Dec 22nd 2006 03:08:29 pm

Two days after getting my wisdom teeth removed I jumped on a plane to Kansas City because my mom had to go to the hospital for heart surgery. It was unexpected and it has been a difficult time for my family. While I have been here for the last two weeks I have been trying to take care of my mom and her house a bit. I have been cooking some meals and doing laundry and what not. I just haven’t been in the mood to post on my blog…

This morning I had to take my mom back to the hospital because she was having a hard time breathing. It turns out that she has some blood clots in her lungs and she is going to have to stay in the hospital through Christmas. I am worried.

The only good part about the last two weeks is that I have gotten to spend a lot of quality time with my family. I think it has made us all closer. I love them all very much and I hope Mom recovers quickly.

Me and my brother, Adam, at the hospital.

8 Comments » Categories: Family

Dec 9th 2006 02:00:26 pm

I have been getting really bored, and my mouth is starting to hurt, and I am hungry! I think all of my complaining convinced Travis that I needed some things to keep my mind of my recovery. We stopped by Starbucks for Frappuccinos (eaten with a spoon, don’t worry!), and went to Best Buy and bought the 2nd season of Millenium. And more importantly, we broke down and bought two copies of World of Warcraft. We were just going to buy the two-week passes so that we could play with my brothers over winter break while in Kansas City, but we decided we just needed to get back in the game permanently since the new expansion, The Burning Crusade, is coming out in January. I hope I don’t play too much, but I do have the month off school and I want to have some relaxing fun. If I don’t get our Christmas newsletter out this year, blame it on the video game!

8 Comments » Categories: Feeling Happy, Just for Fun, Television

Dec 9th 2006 11:14:35 am

That is a photo of me recovering after getting my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. I basically laid around all day and kept ice on my cheeks. The surgery went ok, but I cried when I had to get the IV put in for a second time (the first time wasn’t successful). I almost wanted to chicken out, but I am glad I got it over with. I think the recovery is going well, but I am getting bored and hungry! To keep myself busy I have been looking up more holiday links to share… Check them out:

Holiday fun:

• cute video greeting from one point oh design studio
• Winter Bells, a cute game featuring a bouncing bunny (my top score so far is 1900)
• gingerbread Star Wars Tie Fighter
• Scared of Santa photo gallery
• Holdiay Party Excuse Generator

Holiday gifts guides:

• Will Wheaton’s Gift Guide for Geeks
• 77 Design Gifts under $77
• Treehugger Holiday Gift Guide

6 Comments » Categories: Christmas, Just for Fun

Dec 6th 2006 12:39:44 pm

I must have been desperate to distract myself from my homework last night, because at one point I found myself watching Fow News. Ugh. O’Reilly was talking about this sweet little girl and how she should be taken away from her parents because they are subjecting her to internet abuse! Watch the video. All she says is some smart stuff about thinking for yourself and teaching children empathy… well, that and she calls O’Reilly an idiot. And you know what – he is an idiot. Anyway, I am glad that I caught O’Reilly spouting his stupidity because through the little girl video I found The Bastard Fairies, who have some pretty cool music free for download. Listen to The Greatest Love Song. Very cool.

Travis and I have been staying up for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report lately. Oh, how I love those shows! I really feel like they are the epitome of what is great about America. Ok, that is a strong statement, but I like seeing smart people saying important things and still managing to be completely entertaining.

Anyhoo… I am just about done with my homework. Today and tomorrow are my last tough days and then I am pretty much free for a few weeks. I will finally be able to start getting ready for the holidays. Maybe I will even bake cookies! MMmmmmm…

2 Comments » Categories: Television, Thinking

Dec 3rd 2006 09:52:49 pm

…but I am actually making progress on my very last paper. It is due Wednesday, along with an accompanying five minute presentation. Piece of cake.

I bought this little bird ornament today. I hung it in the window above my computer because it was too heavy to hang on our little tinsel tree. I really like it and it makes me happy, but I think it also proves that I am my mother’s daughter – I collect little trinkets (preferably trinkets that depict cute animals) to fill all of the ledges in my home. Oh well… at least this little guy was on sale.

I usually don’t write about important things on this blog because I don’t feel like it is the correct forum in which to do the topics justice. However, since my brother has been in Kenya (and my father is traveling there on Thursday) I have found myself more and more interested in what is going on over there. I am always picking up any articles I can find about Kenya, or Africa in general. They are usually extremely sad.

