I'm ready! --SpongeBob

Andy and I are getting ready for our backpacking trip this week. First we're stopping in Dallas to attend my cousin's baby shower (I'm still not done with the quilt! See pic below) and then we're off for a week of backpacking over mountains in New Mexico. It was my job, of course, to get the food. And since I don't want to take too much because you have to carry that weight on your back (Andy didn't think I had enough so we went back to the grocery store, I still think it too much but he is a big guy I guess) I rationed the food out by day and meal. So I have all the breakfasts in one bag, all the dinners in two, and everything in between cream of wheat and ramen noodles in its own bag by day. It was fun!

let the little children rock unto Me

This is Ethan rocking out to Andy's metallica tribute band. Ethan is pretty much the coolest kid ever.

my, my, blueberry pie

I'm sitting here eating the remains of my blueberry pie.
I woke up this morning with eight minutes to get ready and arrive for my walking date with Leslie and the Bunting kiddos. I am thankful to be around them. It helps me work on my conversational skills (the girls clammed up when Leslie sat down with Andrew, her youngest) and it helps me realize that my life isn't all about me (because it's sometimes difficult to hold a conversation with a woman who has four kids when those four are inexplicably hyper at seven in the morning). Man, I sound stupid and selfish. But Eck, such is life (said in my head in Jewish-accented (or would that be Yiddish?) English. So, blueberry pie makes me happy and this sentence reminds me of a funny quote I read the other day: "You can't buy happiness. But you can buy ice cream, and that's almost the same thing." I am still working on the quilts for Erika and Connie, my cousin. I didn't think they would be this hard or that it would take me this long. I hope they love them. Too often I see people, well, kids mostly, receive gifts and not appreciate them. But then I thought, it doesn't really matter if they appreciate them or even like them, because it is myself I'm serving by making these. It's me expressing my love and, as is normal in my interactions with others, that is often not seen, or at least not commented upon, or not understood. Andy and I often talk about the things we do for each other to show our love that we either didn't notice or don't care about. Last night I logged on to facebook and saw that Tran said that my "love language" is touch and I know hers is spending quality time without having to peek at her results. And Andy's is probably acts of service. So it is funny that I try to love Andy by giving him hugs and he tries to love me by mowing the lawn. I think the sugar in the pie has gone to my head. By the way, that was not an invitation for all of you to come give me a hug. I only like to be touched by family or very close friends. Spending time with me shows me love too, I promise. And I do bite. Here's to rabies awareness (I raised my fork).

bugging

Last night Andy convinced me to drive him around town at 11pm to look for bugs for his collection. After a lot of frustration and bug bites we found a prime location on the over-lighted tennis courts (seriously, why waste the energy to keep these courts lit during the night? the waste makes me mad). I, of course, found the most and the coolest. For some reason, which I enjoy, I always do better than Andy at things he likes to do. Like looking for birds or bugs or catching fish... which is great for me because he still consistently kicks my butt at chess and boggle (I quit playing boggle because I'm so ashamed, an English major should make a killing with boggle). I found a mole cricket and I really did scream a little when I saw it.
And I found several amazing sphinx moths of different species.
And, ladies listen up, Andy was very happy with me and is very loving today because I gave him the side-by-side time he craves (that means men love doing the things they love with the ones they love) and so I'm pretty much giggling through the day. I'm even going to offer to go looking for bugs tonight too-- even though mosquitoes bit my toosh through my shorts. Ouch!

5 years

Yesterday was our 5 year anniversary.
We went to the natural history museum at OU, which was great because it was short and sweet (only took about 2 hours), it costs only 5 bucks, and they have a fantastic dinosaur exhibit. I was in awe with the triceratops, whose skull holds the Guinness Book of World Records title of being the largest skull found on earth (as opposed to those found on Mars). I couldn't believe how large and ornamental it was. I'm sure it was the toast of the town in its hay-day. Andy liked the super-gator exhibit the best. It was a little scary. The skull of this gator was the same size as Andy, over 6 feet long, with the body being 40 feet long. It was massive.
After that we went to Ted's, my favorite Oklahoman restaurant (see: www.tedscafe.com) and I ate beef tamales and refried beans with fresh hand-made tortillas. Yum! I just finished the leftovers while Andy is out mowing the lawn... I hope he doesn't notice.
It was a good anniversary, and I'm still very glad I'm married to him.

