We have had a good weekend around here. Chad got up to go take his 3rd nursing test yesterday morning (and I got to sleep in! Woo hoo!) and he passed with an A. So he's almost halfway there with the tests. He has another one this Saturday, and then three more after that. He's doing great! Yesterday we also went running, did laundry, and raked the last of the leaves that have fallen into our yard.

Also, I spent a lot of yesterday researching plane ticket deals for our Hawaii trip (which explains the running--I'm trying to get in shape for our trip, plus fit into all the clothes I've grown out of). I need some advice from those of you who travel a lot. I have heard that there are better days of the week, and good times where you are a certain amount of time away from your trip, that it is better to buy tickets. Our trip is in mid-June, so when should I look for tickets? I had back luck yesterday because all of those flight-comparison websites had not updated their fares over the weekend and I kept trying to buy a fare that is apparently sold out. Anyway, if you have any advice about this, I'd love to hear it.

That's about it from here. More laundry this afternoon, and maybe a nap. Hope everyone has a great week!

Well...

The UIL meet is over and done with. I was up at school at 6:45 this morning to make sure my contest rooms were ready, and my judges and proctors started showing up at 8:15. I had 13 judges and 6 proctors total, so plenty of help. It ran very smoothly and I was finished by 2:00. Then I came home and took that nap I had been fantasizing about all day. So, now I know I can do it and it won't be such a big deal to me next year. I know some of you who read this are actually interested in how it went, so that's why I'm posting. Thanks for caring about the miniscule events in my life.

I just talked to Chad a little while ago and I think he is giving his third talk as I am writing this. After that he'll be done for the day and he'll just have Bible class and the sermon tomorrow (just?). Then he'll be going to visit Shawn & Emma, so I'll be picking up Brandi from the airport and we'll have a good ol' fashioned slumber party on Sunday night. I'm excited about it, and I'm also ready for Chad to be home!

Quick update. It's been a busy week and it will be a busy weekend as well. But, I am feeling a little deprived of blogging, so I decided to take a few minutes to feel like I am actually communicating with people. So a lot of you found out today that my sister is expecting another baby, and since she published it on the world wide web, I figured it would be okay to discuss on my blog as well. I'm really excited. Keep those nieces and nephews coming, family. They're lots of fun.

Also, I pulled a Josh today and made a complete fool of myself in front of the entire student body. You see, there are two mascots at school, and I have one in my yearbook class and one in my Journalism I class. So, they asked me to be a part of the pep rally today. Wanting to be a good sport, I said yes. So I had to do this stupid obstacle course thing with two other girl teachers that involved me jumping rope for 10 seconds at the half court line. It was a battle of the sexes pep rally, and the girls won. I mean, the guys didn't really try, but still I was glad that we won and also glad that the mascots didn't make me hula hoop. I'm actually pretty good at jumping rope. Anyway, a lot of my students were taking pictures at the pep rally today so if they got any of that I'll be sure to post it. I'm sure y'all will get a kick out of it.

Tomorrow is the dreaded UIL meet at the school. I'll be up at the crack of dawn to get my events ready, and I will be coordinating my four events all day (making sure I have proctors, judges, etc.). Just thinking about it makes me want a nap, which I will be sure to take tomorrow afternoon.

Chad's in Brownwood. Pray that his retreat goes well and that his trip is safe, along with the other people traveling to and from there.

We are going to Hawaii this summer. I can't wait.

That's all for now, folks. I'm actually having some girls from church over to the house tonight so I better straighten everything up. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

See you in March

Those of you who read about Chad and Lesley's adventures (as unadventurous as we may be) on a regular basis might notice over the next couple of months that the blog won't have as many entries on it. This is mainly due to the fact that I am a yearbook teacher, and out of the 5 deadlines we have during the year, four of them are in January, February and March, all before Spring Break. Sometimes I feel like an accountant that's really busy during a short time of the year and significantly less busy during other times of the year, but anyway, if you don't hear from me much before March, that's why.

