Found, Arsenic and Old Lace

1. I found the book I had lost. In the process of cleaning my office, I also found some other things that I had been missing that I had forgotten that I had.
   
   
2. I found a lot of my kids' papers that needed to be filed, so that was good news, too.
   
   
3. As is our Halloween tradition (since now we've done it for two straight years), the girls and I watched Arsenic and Old Lace this evening.
   

Right where I left it, not where I remember leaving it, Victor Borge

1. I found my favorite Washington DC cup that I thought I had lost at Belmont. It was still right where I had left it.
   
   
2. I've lost a book in my office here at home, and though I haven't found it yet, I do have more floor space now in my office after going through several boxes of old mail from the days when our address in the States was at my parents' house. It's taken me this long to go through all of it, though I had pulled out some of the more important things at the time.
   
   
3. Watching "The Best of Victor Borge" with the girls.

Spaces, creative naming, early Monday grocery shopping

1. My middlest daughter, who has been begging me for braces on her teeth for years, has "spacers" now, and she'll get her "bands" next Monday.
   
   
2. In a fit of creativity, I made "Shortcut to Mushrooms" for lunch and "Lasagne Pasta" for supper.
   
   
3. After a grocery run early this morning after the orthodontist, we have plenty of food in the fridge and freezer, and I won't have to make a mid-week run on either Halloween or All Saints Day.
   

The 95 Theses and Kimberly, youth choir, pumpkin carving

1. "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" for the opening voluntary, and knowing that it's Reformation Sunday, so Kimberly will be singing that at former church in Virginia.
   
   
2. My youth sang in the youth choir this morning. The choir did a great job on three different songs---"As the Deer," "Rise Up Early in the Morning," and "Soon and Very Soon."
   
   
3. My youngest carved her very first pumpkin on her own (and she doesn't remember when she was little and her dad would help her carve a pumpkin), and she had a blast hanging out with her friends from church.
   

Football

1. The University of Iowa won in overtime.
   
   
2. Tennessee beat Steve Spurior in overtime.
   
   
3. Ohio State won.
   

Vince Guaraldi, Cubis, comfort

1. I pulled out my Christmas books this week, and today, "Linus and Lucy" and "O Tannenbaum" from my Charlie Brown Christmas piano book are sounding pretty good again.
   
   
2. To avoid grading tests (not because they are bad, but simply because I've been grading things all week and I'm sick of it), I was playing Cubis, and I quit (because my fingers were tired) at Level 53 with more than 530,000 points. I've been to that level before, but I've never averaged more than 10,000 points a level before. I guess it helps to take a long break. Too bad my piano playing doesn't work that way.
   
   
3. The weather is cold enough now that I could put our comforter back on the bed. I love the way our room looks when it's on the bed instead of just that plain blue blanket.
   

Chatting, no tears, water in the creek

1. Chatting with my middlest daughter while I'm waiting for my class to start. When we make emoticon faces at each other, such as :-), Google's chat turns them right-side up, and even colors the tongue pink on this guy --- :-P. We had a great time trying out all the different faces to see what Google would do with them.
   
   
2. All my students finished their test on time today, and no one cried. That already makes it better than the previous test. I'm about one-fourth of the way finished with the grading, and it seems that most people are doing well.
   
   
3. There was some water in the creek today. I don't know when I saw that last. It's been a really dry summer.
   

Wordless Wednesday #34 (A Turkey Parade!)

Fun things to say on my way to work while I'm studying my French

1. J'ai déjà déjeuner aujourd'hui.
   
   
2. J'ai été à Marseille.
   
   
3. Avez-vous vu le vieux port?

Kathy and SpongeBob, windows with screens, tests sent

1. Watching SpongeBob cartoons that remind us of Kathy.
   
   
2. A clear day so my husband can put in more new windows.
   
   
3. Getting my oldest child's tests sent in for grading. It's our first quarter with the correspondence school, and I'm relieved that I'm staying current and organized.
   

Fall weather, helpfulness, early memories

1. Perfect fall weather for the fall festival at church.
   
   
2. Many people told me what a wonderful child I have. My oldest helped out a lot at the pumpkin booth at the festival. I hear that she's quite an organizer.
   
