Pebbles!

As you can see, Carolyn and Pebbles have a lot in common. This fetching hairdo, and a love of flying.

I really should be working on taxes. . .

Happy Bday, Laura!!

Rochester on Ice

I was in downtown Rochester yesterday, and they were setting up for Rochester on Ice. They display ice sculptures in front of all the stores on Main Street. It was really cold, so nothing was melting, and there was a bit of snow to decorate all the sculptures too. I took more pictures (as you might have guessed!) but these are my favorites.

For the world's lazy bloggers

Read more about the Ergopod here.

Great Truths about Growing Old (er!)

1) Growing up is optional; growing old is mandatory.
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.
4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone

Dad's new phone

My Visited States Map

I have been to (or through!) 32 states, or 62% of them. How many have you been to? Create your own visited states map!

Another look at Flying

There is an uncanny resemblance in these pictures, wouldn't you say?

Tiny Rectangle

Could it be that Carolyn is attempting The Rectangle?

Flying!

We had a picture of Craig and EB that is almost just like this one! Just in case you can't see well enough, I have zoomed so you can see the delight on her face. Check out the original post for the whole story.

What to say, what to say. . .

Elderblogging

Borrowing from Fasha who borrowed from an 84 year old blogger,

All this furor about mid-life crisis leaves me unmoved. If you want the drama of lifestyle crisis, wait until you get to late life. That's when things really change - and adapting becomes a challenge. "Too soon we get old -- too late we get smart."

For some reason, I find it fascinating what the older bloggers have to say, and it makes me smile to think of little old people blogging away on their computers! There's even a name for it - elderblogging.

There's Thoroughly Modern Millie who is 81 and A Little Red Hen who is 74. and my favorite, Don to Earth, whose author is 93. At The Ageless Project, there are many blogs listed with the bloggers' year of birth, showing that "the personal, creative side of the web is ageless." Mr. Incognito at 81 claims to be "the oldest Christian blogger in the world."

National Delurking Week!

So I hear this is National Delurking Week. What in the world is that, you ask? Well, it seems to be a little known week where bloggers are supposed to own up to reading the blogs that they do, make a comment, maybe say, thanks, I like what you write. Now I'm not saying I'm going to do that, but maybe I will.

Oh, and how did I find out about that? Well, it was actually on this delightful blog that I check nearly every day! (And no, I don't know the person at all, and yes, I am definitely lurking!)

Pre internet times

from Blaugh, the (un)official comic of the blogosphere

Pluto's Revenge

So it seems the American Dialect Society also has a word of the year. And they chose. . .(drum roll, please)

TO PLUTO:--to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet.

Just in case you're mildly interested, past winners are:

• 2005 -- truthiness (what one wishes to be true regardless of the facts)
• 2004 -- red/blue/purple states
• 2003 -- metrosexual (fashion conscious heterosexual male)
• 2002 -- weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)
• 2001 -- 9/11
• 2000 -- chad
• 1999 -- Y2K
• 1998 -- the prefix e- (for electronic, as in email and ecommmerce)
• 1997 -- millenium bug or Y2K bug
• 1996 -- mom(as in soccer mom)
• 1995 -- tie between World Wide Web and newt (to make aggressive changes as a newcomer)
• 1994 -- cyber
• 1993 -- information superhighway
• 1992 -- Not!
• 1991 -- mother of all

It's kind of like a little US history lesson. Anyhow, I warned you; I do like words.(Maybe I should have a Word of the Year contest too!)

Give Peas a Chance!!!!!!!!!!!

Check out the video---it's hilarious!!!

Pillow Angel

Her mom and dad call her their "pillow angel." You can read about 9 year old Ashley on the blog her parents made to describe their situation. Basically, she has had surgery and hormone treatments to keep her forever small.

In a case fraught with ethical questions, the parents of a severely mentally and physically disabled child have stunted her growth to keep their little "pillow angel" a manageable and more portable size. The uterus and breast tissue of the bedridden 9-year-old girl were removed at a Seattle hospital, and she received large doses of hormones to halt her growth. She is now 4-foot-5; her parents say she would otherwise probably reach a normal 5-foot-6. Read more. . .

This seems a confusing issue to me. Something feels not quite right about the whole thing, but when you read the blog her parents made, describing the whole situation, somehow it sounds so loving. Read more about it here or here. Then tell me what you think.