I feel happy oh so happy!

but I don't really know why.
Sometimes when I get hyper and giggly, Andy will look at me and ask, "Why are you happy? What's there to be happy about?" It's very funny so in response I usually do a crazy dance. We love crazy dances. When we were first married we used to have dance-offs, just to act stupid, but I've talked about this before so...

I was just thinking how I title each post before I write it, which is the opposite of what I writer should do (or at least that's what Dr. Philpotts says).

I feel like my heart is a treacherous and confused thing. Which, it is, but I feel it tonight. I wish I felt more joy at the right things and more sadness at the wrong things. I wish I weren't so Americanly ignorant and apathetic.

What else What else... I met Tricia today. Her last name is Klopfenstein. Say that fast, it's a wonderful last name. She looks like a Irish girl to me though, strawberry blonde and lots of freckles. She was talkative without being too gregarious, which made me wonder if she wanted to be my friend or not. She did smile a lot when we talked about our dogs though -- just as mommies with new babies flock to other mommies with new babies. Andy says everyone feels as awkward (isn't it cool that that word has two Ws?) as I, but that doesn't make me feel any more confident, and logically it shouldn't, should it?

Did I write that we weren't going to Alaska? I had let myself hope, even though I really knew it was impossible. It's way to late in the game to get plane tickets. So, we're thinking a cheap vacation so we can go to Alaska next year. So -- the closest cool area from Stillwater is the northeastern side of New Mexico. So I'm going backpacking for the first time in my life. Andy is worried that I can't handle being dirty for days, which is silly because it isn't anything different than camping except that you move your site down the trail each day. And we camp a lot. I am only nervous about being out there alone. The last time we hiked to a campsite no one was within miles (and I mean miles) of us (because we were dumb and camped in winter, which I will NEVER do again) and I kept thinking of scary movies I'd seen where people are lost in the wilderness.

wow I just got tired and I still have dishes to do, so, g'night!

looking forward to fall

Fall is my favorite season. Mostly for the changing leaves and the smell. Nothing smells better than a crisp fall day.

But, there are a few more exciting things about fall...
making applesauce
still believing that your students aren't evil
mums are in bloom (I love mums because they are so hard to kill, so you know I can keep them alive)
getting ready for Christmas
visiting family

And there are some exciting this for this fall in particular...
The release of a new installment in three wonderful books series: InkDeath, Dance of Dragons, and Brisingr (in that order, guys, seriously, if you like fantasy at all, and if you love young adult lit as I do, you should read Cornelia Funke's InkHeart series).

And there are more exciting things for this coming fall that I can't tell you about because I don't know. I have a few plans, but everything (for the third time in my life) is up in the air. Andy and I don't know where we'll be this time next year and this fall is (hopefully) when we'll figure that out.

monday night madness

I'm restless on Monday nights. It's the first night that Andy is gone during the summer weeks and I don't like it. I feel like I have nothing important to do besides wash the dishes. And I get sick of reading sometimes. I know that sounds crazy, but trust me, I don't know too many people who read as much as I do and if I do anything too much I get sick of it. I often find myself forcing myself to brush my teeth or take a shower because I've grown sick of the monotony.
Let's see... what is something happy... don't you just love the cheap summer fruits? I had a huge fruit salad today and it was wonderful. All Andy and I have been eating is fruit salad or smoothies and either a quesadilla or a skillet pizza (the kind that is only mozz and tomatoes and basil -- what's it's name? and we make it in the skillet so we don't have to turn the oven on b/c it gets so hot). So just fruit and cheese, my favorites. And it makes me laugh at myself for how much this affects my mood.
Andy and I took the pups to the vet today and the doctor heard a murmur in Daphne's heart. I freaked out, but Andy was calm. In fact, the doctor asked me if I was okay because I "seemed upset." I was shocked that he took the time to notice and felt open enough to confront me. I wish more people were as sensitive to others' feelings as that doctor was to me. But then, he also told me Daphne was a little chubby, which is ridiculous, she looks great and runs like crazy every day. Andy isn't worried about the murmur because it's only 10% likely, the doc said, that it would be something serious that would kill her. But he also said that it is common for dogs who have this to just fall over dead, without any signs that a owner might notice (because they come so gradually). So I was told to check her resting heart rate to monitor the problem. I know that Daphne is only an animal, but she is our first pup as a family, and she has such a spunky and quirky personality; I've never met another dog like her. She's mostly a pain, but I love her so much.
Well, this is my 200th blog posting. That sounds kind of sad. I wouldn't even bother posting usually, but I have to leach myself sometimes and typing is a heck of a lot faster than writing in my journal. And I don't like writing in my journal because every time I do I think of people who use the verb "journaling" as in, "Oh, do you journal?" No I don't journal, I write in a journal you wierdo. And I don't like the word because freaky and-how-does-that-make-you-feel people suggest that people like me should write in journals. Writing in a blog has gotten a bad rap too, so I'll shut my trap now. It's time to give Daphne a belly rub and start back into my book.

