girl with a pearl earring

this months book club meeting was my month to host, and my month to pick a book. i picked girl with a pearl earring by tracy chevalier.

this book is fantastic, but mostly i think i like it best because it is a story based on and about art, and a young dutch girl's love and appreciation of art. interestingly enough, on tracy chevalier's website, she discusses her inspiration for this book: "The idea for this novel came easily. I was lying in bed one morning, worrying about what I was going to write next. (Writers are always worrying about that.) A poster of the Vermeer painting Girl With a Pearl Earring hung in my bedroom, as it had done since I was 19 and first discovered the painting. I lay there idly contemplating the girl's face, and thought suddenly, "I wonder what Vermeer did to her to make her look like that. Now there’s a story worth writing." Within three days I had the whole story worked out. It was effortless; I could see all the drama and conflict in the look on her face. Vermeer had done my work for me."

i sure wish i could paint a picture like that. whether in words OR in art.

well it had great reviews by the book club attendees also. this is our first book that EVERYONE liked. we all agreed that although it isn't the "best" book we've ever read, it is quite pleasant to read and the pace and the story keep you interested from cover to cover.

incidentally, a movie has been made based on the book. i watched the movie probably 5 years ago and i liked it when i saw it. i also liked the book.

so... who else has read it? how did you like it?

home drama

you will NEVER believe what happened last night. and since it is doubtful that mom or kate will blog about it, i suppose i will!

i called mom's house last night about 11 pm, and kate answered the phone. she said that someone had just softly knocked on the door and scared them half to death (mom had the front blinds open, so he could see inside). well mom and kate ran to the back and woke up dad (wisely didn't answer the door), and dad turned on ALL the lights in and outside the house... and then they looked outside. there was a significant amount of BLOOD on the front porch, down the stairs, and into the grass. and from looking at where the blood was on the porch, the person knocked on the WINDOW not the door.

so mom called 911 and within 10 minutes, there were 5 sheriff cars there, 8 cops (one of the cars was full). they dispatched for the canine unit to come out, and it took him 35 minutes to get to my parent's house FROM FUQUAY VARINA!!! that is like an hour (or more) drive.

anyway, the dog tracked the blood over to that trailer across the road from the bottom driveway (across the powerlines). the dude told the cops that he locked himself out of the trailer and he decided to break a window to get in. when he broke the window, he cut himself pretty bad. he doesn't have a phone (and apparently not a cell phone either) in the trailer, so he walked over to mom and dad's house to get help. for what ever reason, though, he left. the cops said he spoke very little english. and this morning at 6am when i drove past there, the front porch light was on (at the trailer), and there was no car in the yard.

WEIRD!!!

bubble buddy

yesterday evening, mark and kendal had fun with the bubbles. check out that bubble hat!



by this point, kendal was so excited to touch the water that he didn't mind me taking off his shirt!



kendal's favorite part was the clean up. he LOVES the water, even when it is cold out of the well!



(don't worry, nathaniel brought out a bottle of warm water for a head rinse!)

Petrified Forest, AZ - 1998

by the way, all these photos are from my 1998 field camp scrapbook! here is a page right from it... i had to include both pictures for this entry.

funny story, the dude in the top photo is named bob. not long ago when i was calling about joining the pool this summer, i talked to a man named bob. in our conversation, i'm not sure how we got to it, but i said "i'm a geologist" and he said "i am too!"

the pool bob is the same bob that is in the top picture.

soda dam, NM - 1998

el cabezon, NM - 1998 (group shot)

i'm standing, 3rd person from the right (blue shirt).

bandalier 1998

trip plans

when we took our cruise in may, we (both) thought it'd be our last vacation for a few years. really, it will be hard(er) to travel with a toddler and a tiny baby. or so i think. (maybe melissa can confirm or not since she is the expert with traveling with multiple children at close ages.)

we decided (tentatively) to take a southwestern tour after kendal is 1 (so he can be front facing in the car, which will provide more room for the front seat passenger and thus not require such forethought on renting a vehicle). like our anza borrego trip 2 years ago, this one is sure set to be a memorable one.

so far, our plans are to taking a 7 night 8 day trip flying TO albuquerque, touring NM and AZ (and southern CO and UT) and flying back from phoenix. our trip should total about 1100 miles and cover 1 to 3 destinations per day (depending on the distances between) and will cover 6 national parks/monuments. SOOOO exciting! in the next few weeks, i will try to scan some of my old pictures from many of these same places and post them.

santa fe
georgia o'keeffe museum
bandelier
choco canyon
durango
mesa verde
four corners
canyon de chelly
petrified forest
meteor crater
grand canyon
hoover dam
flagstaff

viva la vida

if anyone is in the mood to spend a little money (on me), i want this cd really bad. it came out like 2 weeks ago and i think i'm addicted to this song. not really a big surprise though, since every other coldplay CD has been nearly worn out in my cd player. heck. i have to go in the field tomorrow. i may just buy it for the ride down (and back) to richlands!

busted stitches

it is official. i've not taken it easy (enough) on my leg. just this morning i was squatting to get kendal and i felt a "snap" in the back of my calf. sure enough, i popped a stitch. oh well.

