Question for Discussion

Do you think that the oh-so-popular and slightly-askew photo composition looks cool, amazing, and beautiful; or trendy, dated, and annoying? Discuss.

It's been a while

I've not posted in a while. I'm sorry. I'm not dead, and I haven't quit. I just haven't felt inspired.

That's a lot of sentences that all start with the first person pronoun. Sad.

In-Laws and Outlaws (Christmas Travels Part IV)

Whew! It's March and I'm still posting about Christmas. Oh well. Deal with it.

*************************

So, after our time in Colorado Springs, we traveled back to Quinter. Here are the Quinter 'skyscrapers,' 8 miles away from us at this point! (They're actually grain elevators. Note the flat, flat, flatness of Western Kansas. It's flat out there, folks.)



My youngest brother-in-law's girlfriend had flown in a couple days before to 'meet the family,' and my husband and I got back to Quinter earlier than we expected. Consequently, I got to go along on the Girls' Antiquing Trip! After the antiquing, we all went to grocery shop in the W-M*rt. (When living in the country, you have to be sure to grab groceries when you can!)



The next day, New Year's Eve, I got to talking to the youngest brother-in-law. He and his girlfriend and the sister-in-law and I climbed up on the roof and watched the sun set. It was the last sunset of the year and it was a good one.



Here's the cute couple, in the beautiful sunset light. (Do you notice her scarf? That's one of our Christmas gifts to her. I'll have you all know that I made it!)


Aaaaand then, after counting down with the folks in Times Square, middle brother-in-law's wife played reveille on a trumpet for the whole town's enjoyment. (People, there are 800 people in this town. This was the loudest celebratory sound to be heard...a trumpet.)

The In-Laws' New Year's Eve Tradition dictates that we play fussball. Mother-in-Law's dad made this fussball table, and it's Mother-in-Law's favorite game! She really gets into it. (In this picture, from L to R, are: youngest brother-in-law, mother-in-law, middle brother-in-law's wife, middle brother-in-law, and sister-in-law.)

*********************************

(The 'in-laws' in the title are my husband's family, and the 'outlaws'...they are us, the married-into-this-family kids. Me, the Trumpeter, and the Girlfriend.)

(And I like them all. It's a gift, to like your in-laws, and I do.)

Spring Catch-Up

It's been a while since I've posted. You know, I read all these great blogs and sometimes think I have nothing cool or worthwhile to say. And then I get in the habit of not-posting. Or I get really, really busy, and just get in the habit of not-posting.

Honestly, it has been a busy month for me. I've worked extra hours because of the exhibit-change-over. I worked extra hours because of Atlanta schools' Spring Break increased our attendance. I worked extra hours because one of our staff couldn't fulfill their shifts. I worked a lock-in Friday night (wheee! clock in at 5:30 pm and clock out at 9:30 am and sleep about 3 hours in between! yay for caffeine!).

When I'm feeling taxed, then writing here goes out the window. I have other things to do, like dishes, laundry, meal planning, and cooking. Folding clothes. Straightening up the house. Hanging out with my husband.

But here's a post for y'all. Would you like some short-quick-to-the-point Deep Thoughts? Good; here you go:

• I had coffee with a good friend I haven't seen in 5 years. It's so good to see her again and catch up. I sensed in her the same changed I've been sensing in myself: I've gone through some really hard seasons in the last 5 years, and have grown up a lot, become more refined, more sanctified. So has she. Her fun and goofy and silly personality is still there, but there's also a delightful calmness and peace that was there before but is more apparent now.
• A dear friend has, in the last month, had a baby (her 3rd girl! hooray) and spent about a week in the hospital with her. The baby had (has?) RSV.
• Spring is springing here in Southeast Tennessee. The redbuds are blooming in spite of the chilly overcast drizzliness we've had the last week and a half; the pears are trying their darndest to bloom. All we need is two, maybe three, hot and sunny days and spring will dazzle and delight us.

That's about all that comes to mind. Have a good Lord's Day, everyone.

How I Know My Sister-in-Law Loves Me

When she starts her mass-sibling-update-email with this paragraph:

It's been a wild several weeks. It seems like it's been about a month since I've had a weekend to myself. I know some of the more outgoing of you wouldn't understand (Krista! ), but I seriously needed a weekend to just BE and not have anything going on or anybody wanting to do anything with me.

