Home & Family

It seems like everyone I know has had some sort of hard, sad news
this week — or something dramatic going on.  Late night chats,
distracting movie outings and the like have all been required.  What a
crazy week. 

Our contribution to the drama involved a trip to the emergency room
on Wednesday night.  Isaac had some weird CO2 build up in his upper
body that caused his muscles to seize up and curl him into a contorted
ball — in lots of pain.  It had something to do with dehydration and
low potassium (I think).  He had exercised the previous hour and was on
a cool-down.  I haven’t had a chance to research this sort of thing
yet, but it
sounds a lot like decompression sickness — that scuba-diving thing. 

Isaac’s no namby-pamby either.  I’ve seen him blow off disgusting,
horrible gashes that should have required stitches, long tumbles down
rocky terrain while mountain-biking, etc.  For all of his macho
flesh-wounds, he says this CO2 thing was the worst pain he’s ever
felt. 

The pain was quickly resolved with a steady drip of liquids — mixed
with some calming something-or-other.  He’s been sluggish and tired
since, as his blood chemistry evens out again, but he’s almost
recovered.  Just a rough and strange interlude.  And Isaac and I missed
Elijah’s school concert : (

The holidays now resume.  I’ve spent the last day-plus, sewing
flouncy holiday skirts for a friend’s daughters and dollhouse dress-ups
for Charlotte.  I absolutely love to sew gifts, but I haven’t had the
heart for it much this year.  There hasn’t been much friend-sewing
since I made these doll blankets (here & here).

Let’s just say it’s great to be back at it!  Sound the triumphal horns.  Now, if I can just learn how to create time.

I’m hoping to have the presents delivered before we head out to see
the Nutcracker tonight —  care of the Moscow Ballet.  I expect we’ll
have to get more serious about dance class once Charlotte gets a good
look at the ballet gowns.  Charlotte is quite graceful.  She’d be a
great dancer.

Oh yes!  And speaking of dancing.  For years, I’ve wanted to sign up
for a Tap Dance class — just to make a loud, dancey racket.  I’ve done
some research and found (via Jen) a Saturday morning clogging class for women.  I
guess clogging shoes have two taps on each shoe, while tap shoes only
have one, therefore clogging = bigger racket.  That works for me — as
long as I still get to use Jazz hands : )  So I’m doing it!  I even
convinced my friend, Sarah, to take the class with me.  I just need to
find me some clackity-tappity shoes by January 10th.

Some Tid Bits

• Another giveaway — it must be giveaway season:  visit Ever After today to enter a drawing for a gift basket of paper-craft supplies from my Freshcut paper line.
• My assistant, Tara is having a baby girl!  (More gift-sewing to do.)
• The laundry is all folded!
• I discovered Apple Fritter Bread (ala Super Target).  It’s amazing. 
  Now I want to create my own recipe for it — and maybe other bread
  recipes based on treats from the doughnut store.

What a wonderful week!  We didn’t work at all, but played, played,
cooked, ate & played some more.  My parents came over twice with
their Canasta cards.  Dad & I make a formidable team.  My brother, Ryan, brought over Rock Band. I killed my first two songs, ‘I’m So Sick" & "Psycho Killer."
At least ‘the band’ told me so, but they might have just been wooing me
to stick around.  Which I did, playing the guitar & the base guitar
as well (I avoided the drums – those looked impossible).  There were
movies mixed in and one trip to the gym with Rachel.  Turkey-roasting,
pie-making, table-decorating, good-food-eating, nephew-squeezing.  A
memorable Thanksgiving vacation.

I ended up skipping the tablecloth project
for 5 more hours of playtime, but did have fun with the folding-chair
covers.  I arranged leaves from disassembled fall garlands onto each
chair back & stapled them (shh) to the copper slip covers.  The
centerpiece is a large pile of the silk leaves, ready for raking. You
can’t see the leaf pile too well in my photos, but it was a fun touch.
I’m nostalgic for leaf piles as I haven’t had fall leaves in my yard
since I was a young girl.  I used to splash them about and make a big
mess of my parents’ yard-keeping efforts.  We had some great backyards
when I was little. One house had a stream in the backyard and a huge
vegetable garden.  One had a ravine, a hammock in the trees, and wild
daffodils.

I’m planning a trip to PA next spring.  I’m considering adding a couple of days onto the trip to explore my childhood neighborhoods there.  We lived in OH for a while too.

We’re back in swing today.  The furniture is freshly re-arranged from the carpet incident,
the house is clean, the refrigerator is full, and the air smells of
cinnamon pine cones.  Though I’m in the thick of designing my next
collections, we’re excited to fully participate in the holidays this
year.  Last year was a crazy, worky blur.  We’re not doing that again.

We’re heading into the Thanksgiving bustle.  I had planned to sew a
tablecloth and chair covers last night, a table design which started
out simple enough, but now involves tiered ruffles, piping and sashes.
As if Isaac’s and my creative symbiosis wasn’t enough to extend the
holiday prep from one day to four, while we were at the fabric store,
the dogs pulled up a section of our carpet and shredded the edge to
bits.  Our night was then spent moving furniture out of the family room
and learning how to work a carpet stretcher.

One edge of the room’s carpet butts up to decorative tile and that
whole edge had to be re-positioned and secured.  I’ve always wanted to
know how to do this, but it’s one of those skills I never expected to
learn.  Now we’ll see how well the carpet stays puts.  Let in the dogs.

Isaac is questioning the etymology of the word, catastrophe.  "Dogostrophe is more like it."