movie review

"Bella"
I watched this last night and I really enjoyed this film. It felt real, believable, and one of the main characters is a dark handsome man with a beard.
It's a sad film, but there is redemption in a way that seems true-to-life, not in a overly mushy christian romance book sort of way. The film shows how we make plans, but how all those plans can change in an instant by an accident or a risky decision. I recommend that you rent this film when you feel like drama.

"Donnie Darko"
I watched this because it's a new cult classic, and I remembered some friends from TECH who talked about it. But... I didn't like it. The huge bunny freaked me out, of course, and I couldn't figure out why all of this was happening to Donnie. I got that all the bad things happened when he listened to Frank the rabbit, so that in the end he decided not to do what Frank says. I just don't get why the only option was to die. And I wonder what is going to happen to Donnie's girlfriend now? It wasn't enough for me.

caffeine addiction

I was going to title this post coke addiction, but then I thought that might look bad.
I just wanted to tell you something funny: Andy is at the motel again tonight (no, I didn't kick him out yet, he's working at his fields and they are 2.5 hours away and he has to be in the field at 6am) and he needed his bedtime snack, but all I sent with him was bread, peanut butter, gum, water, and popcorn. So, dejected that I'm still not making cookies for him (because I eat way too many of them and I'm SICK of being chubs) he decided he would pop the corn. But, he wanted a coke to go with it. The guy has trouble sleeping and what does he want? caffeine. Hmm. And just this morning he was telling me how I shouldn't drink so much coffee being caffeine is a drug and if we exercised more and ate healthier and got enough sleep we wouldn't need drugs to keep us awake.
So, all he has is a ten dollar bill and he's in a small town where there isn't anything open, not even a gas station (and I think there's only one anyway). BUT there is a coke machine. He finds 13 cents in his truck and looks at his coins and his ten dollar bill. The lobby at the motel is closed. So, what does he do... he checks under the nasty sticky (he told me it was sticky) motel couch cushions for coins. I feel bad for him, especially since I just had a diet coke, but it made me laugh.
My lanta that looks good; honestly, my mouth is watering.

The Hollow Kingdom trilogy

The Hollow Kingdom by Clare B. Dunkle
This trilogy was fun! I started it last night and just finished. The first book was a little frightening at the beginning, but then, about halfway, you realize the bad guys aren't bad -- just brutally honest (you can see why I'd like it). It's funny and heartwarming. Perfect for anyone 13 and up. Especially girls. I'd tell you more about it, but I don't want to give it away. Each of the books focuses mostly on one girl, a different one for each book and it also focuses on a few strange and quirky men.
The theme of the book is how people misunderstand people unlike themselves and despise others for doing things they also do (but, they don't see that of course).

farmer's market

I don't know if the people I met today are what I'd call farmers, or at least they aren't the type I bought from in Arkansas.
These people looked liked they just had large gardens that they spend their days in now that they are retired. But, I get a lot of pleasure from buying things from people, rather than Wal-mart or any other store for that matter.

And, even though no one had blueberries, which was my purpose for going, they did have yellow tomatoes (they aren't as acidic) and Japanese (I think that's what it is called) eggplant. And of course, had to buy two of my favorites: yellow squash and peaches. I know this may not be exciting to you -- but as I've established on much earlier posts, I love food, especially fresh homegrown food.