I'm back! Busy holidays

OK, so I haven't done anything this month but read. I've happily flung myself into the world that I lived in 11 years ago--18 years old and madly in love--as I've read through the Twilight series of books three times (and dragged Terry to the movie twice). The first picture below is one Terry took of me in my "natural habitat"--curled up on the couch with a book. It's been so many years since I've allowed myself to just enjoy reading more than picture books (my attention span has deteriorated and it takes a good love story to pull me into much longer anymore). It's been tons of fun, and I'm not sure that I'm ready to give it up yet. Who knows, I might just branch out and read something else sometime, though right at the moment I'm still having fun with Bella, Edward, and the rest of the Cullens.

Despite my inattention to the rest of the world, I actually managed to pull off one of my best Christmas holidays yet. It's just a good thing I had everything ready before Thanksgiving. Everything went very nicely, and now 2 days later we still haven't hit the major post-holiday crash that typically comes within 10 minutes of opening the last present. But maybe that's because we had something even more fun than Christmas presents just the day after--a visit from Uncle Bob--my oldest brother, who's usually in Scotland or traveling around the world. Almost as big a surprise was that Uncle John came to spend the day, too. Though he's only a half hour away, he rarely comes to visit (too many scary little girls). Bob played on the Wii with the girls (in the pic below with Marty). Just after this picture, they all played Wii Bowling, where Linda creamed everyone with an amazing 6 strikes in a row (and one or two more after breaking her perfect streak in frame 7). She was awesome! No form, no setup, but strike after strike.

Today was another special day. Terry and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary. We'd already had a night out, so today was a family fun day--especially since we were also celebrating Linda's five-and-a-half birthday. So strange to think that, though I'm fairly certain I've spent at least 10 of those 11 years mostly pregnant, my littlest baby has been with me for half my married life. So today we watched some of our Christmas movies--Tinkerbell and Wall-E, went out to lunch for some popcorn chicken (next pic of me and my girls), and went to Build-a-Bear to get bride and groom elephants to celebrate eleven years together. The girls were not happy to be in the store to not get anything of their own, so I completed the family with 3 baby pachyderms. The last pic for the day shows the happy family--Elebella and E. Phant and their little ones Emerald, Emmy, and Moonstone.

So that's the end of my current holiday adventure. It was a fun, whirlwind of days. And now I can take a deep breath and rest for all of 3 days before the next holiday is upon me. I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season, too.

Two for the Tooth Fairy

Chrissy lost a tooth at school today. She brought it home in a bag that had a cute card on it that said "Hip Hip Hooray! I lost a tooth today!" Immediately on entering the house she went upstairs and put the tooth in her tooth fairy pillow.

After I tucked the girls in for the night, panic ensued when Chrissy checked for her tooth and couldn't find it in either of the tooth fairy pillows in the room. So I was called in to help with the search (nearly impossible in the girls' room, despite it having been cleaned just 2 days ago). We searched the area around, and then I asked to see the pillow that Chrissy was fairly certain she had put her tooth in. Digging deeper than little hands would go, I found a tiny tooth shoved into the root area of the tooth-shaped pocket on the pillow. Relieved, Chrissy replaced the tooth a little less deeply and set it under her pillow.

As I was getting up to go, I moved to put the other tooth fairy pillow away, and noticed a tiny lump in the root area of that pillow's tooth-shaped pocket. Sure enough, there was a second tooth in there. Marty was briefly excited that she might get some tooth fairy money for it, but I explained that there was statute of limitations on lost teeth. Besides, she was fairly frequently paid for lost or otherwise missing teeth (like her first TWO!, that she swallowed). Also, that particular pillow had been mine when I was little, so for all we knew it was one of my old teeth.

We finally settled on putting both teeth into Chrissy's tooth fairy pillow to make sure that the tooth fairy received the correct tooth. Phew. Now we can all sleep in peace. :o)

My Antisocial Way of Being Social

Now that things have started to calm down a bit, it's time to get back to blogging. Last weekend, my niece, Ashley, was married. It was a beautiful day, if somewhat cold (it happens in late November sometimes). The bride was beautiful, and the reception was definitely the nicest I've seen in a church building. Not that I've been to many receptions. But this one was nice.

