23 December 2010

The One at 4 AM

So, I've been up since 4:00am because the dogs needed to go out and M decided to start snoring. He's never snored...why he would start in the wee morning of the day we have an eight hour drive to Alabama ahead of us, I'll never know.

 

So here I am, watching the early morning news and keeping an eye on the weather forecast that's promising a white Christmas (that we won't be home for, but I think they're calling for flurries in Alabama - I'll take it!) and keeping an ear out for UConn since she ran out the door before I could secure her in the backyard. Knowing her, she's sniffing her way all over town, trying to find the most rank, disgusting thing to roll in/eat/bring home, and then she'll try to slip past me to get to the sofa where she'll roll and burrow until we want to toss the furniture to the curb - or better yet, light it on fire and just start all over.
 
 
I dream of wipe-clean leather.
 
So for now, it's just me, the news, a cup of coffee - always a bad idea before a massive road trip, but I don't care - and my laptop. I'm currently toggling between the Kindle books I want to download and an email I got from Clinique saying something about free overnight shipping. This could be dangerous.
 
A lot has happened over the past month - let me break it down for you. School (I'm sick to death of talking about school!). Finals. A five week break. I actually have time this year to decorate the entire house for Christmas. Last year we were so busy, therefore lazy, to put up a tree. We put presents around our fake fireplace heater. This year we have the tree, the wreaths, the icicle lights and the pine needles all over the living room floor.
 
 
 
I love this one from under the porch:
 
 
I also made homemade apple butter and canned it (as in mason jars and pots of boiling water on the stove - nothing exploded, so it was considered a success), and I've slipped into a habit of early morning yoga that doesn't flair up my right shin splint. Along with a Cardioblast class every Monday night until I go back to school, I might still be able to fit into my scrubs after the holidays are over.
 
I've also watched the entire first season of Glee, which M got me for Christmas, in the span of two days. I'm singing Journey in my sleep.
 
I'm also planning my little sister's baby shower - I love slipping the "little" in there because it sounds like a 12 year old got pregnant, but she's happily married and 15 years old. Just kidding...but that's how old she will always be in my mind. What happened to the little sister that used to pester me to death? She's having a baby, that's what. I'm a delirious Auntie-to-Be with the great honor of planning her shower and designing the invitations. Erin and Cole are major academicaholics, with about a million college/masters/soon-to-be-doctorate degrees between them, so of course their nursery is going to completely revolve around children's literature and the written word. If that baby doesn't come out quoting Kierkegaard and have a full understanding of exegesis theology, something will be terribly wrong.
 
It was only fitting to design invites that look like old-school library cards and handmade pouches from all different types of baby scrapbook paper: 
 
 
 
If my sister doesn't do it first, I can't wait to introduce my new niece to the wonderfully imaginative books of Rohl Dahl, Madeline L'Engle and Lois Lowry. And E.B. White. And Beverly Cleary. No child should grow up without books like that. For a further list of my favorite childhood books, see this post from last February. And see my sister's comment underneath it. Love it.
 
So back to books...I've recently read my way through two of Terri Blackstock's series, Newpointe 911 and the Restoration series. Both are fantastic series - not wimpy, namby-pamby Christian fiction - these books actually have page-turner plots and believable characters. Full of action and mystery, with a little romance thrown in. I got so caught up in them, well, let's just say I read the entire Restoration series during Finals week. I know, I know...I'm a nerdy nerd bookworm. I've also been scouring Amazon for my favorite Billie Letts (author of Where the Heart Is and Made in the USA) book since my copy of The Honk and Holler Opening Soon disappeared when I moved out of the SBU dorms 10 years ago. I happily found the Kindle version, and (Amazon makes this way too easy) clicked to send it to my iPhone, along with Indivisible by my other favorite author, Kristen Heitzmann. Happy reading on the way to Alabama.
 
Oh, and M bought me the entire boxed set of the Twilight books for Christmas, which I do not mind re-reading. At all. Seventeen times. 
 
Happy almost Christmas! 

3 comments:

Dianne said...

Can't wait to see y'all in a few hours! Great post! Love you!

RCW said...

Your house looks so beautiful, Sissy! Be careful on your road trip today!!
I can't stop looking at pics of those invitations because they are so dern cute!!!

I love you!
-The 15 year old preggo

Sarah said...

Lordy I miss you! Your house is so cute and those invites...precious!

Merry Christmas and be safe traveling.