Lydia needs....

I have the funniest friends! I got this idea from Tiff and Stef - here's what you do:

Go to your favorite search engine and type in your first name and then "needs" and see what you get!

Here's mine:

1. Lydia needs a ride

2. Lydia needs six mortal people to complete her journey

3. Lydia needs your prayers

4. LOVABLE Lydia needs a new home

5. Lydia needs the following information to complete the forms

6. Lydia needs an album cover

7. Lydia needs to pose so that she can see herself through her sister's eyes (what?)

And here's Eric's:

1. Eric needs a hug

2. Eric needs to update his xanga site

3. Eric needs a girlfriend (um, no I don't think so)

4. Eric needs to sell his stuff

5. Eric needs medication (tee hee)

6. Eric needs help!

7. KILTED Eric needs HR advice (sounds like he needs other advice, too)

Okay, and I couldn't resist when I found this farther down the list:

8. Eric needs help with childhood bladder and bowel problems

And this:

9. Eric needs to stop making out with guys

That was fun, guys! I wonder if it would be as funny with other verbs. (Like maybe "smells"?)

My Sweet Escape

In case anyone has been wondering why I haven't posted in almost a week, here goes.

I repent for ever rolling my eyes at anybody who was obsessed with this:

I had no intention of reading it. Three years ago, when you Hollister people were drooling all over Twilight, and had told me how addictive it was, I thought, "Yeah, well I don't have 2 days to check out of my life, so maybe someday when I'm on vacation or something." And yet, I was never that interested, and never read it, and then she kept writing more and more sequels, and it seemed like too much to catch up with.

Erin read the first 3 books in the series a month or so ago, about the time the movie came out. I let her, relying on the good judgement of my CA friends, and the fact that their teenage daughters had all read them, too. Then, in conversation with one of my friends here in Ohio, I was alerted to the fact that they might not be completely appropriate for a 12 year old. Then I panicked. What had she read?

So, since I had a little plane ride to go on last Friday, I picked it up at the airport, hoping to be done before Sunday.

It was good. Really good.

I didn't read much more until the return plane trip. And then when we got home, I sat my catookus down on the couch for 3 hours and finished it Saturday night.

And then Sunday, I was counting the hours until I could go back to the bookstore and get New Moon. So, Monday morning, I bribed my kids into cleaning the house so we could go run errands, and swing by Barnes & Noble (so the girls could use their gift cards, of course!) Eric got off work early and came with us. I didn't start reading until about 4 pm, taking breaks for karate, dinner, bedtime, etc. And I went to bed at a decent hour. I finished it by 10:30 Tuesday morning.

Now what was I going to do? I needed to know more about Edward and Bella, so I made up the excuse that I needed to go to Costco to get cucumbers (which happens to be next door to B & N). I decided to quit lying to myself that I wouldn't finish Eclipse that day and come back tomorrow to get Breaking Dawn, so I just bought them both. The same clerk had helped me on Monday, and I could tell he wanted to laugh at me. Oh well.

Anyhow, by the time I got home, it was time to run off to an appointment with Calvin, so I got about 15 minutes to read in the waiting room, and then had to wait until evening. And again, I went to bed at my normal time, 10:30 or so.

On Wednesday, I sat in my pajamas and read in between getting kids on the bus, instead of running like I normally would have. I even skipped having a shower before I went to help in Calvin's class.

After lunch, I read again until about 4, then started making dinner (I had a recipe exchange to go to, so of course I made something I could just put in the oven so I could read more.)

I started Breaking Dawn while waiting for dinner to finish, and then somewhat begrudgingly went to party with my friends.

I finished it Thursday at about 2pm. Pathetic, I know.

The funny thing is, I laugh at people who read escapist literature. I think it's so silly to get caught up in an imaginary world, and let life pass you by.

Mmm, but it sure is nice.

