Poor sickie

Our son is sick. He has a sore throat and fever so I'm going to bed with him to read.

I had a great time at dance tonight. The teacher says she wants to run a deal where you take three classes and get one free. That would be so affordable. I want to sign up for the hip-hop class on Wednesday nights if I can. When I went in on Wednesday night to observe the lyrical class I saw the other class's hip hop routine and it was really good. I'd love to learn it. I told my teacher we'll be leaving after Easter and she said that was too bad because she was going to ask me to perform in their yearly show in May at the civic center. Drats! I guess that's a downside to traveling. Maybe next year we should stay till May.

Finally got around to ordering some dancewear. I've been wearing the same leotard all the time. Twenty years ago I'd have died a thousand deaths before I'd wear the exact same outfit to every class. I don't care now! Well, I care a little. I hope the stuff I ordered will fit well. Mail ordering dancewear isn't ideal.

He did awful on his history test. I don't know if it may have been because he was coming down with something. Anyway, I'm doing the unit over with him and I'm doing it differently this time. He did well on the multiple choice but the writing of four short paragraphs killed his grade.

Ladies group hair compliments

It went well. I arrived 15 minutes late though. Latebird. But they were just starting, so I didn't miss a thing.

And after prayer I got two compliments on my hair which I wore down. The 18-year-old said she didn't know it was so long and pretty, and a senior lady said it was long and pretty. Usually I hear, "It's long." And then I wonder what should I say? Should I say thank-you? Since I'm not sure, I nod and smile. Oh yes, and my husband complimented my hair at dinner time. He said I should never, ever dye it. He said it would be a travesty or something. Haha! And he said he liked my highlights on each side. When I tuck my hair behind my ears the long part in front of my ears is all grey, er, silver, against the dark brown. He likes how it stands out. He calls my grey 'natural highlights.' Maybe I ought to wear it down more often.

Harpgal gave me a classic congrats tonight. That's kinda cool. Didn't think she ever noticed me. She's one of the long hair reigning queens, so yeah, very cool. She's blonde too. I had a blonde wig once. Husband came home and I'm all smiling and the only thing he said was a firm, "No, Liliana." Then my son saw me, our older one. He was more vociferous. NO, MOM! NO! I was so bummed. But you gotta go with the flow. Be flexible. Some of us just don't get to be blonde. I got to be blonde for about two minutes.

I went back to my trusty Giovanni shampoo and condish. I tried Nature's Gate, Garnier Fructis, and V05 just to break out of the doldrums, and they each made my ears itchy.

Tomorrow son is taking a history assessment over the first three colonies: Jamestown, Virginia; Plymouth, Massachusetts; Massachusetts Bay, Massachusetts. I dearly hope he does well. It's such an interesting period of history. The Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England. The Separatists wanted to separate from the church. The Puritans went to Massachusetts and were better educated and of a higher class than the Pilgrims who preceded them. Both were known for being very industrious. Ben Franklin came from Puritan stock. Slavery began in Virginia but it didn't start out as the slavery it became. The first Blacks were brought by a Dutch ship as indentured servants. Did you ever wonder how the word indentured came about? Me too. Back then, about 1650 or so, the master and the servant signed a contract. The contract was then ripped into two pieces - the servant got one half, the master the other. Thus, the indentions on the paper became the word indentured servant!

The Puritans valued education. They started the first university, Harvard University. They passed a law that said any village with 50 persons must hire a school teacher and the whole community must together pay her salary. It was the seed of public education in America. Wow! That's not what my home-school group told me about the beginning of public school in the United States. I could give them an earful now.

The wind is howlin'

It's windy tonight. I like the wind at night. It puts me so sleep like raindrops do. It was windy last night too. At Cruces today, it was a very crispy 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

I got some new undies, Giovanni, one pair of hipster Levis, and a cute pair of black Converse tennis shoes. Chucks they call them. I always fancied a red pair of high tops but I got black low tops for the dancey aerobic class. I wanted a pattern to sew something like a summer dress or a top and my husband even stayed in the truck and read a book while I was in Jo-Anns shopping, but it was not to be. The shrug pattern I wanted they were out of, and for the other pattern I just couldn't find fabric I loved. So I left. Some other time...

I didn't get sick so that's good. I thought I was coming down with something because why was I so tired. I dunno. I'm fine now!

