Happy Birthday, Anna!

So my brother has an eight year old daughter! And she loves her American Girl doll, her horseback riding lessons, and now her new hamster (Courtney gets kudos for overlooking her distinct distaste for house pets, especially ones that resemble rodents) which she named Lucy. I heard that Lucy awoke Anna a few times the first night running in her wheel. I told Jon to tell her that new members of families often awaken other members of the family in the middle of the night. This is not unusual.

So our camera is wigged out right now. While taking pictures, the digital screen is BLACK. It is a point-and-shoot-and-hope-for-the-best situation. I actually think it's enabled me to take some slightly more artsy pictures. :)

See all that fun? That's exactly what it was like at Anna's party on Monday. Happy birthday, Anna! You are a beautiful girl inside and out, and your cousins and aunt and uncle love you very much.

Lovin' the 'hood: Part 5

We love our local coffee shop, the coffee they roast, and the pictures Amelia took while we were there last Saturday morning.

Heaven

Two days ago we were reading Amelia's AWANA book, and the focus was heaven. The little reading started with a list of questions, such as "Do you think there will be bee stings in heaven? Do you think you'll have friends in heaven? etc." As I read through the list and the girls answered the questions, Evelyn suddenly smiled and said, "Do you think we will pee pee and poo poo in heaven?"

It only went downhill after that. But it did make me wonder....

Braggin' on Alan

Alan won a Maryland State Arts Council grant this year for World Music--which is pretty hip if you ask me. He submitted songs off his latest CD to win the grant, which you can listen to here.

And today? He got checks in the mail from ASCAP--paying him for a song he wrote for the movie "1408." It was pretty exciting, and then he noticed that the envelope the checks came in had our old address. So he called ASCAP, and it turns out they'd sent SEVERAL different royalty checks for that same movie to our old address. Hmmmm...they're going to see if those checks were ever cashed so that maybe he could actually reap the benefits of his labor. (By the way, we're not sure we'd encourage anyone to watch that movie, but we have reason to recommend its soundtrack.)

It's pretty cool to be married to someone who wins artistic grants and has his name on movie credits!

And while I'm braggin' on him, Alan pampered me on Valentine's Day--bought me new jammies and candles at Target and had the girls pick out a nice bathrobe at the thrift store (they were so cute giving it to me!) He ran me a bubble bath and made a pot of (slightly spiked) tea, and then I read my book in warm, bubbly, (slightly spiked) tranquility. :) So nice!

Falling for you

These pics are from Christmas and are posted for my Hamiltopia friends, since we talked about Evelyn's wedding dress Christmas present at our community meal on Sunday evening. And my mom gave me and Courtney these amazing aprons and napkins. Check us out, people! No longer will I stain my knees while cooking!!

Speaking of knees, I fell AGAIN today. What is wrong with me? I was at the Ranch, carrying all my stuff out to my car, and slipped on the ice. I went down on my knee-hip-elbow-side, in that order of course. I landed on the pavement with my laptop still over my shoulder, still clutching my notebooks and stainless steel water bottle.

Two weeks ago I was walking out the front door on my way to Bible study with my Bible in one arm and my favorite, GIANT glass mug of tea in the other. The porch was icy, and before I even got to the first step I was flying through the air, looking up at the sky thinking, "This is gonna hurt." I was right. I landed on my back on the stairs, still holding my Bible and the handle of my now-shattered favorite GIANT glass mug. Silently, I cried. Then I heard Alan yelling, "Tina!! Don't move!! I'm coming!!" and I thought, "I'd better move. He thinks I'm paralyzed." Remarkably, I'm fine. Praise God for my genetics and good bone density.

It makes me wonder if I shouldn't have been a running back. I can take a hit and not drop my stuff.

A Super Super Bowl Celebration

I'm almost a week behind with these, but I didn't take my camera that night and had to borrow Mom's camera to get hers. It's our tradition to go to Mom and Dad's for the Super Bowl with Aunt Joan and Uncle Steve. We eat dinner during half time, which is why none of us saw Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" a few years back. That's a good thing, since this year Aidan, while watching Super Bowl commercials, was heard to exclaim, "Look at her BOOBS!" (Which is probably what the rest of us were THINKING.) From then on, Dad was vigilant with the remote control, even though Uncle Steve told us that it wouldn't make any difference if we let our kids see boobs on commercials.

Jon and Courtney made paninis (and they are FOODIES--'nuff said), Mom and I made chili and butternut squash soup respectively (also noteworthy, if I might say so myself) and of course Stacey's Rainbow Cake had yet another awed audience.

And what do you know--the Packers won! Even though Alan is a Steelers fan (don't hate him--he chose the team off his brother's bedspread that was covered w/NFL helmets. I think that's so cute!) but we all enjoyed watching Uncle Steve rejoice (at the last moment, of course) that his Packers team--"The Team of the People"--WON. It is hilarious to watch football with Uncle Steve. He is an eternal pessimist. You would never have known the Packers were ahead the WHOLE game if you just went by Uncle Steve's commentary. You would have thought they were sunk, done, finished, and ready to fold.

Then, at the end, the whole neighborhood could hear his hoots and hollers. I suppose he saved them all up. We think a lot of the luck was thanks to Jon, who bought and wore a cheese head for the game, which matched his own coloring amazingly well. :)

Superficial Struggle of the Week

This is a confession post. Recently I've enjoyed being in friends' houses that are just really cool. Great paint colors, kitchens re-done with care & taste, modern furniture, accents, and artwork, etc. I just LOVE walking around these houses oohing and ahhing and admiring. It's great fun and gives me honest-to-goodness pleasure.

