I'm a sucker for these things
Rather than e-mail this along, I thought I’d just post these silly questions here for your possible passive reading pleasure…
1. Do you like blue cheese? yes, especially on salads
2. Have you ever smoked? only a few cigars
3. Do you own a gun? no
4. What flavor Kool Aid was your favorite? something red
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointment? sometimes
6. What do you think of hot dogs? yum, with sauerkraut
7. Favorite Christmas movie? The Bishop’s Wife
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? coffee, some mornings
9. Can you do push ups? I haven’t tried in years
10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? my engagement ring and the blue topaz studs Bret gave me for Christmas
11. Favorite hobby? paper crafts
12. Do you have A.D.D.? nope
13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? yes, glasses
14. Middle name? Leigh
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? I hope Natalie’ not getting sick; I love“The Parent Trap” (it’s on in the other room); my oatmeal’s now cold
16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Water and tea
17. Current worry? That Natalie and Bret are going to get the cold I’m recovering from
18. Current hate right now? congestion
19. Favorite place to be? Anywhere with Bret and Natalie, especially home
20. How did you bring in the new year? with sleep
21. Where would you like to go? right now: the shower; someday: Europe (Italy, Spain, Ireland) and Alaska
22. Name three people who will complete this: not sure three people will read this…
23. What color shirt are you wearing? bright green
24. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? no, bamboo is nicer
26. Can you whistle? yes
27. Favorite color? celery green
28. Would you be a pirate? no — I’m not a fan of the open sea or rum
29. What songs do you sing in the shower? hymns if any
30. Favorite girl’s name? Natalie
31. Favorite boy’s name? Benjamin and Patrick
32. What’s in your pocket right now? a used tissue
34. What vehicle do you drive? 1999 Mercury Mystique
35. Worst injury you’ve ever had? a twisted foot/pulled arch that now causes hip problems
36. Do you love where you live? absolutely
37. How many TVs do you have in your house? one
Random tidbits from this week
- I’m giddy because it smells, feels, and looks like it’s going to rain soon.
- I just now had something from a top shelf in a closet fall onto my head. I thought that only happened in movies. (It was a bag of paper boxes, so no damage done.)
- Yesterday, I geeked out over Natalie’s brand-new Fuzzi Bunz diapers. They’re so pretty and soft!
- I nearly told a painter all about my day. His head appeared in my living-room window as he was painting color samples on the front of our house. I’d just gotten Natalie down for a really late nap and was so relieved that she fell asleep that I nearly bombarded the unsuspecting fellow with details of my at-home adventures.
- I’ve made more than 70 Christmas cards to date (60 of them are for The Spotted Box).
Behold the Green Lantern ... limited time only
We recently had our house painted (it’s not quite as bright in reality as it looks in this photo)...
If you are aware of my penchant for the color green, you’re no doubt assuming that I chose the color of our house. Well, the truth is that Bret and our neighborhood’s homeowners association (HOA) board president chose the color scheme.
However, the rest of the HOA board members did not like the colors (neither did they like the fact that the board president didn’t run the scheme by them), so they’re repainting our house in the near future (they have to vote on new appropriate color schemes).... Fortunately, we don’t have to pay anything out of our pockets.
In the meantime, our house has been quite the conversation piece. I had no idea people could have so many opinions about a house color! We’ve heard many a suggestion on what would look better (thanks, mom), and we’ve had many friends proclaim that they love the colors and that the board doesn’t know what’s good for the neighborhood (thanks everyone).
Anyway, our house is still our home, and green is still my favorite color…
Personality
I don’t put too much credence in personality tests, but they’re fun. When I last took the test (in college), I was an ENFJ, now I’m an INFJ, having more noticeably changed from Extroverted to Introverted (the other letters stand for iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging).
Some noteworthy INFJs include:
- Chaucer
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Billy Crystal
- Jerry Seinfeld
- Shirley Temple Black
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Here’s more of what my answers to some questions seem to say about me…
| You Are An INFJ |
 You live your life with integrity, originality, vision, and creativity. Independent and stubborn, you rarely stray from your vision – no matter what it is. You are an excellent listener, with almost infinite patience. You have complex, deep feelings, and you take great care to express them. In love, you truly see relationships as an opportunity to connect and grow. You enjoy relationships as long as they are improving and changing. You can’t stand stagnation. At work, you stay motivated and happy… as long as you are working toward a dream you support. You would make a great photographer, alternative medicine guru, or teacher. How you see yourself: Hardworking, ethical, and helpful When other people don’t get you, they see you as: Manipulative, weak, and unstable |
Summer pix
Here’s a visual teaser for some of the fun photos I posted on Natalie’s blog. Bret showed me how to put photos inside posts on this site, if they’re photos already online…
And, while I’m at it, here’s the RooksPaperScissors image that Bret came up with, and I’ll also share a photo of one of my cards that will be for sale on Etsy:
These photos and more are up on my craft blog: rookspaperscissors.blogspot.com.
