Nertz
Jay and his family introduced me to a card game called Nertz (aka Nerts, Pounce, etc.). I’m not that great at it yet, but it’s a lot of chaotic fun, especially for a group. We played the game on Christmas, and we’ll probably play it when we get together tonight. I’m terrible at explaining detailed things, so if you want to know more about it, this website is pretty good. This one is good too, and even contains video and the ‘official’ Nertz rulebook.
All you need is one deck of playing cards per player – BUT, each deck needs to have a different design on the back.
Anyway, let me know if you played it and what you think. Happy Nertzing!
Drop everything and run!
I don’t know if all Targets are the same, but ours just put the last of their Christmas items on sale for 75% off. I got 4 really cute placemats for $1.96. There were many bigger things I wanted, but not really in the budget …
I eventually want to be like my uncle (well, in this one respect, anyway): he and his wife have a ‘present closet’ that they keep stocked with things they find on super-cheap clearance sales. So, every holiday or birthday that comes around, they just pull something appropriate out of the closet and wrap it. Saving and giving … what could be better?
Gotta love Texas
Okay, well you don’t, but I do. There’s not many places it’s pleasant enough to play outside on the playground on New Year’s eve.
We took the kids out to the playground today, and it was nice enough for them not to wear jackets. I think we’re getting a cold front tonight, but we never seem to stay cold very long.
Okay, I know … I can make fun of you now while you’re freezing your butt off, and you can call me in mid-August and ask me if it’s hot enough for me. Deal?
Pirates and ‘Wobots’
Gabriel is fascinated with two things right now: pirates and robots.
His favorite movies right now are the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Transformers (which he calls ‘big wobots’) and the animated movie, Robots (which he calls ‘tiny wobots’).
Amazingly, Gabriel will sit through an entire movie. He gets really engrossed in it. I know, I know, I probably shouldn’t be letting him watch movies at all … but it’s one of the few things that will calm him down from his usual bouncing off the walls – and sometimes mommy needs some quiet time so she doesn’t end up at the funny farm. Lesser of two evils, I think.
Rhetorical question of the day
Is there anything ruder than a bargain shopper?
I went to peruse Target’s after-Christmas sale (the only time to buy Christmas decor, if you ask me), and I nearly lost an eye to an old lady. Okay, I’m exaggerating, but seriously, there was all kinds of bad shopper behavior there: people blocking an entire aisle between themselves and their cart, people squeezing directly in front of you at a display you’re currently looking at, etc. Rude.
Of course, whenever I mention something like that, Jay sniffs and says it must be the Californians (who’ve come here in droves, mostly because of our tech-related businesses). Like Texans aren’t capable of being rude.
Christmas
Well, another Christmas has come and gone. And it was a very good one.
Babyspeak
Mikaela is an endless source of entertainment lately. You just never know what’s going to come out of her mouth next.
This morning, I had just finished blow-drying her hair when Gabriel walked into the room. He looked at her and said, “Oh, Mikaela! You cute!”
To which she replied, “I not cute, I beau-niful (beautiful).” Oh, the ego on that kid.
Then, just a few minutes ago, she told Gabriel: “Be nice a-chother.” (Be nice to each other, which I say, oh, probably about 500 times a day.)
This morning, when I was walking out of the doctor’s office, Mikaela told me, “Good job at doctor, Mama!” I guess so, I didn’t even cry once. 
Speaking of the doctor, I think I have pneumonia again. This makes the 3rd time in 3 years. The doctor took my word for my stabbing lung pain and wrote me a prescription for an antibiotic. Fun stuff. Anyway, hopefully I’ll be fully mended by Christmas.
YO! GABBA GABBA
So, have you seen Yo Gabba Gabba on Nick Jr.? It’s like Sesame Street on acid. But I kinda like it.
Cake covers “I Will Survive”
So, the band Cake has a cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” on the airwaves right now. But the singer’s trademark choppy speak-singing makes it sound like the song is being sung by William Shatner. And I’m not getting the video.
Nice
After dipping into the 20s for lows the last two nights, this is what our weather looks like for the rest of the week. My kind of weather.
The cattle are lowing, the elephant … wait, what?
I just passed by our nativity scene to see that the kids had stuck a plastic toy elephant between the wise men and the shepherd. I don’t remember that part.