I just got back from another UIL trip yesterday, in Flower Mound. It was a long trip home, stopping multiple times to repair and/or fill the other bus with more antifreeze. I was just glad it didn't break down completely, and we didn't have to fit all the mathletes on our bus. This weekend we are hosting a UIL tournament at my school, and I am in charge of all four journalism events. Since I've never done this before, I'm trying to be overly organized (is there really such a thing) and color-code everything, line up a few judges ahead of time, and make sure I have all my copies done way in advance. I'm sure it will be fine, and worrying about it would be breaking my New Year's resolution, so I'm not going to. I'm just sorry I have to give up this Saturday, because this is the weekend Chad is going to Brownwood to speak at the Heart of Texas Youth Retreat. Keep him in your prayers as he travels there and back, and as he speaks to the youth there. He will have 5 lessons total.

Also, in the next couple of weeks, Chad will be taking his Nursing 3 & 4 tests, with only 3 left to go after that. I'm so proud of him for studying so hard and being so disciplined. He would probably say he's not really being so disciplined, but it's all getting done somehow. And, he had the time to make a lemon meringue pie this weekend when I was gone. I was impressed, but I always knew he is quite the renaissance man.

Anyway, like I said, I probably won't blog much in the next couple months, but that's okay because we're pretty boring. If you're not already subscribed to something like bloglines, you should because that would keep you from checking the blog everyday only to see that nothing new has been added. But, if anything exciting does happen in our lives, y'all will be the first to know. Hope everyone has a great week!

Four years

Today is mine and Chad's four year anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been four years! Seems like just yesterday, not 7 1/2 years ago, that we met as potwashers at Blue Haven. The rest is history! We are at a lodge in Ruidoso until tomorrow celebrating. In the interest of not being on the computer the whole time we're here I'm going to sign off now...I just wanted to blog and say how blessed I am to have Chad for my husband and I am looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together. Have a great day everyone--I know we will.

The joys of homeownership

The title of this blog is partially sarcastic and partially serious. Yesterday we had the plumbers out to fix a couple of slow drains. In the process, one of our copper pipes that's probably been there since the house was built in 1962 busted and we had water all over the bathroom floor, and when we discovered the saltillo tile in the hallway was wet, we realized it had leaked between the wall of the guest bathroom and our closet. At that point we discovered the floor of our closet (carpet) was wet as well. Bummer. Anyway, after paying the plumber (to leave) we surveyed the damage. We're not really sure the extent of the damage at this point, but we are glad we have a 1-year home warranty that SHOULD cover leaky pipes not due to freezing. I think this is probably the first of many times we will call for a repair on our house only to discover that something much more major needs repair.

If you're going to have a plumbing issue, it should not be on New Year's Day, and it should not be right before you are about to leave town for your anniversary. The warranty place is (of course) closed today so we'll have to call them tomorrow before we leave. Luckily it's not a real emergency and only one of our water sources is unusable. We can still use the guest bathroom shower and sink, our shower and all the kitchen stuff so we're okay.

Chad and I briefly thought about pretending that we had not noticed the leak and pouring water all over our carpet so our homeowner's insurance would pay for new flooring, but then realized that might not be the best plan.

Anyway, the reason owning a house stinks, as most of you know, is because you are responsible for all these repairs. The reason it is good is because we are in control of who repairs it and when, and we don't have to wait for a landlord to get around to fixing it. And, if a leaky pipe or whatever is the worst thing that happens to us, all we have to do is remind ourselves that we have a great place to live and that we're not about to lose it because of a foreclosure like so many other folks these days. So this is what I think of when I start thinking that it's a bummer that our pipe busted. And, I'm not going to worry about it, because that would be breaking my resolution on the first day of the new year.

Naming a baby in 2008?

MSN.com has just released the Top 10 boys and girls names of 2007. I don't know how accurate it is since the Social Security Administration hasn't released the "official" list, but it's probably pretty close. Most of you who read this know that I am and have been really interested in names/words for most of my life (since I could read I guess), and this article points out one reason why names are fascinating: many times, the surgence or resurgence of a name reflects things that are happening in our culture. Most of you probably know at least one baby named Addison that was born since "Grey's Anatomy" appeared on TV, and the article points out that Addison climbed 20 spots in just 2007. That's kind of a big deal to name geeks out there. The same kind of thing had the opposite effect in 2006 when the name Katrina dropped from 246 to 382. To read more about the effects current culture has had on naming, go here. Fascinating! The author of the site sponsors a "name of the year" contest, and this year it was Barack. Let's see if the political climate of the United States has an effect on the number of little Baracks born in the United States in the coming years, shall we?

