"big hug pasta"

this was by far the funniest line i heard from anyone at the grocery store yesterday. as naomi and i were cruising the aisles i picked up a bag of bowtie pasta ("farfalle" for all you pasta monicker purists) and naomi was real excited about holding it. so she shook it, squished it, then grabbed it up in her arms and nestled it against her face saying "big hug pasta"--hilarious, but sometimes a little sad when the inanimate bags of food are getting more affection than her parents :-P

book list

okay so my last post was not what i would consider "short", but this one will be, because i have other things to do than sit here at the computer and write (i know, hard to believe), but i'm really enjoying writing!

one of my new year's resolutions is to read more good literature, some classic, some modern, but just more meaty and worthwhile stuff so here's a list of books that i've lost sleep in order to read over the last few months:

a voice in the wind by francine rivers: the final installment in the mark of the lion series. i put off reading it for a long time because i simply wasn't interested, the hadassah story line had concluded, and i was tired of the francine rivers writing style (tipping chins, cupping faces, sardonic wry smiles, and pulses throbbing in necks) but martha liked it and could identify w/the main character so i finished it for her and a sense of completion and it was okay, but i'm done w/ol' francine for a while.

pilgrim's progress by john bunyan: i'm slowly working my way through this one. it's really good but slow going because of the archaic language, but there are updated versions available. i might try reading one of those eventually. there are all sorts of great quotes and thoughts i want to pass on. i'll have to save that for another blog.

the chronicles of narnia (except the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe): i've read all the books multiple times, but after seeing the narnia movie was re-inspired to read them again. they're excellent and i love them. they make me love God more.

the screwtape letters by c.s. lewis: my second time through this book and wow what an impact! i loved it again and was shaken by the keen sense of lewis cutting through all the muck and getting to the heart of sin and temptation.

jane eyre by charlotte bronte: i actually read this last fall, but i hadn't ever read it before, nor have i ever read any romance/drama stuff from the bronte/jane austen era (except wuthering heights, because i HAD to in high school) and i really liked it a lot. excellent writing, interesting story, you really grow to love the characters a lot and see their evolution and redemption. i'm always a sucker for a good redemption story!

and finally...
the shaping of a christian family by elisabeth elliot: i'm currently reading this, it's a biography about the growing up life of elisabeth elliot's mother and father and then her own growing up. very interesting and inspiring, but also convicting. i feel like it's so easy to slip in to a facade of christianity where true devotion and discipline are missing. and it's sobering to think of my responsibility as a mom with my own kids. it's also a motivation to pursue God with my whole heart in any and everything i do no matter how mundane it may seem--to serve God is THE highest calling.

so i recommend all of these books (except the first one--sorry all you die-hard francine fans) and i really do want to send some quotes soon, but i gotta get to work and do some laundry. real life rolls on...

okay, i just wanted to list a few austin events that have been going on recently (so you can feel "in the know") but y'all are probably pretty in the know through emails, etc. with other people who have been involved in the events so please excuse any gross repitition, like somebody repeating themselves over and over, since you've already heard it once and you might be hearing it again.....i think i've made my point.
jenni in houston
jenni, you already know about this, does everybody else? well, real quick. jenni was in houston a few weeks ago for her sister's wedding and on sunday afternoon a group of us was able to get together for lunch at a yummy TexMex restaurant and here we are: left to right (you know everybody, but there's little comments to add: Naomi (who LOVES guacamole, but calls it by it's more italian name "guacanini"), Linda (who will be moving to wisconsin to do theatre for the summer, then moving to chicago to pursue theatre work there--living the dream!), Renee (who's goth name should be Raven Nightshade given her hair's current blackness), Christine (the amazing), Miles (the cute: who was enthralled by naomi's blond poufy hair--and naomi enthralled by miles's baby-ness--we're planning on betrothing them to one another and having it all settled for them :-)), Marty (the also-amazing), Jenni (who is super-cool and totally resilient after 9 hours on a plane and 2 days with family doing crazy wedding stuff), and Michele (the loyal and tender-hearted friend).

