ROLL TIDE!!

National Championship time baby!!! ROLL TIDE!!

Wordless Wednesday

My much delayed Christmas pictures-

O.M.G.  BALL WAGON!

He's reading an Arabic storybook in a wagon full of balls.  That's my boy!

Christmas morning cinnamon buns- a remarkably easy recipe.

Dinner!  A labor-intensive Scandinavian Roast Goose and spiced wine (Glögg).

Side dishes- red cabbage, St. Lucia bread, sugar browned potatoes, and oyster dressing (it's a southern thing)

Closeup of the Lucia bread.  It was sweet and well-spiced.  I'd link to a recipe, but I wound up cobbling together a few because I had to make some substitutions to avoid spending $12 on a spice I'd use once.

Dessert!  Rice pudding with cherry sauce.

New Year

I feel like I need to do the New Year's post, but I like what Kori said about New Year's- that if things are that important to you, you should probably be doing them all along the way.  But it is a new year, so I figure there's no harm in setting some goals for where I'd like to be this time next year and how I'd like to get there. 

Academically

• I will be through 3 classes for my master's with a minimum of a 3.7 GPA
• I will start relationships with at least 3 insurance industry contacts through my master's program

Financially

• I will fully fund Boy's ESA for the fiscal year
• I will increase my 401k contribution by 1.5%
• I will not spend any money on credit cards that I can't repay the same month
• I will pay my grad school tuition in cash
• I will try to earn over $1000 in supplemental income this year
  

Physically

• I will continue to see my chiropractor and implement her suggestions for my back pain
  
• I will workout either by walking or on Wii Fit daily (30 minutes if walking, 45 if Wii Fit)
• I will continue breastfeeding as long as Boy wants and it is mutually desirable
  
• I will eat and be active in a way that makes me healthier
  

Personally

• I will try to be more accepting of others (something I've been working on for a while now)
• I will try to be more patient(again, a continuing challenge for me)
  
• I will try to take 30mn a week to meditate or do some kind of yoga or tai chi (which should help with the first two goals).  I have a lot of trouble just being still and quiet and emptying my thoughts- I always have to be reading, writing, talking, moving, or doing.  I think I could benefit from learning to still my mind a bit, especially with grad school coming up.
  

Romantically

• ~PTHHHHHHHHHHHHBBBTTTTT~ 
• Circle circle, dot dot, now I have my cootie shot
  

Missing a Friend

One of my good college friends- Sean- came into town for New Year's.  He pretty much stopped here on his way back from somewhere with his family, and got to spend about 20 hours in town before he had to head out to the airport. 

It was awesome.  Sean is one of those friends that I can communicate with sporadically, but every time I see him it's like no time has passed.  We're both happily geeky, and he "gets" me.  I just really, really enjoy spending time with him.  We got a lot in for only having a day- the night he came in we went out to dinner with Boy, which was fun because Sean got to know him. The next morning we hit a Wal-Mart because I had to give him the full deep south experience, then took Boy to the park.  While Boy napped we watched the absolutely terrible Starship Troopers 3 (we didn't know there had been a 2!  There was a montage of aliens being blown up by robots while women prayed!  There was a singing psychic military commander!).  That's the beauty of Sean- we can make jokes about monkey poo and watch bad sci-fi together. 

The only bad part about the visit was how quickly it was over.  A few hours after I dropped him off at the airport, I got teary.  Seeing him made me realize how much I've missed him. And of course seeing him reminded me of a few other college friends I really miss, which fed into my teariness. 

I wish I could go back to college.  I miss it, not the institutions, not the papers, not the working 30 hours a week and a full course load- but the people and the atmosphere.  We had a really good little group of friends my freshman and sophomore years (my third year was my last year, and almost everyone else was studying abroad so our group of 10 whittled down to 3).  We were all smart, and we were all very, very different.  It made for some good times, good conversations, and great debates.  I miss being able to spar intellectually.  In my house, if I try to get a good debate going I get accused of picking a fight, which I'm not doing- I like to challenge how people think and I want them to challenge me in return. 

In summary: Sean = awesomeness, and I miss him.

My Funny Family

Things heard around the Crone house:

Don't even ask how this came up because I think I've blocked it out...
"So you'd eat a stranger's placenta over your own sister's?" -Me

"But she's not 3, she's 4?" My mom, honestly confused about why Dad's wife's e-mail address is hername3@isp.com when she's the 4th wife.

"You just don't want a mascot you could eat." -Mom, about the Oregon Ducks

"I wonder what they promise female suicide bombers. Human rights?" -Mark's Girlfriend

"So you put it on stun?" - Mom about a paused DVR

"You replaced the dog door with a mirror? Gus is going to run into it! Like a bird!" -Mark (Gus is my dog)


Talking to one of the dogs:
Mark: "Good boy Alpha."
Me: "What did Alpha do?"
Mark: "Nothing, he just needs some encouragement."

Watching Star Trek
Me: I like that they kept the female miniskirts, you know, in case the women crewmembers need to straddle something.
Mark: Like my Captain's Log!