It would be interesting to see if this list took into account the kre8ive spellings of the mainstream names already present on the list (Addyson, Haylee, Ayden, etc.: you know, the parents who want to be "different."), or if those names are just a bit further down the list.

Anyway, if you are planning on having a baby in 2008, there's one list for you. You may want to get your ideas from it, or you may want to avoid it completely. Bottom line, if you love a name, you should go for it no matter how popular or unpopular it is. I mean, I grew up with many other Leslies in my classes (no other Lesleys though), and I was just fine. Anyway, even if you decide on a name for your child and have regrets about it later, a name isn't as permanent as it may seem. You can always change it like these people did. One girl in the article, named Sophie, began going by Isadora at the age of four!

Family Heirlooms

This is probably a normal thing, but I find that the older I get, the more interested I am in family heirlooms. This past week when we were at mom's house we went through a box of old quit tops that my great-grandmother Josie had done but never made into quilts. Mom wanted to know if Erin or I would like any of them. As ugly as some of them were (a lot of them were done in the '60s and the fabric reflected the garish styles of that decade), we hated to say no because a family member had made them. Anyway, I ended up with one and Erin decided to take the rest of the box.

Speaking of heirlooms, I received a gift for Christmas that is very special to me. Over the past few years, my mom, who would not fancy herself a scrapbooker, has spent a good amount of her free time (remember, she WAS working full-time until July and also taking care of my grandparents, just so there's no mistake that she had lots of free time) compiling scrapbooks of my life until I graduated from high school. She completed these scrapbooks and this was my main Christmas gift from her this year. It's so neat to have all of these memories compiled in scrapbooks so I can look at them whenever and be able to show them to my kids someday. They are also full of my mom's funny comments that only she could have said. Mom did a good job of taking separate pictures of me when I was a kid and I'm thankful that she did the scrapbooks that are just for me (she did the same for Erin a few years back). Anyway, her gift was definitely the most special gift I received this year and I am very thankful for it.

Also on the subject of inheritance, I have decided on my New Year's resolution for 2008. Many of you know that I get stressed/worried quite a bit, and this can be traced directly back in my family tree to my maternal grandparents, but especially my granddad. Anyway, that's not an excuse and I know that worrying is also a sin, so my resolution for 2008 is that when I start to get worried, to stop it and put all my burdens on God and have faith that he is going to take care of the situation and me. So there it is, I've gotten it out in the open so now I can't go back on it.

Happy New Year everyone!

Home again

It's well into the first week of my two week vacation from school, and we are home from visiting mom and grandmother in Weatherford. This holiday season was special for me because it's the first holiday season in 3 years that we have gotten to spend with my side of the family. I'll never take it for granted again! The first few days of my break, Erin, Josh and the kids and dad and Ginny all came to Lubbock and we had our first Christmas celebration in our new home. Well, it was really on Christmas Eve, but close enough. Then on Christmas day we packed up and drove to mom's for some family time in Weatherford. It was a lot of fun. After Erin and her family left, we rented a U-Haul and drove out to granddad's old barn out on their land to go through and pack up what was left there when they moved from the farm almost 10 years ago. We found some cool stuff but mostly it just needed to be gone through and gotten rid of. You know it's scary when you find a box that your granddad has labeled "bric-a-brac," and then there were all the boxes of old bank statements and tax returns circa 1970. No, I am not kidding. Anyway, we had fun doing a little manual labor that day and I'm sure mom will have a blast going through every single box that we brought to her garage.

So now we're back home and I'm savoring every minute of the time I have off. I could be doing a lot of work, but I promised myself that I wouldn't do anything work-related and that I would just enjoy my time off and relax. This is hard for me because sometimes "relaxing" means giving myself time to worry about all the stuff I have to do. Anyway, I'm not going to do it. Let tomorrow worry about itself.

