Monday, December 22, 2008
The power of the cartoon
I still don’t hear any noise
It’s 8:15 am and I still don’t hear any noise coming from the monitor in the girls’ bedroom.
I wonder how long that will last?!?
{extended}Sunday, December 21, 2008
Review: Where Are You Now?
Where Are You Now?
By: Mary Higgins Clark
I have been a huge fan of Mary Higgins Clark for many years. I am never disappointed with any of her books and this was no exception. The idea for the book came from a newspaper article the author read, which makes the story even more interesting to me.
In the opening chapters, the book presents us with several different characters all with interesting lives and stories. I was hooked from the beginning. The main plot surrounds the disappearance of Charles ‘Mack’ MacKenzie Jr. at the age of 21 when he apparently walked away from what appeared to be a perfect life. Mack calls his mother every Mother’s Day with a short message telling her he is fine. Now his sister Carolyn is trying to find him. With any MHC book I always try to figure out “who done it” and I am almost never able to. As with most of her books, there were several characters that were suspect and I was guessing until the last chapters of this book. Since the final chapters are not very long that was almost till the end. MHC leaves no loose ends in the conclusion of Where Are You Now with all being tied up neatly in the epilogue. I also appreciate how MHC keeps all of her books free of profanity and obscenity, which never add anything to the story for me. My only issue with this book was the fact that I never felt a true connection between Carolyn and her supposed romantic interest. There was no spark between them and there needed to be. Other than that, this was a very believable story and I would recommend it to anyone who loves a good clean suspense story!
{extended}Tonight’s Christmas cantata
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Our first (and only?) gingerbread house
The vulture
We call Eliana ‘the vulture’.
You’d think we never fed the poor girl. She scarfs her food down well before everyone else and then eyeballs what’s on our plates.
She set her sights on Karys’ last chicken nugget today at lunch after the 3 of us barely survived a couple hours of Christmas shopping. I think we all worked up quite the appetite.
Guess who we saw tonight?
For the last couple of weekends, our downtown area has been buzzing at night: people have strolled the sidewalks admiring beautifully decorated shop windows; the air has been filled with sounds of carolers, handbell choirs and other assorted musical offerings; families have enjoyed horse-drawn carriage rides. We took advantage of an unusually mild December evening and joined the festivities along with our friend, Jennifer, and her son.
On one end of downtown there is a small park a block long. Through the middle of the park runs a curving brick sidewalk flanked on each side by short brick walls and evergreen trees that have been decorated with ornaments and lights. Our children, of course, loved walking on the walls and jumping down when there was an opening.
Much to our surprise, at the end of the sidewalk we found Santa Claus accompanied by an elf. Karys wasn’t too sure of that red man with the big laugh at first but cautiously crawled onto his lap when big sister agreed to join her.
Friday, December 19, 2008
What’s that sound?
Wait a minute.
What’s that sound? Do you hear it?
Ummm…yeah, that would be the sound of me shouting “HALLELUJAH!” because I don’t go back to work until January 5th.
We usually get 3 days for Christmas but work has been so slow that we’re shutting down for 2 weeks. Fortunately I have the vacation days left to cover it. I was going to carry a week of vacation over to next year for our trip to China but…c’est la vie (French for that’s life).
{extended}Thursday, December 18, 2008
A hot new scent
Targeted toward every red-blooded, meat-eating connoisseur, Burger King has unveiled a new burger-scented men’s body spray called “Flame”.
No, apparently this is not a joke. You can actually purchase the perfume for $3.99 and just in time for Christmas too.
The scent officially launched online and in selected New York stores this week.
My question is this: Ladies, would you really want your man to smell like a Whopper?
{extended}What planet?
I was browsing the CNN website before taking Eliana to school this morning when I ran across an article entitled “Obama’s inaugural choice sparks outrage”. In the article, prominent liberal groups and gay rights proponents criticized President-elect Barack Obama for choosing evangelical pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the presidential inauguration next month.
Here is one line from the article that literally made me jump up and shout, “What?!?”
I quote:
People for the American Way President Kathryn Kolbert told CNN she is “deeply disappointed” with the choice of Warren and said the powerful platform at the inauguration should instead have been given to someone who has “consistent mainstream American values.”
So Rick Warren doesn’t espouse consistent mainstream American values?
And you do?
What planet did you come from, Kathryn?
{extended}Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The cookbooks are here!
The cookbooks are here! The cookbooks are here!
I had a good workout today because all 14 of those doggone boxes were piled up in front of our garage door when I came home at lunch. It’s a good thing it wasn’t raining.
2nd anniversary of our LID
Today is the 2nd (month) anniversary of our log-in date.
Based on the most current statistics from a ‘waiting child’ yahoogroup for families who mailed a Letter of Intent before mailing a dossier (which is our scenario): the earliest anyone has received a Letter of Acceptance is 55 days, the longest anyone had to wait was 125 days and the average wait was 82 days.
Normally all paperwork from China (referrals, Letters of Acceptance, pre-approvals, travel approvals) comes in one monthly bundle and usually during the first week of the month. Our agency has already received a package from China for December. However, there have been occasions when a 2nd package arrived later in the month.
Which means we really have no idea but that piece of paper could come at any time.
{extended}Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Forbidden City Revealed
Tomorrow (Wednesday, December 17) at 6:00 am EST (I know, ugh…set the DVR), the History Channel is broadcasting a 60-minute program called Forbidden City Revealed.
View the mysterious world of China’s Forbidden City as IBM and the Chinese government unveils an exact replica of Beijing’s Forbidden City in a fully immersive, totally interactive, web-accessible, virtual world. Visitors will be able to explore, in minute and photo-accurate detail, one of the greatest royal palaces the world has ever known. Discover a fascinating blend of history, technology and human drama.
{extended}Monday, December 15, 2008
Children’s Choir Christmas 2008
This is Eliana’s first year in our church’s Children’s Choir.
Following our churchwide Christmas banquet this evening, the Children’s Choir presented their Christmas program entitled A Christmas Carol in the sanctuary. The program included a drama along with the music and the children did remarkably well. We were especially proud of Eliana (of course) for working through her shyness to stand up on stage on the front row and sing. She even delivered three short lines that we didn’t know she had been asked to do.
One of the final songs was entitled “Hallelujah to the Lamb” and the chorus went something like this:
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah to the Lamb
Hallelujah, hallelujah, by the blood of Christ we stand
Every tongue, every tribe, every people, every land
Giving glory, giving honor
Giving praise unto the Lamb of God
It was something else to see all of those children on stage, our daughter included, with their arms stretched to heaven and giving that song all they had.
I ain’t gonna lie…I cried. And the children received a standing ovation when it was done.
Powerful stuff.
The photo below was taken towards the end of practice prior to the kids going to eat. They had all been working very hard and were pretty tired.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
On the verge of victory
