The Girl is Crafty Like Ice is Cold

Reading: The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. Yes, still. This is a fabulous book if you want to learn every single detail of the life of BFrank. It's not a general overview. Whew. So it's long and sometimes tedious. I'm thisclose to the Boston Tea Party episode though so I can't put it down now! I need to finish it though so I can move on with my life... my pile of books to read and reread (Gone With the Wind!!) is just getting larger.

Coffee Intake: One cup a day! And by one cup I mean one single little scoop of grounds. Go Casey! Go Casey! I think it would be fairly easy at this point to drop that cup, but I enjoy it so much that for now I'm keeping it. At one cup a day I wake up feeling great rather than like I'm going to die if I don't get coffee. Although... that could also be due to the fact that I've been sleeping more than our cats lately.

Sleeping: a lot. A ton. A plethora. I'm not sure what happened but I've been falling asleep between 7 and 8 every night. Not that I was staying up late before... but man, I've been pulling a Jimmers (my dad) and falling asleep while tucking in C (like he used to do to me) OR coming out of a kid's room from tucking-in, turning on The Twilight Zone, and falling asleep on the couch 2 minutes later. Oh well, at least I'm still getting up early. Lots of people need 10 hours of sleep... like cats... and teenagers.

Crafting: Why, yes, I have been. Thanks for asking. I miraculously finished this:

I think I'm going to rip out the date and put it smaller in the corner. It takes away from the family. And hey, what's a cross-stitch without 50 million rip-outs and redos, right? In case you can't tell, it's our fam. From left to right: Max (or a rapid racoon?), Chris, Carolena (holding her lovies Whoppie and Howie behind her back), Nils with his "night-night" blankie and a dead racoon "King Julian," and moi with a cup of coffee and a book about polar exploration (in theory the white stitches on the book are a Compass Rose with bigger N/S arrows... in reality it's just a blob), and of course, Lieutenant Square Body, the fiesty Olive herself (with a purple calm collar on) rounds us out on the right.

I love it. If you want me to make one for your family I'm charging $400,000 due to the cost of labor. Man, cross-stitches would really be a breeze if it weren't for all of the "that looks weird" and ripping out and restitching.

I also pulled out my sewing machine yesterday and made a dress for Carolena. I used an old pattern that I tweaked (look at me, tweaking a pattern!). She LOVES it and when she tried it on yesterday so I could mark where to cut and hem she insisted that she wants it "looonnng" - so it looks like we're going long. Still needs to be cut and hemmed though.

et cetera: Yesterday I taught my son to wipe his nose on his sleeves. Yes, on purpose. It just breaks my heart to see Nils sitting there with a runny nose and he's snot going to get up and go get a Kleenex. So that's a habit I'll have to break later but for now his life will be all that much better. Tonight is Kinder-Expo at school! What?! I'm excited. C is just starting to show signs of restlessness at home. I think by the end of the summer she'll be jumping out of her skin to start kinder. I've got a date on the calendar to go to the beach with my mom and sister (woo!) and I'm feeling footloose and fancy free. I'm dying to see the new Christian Bale movie (*sigh*) so I need to either go next week or find someone (cough cough) to meet me halfway. Yesterday Nils pointed to the sky and yelled, "Bird!" but I heard "Batman!" and was about to put on some fresh lipstick in case it was Christian Bale. Unfortunately, it was a bird.

A Twilight Zone Christmas

If Carolena is the second to wake up, we like to get snuggled up together in my favorite chair (yes, I'm an old man and have "my arm chair") and gaze at our Christmas tree. One morning Carolena pointed out a particular ornament that my brother-in-law painted for me a few years ago. It is one of the very best gifts I've ever received and depicts Chris in clericals, me in a Donna Reid-esk red dress, and a small pink bundle in my arms.

"I like that ornament of you and Daddy" Carolena said and then she pointed to the one Bryan made last year in which our family has two kids standing with Chris and me, "and I like the one with me and Nils in it too."

"Look again at the first one" I told her, "I'm holding something. What do you think I could be holding?"

