The Book-Meme I haven't forgotten about ; )

1. One book that changed your life: Female Piety: A Young Woman's Guide by John Angell James
2. One book that you've read more than once: Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss.
3. One book you'd want on a desert island: I don't know a specific title, but I would want a book about Foraging for and Cooking with the Foods Naturally Occuring on Desert Islands, with additional notes about which plants are either Poisonous or Medicinal, by Some Guy Who's Been There and Knows What He's Talking About, E.D.I.S. (that stands for "Expert Desert Island Survivor. Tom Hanks would make a nice substitute.)
4. One book that made you laugh: Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
5. One book that made you cry: God Knows My Size by Harvey Yoder
6. One book that you wish had been written: The Diary of My Great-Great-(etc) Grandmother Who Was a Duchess in Wales in the Fifteenth Century, with engravings or period attire, living arrangements, and maps, as well as Her Favourite Recipes, by Said Great-Great-(etc) Grandmother (sorry, I need to contact my family-historian aunt to be sure of her name. But you can be sure it's really neat.)
7. One book that you wish had never been written: Forever... by Judy Blume (please don't go look this one up if you haven't heard of it. eew it's bad.)
8. One book you're currently reading: The American Woman's Home by Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe
9. One book you've been meaning to read: So Much More by the Botkin sisters
10. Now tag four people: Samara, Sabine, Kelly, and Andrea.

The (Ex-)Planet Formerly Known as Pluto

So if Pluto's been kicked out, then shouldn't Jupiter be as well? If a planet can be too small, then couldn't a planet also be too big? And anyway, Jupiter's actually a gas planet... so it's "different". I vote we get rid of Jupiter. And while we're kicking out the gas planets, let's get rid of Saturn (it's got rings!) Uranus, and Neptune (it spins sideways!) too! (Sorry, nothing particular unique comes to mind about Uranus... But we might as well boot him out with the others, just to be "fair".)

And besides- "dwarf" people are still real people. Disabled people who use walkers or wheelchairs are still people. So can't a "dwarf" planet who has a wobbily orbit still be a planet?

I'd almost buy one of these...

Something must be wrong with me

I'm posting two days in a row!!
Some blogs on Homeschool Alumni got me thinking about this, and I decided to give it a try. And Susan, I haven't forgotten that you've meme-tagged me for your's!! It's next : )

This is the Google-Meme where you type in your name and a phrase, in quotes, to see what other people have said about "you." Silly, I know. But it's still kind of fun!

1. I don't think Jessie looks like Mary Poppins. (I don't think so either!)
2. "Jessie looks like an old man," Zeon said. (I- I- I do?? Why didn't someone tell me?!? and anyway, who's Zeon, and why is he talking about me?)
3. Jessie looks like she will fulfill her dream of becoming a writer. (I never knew I had such a dream!)
4. But Jessie looks like a weirdo. (Thanks, pal.)
5. Jessie looks like part Dobie & lab. (So which is it, the old man, the dog, or a weird old man dog?)
6. Jessie looks like Ashley (only, you know, attractive). (That's nice to know. At least somebody things old man dogs are attractive!)
7. Jessie looks like a duck, which he kind of does. (These people can't make up their minds.)
8. Jessie looks like a witch man. (*sigh* I do not.)
9. Basically, Jessie looks like any golden labrador out there. (Here we go again!)
10. Jessie looks like her mother, but they don't smell the same. (Some people do say I resemble my mother, but I'm not sure what that last part means!!)

Okay, you see how silly that was. But it was kind of fun. Kind of. Maybe not as much fun as I was hoping...
Something that I think is a little more fun, is to type your first and last names, in quotes, in Google, and see who you are!

(I'm running for State Senate in Minnesota; I have music for you to download; I'm an actress in B movies, my latest being "Hello Earthlings!" (2004); and I'm also on the Linguistics Departmant Faculty at Northwestern University. Oh yeah, and I'm a 6'1" volleyball player at Fresno State. Who knew?)

