Sunday, May 14, 2006

computer

is getting fixed and had to be shipped off. however, we were able to get a desktop for $5 at a garage sale over the weekend, so all's good. matt has had to spend a long time running stuff to get rid of viruses and massive amounts of spyware. first time i tried to check my email, i think there were about 15 popups in the couple minutes i was on. it was pretty cool though, cause we got the computer, monitor, mouse, keyboard all for $5 and it works great (once matt got the superfluous stuff off). at the next garage sale they had the same type of computer for $85, plus the monitor for another $25.

anyway...probably won't be any updates for a while because the only way i was able to update so often before was because i could have the laptop and type while watching autumn where she happened to be. too much stuff in the office for her to get into, so updates will probably be minimal over the next few weeks.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

new phone and number

just fyi. got a new phone and phone number so if i forgot to email you the new one, let me know.

excuse

for those of you (jessica :-p), who are about to complain about not having any pictures of autumn, there is a reason. she's had a constantly runny nose for the last week and her eyes have been red, so i haven't been taking pictures because she looks kind of gross no matter how much i wipe her nose and wash her face. she's feeling better now (started sleeping again), but she looks yucky most of the time.

on a positive note, she has learned to come when you call her. she looks up, sees you calling, gives you a huge grin and comes crawling forward as fast as she can all the while making very excited noises. she has a very funny crawl. one hand and then the other, one knee forward and then she drags the other leg along behind her. she always looks like she's moving sideways, but she actually manages to move forward. if you watch her crawl it makes you laugh. especially because she's always so excited about it. and then when she gets to you and you swing her up into your arms, she wraps her arms around your neck and squeezes hard while she buries her face in your neck giggling. she leaves her head there for a second while hugging you, then she pulls back and gives you a huge grin. it's very sweet (though it can be messy with a runny nose ;-)).

she also thinks it's absolutely hysterical to crawl up behind me when i'm washing dishes and grab the back of my leg and bang her head against it.

day off

Yesterday Matt was off and we ran errands pretty much all day. The library to get a new card and browse through the books until Autumn was just too happy and squealing and we had to get her out of there. Post office to mail an old cell phone to my parents. Bank to change a bunch of account information. Wal-Mart. Grocery shopping. Garden center. Matt's parent's to pick up some things. It was very busy.

But it was actually very fun. Autumn was happy and I was happy since Matt was off. :-) Also, I bought some flowers to plant. As much as I love having a garden full of veggies, and as pretty as they can be...there's still something so much nicer about actually having flowers.

I'm being stupidly optimistic and planting a bunch out in the bed I put in under the magnolia tree in the front yard. Every time I've tried to plant anything there the squirrels dig it up. But I'm trying yet again. I don't know what's wrong with me--it's really stupid.

I've also been putting together a couple of container arrangements. We'll see if they end up working. I pulled up some ivy from our yard for something to cascade from the pots and I'm not sure if it's going to stay alive...we'll see. I also got some hummingbird-attracting flowers to put in under the big window in the living room. We have a hummingbird feeder out there and it was really fun to watch them out there all last summer (when I was so sick I spent all day every day lying on the couch reading, watching tv, and watching the hummingbirds).

East of Eden

Since I don't have much time for reading, this one has taken me a couple weeks to get through. I really enjoyed the book (thanks to ben's mom for the recommendation :-)). And I actually didn't think it was depressing, just true. However, it's one of those books that really made me want more...as in digging up some good literary criticism and slowly going over it again. Picking at it to see if there's a way of getting inside.

It's made me realize (again) just how much I miss the resources we had at PHC. Trying to find some criticism on it through our library that isn't in the reference section (I don't much like reading in the library) has been an adventure. I finally got a biography and placed requests for a couple of interlibrary loans. But I was really longing to get on J-stor and print things out to my heart's content, like we could in school.

Anyway...other than the fact that I really enjoyed it, I'm not quite sure what to think of EofE. There are several parts I want to re-read and think about. It's a book that I really wished I owned instead of getting it from the library, because I guarantee that if I owned it it would be packed full of notes and underlines. As it is, I just had to use those little sticky arrows to mark pages that need re-reading and this means I miss a lot of things and it makes it very hard to hold onto your thoughts about certain passages. At least for me--but then, I have a hard time remembering anything unless I write it down. :-)

There was one short chapter in particular that really caught my attention because it seemed to be saying something very familiar. I think something from C.S. Lewis I read recently--I need to look that up.