Sounds like Guiliani may have to drop out of the primaries for lack of money. I'll be disappointed. McCain, I like him but I worry about how he authored that bill with Kennedy to make all illegal immigrants American citizens. Sure, he backed off when he realized how unpopular it was and I respect that. I like a man who can admit he was wrong and go a different way based on what the people want; but as president he could change his mind. I have the utmost respect for him as a war hero. Obama, I like him. I have to say I do like him. Hilary, I'd never vote for her anyway, so she can cackle all she wants. I was so set on Guiliani that I don't know diddley about the other Republican candidates. November is too far away still. But here's an article about Ted's recent rant (well deserved) on Bill and Hilary.

Obama: Resident of the new Camelot at politico.com

Week-end done

I feel really tired for some reason. Hope I feel fine tomorrow.

I wanted to write to Morticia. Remember her? I liked her a lot. So where is she? How come I don't see any posts from her anymore? Is she okay? She used to do the pop-in at the Loom once in awhile but it's been years. I couldn't find any posts by her at TLHC. I figured she could tell me if Dr. Martens are comfy. I picture her wearing them. I don't know if she ever mentioned them or even if she wears them actually, but she's imprinted in my mind wearing Doc Marten boots. I tried to log on to TLHC to search for her journal, but for some reason my password disappears as soon as I click Log In. That's weird. Then it tells me I've used an invalid username or password and I've used 4 out of 5 login attempts. Hopefully, they'll contact me and tell me how to fix it.

Tonight I'm going to bed early. I'm so tired but I didn't do anything except church, chicken soup, and a nap. I didn't even go to evening church. Yeah, pretty strenuous day all right.

Help me! I'm falling!

Oh my gosh. I'm looking at casual boots at Zappos. Do I need Doc Martens? No. Yes. No. Yes. No.

Sigh.

I've been planning on buying new boots. My current every day boots are tired out and my husband wants me to get new ones. But I want to buy a pair I can wear for the rest of my life. A pair, that I can die in. I have to buy very carefully.

Very.

Cautiously.

Sewing machine repaired

I got my machine back a week ago and finally got round to sewing our son's Christmas blanket today. I had to re-cut it as the border was not looking right, then I pinned the satin binding to it, then I sewed it. I have not enough room to lay it out anywhere in here to cut it, so I took it outside and laid it on our front yard which is blue Astro Turf. It turned out nicely and he likes it. A lot. Yay! I made him a card to go with it. My old machine is sewing like a dream now. I should have gotten it repaired way before now. All the stitches are uniform and the fabric goes through the feed so smoothly, and there's no clattering sound. I'm so happy with it. It's practically like having a new machine. Except our son went to a friend's house today and said the ten year old girl has a nicer machine than mine! Heh. I'm sure she does. They make them so nice now. Perhaps, next year a new Bernini for me. I have to figure out how badly I want one first. Mine works pretty well for what I do.

So Monday I'm going with husband to Cruces. I need stuff! I need Giovanni, and new undergarments, and I want to buy a pattern and fabric to sew something.

The time just sped by since Wednesday night. I guess I was tired and sleepy Thursday and Friday nights. I went to bed kind of early (for me).

Thursday at ballet I was fitted for toe shoes. Oh la la! It was fun, but they weren't quite a perfect fit so I didn't buy them. They feel really weird. The sole doesn't cover all of the bottom of your foot and so it feels uncomfortable. I presume you get used to it. And they have to fit just right otherwise when you go en pointe you'll have loose shoe behind your heel. The front of the shoe is hard and they call it the box, or the toe box. I'm not sure which. And it is uncomfortable too but it molds and stretches to your foot with time. They fit me just about 1/4 inch too big when I went en pointe. They're so pretty. Dancers wear a gel insert that fits over the toes and that's how they're able to get on their toes without pain. Whenever I get my stuff I'll totally take pictures of it.

The jazz class I signed up for is really more of a dancey aerobics class. That's cool though. I had a blast. There were three of us and when we did the step in perfect timing together it looked kinda neat. Friday my waist was sore and that can only be a good thing. Whittle that waist! I wish.

My belly dance teacher is starting classes in February. Yippee! She emailed me and said she wants me to dance with her in El Paso on March 1st. I was going to go with her once (in January) but I chickened out. El Paso's all big and everything. I told her I was worried about going so far. She does it all the time though and told me not to be a scaredy-cat. I told her "RAWR," I'm not a scaredy-cat. But we both know I am. Ha! My husband said this time he'll take me if I want him to. That way, if I want to go home, I can.