Christmas past
It’s amazing to think that this is the fifth Christmas season since we’ve become parents. A look at Christmases past:
The litmus test
So today, after nearly two weeks since my last Dr Pepper, I passed by a display in the grocery store. It contained Dr Pepper with sugar cane – the holy grail of Dr Pepper. And I kept walking right on by, with nary a pause.
Does this mean I’m cured?
Unfortunately, I’m not skinny yet. I haven’t even lost weight at all, which is shocking, given the fact that I’ve cut a ridiculous amount of sugar out of my diet. Hmph.
Hate to say I told you so
So today my husband went to watch a high-school football game. His mom is the director of the marching band, and members of her family attend their high school’s football games pretty regularly.
Anyway, Jay decided to go to this game, despite the fact that the wind was a steady 29 mph, and gusting to 40 mph. I think the temps were in the upper 40s. I don’t know how to figure wind chill out, but I would imagine that’s pretty darn cold.
Jay knew about the forecast before he left, but said that he loved bundling up in cold weather and watching football. I said he’d catch his death out there.
Now he’s in the bedroom trying to sleep, but all I hear is “cough, cough .. coff … COUGH.”
Weary
I spend way too much of my time and energy being annoyed at two extremes – the Christian-bashers and on the other side, Christians who have reduced our religion to nothing but a set of man-made rules and mores you’d better follow or else.
The Christian bashers who annoy me most are the ones who seem to jump up and down with glee any time another pastor falls from grace. They laugh raucously at Christians who dare believe the Bible literally – especially when it comes to gays and creationism. They fancy themselves shining beacons of tolerance and acceptance – but those feelings are not extended to one group: evangelical Christians.
Let me back up for a moment and clarify my belief on two things: I do believe the Bible is literal, except for the parts that are clearly parables (in the Gospels). It’s certainly not a fashionable thing to believe, but I just can’t get in line with people who want to cut portions of the Bible out or twist them to make them say something else. The Bible says homosexual acts are an abomination … how else could you possibly interpret that? Don’t start commenting and calling me a bigot. I don’t hate anyone. I don’t even dislike gays. I just don’t agree with their lifestyle choice … much like they probably don’t agree with the fact that I’m a Christian!
And creation. The Bible says that God created the earth in 6 days. BUT, the Bible also says that a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day in God’s eyes. So, this could possibly mean that it wasn’t 6 days as we understand it. I’m open to that. I’m also open to some evolutionary theory, namely evolution within species, the only thing we can actually prove. But no, I don’t think we descended from apes.
I totally went off on a tangent from my post’s original intent. I’ve been wanting to get all that stuff off my chest, though … I told you I wore my heart on my sleeve!
WOW, this blog entry is going to get some interesting comments! No nastiness, or I will delete you. Feel free to disagree … just do it without being obscene. I’m all for free speech.
While I’m spilling all my guts, I may as well throw this one in there (Karen at Only Sometimes Clever inspired me) – I am against abortion in all circumstances. I can’t understand justifying it by calling the baby a “clump of cells” or a “product of conception” .. don’t try to sanitize it … it’s a baby and you know it. There are many, many people out there looking to adopt that would give that child a loving home. But what about rape and incest you may ask? These are tragedies … and my heart truly goes out to women that have experienced either one. But why make the child suffer for something beyond its control? Anyway, I disagree with abortion on based on the commandment “thou shalt not murder.” For that same reason, I don’t agree with the death penalty.
Now that I’ve rambled on so, I’ll end by saying this: I don’t condone any kind of hateful behavior or speech towards anyone, even people I completely disagree with. We are all God’s children, even the ones who haven’t accepted that fact yet.
Trail of Lights
Yesterday turned out to be fairly mild, so Jay and I decided to make our annual visit to Austin’s Trail of Lights, a 1-mile trek around Zilker Park lined with impressive Christmas light displays. Some scenes are animated and some contain music. There’s also a performance stage and lots of food and drink vendors (bring cash!). The trail is free, but parking is $10.