Interesting Additions to my "Hope Chest"

Perhaps I should back up here before I begin and say that the most interesting thing about my hope chest is that I don't have one. Susan says she's run out of hope; I say I've never had any! But lately I've picked up a few interesting things to add to my stash located throughout my room in various forms of boxes, drawers, and vinyl zipper bags.

Item number one is one of those big foldy-downy boxes that are made to transport wedding cakes in. Last June a friend of mine got married, and on the Sunday following his family gave us some leftover wedding cake in the big aforementioned box. I told my mom that I wanted to keep the box when we finished the cake, and she asked how I intended to store it. Well, it unfolds out flat, into a big rectangle. *lightbulb* "I can fit it behind my tall dresser, against the wall!" So there it is, to this day, and maybe if I decide to make my own wedding cake (?) I'll already have one box ready. : )

Item number two I bought at Goodwill for a whopping, gargantuan, death-to-the-bank-account sum of... $2.00. Any guesses what it might be? A hint: A quick price check revealed that similar items go for anywhere between $50-$60+ (on ebay!). No idea? It's a beautiful, near-perfect quality, A-line crinoline that fits me perfectly! Storage for this one was an easily-overcome challenge. I folded it up as best I could, shoved the bundle into a gallon freezer bag, sat on it to push out all the air, and sealed it up. Now this nice little bundle fits quite easily into a dresser drawer, and I didn't even have to buy a SpaceBag!

Item(s) number three I picked up a couple of years ago- guess where? At a yardsale- on the side of the highway- in West Virginia- of all places! We were travelling up to Pennsylvania and happened to stop here to stretch and look around. Much to my delight I came across a whole boxload of these dishes , with no price attached. I asked the lady what she would take for them, and with a shrug, she replied, "Oh, $15.00?" I snatched them up right away for that price! They were in almost perfect condition. Later my stepmom helped me get some more pieces from ebay to add to the collection, and now I have service for at least 10, although exact numbers escape me for the moment. The pattern is "Honorine" by Arcopal, which is unfortunately discontinued. But people are still selling pieces on ebay so, for now at least, I am still able to get more pieces.
The dishes look like real china, but they are actually like Corelle in weight. They're so pretty! I love blue and white kitchen decor, with yellow walls and white cabinetry...
These dishes are stored, layered between fabric scraps, paper towels, potholders, and bubble wrap, in an otherwise empty drawer in another dresser. (I have two large dressers in my room that were my mom's when she was a child. I don't have near enough clothes to fill them all up, so I use them for lots of other things too. I think a good three drawers alone are dedicated to "hope chest" purposes.)

Let's hear from you! What interesting finds are/were in your "hope chest"?? If you don't have a real hope chest, what do you use instead?

Dilemma...

Should I make myself a white skirt??

I see them everywhere, especially in eyelet and ruffles. But the question is, should I spend the time and money to make myself one, when I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I will either stain it the first time I wear it (if not while I'm making it!) or spend every minute of the time I wear it wondering if I've stained it?? But they're so pretty and feminine! With a lightweight pink cardigan and a white shirt under it, ooh, it would be beautiful!

Should I do it?

She's really real!

I got to meet Susan!

And she's real : )

Left to right: Susan, me, Hannah (my sister), Hannah (Susan's sister), Katie (a.k.a., Miss Shirley)
Not pictured: Any of our brothers or parents.

My family was in Georgia overnight this weekend for a wedding we were attending, and in God's providence there was time enough for Susan and her family to travel down to meet us for an early supper at Ruby Tuesday's. When we got the invitation to the wedding about a month ago, I immediately ran down to the computer (I know, I should've just used an atlas. After all, I am a librarian...) to see how far away the wedding was going to be from Susan's town. To my delight I found that it was only about 30 miles away!

I wanted to e-mail her right away, but I still didn't know if we'd actually be able to attend the wedding. Until I knew for sure that we would indeed be going to Georgia, I didn't want to mention it to Susan, in case it didn't work out. So I had to send and receive several e-mails throughout August-- and not mention something I was really excited about wanting to happen! But finally, the week before the wedding, we had all of our plans squared away, and it was a fact, we were going to be in Georgia for the wedding! I ran down to the computer and replied to one of Susan's e-mails, throwing in just a line or two at the end asking if she would be busy on Saturday the 12th. The next thing I knew, I had a message from her saying that they were actually free that day, after several days of traveling and visiting in Kentucky. Hooray!! After almost a year of corresponding, we were actually going to meet face to face. How fun!