Did I say that I'm going to Ladies Prayer Group on Tuesdays? I am. And they're starting a new book called "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World." It's supposed to be about not being too busy for God. I guess Jesus was visiting the two of them and Martha was getting frazzled in the kitchen getting a meal ready, and Mary was sitting at Jesus' feet listening to Him and Martha was fit to be tied trying to get everything done till finally she said, "Lord, will you tell Mary to give me a hand?" and Jesus told Martha to chill. Well, it doesn't read exactly like that, but that's it in a nutshell. I'm not very Martha though as I don't cook much, and don't do much housekeeping, so I hope there will be something applicable to my life.

A day

We're supposed to get up at 6:30am to homeschool so we can get it done early. Son has an email friend who starts this early so he wants to try it now. (Rolling my eyes here.) We'll see.

I'm such a ditz. Husband told me to light the oven and put in the potatoes. I have such a terrible problem with forgetting to turn the temperature up to the right temp. I turn the oven on but forget to put it at my temperature. Duh. I was so embarrassed. I did it tonight. I haven't done it for awhile. He was a sweetheart and didn't get mad at me. I really wanted to bang my head against the wall.

I smell good though. And I smell so good that I look pretty too. I shouldn't say that about myself. Pretty is in the eye of the beholder. I look okay, I feel very pretty. I have attitude! (Although I was fully deflated after I realized the potatoes cooked at 170 degrees instead of 350 for an hour.)

MLK Day

I talked about his life as a preacher, and where he was when he gave the famous "I Have a Dream" speech; where he was standing when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee; and that he planned to lead a protest march for equal wages and equal rights for sanitation workers the evening he was shot. My son brought up Rosa Parks, whom he learned about last year, and so we talked about the bus strike. I told him Rosa Parks was the spark and Martin Luther King, Jr., went to lead that protest too.

I explained the definition of activist and wrote it on the chalkboard.

I explained the definition of philanderer and wrote it on the chalkboard.

Then we discussed that MLK was a political and social activist and he was a philanderer. He hurt his wife and children deeply and caused them shame and anguish and pain. But he was also an agent of change. He was charismatic, a leader, a motivational speaker, a believer in God. He was a plagiarist, a womanizer, a sinner. He was all of these. The question was, is, did the bad he did as a husband negate the good he did as an American?

I taught that people aren't perfect. My goal is to teach him to exercise discernment. I don't want him to blindly place people on a pedestal. Life is more complex than that. My objectives include teaching him about famous people and their accomplishments and imperfections. I want to develop a critical thinker.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, Washington, D.C., August 28th, 1963 at YouTube, 4 min. and 43 seconds.

Sunday

I didn't get up all that early. When I did get up I heard my son say in the living room, "I better get in the shower now." Duh. So I wore my hair in a sock bun today. Now I have lots of avocado oil in it, braided it, and I'll wash it tomorrow. For conditioner, I used none last week and this week I'm going to use a teeny, tiny little drop mixed with a cup of water to see how it works.

Worked out for two hours while my husband went to the bar to watch the game. I say 'bar' but really it's an inn and everyone's like over 65 years old except the bartender. You know it gets wild there. Yeah, hold onto your hat.

Today I tried a little beeswax on the edge of my scimitar. It stuck too much to my hair. I thought it was going to pull my hair out! Definitely it was a bad idea. Perhaps I may have been less than bright because I do use the beeswax for epilation, but I don't want to epilate the top of my head for goodness sakes. Sometimes I think I'm thinking, but I'm not. Friday I tried hot glue. When it cooled it slipped right off the edge of the scimitar like butter. Word up, hot glue doesn't stick to stainless steel. I didn't know that, but I do now. All I have left to try is sticky hair spray. I despise hair spray. Never have found one I like.

Morning church and evening church were good. I've been waking up each morning with church songs in my head. I kinda like that. But, yesterday morning I woke with ugly faces from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie we watched Friday night instead of a song. Blech. I'm very impressionable.

I guess I don't have any deep thoughts tonight.

