Catching up on Christmas

Wow, I totally disappeared over the holidays, didn't I?
I assure you I had a lot of fun. I need to do a big long picture post. As it stands, I don't feel like it right now.

Christmas Eve I got some yarn in the mail. I'm going to make this sweater!!
So excited. I've never made a real sweater yet.
So guess what I did Christmas day? I crocheted. All. Day. Long.
Christmas night I finished the back of the sweater. It looked kind of small.
I measured it. It came way short of the size it was supposed to be.

Pretty much ruined my night. Totally ruined the next day. I couldn't stop thinking about how I had spent all of Christmas day working on something that's going to have to be undone. I haven't unraveled it yet, but I've let go of the pain. ;-) I can't decide if I should just be more conscientious about my tension, or up my hook size - cuz my gauge swatch was spot on.

The Looneys came over on Christmas Eve and we shared finger foods and exchanged gifts. That was awesomely fun. I say, this year was the best gift-giving year for me. Practically everything came from Etsy, and everyone was thrilled with their stuff. Then Katey, Laura, Alicia and I took silly pictures of ourselves. For as long as we've been friends, Katey and I have very few pictures of us together, so... yay! we have one now. Even though I'm smiling weird. lol


Christmas Day we leisurely opened gifts in the morning, then headed over to Mema's house in the afternoon for Christmas Dinner. So yummy. I got my cooking genes from Mema and Mama. They're the best.

So, it was an uneventful, relaxing, and fun holiday. Just how it ought to be. Wally (that's Laura, for the uninformed) and I took a picture in front of Mema's tree. (which is always lovely - She and Alicia have been the official Mema's Tree Decorators for the past couple of years)


As for today I've made 2.5 hats, put away some of the Christmas decorations, and made peanut butter rice krispie treats for the New Year's Eve party at the Looneys' house tonight. We're going to go over this evening and eat more junk food and play games and be crazy again. Yay!

So, Happy New Year to all my friends out there, and perhaps I'll actually get around to doing a New Year's post too... Or maybe that should wait til I post Christmas pictures? Or not. I don't know. We'll see. :)

Enjoy the rest of your holiday!!

Caitlin

Improv Chicken Pastina is Good

That was a very random title.
However, it is the subject of this post, so maybe it's not too random.

I've never cooked pastina before. 4 o'clock came and I didn't know what to do for dinner. Frozen roast wouldn't cook fast enough. Frozen chicken would! So I pan-seared some frozen chicken with a couple cloves of garlic. (the great thing about cooking chicken that way is that it makes it so flavorful. chicken likes to be bland sometimes.)

While it was cooking, I decided to use that pastina that's been sitting in the pantry looking so cute. I went down to the basement and came back up two or three times in an effort to think of something to go with the chicken. Soup was not an option. Well, it was, actually... but I didn't want soup. But I did want pastina. And chicken.


So. I chopped up some carrots, celery, bell pepper, and onion suuuuuuper finely and sauteed them. Then I cubed the chicken and mixed everything together - chicken, pastina, and veggies. It was good, but it needed a little more flavor. So I made a little bit of sauce - chicken mushroom sauce with a splash of soy sauce - and poured it in. Perfect.

Then I served it with steamed cabbage and proceeded to be in awe of my improvisational cooking skillz. Thank you, mother. :)

Now I'm going to go wrap presents and listen to my new Louis Armstrong Christmas CD.
If only I had some cocoa!

What sort of Christmas music do you enjoy?

Caitlin

Rapunzel, Rapunzel!

Ok, so I'm nowhere near Rapunzel, but my hair is growing!
And I'm so happy about it, that I decided to do a blog post and show off.

This is me in July, when my hair was red and the shortest it's ever been.
I loved it like that.
So fun!

This is me today, and my hair is blonde. And I need to color it again.
It's growiiiiing!!!
My roots are getting very long, and I want my hairs back to their natural color.
I look like a hobbit!
:D
And I'm wearing my favorite little bird earrings in both shots.


You could have seen these pics in vibrantly edited color, but alas!
Picnik would not behave.

On a totally random note, I'm eating a PB&J and some yogurt. Yum.
Grape jam! My favorite!
What's your favorite?

It's not Thanksgiving any more!

So, my thanksgiving post is late. But just because it's not thanksgiving any more doesn't mean we should stop being thankful. What if we all remembered to be thankful ALL the time?
Counting my blessings takes ages.

