Thursday, February 20, 2014

Croci Signal Times of Change

Flowers in our yard took advantage of a break in the cold and peeped out of the ground.   I noticed the first crocuses (yellow and white) during the post-baptism sundae party on Sunday, February 16 and the first daffodil this morning (February 20) is blooming on the south side of the pecan tree.

In other news, the boys may not be related to my family, because they enjoy dressing up (Dianthus has asked to wear his tie to preschool on several occasions) and Aster did not flinch when they took eleven (11!) vials of blood at the doctor recently.*
Boys survived dunking** and weekend with all grandparents in the house.

*He's fine.  We had a check-up with the pediatric neurologist who confirmed that the MRI shows evidence of a stroke in utero and the follow up is to test for clotting disorders that may pre-dispose him to strokes in the future.

**Okay, "sprinkling", not "dunking", but I like the sound of dunking better.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

It's not all snow and flowers

Another few days of super-cold* weather has me reminiscing fondly about other seasons.  It turns out that not all of my photographs are of snow and flowers.
A + D help Grandma with her chocolate-peanut birthday cake,
Sept. 2013

The Mister's Sept. 2013 birthday present
You can tell its the sandbox, and not the local soil,
because it is not red.
December 2013




Celebrating 2014 arriving in Togo (5 p.m. in Denver)

*For central Oklahoma.  I know it is colder elsewhere.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

On Orange Flowers, Genus Marmota and Horses

So it feels as if I should have a lot to write.  After all, tomorrow is Groundhog Day!  The Year of the Horse has begun (time for a new resolution) and I care enough about the Super Bowl to prod the Mister to change our phone and internet provider so I can watch it, in its entirety, tomorrow.  But I haven't condensed much into cohesive thoughts yet.  What I have to write at the moment are a bunch of announcements.

Groundhog Party has been replaced by Sundae Party on Sunday, Feb. 16, when The Parents and The In-Laws will be in town to see Dianthus and Aster baptized.  You (along with our whole congregation and our colleagues) are invited to eat ice cream with us.

Dyed orange and blue daisies don't look good with orange alstromeria and a cobalt blue vase, but having them makes me happy.

Blue brownies are required.  My earliest sports memory was running the bases between the innings at my dad's company softball games and coming in when one man shouted "Kids, ice cream!" and never liking that man because there was never any ice cream.  But I digress.  My second earliest sports memory is Super Bowl XII in 1978.  I was five.  We drank Orange Crush and processed (thus bright orange) macaroni and cheese and sadly ate our orange frosted brownies as the Broncos lost to the Cowboys.  I watched the Super Bowl closely in high school, because my home team Broncos played three out of the four years, and lost every one.  We ate brownies with orange frosting each year.  In January of 1998, one my mother's wise students told her, "Madame Chateau, put blue frosting on the brownies this year."  She did. It worked, and it worked again the next year.  She and are both baking blue frosted brownies this year. Dad and I are both making pork green chili and things will turn out well.

I started Groundhog Day letters, but since they talk about the upcoming Super Bowl, and upcoming Groundhog Day, and haven't been mailed yet, I will probably have to start over.

The purchase of the brownie supplies, along with reading of several Groundhog Day books, has Dianthus slightly confused.  Brownies are for tomorrow and Groundhog Day is tomorrow.  This he knows. So when he asked me who is going to win, I answered immediately "The Broncos" and he replied, "I want to win, but I think Marci will win again this year."  Marci?  Turns out he remembers the groundhog party from last year and wants to play pin the shadow on the groundhog.  I'm afraid watching ads won't be nearly as much fun.

Marmota is the official genus of our household.  The Mister declared it so even before he was legally The Mister.  How could I resist?  We have stuffed (plush, not taxidermy) versions of four different species of marmot: groundhogs (a.k.a. woodchucks, Marmota monax), yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris), Vancouver Island marmots (Marmota vancouverensis) and an alpine marmot (Marmota marmota).  It's time to get all of the marmots, other squirrels, rats, hedgehogs and other creatures out for whatever celebration we're having.

The lunar new year, along with Janet's birthday, signifies the start of a new theme resolution year.  Everyone here has a head cold.  Somehow I can't pick a theme.  So we'll stick to my orange flowers and that the year of the horse bodes well for my favorite football team.

Happy New Year!  Happy Groundhog Day!  Go Broncos!