My Precioussssssss

This is how I feel about my new scanner:

My friend Melissa said if I don't stop scanning old pictures someone will have to stage an intervention and take it away from me.  Either that or my brother will find out I posted this picture of him...

 ...and he'll hunt me down.   Whatever.  I'm not worried.  I can totally take him.  Look how much taller I am than he is!

Last night I had a dream that the dog started communicating to us by way of Algebra problems.  Like, he'd write out an equation, then we'd have to figure out the answer in order to understand that he needed to go outside or was hungry or whatever.  I dreamt that the dog kept giving me Algebra to do, and I was frustrated because I had a stomachache and didn't feel like doing it.  Then I woke up and realized I actually did have a really bad stomachache and I spent the next hour in the bathroom.  I'm still kinda tired from the lost sleep.

In school we've been making crystals.  It's really Drew's science experiment for his unit on geology, but somehow it's pulled us all in.  Here's a crystal we made from Alum powder.

Cool, huh?  Now Zach found a recipe on YouTube for making rock candy with sugar, which is the same concept.  I think I'll let him try it this afternoon.

I'm off to the library.  Baylee put a book on hold and it's ready for pick-up.  It's the 6th in the Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls series, and can you believe the library doesn't even own it as an actual book?  The only way you can get it is on a MP3 player.  Anyway, I have to go there and pick up the player and headphones they let you borrow.  I hope the headphones are cleaned between uses.  Yuck.

I Still Love That Guy

Okay, this is the last "old pics" post I'll do for awhile.  Most likely.  Promise.

Here are some snapshots, mostly taken by Mike's dad, Wayne, of Mike and my wedding 17 and a half years ago.  I loved that dress.  I remember my mom took me to a fabric store and we sat down in the back with a bunch of wedding dress pattern books.  Within a half hour I found exactly what I wanted.  Then we walked around the store and picked out the fabric and lace, and my mom took everything to a dressmaker and had it made just for me.  I loved Mike's tux, too.  I wanted it to have tails like that.  I still think he was so handsome.  We were married in the chapel at our college.

An Old Letter

I came across this letter written to me by my sister when she was 8 years old.  That would make me 17 at the time.

 

It says:

Dear Sue,

I don't ever want you to step one foot in my room for any reason unless it's an emergency.  Atlease when I sleep in a bed I don't trough all the covers off from it like a maneache.   I have perfect controll over my bedroom just like you do.  I don't want you ever going in my room with out permissian.  If my door is close stay out of my room if it's open feel free to take a nap on my bed with your own covers and pillows.  If you really have to sleep in my bed upstairs don't go in my room.  And if you tear the covers off my bed I'll tear the covers off your bed.

Your x friend

Lindsey

LOL!  Awesome.  I'm so glad I kept this!

And here's a picture of Mike in kindergarten.  He's the kid standing right next to the teacher on the top row.  Wasn't he adorable?

Here he is with his sister Roberta wearing that same shirt, so he must be about the same age.

He  was a cutie.

Really Random

I'm home from church today because Baylee has been sick with a headache, sore throat thing.  She even had to miss her basketball game yesterday.  A couple nights ago she got into my bed (She was the only one there.  Mike and I hadn't gone to bed for the night yet.) and after awhile she started talking about how she was going to fall out and needed to move toward the middle.  It was weird.  So I moved her to a sleeping bag on the floor and she still felt like she was going to fall.  I think she was having a dizzy spell.  Poor thing.  Hopefully she'll feel better soon.

Zach's got 3 different obligations at church this morning:  He has to sell baked goods early in the morning as people walk in, then between Sunday school and church he has to sell tickets for a dinner theater thing.  Both of those are fund raisers for the Puerto Rico trip.  Then after church he has a meeting on how to write a good support letter.  Tonight he's got to be back there again for youth group.  I'm not a "you need to be at church every time the doors are open" type of person, but in Zach's case I think it's been good for him to be so involved lately.  He needs it.  He's building connections with people he may know the rest of his life, not to mention deepening his understanding of the Christian walk and hopefully his relationship with God.  That's important for a 15 year old.

This has nothing to do with anything, but sometimes I wish I had another baby.  It's a weird longing to have a newborn in my arms that hits me, not very often, but once in a great while.  I wonder if all women feel like that.

Finally, here's a few more pictures I scanned.  (Yes, I will get tired of this eventually.  Don't worry.)

Oh, so that's what was going on with my stomach in that other picture.  That suit is a one-piece!

