Listing 2011, V

I'm kind of regretting the Thankful List. Not the Thankful part, just the ongoingness of the list. (It is so a word. I feel a legalistic need to finish. the. list. Next year, I'm starting with one so that I will be done when I am done instead of this silliness compelling a list of precisely one hundred things for which I'm thankful.

25. The resolution of next year's ordering of the list.
24. A calendar full of Girly Coffees and Girls' Nights/Days Out.
23. That today was our last regularly scheduled Sunday at Little Country Church.
22. Another of Those Moments when Skater Girl confused tourists with terrorists. (Imagine the potential.)
21. That we were not in an airport or on a plane when #19 happened.
20. Being Happily Married.
19. Grace.
18. In honor of #19, the list ends here.

Listing 2011, Part IV

The post-Thanksgiving listing of the good stuff goes on...

40. The "extra" teenagers who joined us to decorate the Christmas Tree this year.
39. Staying up late watching spy movies with Middle Child.
38. The possibility of our first freeze tonight.
37. Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches for dinner.
36. Prayer.
35. That Skater Girl did not refer to "butt dialing" as a "booty call" in public before we discovered her mistaken assumption that they were the same thing.
34. That first whiff of pine as we walked past the Christmas Trees for sale at the market.
33. Belly laughs.
32. The start of Track Season for the Runner Girls on Monday.
31. The beginning of the Christmas message series at church this weekend.
30. Jane Austen.
29. Contentment.
28. My daughter wrapped in a quilt my mother made.
27. The trust of my children.
26. Memories.

Listing 2011, Part III

Thanksgiving was yesterday, but I'm continuing the list of things to be thankful for despite Black Friday:

50. I'm thankful for awareness:

Christmas Conspiracy from Christ Fellowship on Vimeo.

49. For the opportunities being offered through Reach Out Honduras that will open doors to those who live in need beyond what I have ever known.
48.  My son who has the potential to graduate from high school early if he can make the most of his opportunities.
47. Renewed relationships.
46. Giggling.
45. My mister. (He gets at least as many mentions as coffee... they're among my favorite addictions.)
44. Ally and Susan for backing up the theory that pumpkin pie is breakfast food.
43. Literacy.
42. Leftovers.
41. Being left-handed.

Listing 2011 Part II

75. Photos that capture an idea when words fail.
74. Buster and Maggie who always have a tail wagging greeting to welcome us home.
73. The machines that make multi-tasking easy. I mean you, Washer, Dryer, Dishwasher...
72. My in-laws who are spending Thanksgiving with the Boy today.
71. Inappropriate humor
70. Being surrounded by so much talent that I can make out three different songs being practiced simultaneously by the mister and his girls who are each in separate rooms.
69. Pie
68. A sonogram that showed no change in the Magical Mystery Lymph Node. Nothing to see there, movin' it along, people.
67. Our last reglarly scheduled weekend at the Little Country Church. And our return to our Home Church that's already begun.
66. Laughter
65. Gray hair
64. That my mister and I are still dating each other.
63. Google because it makes me smarter.
62. Jesus because He makes me certain.
61. The shapes Skater Girl's blade cut into the ice when she spins
60. Girly Coffee Dates
59. The Thanksgiving Team delivering food to needy families in Puerto Lempira, Honduras today to demonstrate God's provision rather than enjoying a turkey dinner with their loved ones at home.
58. Books
57. The mister making the coffee each morning while I'm still snoozing.
56. Big dreams and the bigger God who can make them reality.
55. For each time the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train.
54. The riot of color in the changing leaves.
53. Our monstrous Rosemary bush that grew from a single twig and survived a move.
52. Crock pots that make homemade possible even when Stay-at-Home-Mom is a misnomer.
51. That a list of a hundred reasons to be thankful will barely begin to cover all the good stuff.

Listing 2011

This week Green Girl has been posting an ongoing list of things she's grateful for in honor of Thanksgiving. Today, I'll start my own list of the good stuff:

100. Quiet moments
99. Speakers that fill a room with bass and sound that wash over one with the mood and emotion of music
98. Perseverance... the stuff that drives one to just. keep. going.
97. The laughter around our dinner table
96. Snuggling against my mister on a chilly night
95. Sharpies
94. The Birthday Girls: Denise, Joanne, and Lisa
93. Breakfast Dates with Meera and Sylvia that last well past lunch.
92. Kindness
91. Seeing my children try.
90. And fail.
89. And succeed.
88. Coffee
87. Grace that makes the untenable surmountable
86. Purple
85. Freshly laundered sheets
84. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
83. History
82. The mister's jobs that allow him to work from home and me to be at home.
81. Possibilities
80. Avant's short-cycle church plant team in Gdansk, Poland
79. Elena. Our sweet sponsor daughter in La Moskitia who prays for us, humbles me, and is precious in every way.
78. Claudia. Our feisty sponsor daughter in La Moskitia who challenges those that would help her, has a smile that lights up my world, and has great potential should she choose to use it for good.
77. The Waits Family
76. Ally, Susan, and Marsha who have adopted me into their family and treat me like one of their own.