If you’re taking your kids to the trail with you, I would highly suggest bringing a stroller or wagon. Or better yet, a backpack so your child can be hoisted above the crowd. This last year, we sold our double-stroller, so all we had was an umbrella stroller for my 2-year-old to sit in. So, my 4-year-old had to walk. He was pretty tired by the end, even after taking turns in the stroller.
Anyway, my kids seemed to enjoy themselves, although they didn’t really say much about it. I was expecting more oooh’s and aaah’s.
Cute shoes
Every time I go shoe shopping, I don’t know what “exactly” I’m looking for, but I always know it when I see it.
God stuff
As you know, I pretty much wear my heart on my sleeve. I try to make my life a pretty open book … and the only things I won’t discuss openly are private marital things, gossip and/or other people’s business. Religion and politics are par for the course.
So … I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about my relationship with Christ, and who I am. I feel like I’ve mostly been going about my Christianity like it was a new year’s resolution. I “try” to do better, try to remember to read my Bible, try to remember to pray at least once a day, try to “behave” myself. But I feel like ultimately, I’ve been trying to do all these things myself through my own strength, and I’ve been neglecting the most important, central element: an intimate, close walk with Christ. So, I’ve made a new committment to let Him be Lord of all of my life.
This may make no sense to you at all. I’m still figuring it all out, but I basically think it boils down to the attitude of your heart. Am I reading a few Bible verses just to check them off my mental checklist like another chore, or am I delving into the word and letting it change me? Am I rattling off another almost-scripted prayer just to say ‘I prayed today’ or am I praying to God like He knows me and I know Him? I know it goes deeper than that, but that’s all I know how to explain.
I think there’s a fine line here … I have a dear friend who is a devout Christian who tries to find God in literally every single mundane detail of her day. Don’t get me wrong … I think there are a million things throughout our day that we can look at and realize God’s grace and thank Him for. But I don’t think a spiritual lesson can be found in tooth brushing. I’m being a little facetious, but I think you know what I mean.
Another part of all this is the fact that I really want to have more of a heart for others. I feel like I get stuck in a rut seeing only my problems and my family’s problems, and selfishly praying only about those.
Additionally, Jay and I feel like we are headed for some kind of ministry in our lives. I just don’t know what kind. I personally have a heart for single moms and widows with children. But I don’t know if that’s in the grand plan or not. I guess we’ll see.
So, if you’re the praying type, please say a prayer that I won’t get off track again. I think some of the biggest obstacles to a closer walk with Christ have been busy-ness and a lack of good time management.
Sigh.
So, I finally got around to watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 in the last couple of days. My husband and son are way into these movies and have probably watched the first two movies in the trilogy dozens of times. Gabriel pointed to a Johnny Depp (in pirate garb) cutout the other day in a store and screamed “Cap’n Jack!”
Anyway, it’s taken me so long to watch the movies because I’m so ADD, it’s very rarely I can manage to sit still to watch a whole movie at home. But Orlando Bloom was my motivation. 
I liked the movies. They were infused with more humor than I’d thought. I’m going to have to go back and watch the third one with the captions turned on, though … I had a hard time understanding Calypso.
Christmas Photos
This is the kids’ official Christmas ‘07 photo, along with some pix of the kids and Jay making Christmas cookies last night.
Indian Summer?
Believe it
So, I haven’t had a Dr Pepper in about a week now. None. Nada. Not a drop.
I’ve tried to quit and failed several times recently, but this time around seemed to stick. I did have to sigh longingly while Jay had a Dr. Pepper with his pizza tonight.
I really hate having to part with something I love so much, but it’s not helping with my weight loss and it’s jacking with my blood sugar.
I’ve had many well-meaning people over the years suggest that I drink diet DP (what’s the point? isn’t that like non-alcoholic beer?) or just “limit” myself to one a day (willpower is not in my vocabulary) … I’m an all-or-nothing kind of person.
So, what I have been drinking is LOTS of water. And an occasional Lipton’s white raspberry tea when I need the caffiene.
Well, wish me luck on my most recent effort. They say it takes 3 weeks to make a habit, right? Well, 2 more to go …
Spotty daughter
When I took Mikaela to the ER last Sunday with a high fever, they diagnosed an ear infection and prescribed amoxicillin.
Wednesday, Mikaela started getting tiny bumps, mostly on her torso. I called the nurse at our pediatrician’s office and she thought it might be viral and told me to keep an eye on it.