A - Awanas. Apple cider - which would be good right now. My throat hurts. Advent -which we're celebrating this year!
B - Boys (and I mean that in a totally innocuous way. Boys of all ages. They're fun!)
C - Church. Coffee. My name. Choir.
D - Daddy.
E - Evening time. Email
F - Friendship, Food, Fun
G - God's Grace
H - Holy Spirit. He has to remind me of so many things so often. Hugs.
I - Intercession. I love knowing that I can help my friends through prayer.
J - Joy.Real joy. Not circumstantial happiness. :)
K - Katey and Alicia. (they just go together like that)
L - Laughter, Love
M - Music. Mama. and my "other mothers," Marmee and Mom.
N - New friends!! I gained a couple of new friends this year. Yay! (Rae, Becca, and church peeps.)
O - Orthodontics. ... I WILL have pretty teef one day.
P - Popcorn. PEACE. Peace comes first, actually.
Q - Quiet.
R - Rain. Relatives. Random rambling. Reading.
S - Singing!! Sunshine, Stars, Siblings.
T - Tall shoes. Teaching.
U - Umbrellas. **I'm siiingin' in the rain, just siiingin' in the rain..."
V - Vincent, my crazy little green bird.
W- Walking. Waiting. Yes, I can be thankful for waiting.
X - X. I'm thankful for the letter X. ... mostly because I can't think of any X words. It's a nifty letter.
Y - Yogurt? I'm thankful for that. ... I can't think of many Y things either.
Z - Zippers. Where would we be without them? Zippers and Zeros.

Be thankful, people. :) I hope you had a great thanksgiving.
I'm looking forward to leftovers tomorrow.
<3

15 Random Things

I read this on somebody's blog. At the end it says "your turn."
I took it literally. You should too.
lol

1. I just ate a large scoop of mayfield chocolate ice cream. Yum.
2. I still want to go to Starbucks. Caramel macchiato, please.
3. Spell check says "macchiato" is wrong. It suggests Machiavelli.
4. I read The Prince by Machiavelli and liked it.
5. I have ten orders to pack tonight, and ship tomorrow.
6. There is an amazing pair of silverware handle earrings making their way to my house.
7. I bought a ginormous salad at O'Charley's last night, and wish I hadn't. It was good, though.
8. Fried green tomatoes are delicous. Especially when you have the added satisfaction of cooking them yourself.
9. My Life Lesson Monday post was kind of lame, I think. I need better life lessons.
10. I don't include enough of God in my blog posts... If he's such a huge part of my life, you'd think He'd be more apparent in my blog. Bad me.
11. Yesterday the youth choir sang for the evening service. I heard we did awesome. Which was great news, because all I heard was me and Sadie singing alto. lol
12. Actually, our choir is "teens and twenties," but that's harder to say. It's a combination of the youth group and the College and Career class. And it's a lot of fun. yay!
13. Regular choir is fun too. I love being in choir.
14. My hair is blonde again. It's more like strawberry blonde, since we didn't take all the red out.
I'm gradually going back to my natural color.
15. Your turn.

Me in my blonder hair and Sparks uniform.

I've been tagged!

Time to kill two birds with one stone.

... You know, thinking of it, I don't actually like that expression. The concept is great. But maybe we could kill something that wasn't birds. Maybe two flies with one swat... but that just sounds lame.
ANYWAYS.
Deborah tagged me, and there was some other thingy I wanted to do, too, so I'll just have at 'em both in one go-round.

Here are the rules:
~Link to the person who tagged you.
~Post the rules on your blog.
~Write six random things about yourself.
~Tag six or so people at the end of your post.
~Let each person know he or she has been tagged.
~Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1. A long time ago, when I was quite small, I was matter of fact, and not modest at all. "You've beautiful curls!" the old ladies would cry. "Mm-hm, I know." was my shameless reply.

2. I love children's books, and Jillian Jiggs is one of my favorites. The above rhyme is modeled after the first lines of Jillian Jiggs. I can quote huge portions (if not all) of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? and Bear Wants More.

3. I'm rather fond of bears, too. Though I'd rather not meet one in the wild.

4. Remember Coke Blak?I liked it.

"Introduced to much fanfare in 2006, Coke Blak was Coca-Cola's attempt at mixing Coke with coffee. An eight-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola Blak contained 46 milligrams of caffeine.

In late August, after just one year on the market, it was announced that Coca-Cola will discontinue the drink once supplies run out."