But instead of being satisfied with the joy I get seeing other people's well-appointed homes, I've found myself, for the first time, looking around our own house and finding it lacking. I've always loved that we get so much use out of things, many of which have been generously handed down to us. (The pink chair I'm sitting in originally graced my bedroom when I last lived with my parents in 1990.) It has always given me particular pleasure to "make do" and create an attractive room out of what we've already got.

Don't get me wrong. We've spent money on furniture. We love our living room couch. It is very comfortable and it is brown. We liked brown when we bought it. We REALLY like brown now that it's been host to coffee spills and magic markers. We love the Target ottomans that hold all our well-used (non-matching) assortment of blankets that keep us warm on the brown couch on wintry evenings. I've also spent more than I care to admit on IKEA curtains, curtain rods, and shades. But they seem a little out-of-date.

We bought our TV armoir as newlyweds, before we even had a TV, and it's always felt like this wonderful, giant, room-anchoring piece. But I'm suddenly aware that it is not an "in" color. (Besides, TVs don't even go in armoirs anymore. They hang on walls.) Our dining room furniture is pale, too, although every single piece represents the kindness of different members of our families, and I love that. And it's all perfectly functional, which is one of my favorite adjectives. (It's great for describing dinners that aren't going over well. "This food might not taste great, but it is FUNCTIONAL. It will keep you from going hungry and it will nourish your body.")

I confess, things are jumping out at me and actually GETTING at me. The wallpaper borders still up in our kitchen and bathroom. The circa 1980's colors on the living room and hall stairway walls. The wall collages I cherish for each item's meaning and history, which now just look messy compared with the single, wall-encompassing works of beautiful art I imagine would look so much better.

The girls' room...how I DREAM about doing that over. (The $1 Martha Stewart "oops" paint from K-Mart seemed like such a great idea at the time.) And our own bedroom still shows off the former owner's stenciling prowess.

So I go up to the library and read. The library, my favorite room, with its cool, curvy furniture (thanks to Aunt Barbara and Uncle Diego, who practically gave it to us), shelves of books, and world map that takes up one whole wall. And when I go there, I need to read a few verses that remind me to be thankful and content. I will continue to admire friends' great tastes in interior design, and I will continue to gravitate to HG-TV when go places that have cable. (Alan recently found that you can watch episodes of some HG-TV shows on their website. I'm sure this has not helped my current dissatisfaction.) But to bring me back around to being that person I liked being before I felt these feelings, I need to remember:

"If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content." (I Tim.6:8) "...be content with what you have..." (Hebr.13:5)

The Art Wall

If you had asked me before I had kids (or even a couple years into it) if I would cover a wall willy-nilly w/kids' artwork, I would have said no. I cared too much that it would make my house look messy or jumbled.

Well, my house is messy and jumbled. I am blogging right now because I don't want to tackle it. It's a good thing we're hosting Hamiltopia Sunday. That MAKES me prioritize at least straightening.

Cleaning is its own issue, although I've found my new favorite cleaning supply--castile soap with peppermint. A few drops fills a bucket of water w/suds, works magic on soap scum and fingerprints, and leaves one's house smelling ever so faintly of candy canes. Just typing that makes me want to clean.

But back to the topic at hand: the art wall. Back in the fall, Diana suggested I create a "Wall of Fame". Diana, if you remember the exact conversation, I'd love to recall why you said that. I love it. The girls draw, paint, and make stuff a lot (hence the aforementioned jumbled mess. You should see our dining room table right now. They're making valentines. Evelyn wants to write "I love you so much" on everyone's valentine. Wish I could watch all the boys in her class open them on Monday.) The art wall is now one of my favorite spots in the house.

Besides, as addicted as I am to arranging and rearranging our house, there's only so much you can do to make it cool if you aren't actually going BUY anything cool. :)

Mammoth Cake & Mahjong!

Check out that CAKE! Stacey says she "experiments," and we agree to continue being her test subjects.

When given an enormous, dinner-plate-sized slice, we asked Evelyn how she thought she would feel after eating it. Her reply? "Proud!"

Alan and I finally got our brains wrapped around the Kennedy sisters' game addiction: Mahjong. We managed to win one game (we THOUGHT we won a lot more than that, but we're not really detail people...and this game has a lot of details.)

Evelyn enjoyed giving everyone ponytails. :) They're all such good sports. AND Stacey did a really nice thing--she found a one-dollar second hand VHS tape of "The Snowman" for us...which the girls watched at least twice while we played Mahj. Thank you, Stacey! Thank you, Stacey, Sarah and Shelley for taking the time to come over, hang out, and patiently teach me and Alan Mahjong, all the while giving the girls the distinct and precious impression that you were there for THEM!

Cousin Weekends

Last weekend we had all the Bisset cousins over for a pot luck--it was lively and fun and there were rarely less than two conversations happening at once. All the little cousins watched a movie and played, and while it took a while to find a place for baby Eva to finally get some sleep (I'm not sure the big kid cousins have THAT much awareness of what it REALLY means to "keep quiet") she finally found a restful spot when we moved the pack and play to the vocal isolation booth in the studio. We'd originally gotten together to look at Caleb and Amanda's pictures from New Zealand, but we didn't even get to them! It was a great evening, but I have no pics.

Tonight the Kennedy sisters arrive from NJ for the weekend. We're going to play games tonight, and the weekend will culminate in a Super Bowl party at my parents' house. We're all pretty excited. This blurry picture is from when they came in September for Shelley's b-day. It's one of Evelyn's "artsy" shots.

Let the cousin fun continue!