One of my favorite parts of the wedding weekend was that sis-in-law Monica flew out from California to come to the wedding. I know the trip wasn't for me, but I really enjoyed seeing and visiting with her. Monica was like a life-line when we lived in California when the girls were little. She has the very special talent of making everyone feel comfortable and loved.

All right, back to the purpose of this blog--my antisocial way of being social. I never know how to act or what to say in big crowds, so I've taken to bringing something to do during parties and other big events. Sometimes I'm the lady with the yarn (usually at church). And sometimes I bring my trusty sketchbook. That way I'm busy, and I get to record these moments with the people I love in my own special way. It's not as accurate as a photograph, but it's personal. And, as a bonus, it gives me a built-in topic of conversation when people come and ask to see what I'm working on. So here it is, my record of Ashley and Ben's wedding reception:

The Littlest Pilgrim

Today was the kindergartener's Thanksgiving play. Linda was a Pilgrim. Her line: "There is cranberry sauce and big turkey stuffed with dressing." She said her part clearly and stood for a moment--posing to give me a chance to get a picture in. Unfortunately, the camera I was using was too slow to take many pics during the show, and there were too many parents and grandparents in front of me for a good view (what were they thinking?). But no worries, I got a few in, and she was just as cute a pilgrim immediately after the show as during.

Here is Linda singing and signing "God Bless America". All the kindergarteners did such a good job on that. I was most impressed.

Here's what she should have looked like while saying her line, though she (like almost all the others) forgot to bring up her prop. See, after can be better. Revisionist photography. Ha!

The play was interspersed with cute Thanksgiving songs among the short lines each child had.

First was God Bless America.

Then there was a song about fat turkeys, gobble, gobble, gobble (words following, since Linda's here to sing it to me now. It was very cute).

There was 10 little Pilgrims and 10 little Native Americans and 10 little children.

Gobble, gobble, gobble, Fat turkeys, fat turkeys.

Gobble, gobble, gobble, Fat turkeys are we.

We're not for Thanksgiving

We're just for the living

Gobble, gobble, gobble Fat turkeys are we.

After the main part of the play, each child stood up and said one thing they were thankful for. Almost everyone said they were thankful for their family, with a few "thankful for chocolates" tossed in there. Linda's friend Brilee said "I'm thankful for all the people who came to our play", which drew many "awww's" from the crowd. My little Linda stood up, smiled sweetly, and batted her eyes at me as she said "I'm thankful for my Mama!"

Yes! I love having a child who still loves me almost all the time! This picture is from the play. I very rudely stood up in front of everybody to get it. I wasn't going to miss this shot.




After the play, there was a craft to do. Here's a pic of my very hardworking little Pilgrim working on her Tree of Thanks. Each leaf had something she was thankful for written on it. Included are: home, church, sisters, grandparents, pets, friends. I'm sure she could have kept on going, but they ran out of leaves and time. No worries. There was still enough time for her to pose for a picture with her mama and her mostly complete, but not quite colored Tree of Thanks.
I am thankful for my sweet Linda.

The Importance of a Name

OK, so I decided about a month ago that I wanted to create a Blog. I know, I'm a big follower. Jump on the bandwagon. But I didn't do it. And why? Because I wanted to find the perfect name. The most obvious choice "The Wach Family" was already taken by my sister-in-law. But I have a great name for play on words--Wach, sounds like "wok" or "walk". So I considered several options: Wach This Way, Wach the Walk, Walk the Wach, even Wach the Wok (whatever that would mean...). Instead I settled on the first that came to mind and the first that I had discounted--Wach on the Wild Side.

I didn't want to give the wrong impression. This is the internet, after all. I am far from a wild one. But I do love the name. I came up with it (and a logo) over ten years ago when, newly married and a college student, I dreamed of the design studio I would start. That never happened, but I still liked the name. So here we are, ten years older and much tamer than even then, and I finally get to be "Wach on the Wild Side".

It does fit, though, since I often feel like I'm a zookeeper with all the crazy little monkeys in the house. That was before we added on the dog, a cat (or two--one is technically my mother's), and two bunnies. Here's my most recent pic of me and my monkeys--celebrating my 29th birthday last month.

Thus begins my life on the Wild Side.