Wait. I might have one. God is always with us and He knows our hearts. He knows my heart and he's known that I've wanted a fragrance of my own, an everyday pretty fragrance that is Liliana, for the longest time. I don't pray about it, but my heart has been desirous. I just haven't been able to find one. I try a spritz from the tester bottles at the mall whenever I can and they're always too loud and strong. I've tried a few perfume oils and essential oils. They didn't work either. Still too strong, or my husband didn't like it. I think a smell should be soft and surreptitious. Like when you have designs on your husband and he knows it by your eyes and the way you move, but no one else does. It ought to be personal, not overbearing. What is the big deal if the whole room can smell the person. Why that's no big deal at all. It's like yelling "Look at me. I sprayed a giant fragrance on myself today!" The perfect scent should be sweet to your children and sexy to your husband. I used to use a spray on called Impulse, I used the purple one, but they quit manufacturing it in, uhhh, the '80s.

So, what was I saying? Oh yeah. I think I found a fragrance for me!

G'nite

I'm going to bed early so I can wake up early. Hopefully it will keep me from eating night time graham crackers and milk too.

Saturday

Received an email from my sister. A Saturday morning email. I had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming! She is a sweetie pie. Sometimes. Hehe. Last year she made a promise to herself to keep in touch better after we left. (We visit in San Diego for a month each year.) And she's kept that promise. I have to admit I'm very impressed. In the past she's often been busy with work and family so she had no energy left over. She's abounding with success in her job currently and her sons are teenagers. The law of seed time and harvest at work in her life. Now, if I'm lonely I email her and I know she'll email back within 10 or 20 minutes and if she doesn't I know she's not at her computer, and when she is, she'll write. I used to be jealous when we were little because my parents called her 'poopsie' and 'stinkerpot' and they only called me Liliana. I guess I'm not a special name kind of person. My husband calls me Little Mamma a lot, so that makes up for it.

I signed up for a new forum. A dance forum for oldsters. I don't know if I'll post there much but I was compelled to write a short thank-you to the poster who inspired me to ask my teacher if I could go en pointe. If I'd never read that particular post I'm sure I'd never have asked. Well, it appears I'm not getting any younger. It appears that I shall not be a ballerina. And that's okay! No matter! I shall study and practice and enjoy the dance anyway!

Now I go take a shower to have a fresh canvas to test out more of my handcrafted scented goodies sent by Avrilon. You know how when you walk out of the library with an armful of good books? You know that feeling? I have that feeling with this box of oil, balm, butter, soaps, and talc. It's a small box but I cannot even repack it because she had everything arranged to fit in there just so. I have more than one woman should have. Between knowing Kara and Avrilon I may never buy another leave-in or butter balm manufactured for the masses.

Lord, bless the hands that create elegant, scent-i-licious hair and skin care products that nourish body and spirit. Such a commodity cannot be purchased at the shopping mall.

It's like flying

Two good things in one day. I got approved to go en pointe (woo hoo) and second, I got a package. As a result I was all ecstatic and couldn't fall asleep. I'm kind of draggy and cotton headed this morning, er, afternoon.

There was a hoot owl here late last night and he sounded so hooty. I think it was that big white one that I've seen a few times. Couple days ago we saw a magnificent mature bald eagle on the lake.

Thera-bands

We used to use Thera-bands in class when I was in college. They helped me get so strong. I decided to order a pack from Amazon. When I was in my best condition I was able to do sit-ups as slow as I wanted, up and back down, even hovering half way between up and down indefinitely if I wanted, by building up my muscles with the help of a Thera-band. I loved my teacher. She was so good.

The rubber cement on the edge of my scimitar decidedly did not work. It rubbed off onto my hair. Luckily it rubs into little balls, so it wasn't hard to get out. Had me worried for a second there though!

We have a volunteer meeting at 1:00pm.

Washed my hair yesterday evening. I had an itchy ear. Apparently something about either Garnier Fructis or VO5 conditioner does not agree with me. Before this, Nature's Gate did not agree with me. I had a leetle bit of Giovanni shampoo left so I poured hot water in the container and shook it up and used the remnants. Since I'm out of Giovanni condish I used no condish. Actually, a post about using no conditioner gave me the idea. I wouldn't do it all the time because comb-out is too much work, but my hair feels soft (from the 48 hours of olive oil?) and shiny today.

I got a big idea from reading posts at the over 40 dancer's forum. I know I'm not currently strong enough, but I'm going to ask my ballet teacher if I can go en pointe someday in the future. Just at the barre, that is. I've always wanted to! Why shouldn't I do it before I die?