Next week we will be off to Ruidoso for a couple of days to celebrate our fourth anniversary. I'm really looking forward to that. Chad has come down with a nasty cold that is making him feel pretty miserable, so please pray that it will go away before our little mini-vacation.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year. Here are some pictures from the past few days.

Kellen and Bonnie are scoping out the ornaments, lights and--oh yeah--presents.I think we've got ourselves a little Mozart on our hands. She'll be composing by age 3. Kellen and Pee Paw enjoying some quality time watching the "Jungle Book."Uncle Chad's electric drumset was a BIG hit. Look how fast Bonnie's hitting the drums!Kellen really enjoyed playing and was really amused every time a sound would come out of the amp...(oh yeah, Chad got an amp for his electric drumset for Christmas)Then it was out to play in the leaves. Secretly, we were just trying to pawn off the raking on our niece and nephew. It worked!This is about the time Chad suggested to Kellen and Bonnie that they should start throwing the leaves on me.

And Kellen got leaves in his mouth. Serves him right for being so mean to his aunt who was only trying to get some good photo ops.

I've just uploaded most of the pictures from Tyler to my Flickr website (see link to the right). If you are interested, you should be able to download the ones you want from there. I thought this would be a little more practical than burning 3 CDs of 330 pictures for anyone who may have wanted just 5 or 10. Also, when I was uploading them I did go to the trouble of rotating the vertical ones but it didn't seem to work. Enjoy!

Family time in Tyler

Okay, after many hours and a lot of patience, I have managed to upload some of my favorite pictures from the weekend. I took over 300 pictures because I had to do some "field testing" to learn about some equipment I'll be using to teach next semester, so these are just a few of the shots I got. Luckily there were lots of photo ops with all the cute little kids around.

Elle playing with her cousinsThree of the four cousins (not sure where Ava was in this picture, but good pose idea Joey)
My favorite picture of Joey & Emily from the weekend Sweet JoseySilly RileyI think Uncle Shawn was talking to Riley through the mail slotI love this picture of Josey playing with the leaves and Emily watching her in the background.I don't know what Elle did, but Shawn didn't like it.The tallest & the shortest in the family. Shawn didn't have to duck at all. Joey's got ups. (Shawn wasn't quite as successful jumping over Joey's head)Awwwww! Photo taken by Joey. Chad dropped me shortly after. Sweet little AvaI think Ava was walking too slow for Paul.Cute picture of the moms and their daughtersHmmm, maybe Josey takes more after her Uncle Chad than we had hoped for
Santa showed up at Paul's, and everyone was interested...Riley was a good sport. She even told Santa she wanted a ballerina or something like that. Elle was convinced to sit on Santa's lap so she could open her presents, but Ava wasn't having any of it.Neither was Josey for that matter ("Maybe if I cover my face that guy will go away")
I think Emily's a little too happy in these pictures that Josey is in complete misery. Nice.We had a fun weekend and can't wait to see our family again soon.

Just so you know...

I have been trying to upload a bunch of pictures from our weekend in Tyler for the past couple of days now, and Blogger/my internet haven't been cooperating. So far the only picture that has uploaded is this one of our new "green room." Chad painted this room last week and I love the way it turned out. I purposely didn't put a view of the whole room on here because it also contains Chad's drumset and our computer, neither of which I think add much aesthetic value to my attempts at decorating. Also...Chad made an A on his second nursing test today. Way to go Chad!

In other news, I have a little over one week of school left and it seems to be dragging quite slowly. No surprise there. I have quite a bit of planning to do for next semester, and I want to finish that before we leave for the holidays so I will have a work-free break. Also, Chad and I have made plans to take an anniversary trip to Ruidoso and stay at a lodge there. Can you believe we have been married for 4 years? It's gone by so fast. Maybe while we're there I can convince him to try skiing!

I'll keep working on the pictures.

