"I'm too lazy to come up with a title and actually forgot one initially...."

Hello, lovebugs.

How's life? Marvelous, I hope.

So...remember a few weeks back when I posted that huge long post where I talked about a buuunch of stuffs, including my ventures to Town Talk and a quick brush-over on fair trade vs. ethical trade? Well, if not, you can refresh your memory here. My amazing big brother who is much more well-versed in these topics than I am gave a little more insight into Celestial Seasonings as a company. Here's what he had to say (very good to know):

As for celestial seasonings, it really depends on how deep you're willing to go. celestial seasonings is owned by the hain celestial group, which is a publicly traded company with majority ownership going to heinz, and other large shareholders being exxon-mobile, phillip morris, monsanto, citigroup, walmart, and lockheed martin. all of these companies are unethical. that means that every product you buy from hain celestial puts money into the pockets of big tobacco, the war industry, the (arguably) most insidious agricultural company in the world, one of the largest oil companies (environmental destuction much? talk about the opposite of stewardship...), a company responsible for the collapse of of the u.s. small business domain and the transference of work and vast sums of money out of our local economies and directly to china, and a financial institution that received enormous bailout monies (to the tune of the u.s. government covering 90% of it's losses on it's $335 billion portfolio), who's largest single shareholder is the prince of saudi arabia, and who awarded approx. 1200 employees bonuses ranging from $1 million to $10 million *EACH* after it received bailout money. on the surface celestial seasonings may seem like an ethical choice, but you don't have to dig too deeply to see some of the problems with supporting this company. but like i said, it really depends on how deep you want to go with it.

So, for those of you who were wondering, there you have it - a run-down of who Celestial Seasonings is...kinda depressing, but good to know.

Let's see, what else is there to say...

OH! The J-Man did an outstanding job opening night of Anybody Out There? The kid was pulled into the show last minute and had a week to learn an entire role...he's awesome...just sayin'. The entire show was a hit, but my did that thief steal the show?! (It's funny cause he played a thief...hahaha...ok, I'll stop now) All the kiddos did a great job. I love that they all know me now and always come see how I liked the show or if they see me before the show starts come say how excited they are that I'm there to watch it and hope I enjoy the show - they -- are -- awesome! I also get lots of hugs from them, which is always a plus :]

{I'm not ridiculously proud of my little brother or anything...}

And, tomorrow, Fariz has a trumpet competition that the public is allowed to watch! Who's excited?!?! =] I'm pumped to see (er...hear??) how he does - he tells me that he has a solo in the first piece and a duet and TWO solos in the second one!! Yeah...he's kind of a big deal.

I am officially done getting all of my TB tests out of the way for the U, I sent my final transcript in, have all of my letters, now it's just a matter of filling out some final paper work and finding a place where I, BigBoy, Jakers, Little Bubba & Tevye, and Squishy (if he's still around...) can crash...that won't break the little bank of this future grad student, haha. I'm optimistic, for sure. I've found quite a few places that allow cats and doggies (the kicker on the dogs is the weight limit...Jake is not under 25lbs, hmmm...)....and the roaches and beetles....well, we just won't tell them about those dudes - they really don't need to know ;)

Nothing new on the car search front...contemplated looking at a **little** Toyota Echo, anyone familiar with them?? The estimated gas mileage is AWESOME!! We'll see, I'm taking this as slowly as possible. While poor old Cornelius is in no condition to brave the frozen tundra with me he is still running, so a "new" car is not imperative at this moment in time.

Welps...I'm hungry, so I'm outty. Lata!

Shalom,
~MW

P.S. - here's Josh's latest Man Talk post.

And the child is graduating....

Wow. I can absolutely NOT believe that the J-Man will be graduating in just over a month's time. Blows my mind worlds out of the water... How come he's not still 5yrs old like I see him being in my head?? This is weird. There is no possible way that he is old enough to be heading off to college and striking out on his own...no possible way.

How is it that they grow up so incredibly fast?? I just don't get it. 18 years is a long time...how is it that it has seemingly flown by?

I was privileged enough to be entrusted with taking the kid's senior pictures. I think that's when it really started to hit me... I mean, filling out college apps and talking about where he wants to go and what he wants to do is one thing; we talk about that a lot throughout our high school years. But, actually taking him out and snapping shots of him to send out in his graduation announcements and to add to his senior slideshow really hit me.

And then I started editing those pictures...holy COW my little brother is so grown up! Some of his playful character came out in a few of the shots we took, but so many of them were just so grown up!! I just can't believe it...but there it is staring me in the face. Cold, hard, photographic proof, that he is no longer a child. Don't get me wrong, he's still a kid, and a baby, and a little one, and all that jazz...but, he's just not a child anymore...weird.