renee & NYU

so you all know, i'm sure, about renee getting accepted in to NYU for her master's in social work. it's definitely bittersweet for me, much like all of you guys going on your foreign adventures. she was also accepted to UT, but it looks like she's 99% sure NYU is it. so to celebrate her acceptance to grad school we had a grad school acceptance party last week. it was short notice and a small guest list to start with but the evening was great. my parents had come in for the weekend to visit so my parents, renee, john, chris tomescu and i all enjoyed a wonderful and fun fondue party together. we had a cheese fondue, chicken scallopini, and orzo with peas (your fave, k-dawg). it was so good! then for dessert we had chocolate fondue and dipped strawberries, bananas, and poundcake into this super-rich dark chocolate puddle of heavenly delight. and then we went out on the town! we left the house at 10:30--um this hasn't happened to me in like, 6 years... first down to 4th street where we had a round of drinks at the ginger man--a pub i had never been to, but was good and not too loud--that's one thing about going out. i don't like to be in a place that's too loud or smelly that you can't enjoy hanging out. next we headed over to buffalo billiard's to play some pool and while we were there heidi hagen, blanca garcia, and derek balleck joined us at about 1 a.m. it was a lot of fun and half-price pool from midnight to 2 on fridays and saturdays! after that we headed over to kirby lane (the one ON kirby lane) for a late night snack or MEAL, in my case, you know i have to eat every 2-3 hours or i get all woozy from low blood sugar or whatever.... and it was so fun because at it got later, everything got funnier! so at 4:15 john, renee, and i rolled into the house. i loved it!! we all had a great time and i think it was especially fun for me since i love going out, i love staying up late, and it's really rare that we get to do this and will be rare in the future with baby #2 on the way.

the browns

the very next night was the brown's anniversary party held at the ever-popular mccord center home of 75% of all liveoak receptions :-) it was great! very sweet sentiments shared by david and martha honoring their parents and a wonderful toast by brook and rudy honoring the browns. john, renee, and i got to sit w/the gilmores and we had fun just hanging out and talking and laughing over dinner. then the dancing began...about 2 1/2 or 3 hours of dancing! here are a couple of comments martha received that i thought i'd pass along. charlotte, martha's sister, mentioned how she thought it was so awesome that everybody was so uninhibited with dancing...whether people COULD dance or not, they just got out there and had a fun time. then, martha's dad and brother commented that they'd never seen a group of people have so much fun who weren't drunk! great stuff! and i was thinking about that comment and it reminded me of a thought or hope i've held onto for a long time: at celebrations it always seems so God-glorifying for Christians to be the people having the most fun since we have the most to celebrate, and celebrating wholesomely (i like the idea of "wholesome", but the word itself always reminds me of bread, wholesome whole wheat bread and that just isn't the thought i want to evoke). i took the digital camera specifically to take pictures to send to y'all, however, the batteries ran out after the first picture, but don't renee and martha look gorgeous! david venable is serious and hard at work :-)

ultimate frisbee

so all you ultimate frisbee fans--spring league has started. john is playing right now. we all walked over to the fields this morning. naomi had a great time running barefoot through the dewy grass of the IM fields and kicking her purple bouncy ball around. she is decidedly right-footed! she chased birds, cheered on john, and clung to his legs every time he was on the sidelines. it has been beautiful weather. we were having crazy storms last week: trees were blown down on our street, hail was pelting parts of the city, our house was shaking and vibrating from the gusts of wind and now it's all resolved into beautiful spring weather. at least this didn't happen during all the rains!

the shraders

today is a surprise 25th anniversary party for charlie and sue shrader. evidently the shraders, hagens, and nodines are all celebrating their 25th anniversaries this year. wild, isn't it? i'm excited to see the liveoak elder-types actually get older, stick around, and teach us through their example, wisdom, and life experience. we need those grey hairs!! especially a little upstart like myself :-)

crazy hair day

yesterday was "crazy hair day" at john's school. there are 3 brothers that john picks up and drops off every day, the oldest is in john's 8th grade class. john had fun with the clippers and the boys had fun playing with naomi. john's such a great teacher, friend, and mentor....these guys love him and the feeling is mutual... from left to right: raul (13), bertin (12), john (who is 30 and DOESN'T have crazy hair), uber (the 9 year old george costanza), and naomi (for whom every day is crazy hair day!)

annie's pasta

and here's one last tidbit of really current news: i just finished eating annie's white cheddar shells and cheese. yes, jenni turned me on to it. it's a yummier alternative to HCF mac'n'cheese. oh and i just felt the baby move 45 seconds ago for the very first, for REAL time. it's always been gas in the past. cool stuff!

...and that's a little news from this side of the pond...hope you enjoyed the vignettes and let me know if there are specific things you'd like to hear about...

everybody else's blogs

so after not getting to read blogs for a couple of weeks, i've just sat down to catch up on everybody's (kristina, liz, and jenni's). it's inspiring to read about the adventures of life: the highs, the lows, the clouds. all of it is real life and what a blessing to peer into God's work through y'all's thoughts and experiences. there's tons i want to write about. what i'll probably do is a couple of brief blogs on different subjects and y'all can sort through what you might be interested in--hopefully SOMETHING will be of interest. i hate coming across those blogs that are self-indulgent rants or just plain boring so i want to avoid either of those avenues :-) on to subject-specific blogging...