Happy B'day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EB!!!!!!!!!!!

Here it is at last. . .

I know you've been waiting for it, and here it is, The Banished Word List for 2007, the 32nd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness.
My personal favorites. . .

• COMBINED CELEBRITY NAMES -- It's bad enough that celebrities have to be the top news stories. Now we've given them obnoxious names such as 'Bragelina,' 'TomKat' and 'Bennifer.'. . . It's so annoying, idiotic and so lame and pathetic that it's 'lamethetic.'
• GONE/WENT MISSING -- It makes 'missing' sound like a place you can visit, such as the Poconos. Is the person missing, or not? She went there but maybe she came back. 'Is missing' or 'was missing' would serve us better.
• WE'RE PREGNANT -- Grounded for nine months. Were men feeling left out of the whole morning sickness/huge belly/labor experience? You may both be expecting, but only one of you is pregnant. . .I'm sure any woman who has given birth will tell you that 'WE' did not deliver the baby.
• UNDOCUMENTED ALIEN -- If they haven't followed the law to get here, they are by definition 'illegal.' It's like saying a drug dealer is an 'undocumented pharmacist.'
• BOASTS -- See classified advertisements for houses, as in 'master bedroom boasts his-and-her fireplaces -- never 'bathroom apologizes for cracked linoleum,' or 'kitchen laments pathetic placement of electrical outlets.'
• SEARCH -- Quasi-anachronism. Might as well banish it. The word has been replaced by 'google.'

Welcome

Welcome Laura
to the Blogosphere!

Happy New Year!

Dare I post New Year's Resolutions?

It is a little scary to post something like this. What if people look at my thoughts and think "well, why didn't she include this or that?" I guess it could happen! But still, this is my blog, and I should feel free to post my thoughts and ideas, imperfect though they are. Maybe I will learn some things from the exercise.

• Read the Bible chronologically this year
• Write my dad every week, call twice a week, get update from GH at least every other week
• Get regular exercise, at least 4 times/week. (Try Tae bo!)
• Walk the dogs 4 times a week
• Do a better job keeping house - my specific goal is to tidy the kitchen every day that I don't work 12 hours (I'm a little embarrassed to admit that after all these years, this is not something I've got down! I'm always ready to be distracted by, well, nearly anything!)
• Catch up on my photo albums

So that's a start. I've no doubt there are many things I could and should improve upon, but these are the ones that come to mind at the moment.

2006 in Pictures

How can you sum up a whole year in just 12 pictures? I decided to give it a try. Some months there were literally hundreds of pictures to choose from; other months, not so much. Some things don't show up in pictures even though they are important! But here it is anyway.

January - We took Laura back to Hope after she had spent the fall in Scotland.

February- We spent a weekend in Chicago where it was really cold! We took turns placing our hands on EB's tummy to see if Small would move for us and we rode the El downtown.

March- We took Bryan for his first trip to Texas, where he visited the Alamo and met a host of relatives.

April -We all followed the growth of Small with frequent ultrasounds.

May -We realized a dream of many years when we traveled to Norway with friends. We get to see fjords!

June -I joined the blogosphere with my very first post, but more importantly, Little Carolyn arrived.

July - I enjoyed watching my garden grow (Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?) And of course, we spent much of July watching Little Carolyn grow and change, as well as watching her mommy and daddy grow and change as they took on their new role as Parents. Meanwhile, we relished our grandparenthood, and agonized over what she should call us(Grandma and Grandpa? Granny and Papa? Grandmom and Granddad? Grammy and Papa Darth no, wait, Papa Craig!)

August - We brought Papa to visit. He got to meet his great granddaughter, see Chicago, and Lake Michigan.

September -Tonka bit the dust, and Craig came to pick me up from work in this! (I hope this qualifies as the mid-life crisis!) We also got to go on a 47 mile bike trip with friends from 2x2.

October -Craig finished the Chicago Marathon! Before that, I was able to spend a weekend in Waco with 3 old roommates from Baylor. What a special time.

November - We babysit Carolyn about one weekend a month. Here she gets her first programming lesson.

December -Merry Christmas!!!

A New Blogger

Welcome this newest member of the blogosphere!