7 Weeks in 7 Seconds

I really meant to do something a little more involved than what this post will be (mostly pictures without commentary) but everytime I think of blogging I get overwhelmed with how far behind I am. So (except for the California trip, which I'll put in a separate post) here's the last couple of months, in brief.

Winter Sing:

(Love this picture of Grandma and Chris.)

Talking to Santa on the Train Tour (thanks to iheartmesa for the heads up on this fun activity!):

A random pic that makes me laugh:

The Cook family, together at last: (Eric, Ann, Logan and Taylor came from Texas, and Blake, Leeanne, and Jenna came all the way from Okinawa! All the Cooks were together for Christmas this year, and it was awesome. I wish I had pics of all the siblings at Speedway on New Year's Eve.)

So sweet. :)

(What's a cousin for if not to help you eat your food?)

Christmas Eve:

Christmas Day:

(Thanks for the idea for this gift Roccy!)

(And mommy got a WiiFit. Oh yeah.)

Pinewood Derby:

2008 by the Numbers

What did I accomplish in 2008, in terms of cold, hard numbers? I actually woke up thinking about the answer to that question. (I credit Anna for putting numbers in my brain. Hee hee.) Here's my year, in numerical review:

Number of blog posts: 202

Number of times I've posted a picture of my foot: 8 (the one inside the art museum is my favorite)

Number of vacations (family and otherwise): 4

Number of fiction books read: 37

Number of books read in the last 6 weeks of the year, as a stress release: 10

.

Pounds lost: 12 (for a total of 35)

Months I've kept the weight off: 8

Number of bushes, trees and vines that used to live in our yard until I killed them: 9

Percentage of shocking/cautionary/heartwarming/ironic emails which turned out to be false after a check on SNOPES.COM: 98%

Query letters for my novel which received a form rejection: 54 (sadly typical, for those of us determined/hopeful/sadistic enough to keep going after the first 10)

Agents who asked to read my book: 4 (yippee!!)

Agents who praised it with one hand, and rejected it with the other: 3 (sigh)

Number of art masterpiece presentations given: 24

Hours spent helping in the classroom: 37

Number of times I've driven to my kids' schools: 586 (I can't wait until Chris is in school all day!)

Number of school lunches packed: 226

Loads of laundry washed: 468

Hours spent cleaning my house: I refuse to calculate this necessary and unavoidable waste of my time.

Times I told my husband and children I love them: countless times.

Happy New Year!

This is one of my all-time favorite songs. This isn't a great video, but the song is fantastic so all is well. I tend to listen to the song without watching the video (one of these days I'll get an iPod like a normal person). Anyway, I found this article that tells more about the song. Somehow, it makes me happy to know this really happened. It's so touching.

Happy New Year everyone!

Oooooh... Ahhhhh.....

What a great APOD pic. Here's NASA's blurb, if you're interested:

NGC 1569: Starburst in a Dwarf Irregular Galaxy

Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory, flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful, symmetric spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies form stars too. In fact, as pictured here, dwarf galaxy NGC 1569 is apparently undergoing a burst of star forming activity, thought to have begun over 25 million years ago. The resulting turbulent environment is fed by supernova explosions as the cosmic detonations spew out material and trigger further star formation. Two massive star clusters - youthful counterparts to globular star clusters in our own spiral Milky Way galaxy - are seen left of center in the gorgeous Hubble Space Telescope image. The above picture spans about 8,000 light-years across NGC 1569. A mere 11 million light-years distant, this relatively close starburst galaxy offers astronomers an excellent opportunity to study stellar populations in rapidly evolving galaxies. NGC 1569 lies in the long-necked constellation Camelopardalis.

The Birth of Christ

What a sacred and holy moment we celebrate each year. While the customs of the holiday - the decorations, gifts, and get-togethers - consume our time, it is not through rituals but within my own heart that my worship of the Savior deepens. I contemplate Him in a personal way, not as the Savior of the world, but as my Savior. I think of what He means to me, and in so doing I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

He has been in my heart for a long time. Only once, when I decidedly turned my back on Him, did He honor that decision and withdraw from me. It was the darkest period of my life, and something I will never repeat if I can help it. He is truly the light of the world, because He is the light within each one of us. We can find joy in many things and in many ways; living in this world can be wonderous and a thrill to be a part of. But that deep joy, that peace so penetrating that you can't help but know it comes from a Higher source, that is what I live for.

The Lord Jesus Christ has sustained me in times of great happiness and in times of deep sorrow. I know I can count on Him, no matter what life brings, to reassure me of His presence and His love for me and my family. That is truly all that matters. I may fall victim to the trappings of the holiday like everyone else, but in my heart I hold my Savior dear, and I hope that gift is enough. It is truly all I have to give.

Dark Doodad Nebula

"Dark Doodad Nebula." Three words I'd never expect to go together.




Normally, I go to the APOD site looking for something breathtaking. This isn't exactly breathtaking. Interesting maybe, and it has a funny name. But what really got me was NASA's commentary (below is just an excerpt, click here if you want to read the whole thing).

"What is that strange dark ribbon on the sky? When observing the great globular cluster NGC 4372, observers frequently take note of a strange dark streak nearly three degrees in length running near it. Unnamed, the streak, actually a long molecular cloud, has become known as the Dark Doodad Nebula. (Doodad is slang for a thingy or a whatchamacallit.) Pictured above in a rich and colorful star-field, the Dark Doodad Nebula can be found sweeping across the image center."