Been reading my Bible every morning, first thing before I do anything else. This is my second day. Heh. Pretty good I think. I'm on Genesis 12. It's fascinating that the story of a flood is recounted in almost every religion in existence. I've read that some scholars, though it's not yet proven, believe that a single language once existed. And a few months ago there was an article at CNN or somewhere that DNA testing indicted that all of us on earth are genetically connected to one, single woman. Those are things that make you go, hmmmm. Or, those are things that make you shout, Glory to God! And how about those clouds up in the sky? They weigh tons and tons with all the water droplets they hold, yet they're floating. Boy howdy, that's some kind of something. And bananas? Fit perfectly in the human hand, they're edible, taste good, and they're good for you. It can't be accidental!

Monday and onstagedancewear.com

It was a less than stellar homeschool day. It happens.

Husband went to Cruces for supplies. He picked up my sewing machine from the repair shop and I haven't used it yet, but it looks beautiful. He said I could go to the store and look at the Bernini machines. Oh my. I love him so. Bernini's are Swiss made and very nice. But I said I'll wait. Since my old Brother machine got fixed I'll use it. If after a year I sew a fair amount, then maybe I will look at the whoop-dee-doo nice ones. Mine is fine for now. I'm going to finish the blanket I was making for our son for Christmas before the zig-zag stitch stopped working. It's a fleece blanket. Larger than the others. A big eagle. I hope it'll turn out.

Canceled my leotard and shoe order. Don't ever order from http://www.onstagedancewear.com/. I'll tell you why. They emailed me last Tuesday and said my order shipped. I emailed them Wednesday and tell them UPS has no record of my order - where is my shipment? I get an auto-response from them, and they never do reply to my email. I check UPS and for two days it ain't going anywhere. Thursday I call to check on the status. What? They have the leotard but not the Capezio jazz boots. Did they bother to email me that tidbit of info? No. Fine, I say. Cancel the boots and send the leotard. Okay, he says. It'll ship out Friday. Monday nothing has been shipped to me. UPS has no info. I call for the status again. This time he transfers me. A girl says the leotard is on order. Whuh? I told her you gotta keep people informed of the status of their orders. Sorry, she says. Cancel it, I tell her. Cancel this leotard I ordered almost a week ago, which you said you sent me, didn't, and you don't even have it in stock. Are they in lala land?

So I'm shopping again. It's hard labor shopping for dance wear when you're 48 years old. Don't make me say any bad words!

Found a great studio to dance at while where in San Diego so at least I can stay in shape through April. Prices are a wee bit higher in the San Diego area.

What else. I have deep conditioned with olive oil today. Meant to wash it out but I was busy. So I'm sleeping with EVOO on my hair. My hair won't mind. I don't either. I'm really happy with my hair still.

Got a new space heater because one stopped working last night. Husband picked a nice one. It's cozy in here. We keep three space heaters going - one on each end of the trailer and one in the middle. Even down to 17 degrees it's stayed warm in here.

Oh, one more thing about my order from http://www.onstagedancewear.com/. Check this out. The Capezio dance boots I wanted cost $59.95. When I phoned the guy says size seven is out of stock, do I want size eight? What? I wanted to say if you wear a size 11 shoe, do you want to buy a 12? I bit my tongue though. Next day I look at the jazz boot on the web site. Why? I don't know. Just to gaze at it. I notice the price has changed. Yeah, buddy. The price of the jazz boot I ordered went up a bit - from $59.95 to $169.95. And you can get it now special order, 4-6 week delivery. That's just bad business.

All right

I've had it. Can't stands it no more. Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

I deleted all the news stations off of my personal toolbar. I deleted Fox News Network, CNN, MSNBC, LA Times, NY Times. I left Drudge on there. He might get the boot later though, depending.

I need some good news for a change. I'm back to the Good News Network.

Yum

We went out for dinner and I had a shrimp linguini dish with cream sauce, scallions and lemon, a side of garlic bread, and salad with bleu cheese dressing. It was a tasty treat. We brought chocolate cake home because we were too full to eat it at the restaurant.

My scimitar slipped off my head today during practice at home, but I was on the floor so it didn't fall far. I don't have any broken hair on top of my head from the balancing. They're already short (for a reason which will remain unnamed) and I don't need them any shorter. Since it's going well so far without a head covering I tried putting some rubber cement on the very edge to see if it'll stay on my head a little better. I'll test it out tomorrow. I definitely can't balance it on my chin or forehead. It hurts because it's too heavy. I can get down to my knees and up, no problemo, now. I can do an almost decent layback on my knees too. I just need so much more strength and endurance to do what I want to do.