That was some good stuff. Really. A little pricey for such a tiny bottle, though. And pretty much everyone thought I was crazy for liking it. Except Katey. Dear, beloved Katey. I gave her a bottle of it for her birthday. Alas. 'Tis gone. I wonder if they'll ever resurrect it?

5. I'm scared that I won't like my teeth once I'm done with my orthodontic treatment. I'm afraid they're too big, and that I'll end up with horse teeth.

6. I have a lot of etsy work to be doing, but I've been sitting at the computer for hours, calculating important stuff, ordering yarn, sorting out what I'm supposed to make for who, reading blogs, chatting with friends, and thinking of stupid random things to say about myself. And now there are 40 minutes left on this ebay auction, and I'm nervous that somebody's going to come in at the last minute and raise the bid to like 22 dollars, and there is NO way I'm paying that much + shipping for a pair of used shoes. But I really want them!

I tag: ... Can I please cheat? Thank you. I must say, though, I love seeing people's answers, so consider yourself tagged if you want to be, and not tagged if you don't.

And now! For the 6 Fours.

A) Four places I go over and over:
church, work, Michael's craft supply, the Looneys' house.

B) Four people who e-mail:
Katey, Keith, Rebecca, and automated messages from Etsy flooding my inbox.


C) Four of my favorite places to eat:
P.F. Chang's (thanks, Aunt Cindy), Chili's, the Looneys' house (lol), Longhorn
(I really love to eat anywhere, though...)


D) Other places I would rather be right now:
on vacation with the Looneys. (Think I might like them a little?) Camping in the mountains. Somewhere fun doing something fun with fun people. ... That's not 4 places, but I'm actually pretty content to be bumming around at home right now.

E) Four people I think will respond:
Katey and Alicia, Becca, and maybe a random blog reader?

F) Four TV shows I watch:
Iron Chef America, Stargate Atlantis, Diners Drive-Ins and Dives, What Not to Wear

Ok, it says forward this to a bunch of people with your own answers, and send it back to me. But you're under no such obligation.

Have a happy day. :)
Me

I Bid Thee Farewell

...
**solemn silence**
The time has come.
I am to have my wisdom teeth chiseled out of my skull in the morning.
(That's how I worded it for my prayer request in Sunday School. I love making people laugh.)

Actually, maybe they won't have to chisel so much. Hopefully they're not impacted in the bone. I'm thinking it will hurt a lot worse than otherwise if they are. But I'm not sure if they're impacted, or if they just haven't come out yet, so I'll let you know when I'm capable of doing so. In the meantime, just keep praying that it will be over quickly, and that I'll heal quickly.


Great news! I made 2 sales on Etsy recently! Both custom orders, and one a return customer. You know what this means, don't you? People like me!! (Okay, so that might have already been established, but... ) I've had 2 or 3 return customers. That's great! People coming back means they really really like my stuff! And people sticking around to ask for a custom order instead of wandering off to someone else's shop means the same thing, too. Yay!

And I have a cool new yellow background.

Also, Leslie tagged me. So, here goes:



The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person know when you've posted your answers...

1. Favorite ethnic
Favorite ethnic?? Ethnic what? Ethnicity? And after repeating that so many times, I can't help but think "ethnic" is an odd word. Anyways. Um... I like [american] Chinese food? But I don't know that I like Chinese culture so much... And I like Mexican food too. But beyond food, I really don't have a grasp of enough different cultures to tell you my favorite... The English seem sort of quaint...

2. something you've always wanted to do.
Ride the biggest, tallest, fastest roller coaster in the world. In the front car.

3. Favorite color
yellow

4. Something you collect
I have to force myself to not buy teddy bears because I already have like 13 and nowhere to put them. Does that count?

5. something you do to relax
self acupuncture.

No, I'm kidding. I usually just close my eyes, breathe deeply, and think "relax, you idiot!"
It doesn't always work.

7. bloggers i am going to tag:
Abby, um... Oh, man. I know it's totally not fair to only tag one person, but I can't think of anyone else. I'm sorry! Oh, wait, um.. how about Tiffany. And... maybe somebody from the Ant Farm over there.

There. It's over with. I always feel bad for tagging people. The same way I feel bad when I call people. Like I'm intruding on their lives or something.

I thought there was something else of interest I was going to say.... Oh! Laura and I spent most of yesterday at Mema's house, just hanging out and swimming and stuff. Pepa let us take out the jet skis for a while. That was fun. We hadn't seen them for a while, so I'm really glad we got to just go over and hang out.