The next day, the spots had spread all over her and were getting larger in size. I took her to the doc and they said it looked like she was having a reaction to the amoxicillin, and to consider her allergic to all drugs in the penicillin family. A few doses of benadryl later, the bumps had faded and Mikaela was fine.
That’s kind of scary, though … I hope she’s not going to be allergic to anything else. I had a boyfriend in college who was allergic to penicillin, and also deathly allergic to cashews. Well, I don’t plan on letting Mikaela eat nuts anytime soon, so at least I don’t have to worry about that yet.
I can’t take amoxicillin myself. I took it so many times in my childhood, I built up a resistance to it.
Mikaela made me laugh a few days ago … the bumps were very faded but still there. She pulled her shirt up and said, “Oh, no mama! I got spots! I need a’ go see a doctor!”
Alternative playlist
I’m trying to create the ultimate Alt-Rock playlist. Any suggestions? (I’m trying to avoid the completely obvious.)
You might argue that a lot of these are old, but I’d like to think they’re from Alternative’s golden age.
What day is it again?
Today was so long, this morning seems like several days ago.
Yesterday Mikaela suddenly came down with a fever. She’s had the sniffles for over a week, but no fever until last night. We gave her tylenol and kept an eye on her last night and this morning, and she seemed better. She was barely warm at all. Jay and I called his sister to come babysit the kids so Jay and I could go out for a few hours for his birthday (which was today – or technically, yesterday – the 2nd). When Jay and I came back, Mikaela was grinning and running around, but I noticed her eyes looked a little glassy. I picked her up and she was blazing hot. I took her temp and it was 103.8. Yikes.
So, I got my stuff together and took her to the ER, since no doctor is open on a Sunday and I didn’t want to wait through another night with her fever being that high. So, we got to the ER and boy, was it crowded. I thought we were in for a long, long ordeal, but they called us back to the room pretty quickly. I think we were only there a couple of hours. She has an ear infection, it turns out. The doc gave her a prescription for antibiotics and let us go.
But let me back up … ER waiting rooms are intriguing places. I love to people-watch, and an ER is quite the circus. There was a pregnant woman with no teeth, a large family who took turns filing back to see whoever the patient was, a woman slumped in a wheelchair looking like she was flu-ish (I sat on the opposite side of the waiting room from her). There was a young-looking woman with her finger wrapped in gauze, and a bunch of other patients with nothing cluing me in to what they were there for. I always wish I could ask them why they were there!
I’ve had more ER trips in my life than I care to remember. There was the middle-of-the-night trip when I was very young and my throat was closing up (I had strep), the time I got my fingers slammed in the sliding door of a van when I was 16, the time I flew through the window of the truck I was riding in when I was 19, and the visit just a few short months later when I was in a horrible wreck with a drunk driver (other driver was drunk; he ran a stop sign and I smacked into him. They estimated I was going 40 and he was going 60 when we hit. Long story short, I still have neck problems.) I think the next visit is when I was 21 and got a spider bite that made a large red circle appear around it almost immediately after I was bitten (they gave me antibiotics and I was fine.) About a year later, a few months before my wedding, I thought I was having a heart attack. No kidding… worst pain ever. Turns out I was having really severe acid reflux and my esophagus spasmed shut or something like that. Stress can do that to you. They gave me liquid Prilosec and I got better immediately.
I think the next several visits were pregnancy-related. I actually went into labor with Mikaela at 35 weeks, but it stopped. They said I was dehydrated. Then there was the visit a few weeks after I had Mikaela and was having lung pain, which turned out to be pneumonia. That’s not even all my ER visits! I think you get the general idea … the hospital staff almost knows me by name.
And that’s not even counting all the times the kids have come down with high fevers on the weekend and I took them in …
And this is what I don’t understand: people have non-life-threatening yet urgent medical things that happen after regular doctors-office hours all the time. Even “after-hours” clinics don’t usually stay open that late. Why are there not doctor’s clinics that are open 24/7? It just makes sense, and would help take the pressure off the emergency rooms.
Okay, I’ve rambled enough and it’s really late. I’d better get some zzz’s.
Gabriel dancing
Gabriel thinks he’s David Elsewhere.
