Yesterday was the big day: Em’s baby shower. It was a lot of planning and preparing, but I think it went well. I enjoyed chatting with everybody and Em got lovely gifts, and that’s what really matters, right? I was too busy to take any photos, so I’ll have to wait until Em gets her pics uploaded before I can see how it all looked.
This was the first shower I’ve thrown by myself.
Well that’s not entirely true. I wasn’t really alone since the Internet and I became fast friends during this process. I think I’ve looked at EVERY baby shower anyone ever posted on a blog! There are some kickin’ showers out there! Wow! Here’s a partial collection of what I found:
Some great showers from Stephmodo. Click on the links below each photo to go to the specific post.
(rant: I hate when bloggers use photos from lots of different sources and credit them at the end of the post. Then you have to try and match the photo with the source and THEN find the original post it was used in. Grrr! :end rant)
Misty and I got seriously behind on our episodes of Lark Rise to Candleford. We’ve been running LRtC marathons the past couple Sundays. Season 2 is so much better than season 1! Absolutely loving it! I don’t know if it’s a delayed Valentine’s day in-love-with-loveness or sprung from too much Lark Rise, but it has left my internal Mr. Beebe shaking his head and muttering remarks about “too much Beethoven,” (although Beethoven is probably tame compared to the emotional minefield of 3 hours of Lark Rise followed by Persuasion). But it’s just too good to stop!
I’m loving the development of Emma and Robert’s relationship.
I’m loving the sparring between Mr. Dowland and Miss Lane. I keep creating scenarios where it could all work out. I know it won’t happen.
Loved Laura and Fisher, but I’m afraid it’s going to end up Laura and Alfie and I don’t think he’s enough of a challenge for her.
Since there’s no romance in my real life, I have to borrow it from other people’s real lives. Have you seen the blog Missed Connections? I love it!! She takes missed connections messages from the paper and illustrates them.
I wonder if any of these people ever meet up?
Ahhhh….
Spring was definitely in the air today. Perhaps that’s a contributing factor in this lovesickness. Or maybe it’s been helped along by a little present from my mom: 12 months of brooding men.
Gotta love Mr. March.
What can I say? My mom knows me well!!
Also, I’ve had Florence + the Machine playing 24/7, which is perhaps unwise.
Seems that I have been held, in some dreaming state
A tourist in the waking world, never quite awake
No kiss, no gentle word could wake me from this slumber
Until I realize that it was you who held me under.
Things are further complicated by this little interview with RA who discusses the new audio book coming out. I got Sylvester for Christmas (thanks Dad!) and thoroughly loved it, so I’m sure this will be delightful.
And last week we did watch Bright Star again.
In retrospect, it seems I’m holding up well if the worst I can claim is a little romance-itis. After all this contagion I’ve been exposed to it’s a wonder I haven’t sunk into a lovelorn swoon!
The other day I sent my students home with some fliers about the 2010 census and it reminded me of the last time I filled out the census. I was in a classroom in an old Catholic boarding school on the banks of the Mississippi River. I can’t believe it’s been TEN YEARS since I was in Nauvoo!
[This is the construction site of the Nauvoo Temple. Our school is the brick building in the background. It's since been demolished.]
What a semester! There were 40 of us: 10 boys and 30 girls. You can imagine the drama. Nauvoo is a tiny town (only about 1,000 people then) so we were responsible for most of our entertainment. We held marathon Scum games, learned the harmonica, took the van to Wal-Mart in Iowa, played pool, formed a choir, talked and talked, ate fudge, occasionally did homework, and visited “the Flats.”
Down the hill from the school were restored pioneer homes. If the weather was nice we’d wander down to the Flats to study, visit the sites, enjoy the river, and chat with the guides. The senior missionaries who give the tours became good friends. Everyone had their favorite surrogate grandparents. I was lucky that Elder and Sister Saunders came from my hometown, so I knew them already! They were great to give us rides back to the school on snowy afternoons.
One of the senior missionaries’ tasks was to perform in the Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo in the Cultural Hall. It’s a musical about the history of Nauvoo.
Frequently the missionaries’ families would come for a visit. In the winter there weren’t many other visitors. Because it wasn’t cost effective to open the Cultural Hall without thirty or so people in the audience, they asked the students to attend to fill in the remaining numbers. After a few weeks we knew it as well as the missionaries (and got in trouble for singing along!). I died when I found this video clip. These weren’t the missionaries when we were there, but the show is the same.
I shot over 17 rolls of film while I was there, but none of them are in my computer and my scanner isn’t working. The only photos I have of people are some old scanned scrapbook pages.
You can almost see everybody! These became some of my dearest friends during those short months. We laughed so much! But at the same time, I went through some of my hardest days in Nauvoo. Our last assignment was to write a reflection paper about our experience. I started mine with, ”
When I signed up to come to Nauvoo, I knew that I would learn; I just didn’t realize how personal a tutoring session it would be. Never in my life have I encountered more spiritual roadblocks, but by the same token never have I received more answers.