I called her from the hotel on my cell phone, and got to hear her voice. She had told me earlier that it wasn't "particularly high or feminine," but I would say it was just perfect for her. Quite feminine, and very pretty. (And she has very good enunciation. My grandpa would've been proud of her for that : ) As a music and choir instructor, he would always remind us to "e-nun-ci-ate when you speak.")

We pulled in the restaurant to see her family climbing out of their van- and Susan said that they had driven by our hotel and had seen us getting in our van : ) I'm glad now that I posted that picture earlier of my siblings and me, so she was able to easily recognize us!

Our visit was unfortunately very short, since we were on a very tight schedule to make it to the wedding on time, but I'm glad we had as much time as we did!

Head on over to Susan's to read a bit more about how our friendship began : )

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PS- I almost forgot! Here is the official report you've all been waiting for!!

Susan Garrison does not, I repeat- does not have cataracts OR gappy teeth, no matter what her profile image may lead you to believe.

Katie Shirley

Well here she is. : )
I only accidentally deleted these pictures from my post about 20 times! (No, really, only twice. But still!) Be sure to click on each of the thumbnails to get a better look.

YAY! Blogger uploads pictures now!

(At least right now it does.)

This is a picture of Tim (Jessi's boyfriend), Jessi, and me, taken on August 4th.

Jessi's family and my grandparents got together with us to celebrate Katie's 14th birthday. Her best friend Erin (Jessi's sister) spent the night and Saturday with us.

Now my next blog-project is to get those pictures of "Katie Shirley" up here!

Life on a Davidson County Farm 100 Years Ago

I found this very informative article written about daily farm life one hundred years ago from the area I live in... Thought you all might be interested too!

"The farmer who bought a farm or inherited a farm was careful as he went about selecting a site for his home—to—be. It had to be a place that was well—drained, among trees, usually near a spring or stream of water. Often it was on a conspicuous knoll, overlooking the fields, meadows, and woodlands where the farmer and his family would carve out a way of life. The materials for the building came mostly from the acres of woods, and from the red clay of Piedmont, North Carolina. The brick for two or three large chimneys were made right there on the place, unless the builder chose to use stone (native) for foundations and chimneys. Neighbors, friends, relatives came to help with the hard tasks of building. These people swapped work. Building anything was often an excuse for social gatherings, too.

"As to the house, there was more or less a typical plan for these old-timers. The main part of the house had two large rooms downstairs and two large rooms upstairs. Two halls, one above and one below, separated the rooms and ran from front to back. Stairs, some of them decorative while others plain, ascended from the lower hail to the upper. Built to the back of this main part was an ell of at least two rooms——the dining room and the kitchen. If the family was unusually large or the farmer either affluent or pretentious, there would be two bedrooms upstairs in the ell, over the dining room and kitchen..."

Click here for the rest of the article.

Anne Shirley, aka My Sister Katie

Katie will be turning 14 tomorrow, so in honor of her birthday, I thought I'd share a few of the (hundred or so) pictures I took of her a few weeks ago.... But that was until I just now tried to upload pictures to Blogger (and now I'm beginning to believe all the bad things I heard about Blogger before!)
We dressed her up in an old-but-not-antique blouse (given to me), costume jewelry earrings from a grandmother, my $5 skirt I got on clearance- with no sales tax- when I was in Delaware, and a flower plucked from the luscious, blooming fields of a Dollar General. : ) (I did buy it, just so you know. I wouldn't just pluck flowers from any ol' obliging store!)
It doesn't sound like it would be so good, from the description above, but you'll have to be patient until I can get the pictures up, and then you can see for yourself.

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I'm moving the link to my survey to the sidebar, so it will stay upfront. Big Thank You's to everyone who's participated!!