Tidbits: Preparation

• Skater Girl's home rink is surrounded by excellent shopping. That makes the 6:30 a.m.-9:00 a.m. skating sessions look really attractive for the next five or six weeks. That time of day falls before even the extended hours many retailers have scheduled. I just don't think I have the patience to navigate through the masses likely converging on the shopping center who are operating on too little sleep, time, and money while attempting to meet increased demands on all three.
• Tomorrow, the mister and I will trek into the downtown area for a sonogram of my neck. There's a radiologist there who is supposed to have a great eye for recognizing Thyroid malignancies via ultrasound. The clear scan from last August was negated by some blood work, so we are back to watching the bump found in June for a possible recurrence of the cancer treated successfully two decades ago.
• The assignments for Thanksgiving Dinner have been given. Our hostess only requested that we bring a corn casserole, chocolate bread, and the wine. It's hard to get much easier than a make-ahead treat, a single baked dish that's prepped in advance, and a couple of bottles of Reisling. Thanksgiving Day will be a relaxed one with great friends who have genuinely made us part of the family.
• The girls and I are thinking we will skip Black Friday. We are unsure just what traditions to try to resurrect this year. Some of our humbug hangs on as we face the third holiday season without the Boy. The mister is ready to return to the enjoyment of more cheer, but his girls are still unsure how to get the spirit of Christmas Past into the present.

Creep

The mister suggests we add a vehicle like this to our driveway:

We can even put custom license plates that read, "CREEPN", on it. Our children have long referred to white vans as, "Creeper Vans" because every after school special and kiddie PSA on Stranger Danger throughout their early elementary years featured such a vehicle. The white cargo van is ultimately linked to strangers offering candy in the minds of my children.
With the Boy of legal driving age, and Middle Child right behind him, vehicles are a topic frequently considered and discussed around here. This weekend the mister saw a very reasonably priced white Econoline van offered  for sale locally. He and I found the potential hilarious. Our kids were less amused. Okay, Skater Girl thought it was funny, but she's several years behind her siblings; therefore, there's little risk that she would have an opportunity to drive the Creeper Van.

Called

Middle Child talked a mile a minute relating an update from the weekend's youth group retreat. As Middle Child spun out her tale, I picked up Zoey (who attempted to flee, but failed to avoid my petting) telling the cat in my usual voice (and unintentionally switching to the annoying baby talk sometimes reserved for infants, pets, and cloying couples) that she was, "... fuzzy, hairy, and super, super cute!" (Dear Heavens, at least I didn't say fuzzy-wuzzy or cutesy-wootsy... Ick.) I stood stroking the cat's fur while again informing Zoey that she wasn't going anywhere until I was done petting her. The hairball patiently waited to make her escape. Middle Child continued on to her story's conclusion. The mister and I laughed along with Middle Child at the circumstances involved in her story until she gasped and pointed at the kitchen counter with wide eyes. The cat found her getaway opportunity.

As the cat sped away, I fumbled for my phone sitting on the counter top where I leaned while listening to Middle Child and cooing to the cat. The display showed a minute and fifty-six seconds into a phone call to our dentist's voice mail. It's entirely possible to hear every word said over the connection of such accidental calls. I'm just really glad that it's the mister, and not me, who will head into that office for an appointment this week. Eesh.

Receivers

A package arrived today, and it could have been the mister's birthday gift. Except that it was not. This reminded him that right around my birthday earlier in the year, he brought home a bass guitar amplifier. (I do not play bass guitar. He does.) I'd completely forgotten about the timing on his amplifier addition, but he remembered because, just in time for his birthday, "we" have added these to "our" collection:

Tidbits: Birthday Girl

• Today is Skater Girl's actual birthday. Her daddy made the prediction that she would arrive by November 15th despite a December due date. Erin was obligingly born at a quarter to midnight.
• She is already tall, but her pediatrician projected that she will potentially reach somewhere between 5'9" and 6'1" before she attains her full adult height.
• She's witty, wry, funny, a talented writer with an eye toward social commentary and an artist specializing in cats, "...because she cannot draw people."
• As a toddler she could not run three steps without falling on her face, but she could stand on one foot for five minutes--- only quitting because she grew bored. As a tween, she's discovered that figure skating is her thing. Skater Girl loves jumps, and only bothers to learn spins because they are required to compete at levels with more complex jumps.
• Erin finds four-letter-words offensive. (This is not a given in her grade where many of her peers have mistaken Potty Mouth for Maturity.) She utilizes, "Cabbages!" in lieu of curse words and certain less socially acceptable exclamations.
• People are sometimes confused as to what her name is due to an array of nicknames. The most common of these include: Skater Girl, Libs, Libby, Livvie, Liv, Elizabeth, Lizabeth, Lizzy, Lizzer, Lou, Lulu, Little Bit, and (courtesy of her elder siblings) Lizard Beth and Lizard Breath. She generally answers to all but the last two.

