Age is just a (big) number

With my birthday around the corner it's my time of year to feel older.  The gray hairs I've hunted down recently don't help.  You know how they say that the sense of smell provides the greatest memory recall?  I figure the sense of taste can't be far behind, because when I tried some throwback Pepsi (you know, the stuff with real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup) it was a blast from the past. 

 

I know I've tasted this real sugar variety before, and if the info I hunted down saying that the switch to corn syrup occurred in the mid-80's is correct, I'd have been around 7.  That I was a sentient being 25 years ago is a little alarming.  On another note, it's so silly how lots of things are advertised with the word 'real.'  Made with real sugar, real cheese, etc.  I was just at Cub, where I bought some real milk, real carrots, real beef from a real cow and some real wheat bread with high fructose corn syrup.  

Michael came home from school last week with a registration booklet for middle school...another reason to feel old.  And since when do middle-schoolers get to choose from electives?  Well, on closer inspection, his only real choice was to be in band, choir, both, or some other general music class.  Okay.  But when he's in eighth grade, he'll have more options, like beginning German, Spanish, or French, and various technology classes.  Wowee.

Anyway, if I make it to 80 or 90, I know I'll look back and wonder why I was such a whiny brat about birthdays in my 30's...right?  What'd you say?  I couldn't hear you.  Nevermind, I've been sitting here too long and my back aches.  Gotta go find the hot water bottle.

the gems doth sparkle

Nate and I celebrated our anniversary this weekend with a trip to the Guthrie where we saw Romeo and Juliet.  We'd never seen a professional production of Shakespeare before, but I guess it was pretty much what we expected.  Except the actors looked as though they were passengers on the Titanic instead of 14th century Italians.  That seemed kind of dumb - if you keep Shakespeare's language intact, you may as well keep his original setting.

Nate bought me a bit 'o bling in the form of a mother's ring, which I'd been pestering him about for a while  (just for the record, I'm not a big jewelry wearer in general).

There's April, August, March, & September.  Purty, no?

And yesterday I watched that much anticipated show on TV, the one everyone waited all week for - part 1 of Emma on PBS' Masterpiece Classic.  Nope, not the game.  Not after the first half, anyway.  It's just not worth getting your hopes up.  Our MN teams seem permanently jinxed.  There were some players with goofy hair & names though, so that's always fun.  Speaking of, there's a Marvin McNutt who plays for the Hawkeyes.  Hee. 

37 years

...since the Roe vs. Wade decision.

I'm pro nonviolent choices.

Conundrums

Don't be fooled by this ordinary looking closet.  It is an ordinary closet, but...

 

 ...there's a boy inside who's playing Nintendo DS.  Since acquiring this prize at Christmas, the older 3 kids go to great lengths to remain undetected while they play.  Zach demands to have it whenever he sees it, in the clamorous way 2-year-olds demand things.   I had to tell Nicky that it doesn't do much good to hide there if the volume is still blasting.

Speaking of Nicky, he has the sniffles right now and I'm trying to teach him how to blow his nose.  I can't figure out why it's such a difficult concept.  Is it a boy thing?  I seem to recall my little brother had trouble mastering that skill as well.  Another thing I don't get is vegetable oil.  Vegetables don't seem to be naturally oily things.  How do they get the oil out, and wouldn't it take an excessive amount of veggies to make a bottle of oil?  But it must not, because that stuff is cheap.  And then there's gum.  It lists the calories per piece on the package, but is that only if you chew the sugar out?  It should say Calories: 5  If swallowed: 25.

As Seen On TV!

I want to preface this with the fact that it wasn't my idea to buy one.  But I didn't protest.  That was one heck of a cold snap we just got out of.  My verdict:  not worth $14.99.  Maybe 3 bucks.  The material is thin and feels like a combination of felt and fleece.  "It's a blanket with sleeves!"  Before the advent of the Snuggie, we just called that a "bath robe".  It has no fasteners in the back, so you can't walk around with it comfortably.  But it does help keep one (or 3 kids) cozy on the couch, especially in our heat-challenged basement.

