CelestialFamily

Just a few pages of things the family has been doing lately:















Book reviews later. Smiles!

These new Pearl Jam songs make me think of Michael:





Love,

Slick

::::::::::Nicknames:::::::
Eve, Noah and I were discussing nicknames. I call Eve, Eveybug and I call Noah, No E Monster. They have a boy that they know at school named Robert and they were asking what are nicknames for his name. I threw out Bob, Bobby, and Rob. Noah suggested "Bobert". I told him I had never heard of anyone going by that, but you never know. Then Noah said, "You can love me. You can even worship me, just don't call me No E Monster. If you are going to worship me you can call me Noah the Great.

I think we all can safely say that I will be continuing with the No E Monster...thanks for the suggestion though.

Here are some new digital pages of the kiddos:

::::::Some of My Favorite Layouts and Why::::::::

This layout was a fun science experiment we did with the kids to answer a question they had:

It was fun to show this photo to Eve since she is in 1st grade now:

I love some of the stuff Noah thinks deeply about:

I was amazed at the artwork that captivated Noah the longest:

I have never seen an episode of Survivor, but from what people talk about I think this captures the essence of a show in a twisted and fun way:

We really enjoyed visiting New York City and I love this layout because the artwork is a sketch Michael did that I extracted and made the lines white instead of black:

:::::::::::::::::Birthday Dinner::::::

We just got back from Granny Sydney's house. She made Michael a yummy birthday dinner. We had rolls, barbequed spareribs, corn, green beans, and rice. She made brownies for dessert. The kids had fun playing with the snow on the back deck and with some of the toys. Michael and I had fun just getting to talk with his mom. Thanks, Sydney!


Time to read...The Wordy Shipmates

Smiles

::::::::::Nicknames:::::::
Eve, Noah and I were discussing nicknames. I call Eve, Eveybug and I call Noah, No E Monster. They have a boy that they know at school named Robert and they were asking what are nicknames for his name. I threw out Bob, Bobby, and Rob. Noah suggested "Bobert". I told him I had never heard of anyone going by that, but you never know. Then Noah said, "You can love me. You can even worship me, just don't call me No E Monster. If you are going to worship me you can call me Noah the Great.

I think we all can safely say that I will be continuing with the No E Monster...thanks for the suggestion though.

Here are some new digital pages of the kiddos:

::::::Some of My Favorite Layouts and Why::::::::

This layout was a fun science experiment we did with the kids to answer a question they had:

It was fun to show this photo to Eve since she is in 1st grade now:

I love some of the stuff Noah thinks deeply about:

I was amazed at the artwork that captivated Noah the longest:

I have never seen an episode of Survivor, but from what people talk about I think this captures the essence of a show in a twisted and fun way:

We really enjoyed visiting New York City and I love this layout because the artwork is a sketch Michael did that I extracted and made the lines white instead of black:

:::::::::::::::::Birthday Dinner::::::

We just got back from Granny Sydney's house. She made Michael a yummy birthday dinner. We had rolls, barbequed spareribs, corn, green beans, and rice. She made brownies for dessert. The kids had fun playing with the snow on the back deck and with some of the toys. Michael and I had fun just getting to talk with his mom. Thanks, Sydney!


Time to read...The Wordy Shipmates

Smiles

Noah's question for today: "What is the point of using Jedi mind tricks on stupid people?"

Discuss!



Thank you, Teacherninja, for the nomination.
• Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
• Link the person who nominated you.
• Name seven things about yourself that no one would really know.
• Nominate ten “Sugar Dolls.”
• Post links to the ten blogs you nominate.
• Leave a comment on each letting them know you nominated them.

Finding seven things that people wouldn't really know is rather difficult. I thought that listing that I was a control freak would be considered universal knowledge, so I had to move unto something else.

1. I believe dogs and cats should be spayed, or neutered to help decrease the sad circumstances that are produced by unwanted and uncared for animals.
2. I have fond memories of square hamburgers because my maternal grandmother would drive in to Columbus near the "Bypass" to go to Krystals. She would always put napkins around the salt and pepper shakers because, "You never know who touched them before you got there." I love mustard, dill pickles, and bread. I don't deviate from what I order there, or Subway for that matter. My brother is autistic, but he hasn't cornered the market on repetitive behavior. For example, Subway has a menu that offers so many choices, but I always order: a 6inch Subway Club with pepper jack cheese, toasted with lettuce, sliced dill pickles, tomatoes, heavy on the spinach, and plain yellow mustard (I can't stand the other stuff, which surprises me, yet is absolutely true).

3. I like so many different things and enjoy talking about them without ever having mastered any of the subjects that I come off as a repository for useless and inane facts, but Hey I like it that way. My guess is this tendency has led me to spend an inordinate amount of time watching the series QI on youtube.com.


