Roses in December

It's icky and grey outside today, so I thought we could all use a rose:

I had other pictures, but I mistakenly deleted them from my camera without verifying they were loaded to the computer. Oops. This was the first bush to bloom of the ones I planted in April. The BEST bush, though, was the one with candy cane striped roses.

But now the bushes are all covered up with snow. I followed the rose care directions and covered the canes with dirt and then wrapped up the branches with burlap. I hope they don't freeze. I want more roses next year!

On another note, what IS it about West Virginia that makes everybody freak out when a snowstorm is announced? Total run on the grocery stores. Okay, yes, we got eight or nine inches this time, but usually we get all of an inch. Why the panic? And why don't people shovel their driveways? The roads that got cleared (thank you, nice neighbor up the hill!) are dry pavement now. People who didn't shovel their driveways couldn't get out because of slush and then frozen slush overnight. Some Iowans need to come give these folks some road-clearing lessons, I think.

Enough with the ranting. Merry Christmas!

Christmas trees are big story books

Monday night I put up my Christmas tree for Family Home Evening. Every time I put up the tree-- and all the other decorations-- I'm reminded that really my Christmas tree is like a three-dimensional scrapbook of my life. I can't put up ornaments without thinking of the stories behind them. Unlike really pretty designer Christmas trees that have a theme or color scheme, my tree has no theme. Or rather, the theme is "memories from Sheila's life." I suppose most Christmas trees are like that. Anyhow, here are a few of my favorite stories represented on my Christmas tree:

I have four of those styrofoam balls covered in silk. Those silk-covered balls are then covered in crocheted white lace and have silk poinsettias on top. They were made by Cleo Mickelson, a wonderful woman I visit taught in Priest River, Idaho many years ago. (I don't think she's alive now.) After she had a stroke, she got her hand mobility back by continuing to crochet. These ornaments are also preferred cat toys, so I hang them VERY HIGH on the tree.

One year a family in my ward in Priest River decided to do "the twelve days of Christmas" for me. Every night a gift was left on my porch (including decorating my patio door window with laminated Christmas designs-- those go up every year, too). One decoration was a set of "stained glass" ornaments where you melt the little colored crystals in the oven to look like glass. Those ornaments remind me how fun it is to serve others for Christmas.

A friend at BYU had a "hanukkah party." We made shrinky dink Christmas ornaments. I have a "ten commandments" and a little square dealie with some kind of pseudo-Hebrew lettering on it. Still not sure what it's supposed to be, but it makes me smile.

I do have some of the generic colored glass balls, some blue, some red. A college roommate and I split the ornaments between us when we went our separate ways after graduation. We each took half of each color. Kinda nice to remember what Christmas was like as a poor college student.

A little glass angel. I volunteered at the Provo temple during my Masters degree, working in the youth center on Saturday mornings when families came to be sealed. Basically, I played with kids, got them dressed in white, and got to watch them be sealed to their parents. Awesome. The ornament came from a temple workers Christmas luncheon.

Bubble lights-- I need more strings of these, by the way. A family I knew in Point Clair (Montreal) had bubble lights on their tree. I have them on my tree to remind me of that family because they had so many fun Christmas tree decorating traditions. I'm nowhere near the 14 strings of white lights they'd put up every year, though.

Speaking of the mission, I have a little violin tied to a branch. We taught a wonderful woman named Diane, and one Sunday in investigator class we watched the video "The Touch of the Master's Hand." She was visibly moved by that video. When I went home from my mission (just before Christmas), she gave me the violin ornament and told me to always think of the poem.

Several tatted snowflakes. Two are from Grandma Benson. I have absolutely no memories of Grandma Benson at Christmas since she was always in Utah and we were always in California, but I like the idea of having something of hers on my tree. I also have two little cloth ornaments she sewed and put sequins on: a reindeer and a Santa sleigh (complete with a little plastic Santa head, which actually is a little creepy now that I think about it).

One more tatted ornament: a wreath with a candle in the middle, woven through with a red ribbon. My favorite mission companion made it for me. Coming the day after we'd had a car wreck, it meant even more.

Now I kind of wish that I'd saved some childhood ornaments from when I went through my parents' Christmas decorations when it was time to sell the house. I should've kept the elf playing the banjo . . . and one of the canaries that ties to the branch by its feet. I'm not saying parents should keep the salt-paste clay ornaments you make in first grade and keep even thirty years later after they've cracked in half, but I think the memories are more important than the tree looking like it belongs in a decorator magazine. My Christmas tree reminds me of what's most important in my life. Looking at it makes me happy. I hope yours makes you happy, too.

What Not to Wear

Let's start this entry with a few Snuggie pictures that didn't make it into the official advertising materials. (Gee, I can't imagine why . . .)