   
3. In his sermon, pastor was talking about his earliest memories of church. It made me think about my earliest memories: Vacation Bible School at the Methodist church in Lincoln and trying not to step on cracks in the sidewalks for field trips and Mr. and Mrs. Jones, singing alto beside Rhoda at the C&MA church in Vermillion and Mr. and Mrs. Ruedebusch. I'm thankful that my parents took me to church.
   

Yahoo Games, Quantum Leap, football

1. Playing Text Twist on Yahoo Games last into the night with my middlest child
   
   
2. Watching, from the Netflix site, the Quantum Leap episode titled "Disco Inferno" and laughing at the 70's clothes
   
   
3. Listening to Iowa football over the Internet
   

Much needed rain, blue, poetry

1. Rain yesterday and last night has made lots of things look much greener today
   
   
2. The skies are so bright blue today with not a cloud in the sky after all the storms last night
   
   
3. My middlest child wrote a brilliant poem with a secret code --- Very cool
   
   

TLC, sturdy flowers, nap

1. A banana sticker on my oldest child's forehead that said, "Raised with tender loving care."
   
   
2. My flowers are still standing in spite of the heavy winds
   
   
3. An afternoon nap after a long day at Belmont

Wordless Wednesday #33

Somewhere over the rainbow, last space, on the way to Texas

1. I saw the brightest rainbow I think I've ever seen. It was raining this morning in Nashville, but not south of town. So for the 13 miles I drive on the Interstate northwest into work, I could see a full rainbow, all the colors, shining brightly almost like in a diamond. It was so amazing. It was hard to take my eyes off it because I kept thinking that it would fade away, but it was like that for all 13 miles.
   
   
2. The security guard told me I parked in the last space in the parking garage, and he only let me park there because I have such a little car. It was a good spot, too, because it would be hard to lose my car when it's parked in the back corner.
   
   
3. Some good friends came to stay with us. They are moving to Texas, and they told me that our house was on the way from their old house to their new place. I didn't think we were on the way to anything, but I'm so glad they stopped by. It was nice to hang out with them for a bit and to see how much the kids have grown since we saw them just this past June.

Animal magnetism, Al Gore, rest for the weary

1. Watching the deers' reaction to the turkey parade coming their way
   
   
2. Watching my husband's reaction when I mention Al Gore and the Nobel Peace Prize, which is the exact opposite reaction from the one I got from my daughter when I mentioned that Orlando Bloom wasn't hurt in the car accident he had over the weekend
   
   
3. Seeing my daughter's faces when they know they are finished with school for the day
   

Real stained glass windows with a story to tell, choir practice, new friends

1. Sunday morning service at the organ church --- even though we had a boring guest speaker, I can keep myself awake, entertained, and in an attitude of worship just staring at the windows
   
   
2. Choir practice for the first time in more than a year
   
   
3. Seeing my oldest child come out of her shell at the youth group meeting
   

". . . let every loyal Iowan sing . . .", pixie dust, straight A's

1. The University of Iowa finally won a Big Ten football game, but unfortunately, the victory came at the expense of my friend Kathy and her University of Illinois.
   
   
2. My youngest child can fly. (I think she's been reading too much about Peter Pan.)
   
   
3. I'm all caught up on my grading for the kids. My oldest has straight A's going for the first quarter in high school.
   

Day off, pretty drive, absolutely nothing

1. My husband had the day off today because of inventory.
   
   
2. To celebrate the day off, we took a long drive down to Tullahoma to see a man about a truck. In the end, we didn't buy it, but it was still a pretty drive.
   
   
3. This evening, we're going to watch our Netflix movies and do absolutely nothing!
   

Numbness, milkshakes, chic flick

1. My oldest had her fillings done today --- all three of them. She was very brave.
   
   
2. The dentist said that I should take her out for a milkshake, which I did. The problem was that the entire top part of her mouth was numb, so she had trouble getting her lips around the straw enough to drink the milkshake. The whole thing was too funny, but she said the coldness of the shake did help her to feel better.
   
   
3. The girls and I watched a chic flick this evening, and it was nice not to have to worry about school or grading papers or writing tests or anything.
   

Golf, driving, autumn air

1. To celebrate the fact that I have some time off from teaching, I took the girls out for a girls' day to play miniature golf. Though three hours of golf was a long time for my ankle, we all had a lot of fun.
   
   
2. The drive into town today was nice.
   
   
3. The temperatures are much cooler today. It's finally starting to feel like fall, even though the leaves aren't really turning yet.
   