WHERE DO RED-HEADED BABIES COME FROM?????

i got this email today and it was too funny not to post. (BTW, that is NOT kendal for those of you who haven't seen him in a while!)

WHERE DO RED-HEADED BABIES COME FROM?????

After their baby was born, the panicked father went to see the Obstetrician. 'Doctor,' the man said, 'I don't mind telling you, but I'm a little upset because my daughter has red hair. She can't possibly be mine!!'

'Nonsense,' the doctor said. 'Even though you and your wife both have black hair, one of your ancestors may have contributed red hair to the gene pool.'

'It isn't possible,' the man insisted.'This can't be, our families on both sides had jet-black hair for generations.'

'Well,' said the doctor, 'let me ask you this. How often do you have sex??? '


The man seemed a bit ashamed . 'I've been working very hard for the past year. We only made love once or twice every few months.'

'Well, there you have it!' The doctor said confidently.

'It's rust.'

what what?

not that i follow college baseball, but yesterday (or was it saturday), i was sad to see UNC loose.

yes, you heard me right. i was sad to see UNC loose.

what is so weird about that statement is that for my entire life, i have been a NCSU fan (which means automatically i hate UNC and duke). (kinda like... as a purdue fan, could you EVER root for notre dame?)

ok. so, when i realized that i was pulling for UNC to win in baseball, i considered the fact that maybe the ABCD rule applies only to basketball and football. OR, am i just getting soft?

(ABCD anybody but carolina or duke)

random thoughts for today

1. this morning i saw bo pooping outside. whew. maybe i'll start sending him out for longer now. he has the worst poos.

2. i dont really feel that great today. i had a great night's sleep, though. i wonder if that has anything to do with my lack of energy today.

3. blueberries, i hear, are almost ripe! yay!

4. am i really pregnant? sometimes, besides feeling sick all the time, i really don't feel pregnant. we did hear the heart beat on monday, but i still don't feel pregnant. last time, though, i felt it the whole time.

5. i weighed myself this morning after my morning pee. i've lost another pound (accd to my scales). now i total 4 pounds lost in a month. yay for all day morning sickness. not really yay though.

6. how can one forget to eat?

7. kendal drank water from a cup today. well, i poured it into his mouth, his tongue was sticking out. i wonder if he is part cat. slurp slurp slurp.

8. kendal is eating spaghetti for lunch and supper. tastes just like chef-boyardee stuff, except with no salt. kinda plain. but he loves it, and so does his face, shirt, and fingers, which then spread it to his legs, highchair, and every toy within reach.

9. i want one of these:


10. tomorrow is stamp day and i want to go, but this week's mass production of cards has kinda left me in the card-overload. maybe i can take my SCRAPS ONLY and make cards out of them. that'd be productive, right?

11. i got my model done, and i thought i'd have to work all weekend to get it written. but, the engineer wants to review my pond layout. so, that means that it'll be monday before i get the ok to write. i hate writing the report. actually, i dont' mind the writing. it is the figure drawing that i hate. figure 1a and 1b will take me a whole day to create. yuck.

12. wonder pets is on. a baby dragon is stuck on the cloud!

13. i'm sleepy. think i'll take a nap. then i'll wake up feeling crappier. and i'll need to nap more. uugh. i need a purpose!

14. i found a hair on my chin. oh my god!!!

where do babies go when they die?

you know how churches down here always like to have a little quote on their sign out front... like: "God loves the man who brings his children to church rather than sending them." "We are looking for a few people who make mistakes!" "There are some questions that can't be answered by Google" "Walmart is not the only saving place" "If you think it is hot here, imagine hell" "The most powerful position is on your knees" ok, so could list these forever. just search google (haha) for church signs and you'll see more! last monday, i took kendal to the pediatrician for his 9 month checkup. thinking everything would be just fine, i didn't prepare myself for what was to come. now we all know his head measures large (although it doesn't seem large to me). this time, it was the largest yet (what i mean is that it was the furthest distance away from the "normal" curve it's been yet). the NP that we see got quite worried about it, since he also won't eat table food yet. (he doesn't put things in his mouth... including table food.) so, i suppose she worried he had his first developmental delay. she mentioned that he may need to see a eating specialist because his mouth may not be shaped right. apparently his tonsils are way far back in his throat. of coarse, by this time he was screaming, so maybe when he SCREAMS his tonsils are way far back. the NP brought in the doctor. the doctor said that at this point we need to get a CT scan to make sure he doesn't have fluid on his brain (called hydrocephalus). they have mentioned the possible need for it before, but until now, they have not said it was necessary. so, i leave the doctor thinking my kid has a water head and can't eat because his mouth is shaped funny. i went directly to mom's house, where she and kate were gonna keep kendal so i could go to my afternoon OB appt (just the 13 week checkup) sans baby. on the way there, i passed a church with one of these wonderful signs... it said "where do babies go when they die?" of coarse, it struck a "nerve" with me because of what had just happened at the ped office. oh my god! what if k died because of his big head and he couldn't eat? (i know it is not likely, but that is what my hormone filled brain started to think about...) so... i actually do not know where babies go when they die. i know what i want to believe, but i have NO idea what the bible actually says. melissa - do you know? anyone? have any scripture references? i'm interested in knowing now. not because i really think my babies are gonna die. but, i should know this anyway! ok, so i found a blog that kinda hit on what i was looking for. i do now have one more question. what if a baby was born to nonbelievers? does their baby go to heaven? what if it were an atheist? a buddhist? a devil worshiper (if there really is such a person)? where do their babies go? or, where do they THINK their babies go?