4. I consistently lose Scrabble games against my husband. He is a master of getting words that count in two directions, while I am looking to make the coolest word. This really is my only strategy because I don't think well on multiple planes. I'm like the triangles in Flatland...one dimensional and dangerous if you bump into me (that is why we stopped playing Monopoly too).

5. My daughter says I'm not funny...maybe I was twice...in her opinion. I sometimes get laughing so hard at something I, alone, find witty that my sides ache. That is a good time, my friends.

6. I will go to the store to buy something and find something incidental on the way. If I continue shopping I will make the case for and against buying the incidental object. Usually not buying wins out (even in the case of chocolate...tell no one).



7. I think the spork is one of the handy dandiest of cool inventions.


:::::::::::Book Review::::::::


Amelia Peabody is tired of the Victorian trappings both ideologically and physically. I think she would burn her bra, as well, but by the author's description of Amelia that wouldn't be a great idea. Amelia is someone who speaks her mind and due to an inheritance can do so without worrying to much about the consequences. The information on Egypt was interesting along with some of the preservation techniques. There were a few times where I would think to myself, "get on with it already" because the author rehashed things a bit too much, but the characters have a lot of potential. There were several pithy lines between the sparring couple Amelia and Radcliffe Emerson. I enjoyed their interacctions. Not an outstanding beginning to a series, but still worth checking out book 2.


:::::::::::::Yearbook Music:::::::
I have been working on the kids yearbook again this year and I'm becoming "snowblind" looking and relooking at photos, but I thought of this song and it made me nostaligic and I just think it's cool:

:::::::::::::Who Lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea?

Spongebob Squarepants, as many people know. We had a request from a friend and her daughter to help make a 1 year-old's party a bit more fun in the cake department. I enlisted the help of my favorite creative genius and we used date night to help decorate this birthday cake:

Everyone pitched in. Favihola (grandmother to our birthday girl) baked the cakes, made the tube worm and some sea grass. Michael trimmed the cakes. I frosted and covered them with fondant. Michael made the pineapple the red & orange coral, and the cute pink octopus. Alex (uncle) made Gary the Snail and cut out the flowers, Christina (mom) made Nemo, the jellyfish, sea stars, bubbles and some seagrass. Favihola made Planktons body and ears and I stuck on his eye bits. Richard (dad) made a giant clam with a pearl.

The toothpicks will get pulled out today for the party. Happy 1st Birthday, Eliana!

Michael surprised me for our 20th wedding anniversary by taking me to a bed and breakfast in Hot Springs, North Carolina. Martha's Mountain Magnolia Inn & Retreat





We stayed in the Buckeye Room:



The footbridge into town:



Breakfast Day 1

Breakfast potatoes: russet potatoes with sweet potatoes and carmalized onions
coddled eggs with parmesan cheese
whole grain toast
biscuits
bacon
chicken sausage
plain yogurt
hemp nut granola
fruit platter:strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, honeydew

Dinner:

Seared Filet Mignon in
Demi glaze
sauteed spinach

Chocolate Mousse


Breakfast Day 2

Organic scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese
raspberry and white chocolate scones
apple cinnamon scones
baked cinnamon apples
Oatmeal
raisins
walnuts
cranberries
bacon
sausage
whole grain toast
orange juice
biscuits

The dinner and breakfast chefs are amazing!

We took a couple of pictures of Michael loitering because we wanted Rachel to laugh. It is a Brian Regan joke:




"Shovels and rakes and other implements of destruction"...



::::::::Grove Park Inn:::::


Michael drove us over to see the Gingerbread entries. Here are several of my favorites:


















































::::::Biltmore Builtmore, Less Taste:::

Michael took us to the Biltmore (Builtmore) House. We liked the decore in the servants quarters, the bowling alley and pool. The rest leaned to a house of ill repute decor.






:::::::::For My Dad:::::


see more Epic Fails

Smiles...

Victoria

The kids are preparing the "Ding Dong Cobbler":

It is made with yellow cake mix, Ding Dongs, marshmallows, and hot cocoa mix.



Michael cooks the Cobbler and a Chicken Gumbo concoction:


Eve with one of the ropes:



Eve plays with her shadow:





Aaron belays Rachel and Michael gives some climbing suggestions:



Aaron lets his feet dangle for fun when he gets to the top:



Noah found a handprint his size:


Eve plays on the rocks:


We all think stickbugs are so cool:


I went up on two routes. I didn't top out on the second, but I got pretty close for being so rusty. No photos because Michael was belaying me and the kids were exploring the rock formations.

***The Noahism from the trip:
***edited (Noah was misquoted by me...thanks for reminding me, Michael)
We were sitting in the tent and Noah piped up, "You know those books by that comedian..."Are you sure you're not a redneck"? We all busted out laughing. We told him they were called "You might be a redneck". His matter of fact title just seemed a heck of a lot funnier. I can't remember the point he was trying to make, but this was great for the rest of the day.

