to Wear.) Mid morning, I saw my boss and he reminded me that we had the award service this afternoon - where I'd get my 5 year service pin (I started here as an undergrad - I'm not quite that old yet). I had completely forgotten, and I asked him if I should run home and change, or at least put on one of our scrub shirts so people would assume I was doing some sort of surgery. He said "No, they don't take pictures or anything. It's not that big of a deal."

That afternoon, I went down to the lobby a few minutes early, and a large mass of people are already listening to the Dean of the college - they had started a few minutes early! They began calling up people for the 5-year service awards. A friend who worked with me when she first got here was the first to go up. They handed her the pin and a fleece blanket (embroidered with our logo). Then there was a FLASH. If only it had been our seizure-inducing fire alarm lights. They were taking pictures of each individual with the dean. I'm not sure you understand the magnitude of this. These things have a way of showing up on the website, recruitment material, and those banners they attach to the light posts for everyone to see. My boss looked back at me, and I did my best to give an incredulous glare. He laughed and turned back around.

Well, I didn't fall down as I accepted the pin and blanket, so it could have been worse. I'm hoping I blinked for the picture, though I'm not sure I timed it right.

And that's my work story for today.

P.S. I did take lots of snow pictures. Translation for Mom: I don't want any emails asking about the snow, I'll post them when I can. ;)

P.P.S. Though quite old, there really are three other Fun at Work posts. Everyone knows a convincing made-up number should be odd. Not only is four even, it's a square number. That's making up numbers mistake #19. Catching on yet? Fine, if you don't believe me, here are one, two, and three.

books, Part 2 (how the most recent obsession began)

(continuing the book theme of my previous post)

Friday, November 21st, Joe and I were walking to the register at HEB when I saw him. A kid (how I now refer to high school guys) who looked normal other than white makeup on his face. Let me remind you, I'm in Bryan, Texas. Not much of a goth scene here. So I nudged Joe and shot a questioning look at the guy. Joe whispered, "That movie - Twilight," and I choked out a laugh before I could stop. Immediately Joe said "You're one to laugh!" He's totally right - but it caught me off guard! Vegetarian vampires walking around HEB!

That weekend we had been doing wedding shower and house related stuff. By the time Sunday (the 23rd) mid-morning rolled around, I had a strong urge to get out of the house and do something totally different. Joe puts up with these urges well, so he asked what I wanted to do. A movie sounded like fun, so we looked up what was in theaters (How did we live without the internet? Remember those horrible theater-time recordings - the ones you would listen patiently to, only to get distracted RIGHT when they said the times for the movie you wanted? ). Nothing at all exciting was in the theaters. We tried to think of other things to do, but couldn't. Finally, I convinced Joe to take me to see Twilight. It's been a while since he's sat through a high school drama movie with me, so off we went, more for the thrill of seeing a movie during the middle of the day than anything else.

(Deep Breath) I actually liked it. More than a little. That's all I'm going to say about that.


Tuesday night (the 25th) I got to talk with two of my friends who were reading the books, and I made plans to borrow the first one on Sunday. Both were excited I was giving it a try. Later that night, Joe took me by Hastings, and I bought the first book. Yes, I bought it from the Teen Series section. Can you see the obsession beginning?

Over Thanksgiving I read the entire Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. All 2824 pages (including the draft of Midnight Sun available on the author's website). Here's how it went:
Thursday / Thanksgiving: Much of Joe's family was watching movies (we're talking Nacho Libre), and blocked it out and read. Emily has an awesome jacuzzi tub, so I got to try it out and finish the first book, Twilight, that night.
Friday late morning, I bought the second book, New Moon. In the afternoon, Joe played disc golf in a Houston park while I enjoyed the nice weather and got started reading. I finished it that night at home. Joe took me to pick up the final two books, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.
Saturday & Sunday I hardly did anything other than reading. I was a little sick, so staying still felt even better. Sunday night I finished the fourth book and Midnight Sun (like the first book, except told from Edward's point of view - thanks, Chalyce, for sharing!).

So did I enjoy it? Most definitely, yes. Now that the buzz has worn off a little, I can see some of the faults, but I still like the books. Even though the last one (Breaking Dawn) may have more inconsistencies, I think it was my favorite. It was a little more my style - more action-focused than relationship-focused (like the first two were). The second, New Moon, was my least favorite, but any book that can make me feel so strongly ("God help me, if she kisses him, I WILL rent a steamroller to destroy this book") deserves some amount of credit.

Let me know if you read these and what you think! We'll talk about dressing up to see the next movie together. ;)

Why I love Texas...

It's December 3rd and 81 degrees outside.

books, Part 1

I've done a LOT of fun reading over the last few weeks.

I tend to be rather obsessive when it comes to reading. My family would tell you that is an extreme understatement.

Starting in junior high, every Christmas I would get my gift from my parents early - the last day of finals. It would be a new hardcover book (quite a few years the newest Stephen King book), and I would start on it right away. There were easily days when all I would do was read and (if I remembered) eat and sleep a little. During the school year, I had to limit myself to short stories only so that I would have time to do my schoolwork. Ah, what happy memories I have of my own reading days. When I graduated high school, I had read all Michael Crichten's and Stephen King's books. (S.K. quickly fell out of my favor, but I kept up with M.C.)