I'm 10 here.  That's my cousin Scott.  This was the same day that Scott convinced me to try to drive his dad's (my uncle's) riding lawnmower, and I accidentally drove it into a tree and bent the front axle. 

That's my grandpa and me.  He looked pretty much exactly like that for as long as I knew him, and I knew him for a really long time. 

Fun with the New Scanner

I've been wanting a scanner for ages, and we finally got one!  We needed a new printer anyway, and Mike got a good deal on a duo printer/scanner.  Yay!  This is gonna be fun.  I've got so many old pictures that are slowly being ruined by age.  I'll enjoy going through them over time and saving their lives.  Here's a blast from the past:

Me as a baby.  "No, really.  Get me off the horse."

 Here I am at 2 years old.  I can't figure out what's going on with my stomach.

Me in 2nd grade.  I was so doggone cute!

Rocking the red plaid pants with the baby blue Star Trek t-shirt at 9 years old.  This was taken at my grandparents' farm.  I've got a bunch of barn kittens in my lap.

Haha!  We liked our shorts short and hiked-up back in the 80s.  This is me, my brother, and my sis.

Finally, I'll leave you with a picture taken during "The Awkward Stage,"which lasted at least 5 or 6 years.

Yeah.  That's painful.

Maybe I'll do Mike next!

The Poor Will Be With You Always

One thing you find all over Seattle that you almost never see in West Michigan is needy people on the street corner, or set up on the sidewalk (especially down by the waterfront), or sometimes just in a store parking lot, begging for money.  I don't know if the reason this is so uncommon in West Michigan is because the police have less tolerance, or if it's because the towns are smaller, or both.  I just know that when we moved here 4 years ago it was one of those things that took some getting used to.

I do help people under certain circumstances.  For instance, if someone approaches me in a parking lot and asks for change, I'll give them some, not because I'm worried for my safety, but because...well...I feel for the person.  I don't even really care what their story is.  I'm not so dumb as to think that every (or maybe even any) of their stories are totally true, but my feeling is if they're begging from strangers, they need help and I can give that to them to some extent.  It's not my job to follow that up and make sure they're spending my contribution on something I approve of.  (Sometimes the beggar is completely honest, though, about their plans.  I once saw a guy in downtown Seattle with a sign that said, "I plan to spend this money on beer and cigarettes.")   Often begging happens at busy intersections, where a line of cars is stopped at a traffic light.  Someone will be standing there with their sign and sometimes, if my car happens to be right next to them, I'll give them a dollar if I have one in my purse.  I have a friend who has a stash of brown lunch bags in her car, which she's filled with Bibles and granola bars.  When she finds herself in a beggar-at-the-intersection situation, she hands out a bag.  I've also heard of people picking up a meal at McDonald's and passing it through the window.

All that to say, the other day something happened which still irritates me to no end.  Baylee and I were in the parking lot of a Safeway, when a man approached asking if I had any change for him.  It was the old "I'm short on bus fare" story.  I've had that used on me a few times now.  Before I even had a chance to answer, though, Baylee dug in her pocket and pulled out the dollar she earned for doing odd jobs around the house.  It was money she was planning to spend on a little treat for herself in the store.  She handed it to the man with a smile, he said, "Thank you so much, honey," and we parted ways.  Immediately a woman about my age came up to Baylee and me and said, "You DO KNOW he was lying, don't you?!"  Oh my gosh, I was seething.  Imagine squashing a kid's generosity like that!  Ugh.  But I just smiled at her and kept walking.  When we got into the store I bent down to get on eye level with Baylee.  "You know what, Bay?" I quietly told her, "What you did was very kind.  You helped someone who needed help."

"Do you think he was lying, Mom?"

"I don't know.  Does it matter?"

"Nah."

And we finished shopping.

Hillbilly?

I told Baylee she looks like a hillbilly now that her tooth finally fell out, and she started doing this impression.  I'm not sure what it is exactly, but it made me laugh.

The Less Scenic Route

Zach's latest chapter in World Geography starts out by telling the student a story about a "wizened old man" who is searching "for an answer to a question that has puzzled [him] since [he] was as young as you are now."  The old man goes on to say, "I have hacked my way through the dense undergrowth of the Amazon rain forest and have paddled a canoe down the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers.  I have sailed to small, sun-bathed islands in the Caribbean and have journeyed to the tip of Cape Horn.  I have crossed burning deserts and have climbed the the frozen peaks of the Andes Mountains.  Although I have gathered many clues, the solution to the mystery continues to elude me."  Finally the old man gets around to his question, and it's this:  "Why is the land south of the United States called Latin America?"  I stopped reading and looked at Zach, waiting for his answer.