Everyday was saturated in emotion. I think it was the sense of really living in the moment. We were cut-off from family, entertainments,and transportation. Ours was a world caught between times. Very surreal, but the best surreal of my life.
After a very late Thursday night, some muttered curses, help from Ian, and very nearly throwing my laptop through my bedroom window, I finished burning the 6th annual Valentine’s Day luv mix. (If you’re in need of lots of love, you can see 2008’s mix here and 2009.)
This is one of my favorite holiday traditions. It’s more for me than anybody who receives one, but I accept that. I really do adore the process, except when it’s 12:30 A.M. and I can’t get anything to burn… I’ve been working on this mix for a year (and already have a song for next year’s mix), but couldn’t find some of the songs I wanted. Ian used his secret resources to track them down for me (thanks!).
If you’re looking for some post-Valentine love tunes, may I suggest:
Twinkle, Twinkle—Uni & her Ukulele
Counting to 100—Matt Wertz
I Don’t Know—Lisa Hannigan
Fuzzy—The Incredible Moses Leroy
A Little Love—Meaghan Smith
Nowhere to Now-here—The Kin
You can be the One—Late Night Alumni (Ian suggested this one)
Ordinary—Stabilo (I’ve been holding onto this one for a few years)
Just a Phase—Hannah Pestle
Under My Skin—Peter Bradley Adams
Stray Italian Greyhound—Vienna Teng
Find a Way—SafetySuit
Use Somebody—Laura Jansen (I had to find a way to use this song)
Heartbeats—Jose Gonzalez
Falling—Florence + the Machine (if you don’t know Florence, you really should)
Garden Song—Richard Walters
A Little More of You—Ashley Chambliss (stolen from Emily)
Phew. The end of a long weekend. I have been one busy girl.
Friday we had our Valentine’s Day party at school. The kids were sooo good! How did I get so lucky?? I didn’t even have to remind them to be quiet! Mom came to help wrangle and I “let her” deal with the cookies.
I kept things way low-key. We graphed candy hearts.
We read Scholastic News.
And we read lots of Valentine books. No, I did not put them with partners. It just seemed to happen. Romance in the air???
I figured they had enough candy so I gave them all finger puppets. Thank you Current!
I made a pretty good haul, too.
Gotta love a good feather rose and wine glass combo. Reminded me of the long gone swan vase.
After the Valentine exchange we did musical reading chairs before picking RIF books.
After school I had to run home and finish packing. Bright and early Saturday morning I loaded up the car and headed south. Vegas baby!
I don’t care for road trips, but this wasn’t too bad. Big thanks to Dan Brown and his Lost Symbol audio book and to Adrienne for sharing it with me. Not his best novel, but it kept me entertained. And I made pretty good time. 5 hours to Vegas and another 20 minutes to Henderson. Love the GPS and thankfully no car problems!
Em, Jacob, and I went to In-n-Out for lunch. My first In-n-Out burger.
Pretty good. Unimpressive fries, though.
Then Em and I visited all the Vegas sites: Nancy’s Quilt Shop, Baby Gap outlet, Target, Ross, Yogurtland…We had fun shopping for baby stuff and trying to plan the nursery.
On Sunday/Valentine’s Day/Chinese New Year/Losar/Anna Howard Shaw Day we went to church and chillaxed the rest of the day. Em prepared a lovely eggplant Parmesan for dinner.
I celebrated Lincoln and Washington by driving home. Thankfully an uneventful trip and I still have 6 CDs of The Lost Symbol to listen to!
Now to unpack. Oh how I hate to unpack. Unpack and go back to work. Blah!
I’ve done a bit of a disappearing act lately. No real reason. Just nothing to say and no motivation to think of anything. Is it winter blahs? To borrow a page from Cecily’s diary:
But I don’t like [winter]. It isn’t at all a becoming [season]. I know perfectly well that I look quite plain after [a month or two of winter].
Did I mention that Mom and I went to The importance of Being Earnest? No? Despite what those with pedestrian tastes might think, it was delightful. Perhaps at a later time I’ll write a fuller synopsis, but right now I find myself abuzz with energy at 10:30 on a Sunday night when I should be headed to beddie-bye. How does this work? I was a complete slug all weekend and got nothing done. Now, when I need to be sleeping, I can’t! Grrr.
So, where does that leave me?
Mourning the conclusion of Emma, for one. Alas, it’s over. **le sigh** To compound the tragedy, this is the final Jane Austen adaptation for the foreseeable future. No more bonnets, or barouches, or bachelors. **le sigh x2** Sure, Masterpiece is rerunning Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in the next few weeks, but it’s not the same as having a new adaptation to savor and analyze. And I admit that I really enjoyed this version. I thought the portrayal of Harriet was a bit washed-out and the dueling Edmunds took me a minute to get over but those are minor complaints of an otherwise entertaining mini-series. It was beautifully filmed. Michael Gambon played the worry-wart better than I expected and Christina Cole seemed to have a ball being Mrs. Elton.
I know this story so well, mostly due to the fact that I love the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow version. I’m undecided about which adaptation I pefer, but I know for sure that Ramola Garai’s hairstyles were 50 times better than Paltrow’s!