Aaaah. Being singled out is awesome! Even more awesome is knowing that all the siblings will read that interjection and laugh.

Ham Loaf

I'm inspired to write about my evening's cooking...at least the Ham Loaf part of my cooking.
Here's a photo of the recipe.* Actually, it's a photo of an email of the recipe. If you care, you can read some of my commentary when I emailed the recipe to my mom.



Start with 1-3/4 cups of milk. Notice the measuring cup. My sister gave it to me for Christmas a while ago. See how the cup looks like it's got stairsteps? Those are the 1/2 and 1/4 measurements...I love those measuring cups!

Next, add two eggs and 2 tablespoons brown sugar:

After the eggs and brown sugar, it's time for the dry mustard. 1 tablespoon. Isn't that a cute mustard tin?

Be sure to add the salt.

Next, I mixed what was in my bowl. That giant fork? We called it a granny fork at Mia Cucina, one of my previous employers. I use it a lot for whipping and mixing things like this.

Then, add 6 slices soft bread, cubed.

Since I used up all my bread, I had to put another loaf in to bake.

Add 1-1/2 pound ground pre-cooked ham. This is my food processor, grinding my ham. Janis and Christine gave us that food processor for a wedding gift. Thanks, Janis and Christine! I like it a lot!

You should also add 1 pound ground beef. I didn't take a picture because my hands were all beefy and gross, so feast your eyes on this instead:

Put it in a casserole to bake. Doesn't that look like Alice's meatloaf in The Brady Bunch Movie? Hah! It looks a little gross, I admit. But believe me, it tastes great when it comes out.


Just for kicks, here is a photo of the unbaked ham loaf looking mighty pink, like it's out of a 1960s cookbook with full-color photos!

---


Ham Loaf
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine in large mixing bowl:
1 3/4 c milk
2 large eggs
2 T brown sugar
1 T dry mustard
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
6 slices soft bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1-1/2 lbs ground ham (pre-cooked)
1 lb. ground beef

Shape into a loaf in an oven-proof dish.

Bake until firm and lightly browned, about 90 minutes. Meat should reach an internal temperature of 175-180 degrees on a meat thermometer.

Christmas Travels Part 3: Colorado

After our Husband's-Family Christmas-day festivities, we spent a few more days with my In-Laws. And, because Colorado is so close to Western Kansas, we popped over to my parents' house for my Family Christmas Festivities.

My parents' tree. Isn't it nice? I love to see the ornaments I recognize from years and years past.


I remember this votive-holder from years and years past, too. It looks much nicer with a candle burning inside it, but we decided to blow it out once we got to the opening-presents part of the evening. Good thing, too...in the flurry of tearing paper, there was at least one instance where I set the paper on top.

My sister and her husband live in Colorado, too, but they spent the night at my parents'. They had just flown in from Atlanta that afternoon and were tired! Plus, if they spent the night, we could have more togetherness time the next day!


My parents and I played gin rummy every Saturday morning for about two years when I lived with them. Now it is a tradition, and so we played. That's my dad's coffee cup over there. Notice that the first card is an ace.

Aaaand of course, we had a fire in the fireplace. Doesn't it look cozy? It sure was! Aaaaah, good times.

A List of Crazy/Random Things I Have Done AT WORK in the Last Three Days

The bosslady has been sick and out of the office these last three days, and I turned out to be one that took on some of her duties. I was the "Education Point Person," which actually means I'm the one they all call on the walkie-talkie to ask questions of expecting me to solve all the problems.

Anyway, these things are all things I have done at work just in the last three days.