Today we joined the choir. Practice was great. I'm really looking forward to being a choir member.

Aaaand, I'm not supposed to eat or drink tomorrow before I get my teeth out. That means no coffee! I think I may have a cup of decaf while I go pack up those Etsy orders.

And so, dear friends, I leave you now. Whether for a couple days, or an entire week I know not. But I will be back.

:D
Oh! I just remembered I was supposed to post 6 Flags pictures. ... well, I didn't get many good ones, so it can wait.

I'm really leaving now.
Bye!

In Other News...

That's one of my favorite blogging phrases. In other news...

Laura and I are going home tomorrow. I'm ready to go. I didn't think I would be, actually, but I am. Especially since we were at home very little for the three weeks before we came. I miss my family, and my crazy bird.

So, yesterday Laura, Aunt Cindy, and I had our serious girl-time. We talked on our way to the mall, then we did some shopping, and then we had dinner at P.F. Chang's.

Shopping was great. I got two really cute shirts, and an amazing pair of pants at Old Navy. Only, they're way too long even when I wear my tallest shoes. But I think I've figured out how to fix that without botching them. And I got some great denim walking shorts at JC Penney's.

Dinner was SOO good. The best part. I love Chinese. We all tasted each other's food, and each liked what we chose best. And choosing was hard. Lo Mein with chicken, beef, pork, and shrimp. SO yummy. I ate my whole meal with chopsticks. Go me! I didn't know I was so talented. ;-) It's chopsticks for me whenever I have Asian food from now on. lol I had the leftovers for lunch today. But I used a fork.

We went to the beach again last week. And it was smelly and nasty, due to the weather having washed a bunch of seaweed ashore. We didn't stay long. On our way home, a friend of Aunt Cindy's invited us to come swimming at their community pool! So, we did, and it was a blast. It was the coolest pool ever. With a big, fun waterslide. Yay!

We've rented tons of movies the past week. We had a 3 in a row marathon last night. After watching a bunch of bittersweet/depressing movies, we finished with Martian Child. Aunt Cindy fell asleep and finally decided just to go to bed, so we watched it all by our lonely little awake selves. :D It was really good. Very heartwarming. Recommended.

After my post about my favorite things on Etsy, I was contacted by Helen of ShereDesigns on Etsy. Maker of the super-fabulous cute little bird ring that I so love. (She's ordered slippers from me before.) And guess what she did? She proposed a trade. That I send her this beret for that ring.

Is that cool or what? I am telling you, I was so excited I scared Anna and Sarah. I jumped up and down and clapped. And squealed "Yay! I'm so excited" more than a few times.
That's just pretty neat, if you ask me.

I also made a sale, and had 2 people message me to ask if I could make something specifically for them. So, Etsy wise, it's been a good week. Now I just need to make another sale so that I can buy supplies to please these nice people who want special orders. :D

Also, some dear, dear people have paid for Laura and Mama to go the prayer advance with me! So, we're all going! And I'm rooming with my Sarah-friend! YAY!!

Our youth group might be going to Six Flags on Thursday, and I really want to... so I hope that works out.

Friday, I'm having my wisdom teeth out. I hope I won't be useless for the rest of the weekend, but I'm sure I will be.

Next weekend is the Prayer Advancce. The Tuesday after that is my birthday! That's only two weeks away!

After that, I think the excitement will finally be over. At least until October, when we're going on vacation with the Looneys. I hope camping with the Looneys, and making at least one visit to the Fontenot's house can be managed sometime between there.

I just said ALL of that, but I really just wanted to tell you guys I thought it was cool that I used chopsticks close to effortlessly, and that I'm getting the ring I like so much. :)

Pray we'll have a safe trip home tomorrow, pretty please.
Love to all of my friends!

Me

Finally!

Really, I have been meaning to post for ages, and just haven't gotten the chance.
I'm finally here.
With pictures.

I really don't know where I left off in my life happenings last time I blogged, but - OH! I just remembered. I meant to blog about visiting Calvary a few weeks ago and I never did. That was 'mazin' fun. Really. Lots of love to all of my Calvary people. I'm sad I didn't have more photos, or better ones. Beth-Dear, I should like to see the ones you got. :D

Me, Ham, and Andrew

Tabitha, Laura, and Becx

Next interesting happening: I colored my hair strawberry blonde. Mama did a great job. Only the people who know me SUPER well said "oh, you dyed your hair!" The other ones all say, "something's different with your hair... I can't tell what, though..?!"

