pre-coffee me

i have a hard time with thundering elephants in the morning. it is 7:41am, i am only on my first cup of coffee, and i swear my dishes are rattling from the enthusiasm for life being expressed by The Girls upstairs. i could, technically, ask them to stop, but it would probably be a life squashing converstation, so instead, i am hiding down here, typing this. and trying to finish my coffee before i have to make sandwiches for lunches.

truth be told, i have a well deserved reputation for not being a morning person. i mean, i can fake it if i absolutely have to, but in general, it's not a pretty sight. it's like thinking through molasses (a flawed description, but none the less...) - and i swear coffee doesn't kick in as hard as it used to. i saw MRI examples in national geographic once of the brain of a coffee drinker in the morning vs. the brain of a non-coffee drinker...and the non-coffee drinker had at least 60% more of their brain being used in the morning!! of course, we catch up once the caffeine dilutes our blood, but it was very interesting!

and now there are all sorts of studies on the good effects of coffee! hooray! rich in antioxidants, lowers cholesterol, increases good hormones... so really, i don't have an addiction. i am a health nut! who knew?

I'm back!

welcome home, me!

well, i am officially ... thirty-one! *gasp* how did that happen?? i don't feel thirty-one...i hardly feel like a grownup! but i guess i am. how strange. i was very well feted by my family, and still have festivities to look forward to! my peeps and i are spending the night at a hotel in the big city and going to dinner (and dancing!) together...a sleepover for big girls! hooray! i even have a new dress to wear...mmm...i am going to be so pretty! :) ha!

so, what's new with you? are you counting sleeps til Christmas? have you put up your tree? did you have a good thanksgiving? i don't know about where you are, but we are basking in 70 degree sunshine here in the "first in flight" state - lovely! it's hard to get into the Christmas spirit when you are mowing the lawn instead of shoveling snow! but then my m-i-l told me that it's COLD with a foot of snow up north, and i figure i can fake the warm, cozy hot chocolate feeling while i listen to 'a charlie brown Christmas'! it's definitely a price i'm willing to pay!

*sigh* it's nice to be back...merry Christmas!

my goodness!

i heard the wind, the shearing rain that came down all night (it kept waking me up)...but then i read that we had (and by "we" i mean the state of NC) killer tornados last night! yikes! i should be more respectful of the weather, i guess!

only 11 sleeps til my birthday! and i am feeling c-u-t-e today, so maybe today will be a good day! i'm off to the shops, as they say across the pond! toodles!

nada

good morning - i will be spotty in my posting til after thanksgiving... enjoy your turkey and remember to be thankful!

vocabularily lessons

(oooo - new blog options! how fun!)

do you know what a 'fulcrum' is? i am sitting at the top of one. it could go either way. scary.

the mouth of babes

my daughters were playing outside today when surveyors came through the woods behind the house. meg came inside and upstairs into the room i was painting and tearfully asked if they were measuring the forest to build houses. sadly, they are, and i told her so. her tears increased as she looked up at me with her huge, brown eyes and said, "but all the deer will die and we won't see them anymore." i couldn't agree more, meg...it's heinous. man doing his best to rape nature and stuff as much of himself into the landscape as he possibly can. it made me cry. no one had to tell her what would happen. she just knew. and it broke her little heart. i wish there were more meg's in the world.

don't forget

only 20 sleeps til my birthday!

welcome home!

it feels like ages since i wrote anything, but i don't think it really has been. on a whim - or sent by God may be the more accurate description - i drove out to KY friday morning as a surprise to see my mom. i just knew she needed me... and she did. when i walked in (throwing open the door and saying, "can i use your bathroom?" at the suggestion of meg). shs said, 'of course' and looked very confused. then it dawned on her who i was, and she burst into tears! she said she hadn't known how she was going to get through her weekend, and there i was! so we spent the weekend together without any expections and at our own pace, and it really was a)relaxing, b)fun and c)a God thing. so many little things conspired together to go right that it was really astonishing as we noted each one and all the happy ripple effects of them. and then i drove home monday early. much thanks to curtis for giving me the freedom to go...he is a good boy!

i think it may finally be Fall. rainy, chilly, and the most telling sign of all, 50 dead squirrels along the side of the road. there are always plenty in the gutter, but this is nuts! (no pun intended) i don't know if the young ones come out to play in the fall, or if the cold makes them stupid, but i am dodging them left and right these days. (living and dead - i hate to add insult to injury, or death, as the case may be.) i don't mind fall at all, if i don't have to go out. but today was groceries in a downpour. sigh. as short as my hair is, even it is rebelling in the humidity! maybe i will cheer myself up by lighting a fire tonight..mmm, cozy!

i hope you are all snug and warm today!

to my Canadian friends

to my friends and family living in Canada, a few images of November down here...

the most wonderful time of the year

go rachel! it's your birth-month! go, go, go rachel! it's your birth-month! have a par-tay! go rachel!