• Figured out how to cook an egg without a stovetop, hot plate, or water boiler. Just a restaurant coffee-maker, water, and plenty of time.
• Learned that, even when you poke a hole in them and immerse them in water, eggs explode in the microwave.
• Observed what roach egg-sacs look like while the roach is extruding it!
• Learned how to tell if a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach is male or female.
• Taught the New Science Demo twice, saying the words 'booger,' 'poop,' 'pee,' and 'snot' aloud. Oh, and 'fart.'
• Explained to an auditorium full of kids what we can learn from the color and odor of our pee.
• Used a whoopee-cushion to model a fart sound...without breaking into laughter.
• Listened to (and silently prayed for) my coworker whose hearing aid has gone out. Talking with her is a hoot...you have to be sure to have her attention and speak up.
• Learned more about how to love and care for said coworker.
• Washed a washing-machine-full of dirty mopheads. Also, transferred them to the drier. AND put them away where they belong.
• Went up (and down) 794 steps (literally...I'm one of 'those people' that counts steps and I know how many steps are in each stairwell and how many times I've gone up and down them in just these three days). With an average of 14 steps per building story, this comes out to 56 stories, one way.
• Given 'moral support' to the Head Bosslady while she transferred two tarantulas from their enclosures to travel carriers.
• Caught a cricket with my bare hands to put into one of the tarantula-travel-carriers for the tarantula's lunch. (The bedding stank of cricket poo, and I said yet another sentence I never thought I'd say: "Boy, this cricket crap sure does smell!")
• Learned more about two exhibits and how to fix them when they go awry.

I don't care how good you might be at your retail/sales job, you just won't have days this varied. Honestly, who else can say they had adventures like these at their job...in such a short period of time? I love working here. It's great!

Socks

I'm turning into a weird Sock Person. I am becoming more and more particular about my socks. Two facts: I don't like to wear socks at work (just Crocs, thank you; name-brand socks to be exact!) AND my feet get cold fast, and I have to put socks back on ASAP. I'm learning to have socks on hand as often as possible.

Counting

I didn't start thinking about the number of hairs on my head when I was faced with this hurt again this afternoon. It was this morning: I was picking up extra hours by helping with the Museum Shop's yearly inventory.

If you don't know how big a deal inventory is, let me tell you. Every item that's saleable has to be accounted for every year. It has to do with taxes, but it also has to do with reconciling what the paperwork says a store owns and what the store actually owns. So people have to physically count every single item in a store.

This is a big deal for big big big stores like Target and the other Big Box Store I worked at...they hire companies to come in and do the inventory for them, and all those workers have scanners and computers and systems of their own. It's harder for smaller stores, where the work has to be done the slow way. One by one, piece by piece, totals written down on paper and then later entered into a computer.

Anyway, I was helping count all the items in the store, and it's pretty tedious work. It's ok, because there are experienced people helping prepare and guide us as we do it, but the tedium is still there. It takes a lot of work to account for every single item in that store! We didn't even count fixtures, or display items. Just the saleable merchandise.

You know Who already knows each of the hairs on my head, all the stars in the sky, each grain of sand on all the beaches...every molecule and atom everywhere in creation? Of course. God--Jesus Christ, the Creator, the King of Kings--He knows. And He doesn't have to work hard to keep track of it all (like we do in retail stores). He just knows. He knows all the time, and with all of Himself, and remains perfectly at peace.

Losing Everything

Talk of the Nation has guests that were talking about losing everything. Now, I've never been in a situation where I've lost all my worldly possessions (like so many of the Katrina victims)...or all my health (to some disease or accident)...or all my loved ones (to some sort of terrible tragedy)...or all my money (like those Bernie Madaff victims)...or my way of life (again, like so many of the Katrina victims)...or my homeland (like my own grandparents, who became refugees and immigrants after World War II)...or all of the above (like Job). But, being someone who lives in a sinful world, I have been the victim of loss.

How does one deal with loss? How do I deal with loss? I have a situation in particular that keeps cropping up...every time I think I've figured out how to deal with this, it comes back. Every time I think I've forgiven the people involved, the hurt and anger comes back. It's a sense of vulnerability, of hurt, of shame, of anger, of rage and revenge.

Here's one thing I do know: the solution is not to 'check out.' Whether to lose myself in my work, in my family, in my sense of loss and hurt; or to tell myself that pain is an illusion; or to convince myself that the source of pain is an illusion...none of these is a good solution.

And here's another thing I know, and that I'm learning more and more in my day-to-day life: there is healing and safety in the true Word of the Lord. "Solution" means "it's ok, it's all gone, it's all over, forget it," and wounds like this cannot be "ok'd" away. What I want (and what I need) is healing--to acknowledge that damage has been done and that the hurt can be, in fact, healed.

