You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October, 2007.
I’ve mentioned Epossumondas a couple of times recently. I think it may be the all-time favorite book which we’ve ever checked out of the library. One of these days, I think we’re going to have to break down and actually purchase it ourselves. Remember Kinsley telling Dan that he didn’t have the sense he was born with? Yeah, it’s from Epossumondas.
Well, we finally captured the quote on video. It’s a hum-dinger, I think.
The girls and I had a fun day shopping at the local thrift shops on Friday.
Almost as soon as we were in the car, Kinsley said that she was hungry. As a treat, we stopped into the local greasy spoon to snack on cheese balls and ice water. Nothing has changed in that small town restaurant since I had eaten breakfasts there with my grandpa when I wasn’t much older than Kinsley. It has a “round table” and the same old men sit at that table, who were sitting there when I would go there 20 some years ago. There are a few faces missing now, and maybe a few new faces, but mostly it’s the same old guys, eating the same food served by the same waitress, just all looking a little older than they used to.
Kinsley was looking at the wall behind me and said “Look at that! I wonder how they got that goat on the ceiling?” I turned and saw what she was talking about - a mounted deer head.
Finishing up our snack, we headed out to the thrift shop next door, where we found the sweetest little retro toy iron. It even had a working plug (a thought which sends shivers of terror down my spine, actually). We purchased it for twenty five cents. Dan was able to remove the cord, and Kinsley absolutely loves it!
The video below is of her and her new iron. She thinks she’s “sewing”. The voice she’s doing, is how she says the gator in Epossumondas talks. She’s still a baby - she just talks a lot!
Appetizer
Name a great website you would recommend to others.
I hope it doesn’t have to be only one. Below is a list of sites I use and or visit often, minus the obvious like eBay and Amazon…
Martha Stewart
YouTube’s “You Choose ‘08“
Reddit - though it tends to lean towards the liberal, non-family oriented type.
Etsy
OnePlace
Homeschool Alumni
Sewing Mama
Sense and Sensibility
Okay, I’ll stop there…
Soup
On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 as highest), how often do you dream at night?
When I’m not pregnant, maybe a 2. If I’m pregnant, more like a 9. And then they are crazy, crazy dreams!
Salad
Did you have a pet as a child? If so, what kind and what was its name?
We had farm animals, mostly. But always dogs and cats around the house. We raised cows, sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens, and a pony. Pets we had (at various times) were Sheba (an Irish Setter), Princess and Avenger (two cats who lived up to their name) Bear (a Newfoundland), Gertrude (a barn cat who caught and drank milk shot straight from the goats udder), Klaundike (a Pomeranian), Heidi (a very fat lab), Arnold, some stinky wire-haired mut, a pot-bellied pig (it was dumped and never really loved), a miniature lo-eared rabbit (Pearl) Chad and Cheili (mini schnauzers), Emily (another cat), Magnus (a blue and gold Macaw), Torque (an English Bulldog), and Sam and Sadie (Great Pyrenees guard dogs). I think there were more, but that’s all I can remember right now.
Main Course
If you had the chance to star in a commercial, what would you choose to advertise?
I have no idea. Maybe a Bumbo? We love ours - Either that, or Crocs. They may be our favorite product ever.
Dessert
What is your favorite kind of hard candy?
I’m not a big candy fan. I like things that are sour. Or maybe cinnamon-y.
A good friend of mine recently told me about these amazing little tea flowers. I had no idea that such things even existed.
This is Frances, the Miniature dachshund. She made her debut appearance at Gentlewood Cottage last Saturday. We don’t know what we were thinking. We like her a lot. She’s a lot of trouble. The girls like her. She likes the girls. We don’t know what we were thinking.
My family recently got a puppy too. She is a Boston Terrier. Her name is Yivy.
Really, she’s mostly my sister’s dog.
Kinsley named Yivy after one of her favorite books, “Olivia“. It came out Yivy, and that name stuck. She also names Frances. Yup, you guessed it, she’s named after another of Kinsley’s favorite books, “Bedtime for Frances“
At first the puppies panicked Sophie.
A lot.
But she’s doing better now.
OK, so that was a fairly random photo. But we were outside walking Frances when it was taken.
