How Could I Almost Forget?!

!! HAPPY 49TH ANNIVERSARY, MOM AND DAD !!

I'm so glad you're still going strong and more in love than ever. Thanks for living in such a way that everyone can see how much you like each other and are glad to be together. Enjoy your celebratory date.

You have taught me so many things about marriage:

• do nice things for each other: get the door, plant flowers, make lunches, train the kids to clean up after themselves;
• work together at something: gardening, canning, camping, backpacking (even if someone keeps pretending that there's a bear in the bushes), family stuff;
• go on dates regularly;
  
• "Couple Time" is important, call it what you will—"nap time," "we need to talk alone," "don't knock on the door or you're in trouble time"—just have it;
• always treat your spouse in such a way that they will always know they are loved;
• don't leave the house angry;
• sleeping on a problem is often a good idea—or space, whatever;
  
• don't air your dirty laundry with everyone in the family—speak well of your spouse at all times;
  
• forgetting a birthday or anniversary is not nice but it's also not worth punishing a spouse for—assume everyone is doing their best and some things just get forgotten.
  

My favorite concept is the idea that there is no one person out there meant only for me. There are many people that I could choose to be with and be happy. The important thing is to decide well and then keep on choosing to stay married. This set my mind at ease from a very young age. Knowing that my husband would be up to me and not the universe was very comforting. And look how well I chose!*

I'm so glad that you're both following your dream to serve missions. Thus combining your love of service, learning new things and making new friends. I'm so proud of you for putting yourselves out there, struggling to learn new languages, fit into new cultures, taking cinnamon rolls and Red Feather stories to the world.

Again, happy anniversary.

________________
*Ed. note: Universe 1, Kitti 0, Justin ∞

But Enough About Me

Firstly, you're all such lovely people. Thanks for your sympathy and sorry to be all 'poor me'. Things are fine now. It's just nice to get out of my own head every once in awhile. Okay, enough of that.

Merry Christmas everyone! I'm bound and determined to not only take pictures this year but to post them as well. I hope everyone else has that goal in mind because I can't wait to see what y'all do over break.

My best and brightest wishes to all for a lovely Christmas and happy New Year.

Can I Just Tell You...

The difference it makes to not be in pain? HUGE. That's the difference it makes.

Last night was dark (both literally and metaphorically). Life is just so terrible when you can't walk. Grace was trying to cheer me up by offering to time* how long it took for me to walk from the kitchen to the office. At two, I had to ask her to stop. Concentrating on staying upright when there's a little voice counting out, "one, two …" is really more than one can be expected to handle at such times.

I started to think, it's too much: Christmas, work, cleaning, cooking, living, finding joy, blah, blah, blah. Then there's the stand-by, "I never should have gotten married or had a family. I'm bringing them down. I can't live like this...." and so on.

(I never voice this out loud because then this conversation would ensue: K:"I'm bring you down." J: "What?! That's crazy talk. I'm the one bringing you down." K: "You? No, it's me. I'm cramping your style." J: "No, you're insane. I'm the party pooper." K: "Shut up. It's me." And so on. You can see that this is going no where. Also, J would never call me insane and I would never say "shut up" to him. Random strangers and other people we're mad at but never each other.)

Today I saw the handsome and talented Dr. A for my little toe and my ankle. He did a little fixing, some talking, a lot of planning and I left his office feeling so much better.

I went in thinking something had better get cut off or I needed a cane or heads were going to roll. Seriously. My feet are a hot mess. (My poor little tootsies.) Even Dr. A agreed. Then he so nicely said, "Here's what we can do about that..."

Woohoo! That's what I was thinking, going back to work, still limping but without the "I'm going to kill someone if they so much as look at me wrong" kind of pain. Yay! Sunshine and daisies. It turns out when you use orthotics and braces in-tandem they work so much better. Synergy, how I love thy name!

But really, I feel so much better. I have a ton to do up until Xmas vacation and now I feel like I can do it. (As opposed to thinking, "there's no way in h***" but finding a way to do it anyway. The "can-do" attitude totally helps the process.)

____________
*(She LOVES to know how fast she can do things. We time everything around here: getting dressed, dumping the garbage, laps around the quad, drinking milk.)

Note: Sorry Mom, it's true. I totally swear in my head when things get rough.

Holiday Bark-Off

At work today we are having a Bark Throwdown. Bark is another thing I didn't know about before moving to PA.