First, two-headed Snuggie:



Next, Roman orator Snuggie:

And my personal favorite, "Ghost with No Hands" Snuggie:

Seriously, who wouldn't want one of these things? Look at the entertainment value! Now it's time for a fashion quiz. In which places would the above-shown Snuggie be appropriate attire?

a. my office

b. the seminary building, while teaching

c. the airport

d. on the Rail Trail, while jogging

e. my kitchen

f. at the bus stop

Would the world be a happier, more peaceful place if we all wore Snuggies? How about Snuggies along with footie pajamas? At least we'd be comfy and warm, right? Doesn't that count for something?

steel drum videos!

Friday was my last steel drum class. I left early last week, so I missed the announcement that friends and family could come watch. I'd been hoping we'd have a recital, but we only learned two songs, so it would have been a very short recital (as in under ten minutes). Instead, I borrowed a friend's flip video to document the fun.

First, here are all the different kinds of drums:

Then come the double pans, which are what I played. Sorry about the "Blair Witch Project" filming quality on these videos.

This was a fun class to take. I would do this again-- provided we could move a little faster through the music. One of the lead drummers had absolutely NO sense of rhythm, so that slowed us down, and another lead drummer had almost no memory for what we'd learned the week before. Amazingly, we pretty much pulled together at the end for our "performance." That always seems to happen. I wonder why.

Some of you may be thinking, "Hey, where's the footage of actual PLAYING?" I tried to upload the video three times. It never worked. I think there was too much for the system to handle. So, sorry. I really did play these drums, honest!

Time? Time? Where does it go?

Let's revisit one of my goals I set for the semester: not overpacking my days. Hmm. What's my typical daily schedule?

4:30 AM- Alarm clock rings.
4:35 AM- Alarm clock rings again (I hit the snooze).
4:40 AM: Alarm clock rings yet again. This time I get up.
5:40 AM: Head out the door to teach early morning seminary.
6:05 AM: One student (sometimes two) is present for the start of class.
6:55 AM: Seminary ends and everyone rushes out the door. Someone generally gets left behind, so I end up joining the high school car pool line.
7:30 AM: Finally get home and change into running clothes.
8:30 AM: Done with running. Time to get ready for work.
10 AM: Suddenly very hungry while sitting in office. Why? Oh yeah-- I've already been up for almost six hours.
12 PM: Wonder where the morning went. How could a meeting with no point to it eat so much time? Realize I have a conference presentation to write, a stack of papers to grade, and a mid-tenure portfolio to compile.
2:30 PM: Hungry again. Who has chocolate? Time to wander the building and see.
4 PM: The minute I intend to get out the door to go home and rake leaves before it gets dark, three students stop by with emergency situations. Happens every time.
4 PM on Wednesday: I'm teaching until 7. Hungry again by 5:30 PM.
6 PM: Hopefully eating dinner.
7 PM: Working on tomorrow's seminary lesson. Also catching up on e-mails and whatever phone calls need to be made.
9:30 PM: Whoa! Where'd my evening go? Time for a shower and getting ready for bed.
10:30 PM (hopefully): Bedtime!

This actually doesn't look all that busy, but it seriously feels like the minute I wake up four hours have suddenly vanished. Don't get me wrong: I love teaching seminary. I'm wondering, though, how I did it and grad. school at the same time. I thought this semester's pace would be slower. Boy, was I wrong!

I think ultimately what matters is that my priorities stay in the right place. I'm coming to terms (well, sort of) with the fact that I will never, ever get everything done that I want to do. What matters is that I pace myself and do first things first.

Good night!

Any costume ideas for these hats?

First, let me give some background. A week ago, I was in the creative arts building on campus for a friend's double-bass recital and saw signs for a pre-Halloween costume sale in the costume workshop. I was hoping for the makings of a Renaissance costume. Either lots of other people were as well and got there first, or there weren't any Shakespearean costumes up for purchase. Instead, I bought three hats for a quarter each.

Let me also apologize for the lousy facial expressions. I couldn't figure out the timer feature on my camera, so I was just trying to get pictures from arm's reach.

So here's the game: what costume would you suggest for each of the following hats?

First, the hat I have unofficially named the "itty bitty hat":




Next, a hat that looks much better than the photo suggests. It's lavender and the veil extends all the way down if you let it:

Finally, my favorite (although you'd never know by the facial expression)-- I have named it "pansy fantasy":

Okay, send the suggestions!! Maybe I'll use one next Halloween!

Sushi Night!!

I've been wanting to put together a Relief Society cooking group for months. A week ago we finally did it. Yay for sushi rolling in my dining room! Look how much fun people had:



One person knew what she was doing. The rest of us just played around with seaweed, sushi rice, veggies, and bamboo roll-up thingies. We mostly stuck to California rolls so that we didn't have to risk some kind of weird food poisoning due to poor seafood handling. A few brave souls put smoked salmon or fake crab meat in their rolls, but mostly we did avocado, cucumber, and Daikon radish. The wasabi peanuts Jen brought weren't a hit with everyone. Some of us got a little addicted, though . . .

Don't these look pretty?

Look, a rare appearnce of ME on my own blog! My sushi rolls kept coming out square for some reason, but they still tasted good. The beautiful thing about sushi night: sushi's not so scary to make after all, and it's fun to cook with lots of people.

Next month: homemade pasta. Come learn with us!