happylaney

It's time to lose your mind and let the crazy out.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

I Aim to Please


Amanda indirectly asked for some Hat or Not Hat pictures, and so here they are. I'm not going to put the little voting box, because I know I'll be bummed when the three people I know that are still paying attention vote, and the box stares at me and flashes "3 votes! only 3 votes! what a loser!" At least that's how I envision it. =)

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Confucius Says

One day when John had to work I ordered Chinese food delivery. There is nothing more luxurious or city-fied than having a different cultural food brought to your door. We definitely didn't have that at the farm.

My fortune cookie said, "Your present plans are going to succeed."

Cecilia's fortune cookie said, "You have a natural grace and great consideration of others."

Charlotte's fortune cookie said, "You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily."


Hmmm...

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Monday, December 13, 2010

Anybody Want To Weigh In On Christmas?

So, here's our dilemma, John doesn't think we should tell our kids that Santa brings all the presents, or maybe even any of the presents. He thinks Santa is a big lie, and that it's bad to tell such a big lie to our kids. He also thinks that our kids should understand that our friends and family (and us!) paid hard earned money for these gifts, and they should be appreciative of these people, and not Santa. And as crazy as that all sounds, after I have had years to digest it, I can see where he is coming from. And, so, so far, Charlotte has no clue, but Cecilia knows what Santa looks like, and gets excited about him, but isn't quite sure why yet. I try to stress baby Jesus, and his birthday. I know that I do hate the materialistic form that Christmas has taken, and would like to somehow not have too much of that in this household. We have adopted a family for Christmas, and although Cecilia doesn't understand much of that, I makes me feel better, and I hope one day she will understand that not everyone has a Christmas like we do now. Heck, we might not even have Christmas in the the future like we do now. So, the other day when she asked about Santa, I started telling Cecilia that we give presents to each other, and to others to celebrate and remember Jesus' birth. I can't flat out tell her the truth, for no other reason than to protect all her little friends and cousins. I don't think Santa is the enemy, I think St. Nick did amazing things, and Santa is a modern day form of him.

All that being said, I'm a little confused about where to go from here. I'm sure you're all thinking they'll miss the Christmas magic, and that's a valid point, but I'm not sure they will... How exactly will they miss the magic? Isn't the magic of Christmas that Jesus was born? And on to more concrete questions, is it ok to wrap presents in front of them? In thinking that we're telling them that we give presents, wrapping presents should be ok. But what if they see me wrap a present to Norah and Norah thinks it's from Santa? Will they automatically think that Santa brought them? Will they ask me in the years to come which presents exactly were from Santa? If we don't say yes or no to the idea of Santa directly to their face will they still believe, or be left somewhere confused in the middle?

Unchartered territory over here...

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Sunday, December 12, 2010

5th Picture of the Tree

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.
- Willa Cather

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Thursday, December 09, 2010

I Try To Be Like Grace Kelly.

Thursday morning, the sunrise was brilliant the whole way to work, bright pinks, hot reds, then with the clouds coming in from the west, by the time I rushed to my tree, this was all I got. I like it's subtlety, and the grey, lilac colors, but it's kid of a bummer knowing I missed a more radiant sky.

In other news, I CAN NOT get this song and video out of my head...stuck, possibly permanently. I like the song, love the sass, and the whole performance is just great; utterly entertaining.

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Wednesday, December 08, 2010

It's Already Wednesday


Are these pictures more similar or different than you imagined?

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Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Tuesday Morning

I had a car and a bus behind me, so I was a little rushed, but here is picture number two of the week. In other bragging rights news, I tied for fourth place in a local photo contest, here's the link. It's highly likely that 8 people competed and 8 people got recognized, but it's fun to think that someone somewhere liked my photo. I didn't even know I had placed, Christy called to tell congratulate me and I didn't know what she was talking about. It was just coincidence that she looked at the Java Journal online today. Funny. I have taken other more artsy fall photos, but I'm just in love with the one I submitted, and thought not that many other people would enter and I might have a chance.

Remember way back here one of my photos was recognized by a different small local newspaper.

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Monday, December 06, 2010

The Swing of Things


Kind of on a roll here with the blogging, kind of enjoying it again...

John's mom is here helping with the girls this week while the regular babysitter is on vaca, so I have my old route to work which includes my favorite tree. I plan to take a picture every morning. I'm digging the pictures pointed right into the sun, who knew?

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Sunday, December 05, 2010

2010 card

Plaid Bliss Christmas 5x7 folded card
Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.
View the entire collection of cards.

Saturday, December 04, 2010

New Bruce



One of my favorites- caution, not for the faint of heart, or easily offended.

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Thursday, December 02, 2010

Back On The Market

We once again have a for sale sign in our yard. After listening to John list all the late nights and weekend work he has in front of him, I called a real estate agent and started this craziness all over again. Last night we toasted to selling the house before New Years. Wish us luck.

Along with my list of ways this house rocks, I also have a list of things I'm looking for in a new house. Here goes: a woodburning fireplace, a pantry, a place for a piano, as much hardwood as possible (this house has zero carpet, and I love that,) a finished basement, flat sunny place for a vegetable garden, a fire pit, nice outdoor furniture, new bedroom furniture and bedding and mattress (still sleeping on a full sized bed that was a hand me down from Matt and Sharon 11 years ago,) framed prints that we brought back from Paris, fixed coo coo clock, a new cat tree, and mostly time...Time to give the girls breakfast at home in the morning, time for John to come home for dinner before going back to a 7 p.m. meeting, time to sleep an extra half an hour every weekday morning, time to get home at a reasonable hour after Muny Band practice and performance. This move is mostly going to give us more time together, and as much as I love this house, love this neighborhood, I love time with my family more.

Cecilia just asked John right before bed, "Who is going to carry our house?" He asked her what she meant, and she said, "Is that guy (real estate agent) is going to carry our house to Ste. Genevieve?"

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Wednesday, December 01, 2010

29/30

That wraps up NaBloPoMo for me. I didn't do too bad, only missed one day.

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