March 30, 2008

Isn't it funny how things change?

I remember as a young girl, learning the "proper" way to write a letter. You always start off with Dear So-and-So, followed by the all-important question "How are you?" Then some variation of "I'm fine": I'm doing well, I'm great, I've been deathly ill in the hospital but I'm doing ok now.

Hmmmm, wait. Make that o.k. Grammatically speaking, I believe ok is supposed to be accompanied by two periods. As if the O and the K were their own sentences to be punctuated and separated. O.k. But who does that anymore?

In this age of email and paperless communication, who even begins letters with "Dear So-and-So"? Not me. I will usually say "Hey!", "Hello", or else skip salutations entirely and get right to the point: "Thanks for the book, I've really enjoyed reading it. Can you bring a salad to the potluck next week?"

My 2nd grade English text book probably shudders and quakes at such errors of propriety, but hey! this is the 21st century, right?

My, how times change. Of course, English isn't the only thing being rennovated. Not in this home, anyway.

Time was when my measuring spoons and cups sat quietly in their drawer in the kitchen instead of making trips to Costco to serve as distractions for a Certain Someone while Mommy shopped.

Time was when Veggie Tales were fun and interesting to watch; now I dread the sound of "Ok, Larry, it's time for the theme song. . ."

Time was when I had an alarm clock I could actually turn off and ignore.

But then, time was when my heart wasn't so full of love. :)

My how things change! And sometimes for the best, eh? I think so, too. I never really enjoyed those stuffy formulas for letter-writing, either. ;)

Happy Sunday, ya'll!

March 28, 2008

Riddles in the Dark

I dreamed last night that a bunch of us were lost on a ship in the Arctic. A storm came upon us, and we were worried that we wouldn't make it. One of the men got lost in a snowstorm but somehow, he managed to leave love letters for me. Those letters kept me warm and kept me alive until we were rescued. When the man came back, I just held on to him and would not let him go. I told him his letters had saved my life.

Now, in the pale morning light of this waking world, I wonder if that man was Jesus.

March 25, 2008

The Elusive Mrs. N

(Only a few of you will get my title, but for those few, I can hear you laughing all the way from my computer desk. ;)

Perhaps "elusive" isn't quite the right term. More like the AWOL Mrs. N. The Absent Mrs. N. The non-blogging Mrs. N. The. . . well, you get the idea.

*clears the throat*

Hi Everyone! I've thought of naming March our Company Month, for we certainly have been entertaining a lot of people lately. Jason's best friend Kevin, my friend Valerie from PLNU days, and this weekend, our very good friends the Jacksons from the desert. Oh, I'm not complaining. No siree. I love having people over for visits, long or short. :) It's just that between all the visitors, planning Jason's birthday at the beginning of the month, and now planning my Mom's birthday at the end of month, life has been pretty crazy! And that adds up to very little bloggie time.

So you'll (hopefully) forgive me if I'm not quite sure where to start. Perhaps pictures would be best to get the creative juices flowing. Caleb's been having a lot of firsts lately, and per my role as memory-keeper, I have dutifully done my best to capture them on film, uh, digital camera-ness.
First experience with balloons


Helping Daddy open his presents (ok, not a "first" but still cute)

Typing lessons of the lap top



Wearing Daddy's baseball cap on Easter morning (definitely a first!)

Watching Veggie Tales in Auntie Val's lap (yep, another first!)



Yeppers! I'll reiterate: we've been busy. :) But I have not wholly forgotten about you, my bloggie friends. There are several posts, actually, floating around my brain that I would very much like to see typed up here. Perhaps in the next few days. . . or weeks. ;) In the meantime, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, and I would like to wish you a Happy Spring!

March 4, 2008

Feeling At Home

Yesterday, being a wonderfully sunny day, I took Caleb out for a walk down to our management office to pay rent. Yep, it's that time of the month again! As we were walking, we passed a young guy going to his apartment from his truck. When I say young, I mean probably 20ish. He had a goatee and no shirt on. He smiled and said "Hi" as he passed us, a mom and baby-on-a-leash meandering down the path. And at the sight of him, strangely, oddly, I felt very much at home in my neighborhood.

Ok, perhaps I should explain myself before you start getting cockeyed ideas in your little brains. See, East County San Diego isn't so different from where I grew up (except there's a whole lot more people here, and it's greener). I grew up in Yucca Valley, smack in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere. Not quite Hickville, but you can see it from there. I grew up in a neighborhood where most of the boys didn't wear shirts most of the time. They wore their hair long, their skin tanned, their goatees curled, and rode their ATVs loud. Sort of hippie wanna-bes, about thirty years too late. Yes, they smoked, swore, and spit tobacco and I was never really friends with any of them, but that was the environment of my youth.

San Diego is certainly a much nicer, richer, greener place than Yucca. But it still has its hippie element, especially here in East County. And funnily enough, that doesn't bother me. I felt at home yesterday strolling through my neighborhood with Caleb, smelling BBQs, watching kids skateboard, listening to the nostalgic music of the Ice Cream Truck, and yes, saying hello to a shirt-less man.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I like my home. I like where I live. Maybe that's crazy, but it's true. :)

Happy Tuesday, ya'll!

March 1, 2008

A Little Interaction Never Hurt Anybody

Happy Saturday, ya'll! And Happy March 1st, too!

I just wanted to let you guys know that I've changed the settings on my Comments feature yet again. Ya'll can still comment, but all comments are now sent to my email first for me to preview; once I've seen them, I send them through to this blog for everyone else to see. My reasons for doing this are to make sure I don't get any wacky people I don't know posting nonesense here. This blog is set to public, which means anyone, absolutely anyone, can read it and comment. Anyway, I hope this doesn't discourage you from commenting. I want to hear what you have to say!

And in the spirit of this mutual communication, I am writing my very first interactive post. :) Here's what you do: I've made up a list of four questions below and I've written in my answers. If you want to play along, copy and paste the questions into a comment and fill in your own answers (you can also email the answers to me if you want). In a week, I'll post all of your answers here at The Inkwell, and we can all meet/see/get to know each other a little better. Oh, and if you are going to play along, please also include how you and I met. These stories are always so interesting, and I'd love to share them with everyone. :) Can't wait to see what you guys have to say!!!

1. What three places would you most like to visit/vacation to?
- Paris, France
- Hawaii
- New Zealand

2. If money was no object, what's one completely silly and frivilous thing you'd do?
- Hire a full-time hair dresser. Not because I'm all that fashion-savvy, but because I absolutely love having people play with my hair. It's one of the bestest feelings in the whole world! :)

3. Who are three people you'd most like to meet (from any period of history and besides Jesus)?
- Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Amy Carmichael (an Irish missionary to India in the 1800s)
- C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien

4. List three fetishes you have:
- chocolate (if that can be considered a fetish and not an obsession ;)
- books (I hope to some day have a house that has it's own library; Jay and I both love to collect books)
- photography (I love to take pictures and I love to scrapbook them, but I'm not a professional by any stretch of the imagination)

That's it! Don't forget to add how we met/how we know each other. Next Saturday, I'll post your responses. :)