We had a really good weekend. Thursday night we drove to Denton (probably saw 30 deer on the side of the road on the way there) to spend a couple days with my old roommate & friend from A&M, Emily, her husband Matt, and their son Tobin. Tobin and Josey both turned two on Thursday, so while we were there on Friday I helped Emily out with Tobin's birthday cake. This is the same roommate that microwaved a hamburger in its foil wrapper and didn't know how to cook pasta in college. Emily's going to kill me for saying that but I just wanted to show how far she's come! She has taken up baking and really loves it. Look at this adorable crayon cake she made! It was my first experience with fondant and I helped with mixing the black part. We had a good time hanging out and on Friday evening the four of us went to the Mavs game in Dallas and spent a little time with our friend Brent. Then we got up Saturday morning to make it back to Lubbock for my school's football playoff game, which they lost. And now we're back home and Chad's out working in the yard so I better go help him. Thanks Emily and Matt for a fun weekend!

Post-Thanksgiving blues

I love holidays and the time off that comes with them, but I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling depressed anytime it's back to work. Today was especially busy for me because we are finishing up our first yearbook deadline (90 pages, the biggest one and therefore the most work), and I completely procrastinated all my work over the break and decided I would just get to work early this morning and plan my lesson and get some stuff done. It was only after I woke up this morning and got to work when I realized that I have morning hall duty...every day, all week. Slight kink in the plans. Anyway, I still got my lessons done while my kids were reading the newspaper this morning (a bonus to teaching Journalism is that reading the newspaper every day is a great way to begin each lesson, and it actually has something to do with your subject.) Here are some pictures from the break, which was great.

Josh and Kellen are discussing the snow. Kellen had just woken up from his nap, looked outside, and said, "What's it doing?" So cute.Uncle Chad is showing Kellen how it's done. It took us a while to get him off the porch and into the snow. Kellen got the hang of it.
And here is what we woke up to on Saturday morning. Not much, but still fun!
Later that day, we decided to put lights on our house. I think we had to make three runs to the store for more lights by the time it was all said and done. Oh well, it's pretty.

Here is another view. I love how you can see our Christmas tree through the front window. Chad did most of the work on the lights even though I helped him some, and I have to say I think he did a great job. He knows that I've always wanted to put up lights once we bought our own home, so he was very gracious and accommodated my wish. He didn't even complain in the 25 degree weather.

Once we got home on Friday we went to my school's playoff game. The other team was good, but we were better and we advance to the next round of the playoffs on Saturday. And HOW ABOUT THOSE AGGIES?! What a good game on Friday. Gig 'em!

This coming weekend we will be visiting our friends Matt and Emily in Dallas and going to a Mavs game. I think I mentioned this in an earlier blog entry. We are excited to see them and I know Chad is looking forward to watching the Mavs play.

My parents: fashion clairvoyants?

Erin's most recent post reminded me of a post I started a few weeks ago, but of course Blogger wasn't letting me post pictures so I had forgotten about it. Anyway, here it is...

In the past few weeks I have noticed that all the trendsetters (cute little senior girls) are reusing footwear that my parents sported years ago. Now, I know most of you are aware that fashion tends to repeat itself every 30 years or so, but the trends that are becoming popular now are not necessarily ones I would pinpoint as being very popular 30 years ago or...well, ever really. You can read more about my parents' admitted lack of fashion sense (or maybe apathy) here. But alas, my parents apparently knew what they were doing when my dad began wearing "deck shoes" (Sperry Topsiders) and mom bought her first pair of Minnetonka moccasins (soft-soled, of course).

I'm not sure what to call this footwear phenomenon, but as I already told my mom, I will be truly worried when the teenage girls begin shopping at SAS. Ultimately, I think this is just more proof that comfort really is what matters most when it comes to choices of footwear. That, or the two folks that raised me have some type of sixth sense about what 18-year-old girls will think is cool 15 years from now.

Okay, so here is the evidence:

I took this shot at a signing last week of two of our students to college volleyball teams. These are the shoes that one of the girls was wearing. It's a bit blurry, but that's because I didn't want this girl thinking I was weird because I was taking a picture of her shoes. Yes, those are the exact pair of Minnetonka moccasins that my mom bought multiple pairs of over the past 15 years or so. And boy are they comfortable.

This picture was actually taken for the sole purpose of going on the fashion page of our yearbook. These are my editor's (another 18-year-old female) shoes.