Melt chocolate chips, add almonds or crushed candy cane or anything else you can think of and spread out on a cookie sheet, lined with wax or parchment paper. Allow to cool in the freezer. (Or if you live in PA, put outside your door for a few seconds.) Once completely cooled, break into pieces. And there you have it, Bark.

Here's the one I did (P.S., they all had to be original recipes -no internet cheating):
1 bag 60%cocoa Ghirardelli chocolate chips
1/2 chopped macademia nuts
6 caramels (chopped in quarters)

Melt the chocolate. Add the stuff. Spread on parchment. Freezer for 5 minutes. Break and (put in a) bag.

I haven't actually tried it yet -it was 8am when I made it- so maybe it won't be great. Well see.

What I really want to know is, have you heard of bark and have you ever made it? I don't know if bark is just not a west-coast thing or if I was hanging with the wrong crowd.

Maudie Jane's Birthday

Yes, it's true. The Best Little Sister I Ever Had is turning....something. Happy birthday, Maudie Jane (on Monday)!

Now for the roast. Or some less embarrassing stories.

As children, there was of course, the fighting of many varieties: fist, feet, yelling, tickling (I'm so so sorry for that one), name-calling, food (I wish we'd done more of that), throwing, etc. Sad times. Sometimes we were enemies.

Also, don't forget the rush to the best spot at the dinner table (always next to Dad -why was that?), the licking of the plate to ensure no one else took the spot and the calling of the couch corner on Saturday mornings.

Sometimes we shared: interests, rooms, barbies, candy, friends, dressing Tyler up as a girl, ideas (remember the pretend play with the girl who always got everything but was never spoiled?). Good times. Sometimes we were friends.

Then we grew up to be teenagers and there was the borrowing and trading (sometimes not admitted to until much much later): clothes, hair-stuff, shoes (not as much), styles, friends, babysitting jobs, the car, wild stories (mostly on the part of MJ), jokes -I love the hilarity of MJ, music (it's true, MJ introduced me to Nirvana and Green Day). Good times.

Then I went to college and we forgot that we were ever frenemies and became just friends.

Favorite scary story: I called from UT, one night when you were home alone. You were totally freaked out because someone kept calling and hanging up. I told you to go over to our friends house and you took the land-line outside with you so that I would know you were okay--all the way to the car. But as you got in the car, you dropped the phone and shrieked a little and the phone cut out. All I heard was a shriek and the phone went dead. Scariest 30seconds of my life until you called to say what happened. Phew. The End.

Then we grew up some more and now there is only sharing and sharing.

• favorite books
  
• secret favorite books
• sometimes only "ok" books
• texting and phoning
• love of fine yarns and cheeses
• husbands who love the Wegman's bakery
• so many stories and so much more laughter
• sometimes tears
• sometimes soda through the nose
• still clothes (now through our kids)
• and on and on

I love you, MJ. Happy birthday.

Belated Homecoming Parade Pictures

Penn State knows how to have a Homecoming Parade. And the 2008 version was no exception. We staked out our plot of sidewalk a mere six hours before 'go' time. Good thing too. Not five minutes later and the whole area had been staked out by other eager beavers (er, eager lions?), also wanting a good place to watch. Phew, that was close.

I'm not even ashamed to admit that I got kinda choked up when the Alumni Band went by. Loud music, played by PSU-loving old people? What's not to love?
And we all loved Charlie Brown.
You're seeing the crab of The Maryland Chapter of the Alumni Assoc . Seriously, there were at least a dozen different State chapters of the Alumni Assoc. represented in the parade. Even Utah had people to march in the parade. They don't kid around about football.
The fanciest floats were all from The Greeks. Very impressive and mostly appropriate for young children. And they all throw candy. That's really the point, right?

I put this one in mostly to show what a poor camera-womam I am. Poor Jose, I didn't mean to cut her off. She was a HUGE hit at the parade. All the floats (going by us) were targeting Josie with their candy. I think she out-collected both Grace and Dane by about half.

And that's all folks.

Harry Potter On Hold

It turns out that reading a story about big, dark, invisible ghosty-things, to an eight-year-old, with an imagination, at bed-time can sometimes be a bad idea.

The Gracetress has been having nightmares. Guess who else hasn't been sleeping?

Needless to say, HP #'s 4-7 are on indefinite hold. Poor sweetie. We're on to happier stuff.

Prince Caspian, here we come! Or Ella Enchanted. Or Something.

My Back Is Killing Me

And so the dearth of posts.

More when I can sit for longer than 10 minutes without wanting to die.