******Book Review*****



The voices are distinct for each character. Growing up in the South I hear these voices and their is some familiarity. The voice of Aibleen is one that I particularly enjoy. Kathryn Stockett does help crack the veneer of Southern gentility. There was more than one occasion when I was younger when a relative of mine would be friends with a specific black person, but whisper under their breath that they didn't want a black person to be seated next to them in a restaurant. I always found that odd.
Each of the stories were woven together so well about this community where secrets were kept, while so many people seemed to know everybody elses business. I wanted to hug Aibleen and Louvenia. I wanted to listen to Minny talk about life. I kept wanting Leroy to man up and stop drinking. I wanted Stuart to pour out all of the bourbon. I bristled at the horrors and indignanties that human beings who happened to have a different skin color had to endure by people professing to be morally, spiritually and mentally superior. Her message of mutual respect is one that, unfortunately, needs to be retold.

p.s. the story about the word Crisco is priceless.

Later, gators!

My dad built a ramp out of plywood, then used a rope to get their piano onto a trailer by himself. He drove it to our house, which took him another hour. Backed the trailer up our driveway and remade the ramp system to get the piano off the trailer and a ramp up our front stairs. Michael came home during his lunch hour to help dad move it off the trailer and up into the house. He wouldn't even let us buy him lunch. Eve is absolutely thrilled. Dad said he brought it because Eve wanted it so much. When she came home from school she clapped and squealed for joy and sat down to play. We just need to get it tuned because it is flat and find an instructor we can afford.





******Book Review***********



What a fun way to make a classic into something very quirky, while remaining true to the spirit of the characters. This story seems like something that was discussed over several beers and a triple dog dare to be put to paper. I thought it was a hoot.

::::::::::::::Family Camping/Climbing*****

Michael took us all to Sand Rock, Alabama to go camping and rock climbing. I'll post some more photos and tell some stories tomorrow.

My sister, Katherine, called me last week and asked if I would make a topsy turvy cake for her daughter, Jessica's, 21st birthday. I said sure, so she and my stepmom, Alice, drove up and we shopped for the ingredients. We purchased French Vanilla cake and Strawberry cake mixes. We also got pink petal dust and rose gel coloring to use with the fondant. I mixed up the buttercream frosting for the cakes on Saturday. I put seedless raspberry in the middle of the French Vanilla like I did for the last cake creation. It seems to be popular.
Rachel and Eve wanted to help so they got to apply the luster dust to some of the stars and all of the fondant ball border. I spent the time quite amiably by listening to Pride and Prejudice playing on the television. Rachel wanted to watch it and I love the Kiera Knightly/Matthew McFadden version. It was great reciting lines from the movie while rolling, cutting and applying fondant decorations.
This is Eve helping put petal dust on the dimensional stars:



This one is Rachel putting petal dust on the balled fondant border:




This one is me making the pink bow to go around the top tier:


Rachel requests a slice of cake:


Michael says that it tastes good:

Jessica, Rachel and My sister Tracy:

My funny and cute niece, Haley:

Did I mention funny?

A satisfying outcome and a lot of laughs with my sisters. BTW, Katherine refused to be allow her photograph on the blog. She is beautiful, too. Her story of the homeless man that stopped her in traffic got funnier with each telling. Life is truly an adventure and isn't it lovely that cake is a part of that!

Smiles!

Hey, just been busy doing other things, like everyone else. Michael and I did our own version of Food Network's Challenge. I was volunteered to make a surprise birthday cake for my stepdad's mother's 75th surprise party. The request was a topsy turvy cake covered in fondant. I didn't know how to use fondant, so Michael signed me up for the class at Cake Art. Michael also volunteered himself to help me. The theme idea for the cake came from the many trips that Nancy and Jim take to Tybee Island, Georgia. With Peggie's okay on the theme the many drawings and ideas were put to paper. Here is the finished product:


The lighthouse was created from Rice Krispie Treats (Michael did the whole thing). He also created all the sea stars, sand dollars and horseshoe crabs from fondant. I did the middle tier from Devil's Food cake, then covered the layers in Chocolate Ganache. I did the bottom layer in French Vanilla cake filled with seedless Raspberry's and iced with buttercream. To create the effect of waves we tinted and rolled out the fondant in blue, created ripples, then Michael took an offset spatula and used white royal icing to create the white caps.





This is a layout of Michael breaking into song. It was quite late at night:






I finally create a couple of layouts of my final class project from Cake Art:




::::::::::Book Reviews::::::::::
I've been reading a lot for my book club and just for my own enjoyment. Here are a few reviews.