Now that I have rambled on about all that, feast your eyes on some of the finished product from the photoshootness:

This is my absolute favorite...shows his true colors - THEATRE!!!

And that, my loves, is all for now.

Shalom!
~MW

Happy....Monday?

Yes, indeed!! Today is definitely off to a great start. Saw the boys off to school (Daddy-o said he would take them today), visited with the Momma over a lovely cup of coffee, and here I am, with the entire day in front of me! Errands, prepare to be run! Books, prepare to be read! Yeah! {complete with fist pump}

Oh yes, today will be a good day. Dreary as it is. Yes, I did just show dislike for a dreary day...I'm officially ready for spring. I'm desperately longing for those crisp sunny days that are so perfectly divine for frolicking around in the great outdoors. Soon :)

Well, as most of you have probably come to realize, when I go to CS for a week or so I'm the absolute worst blogger, ever. I know, I know, I really need to get my priorities in check...working on it! But really, can you blame me? I mean, the people that I allow to pull me away from the internets are ridiculously amaAaAaAazing!! You would drop everything else if you had the opportunity to play with them, too. Promise.

My travels started off with a roadtrip to see SKate with CarrieHammie and Catia. After staying up til, oh 3:30AM or so we made an appearance at Sherwood Forest - oh the peoples we saw... Never imagined I would lay my eyes upon a centaur named Larry. Yep, that happened. It was fun times. We were all ridiculously exhausted from pretending like we were back in high school and getting something like 4hrs of sleep before spending a day strolling around the Forest, but you know, we made it through.

From there I scurried on over to CS for a week of visiting with my college loves...and working in the laaaab. Both facets of the week were awesome. I decided I can "sleep when I'm dead" so I stayed up crazy late every night trying to squeeze every ounce of visit time with my peeps that I possibly could...paying for that now, but it was totally worth it! And, we were super productive at the lab! Got tons of pics taken and we made some huge progress on the egg stats! WHOOP! Um....we are thinking we can have a rough copy ready to send off for peer review by the end of this week - oh yes, it is finally happening! Publication, here we come!!!!!! Oh! I also tested my hand at tennis this week...for the first time ever. It was way fun! Though I really need to work on my aim...the first ball I hit flew about 3 courts over to the left....woops! Haha, yeah, I was totally that person. But, I can't wait to volley around again. So fun! Doubles was fun to play too. While experiencing tennis I got to make a new friend, too! She's an old friend of B's and she was passing through CS on her way home. Can't wait to continue building up our new friendship. She's totally awesome and has an amazing life story. Hooray for new friends!

The week was just straight-up awesome. That's all there is to it.

And, what made it all even better was this: I got to visit with my darling, darling Ponders!!!! Oh, it was glorious to spend the weekend with them. I miss them so terribly. Moving to MN is gonna suck :( But! It's not forever!! :D

So, guess what?! This week I get to sub Tues-Fri for the 7th/8th grade teacher at PCA! Hooray!! I'm terrified out of my mind!!! Haha. I'm super excited about it, but quite nervous, to be completely honest. I've never taught in a classroom setting, so this should be interesting. But, ya gotta start somewhere, am I right?! I'm sure I will have LOTS of fun stories to grace your eyes with this week - be looking for them starting tomorrow evening.

I'm also going to try and get some hard, on paper plans drawn up for my mommy's garden! I'm excited. As is she. We talked about some ideas I have, many of which were influenced by Mr. Powell. Should be fun! I'll throw something up, at some point, for y'all kids to take a gander at.

And, with that, I am off to go run those errands and get to being productive today :D

Shalom!
~MW

EDIT: OMG!!!! GPISD just emailed me and said they want me to be a sub for them, too! Now I just need to go get fingerprinted and go to an orientation in April!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray! (I mean, April is a ways off, but still - GPISD has a bit of rougher crowd of kids, and, in all seriousness, that's totally where I want to be!)

Friday! Friday! Tonight I'll party with my friends!

...Ok...so by friends I mean the wee ones, but it's all good - we're friends too :)

So, since Christmas the wee ones and I have been trying to complete all 5 seasons of LOST to prepare for the start of season 6 - all of our questions will finally be answered! {We hope...}

On that note I need to thank whoever sets the dates for when my favorite TV shows start back up, because starting LOST, the final season, on my bday is the BEST birthday present EvEr!!! So, thanks guys/gals! You're the best.