Without missing a beat he said, "Hasn't he ever heard of Google?"

Hitting the Highlights

• We did school today, even though the whole city was on mid-winter break.
• We had no internet all day, because of a bad modem.  Mike just fixed it a little while ago.  (Yay!  Thanks, honey!)
•   It snowed!

• Zach came home from his trip to the mountains in one piece yesterday, and he had a great time.  It even ended up snowing up there, so they were able to go sledding.
• I learned the chorus of "Thy Word" in sign language, for the sole purpose of teaching it to my Pioneer Girls so they can earn their "signing" badge.  We'll have to do it in front of the whole club, which I have a feeling is going to be a little bit like this:

 

• Today I took a video of Drew doing some basketball tricks.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

• And here's a miscellaneous picture from tonight.

 studying

*grin*

Black Ice and Carbon Dioxide

I went to Baylee's basketball game this morning and found out that our friend and youth pastor, Kevin, broke his arm yesterday trying to hitch up the trailer to the church van.  He slipped on black ice in the church parking lot, fell, and the hitch came down on him (or something like that).  Needless to say, he didn't go on the 4-day youth outing up in the mountains.  He went to the ER instead.  It's sort of weird, because Candace, his wife, fell in that exact same spot in the parking lot and broke her wrist a couple years ago.  Kevin is in good spirits, though.  In fact, we got together with them to play Cranium tonight, and Kevin and Mike won, so Kevin couldn't have been TOO drugged up.

And on a completely unrelated note, after less than a week it's obvious that the flower in the carbon dioxide environment is doing significantly better than the flower in the open air.  Did you predict that's what would happen?

 open air plant

carbon dioxide plant

For the Record I'm Not a Fan...

...and I don't know any of his other songs.  That said...

I got into a conversation with a pastor about the powerful song with the driving beat that's used (but without words) in that new Chrysler commercial. He said on his blog that he likes the music in the commercial, so I emailed him and told him, because of course he didn't know, how could he and why would he, being a pastor (and elderly in his 60s), that the actual song is sung by Eminem and it's called "Lose Yourself."  I mentioned that it's a biographical song about Eminem's desperation to break into the music business when he first started out.  I even gave it extra thought later and came to the conclusion that the reason Chrysler used it is because, first of all, Eminem comes from Detroit and at one point in his life he worked in the automotive industry, but more importantly I think Chrysler wants to make the same point you find in the words of "Lose Yourself."  That is, this may be its one chance for success, the other options are dire, and so opportunity can't be allowed to slip away.

Anyway, so I was talking to this pastor about it, but the whole time I was uncomfortable because I know the song has some bad language.  When Mike got home from work I told him about the conversation.  "Can you believe," I said, "that I admitted to knowing and sorta liking that song?  I even shared a link to a YouTube video of it, with a warning about the language, of course.  Still, I'm kinda kicking myself."

"Why didn't you just link to the clean version?"

"What?  What clean version?"

"There's a clean version."

"There's a clean version???"

Guess what.  There's a clean version.

[good spot for a bad word]

Let's See...Since Last We Spoke

I made this from here!

 
I'll be honest:  Mine didn't look like that.  But in my defense that cake was flippin' hard.  I've made pumpkin rolls before, which is the same concept, but somehow past experience didn't help much.  I think it's because this one is more of a delicate sponge cake and it rips easily.  It didn't matter, though.  It was just for the family and we all enjoyed it.

Yesterday I videoed Drew playing a couple of the songs he's been learning lately. These are done by finger picking, which is more difficult than strumming.  I think he's doing well!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Baylee learned long division!

Zach gets to go to something called the Winter Blast with the youth group this weekend.  He leaves Friday about 5pm and won't be home until Sunday evening.  It'll be up in the mountains and will include sledding if there's enough snow.  I'm sure he'll have a ton of fun.

Drew's basketball team is undefeated at this point, with only two games left.  Mike and I both really like his coach, but I've gotten an earful from a couple different people on his methods.  I guess there are some who feel he's a little intense...sort of the "Tiger Mother" of church rec basketball.  He yells uncomplimentary stuff out to the kids on the court (They say, anyway.  I've never seen it.) and sometimes he pulls (not literally) players onto the bench to talk with them when they make a dumb mistake. (That one I have seen, as Drew's been pulled once or twice.  I don't have a problem with it.)  Whatever he's doing it seems to be working, not to mention Drew likes him a lot.