The heat
Yes, we’re surviving the incredible heat here in SLO (I’ve gotten a couple of phone calls from concerned people).
Depending on who you ask, it was 104, 107, or 111 degrees today. I know that to some of you hot-weather veterans, 111 with no humidity is no sweat (well, very little sweat, relatively). But you’re also equipped with air-conditioning and pools. We on the Central Coast are not. We have fog, delicious, elusive fog. So, when the fog remains far at sea, causing the proverbial mercury to creep up past 80, we SLObispans get cranky, tired, and desperate.
This desperate mother of a cranky toddler sought relief through several steps:
1. cool bath
2. nap with a fan pointed directly on ourselves
3. air-conditioned car trip to
4. air-conditioned Wal-Mart and
5. air-conditioned scrapbooking store
6. frozen yogurt and water at Costco (enjoyed outside in the most welcome breeze)
7. a dip in a tiny tub outside (for my feet and all of Natalie)
8. no cooking (Bret and I agreed that Costco should do dinner for us tonight)
I sincerely hope that the fog cools us down soon…
Thank you for the prayers
Natalie’s surgery went as well as we could have hoped today. The short version (she’s currently trying to crawl onto the table!) is that we showed up at the surgery center at 6:30 this morning and were home by 8:30. She was out of our sight for only about 20 minutes, and the doctors said that she did very well. The eye doctor said he found the blockage in her tear duct and was able to open it. We just hope and pray that it will remain open — we have a followup appointment in two weeks…
Natalie was pretty much back to her normal self as soon as I nursed her in the recovery room.
Everyone at the surgery center was very nice and helpful and reassuring today, and starting yesterday, I felt supernaturally peaceful about the whole thing — so thank you very much for your prayers and support!
Natalie news
You’ve got to see it to believe it!
And, keep Natalie (and us) in your prayers. She’s having surgery on Wednesday, April 16, to open a blocked tear duct. It’s a simple and short procedure, but she’ll need general anesthesia. Naturally, I’m a bit apprehensive. I’ll keep you updated.
Catching up
Already this year is messing with my sense of time’s flow — it’s March already? It’s only March? Somehow January flew by, February felt like two months smooshed together, and now March is more than half over. I’m not complaining; I’m just confused.
Anyhoo, we Rookses have been alternately busy and mellow. January was a month of family festivity. Natalie turned one, and we celebrated with family and with friends. We also got part of our backyard landscaped.
February allowed us to relax a little at the beginning, and then we were blessed with family visits. Bret’s parents visited in the middle of the month, and we had a great time at Montana de Oro. Then my mom and stepdad visited for a long weekend. We had high hopes for a fun time around town, but we got sick. First I got the gnarly cold that was hitting just about everyone we know. Then Natalie got it. It’s the sickest she’s ever been, and she ended up coming down with an ear infection. Then Bret got sick. He was smart and stayed home from work a few days and thus didn’t get terribly ill.
In the midst of sickness, I finished up the last of my and Natalie’s stint with New Times as its proofreader. I’d been working there (with Natalie — she and I shared the newspaper’s kid room) two days a week since Sept. 10. I loved the work, and Natalie was cooperative most days. As she began getting more active, it became more difficult for me to concentrate on deadline. So, Feb. 27 was my last day. I’m now staying home with Natalie, going with the flow. (For the record, I am working a couple hours a week at our church’s office until a more permanent administrative assistant can be found.)
Also in February, Bret and Ryan (aka Halfpenny Orchestra) recorded five songs and wrote a couple more for the FAWM challenge.
March has been wonderful thus far. My dad and stepmom visited for a week. They recently purchased a tiny travel trailer and were eager to try it out on the Central Coast. They camped in Morro Bay, which allowed Bret and I to enjoy some vicarious camping.
In the midst of all this, Natalie has continued to grow cuter and cuter every day. She’s not walking yet, but has taken some isolated first steps. She’s talking more and more and saying some actual words in the mix, including: hi, hello, cow, Hat (for her friend Hattie), and hot. She’s also exhibiting quite the strong will and a very strong distaste for teething — she’s getting four molars at the moment (if there was audio with this post, you’d hear her crying in the background). She also has to have a minor surgery to probe open her blocked tear duct. It’s not scheduled yet (I am waiting for a call from the doctor’s office), but we’ll keep you posted.
I hope to write more regularly, both on our blog and for New Times (and maybe even some magazines). I am also up to my eyeballs in craft projects — the most pressing is the production of 150 wedding programs and 150 thank-you cards for my friend’s May 31 nuptials.
All in all, the weather is gorgeous, and we’re healthy and happy.
PS I’ve been able to finish reading a few good books lately: Heat by Bill Buford; Catfish and Mandala by Andrew Pham (both books are nonfiction, which I’ve never really been interested in before); and I’m now reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire.
Backyard photo
I keep forgetting to put up this link to the newly landscaped section of our backyard.
Other updates will come soon…