melanoma free!!! (at least in one spot)

got the call from the dermatologist today... he removed ALL the melanoma from my left calf.

i thought i'd add a few photos of the scar, thus far. note all the little red dots are where the 150 +/- novicane shots went in.

the last picture i know is blurry, but that is just to show the indent left in my leg. the picture really doesn't show it that well. one day, i'll show you my scar!!!

it's no dr. pumper!!!

but i thought this truck was cool! i was parked beside it at a stoplight in raleigh yesterday, and i just couldn't help myself - i just had to take a picture of it!

BTW, "dr. pumper" is a septic tank service in washington... the tank of the truck is decorated like a dr. pepper can, but they pump septic tanks (hence the dr. pumper). it is a funny truck to see too. maybe chris can send me a photo of one next time he sees one!

huh???

There's nothing healthy about a tan!!!

about my procedure yesterday... it went ok. the 25 ccs of novicane (which was injected in about 150 shots) hurt (stung), but the surgery itself did not. the actually cutting part took about 15 minutes (shorter than the time it took to put in the novicane), but was kinda gross. they removed a 3" by 2" by 0.5" area and then snipped out the fat for another half inch all the way around (the fat beneath the skin) then stitched it back together (so says nathaniel, who watched the whole thing). i have a huge indentation in my leg, so large that a golf ball could rest in it and not roll off. yuck!!! they gave me oxycodine, which has worked wonders thus far (only took 1/2 pill and was pain free). it is really only sore, not really achy yet... sometimes it'll throb, but not too bad. i really expected worse. but, it hasn't even been 24 hours yet. so who knows what is yet to come...

i have to stay off my leg for a week or so, as much as possible. good thing we have a nanny! i feel so lazy laying around. i'm already going nuts and it is just the first day.



also the doctor said that the original removal had a melanoma that was 0.2 mm thick. not very thick at all. he said that this procedure (the chunk he took out) was more precautionary than anything else. he said the recovery rate for melanoma that is 0.2mm thick is about 90% in 5 years... which i guess that translates to there is a 10% chance that it spread more and i'll have to have more work done). i'm gonna hope to be in that 90% success rate. man, i could kick myself for all those times i went to tanning beds and laid out in the sun using only SPF 4 (or less). i think at this point in my life, i can embrace my whiteness and no longer try to fit in with the "tan skin is healthy skin."

in the mean time, DON'T FORGET TO WEAR SUNBLOCK!!!!! and make an appt with a dermatologist for a body scan!!!

the call #1

well i just got "the call"... that shannon is in labor. i cannot explain my excitement - i wonder if she has birthed yet! i can say that this excitement overshadows my nervousness at the moment (waiting on going to the dr forexcision)... well, i know where i'll be going tomorrow!

yay!

first time in the pool

today we went to the pool for the first time. the water was very comfortable. when we got in, kendal would splash and splash and as the water lapped up on his back and arms, he would inhale. it was so cute. anyway, here are a couple of videos from today. please ignore the fact i'm in a swimsuit. if i could blur myself out, i would. it is a little hard to hear, but he is laughing when kate jumps with him...

first time swinging in a REAL swing!

this past wednesday, we drove to washington to attend a 30th birthday party of one of my friends. the party was at haven's gardens, which is a public park and boat ramp adjacent to the pamlico sound. the party was great, we ate lots of yummy food, i got to visit with old friends, and kendal got ooohed and aaahed over (as usual). he also got to kiss (and got a kiss from) his first little girl (samantha). he tried to eat her, she tried to kiss him. (she is, eh, 18 months old? - and absolutely beautiful. always has been, too. he's played with her before...) it was really windy that day (not that we minded, because it was also 101 degrees - even in washington). before we left, we put him in one of the swings. he LOVED it.

"daddy"

one day this past week, nathaniel and kendal were laying in the bed (kendal was waiting for me to take a bath). anyway, he was rather chatty, so i tried to catch him saying his NEW word...

sex and the city... the MOVIE!

well tonight, andrea and i went to watch the new sex and the city movie. let me just say, it was awesome. i also realized just how much hormones i had running through my veins, as at least three separate times during the movie my eyes teared up (and my chin even quivered once)! those of you who know me KNOW that i rarely cry. so, those tears meant a lot of emotion!

well i won't spoil the movie, but i will post this one photo of miranda, who this time was my favorite character. she did a great job (better than on the show), and her hair looked terrific through the whole thing. this scene, in particular, she looked her best.


so now i want to dye my hair red, cut it short, buy some fancy schmancy shoes and a bag and go out on the town! too bad bartenders don't make virgin cosmos... or i'd really do it!