This article in the Register Guard about the New Hope Children’s Home in Mombasa made me cry and cry. I would really like to help support the New Hope Children’s Home. It seems like they are doing good work there, and the small amount of money I could offer would go a long way towards school supplies… but would my money be better spent supporting agencies that are working to stop the spread of AIDS in Africa, so that in turn, less children will be orphaned in the future? It is confusing and overwhelming. I do not have the solution, but I think it is still good to do something. Perhaps I should split my support between the New Hope Children’s Home and YouthAIDS in order to help both the present and the future in my own small way…

Does anyone have any advice about giving effectively? Should I just follow my heart and hope that my small amount of money will actually make a difference? (You would think all of the classes I am taking on nonprofit management would help me sort things out, but it seems they just make me more confused.)

2 Comments » Categories: Feeling Sad, Home, School, Thinking

Dec 2nd 2006 09:05:43 pm

I saw a commercial for gifts.com on primetime network television and went to check it out. It seems pretty cool. It gives you gift suggestions for all sorts of different ages and personalities. It does a fine job with the recommendations, but the really neat aspect of the site is that once you click on a gift it shows you its price at a bunch of different stores. It takes the hassle out of comparison shopping. I haven’t actually bought anything through gifts.com so I can’t give a real testimonial, but I think it is worth checking out.

I really, really, really don’t need anything for Christmas, but I have managed to put together a short Christmas Wish List. It is different than my usual, everyday Wish List, but really, I’m not picky.

Other cool holiday-related links: how to make a 3-D paper snowflake, recipe for snickers fudge, a cool brownie pan, It’s A Wonderful Internet, buy Charlie Brown’s pathetic tree, Blueprint’s Gift Guide, and the handy Martha Stewart Christmas Cookie Glossary.

And because I like pretty things as well as cute things, here is another photo of my recently received roses reconfigured into two arrangements:

Yes, you are correct in thinking that I am writing on my blog simply to distract myself from my mounds of homework…

29 Comments » Categories: Christmas, Just for Fun, Lovely Things

Dec 1st 2006 06:16:22 pm

I haven’t done one of these in a while, and since I just emailed my final research proposal to my professor I figure I deserve to have a little fun!

So without futher ado, here are my favorites from the December 2006 Lucky magazine (which I bought in the airport a long time ago on my trip to San Francisco):

Starting in the top left corner:

• Silk Charmeuse Dress by Robin, page 280
• Jemma Kidd Make Up School Crushed Jewel Gel Liner in Diamond, page 218
• 18k Gold Pinecone Necklace by Danielle Pittman, page 252
• Bath Fragrance by Bobbi Brown, page 204
• This Works: In the Zone Bath and Shower Oil, page 226 – it has frankincense and eucalyptus for a relaxing bath.
• Knitted Hangers from Twinkle Living, page 104
• Helene Ige Silhouette Chandelier, page 234 – it is a laser-cut paper mobile!
• Silk Georgette Top from Mint by Jodi Arnold, page 232
• Chanel Nail Colour in Shanghai Red, page 179
• Pony-skin “Tula” flats from J.Crew, page 134 – you can’t really tell in the magazine, but these shoes have a cute ankle strap. i like them in the zebra print or the metallic gold.
• Silver Mesh Ring from Tiffany & Co., page 136
• Metallic “Claquette” Mary Janes by Repetto, page 78

2 Comments » Categories: Clothes, Fashion, Just for Fun, Magazines, Make-up & Beauty, Shoes

Dec 1st 2006 02:16:48 pm

I am currently (and seemingly endlessly) entrenched in my office trying to complete my absurdly long and confusing research proposal. I feel like I have been working on this thing forever and I still can’t manage to get it right. I just wish research wasn’t even a part of my program!

Luckily, Travis brought me some relief when he stopped by with lunch from Bagel Sphere–my very favorite bagel sandwhich place. What a nice guy!

This weekend is going to be filled with more and more homework. (I have a 15-page, single-spaced paper to start and finish. Sigle-spaced! I mean, who assigns single-spaced papers?!) I really feel like my brain might stop working. I would say that I can’t wait for this next week to be over, but I am getting my wisdom teeth removed next Friday and I am a bit scared. I think this has been my worst school term yet.

7 Comments » Categories: School, Travis