When we went to Dallas three weeks ago, I got to pick up a couple of books. I read The Last Sin Eater and The Shack. (Thanks Staci and Shelley for recommending and lending them to me!)


The Last Sin Eater was good - I especially liked the concept for the book. I felt like the protagonist's emotions and reactions were realistic. My only criticisms... It's definitely a Christian fiction novel, and gets preachy briefly. I'm not sure it needed to tell as many stories from the Bible as it did, but those were only a small portion of the book. The author seemed to have trouble keeping a consistent point of view.

The Shack was great - I'd highly recommend it. There were sections I don't think I agree with for sure, but overall it was thought-provoking while still and enjoyable read. My biggest criticism... It is presented like a true story someone is recording for a friend. I can only think of two other "Christian Fiction" books I've read who have done this: C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet, Rick Joyner's The Final Quest. This has got to be one of the literary tools that frustrates me most!!! Before I rattle on, I'll say I think TFQ could be from visions / dreams of Rick Joyner's. Especially the first part of the book. If anyone had doubts as to whether OotSP was true or not, they'd only have to read the third book in the series to be quite confident that none of it happened. The author of The Shack, William Young, states clearly on the book's site that the story is fiction. He seems to throw off the question of why it's written as a true story by saying he originally did not intend for it to be widely read or published. Why do they do this?!? It drives me mad. If I ever write a book and do this, friends - please stop me!

Day 28: Be Thou My Vision art project, Part 1

Quick catching up... I did this November 18th!

I had an idea for an art project for our piano nook (I know, how cool is it we have a piano nook?!?) a while back, and finally starting putting it together. I feel like it incorporates a lot of me, and I'll be glad to have it in our home.

Song.

Less than a year ago, I was listening to a group Joe likes (I like some of their songs) called Glad. On one of their a cappella albums, they recorded the song "Be Thou My Vision." Here's the first verse (here's the rest with and ugly midi playing the beautiful melody in the background):

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

I had heard it before, but that time it stuck with me. I immediately started to memorize it, and had it down fairly well in a few days (so many rhymes to mix up!). The following Sunday at our church's worship service, we sang it for the first time (that I was there for) - what a happy surprise that was! The song is frequently on my mind and conveys so much of what I feel.

Supplies.

Being the outstanding artist that I am*, I started with a trip to Michael's to see what canvas was cheapest. I ended up with two 9" x 12" canvases that wrap around the sides so that I don't have to frame it and it can blend in with the wall some. I wanted to have some texture to parts of the canvas, so I asked my mom how people add that. She suggested gesso, with the stipulation that the last time she bought it was the year I was born. Near the gesso, I found some lightweight texture stuff that I decided to give a try. For paint and brushes, I'm sticking with what I used on walls in my house. Here were the supplies:


Doodles: the foreground and background.

I have two forms of doodling. Both are relaxing to me, and both will be represented in this art project.

One reveals my obsessive behavior and involves patterns, often of simple geometric shapes. I would guess that this doesn't come as a surprise AT ALL to most of you. I'll explain how this fits in with foreground of the project more later. While it's not one of the shape ones, here's an example from one day at work when I was teaching / helping someone do an experiment (translation: sitting there three hours and answering questions as they came up):


My second form of doodling is the opposite: completely unplanned, unpredictable, and uncontrolled. I start by drawing one random line (swirl / squiggle / swish / whatever). I then look at the page, and feel like a line belongs somewhere else. I look again and see where another one goes. And again, and again. I don't see where more they belong other than just that next line I'm about to draw. If I'm using colors, I usually do one at a time, finishing with one color before moving on to the next. It's really fun, because the end result always surprises me. I've kept some of them, but they're still in boxes - I'll try to post one if I find it. THIS is the form of doodling the background takes one. Here's the first canvas, with my lines molded on (I used the non-scoop end of a plastic spoon) and the background paint (same as the wall it will be on). The picture makes it look a little brighter than it is, but you can mostly make out the textured lines:


I used my second doodling form to decide where the raised lines would go, and where the green paint would go on top of it. I DID have in mind how the song would go on top of it (the obsessive part of the painting), but I think that only effected this part subconsciously. (picture of the green layer of paint soon to come)

Aside.

I read and wrote about a type of dementia a while back, and my doodling styles described above where definitely on my mind, raising my curiousity at the time. The ties between math and pattern-type drawing makes sense to me... what about this other type? How do you all draw or doodle?

to be continued....

*in case you don't actually know me, I'm being very sarcastic - I don't paint. Once my husband (who paints even less than I do - at least my mom and grandma have talent) and I did another painting project for our living room, but that's all!

What we've been doing hints

As a hint of things I've worked on lately (but don't want to take time to write about), here are a couple of pictures...

I might finish this tree one of these days...


With help from Danny, we've started putting tile down in the slab part of our house (no baseboards yet)!

Day 29: baby gift project

I wasn't going to post this, except that I mentioned it as something I was going to do it when I first wrote about the 30 days of creativity. I didn't actually make this, just embroidered the name onto a Bandabib I thought was cute. The rest of the gift involved sweets (mostly chocolate) in little containers with scriptures I wrote on them. You can see pictures of the beautiful Naomi and her family here.