December 2006
Monthly Archive
A Look Back on 2006
Posted by Administrator on 30 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Random Noise
I found this in another blog I sometimes stop to read and liked it, so here goes.
1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before? Gave birth to a son
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? If I made a resolution last year, I think it was probably just to survive the year with a newborn added into the mix. That done, I resolve this year to be a better mother and wife and to lose the rest of the baby weight.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Well, me, as well as my friends Sarah, Michelle, Becky, and Beth.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Some family members but none that I was particularly close to.
5. What countries did you visit? Pennsylvania and New Jersey. When you live in Alabama these seem like they are part of another country.
6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006? My Ph.D.
7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Luke’s birthday (May 9)
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Giving birth again. Surviving colic. Taking my last exam.
9. What was your biggest failure? Failure to take care of myself at all.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Not other than being sliced and having my guts yanked out of me.
11. What was the best thing you bought? New video camera.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Brooke. She has been the best big sister and little girl a mother could hope to have.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Luke during his colic phase.
14. Where did most of your money go? To credit card companies.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Christmas
16. What song will always remind you of 2006? “Had a Bad Day”
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) Happier, thinner (but not by enough), richer (or at least less in debt)
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Slept.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Eating.
20. How will you be spending Christmas? At home with the kids
21. Did you fall in love in 2006? With my son
22. How many one-night stands? Zero.
23. What was your favorite TV program? Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Dave Ramsey…though hate is a strong word…more like am very irritated by
25. What was the best book you read? I can’t remember reading anything not about finance or economics.
26. What was your greatest musical discovery? nothing…no time for exploration…just enjoying some of my lasting faves.
27. What did you want and get? To not be pregnant anymore.
28. What did you want and not get? The return of my pre-pregnancy body, a massage, luggage
29. What was your favorite film of this year? X Men, Harry Potter
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 30 and due to the colic and lack of sleep, I have no idea what I did. But I think there was birthday cake involved.
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If Luke didn’t have colic.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006? Fat clothes.
33. What kept you sane? Faith
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Logan on the Gilmore Girls?
35. What political issue stirred you the most? The stupidity of politicians. Is that an issue? It should be.
36. Who did you miss? My college friends
37. Who was the best new person you met? Z.
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006. I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. “M-o-m-m-y needs c-o-f-f-e-e”
Christmas Presents for You
Posted by Administrator on 29 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Random Noise
One of the joys of a school break is that I can mess around with the web sites and avoid actual work. I hope you like the new sidebar. I don’t know if you need to be a Ph.D. student to find the comics funny. Maybe just an academic at some point to appreciate the humor. Let me know if you like them. Also, please add yourself to the map. You can take the girl out of marine geophysics (for those of you who may not know about my pre-finance days working for the Navy), but you can’t take away her zeal for maps.
Cure for the Christmas Hangover?
Posted by Administrator on 27 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Random Noise
This is the first year we have been home on Christmas morning since Brooke’s first Christmas three years ago. Two years ago we were in Mississippi and last year we were in Pennsylvania. This year Brooke really understood Santa, and I was adamant about being home. This year I also realized how exhausting Christmas is for parents of small children (I am not sure if it gets easier as they get older). First of all, we didn’t even get home until 10:30 Christmas Eve because we were in Mississippi. And it is not like that is a restful trip, especially when it is raining hard the whole way home. Then we had to get everyone into bed and settled down after feeding Luke a bottle and preparing milk and cookies for Santa. Then the parents had to make Santa preparations. Less than 6 hours later, the kids were up and ready to go. So, there was the gift opening, the opening of every box they received (and I swear that Fisher-Price is taunting all of us with their insane packaging), the preparation and cleaning up for three holiday meals, and trying to keep Luke from eating all of Brooke’s new toys. There were some wonderful and magical moments along the way, but the days after Christmas are exhausting. I have no idea where we are going to put all of these new toys, we have a tent pitched in the living room (one of Brooke’s gifts), and I wish the house would just clean and organize itself. There was a moment when all was calm and bright, but that didn’t last long enough.
What Christmas Ornament Are You?
Posted by Administrator on 22 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Random Noise
You Are a Snowman |
 Friendly and fun, you enjoy bringing holiday cheer to everyone you know! |
What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?
Posted by Administrator on 21 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Random Noise
| Your Christmas is Most Like: A Charlie Brown Christmas |
 Each year, you really get into the spirit of Christmas.Which is much more important to you than nifty presents. |
Welcome to Wild America
Posted by Administrator on 20 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Random Noise
When the heck did our house become some kind of wild animal haven? Other than the roaches and earwigs that the pest control specialists continually attack (which is completely normal in Alabama), we have not had any problems until the past few months. Several months ago we had some mice living in the storage shed attached to the back of the house that were making their way into the kitchen at night. Nothing on them for months, but now some of them are back in the storage shed. Then the incident with the mouse I just told you. And there is more.