Another random photo. But I like my girls. A lot.
Okay, a few more random photos.
My beautiful mom…
And my handsome dad with my deliciously squishy sweet daughter…
I was holding Kinsley on my lap two evenings ago, when she looked up at me and asked “Are you my mother?” I said “Yes, I am.” “Oh’, she said ‘that makes me happy!”
It makes me happy too.
Another thing which I recently discovered makes me happy are the paintings of Frederick Morgan (see above painting entitled ‘Motherly Love’).
“…she was in the sphere of Jove, amid light and music and festal pomp, brimmed with life and radiant health, jocund and clothed in shining garments… She saw from the windows of the train to the outlined beams of sunlight pouring over the stubble or burnished woods, she felt that they were like the notes of a trumpet. Her eyes rested on the rabbits and cows as they flitted by and she embraced them in heart with merry, holiday love. She delighted in the occasional speech of the one wizened old man who shared her compartment and saw, as never before, the beauty of his shrewd and sunny old mind, sweet as a nut and English as a chalk down. She reflected with surprise how long it was since music had played any part in her life, and was resolved to listen to many chorales by Bach on the gramophone that evening. Or else-perhaps-she would read a great many Shakespeare sonnets. She rejoiced also in her hunger and thirst and decided that she would make herself buttered toast for tea - a great deal of buttered toast. And she rejoiced in the consciousness of her own beauty; for she had the sensation - it may have been false in fact, but it had nothing to do with vanity - that it was growing and expanding like a magic flower with every minute that passed. In such a mood it was only natural, after the old man had got out at Cure Hardy, to stand up and look at herself in the mirror which confronted her on the wall of the compartment. Certainly, she was looking well: she was looking unusually well. And, once more, there was little vanity in this. For beauty was made for others. Her beauty belonged to the Director. It belonged to him so completely that he could even decide not to keep it for himself but to order that it be given to another, by an act of obedience lower, and therefore higher, more unconditional and therefore more delighting, than if he had demanded it for himself.”
This morning, Kinsley brought me the chair which Uncle Jared crafted and said,
“Did Uncle Jared make this for me?”
“Mmm-hmm”, I answered.
“Awww, Jared is a nice uncle.” She said.
Then she asked me to set it up for her. I did. It wasn’t satisfactory, so she and Sophie worked on it for a while.
v
Kinsley tried it out, and found that it needed more work. So they worked some more.
Finally, they were able to get things how they wanted them. Kinsley sat.
She said, “This is cozy!”
Sophie did her best dog imitation in celebration. The imitation is perfectly silent, but has lots of expression.
By the way, if are ever suspicious that you have had a couple of Hobbits working on something in your home, look for small, brightly colored rubbery plastic things left behind. It’s a dead give-away.
Yesterday, as Dan was pumping liquid gold into our gas tank, Kinsley was watching hime contemplatively. She announced to me, Sophie, or anyone who was interested in her thoughts on the topic, “Papa don’t have the sense he was born with!”
I promise, she did not learn this from me. Would I use such bad grammar? No, we can thank Epossumondas for that.
When Dan got back in the car, Kinsley asked, “Papa, you not have the sense you were born with?”
The following is the text of a petition to Dr. Dobson. Click here to add your name to the rapidly growing list of signatures.
Dear Dr. Dobson,
Recently you said you would vouch for a third party candidate if Rudy Giuliani got the Republican nomination. I find your moral and ideological purity encouraging, because I have felt that my fellow Christians in the past have let themselves be led around by the GOP to their own detriment, supporting candidates because of their words and never considering their deeds.
Unfortunately, a minority party candidate will only serve as a spoiler. Sending the vast swath of American Christians you influence into the fold of a minority party would split the Republican vote and all but guarantee a victory for the near-certain DNC nominee, Hillary Clinton. I don’t want to see my fellow Christians letting Rudy Giuliani scuttle our chances at a pro-life President. I think we can avoid this if we pick a pro-life Republican now who can win easily with our help, and that is Ron Paul. The minority parties already endorse him themselves. It is especially important to note that he has gotten the support of Michael Peroutka of the staunchly pure Christian conservative Constitution Party, as well as the endorsement of Michael Badnarik, the pro-choice Libertarian Party candidate who ran in 2004.