Anyways, when the boyos get home from school today we will begin the final push. We missed a week of watching while I was down in CS, so we are slightly behind...just slightly. But, we are almost half-way through season 3 and should get beyond that point tonight. We plan to watch LOST all weekend long, in and around our other activities. Like my shopping extravaganza with 'Chuck' and hopefully 'Rose', as well. BUT! We will finish the previous seasons by Feb 2 - we have no other option but to succeed in this...or else...well, we will just be failures...and a poor excuse for LOST fans. This would bring the utmost shame to our heads and family name...the utmost.

Ok, enough dramatics for today! On to other things.

Isn't it amazing how no matter what you are doing in any given season of your life Fridays are still that light at the end of the tunnel? I was thinking about this last night (of course, while watching LOST with the wee ones), and had to chuckle to myself: I don't do any kind of strenuous activity right now, I don't have a job that I hate (or even one that I enjoy - Fridays are still like gold then), I'm not in classes, I'm just tottering along doing whatever, whenever and yet, I still look forward to Friday with as much hope and excitement as if I were working or in school...maybe it's because I know I will get to spend more than a few rushed hours in the evenings with my little brothers... I don't really know, I just like Fridays, and think I always will, until they finally make the work week 4 days long, that is ;)

Yesterday I worked on ISD apps for subbing for 5 HOURS. 5 hours!! No joke!! {Maybe that's why I'm so excited about today...?} I don't want to look at another online application interface for like...oh, I don't know...ever! Ugh, but, they are complete, so that's a plus. I'm holding off on my AISD app, because they charge you for finger printing and some of the other districts don't. So, if I can get away with not paying for my finger printing, I will! And then I'll apply for AISD. Frugality prevails! Haha.

I also ran by James Avery yesterday to see if there was anything I could/wanted to exchange a charm for...I got a lovely ichthys charm for graduation, but it's a little bulky for my tastes and so wanted one that was little more dainty or something, but didn't really find anything that really jumped out at me. I contemplated getting a 2nd A&M charm, one that I could wear on a necklace chain (I already have one sautered on my charm bracelet)...I dunno if that's over-kill though. I was thinking it would be nice to have just the charm that I could wear whenever since I don't wear my charm bracelet all them time...but I can't decide. There was a lovely ichthys there that was kind of "swirly", meaning it had curly-ques and everything in it's design, but I just couldn't decide. Thoughts?? Suggestions??

Ok, ladies, here's a confession/question for you all: WHAT DEODORANT DO YOU USE?! For the last few months I have been sweating profusely (sorry boys...gross, I know, but whatever, such is life)...and I cannot seem to find one that keeps me at least somewhat dry...I just want a little dryness. Is that so much to ask?? Ugh, I don't even have to be doing anything and it feels like Niagara Falls under there - so not cool. My mom swears by Mitchum Clear Gel, and I've been using that to no avail...I've tried the "prescription strength" stuff, and haven't really had any luck there either. I'm a freak, I know. But, I know there have to be other people out there with the same question, so I'm going to buck-up and ask it for all of us. I am woman! {That last bit was for you Rach}

Anyways, today I plan on finishing Out of the Silent Planet. I finally finished The Road and I have to say I think I enjoyed it. I wasn't too fond of the ending, I felt it was a little lacking, but I think that was the point...did leave Cormick with room to make it into a series of some sort if he wants to, though; since he does seem to write in series/trilogies, etc. Anywho, I'm pretty behind on Harry Potter, and I still can't find the box that Redeeming Love ended up in...hmph, I am frustrated. I think once I finish Out of the Silent Planet I will hit up The Life of Pi. It's sitting in my parents' garage, so I may as well take advantage of a free book with no deadlines for return, right?? Right.

Well, all, I'm off to read my day away and maybe run some errands with my faja. Happy Friday!!

Shalom,
~MW

My new "routine"

Top of the morning to you, loves! And a very Happy 2010 to you all.

I've been up since 6:30! And I'm still awake!! I'm liking this new routine, I think. As of yesterday, I am getting up circa 6:30, taking the "wee ones" to school (haha, makes it sound so juvenile, when really one is a senior in high school and the other a sophomore...ah well, I enjoy it!), coming home and starting my day (well, that whole starting my day thing is new development, as of this morning...we'll see if I can keep it up...). Today, mom is off of work, but has an orientation dealy for her nursing classes, so she'll be gone all day. But, since she didn't need to leave until 8 or so, she and I were afforded the opportunity to enjoy a little early morning chat as she finished getting ready for the day.

Now that she is "off to school" {I'm so ridiculously proud of her} I have the house to myself. I have started the laundry that has been piling up at the foot of stairs, taken care of my emails, and of course facebook, and now here I sit: cup of fresh coffee, some oatmeal, and my lappytop.