As of yet, all we have ready for Thanksgiving are the goodie bags, but that’s a start.

Wow, thank you so much for your eye-care stories and advice.  Charlotte
had an appointment with an ophthalmologist this last week and he’s
thinking glasses might just solve the issue without any patching
whatsoever.  You should have heard how thrilled he was that we brought
her in so early.  I guess there are issues that if left unresolved can
cause long-term problems and possible loss of sight – ay, ay, ay.  The
doctor said that Charlotte’s a tad far-sighted in one eye and trouble
focusing that eye is what’s causing it to turn in a little at times.
We’re not too worried.  He really did think the glasses would likely do
the trick.  We’ll watch for progress over the next month or so, then
see what else is needed, if anything, at our next appointment.

Boy, did we feel clueless picking out glasses.  Neither Isaac nor I
have ever needed glasses, though I’ve always secretly wanted some.  We
ended up with flexy, bendy purple ones with shatter-proof lenses and an
elegant frame.  They should be ready early this week.  Now I need
advice on how to help Charlotte keep track of them!

Ophthalmology.  O-P-H-T-H-A-L-M-O-L-O-G-Y.  Ophthalmology.  Two
crazy, extra letters in there.  ‘Ophthalmology’ would have sunk me in a
Spelling Bee. 

Isaac & Laura’s younger brother, George, lives in Germany where
he teaches ‘Teaching ESL’ at a university there.  George is absolutely
amazing with language.  He speaks English, German, Danish, and Chinese
— an interesting combination, to say the least.  He could have gone to
the last olympics as a translator.

Anyhow, George sent a letter out to all of us yesterday about the
election.  It puts a new perspective on our access to the polling
places here in the states.  Isaac & are heading out to vote in the
next little while and I strongly urge you to go vote too.  Call a
friend for babysitting if you need it.  Trade babysitting even, but
vote.  And what a monumental election today, whichever way it goes!

Dear Family,
   One of the hardest parts about being in Germany is having to vote by
absentee ballot. And one of the hardest things about voting by absentee
ballot is trusting in a bureaucracy that is not too on the ball with
getting you that ballot. Well, I was personally on the ball in
requesting mine months ago, but unfortunately, I am not going to get to
vote in this year’s election. Honestly, it just breaks my heart because
I have never cared more for my country than now.
     I happen to be
reading John Adams and enjoying it as much as I have enjoyed any other
book. It gives me a glimpse into the life of a man who I believe was
inspired by God to resist evil and help establish a system that would
give voice to its people (NOTE: not the absentee ballot system). I
might add that Abigail Adams has been an inspiration to me, as well.
She was evidently every bit the freedom fighter, every whit the mind. I
believe that we have had few such leaders since, but I hope that the
future will bring us more; we sorely need women and men of such caliber.
   I hope that all of you are taking the opportunity of this precious
freedom to vote, whether you vote for Obama, McCain, or Mickey Mouse
(if you feel somewhat desperate like I have at times during this
election). It is such a precious freedom and no less important for our
small voices. God bless America.

Love,
George, Christina, & Joe

Isaac & Charlotte flew out to St. Louis to visit Laura
& crew.  He put up crown molding in her family room, photographed
some paintings, took some portraits. I don’t know the whole list, but
they did fit in a quick jaunt to the zoo one of those days.  The St. Louis Zoo
has a freaky, bald chimp.  I’ve never heard of such a thing.  Isaac
didn’t get a picture of her though;  the chimp was in the middle of
some extra-gross behavior I hear.  Check her out here instead.  So interesting.  Her name is Cinder.  She looks alarmingly mannish.

I’m sure Charlotte had plenty of fun while the grown-ups worked.  Kids
are resourceful that way.  Here’s a shot to prove my theory.  Bubble
wrap.

Elijah and I stayed put because of school.  However, once the weekend hit, Elijah and I headed out to a local resort (but not till we went out for dinner, had ice cream and made our first trip to the new Lego store).
The entire next day was spent at the resort’s water park:  lazy river,
waterslides, wave pool, lounge chairs, cabana-boys-refilling-sodas,
lots of sunblock, sketchbook, lap-swimming (just a little).  We had our
own fun.

Check out this insane waterslide.  There’s no pool of water at the end, just a long trough of water for you to skid across.  Completely insane.

Great weekend.  Time to do it again.

My mother-in-law is in town.  We drove up near Sedona to pick her up from Quilter’s Quarters where she was teaching a doll class.  Such a calm &
pretty drive.  We went for dinner at a great little restaurant that was
built where the town’s old movie theatre had been for many, many
decades.  Tavern Grille in Cottonwood, AZ.  They serve
humongous portions.   

Cottonwood is just south of Route 66.  I’m not too familiar with the
place, though we did stay there once before.  It’s the town where The
Pillow Incident took place — now family lore. 

Let’s just say that the front deskman at the hotel wanted to keep
our pillow for himself (we had brought a pillow from home in case one
of us wanted to sleep in the car on the drive and we accidentally left
it in our room).  The pillow was clearly marked as ours and we weren’t
leaving without it.  Getting him to return this pillow was straight out
of a Seinfeld episode, including a brief, comical tug of war.  When the
front deskman eventually handed the pillow over the counter to Isaac,
after twenty minutes of denying its existence, he just couldn’t quite
let go of it.  It was hilarious.  Poor Isaac was completely bewildered
— and I had the giggles.

It was a super-nice pillow.

The Pillow Incident — one of my funniest and strangest memories.  I should get Isaac to record the whole affair.  I could have sworn we were on Candid Camera.