One year, fresh air, turkey parade

1. This post marks one year of writing my three beautiful things. I wondered if I could keep it up, and I wondered if I could blog every day, and there have been times I've been late, but I like writing for this blog, and I'm really happy that I've made it through the year.
   
   
2. It was nice to be able to open my office window and get some fresh air in the office.
   
   
3. I think the turkey parade gets longer every time I see it. I love watching the turkey parade through my yard.
   

Blogger, straight teeth, Columbus' favorite foods

1. I lost my passwords again, but I'm back on Blogger again today.
   
   
2. I took all three girls to the orthodontist today. My kids are actually looking forward to the pain and shame of braces because they are really wanting straighter teeth. Praise God for dental insurance, also.
   
   
3. In honor of Columbus Day, we cooked his two favorite dishes: Poulet de France for lunch and cheese ravioli for dinner.
   

Nursery lessons, "Come, Thou Fount", "How Great Thou Art" with the Korean choir

1. My oldest daughter made a new friend today. She worked in the nursery this morning, and I think that maybe little Samuel has a bit of a crush on her now. She told me that the lesson of the day was that there were enough bouncy balls for everyone, so we don't have to fight, we can just play with our own bouncy ball. I'm glad that she's finally learned that lesson.
   
   
2. Because of nursery duty, we ended up going to the church the girls like, and then to the Methodist church for communion for second service. In the AG church, the pastor was telling a story that we already knew about Robert Robinson who wrote one of my favorite hymns, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing." Except that the pastor called it "Come, Thou Fount of Many Blessings." I thought that was a bit odd. Then the organist played it for the recessional at the Methodist church. That was nice.
   
   
3. I heard "How Great Thou Art" on my CD player driving into church, and then they sang that at the AG church (which is weird because they almost never sing hymns), and then we heard it again at the Methodist church, except in Korean. It's World Communion Sunday, according to the Methodists, so in honor of that, they had a guest choir come from a Korean church. Very cool. They were wearing traditional dresses. I wish they were in style like that all the time. Those dresses would be great for hiding a large back-side.

Window, almost white eyes, line-dry clothes

1. My husband installed one new window in my office today. Now I have an even better view of the sunsets and my flower bed.
   
   
2. In honor of National Ham Day (my middlest daughter tells me), we had fried rice with ham for lunch and spaghetti carbonara with ham for dinner.
   
   
3. It was perfect weather again for washing and drying clothes. I love the feel of clothes when they first come off the line, clean and warm and crisp.
   

Windows, tests, almost white eyes

1. My husband and I bought 14 replacement windows and a replacement door for the basement today. Though it means a lot of work for him, it's very happy news for me. I know we'll lose less cooling/heating, and they'll look better, too.
   
   
2. I finished grading all the tests from Belmont.
   
   
3. Yesterday the kids thought I had pink eye, but after a Clariton yesterday, my eyes are much clearer today. I'm so thankful I don't have to go to the doctor over an eye infection.
   

Wordless Thursday

Home all day, daisies, sunlight slivers

1. We decided to skip out on our club meetings and youth group tonight, so that gave us time for aerobics, and gave me more time to grade papers.
   
   
2. My pink daisies are blooming now. (I guess that means I should have taken some pictures for a Wordless Wednesday. Hmmmm.)
   
   
3. I was sitting in my room today, just watching a patch of blue sky make a sliver of sunlight that came across the western hill and then through the valley. As the higher cloud moved faster than the lower cloud, it changed the shape of the sliver, and you could see that on the ground, too, and the shape of the sunlight would change, too, as it hit different rises and treelines in the valley. It was so beautiful. It had me completely hypnotized.
   

Fall colors, no panic, conjugating/declining machine

1. Wearing my favorite fall sweater for the first time this season. (Thank you, Leigh Anne.)
   
   
2. Being able to help one of my students avoid a panic attack.
   
   
3. Listening to my baby conjugate her Latin verbs and decline her Latin nouns.
   

Monday, Monday

1. I've made it through another Monday.
   
   
2. The kids are working hard today, and most of my students are turning in their take-home quiz early. Very encouraging.
   
   
3. I'm playing the "guess what I cleaned today" game again with my husband where everyday he has to guess what I've been cleaning. After just a week, the house is looking much better. I need to keep on track and keep trying to slip him up.