Beachy McBeacherton Estates

That's what Anthony and I are going to name our beach house one day... when we have a beach house.

Since I'm now a housewife/grad student/about to be entrepreneur, I decided to share some secrets of my success with my reader audience:

1) Every three or four days, don't be ashamed to rock the pajamas until 10 minutes before your significant other or roommate comes home. Yeah, they mean "I haven't showered yet", but since when is cleanliness next to awesomeness?

2) Develop an intense emotional bond to your email. Check it as if your life depends on it, as least your social life. Also talk to your dog and expect him to respond, as he will.

3) If nothing else, make the bed.

4) Pray! And then write your paper.

5) Don't eat all the snacks in the house unless they are celery sticks and hummus. WiiFit knoooooowwwwws.

In all seriousness, I'm having fun with school and dresses and my little hermit life. So wherever you are, my dear readers, stay in your pajamas as long as you possibly can because before you know it, you are back again in the suit.

Ta ta for now.

109

The last surviving WWI veteran celebrates his 109th birthday today. Cpl. Frank Buckles was a 16-year-old Army ambulance driver somewhere along the European front. The West Virginian boy must have seen the full wrath of the new refinements of steel, power and nationalist zeal.

The 20th century fascinates me - its revolutions, advances and sins. Buckles is witness to two World Wars, boom times, conflcts in southeast... and southwest Asia, the civil rights movement, and hopefully many decades of peaceful existence with his family.

Many did not come home with Buckles, especially British boys, like sons of Sir Doyle and Rudyard Kipling. I do not think I will ever understand this type of interrupted silence, except to accept that war is a permanent fixture in our world.

LOOOOOOOOOOOST!

The Tuesday que viene. Anthony is going to be "in the field", so I'm being nice and waiting until he gets back to watch it.

I need to know:

-If Juliette died.
-If Sun and Jin will ever be reunited.
-If any more Dharma food will be eaten.
-If we get to see Clementine again.
-Does Kate end up with Jack or Sawyer? I say Jack.

Yay! Excited.

Take a map and point to anywhere.

Where to next? Do we pull the trigger or wait for the pick-up sticks to leave the hand?

I pray for Haiti and wonder about the extreme reconstruction. In a single day, the nation moved from "weak" to "failed" -- by political standards. God doesn't play by those rules, though.

Green Things

Anthony's mom, Theresa, gave me two beautiful, flowering succulents over the Christmas break. They were an especially meaningful gift because they originally belonged to Ms. Wilson, her green-thumbed neighbor and an old Delgado family friend and babysitter. She and Ila Creel made the best oatmeal raisin cookies together, and were always in charge at the church's "dinner on the grounds". I wonder if they are both looking down from heaven now. I dare say yes, as the plants are still alive.

Twenty ten

Oh, like always, I have neglected this blog. Let's brush away the cobwebs.
(FYI, blogging more often is NOT a resolution. If it happens, it happens :) ).

Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's holidays were raucous celebrations with lots of family and friends and food. It seems right that the biggest feasts and parties are at the end of a year, but alternately, the Julian calendar starts us over in the deadest time of the twelve months. It is too cold right now in mid-Georgia for this Panhandle girl, although I hear that it's chilly there too. Anthony came home with a camera full of pictures of a frozen plaza fountain in mid-gush on Ft. Benning.

News:

Grad school (online through Troy University, MS in International Relations) has kicked off for me. With only two classes, I am handling the time-consuming reading and writing fairly well, and enjoy the subject matter. Tomorrow I will write on the application of morality in foreign policy.

My small home business (called Story and Spool) will be launching on etsy.com in February. I am indulging my creative side in afternoons playing with vintage gowns and dresses, making them fashionable again, but without compromising their decade's integral design. Pictures soon to come :)

Final Thought:

My resolution for 2010 mirrors an English saying from World War II propaganda art: "Keep calm and carry on". Although it seems a bit unemotional and underreaching, I know that this year holds many changes in store for Anthony and I, some of which may not be convenient or wanted. I want to look back in 2011 and see myself as a Proverbs 31 woman -- constant, hard-working and dedicated to her family. That doesn't sound like a roaring good time, but it is. Trust me, I'm (going to one day be) a doctor.

Christmas Mantle

Just because I had so much fun putting it together... picture quality isn't great but whatever. Here's to warm fuzzy romantic feelings of Christmastime!