Hi, 2010

Hard to believe it's been 10 years since all the Y2K hullabaloo, huh?  We rang in the new year kid-free with a movie, 7 pounds, and some cheap Riesling.  Not a great flick for a celebratory night.  It was okay, but very intense.  Will Smith looks like he's going to cry, puke, or fly into a rage every moment he's on screen.  It was emotionally draining to watch.
May as well give my all important opinion of other movies we've seen sorta recently.  At our first time there, we saw Inglourious Basterds at the Cottage Grove drive-in.  Don't think I've seen anything Tarantino since Pulp Fiction years ago.  Lots of long scenes that really draw you in. The Men Who Stare at Goats sounded promising.  Quirky = good in my book, but this movie didn't have quite enough quirk.  Not enough staring action either. George Clooney was okay.  I only like him if he's playing a loony, like in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?  We finally rented Up and that was good.  It had lots more soul than many animated movies of late, and some great wacky fun scenes of the 'where the heck did they come up with this?' variety.  We also recently rented The Adventures of Captain Gonorrhea and the Starship Enterprise - er, Star Trek.  It was entertaining for this non-trekkie but not suberb.
We could've seen Avatar while the kids were at Grandma's but couldn't get ourselves to the theater.  I've heard good things, but I dunno if I could look at those freaky blue cat people for 2 or 3 hours.

The Christmas that almost wasn't

Occurring in the winter in the northern hemisphere as Christmas always seems to do, there are various ways our merriment is threatened each year.  Either somebody has a bad cold, the flu, a stomach bug, or the roads are in less than stellar condition.  This year we had to monkey with the dates of both extended family Christmases and even wondered if our Christmas at home would be messed up by the ill-timed xmas storm of '09.  Luckily it wasn't as terrible on Christmas Eve as the weather yahoos predicted, and we made it to the popular 4:00 Mass (had to show up at 3:15 to secure our seats).

We opened presents after supper on Christmas Eve.  Nate cheated against our rule of not buying gifts for each other this year by giving me this book 'from the kids.'  There's already a movie in the works.

Santa came and we opened round 2 of presents on Christmas morning.  Later, off to my folks' for supper and more presents.

This is a trellis arbor for their back yard.  I enjoy giving presents to my parents, especially my mom, to make up for all the years she was mostly gypped as I was growing up.  The worst year involved a last minute trip to the hardware store that scored her some generic Fig Newtons and mouse traps.  No joke.  Off to Nate's side of the fam the next day, where we enjoyed the weirdest Christmas in my history of celebrating there.  See what you can make of these:

 

Needless to say, it was a lot of fun!  Not pictured are the 'big daddy' hats and bunny ears all the 'kids' got.  I didn't ask these family members for permission to use these pictures, so there's John Doe, DeWayne, and Shaneequa (props to Michael for that one).

Christmas '09 is in the books.  As usual, we scrambled around in December trying to fit in all the decorating, shopping, wrapping, & baking.  We attempted to buy some stuff we thought our families would enjoy, and were blessed ten-fold in return with great company, great food, and more gifts than we probably deserve.

Merry Christmas!

Et Verbum caro factum est

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father." Jn 1:14

the new look

Here's A in the new shirt she picked out the other day, showing off her painted nails (another rare event).

When we were shopping, it took her aaages to look at every rack and decide which shirt she wanted.  At first I thought she might go for something pink or purple, but nope - zebra stripes.  She was also tempted by lots of garish long sleeve tees with annoying words or phrases on them.  Kids these days.  But what do I know, I'm an old mom-lady.  It's my job to find fashion trends of the younger set perverse and bewildering.  Only what I grew up wearing was sane.

Adrienne's transformation!

This morning Adrienne and I talked about getting her ears pierced.  She was due for a hair cut as well, so we decided to have a girl's afternoon at the mall.  Lately she'd been talking about getting a shorter hair-do and I put it off because I wasn't sure if it was a whim.  She insisted it's what she wanted, so we went with a bob.

 

And here she is with her new little flower stud earrings.  She handled the piercings fine.  What a grown-up kid!

The guys stayed at home and had some testosterone-y good fun watching Transformers. While at the mall we bought Adrienne a new shirt and she can't wait to show off her new look at school tomorrow.  It will take a while to get used to the new 'do, but it'll be fun to play with.  I look forward to more mom + daughter days!  Next, maybe pink hair streaks for both of us.