"MAMA! book. Book. BOOK!...  Ball?" - Boy, who is always contributing to the sophisticated dialogue around here.

Have a safe and happy New Year's eve!

Wordless Wednesday

Jason Sudeikis of 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live.  Hotness!

I didn't really think of him as hot until I saw him on SNL playing Todd Palin.  Ever since then, every time I see him.... how can I say this politely?

I can't.  So I'll leave it at "I find this gentleman quite attractive."

Christmas Catch-up

Christmas at the Crone house was awesome.  Apparently reacting to some instinctive child-knowledge that OMG SANTA CAME, Boy woke up at 4am ready to rock and roll.  I managed to get him back to sleep until about 8, when he woke up screeching happily and hitting me in the face.  We roused my Mom, then went upstairs to wake up my brother and sister.  Boy ran into Mark's room yelling and woke him up, and my sister came out around the same time.  That was when Boy and I headed downstairs.... and he spotted his present, a wagon full of ball pit balls. 

"Ball.  BALL.  BALLBALLBALLBALL!!"

He started squirming and trying to get out of my arms.  I finally got to the bottom of the stairs and let him go, and he ran (in the way only a 15 month old can run, almost falling down with every step) to the wagon, picked up a ball in each hand, and looked back at me, grinning ear to ear.  He started throwing balls out of the wagon, which lasted for a while.  Then he sat in the wagon for most of the morning, because wow, does he love that wagon.  He cries when I take him out of it- he even ate breakfast in it yesterday.  He's also had a lot of fun with his presents from Uncle Mark- a trike that I can push, and a super-cool stuffed dragon.  My sister gave him some blocks that had our pictures lacquered to them, and my mom gave him a little fold-out sofa and a tent.  Then we went over to my dad's, where he got a sand table and some books.

Unfortunately, the day after Christmas he started feeling under the weather, and yesterday and today he's been sick with a cough and fever.  He gets pretty clingy when he's not feeling well, so I haven't had much time to myself.  Which is basically a long way of saying I'm behind on my reader.  I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and I will hopefully be catching up this week!  I have 3 days off, but if Boy's sick and at home I don't know that I'll get much accomplished.

Wordless Wednesday

"Here Uncle Mark, let me show you how these net lights work."

The peanut gallery looks on

Mark on the roof!

Me on the roof, just before Mark and I looked at each other, agreed that it was steeper than it looked from the ground, and decided that a one-two punch of ladders and throwing stuff out windows might be more our style than scaling the roof.

"HAHA!  I've caught the Nona yeti! Mama, bring me some net lights and I"ll wrap it up."

Quick Post

Operation Margarita Party with coworkers was fun- the tipsy accounting quote of the night was "He doesn't need Viagra!  I'm ORGANIC VIAGRA!"

However, there was one beyotch coworker there who:

• Wore a Texas shirt because she knows we're all Alabama fans and wanted to start a fight (she's an LSU fan)
  
• Called a coworker's husband a f***** p****, among other things, for a reason only she knew (he showed true class by not responding at all)
  
• Arrived drunk, spent the entire time trying to start a fight as mentioned, went to another bar after, then drove home drunk
• Effectively ruined dinner by keeping everyone on edge about what she was going to say or do next
  

I almost hope she gets a DUI, because then they might make her get alcohol counseling, and I feel like that's the only way she'll ever get help. 

Holiday week!

I had a great weekend- Saturday my siblings and I decorated the front of the house, then Sunday I had lunch with my Dad.  I did about eight loads of laundry, and at one point yesterday I could honestly say that every linen and article of clothing Boy and I owned was clean at the same time, with the exception of what we were wearing.  Laundry always wears me down because I like being able to check things off a list, and laundry is like The Song That Never Ends of chores.

Today was a great day- work was fairly busy but uncomplicated, and we had a little gift exchange.  Instead of an ornament exchange, the bosses bought a bunch of $50 gift cards and we drew for them and had a gift card dirty Santa.  I originally got a Blockbuster gift card, but it got stolen so I got to grab a grocery gift card.  I'm excited because it was a nice unexpected bonus, but it's also going to pay for the fixins for Christmas dinner.  My brother and I are food dorks for holidays- I have a lot of fun planning a theme menu and doing the cooking, and he loves trying new foods.  So this year, he bought a goose and I'm cooking it and providing sides.  And now I present (drumroll...) the Christmas Menu! 

The theme is A Scandinavian Christmas, and I'll be making:

• Scandinavian Roast Christmas Goose
  
• Scandinavian Sugar-Browned Potatoes
  
• Danish Red Cabbage
• Rice Pudding with Almonds and Cherry Sauce
  
• Sauteed Green Beans 
• Lucia Bread
  
• Glögg
  

Apparently, beets, cabbage, and potatoes are plentiful in the far north. 

Posts will probably be scarce this week, but I'm going to get out some pictures on Wednesday, and I'll definitely be posting soon after Christmas. In the meantime, happy holidays to you and yours!  Whatever you celebrate, I hope love is in your house and heart this coming year.