Eleven

Last year, we missed celebrating Skater Girl's tenth birthday on 10-10-10 because, while we were celebrating early with the ladies in the immediate family heading to Honduras the week after the actual birthday, the party centered around the theatrical release of a movie. This year, today would have allowed the celebration of Skater Girl's eleventh birthday on the ideal day for such an event. Except that the party is scheduled for tomorrow. (And she's not a Veteran...) Maybe next year we can celebrate Skater Girl's twelfth birthday in December. I should mark the calendar to ping me next October so we hold off on celebrating until 12-12-12... Maybe a Twelfth Night theme? Or maybe not...

Gone

The mister and I have made a decision to leave the church plant we followed out to a neighboring community. The reasons are our own. The fall-out from the decision seems more widespread than I would have expected. After wrestling with the decision, it was shared with the leadership of the small congregation. A meeting that has gone on and on via discussions, e-mail, and phone since. The decision was made before the meeting was scheduled, but the process of leave-taking is drawn out despite the reality that we are already gone.

Define Skinny

Post-knee replacement surgeries, I discovered that my jeans no longer fit. There was so much swelling three weeks post-op that my fat jeans could barely be wriggled over my knees, and the results were miserably painful. I sucked it up and ordered two sizes up because there was a full size difference between my regular and fat varieties already. Three and a half months later, and I am still alternating between the two pair of "fat" jeans.
Not that this is a subject that really gets much thought. Today it became an issue when time to take Skater Girl to school rolled around, and I remembered that both pair of Mom Jeans had gone into the laundry last night. Oops. I responded to the misters calls for me to hurry downstairs by leaning over the railing to request tht someone grab a pair of my jeans from the dryer. The request garnered the response that the load of jeans were washing again because they smelled weird. Since the mister and I were headed off for a morning date after dropping off our youngest, sweat pants were not really a desirable option.
Wondering how clean clothes could smell weird, I grabbed a pair of my too-small former fat jeans. (Which are now my skinny jeans because my behind grew to match the once-swollen knees while I was sitting around waiting to heal...) Expecting to relive the horror of trying to cram my post-partum body into normal jeans two weeks after giving birth for the first time, enthusiasm was lacking while pulling the jeans off a hanger dredged from the nether region of the closet. Hopping out of the closet while shimmying into the pants, it was entirely surprising to discover that they weren't putting up much of a fight. The zipper went right up without pliers, or even lying down on the bed. Cool.

Heading downstairs, I was feeling pretty good about the morning's surprise size downgrade. I gave a little spin and shook my newly discovered smaller hiney. Skater Girl caught this move, and she raised an eyebrow. I explained that I was wearing my "skinny" jeans. She looked a little sick. I said, "Not skinny jeans like your sister wears. My skinny jeans. That's what women call the too-small jeans they need to believe they will one day wear again if they can just lose that last five pounds." Grinning now, she replied, "You mean those jeans that women say are five pounds away, but what they mean is more like twenty." I think we can cross Jenny Craig consultant off her list of possible future careers. She might be a comedian, though.

Questioning

Hmmm... Someone asked this morning in a poll if couples have had a casual conversation about fonts. Um. We've had several in the past couple of weeks. So I responded in the affirmative. Then it occurred to me that perhaps the questioner wasn't actually referring to the type face sort of font that immediately comes to my mind. Just for grins, I entered the term into my browser. The first three definitions in multiple online dictionaries showed the following:
font 1 (f nt) n. 1. A basin for holding baptismal water in a church. 2. A receptacle for holy water; a stoup. 3. The oil reservoir in an oil-burning lamp.

Perhaps one of these top three fonts were what the question related to, and, if so, then I'm not so sure there have been casual conversations about any of them. Unless it was in relation to the use of such a word in a song? Or maybe we had some long ago trivia question about religious ceremony? Or a chat about historic light sources? No idea.

On the topic of fonts in relation to characters of specific size, shape, color, etc. we have had multiple conversations. Most recently this hot topic had to do with selecting the fonts for our Christmas Cards and in relation to some options proposed for Reach Out Honduras related to changing the logo. Is this weird? Surely the first three definitions listed for a word are likely to be the most common? Why don't I know whether that last statement is true? Good grief. Maybe the definitions are listed in chronological order of use beginning with the oldest and proceeding to modern usage? I wonder about these things sometimes... Then I wonder why I have so many questions, and we're off again...