Baylee got really excited about the idea of having one of these in our yard, based on something she read in her science book for school.

(pic from here)

Then she read a little farther, found out it smells like a rotting corpse, and changed her mind.

Valentine's Day

I'm not sure why, except maybe just that it's Monday, but homeschooling today was like trying to herd cats.  We did get a few things accomplished, though, including this:

 

Baylee got to do an experiment involving plants.  We had two pretty much identical plants, and we made little greenhouses for them inside 2-liter bottle halves.  The bottoms of the bottle halves were taped down on plates, then the plates were filled with water so that no air was (or will be) allowed in.  The first bottle was left uncapped, though, so that air can get in from the top.  The second bottle was filled with carbon dioxide (We made it with vinegar and baking soda, and then poured the invisible gas down the top through a funnel.  I'm taking it on faith that it actually worked.) and then the cap was put on.  Baylee is supposed to watch the two plants to see what happens to each of the them over the next week or so.

For Valetine's Day we went as a family to see Tron in 3D.  It was more fun for the boys.  To me it was a lot of riding around on motorcycles in the dark, while speaking in geeky computer language.  But the popcorn was good!

Weekend

I had a really good time at the Pioneer Girls' overnight last night...largely because I didn't have to spend the whole night.  They let me go home after the girls were all situated in their sleeping bags at about 10:30, because I had to be back at church the next morning to work in the basketball concessions stand.  During the time I was there I helped supervise supper, a swimming outing, and a movie, but the best part by far was that in between and around those events I got to know the other women leaders a little bit better.  It was so nice to sit back and chat with them!  It makes me feel lucky to go to that church.

Zach and I spent 7 1/2 hours today selling candy, pop, popcorn, and hotdogs to people at all the basketball games. The highlight was when I found this obsolete intercom system in the kitchen.  I took a couple pictures with my cell phone...thus the terrible quality...but do you see the little yellow sign next to the button?

Those crazy Christians.

Baylee, Drew, and I saw a real, live owl tonight.  It was perched up in the rafters of the roof structure over the gas pumps at the local Valero.   (Wow, that may be the most prepositional phrases I've ever used in a row.  I feel like I should get a prize.)  At first I thought maybe it was a statue, but then its head swiveled.  It was so cool...and shockingly large.

And that's all I've got.  I'm really tired.

Sick Day

We've got a bit of sickness in the house and have had for a couple days now.  Waking up to find a snotty, coughing kid again today was the straw that broke the camel's back, and I started jettisoning things.  I called Pioneer Girls and canceled.  I called the other mom in the weekly kid exchange and canceled.  Baylee called the people she does the "mother's helper" job for and canceled.  And then we hung out at home and did school and I made a pot roast and somehow we stayed afloat (ish). 

Zach finally finished Swiss Family Robinson.  He said it was the worst, most boring book he's ever read.  Part of me was like, "But the ostriches!  The treehouse! The...ostriches!"  I guess he's allowed to not like it, though.  For all I know in this case the movie really is better than the book. 

Drew's lizard started shedding today.  Little pieces of skin were curling off around its eyes first, which was unsettling, then after awhile a large piece was hanging off its head.  Is it lame that I had to Google to find out if that's normal?  (It is normal.  All lizards shed.  Think snakes.)

There's a Christian woman named Anjelah Johnson who does stand-up comedy.  One of the things she does is a character called Bon Qui Qui, and ever since I saw her do it on YouTube last week I've had Bon Qui Qui quotes floating through my mind at random times.  "Sacurrity!"

Family Life

I put this on Facebook, but I'll put it here, too.  Baylee's gerbil, Ginger, started doing the weirdest thing today.  This is the gerbil that has spent the last two years sitting around like a lump (except for that one time when she took out was a suspect in the death of Cinnamon), but now suddenly she's an acrobat!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

In other news, Baylee helped me peel potatoes for supper.  She did a good job.

And that's about it.

You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up

Am I Being Punked?
Today on Facebook someone was talking about how her elementary school-aged child has encephalitis, but that everything is okay and the doctor just said to keep an eye on him.  Only she got mixed up and for the longest time she was calling it "syphilis."  And the people who responded were like, "Oh my.  That sounds serious."

Ugh
Early on Saturday morning I was sitting on the couch in the living room, when suddenly I realized I wasn't alone.  There was an earthworm crawling across the middle of the carpet.  I mean, what?!  How in the world was there a worm in our house???  Frankly, it was terrifying.