Aside: Food packages are so educational now-a-days! As I was making up my oatmeal I was reading the package to pass the time...did you know that most dinosaurs lived for 50-60yrs?! Best pet ever, am I right?! They would live almost your entire lifetime! That settles it, I'm getting one :)

So, here I sit. Blank canvas that is the internet in front of me. First, though, I really enjoying taking the boys to school and picking them in the afternoons - give me some sense of purpose right now. This wouldn't be a part of my day had the J-man not gotten himself into another accident...woops! But I like it. After just one day, though, I totally get why our parents were so frustrated with us when they would ask us, "How was school today?" And we would begrudgingly reply, "Fine." "Did anything exciting happen?" "No." "Anything bad happen, then??" "I dunno..." "Well, OK then..." I mean come on!!! I'm your big sister, give me something here, kids!!! Haha, well, I've decided that I am going to try to work on this little issue of one to two worded answers. HA! Wish me luck!

Now that everyone is off for the day I'm left to my own devices...it's weird to not really have anything that I need to do...all...day...long. I was tired of the incessant lounging that occurred over Christmas (not the company, just the lack of activity) after about 4 days, so I'm sure I will soon be tired of this, too. But, having this time is such a blessing. My parents are truly spoiling me right now by allowing me to simply be. I think they, even more than I myself, really know how tired I was (am) after this last semester. I cannot thank them enough for letting me rest and recuperate - I was definitely in need. Part of me feels guilty, because everyone else is back into the hustle and bustle of everyday life, and I'm just chillin', but then I think about my 4.5yr college career - it kind of makes me want to die, but then I remember that it's over for a spell. Thank you, Lord for granting me this intermission. I have time to read again...I'd almost forgotten what a novel looked like! I think the only thing that allowed me to remember that there are beautiful works of art in the form of words on pages bound together was my amazing class on J. R. R. Tolkien {If you ever have the chance to take a class on him...at any point in time, do it! You will NOT be disappointed}...such an amazing, eye-opening, and inspiring class. That class actually made me appreciate my dendrology class even more. Tolkien's love of trees increased my joy of learning about them and helped me to recognize their beauty even more.

But, back to my free time! I started my book list!!! I can honestly say that I am currently reading 3 books! 3 WHOLE BOOKS!! I don't know that I have ever done this...but, let me just tell you: it is marvelous. I am so enjoying this. My current undertakings include: The Road - Cormac McCarthy, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling, and Redeeming Love - Francine Rivers. The Road I am tackling because I feel like I need to, out of service to my generation, plus it's supposed to be good, plus it was given to me by the Seaner. And, I can honestly say that I am enjoying it! It's weird, to say the least, but it has this sort of draw that keeps you wanting to turn the page to find out what happens next. I approve. Goblet is a re-read. I never finished the Harry Potter series, and so decided I would start over from the last book I read completely and go from there (I only made it about a quarter of the way through Order of the Phoenix). And, Redeeming Love is just one I've always wanted to read...just never got around to it.

Next I will be reading:
Bitterwood - James Maxey (dragons!!)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, of course
Out of the Silent Planet - C. S. Lewis.

As I mark books off and add others to the empty slots I'll let you know.

Aside from reading, I also plan to do some crafties. Before the weekend comes I will be staining my insect drawer...finally...so that I can finally place all of my little gems into their forever home, safe and sound :) I can't wait! I've never stained anything before, but the wonderfully generous Mr. Freeman has loaned me a can of his stain so I can test the waters...err, wood?? I'll take pictures and let you know how it all turns out. I think that will be on tap for tomorrow. Maybe I can get the mamma to help me out, or at least sit with me.

In other crafties, I plan to **attempt** to make a dent in the years of scrapbooking I have to catch up on...we'll see if that happens... I also want to finally tackle some of those blank canvas boards I acquired almost two years ago {Note to self: do not attempt to do a lot of projects while in college...it just won't happen. School always wins the time battle. Hmf!} I have some ideas for them, hopefully they will turn out as I envision them. I also have a long overdue baby blanket that needs knitting...I have maybe a 16th of it done.

There is one other thing I think I am going to attempt to do while I'm home. Each day I hope to tackle one portion of my mother's house and really, really, really clean it for her. She just doesn't have the time to do it anymore, what-with being a student, a working nurse, a mother, and a pastor's wife. I think I am going to do this for her. She's just as tired I was when I was in school and she has way more responsibilities than I did. I feel like this is a just a little something I can give back to her. One less thing she has to worry about getting done in the all-too-short 24hr days we live.

Well all, I have a 2010 post that I'm working on, currently, and I hope to have that up by the end of the day, but for now I'm going to go mark some things off my to-do lists. Happy day to you!!

Shalom,
~MW