Oh, yeah, and then I found the draft for Midnight Sun on Stephenie Meyer's website, and read that on Friday. So, in less than a week, I read the whole series.

And I liked it.

Here are my thoughts:

Twilight - wonderful. Exciting, riveting, very descriptive, (I feel like I REALLY know Edward and Bella) It brought back all of those exciting memories of falling in love for the first time.

New Moon - also very good. My heart broke over and over for Bella, and I missed Edward so much.

Eclipse - good, but Bella's angst started to get on my nerves. And her indecision and inability to leave Jacob alone. And the fact that she didn't want to get married to Edward. And the fact that Edward kept tolerating her lameness.

Breaking Dawn - I LOVED the first part (the honeymoon, the wedding, etc.) I really didn't like that the whole baby trauma was seen through Jacob's eyes. I felt that seeing Edward's agony first person would have been much more real. The baby - weird. I don't know why, but I don't GET the baby, and her name was a little too strange. And the ending, well, by then I was just trying to hurry and finish so I could be done. Too much Harry Potter warring wizards stuff. And I kind of don't like that Bella became a vampire, but I guess there was no other way to make it work.

And if you haven't read the draft of Midnight Sun, well, you should. Wow. Better than Twilight. It's not finished, and from what I understand, she's not planning on finishing it. But it was my favorite. And now I'm sad, because there's no more, and I have to return to my real life where people eat food, not blood, (which requires no dishes!) and can't run super fast and read my thoughts or see into my future, where I don't have a sister-in-law who is always designing new fashions for me and a brother-in-law who is making me feel calm.

It's killing my buzz.

Oh, yeah, and I don't want to see the movie. Because Edward doesn't look like that in my mind. So it would ruin it for me. Maybe someday.

When I was looking at this picture of my kid's sitting by the reflecting pool in D.C., it reminded me of another picture of them, taken by my good friend Stefani, photographer extraordinaire.

Our husband's had gone out scuba diving together, so we brought the kids to play at the beach, and maybe get a few good photos for Christmas cards/presents.  

I love this one because of Calvin turning around to look at the camera.  I think it really captures his personality. Jack is crying, which you really can't see unless you look - he's being dragged along by the hand.  Also fitting.  And my girls, being cooperative, as usual. 

 This was one of our last outings before we moved away from Hollister.

Thanks, Stef, this is one of my favorites!

Road Trip to DC

Have you ever noticed that in the west (California) people call Washington D.C. "D.C." and here in the east (Ohio) they call it "Washington"?  I guess it's because here in the East going to Washington state is so far away, they can't imagine actually doing it, and vice versa in the West.

 I just noticed that.

We took a little jaunt to our nation's capital on New Year's Day.   Here are some highlights of the trip:

We had a little tour of the Capitol building.  Here we are standing in front of "Freedom" , a replica of the statue that's on the top of the rotunda.  It's huge.

They gave us headphones so that we could listen to the tour guide.  For some people, that provided more entertainment than the tour itself.  Calvin would try to get close to the guide and then speak loudly to see if he could hear himself in his own headphones.  Which meant that everyone else could too.

Here are my lovelies sitting at the edge of the reflecting pool looking towards the Lincoln Memorial.  I wonder if in the summer, when the reflecting pool isn't frozen, if there are dead mucky leaves and discarded water bottles in it.  I'm sure not.

It was cold outside.  If you've ever been to D.C., or Washington, whatever you want to call it, you'll know that there is a lot of walking to do.  We walked down the Mall to the Air and Space Museum, amidst much begging for a taxi.

Here they are in front of the LEM, or landing module, for the Apollo moon missions.  Not the actual one, that one is still on the sound stage that they filmed the moon landing on.

More walking.  This time to the Natural History Museum, which was like a zoo.  No pun intended.  There were hosts of people there.  I don't like crowds.  Calvin and I sat down and had a little foot massage.  Or at least he did.  Then we saw the gems and rocks, which were not that popular of an exhibit, which was fine with me.  But guess what we found!