So, there you have it. Even more proof that my parents (and my 2-year-old niece, apparently) have a unique sense of what is going to be the next hip thing.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, even though it isn't even Thanksgiving yet

Just thought I would post since I haven't in a few days. We got our Christmas tree a couple days ago and set it up last night. Now once we get back from Thanksgiving it will already be set up. It is in our front living room and I really like the way it looks in there, although we had to move some furniture to the den to accommodate it. I really like the way it turned out, given I didn't spend very much money on it at all and it's fake of course. The "real or not real" dilemma was never really a dilemma since someone in our house is allergic to everything. It's great to know I have five whole days off of work. I have spent my evening so far making desserts for Thanksgiving at mom and grandmother's house. I'm really looking forward to going to mom's for Thanksgiving this year. I'm pretty sure we haven't spent any holidays with my side of the family since before we moved to Arizona. We'll leave tomorrow morning and get back on Friday in time to watch the A&M football game and also to go to my school's playoff game on Friday night. Should be fun and cold.

Speaking of cold...it is supposed to get down to 25 two nights while we are gone. Chilly! I'm ready for it, and I think a certain sister-in-law is ready as well.

Well, I think that's about it. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving.

Not much news. Most of you already know that my journalism team won first place at our UIL meet this past weekend. They rocked. Our school's team also placed first overall which means we got to take the big trophy home. One of the things I appreciate about UIL is it still teaches the value of working hard to win, rather than perpetuating the "You're all winners" mentality. I'm sorry, but that mentality (the latter) is bunk and it breeds mediocrity. Maybe for the 4-year-old soccer team it's fine, but not for kids who will inevitably fail at some point in their lives. It's a good lesson to learn.

This week has been busy at school. We are coming up on our first deadline for the yearbook, and we sent our second issue of our paper to press on Monday. Chad's been ordering materials for his second nursing course and waiting it out until he doesn't have to go to work anymore. He still has two more shifts after today. For those of you who don't know, Chad quit his job and will be concentrating on getting through RN school and contemplating what he would like to do next in his life. I'm pretty sure most of you who read this blog already knew that though.

I'm excited about next week. We get to spend our first holiday season in three years actually getting to drive a few hours to see family instead of doing our own thing because we are too far away or shelling out the dough for plane tickets. It will be nice. We'll spend Thanksgiving at my mom's house, then we'll go to Tyler for a weekend and do Christmas, and then over my break we'll have Christmas here and then go to mom's again. It will also be nice because Chad will not be working 24-48s anymore, so we can actually enjoy our time with family instead of having to rush around everywhere.

Oh yeah, and the weekend after Thanksgiving we are going to see our friends Matt & Emily in the metroplex area and we'll be catching a Mavs game, which I know Chad and Matt are both very excited about (Emily and I are too, but we're probably just more excited to get to hang out with each other after so long).

November should be a fun month. It's already halfway over! By the way, thank you to those of you who called me, sent cards/gifts, and sent other messages to me for my birthday.

For those of you who like to keep up...

...with the minutiae of our lives, you may be interested to know that Chad passed his first Nursing Concepts exam. Only six more to go! As always, I am very proud of him.

In other news, I will be accompanying many teenagers to a UIL meet this weekend in the metroplex area and will be back Saturday. This is my first UIL competition as a coach (well...period, because my high school was in TAPPS), so it should be fun, and I will even get to judge some journalism events. I just wish I had an iPod for the 12 hours I will be in a bus with 40 high schoolers.

Also, Paul and Carolyn will be visiting this weekend, so we will have officially been visited by all the parental units since moving back to Texas.

And as for the search for the perfect pagan symbol goes, I found a great one that is 7.5' feet tall that I think we will purchase for our blue room. I have been itching to decorate for Christmas because I think it is such a waste to only get to look at the pretty lights for a few weeks. But alas, I have been overruled by my husband who says we cannot put the Christmas tree up earlier than Thanksgiving Day. So much for establishing my own family tradition of having up the Christmas tree for the good part of the fourth quarter.