I put together my own ballet work-out for home too. Here it is:

Plié (bent)
Tendu (to stretch)
Frappe (to strike)
Fondue (to melt)
Petit battement (small kicking movement)
Grand battement
Développé retiré
Rond de jambe

Turns
Barre
Splits
Balance

Head with feet going forward
Head opposite feet backing away

Make up a count of two eights

Now squeeze the orange dry. Beethoven made a symphony out of two notes.

I cleared the counter and I can swing my leg up and use it as a barre. Necessity is the mother of invention. You use what you've got, eh. And I found a nifty ballet dictionary with short Quicktime movies for various movements: http://www.abt.org/education/dictionary/index.html

I don't know if Beethoven really wrote a symphony with only two notes. I'd sure like to know whether it's true or not. But squeezing the orange dry means to make the movement all it can be. Do it with all your might.

Take a figure eight hip movement in Middle Eastern dance for example. You can do them forward, you can do them in reverse, change the direction you're facing as you do them, do some on your toes, flat footed, with knees very bent, or on your knees on the floor, do 'em small or do 'em big, fast or slow, layered with a shimmy, layered with a shimmy and add a pop. If you put your mind to it you can do a lot with a little old figure eight. Same concept can be applied to a lot of dance moves.

Article demonizing homeschooling

Article at the NYT: Lack of Supervision Noted in Deaths of Home-Schooled

Here we go again. A mentally sick woman murders all four of her babies, ages 5 to 17, and says she home-schooled them. Now the mayor of Washington in D.C. wants to establish better tracking and monitoring of all home-schoolers.

1. The mother took her kids out of public school in March 2006. She never submitted a request for withdrawal to the school district. That's not home-schooling. Legally, they were in the public school system.
   
2. If the public school system protected children from abuse and murder then logically speaking, all children who go to school are safe. Read the newspaper. America's children in the public school system are not kept safe from harm.
3. I deduce that whatever was happening in that family, there was no education going on.
   

The worst of it is that social workers made several attempts to visit the family and reported the kids' absences from school to the authorities. So how do four children go missing, are murdered, and nobody anywhere in the entire community notices?

Tightening requirements on genuine home-schoolers is not the solution. Blaming the horrifying deaths of these babies on home-schooling, and as a mother I call them all babies regardless of age, and pointing the finger at home-schooling is a red herring.

I'm not particularly politically active, but we would take action necessary to support and preserve the right and the freedom to educate at home without intervention from the government. Our forefathers who established the foundation of this country received all or part of their education at home.

Just because a murderous mother claims she was home-schooling doesn't mean she was home-schooling. She also claims all four of her daughters were possessed by demons and died in their sleep; the eldest with a knife beside her and the youngers with evidence of ligature markings and blunt force trauma upon their little bodies.

To evade county officials all the mother did was not answer the front door. Since no one came to the door for months Child and Family Services Agency closed the case. I think there should be some investigation all right, and home education regulation in Washington, D.C. is not at issue.

Chocolate chip cookies tonight

My husband mixes and I bake. It was his idea. I'm happy.

And ballet is back. Yay. It felt so good. My Middle Eastern dance teacher hasn't started classes yet though, so in the meantime I'm going to sign up for a jazz class.

I wore my hair in a braided bun that looked nice and actually stayed without distracting me. Took me three tries to do it right. An older lady in class, she's real sweet, she has cancer. And she told me I looked lovely. I admire her a lot. On my way out of class I gave my teacher a hug. She's got a tough row to hoe with her husband abruptly leaving after 31 years of marriage. She was upbeat though. She's not one to feel sorry for herself. I don't know how she's doing it. Anyway, after I hugged her, and I could feel she needed that hug, so I was glad I did it, then I turned around and the younger student. It didn't feel right to walk on by so that's why I laid a hug on her too. Then I hugged the older lady. Finally, I hugged the mom of the younger dancer and she said she hasn't had a hug is so long and thanked me. By the time I got to the exit and turned around, they were all laughing and hugging each other.

Our son is playing trucks on the floor and they are spread out all, I mean all over the living room. I treasure this time. He's ten and a half. It won't be long till he won't be playing truck games on the floor anymore. What, till age 11, perhaps 12? I wish to slow down the clocks immediately.