I love it.

I interrupt this irregularly scheduled blogging with a breaking news story.
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Cheeseburger's Shortcoming Gets Him Kicked to the Curb

It was an unusual end to a Sunday night for the Butler family. They had been to church, and were on their way home. Tired and hungry, Mr. Butler decided, for the sake of his sanity and satiation, to stop at Checkers and buy cheeseburgers and hot dogs for everyone. Taking advantage of the "69 cent Sunday" deal, they ordered ten cheeseburgers, ten hot dogs, and ten apple pies. Unusual as this was, the story grew stranger.

While waiting for the immense order, something unusual was spotted on the ground beneath the service window. A double with cheese, made unusual due to it's location. Upon hearing that such an oddity had been sighted, all members of the family pressed the member nearest the door facing the burger to open it, for all to see the unfortunate sandwich.

The authorities have nothing to say on the subject, and nobody knows exactly what happened. It is presumed that, in transit to a vehicle, it was simply dropped. Dropped, and left on the pavement to grow old and cold. Perhaps this abandoned burger was rejected, and thrown out the window of an unhappy customer? This picture was taken some time after the actual defenestrating of the burger. It leaves many questions unanswered, one of which being "what happened to the wrapper?"

Stranded on the curb, this burger's future isn't looking so hot.

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Week before last was pretty uneventful, I think. Last week was great. The beginning of the week is a blur. Wednesday, we went to the park with the Looneys and other friends of theirs. Laura and I had especially been wanting to meet these friends of Katey and Alicia, so I was super happy to finally have the chance. Laura had to be at school, though. :( She missed out on some amazing tag. Wish I had pics of the game. lol!

Nicholas, on top of the monkey bars.

Famous Matt's hand, Famous Garrett, the most adorable Ryan in the world, Nicholas, and Morgan

Thursday, I had my follow up exam at Dr. Peck's, from whence we determined not even Acuvue Oasys lenses will work for me. This week I'm on another trial pair. It's my last hope, apparently. If these don't work, I'm stuck with glasses for life.

Laura and I were dropped off at Katey and Alicia's that night. We got all dolled up in lightning speed, and were out the door to the HMV concert. The band was great, the jazz band was good (not quite as good as usual), the choir was awesome. It was fun, and afterwards we went to McDonalds. Most of the HMV people did.

There's more to the story, but I'm going to save it until I get a hold on the photos I need for it. ;-)

Once back home at the Looney's house, we crashed.

Friday was a little gloomy, but still fun. In the evening, we had party food for dinner. It was strange, and delicious. Then we watched August Rush. I think we teenage girls were the only ones that enjoyed it. I love it. So there.

Everyone went to bed while Laura, Alicia, and I stood outside for about 15 minutes just watching the amazing lightning. It was indescribable. Id never seen anything like it. Brilliant, silent flashes of light, illuminating the stormy clouds from behind. I know I overuse the word "awesome," but this really was one of those awe-inspiring experiences.

Then we killed the awe by going inside. Laura, Katey, Sheesh and I watched Red Eye - a pretty good suspense movie. Then we went to bed.

Saturday morning was good. We went home at noon, then went to babysit for the church drama at 5. Got home at 11. Ate too much cotton candy. Went to bed far too late, after staying up even after I told Beth-Dear I was going.

It was so good to go to Sunday School this morning! I'm going to scan my notes. I meant to tonight, but I forgot. We always start late. We technically begin at 9:45, but our lesson never starts until 10:15. We take our time getting settled in, and doing prayer requests. From 9:45 to 10:15, I was the only girl in a room full of guys. I felt a little small and alone. And amused. And I was very, very happy when Anna Leigh came in. lol! We learned about water bottles. (I'll show you later.) Never know what Phillip's gonna talk about.

This afternoon has been nice, too. Laura, Abby, and I went to Mema's house for a little while, and just relaxed. I finished up my secret project this evening. I was going to show you all tonight, but this post is so long already, it, too, shall have to wait until another time. Here's a picture, though.

you don't know what it is, do you?
(family members, shush.)

Wow. That was a lot of text.
Maybe I shouldn't wait forever, and then bog you all down with a huge post. But it's better than not posting at all, and leaving you all hanging clueless, right?
Right. ^.^
I wish you all a happy week, and a very green St Patrick's day.

Love, Caitlin