Now NASA's commentary is always peppered with links, so if you want to know more about "globular clusters" or "molecular clouds", that tantilizing information is just a click away. What struck me as funny was not just their inclination to further clarify "doodad" as a "thingy" or "whatchamacallit" (LOL), but the fact that "thingy" and "whatchamacallit" were both links.

Where on earth are THOSE links going to take me? I wondered.

I should've guessed Wikipedia. They have a whole article on placeholder names, a LONG article, listing everything from "doohickey" to "thingamajig".

Maybe I'm a word nerd, but this article cracked me up. Where else are you going to see these ridiculous words so carefully categorized? The placeholder names for things (as above) are in a different section from placeholder names for people ("Joe Shmoe", "Frick and Frack"), places ("Boonies", "Timbucktoo"), and times ("oh-dark-thirty", "half past a freckle").

There were words I'd never heard before ("Joe Snuffy"), and words I thought were missing (shouldn't "dingle-hopper" have a place?).

I regret I'll probably never have a reason to use is this one: "A wigwam for a goose's bridle" which is an Australian answer to a naïve "What is that?" Too funny.

So if you ever hear me utter the words "Up the Boohai hunting pukekos with a long handled shovel", now you'll know the reason why.

I blame it on NASA.

Christopher's Birthday

Poor Chris, I'm over a week late on this. And I'm not adding any commentary either. But the pictures are up, so Hurrah! :)

Christopher and his "girlfriend" Ella. They're so cute together. Too bad I didn't get one of them holding hands.

Cheating just a teeny, tiny bit.

My first baby.

Chris really wanted a skateboard, so we got him one. Everyone was predicting more stitches, but no injuries so far! (Knock on wood.)

Five years old. Wow.

It was the busiest hour and a half of my life! LOL. Just kidding. It was fun.

Still to come, a blog about my California trip. If I get it up before Christmas, I'll consider that a success! :)

The Best Laid Plans...

I've given up trying to blog the way I used to. It's just not going to happen for awhile. That means the funny way I was going to reveal the mystery foot guest is going the way of all the earth. I don't have the energy to explain it on here, but if you care to ask me about it, I'll tell you what it was in person.

Meanwhile, I feel bad for leaving Marie hanging for so long. Yes, it was her foot, even though she left a comment guessing it was someone else (sneaky girl!). We were sitting at the same table during women's conference and got to talking about the quirks she had blogged about, and she demonstrated what she can do with her arms. (I'm tellin' ya Marie, you need to put a video of that on your blog!)

That's when feet came into the discussion. She said it's unusual for a person's second toe to be the longest toe. (I thought that was normal!) So we both slipped off our shoes and stuck our feet out and looked at them side by side, right under the white-tableclothed table. That's still the image I see when I think about this, even though Marie wouldn't let me take a picture of her foot then. The actual picture came about on Sunday. We went outside to the grass and tried not to feel like idiots as I took a picture of our feet. LOL.

Marie on the left, me on the right -wasn't the red polish a dead giveaway? ;)

So there you have it. One of life's great mysteries has been solved and you can all sleep at night again! Sorry to have kept you waiting! ;)

Just About the Only Thing to Make Me Wish I Had a Fireplace...

My friend Carly makes these cool pinecone firestarters every winter and sells about a million of them (or at least, it seemed that way to me when I was in her house during production one year). They smell incredible and would make a great decoration even without a fireplace. I asked if I could put a plug about it on the blog, so here it is.

They come in a cute little wooden box, and have 4 pinecones (2 red, 2 white). They're only $12.00 and she'll be taking orders through December 19th.

Here's the great email she sends out every year:

Favorite Things
Scented Pinecone Fire-Starters

Use our wonderfully scented
fire-starters to fill your home
with traditional holiday aromas.

Simply place the pinecones in your
fireplace and light with your firewood
or display them in a warm place.


Then enjoy the unforgettable
holiday fragrances of cinnamon
and vanilla!

Call Carly Griffitts to place
an order at (480) 861-3471
or Email me at Difdim@Cox.Net

Merry Christmas!!!

Potpourri Post

I'm kinda liking these catch-all posts. Here's some shots from the last few weeks...

The ever-popular blow up slide at the Fall Festival:

Asinine Product of the Week:

Give me a break people. Is it really that hard to teach your kid to use the door knob? Protecting kids from every tiny little injury is doing them more harm than good. They'll be better served if you just teach them common sense and general caution. And if they're stubborn by nature, a pinched finger will surely get the message delivered. I'm thinking they'll survive - and a little wiser at that.

Ben has a genuine love of math, something he did not inherit from me, I assure you. But his enthusiasm is pretty contagious. We had fun learning about the cool pattern the number 9 makes as you multiply it:

My mom finally taught me how to make her famous apple pie.



Check out this old flour sifter that used to belong to her mother:

Ready to go in the oven:


Once again I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. I'll try to remember when I make this for Christmas.



Travis opening his mission call:

San Jose, California, English speaking. So cool! Travis is very excited. :)

And lastly, but never leastly, Aunt Brenda came to town for a visit. It always makes us happy to see Brenda. :)

Below is a rare Cook family photo, thanks to Aunt Brenda's nudging. :)

And just like that, I'm all caught up. Woo hoo!