Regardless of my familiarity with the plot, I still held my breath until the end. How could these two headstrong characters ever get together?? But, of course, they did. Happily ever afters for all! Although, did anyone else feel short changed out of an Emma/Knightley wedding?
Did you see Emma? What did you think?
Here’s a bit of a summary if you want to relive the highlights.
Now maybe I can get some shut eye. Morning will be here all too soon…
First off, Emma is on Masterpiece Classic tonight, so set the Tivo. It’s the new 2009 BBC production. I’ve heard mixed reviews, but am very excited to finally get to see it. Also, I really like her dress.
I think Emma is one of Jane Austen’s best–even if this particular heroine makes me all too aware of my own shortcomings. And I’m interested to see if Johnny Lee Miller (aka Edmund Bertram from Mansfield Park ‘99) can pull off Mr. Knightley’s mix of humor and fedupness.
Also, we have a new game finished. It’s for practicing beginning sounds and is available on Etsy through Hearts for Haiti. All the money (minus Etsy/Pay Pal fees) goes to Doctors Without Borders.
If you don’t need to practice your beginning sounds, Hearts for Haiti has lots of other items listed. I bought some printable Valentine cards that I’m going to have my students do and donate to Cards for Kids. Two great causes all at once–talk about multi-tasking!
And, Bright Star comes out on DVD Tuesday. Are you psyched, or what???
It’s such an elegant movie that I feel like I need some sort of grand unveiling in order to watch it. Any ideas?
I just tried to leave for church an hour early. Fortunately Misty stopped me before I got to the door, otherwise I would have been chillin’ with the Samoan ward for awhile!
Oops.
The really embarrassing part is I just spent last week teaching 2nd graders how to tell time. Well, what are you gonna do?
Well, I’m going to take this chance to update my blog. Nothing too exciting, these are just some music videos I’ve come across over the past year or so and thought someone else might like them, too.
I know I’ve posted this before, but it’s so good, I had to do it again!
The roomies and I had movie night last night and went to see Leap Year.
They get bonus points for including Snow Patrol in the trailer, even if the song isn’t in the movie.
I thought it was charming–surprisingly so! It was the perfect cure for the winter “blahs.” I laughed way more than I expected. It helped that:
I had way low expectations. I was expecting Chasing Liberty: Dublin Nights. It was, thankfully, much better.
Matthew Goode = adorable in all his sarcastic, scruffy, Irish accent glory.
Ireland Beautiful country. Beautiful country that will eat you alive if you let your guard down for a single moment.
The premise of the story is that Amy Adams’ character (Anna) is trying to get to Dublin by Feb. 29th to propose to her boyfriend. It ends up in a cross-country trek. One movie reviewer was hung up on how they stretched a short journey (Dingle to Dublin) into several days. After all, Google says you can make the trip in 4 1/2 hours.
False.
You cannot drive from Dingle to Dublin in 4 1/2 hours. One website recommends taking the Google suggestions and multiplying by 1.75. Which would explain how my trip from Killarney to Galway (130 miles), a supposed 3.5 hour trip, took nearly 7.
Such is the beauty of Ireland. But, what can you expect with roads like this?
I think Anna and Declan got off lucky by not having to face an on-coming semi at 45mph.
The traffic jams don’t help.
But if you can’t figure out where you’re going, it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get there!
And then the changeable weather makes everything just that much more exciting!
However, if you’re not in a hurry, Ireland is incredible!
Amazing views (Queen Victoria liked this one, too.)
Incredible ruins to stumble across.
Windswept cliffs
Charming villages
With a variety of bright pubs
And sheep. Loads of sheep. Sheep everywhere. Actually I don’t think sheep made it into the movie, but they should have. Ireland is full of sheep.
It was great to relate to so much in the movie, and not just the abundance of livestock. There was the time I shorted out the plug. Who makes a plug for “shavers only.” That’ s just ludicrous! The bathroom is down the hall, but we can cater to all your shaving needs! I guess that’s what you get in a dumpy B&B. Thankfully we didn’t push our car off any cliffs, though we did wind up with a flat tire and scratched paint from having to jerk onto the side of the road to avoid collisions. Basically my trip to Ireland was pretty much like being in the movie, but tragically, there wasn’t a single hint of Matthew Goode anywhere!
I just stumbled onto Part 1 of This Emotional Life on PBS and got sucked into watching the whole thing. There were tears. And not just because I had to go back to school today.
There was the part where the dad who had adopted a boy from Siberia with reactive attachment disorder was talking about his son and said something like, “This isn’t the dad I wanted to be. Letting go of that was hard. But this is being the dad he needs. And maybe that’s what being a dad is all about.”
Or when the brother of the man with Asperberger’s was talking about how brave his brother is and how proud he is of him.
Or when the man in marriage counseling says that his only memory of his father is being given a basketball and suddenly his wife realizes why he relates everything to basketball and you just see her let go of so much anger…!
Real life is so much better than fiction!!
Part 2 is on tomorrow, but I bet they repeat Part 1 soon.