I guess if I were to summarize what I'm thinking about EofE, I would say that I was amazed by how much universal truth it contained--hard ugly truths, truths of an incredible sharp beauty, the truth of the ever-unfolding story of mankind's flawed generations.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

poor baby

Autumn is sick. She's had a cold for the last couple days and it's developing into a cough, too. She's supposed to go to the doctor tomorrow to get shots, but I think I'm going to call and cancel since she's already sick. She's restless and not sleeping well at all. Poor girl. :-(

...garden pics...

Spinach

Squash

Beans

Eggplant and Tomatoes

The garden really does look good this year. These pictures don't do it justice 'cause there's no way of getting the whole thing in. Also, they make it look all out of proportion and like the plants are on top of each other. In reality, it actually looks very orderly. How that happened, I'll never know. ;-)

More pictures from our yard...




Mums






All of my mums from last fall have come back. Both the ones I planted and the potted ones. Most are about to bloom, this one has just started. It just finished raining.

One reason to live down here...


Spring is so much earlier. I still don't like the hot summer and I even kinda miss the cold winters. But I was talking to my family and they still can't plant anything yet. On the other hand we have a lot of things ready to eat already. The rain the last few days has sent everything into overdrive. A lot of our lettuce is going to seed (I already have a third batch planted and just about ready to eat though). Today I was working on the tomatoes and noticed that we actually have some beans about ready too. :-) BTW, that is a quarter in the picture, something is off with the lighting and it made it look the wrong color.

Friday, May 05, 2006

test

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.

Emergent/Postmodern


71%

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan


71%

Fundamentalist


68%

Neo orthodox


57%

Classical Liberal


50%

Reformed Evangelical


50%

Modern Liberal


32%

Roman Catholic


29%

Charismatic/Pentecostal


14%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

:-)

I'm a lot happier after babysitting today. I only charged $3.50 an hour, but let me tell you, after over a year of not making any money whatsoever, that $20 made me feel great. :-)

bye-bye

Autumn actually said something intelligible for the first time today. She now waves and says "bu-ba" when someone tells her bye-bye.

So Grateful...

...that Autumn is so good at playing independently (all day) and yet she still likes to cuddle.

I'm babysitting for a newborn today. (Well, I guess he still qualifies as a newborn--I think he's about 3 1/2 weeks old?) It's kind of a trial run to see if I want to start doing it a couple days a week, probably starting next month. It's funny just how incredibly tiny and skinny he is. Autumn was never this small. I think he's still about 2 1/2 pounds lighter now than she was when she was born. So far it really hasn't been too bad.

Autumn just went down for an early nap. Rough night again last night for her--still not sure what the matter is. Rougher night for me--never was able to get to sleep. This is all too common over the last few months. So I'm tired now.

I'm making cinnamon rolls. I haven't made them in ages. Not since living at home and a long time ago even then. But Matt has a day off and the kitchen was really clean--which always inspires me to cook and make a mess of it. :-) They've been taking forever, but they smell really good right now since they're finally in the oven. I wanted to put in walnuts or pecans, but I didn't have any so some of them have almonds and some are plain.

Gotta run.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Yawn...

deparately need coffee. to prove it, i just tried to start some without adding any grounds. matt left for work at 7:20. i need to make cards today. a lot of them. 6 mother's day cards. 4 or 5 birthday ones i can't remember. some more thank yous and a couple other ones. this wouldn't actually take too long if i was content to use similar designs for them, but i get bored if i do more than one the same. sometimes i can force myself to do a set, but it's very hard. i like them all different. autumn is very happy. she has a ring from a canning jar and she's been crawling around on the floor with it every once and a while stopping and sitting up and putting the ring around her foot. she thinks it is very amusing.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Waiting...

still for Matt to get home. I don't really like it when he works the evening shifts. (Neither does he.) I always wish we had a dog (a big one) to keep me company and keep me from getting nervous when he's working late. Yeah, the nerves are pretty dumb cause we really don't live in that bad a neighborhood, but they're there just the same. They don't want to listen to reason.

Anywho...the good news is--we may actually get a dog. Well, a puppy anyway. :-) I've said from the beginning that I don't want one unless I can get a purebred female registered golden retriever...preferably a dark one...and for free. Believe it or not all of that may actually work out.

My parents just bred their golden retriever, so there may be some pups showing up in a couple months, and, assuming that there are more than three and that there is a female in the litter--it looks like we'll get one. Yay! (Though I probably won't be saying that when it's chewing up everything, digging holes, and generally behaving like a puppy.)

Pictures





According to someone the past three posts were not enough pictures. So I'm trying to find a few more. Here are some...

Sippy cup


Investigation stage.

1st time swimming...




She liked it! :-)

Pics





Blogger hasn't been working for me the last couple of days, so I haven't been able to get any pictures up. Anyway...here you go (Jessica ;-))...these are from Mossy Creek.
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