Yesterday morning Scott was finishing up cleaning the yard. He was raking leaves between our house and our neighbor’s house when a snake tried to bite him! But wait…not one…two snakes! We can’t really leave these snakes living there since we have small children and our neighbor’s grandchildren come to visit and play outside all the time. Scott the pacifist does not know what to do with the snakes. I volunteer to “dispose” of them with a shovel. Clearly you can tell who has Army Ranger training in the family. Scott does not agree to allow this and insists we put them in a jar and take them to the woods (though in retrospect I agree it was probably better not to teach Brooke to kill animals of any kind). So, I get a jar cleaned out, and Scott uses his best snake handling skills learned from watching Steve Irwin. We get the snakes in the jar and take them out to the woods to be set free. We don’t know what kind of snakes they were, but they did try to bite and strike at Scott and thus had to be relocated. Here they are in the jar. Thus far today there have been no animal adventures at our house, but it is only 9 pm.
Twas Seven Nights Before Christmas and All Through the House…A Creature Was Stirring
Posted by Administrator on 19 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Random Noise
Last night I put Luke down to bed, and Brooke and I went into her room to play for a while. We heard Bella in the living room whining and batting at the toys around the television. This is normal behavior when Bella catches whiff of a roach, and I assumed that was what it was. We went out and looked with Bella but did not see anything. So, we went back into Brooke’s room to play. Bella kept freaking out but eventually calmed down. Brooke went to bed and there was nothing else out of the ordinary.
I was very tired because I have not gotten to bed before 11 even though school is out. There are still so many things to do! Last night I went to rest on the bed for a few minutes before getting started with some packages and cards. The next thing I know, I am waking up 20 minutes later to Bella in the bedroom hunting something down and Scott helping her. Evidently Scott saw something when he came into the bedroom, and it is now under the bed and bigger than a roach! The next thing we know, a mouse darts out from under the bed! Much searching for the mouse then ensued by Scott and Bella, but they didn’t find the mouse. I was freaked out and exhausted and slept on the couch.
Scott left a trap out overnight for the mouse, but I didn’t know it was still out. The mouse didn’t take the bait. But Brooke did. While Scott was at his computer and I was getting dressed, Brooke stuck her finger in it and got her thumb trapped. Thankfully I got it off in like 3 seconds and she was fine. We were alls shaken up. Still no more mouse spottings.
Which of Santa’s Reindeer Are You?
Posted by Administrator on 17 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Random Noise
You Are Prancer |
 You are the perfect reindeer, with perfect hooves and perfect flying form.Why You’re Naughty: Because you’re Santa’s pet, and you won’t let anyone show you up.Why You’re Nice: You have the softest fur and the sweetest carrot breath. |
Dance, Daddy, Dance!
Posted by Administrator on 16 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Toddler Tales
Brooke loved watching her friend Ursula do an elf dance on the computer, so we had a little fun tonight and made Daddy do an elf dance. We must have watched this about 25 times tonight. It never stopped being funny, and we were laughing so hard each time. The only reason we finally stopped was that Brooke had to go to bed.
Final Finals
Posted by Administrator on 16 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Finance and Economics
Final finals week is over. First, both because I had to be at home with the kids and second because I had a final the next morning, I had to miss attending a show with Scott in Birmingham. Does anyone else watch Rock Star on CBS? It is a rock version of American Idol, but on this show the talent factor is much higher on this show (I stopped watching American Idol after Ruben and Clay anyway). Well, one of the top three and by far the most talented singer this season was Dilana. She didn’t win, and she was performing in Birmingham. Evidently the night was quite interesting. She was quite drunk and the evening ended with her band walking off the stage (though she continued to try to perform without them) and her being pulled off the stage by the club manager. Good times. Here is a good picture Scott got while she was still standing and functional. She really has an amazing voice, and I would have loved to see her perform.
Monday morning I had my real estate exam, which was fine. Then it was onto really hitting the books for econometrics. That exam started Wednesday night at 7, and I was the last one to leave at 10:30. The exam was really difficult just because it was too hard to remember so many details about so many models and adjustments to models and density functions. Just too much. Most people did what they knew and left, but I at least attempted to answer everything. It did not go well, but it is over.
Then I had a huge stack of real estate finance finals to grade. One thing you learn when you become a teacher is that you actually spend three times as long grading the papers of students who don’t know the correct answer. It is hard to really try to allot the most points possible and try to follow what they have done to come up with the wrong answer. So, I probably spent 6-7 hours grading these exams. This was made more difficult by my complete exhaustion and body being near collapse. And then we also had Brooke’s Christmas program and proctoring Thursday morning, Brooke’s Christmas party Friday morning, Luke’s doctor’s appointment Friday afternoon, and Brooke being very sick with a stomach virus all Friday afternoon and evening. But as of Saturday afternoon, everything is done and we can finally relax. Well, not really. Now I have to get Christmas cards done, wrapping done, shipping of presents done, Christmas cookies done, and planning of a million activities to keep Brooke busy done. I swear that one of these years I am going to get Christmas right, but it didn’t happen this year. School was just too busy. I am relieved to have this finished and really get on to what matters to me…Christmas with my family and then focusing on research and teaching. I will be the one giving the final exams and not taking any more!