  Okay I'll tell you.  

It's a mineral called "Benitoite".

Guess why it's called "Benitoite."

Cuz it was discovered in San Benito County, California, that's why!

By this time it was dark and colder, but we were close-ish to the Washington Monument, so we stopped by.  

It's huge and very impressive.

And the lights are fun to play in.

Then we DID get a taxi, went to Chinatown, and had Chinese food.  Yum!  Then it was back to the hotel for swimming, the part of the day the boys had been waiting for!

Calvin has grown a bit.

Next day, up and at em, we head to the World War II memorial, which is new and also cool.  There is a pillar for every state, so we took pictures of the kids in front of the pillar of the state they were born in, and then we all took one in front of our new home state.

Next, on to the Vietnam War Memorial, and then the Lincoln Memorial.  It's big.  Very big.  Jack is trying to "hold" Abraham Lincoln in his hand, but I don't think he understands about depth of field.  Neither do I, come to think of it.

Off again, this time to Arlington National Cemetery.  That place is huge!  Here we saw President Kennedy's grave (did you know that he had 2 children that died as babies?)  This is the flame that is never to go out.

We then saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  We got to see them changing guards, which is very solemn and cool, (Calvin kept kicking his feet together like they do, he was spellbound)  Later on he was telling me how much he liked it, and he said, "It was so cool, when I grow up I want to be a soldie..........mmm, no I don't."

Throwing gang signs at Arlington.  Yeah.

We still had a few hours to kill, so we went to the American History museum, which had a lot of cool stuff in it.  We saw the original Star Spangled Banner which Francis Scott Key saw flying over the fort in the War of 1812 and then wrote the song about.  It was humongous, and in a very dark room, because it's so old and the light speeds up the decay of the fibers.  So, of course they wouldn't let us take pictures.  We also saw the Gettysburg Address written in Abraham Lincoln's own handwriting.  Very cool.

Jack got to hold a real Civil War gun.

Here's my boys pretending to get run over by a train.

Tired and hungry, we took a taxi to the downtown area where eateries are located, and had McDonald's standing up with bums asking for money as we threw our trash away.  That part sucked.

Then off to swim some more.  It was cold, and our feet were tired, but it was a truly memorable experience.  We are so blessed to live in this great nation!

Good times, good times

Don't you just love this picture of us? There we are, looking so happy and pale at Lake Mead. We'd gone to Vegas with 3 of our favorite families, rented a house together, and spent one day at the lake, and the other playing in the pool at the house (it was too windy to wakeboard).

Look at Eric's buff arms!

Thanks, Annette, for taking this picture! We still have it framed, sitting on our nightstand!

Thank goodness THAT"S over!

By that I mean Christmas, of course.

I tend to be a bit of a Scrooge. I think it dates back to being morning sick and emotional and throwing the angel treetopper at Eric's head. It just hasn't been the same for me since then.

This one really wasn't too bad. I have learned to have very low expectations of myself during the holidays.

We didn't go anywhere, which helps. I really hate dealing with all of the Christmas stuff AND planning a trip. And how the heck do you EVER get all of

those presents back home?

So here's what we did:

Christmas in Killarney - Irish dance performance. Very fun!

Carnival of Carols - a big deal fundraiser for Erin's middle school show choir. They did a really good job!

Annie's 5th grade orchestra concert. I actually could see the very tippy top of her head.

For Christmas Eve, we went to my sister's house in Columbus and had a great time! Homemade pizza (my favorite) and acting out the nativity (with Lillian as the sweetest baby Jesus ever!), and then exchanging gifts.

Oh, and we forgot to take any pictures on Christmas day. But I left the decorations up for a few more days. Usually I start taking them down as soon as all of the wrapping paper is picked up.

I have goals to be a little better prepared next year, but that just means I have to think about Christmas all year, UGH! We'll see, I guess!