Without getting up to look at the ornament she guessed, "Meeko?" (her stuffed animal raccoon)

"Nope. I'm holding a baby in a pink blanket"I replied, "Who might have been a baby in a pink blanket that I held at Christmas time?"

She thought a moment and then in a very firm voice replied in all childhood sincerity: "Aunt Kelly."

Classic Casey

"I attended a monster truck rally once," I announced at dinner tonight. "Yep, my little brother reallllly wanted to go, so my dad took me and Hunter. I thought it was cool for about five minutes and then ended up miserable and throwing up in a trashcan."
Classic.

"I'm having a Halloween party tomorrow," I said to Kelly on Friday. "I don't have a costume. The problem is this: I told everyone I would wear a costume, I refuse to buy anything, I have an insanely limited wardrobe, annndd it can't be too terribly weird because I invited a few people I don't know."
"Don't you have some diaper boxes?" she replied. "Robot?!"
Duh. She's a genius.
And then I spent the rest of the afternoon creating the most normal costume ever if you are having a party and invited people you don't know.

Classic.

I fell asleep in Carolena's bed tonight while mid-sentence telling a bedtime story about how my dad used to fall asleep in my bed tucking me in. I over-committed myself to bringing baked goods to school this semester and have already gotten my reminder email about the next thing. Halloween decor came down today because we're done with that and onto getting excited about thankfulness. Who has any more time to spend on "creepy" and "candy"? Boooorrring. But the bat tree is staying. I love that thing. It's 8pm and my 7-730pm nap just didn't do the trick so I'm ready to hit the hay.
Classic.

See ya in St. Looey, suckers.
Damn. I haven't finished our St. Louis vacation scrapbook yet. From May.
Classic.

ABCs of Casey's Interests

I've always thought that you could learn a lot about someone by their google search history. So, here is mine:

Alf
Benedryl for babies
Crock pot roast
Drake passage
Ernest Shackleton
Fort bend women's shelter resale
Golden snitch sweater
How to do a one armed pushup
Indoor rock climbing katy
Jennifer aniston ring
Katy texas events
Lutefisk
Memphis
Nils Holgersson
Origami goose
Prius "key detecting in vehicle" alarm while driving
Q (nothing)
Rudolph movie bird that doesn't fly
St louis
Twilight zone
Uni toys wombat
Verse about she bears
Wombat video
X (nothing)
Youtube sweatin to the oldies
Z (nothing)

 Yep, that seems about right.

Time Enough at Last

Friday morning I arrived home from boot camp (yes, really) and announced to my family,
"Pack your bags and get in the car. We're going to Austin!"

After days and days of dreary cold weather and nothing notable to do, we were itching for an adventure. So, we made it happen. A couple of hours later (we he had to wait for the foundation dude to come out - I'd forgotten about that) we were off!

After a great day in our capital city a.k.a our old stomping grounds and the birthplace of Carolena we arrived back at our hotel room, bathed the nuggets, and got them both tucked in.

The night was young. I could hear the pleasant sounds of my children sleeping and the rain falling upon the window. I was enjoying the bliss that comes from lying in a bed with clean sheets that I did not have to wash nor put on the bed. My pajamas were cozy. My body was exhausted from the early workout. I was under a big fluffy comforter with a David Sedaris book and small reading light.

Content and giddy with the prospect of lying in bed for hours reading an enjoyable book, I flipped on the light and began to read. One paragraph later I watched in agony as the small led book light dimmed... dimmed... dimmed... and died.

 

Time Enough at Last indeed.

We'll Drink a Cup of Kindness Yet

Tonight as I lie on the couch in my pajamas watching Twilight Zone episodes until my 9 pm bedtime, I shall lift a glass of sparkling lemonade and drink a cup of kindness yet to auld lang syne. 2013: a year during which I am pretty sure I threw up more days than not.

And this time next year I shall lie on the couch in my pajamas watching Twilight Zone episodes until my 9 pm bedtime, and I will lift a glass of scotch and drink a cup of kindness yet to auld lang syne. 2014: a year that shines with the glimmering hope of less vomit.