The State of Jones (This one just interested me)


A fascinating look at the lives of a group of Jones county Unionists who initially fight for the Confederacy due to conscription. The people had voted for remaining with the Union, but underpressure, their representative voted to seceed. The resentment of this fact and the belief that everyone is equal in the site of God kept Newton Knight fighting for the Union. Fighting from the woods and swamps, while trying to avoid the Rebel army and the dogs they used to hunt men down made for years of separation from family and friends. The separation wasn't complete, though. Newton fell in love with a slave who was owned by one of his family members who believed in slavery. He goes own to have childred with her and has both a white and black family. He ends up feeling more comfortable with his family with Rachel. She ends up converting to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because of their beliefs of families being together after this life. Newton doesn't convert, but doesn't stop Rachel either.

The history of the Civil War from the perspective of a Southerner who never wanted to secede and didn't believe in slavery is a compelling read. Mans inhumanity to each other is boundless. Newton Knight stood against those who would enslave others for their own enrichment and base desires. A sad, yet fascinating read

***

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Book Club)


Flavia de Luce is a chemistry loving 11 year-old with a bit of macabre since of humor. She lives with an aloof, philatilest father, one vain sister and the other with who loves books. a cook who isn't a very good at it, and a the kindly, but shell shocked gardner named Dodger. The book has great tidbits about poisons and their antidotes, as well as, some history on the Penny Black stamp. The book was an interesting mystery and I look forward to the next in the series.

His next book is available for pre-order at Amazon. The title is: The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Hand
***

Lost Christianities (Another just because I wanted to read it books).


Another well researched work by Bart Ehrman. Fascinating book.

***
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society (Book Club)


An enthusiastic thumbs up! I am fond of characters that you find in small villages. There is so much quirky, yet lovable goings on in such places. This book reminds me of the characters from one of my favorite television shows, "The Vicar of Dibley". You quite quickly come to care about the people in Guernsey along with the main character, Juliet. I also love history, so learning about what the Channel islanders had to deal with during the German occupation was of keen interest. I really like the literary device of using letters, so the authors' writing style worked for me, as well.



:::::::::::::Yearbook:::::::

I've been working on the yearbook for the kids' elementary school again. The kids call me "Eve's mom!", "Hey, your Noah's mom", or "You're the Yearbook Lady!" I love having the SLR. I'm going with quantity of photos to get the diamonds in the rough. Kids move fast! It was fun to take pictures for "Crazy Hat Day" and the Wildlife Wonders show. The lunchroom ladies even smile at me now. I was able to strong arm the school's custodian to send me her photo for winning the county honors for her excellent work. She is a super lady, but hates to have her photo taken. I have been tinkering with the layouts and learning some of the new software offerings.

::::::::::::::Room Mom:::::::

I'm also one of the Room Moms for Evey's class. The other mom, Kathy B., is so cool. We will be working with Eve's class for the Fall fun centers. Kathy is doing a game like the one the used to play on The Bozo Show with the ping pong balls and the buckets. I will be working with the kids to put their handprints on some aprons with the date. Another mom will be helping the kids put together apple foam frames with photos that Kathy will be printing. We even have some things ready for the Christmas party. The theme is gingerbread. We will have the kids decorate gingerbread cookies and making foam gingerbread boy/girl ornaments with their photos.

::::::::::::Rain:::::::::

Rain has come to Georgia in abundance. Many neighbors have moderate to severe damage from the rain. We live high enough and on a slab that we had no water damage. The Great Flood of 2009 was the title for what happened at the end of September. My mother and I were in Columbus, Ga. for my Great Uncle Dewey Posey's funeral during the worst of the rain. We were able to make it back safely. The kids will make up the 2 days they missed in February, I think.


:::::::::::::Chorus Performance:::::::



Rachel had her first choral performance for 6th grade. The shirt was wayyyyyyy to big and the shoes I found for her were too small. The poor girl has 4 quad e feet. I bought 5W shoes. I sat in the chair trying to force the shoe on her feet like the guy in Cinderella. We had 30 minutes to exchange the shoes. We ended up buying 6 1/2W. They were a bit too big. I gave her tissue paper to stuff in her heels. She waddled into school with a bit miffed. The performance went well. I carried her on my back to the steps that led to the parking lot. She said she would walk the rest of the way. one of her friends asked her to join her family at Steak and Shake. We asked a couple of more friends. Rachel ended up sitting with Lauren S., Julia B., Brenna M. and Julia's brother, Jack. I enjoyed a chocolate/banana malt. Rachel loves the chili cheese fries. Any excuse for Steak and Shake is a good one.


:::::::::::Halloween Prep.:::::

So far, the kids want to be:

Aaron- Samurai, Rachel- Rubik's Cube, Noah- a molecule, and Eve- a bioluminescent jellyfish.

Well, have a fabulous weekend!