No more to report. On to cleaning the house and packing for tomorrow. Let's hear it for missing another day of school to go on a trip. I love my job!

It's a small world after all

I went to the mall tonight. I was there for maybe an hour and a half. I was wearing my Blue Haven sweatshirt (pretty much the only thing I wear when it starts to get cool outside). Here are the comments I heard from three different people.

1. Random lady walking in the mall: "I went to Blue Haven!!!!!"
2. Girl at Bath Junkie: "When did you go to Blue Haven? My youth intern was a counselor there this summer." (I knew her, and we had actually camped at the same session back in the day)
3. Girl at Wicks 'n' Sticks: "When did you go to Blue Haven? Do you know ______?" (I did.) "I sang in a group with him at LCU." Me: "Oh, do you know [different person than the one she asked me about]?" (She did.)

So I guess anytime I want to play Two Degrees of Separation I should wear my Blue Haven gear. Luckily I have a lot of it.

'Tis the season

Wow. It's November already.

I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping. I just started today but I'm almost finished. One more day and I'll be done. I really enjoy getting things for people, especially when I know that they'll like it, and especially when I can get a lot of gifts in one fell swoop. One thing I don't enjoy is going from place to place to buy stuff, especially when pretty much anything you'd want you can buy online. That is why I pretty much insist that everyone around me have some sort of internet wishlist. Of course, that takes some of the element of surprise out of it, but I'd rather my loved ones be a little less than surprised with a gift they love rather than completely surprised by a hideous gift. "SURPRISE! This gift stinks!"

This brings me to the discussion I hear sometimes about purchasing things on the internet. I've heard it argued that purchasing things on the internet is no good, because it takes away from local businesses. I'm sure some of that's true, but let's face it, if we do buy things in our town it's not from the Sawyer Family General Store, owned by 6 generations of Sawyers ("I'll have 3 yards of that lovely calico fabric and 4 sticks of peppermint candy, please"); we usually head on over to the nearest Target or (gasp!) Wal-Mart. People out there running internet businesses are part of our local global community, so there. I know most of you reading this blog are not going to argue with me about this...but it's my blog and it's my ranting outlet, so I get to argue with imaginary people.

Anyway, next on my agenda (and I say "my" because Chad couldn't care less) is to buy a Christmas tree. I must do this because, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, all the gifts I am buying will be on their way soon and I need a pagan symbol to light up and put the gifts under. Maybe I'll go get one tonight. So the question is, fake or real? Hmmm, if I don't want to have to do this every year, I'll get a fake one. Cheaper in the long run, and not as messy. Yep. It's decided.

I also need to mention that it has begun. One of my students found my blog. Anje, if you are reading this, go away. No, I'm kidding. Kind of. I think "Go away" is the kind of thing that you're not supposed to say when you are a teacher and a student is reading your blog.

Changing the subject...one of our city councilmen is proposing a baggy pants ban in our city. What? Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous? Ooh, let's get more tight clothes on people. How attractive. At least baggy pants are modest. And how do you define baggy? Would I get fined if I wore some baggy sweatpants in public? Just because some fashion style is against your taste doesn't mean you should fine people for looking bad. In that case, let's start handing out tickets for people wearing tapered "mom jeans" and those half-jackets that only go to just below the armpits, or how about those coaches who wear those shorts with the two snaps on them? It's really interesting to me that the target of this proposal is baggy pants and not too much cleavage or really short skirts/shorts that show waaaay too much hiney. What about females who wear pants that are so tight it squeezes their back fat until it plumps out all around their belt? What about really low cut pants on females where you can see their...well all kinds of stuff you don't want to see? And really, before you say that you think it's a good idea to fine people for wearing baggy pants, think about the precedent that would set for all of us being told what we can and cannot wear. Let's be realistic here anyway...the guys wearing the baggy pants usually have baggy shirts that go all the way down to their knees anyway. I appreciate their willingness to keep it all covered up. By the way, I just checked the poll of people who think this is a good or bad idea, and 72% like the idea. I guess I am in the minority. If I was a cop I'd be a little ticked at the idea of having to patrol the streets looking for the "Pants Ordinance" violators instead of stopping real crime.