Dr. Ron Paul has a wide appeal among several demographics already, including Christians, libertarians, traditional Republicans, independents and the disenfranchised from both parties. He is an OB/GYN who has delivered thousands of babies and has proven himself (with legislation introduced in Congress and his consistent voting record) to be 100% pro-life.
Ron Paul also has many other traits Christians should find appealing, such as his 50-year marriage to one woman, his military record and his intense commitment to keeping the government out of the Church. He has the enthusiastic, accelerating support, he has a massive conversion rate when people hear about his Constitutional populist stances, and his positions have been morally, ethically, and logically unassailable for decades. He has a purity and a consistency we haven’t seen in Washington for a long, long time.
Dr. Dobson, it is an effective “nuclear option” to threaten to go with the minority parties if the GOP doesn’t cooperate with us, its biggest base. But those minority parties have already gone with Ron Paul. Why not join them now while we still have a chance at reclaiming the GOP, and ensure a pro-life victory in the Republican primaries? Why wait for the Republicans to abandon us?
Dr. Dobson, you can sway the votes of millions. You can either split the conservative vote later and lose to Hillary, or you can help us oust Giuliani now and win. We have three months until the primaries start and Ron Paul could use your help.
You know how people say that Ron Paul supporters are scrappy people? Well, we may be the prime example of this phenomenon. We may not have bottomless pockets as far as donating goes, but we’re doing what we can with what we have. We’ve been thrilled with the results.
All proceeds of this auction will be donated to the
RON PAUL 2008 campaign. Google or YouTube RON PAUL for more information.
Appetizer
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you look forward to your birthday?
Probably about a seven.
Soup
What is one word you don’t like the sound, spelling, or meaning of?
Wow, I guess I can’t think of any one particular just now…
Salad
Do you wear sunglasses when you’re outside? If so, what does your current pair look like?
Usually. My eyes tend to pretty sensitive to the bright sunlight. My current sunglasses are a pair that I love. They’re great big square-ish retro tortoise shell sunglasses. I had been looking at very similar pairs online for a while, and one evening when we were driving in a nearby town, I spotted this pair of sunglasses right in the middle of a busy four lane road. Dan stopped and let me run out into the road to get them. Did I mention that I was nine months pregnant? But gosh darn, I got the perfect pair of sunglasses!
Main Course
If you were to write a book, to whom would you dedicate it?
My husband. Without a doubt in the world.
Dessert
Name a beverage that you enjoy.
My main deviation from the old water standby is Dr. Pepper. But a good dry Norton wine is pretty hard to beat!
Kinsley brought Dan a few herbal allergy pills which escaped form his shirt pocket. She handed them to him, turned to walk out of the room, paused and said “Gosh! I could have swallowed those!”
She asked me this morning, “Mama, how do ghosts go?”
Uncle Jacob was describing a recent gigging trip which involved his best friend Ben T. Kinlsey interrupted and looked at Jacob and asked “Did Ben T miss me?”
We were riding in the car this morning, when Kinsley called from her car seat in the back, “Mama, don’t bother me for a while, OK?”
Dan was watching the girls one evening, when he decided to treat them to a few of his childhood toys. We had agreed that they were to be enjoyed with parental supervision, due to the near perfect condition of these vintage toys. When he got them out, Kinsley managed to break one right away. Dan banged the arm of the couch in frustration, and Kinsley said “Papa, you can’t spank the couch. EVER AGAIN.” as she was telling him this, she was gesturing with her arms out to her sides and her palms facing up. “NEVER AGAIN Papa!” Dan told her that she was right, and that it was naughty of Papa to loose his temper, and she said “Just never again, Papa. NEVER AGAIN.”
My dad’s father recently visited us from another state. Neither of the girls have ever met Gramps, in fact, I could count on one hand the times I’ve seen him. We were trying to explain this new grandfather to Kinsley, but it was difficult to explain to her two year old brain. Finally she says (all-knowingly) to my dad “Oh, Grandad! You got you a Papa?”
As we were preparing to leave to attend one of the family affairs related to Gramp’s visit, Kinsley asked me out of the blue, “Are we gonna see your cousins, Mama?”