• Nehemiah, in the midst of his labor for the City of Jerusalem, prayed to the Lord and asked him to remember his persecutors.
• Paul, in the midst of his lesson about how creation groans for the sons of God to be revealed, reminded us Christians that all things do (actually do!) work together for our good, if we belong to the Lord Jesus.
• Hagar, the slave of Sarah who was used for her master's and mistress's gain, and who was rejected along with her son--God came to her and reminded her that He is The God Who Sees.
• And the Psalmist, though his life so often sucked, praised the Lord that all the hairs on his head were counted. All the hairs on my head are counted, too. The Lord knows mundane details like that--how much more he knows this situation, too!

Perks of Working at a Children's Museum

Today I was filling out some interdepartmental forms, and I couldn't find a pen in my pockets. All I had with me were crayon stumps.

So I filled out the forms (they are just casual documents, not real forms!) in crayon.

AND I will be taken seriously.

Merry Christmas (Christmas Travels, Part 2)

So, we woke on Christmas morning and unloaded out stockings. Each stocking has the traditional orange, in-shell peanuts, and candy, as well as something special for each person.

We had breakfast together...traditional scrambled eggs, bacon, monkey bread, and whatnot...then did dishes and THEN began the gift opening.

They were opened one at a time (none of this crazy all-at-once orgy of greed self-absorbed self-centeredness!), and each one was exclaimed over and appreciated.

(Wow, writing about this is really boring. Believe me, it was a nice day, not boring at all.)

Our niece, who is 16 months old, was very cute in the midst of all this. She understood the concept of tearing paper off, but may not have understood that the paper was the prelude, not the game itself. Her Favorite Uncle (my youngest brother-in-law) spent lots of time with her helping her unwrap and enjoy gifts! He is so kind and gentle with her, it's no wonder he's Her Favorite Uncle.

We had Christmas Dinner (Ham and stuff) later that evening...about 8pm...and inbetween gift-opening and dinner several things happened: Niece had her nap, movies were watched, books were perused, phone calls were made (just two...the daughters-in-law to each respective set of parents).

All in all, a nice, relaxing, family-focused, traditional and new-tradition-building day. I loved it.

Westward Ho! (Christmas Travels, Part 1)

First in this series of posts about our Christmas 2008, the trip itself.


View Larger Map

Here's our westward route. Due to the weather in Mt. Vernon, IL and thereabouts (70% chance of evening wintry mix on the 23rd! yikes), we opted for the southern route. It took us about 5.5 hours on the first evening to drive across one state. Yes, Memphis is very far away.

The second day, as we set out across Arkansas, we ran into some rain. It was very rainy, and windy. In fact, as we crossed the Mississippi River, I wan't able to enjoy it because (1) it was so rainy you couldn't even see the water as you crossed it which was just creepy enough to be unsettling and (2) it was so windy I had this terrible surreal fear of being blown off the bridge and into the cold, churning Mississippi below.

So that was our welcome to Arkansas. Thankfully, the rain cleared out in about 30 minutes. Crossing the rest of Arkansas was...long. 5 hours! I drove across most of Arkansas, through all of Oklahoma, and into southern Kansas to Wichita, while Ian read to me or slept.

We got gas in Wichita, and were going to get some fast food, but we forgot that it was Christmas Eve and all the restaurants closed early, so we ate gas station food.* This time, our On the Road Christmas Eve Dinner was fresh, plump, tasty hot dogs (Husband had corn dogs...I held the tray of ketchup for him so he could hold the corn dog, dip it in ketchup, and drive all at the same time), chips, and cokes.

The rest of the trip was uneventful (thankfully so!) till we arrived in Quinter at about 10 pm. Our homecoming was picturesque: the rest of the family had gathered in the living room and were singing Christmas carols while my father-in-law was accompanying with guitar. What a delightful memory!

---

*Two years ago on Christmas Eve, we were driving from Colorado to Western Kansas and ate gas station food at 10pm in a tiny town on I-70 in Eastern Colorado. (If you've never driven I-70 in Eastern Colorado, let me tell you: it's barren.) We had the last two glumly revolving hot dogs in the gas station and were grateful! We were hungry, and they were food.

Return to Tennessee

Well, I've worked my first day back at work and attended church our first Sunday back. We are decompressing and re-acclimating today.

Tomorrow is Husband's first day of the new semester and my day to return, exchange, and buy stuff with gift cards.

And to begin a crochet project (for Rosebud, cj's daughter). And to start thinking about more sewing projects (also for cj and her family).

I have memories to recall and relationships to ponder...and I'll be working on that here, on the ol' blog.