I avoided the abyss

Yesterday I almost fell into the abyss. It's this perimenopause I think. It's not a good thing. So before I completely alienated my husband, I prayed last night. I prayed pretty hard. Sometimes the prayin's easy, sometimes hard, right? I asked Him to take this sin offa me, which He can't exactly do, but I can repent and I repented pretty hard.

I wish I would be a good person all the time, but I get all pent up and angry once in awhile. Worse thing is, I've got it so good and it's nothing more than me gettin' all twisted and tangled up in myself. It's my own fault. And when I'm hateful to my family I feel ten times worse and ten times ugly.

It's lucky to have a family who loves you; faults, and meanness, and temper and all.

I'm sorry J. (Who will never read this, but I will.)

At least I cooked a pretty good meal tonight, and the gravy was better than last night. I make tasty, delicious gravy now that I'm 48.

Crummy connection

This connection tonight is so bad that I'm going to go read a book. WHAT! Yes. Read a book.

After dinner I read aloud The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. It's such good poem. I prepared to read it today and got choked up. Good thing I practiced because tonight I read it more smoothly and didn't choke up. I'm not sure, but I think my husband's eyes got misty for a minute there.

Testing

Made a progression set that I might add to my siggie if I like it well enough. I didn't have a set all from the same month unfortunately. Plus, it seems I named a lot of photos "today." Duh. It would help me if I dated them.

Untitled

Got a tummy ache today. We went to watch football (blech) last night and I woke with a tummy ache. I'm a third wheel. I have to grow some courage to say no.

Technically I did say no, but it didn't take.

A good hair day

I wore my hair down on account of I was brimming with confidence, and I even got a compliment on it at church. Actually, I have a set of matching zits on my neck, so I also had to wear it down for camouflauge.

This one was taken yesterday also and I took it because I noticed that in our bath mirror I can only barely see the bottom of my hair now. I'll need to use a full length mirror to see the bottom from now on. I wanted to do one of those self back-of-the-head shots too, just for posterity.

On my good hair day, my heart was heavy though. Aunt Arline passed on last night. Now my Grama has four children left here on earth. She's been getting more and more frail and she wouldn't take her medicine last night. When they checked on her later, she had passed on. I cannot be sad for long though because I know she's in heaven with a perfect body and a perfect mind now. But I will pray for her and for my cousins too. It's been exceedingly stressful for them. Alzheimer's is hardest on the family, I think. Aunt Arline thought the world of her son and his wife and their children. She'd go on and on about how wonderful they are, and they are that wonderful! I'm no longer very close with my cousin, but he used to call me a little puke when I was eight years old (I was 12 when I found out it meant barf) and I thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. He's funny too! He and I would tease my sister mercilessly and I relished every moment of it! I cleaned up his room for him once when he was 18. Was so proud of myself and was waiting for him to tell me what a great thing I did for him. But he came home from work that evening and I overheard that he was less than thrilled because I'd cleaned up so well he couldn't find his good work shoes. It was the only day that summer that it rained, and he had to wear his old shoes that had holes in them. Hahahaha! I had set his good shoes neatly under his bed. That's where anybody looks for their good shoes, right?

I will miss Aunt Arline who made me big, giant bowls of ice cream and let me play in her basement. She did drive me crazy once in awhile and I would take back a thing or two I said if I could. Ah well.

Did you hear about the dead guy who brought a suitcase of gold to the Pearly Gates? Saint Peter says, "What are you bringing that for?" Guy says he told God about all the wealth he'd amassed during his stay on earth and he wanted to bring at least a little of all he'd worked for, so God told him he could bring one, count 'em, one, single suitcase full of gold. Saint Peter looks at him and says, "Yeah, but why do you want to bring pavement?" Get it? There's so much gold in heaven that it'll blow your mind. There's so much of it that the streets are paved in gold.

The word 'glory' in the Greek language translates to something like weightiness, as in gold.

