Random Bits

As I was about to nurse Cecilia down for her nap, she looked at me and said, "Don't bite me, Mommy. I'm not cake."

Cecilia can now pronounce the word "spaghetti." That is sad... no more "bleggy" here.

I spent over 20 minutes last night trying to turn on the Superbowl on my TV. Seriously. The first 10 or so minutes were spent just trying to figure out how to get a picture and sound... and when i finally did, it was stuck on Fox. I couldn;t figure out how to change the channel. I knew which number the Superbowl was on, but the remotes and various VCR/DVD buttons didn't help me get there. So I watched The Simpsons for about 15 minutes, since that was all I could do. I rotated the antenna to CBS in anticipation... and then, finally, I figured it out. I think I switched the VCR/DVD player over to DVD... or was it to VCR? And the receiver had to be on CD, not VCR, to get sound. This is what happens when you never watch TV, and when you do, you are trying to do it with a system comprised of a VCR/DVD combo unit, a receiver (for a stereo), a cassette player, a digital converter box (relatively new), an non-digital TV, and an antenna on the roof since we don't have cable. Chris says it will be easier when we get a digital TV one day... the channel buttons on the TV itself will actually have relevance. Imagine that! I haven't used the channel buttons on a TV to control what I am watching in about twenty years!

I have been Rickrolling Chris a lot in his car lately... it's his fault. He's the one who told me about the whole Internet phenomenon (and if you don't have any idea what I am talking about, watch this brief tutorial on Youtube), and if it has to do with one of my 80s Florida songs, well... that's just my kind of thing. He was just asking for it by telling me that one of my 80s Florida songs was now a big online joke. Since I have my 80s songs on CDs (or course!), I have the one with Never Gonna Give You Up on it in his car, and each time I use his car, I turn the radio up really loud and have the CD on that song, so the next time he starts the car, he gets Rickrolled. He doesn't think it is cute anymore. Yesterday, I Rickrolled myself. I didn't anticipate driving his car again before he did. But I was expecting it, and hey, I obviously like getting Rickrolled. Much to my delight, a few minutes later, Tuesday Morning Rickrolled me a few seconds after I'd walked through the door of the store.

Speaking of 80s songs and cars, I got to listen to several of my 80s songs CDs the other day when I went to my sister-in-law's baby shower. It was over an hour away, and then I drove an extra 20ish minutes to visit my brother while I was in the area, and then back home. I can't remember when I last drove that distance alone. I love to drive. I love to drive alone especially, because I can do things like blast my 80s music. Having my GPS in the car made it even better. My road map nerdiness has been taken to a whole new level of geekdom.

When we went outside to get in the van in the 30something degree weather this morning, Cecilia was carrying a small stuffed cat. "My cat is brrr-ing!" she announced.

I bought some spring and summer clothes for Caroline at a consignment sale this morning. In the afternoon, I had her try them on to see if they fit so that I would know that I'd guessed correctly at the sizes (it's always a bit tricky buying clothes of a variety of brands and who knows how they were washed/dried, so just buying a particular size doesn't always work). She tried on a white button-up shirt with a flowing skirt, and I felt a strange feeling like I was somewhere else... I think it was the first time that I realized that my little girl is growing up. She looked so tall and mature wearing clothes that didn't look "cute," but instead looked "pretty." I know that she has lots of growing up yet to come, though... but size 6 really appears to be about when the clothes begin to change from "cute" to "pretty" (or slutty, unfortunately... clothes shopping is about to get much more difficult in the next few years since much of the selection is pretty inappropriate!).

Thinking of Lent plans... here are a few rough ideas:

* the Stations of the Cross Box, of course

* crown of thorns made from clay (we made it today and will paint it at some point)

* a daily Lenten calendar, which I am envisioning as a hybrid between this and this

* giving up something: For me, I will give up staying up too late. Seriously, I am so bad about that. As a family, we won't have any desserts except for special feasts and celebrations, like Caroline's birthday and perhaps St. Patrick's Day or St. Joseph's feast day. I am also turning the idea around in my mind that we will give up on different types of bread and just eat our standard basic bread machine whole wheat bread instead of rolls, biscuits, oatmeal bread, etc. We'll also make pretzels a few times, I hope, and those will be a nice bread addition as well.

* hiding the Alleluia... it is not sung during Lent, so we will make a little plaque with "Alleluia" written on it and hide it until Easter Sunday

* Dinner and Stations of the Cross at our parish every Friday

* Attending our parish mission a few days... we'll miss the first few evenings because of travel

* our Lent/Easter books listed in my sidebar

* following Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure... we enjoyed the Advent Adventure!

* hot cross buns for Good Friday

* collecting sticks from the yard to make crosses on Good Friday