Kenlyn and Cougars

Last night Cyler and I celebrated my friend Kenlyn's bday. We all went to Truluck's and had dinner in the piano bar--that guy loved to sing Billy Joel songs. Tracy came too which is nice because I don't get to see her all that often since she lives in Arlington. She's got two kids and is an electrical engineer. She just got a better compensating job with more management responsibilities--Go Girl!! She took off after the restaurant and the 4 of us went to The Glass Cactus to dance.

http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-texan/grapevine-dallas-dining-activities/grapevine-dallas-nightlife/glass-cactus/index.html?source=glasscactusnightclub.com

The live band played 70's and 80's stuff and then the DJ did stuff like "Apple Bottom Jeans." There were more cougars there than at a BYU football game. On the dance floor, Kenlyn turned to me and said, "I feel like a goddess here!" The crowd is a bit older which is nice for us who are pushing 40--although Kenlyn keeps saying, "I'm 29, again!?!!"

Picture Tag

I got tagged! (Thanks Katy!) This 4th pic is a nice one of a rather cobby derriere and Ellery and Isaac when they were about 4. We were at Fossil Rim out near Glen Rose. What a cool place to live by--safari animals that came up to the car!

Assignment: Post your 4th photo in your 4th album
So now I tag Becky, Amy and Sharel!! Go!

Haiku and Buck

For Chinese New Year I had wanted to celebrate by cooking, decorating and having friends over for crafts. That didn't happen due to the Quickbooks training I'm knee deep in right now. So instead we read some haikus (Japanese I know) for Family Home Evening and created our own, using sacred text stories as topics. See if you can guess which text the haiku is referring to:

1. The clouds are passing

Hopeful Eyes wait for the dove

with green in her beak

2. Love other people

It's a commandment of Christ

Love is everything

3. The glowing tree trunk

That gave fruit from the heavens

Led by a long rod

4. Standing up in chains

Abinadi speaks the truth

power men ignore

5. One big hungry fish

The man was swallowed, yum yum

He went out the spout

Now here is a song (sung to Popcorn Popping) that Ellery and Cyler made up and proves we are a literati family:

I went outside to get in my truck

And there in front sat my old dog Buck

I asked "what ya doin' boy?" and guess what he said

"I'm goin for a ride before I go to bed."

My eyes got wide, my jaw began to drop

as far as I know, dogs ain't supposed to talk.

I looked him in the eye, "Where ya wanna go."

And he replied, "To the picture show."

Things I'm Learning in Homeschool

*Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics was a monk!! Cool plug for the great creative work of unmarried, childless people.

*The whiptail lizard lays eggs without mating. The offspring are exact clones of the mother. There are male and female whiptails and they do engage in pseudosexual behavior that plays a role in reproduction but they don't actually mate.

*"The Maternal Immune Hypothesis" is the idea that the more sons a mother has, the more adept her body becomes at feminizing the male fetus so that her body does not release antigens to destroy the foreign body.

Woman's Work by Julia Alvarez

I love this poem.

Who says a woman's work isn't high art?
She'd challenge as she scrubbed the bathroom tiles.
Keep house as if the address were your heart.

We'd clean the whole upstairs before we'd start
downstairs, I'd sigh, hearing my friends outside.
Doing her woman's work was a hard art

to practice when the summer sun would bar
the floor I swept till she was satisfied.
She kept me prisoner in her housebound heart.

She'd shine the tines of forks, the wheels of carts,
cut lacy lattices for all her pies.
Her woman's work was nothing less than art.

And I, her masterpiece since I was smart,
was primed, praised, polished, scolded and advised
to keep a house much better than my heart.

I did not want to be her counterpart!
I struck out. . .but became my mother's child:
a woman working at home on her art,
housekeeping paper as if it were her heart.

Project Overload

Cyler and Ellery have been hanging out with eachother once a week since Cyler made that as one of his goals this year. They are pretty tight. Cyler is a goal oriented person, the problem is that I am too. With what we want to accomplish this year, individually and together, makes my head spin. He talks about moving to a smaller home in Trophy Club so that we can buy Montana property--but his tone now--he is more serious than I have ever heard him before. Montana??? His Ghana project is another full time job--I have to remind him to eat and sleep--he gets up 2-3 times a week at 3am so that he can get a phone connection to his bank in Ghana and it is really taking it's toll. I can't tell if I'm complaining or what--I feel like worrying out loud, I guess.

My year looks like this:

Homeschool Soren and 2-3 more trips (If the Ghana thing doesn't work out, less trips)

Home, pet, things care

Family/Religious/Spiritual care--Keep Cyler alive and hopeful, keep Colby updated/connected, keep kids (and me) from extremes of blind faith and faithlessness.

Quickbooks accounting for Cyler (I'm excited about this one with a little trepidation. I asked what my pay was. Cyler said "How about footrubs?" I said no. Although I do have a friend who does her husband's business and her philosophy is "Will work for shoes." And great shoes they are--I go visit them when I want to be near designer perfection.)

Kids extra activities (dance, piano, scouts etc)

Start a GirlScout troop with Rocio

Fitness regimen (Mon-Athletic Training or jog, Tues-24 Set, Wed-Step, Thurs-OFF, Fri-Salsa or Spin, Sat-Yoga, Sun-Walk with family)

Prep for Ellery's baptism (make dress, prepare harp piece)

Harp--piece for Easter too. My chiropractor is helping me with back, forearm and shoulder issues from playing the harp. I look forward to the day when I am playing pain free.

Sew summer clothes--Becky told me about a way to make a dress form for myself out of tape instead of buying one. I might be crazy enough to try it. She started a cool blog about bargain shopping: http://bargainbasics.blogspot.com/

Focus on health--Chiro, dentist, ObGyn, get ready for chassis surgery

FRIENDS--I enjoy a kick up your heels time, quiet lunch time, window shopping time, chic flic or chic lit time.

Huh, a few years ago my plans were simpler: "Give head and bake bread."

New Year's Day at Valhalla

New Year's Day at Valhalla, our friends' property in Decatur TX. It was so fun riding 4wheelers, shooting guns, sitting by the fire and eating hotdogs. Here's Soren on the 4wheeler and Wyatt being his cool self. The weather was great and the company was even better.

Stacy and Becky chatting. Ellery ran into Stacy's daughter, Jayla, and ripped her jeans with the 4wheeler. I felt so bad for her--they were brand new jeans. Luckily her body was ok. I need to call and see how she's feeling today.

Ellery and Claire, so cute.

And also, my sister Shannon came to visit! Yay. Her first night here, we went to our friends' for a New Year's Eve get together. It was fun for me to have Shannon meet my friends!

Cyler and Ellery on 4wheeler heaven. Bo and Stacy have 4 of them, Jared and Becky have 1.

So, from the above picture it looks like the kids had a good time. Thanks Hall's and Miles's.