Today

A pic of 40.75 inches on a 5'2" person. (Update: Some is at 41", thus the fringey ends.) Taken in awful, low light, but I was needful of a photo since I washed it today. (Second update: I think I'm liking my no-flash chocolate hair color. It's prettier than real life.) Outside it was in the upper 60s, so I dried it in a lovely breeze. Look at my ends. They've fringed out all of a sudden - just since November. Whuh? I never would have noticed if I didn't have pictures of the back! And if wishes were horses I would wish for my sides to fill out more. All in good time. In 2004 I had such thick bangs. I'm sure glad I seriously thinned them out when I did. Hopefully as the sides get longer they'll help fill out the back some day in the far future. In March I'll get a trim. Perhaps my trim will put me back to about this length, but straighter across. That would be a good deal. I'd like that.

I believe a thought just hit me. I could make fingertip length my next goal. Hmmmm. Why not? Okay. I will.

Our son got a haircut and he looks so handsome. Ivan, the excellent hair cutter, invited him out to see his ranch sometime. I hope it comes to pass. Wouldn't we be lucky to go to a ranch. Our ranger and Ivan are cousins! I can see it because they're both kind hearted. We've been to the one ranch and to see a second one would be awesome.

The sky looked like an artist splashed it with watercolors tonight. The magenta was striking and there was so much of it.

I came across a tidbit about Elijah. He got beamed up to heaven at the Mount of Olives. I wondered what was so big about him. I hardly know any of the prophet books. Well, I know none of them. In the Old Testament I'm fairly well versed in Genesis and Job and that's it.

Right now I'm thinking about John 14:1 a lot.

Cowboy

He's tying up his horse, er, bike at the end of a work day, wearing his workin' boots and workin' hat. I asked him if he's been saying 'Boy howdy' or "Holy mackerel' or 'Mercy!' and he said nope.

Cruces

We drove down to Cruces because our son has been dying to own cowboy boots and a white cowboy hat like one of his favorite rangers does. The girl who helped us was sweet as could be. He found boots. He found a hat. He shopped, he saw, he bought, just like his daddy. Me, I shop and shop and shop till I'm ready to drop and I may or may not buy a thing.

It must be winter because it didn't get above 53 degrees today. Chilly.

My hair is 40.75". I didn't get my usual half inch of growth for some reason but I shan't be distressed. I did notice that I measured about a week ago at 40.5" and did a special post about how great it was to be at 40.5. Then I realized from my critical hair data that I was already 40.5 on December 1st. Oh well. Such is life. You hit a certain age and everything old is new again. Haha!

Funny lines to start 2008

Numbers 3, 7, 13, 14, and 15 are my favorites...

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved and never will achieve its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

3. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

5. You should not confuse your career with your life.

6. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

7. Never lick a steak knife.

8. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

9. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

10. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

11. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.

12. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers.

13. A person who is nice to you but rude to a waiter is not a nice person (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)

14. Your friends love you anyway.

15. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

16. Men are like fine wine. They start out as grapes, and it's up to the women to stomp the coconut out of them until they turn into some thing acceptable to have dinner with.

By Dave Barry, Nationally Syndicated Columnist (Liliana changed one word to coconut because #16 is lacking in funniness.)

Sandhill crane in flight

We went to Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge this afternoon. It was cold with temps between 47° to 54°. Windy too. But I was a trooper and braved the bad weather. I haven't been taking many pictures of late, so I was like Shaky the Moyle (on Seinfeld). I got all excited seeing the birds, pointed my camera, and couldn't focus for diddly. I'm taking picture of open sky and blurry birds! My husband was patient and gave me enough time to keep trying. I want to go back. I need to go back! The sound of thousands of snow geese is incredible.

It wasn't as awesome as last year though. That's a terrible thing to say, eh? But there were more birds last year. I suppose they're there this year too, but a lot of the lake is frozen. Strange, because the weather hasn't seemed that cold. But where it was frozen the birds were quite far away. Too far even for my telephoto lens.

Son had an amazing sighting this morning - four bobcats playing on the ice that had formed on a small lake outside the park. He was riding with one of the rangers in the truck when they spotted them. What luck. Who gets to see one bobcat let alone four, let alone playing on the ice in plain daylight. They stopped on the side of the road and watched until the bobcats wandered into the brush. Couple nights ago my son and I saw three big, healthy raccoons trying to get in the garbage bin. They ran across the street in front of us as were driving by. In three years we've never seen raccoons here. Oh and tonight on my way home from church I saw a big, white owl take off from the top of a stop sign where he was perched. The first time I saw him last year I about jumped out of my seat - he startled me so. This year I noticed that I hadn't seen him and I wondered if he was still around. Guess he is. He must have a wing span of four feet. Huge.