Good Movie

I watched a movie recently that I can't stop thinking about.  It's a documentary called A State of Mind, about two little girls who are gymnasts in North Korea.  It was done by people from the BBC who were allowed into the country and given almost unlimited access to these girls' lives for several months.  I hardly know how to begin talking about it, except to say I found it shocking.  Pretty much every single thing North Koreans do centers around their intense devotion to their leader and their extreme hatred of America.  For instance, those who even have televisions only get a few channels, which only broadcast for about five hours a day, and every channel is some form of very blatant government propaganda. And yet despite it all, or maybe even out of it all, comes beauty and incredible skill in the form of gymnastics.  It's just...it's eye opening.  I recommend it. 

Geek Alert

I was messing around online and I discovered this fun, free application called Poladroid.  It makes your digital pictures look like they were taken with a polaroid camera.  That is, they've got that retro, faded tint.  Very fun!  And Artsy!

Relief!

Zach and I got up at the crack of dawn this morning so he could be at that game to do the halftime devo.  I was SO nervous.  I know for an absolute fact I was more nervous than he was.   But he went out there and did a great job!  He took my advice to slow down a little and inject more emotion, and he filled in the conclusion a bit, then he did a very nice prayer at the end.  I'm so incredibly proud of that kid.

In other fun news, since I was already up and ready for the day I went to the next basketball game on the docket, which was Baylee's game.  During every halftime at all these games they choose a person from the audience to shoot a basket from half court.  You get two tries, and if you make it you get a prize.   They always choose a person based on a question like, "Who here has a birthday in February?"  The parents in the crowd who've been around the block a few times know to just keep their mouths shut and never admit anything, because it's a little embarrassing to go out there in front of everyone and totally miss by a long shot.  (Needless to say, hardly anyone makes the basket.)  So when it was asked today, "Who here has ever read through the entire Bible?" I didn't raise my hand.  In fact, I turned to my friend who was sitting next to me and said, "There's no way I'm admitting that.  Not a chance.  I suck at making those baskets.  Last time I did it it fell short by..."  Midway through my little speech, though, the guy in charge said, "Sue!  I see you talking!  That must mean you wanna give it a try!  You just volunteered yourself!"  I was like, "What?!  I said I DON'T want to do it!"  But he insisted and I had to be a good sport, so I went out there. I took the ball and sort of lobbed it in the right direction, granny style of course, and it went in!  First try and it was all net!  Everyone cheered and laughed, and I won a $25 gift card to Costco.  

Public Speaking

Tomorrow, early, Zach is giving the halftime devotion at the first church league basketball game of the day.  It's part of his training for the Puerto Rico mission trip.  All the kids who are going have to choose one of the basketball games, and then get up in front of about 50 players, coaches, and parents and talk for 2 or 3 minutes on whatever devotional-type topic they want.

This week Zach and I sat down and brainstormed what he wanted to say.  My idea was to basically just survive it by finding something in a book, sort of halfway memorizing it, and then regurgitating.  (Of course, credit would be given to the real author.)  Zach had higher standards than me, though.  He told me he wanted to use something from his own life.  After thinking about it awhile, he decided to talk about his experience growing up in the middle of the ministry Mike and I were a part of for many years.  Shockingly, he let me video him practicing.  Here's what he plans to say:

Not in My Job Description

Today Baylee learned about using the five senses to improve descriptive writing.  She studied how this is done in Charlotte's Web when the characters are at a county fair, then she had to come up with some sensory descriptions of her own.  She described a busy street corner, a parade, and our backyard.

Here's what she said about our backyard:

(And, Mike, you should read this as a hint.)

Hear:  wind

See:  trees

Smell:  dog poop

Unbounded

The other day I posted a YouTube video that was kind of about completos.  Sort of.  At least, that was the best part of the whole thing.  (Like when that guy keeps saying, "But!"  That's funny stuff, people.)  Anyway, Drew saw the video and decided his life was not completo without completos.  He asked and asked and ASKED, and finally tonight we had them for supper.

A completo is as follows:

A hotdog in a bun, covered with mashed avocado, diced tomatoes, pickle relish, sauerkraut, and a huge smear of mayonnaise.  I'm totally not kidding.  It's really big in Chile, South America.

Drew was very happy.

The things we do for love are unbounded.

Okay, not that unbounded.  I gave most of mine to Gibbs.