Words... what do they all mean?

Despite Liam's thing rather throwing off the last week and a half, Christmas at our house ended up going quite well. Mom and Dad had expressed... well, not quite reservations, let's call it helpful concern about us hosting. "It's an awful lot of work," and "You don't have to make everything by hand. Get as much store-bought as you can and save yourself the trouble." Poo, that's half the point! I like cooking. I'm no chef and I wouldn't even really call myself a foodie, but I like actually _making_ things. Not just throwing something pre-cooked into the oven to warm up. Someone in the family, I forget who, at one point tried to vaguely ask me if I was interested in getting a bread machine. Heck no. A) If I had warm, fresh-baked bread readily at my disposal I would be at least twice as overweight as I am now. B) I like making bread with my hands, getting dough under my fingernails and sneaking "quality control" taste tests, braiding it into a pretty loaf or rolling it into buns. I enjoy the process, even if it is a damn lot of work. Okay, bread was a bad example because I did, in fact, let Dad bring store-bought rolls tonight. Because bread is, as I said, a damn lot of work, and there was an entire meal to also prepare and I didn't want to sink that much time and effort into just one part of it.

Alan and I banged out our menu _weeks_ ago. We collected all the recipes and I went through them and made a master grocery list, and also a list of what all was needed to prepare each dish: what sizes of pots and pans, baking dishes, serving paraphernalia, etc. I borrowed Grandma's Lenox Christmas china (which needs to be washed by hand. Boo). I was just sitting on "Go" and then everything got thrown out of sync. For a good part of yesterday I thought it was Friday, and so much that I had meant to prepare ahead of time consequently didn't happen. Steaming and pureeing pumpkin for the pie, boiling eggs to be deviled, laying out the china and silver on the sideboard. Man, I had it so beautifully plotted out.

So, instead of the rather leisurely gift-opening morning I had thought we'd have, pretty much right after stocking presents Alan and I disappeared into the kitchen. We had to cut out one of the hors d'ouvres because the deviled eggs were delayed, and were _very_ unhappy to find that the can of sweet potatoes we'd bought for our family's favorite sweet potato/pineapple/marshmallow dish were spoiled. (Will in the future buy two cans just to be safe). By the time everyone actually sat down we were about an hour late. But only an hour! And the dishes we did have came out well. And we don't have a ton of leftovers. Except for that pumpkin pie, which only had _one_ piece eaten! (There were eight of us) I think it may be time to retire it for a while. It's tasty and a classic but the downside of a classic is that it can be overused. Alan made trifle and we were all much more interested in trying out this tasty new thing.

Speaking of new things, I experimented on the family by making a carrot ginger soup I'd never tried before (to make, I mean; I'd had it in a restaurant), and it turned out to be a big hit! Even Morgan liked it and some of the grownups had seconds. Score! And wassail. I'd never made wassail before but it's soooo good and I think I'll brew up a batch for game night next week. Oh, and speaking of carrots, Liam _loves_ them, which is good because Popa got us a Baby Bullet and lots of accoutrements so we can make food for him. The farmers market is going to be getting a lot more of our money now. ;)

So, yes, all in all a really good day, even with an "oh god what did I get myself into?" freakout in the middle of food prep. I have a husband who gives awesome hugs so all is right with the world.

I am so blessed with him, and with all of my family who filled my house (house!!!) with love and laughter today, and even my family in other houses. I'm blessed that even though things are tight, we had food on our table and presents under the tree. Oh, presents, that reminds me: Morgan's grandmother and aunt (my former in-laws) even sent Liam some presents in their shipment to Morgan this year. Isn't that sweet and awesome?

One of my classes this semester was "Structure of English." Yes, that's grammar. Because sadly, even university students don't always know the difference between a preposition and a pronoun. *rolleyes* _I_, however, was incredibly bored with the classes, and it didn't look like they were going to get any more challenging, so last week I asked my professor if I could challenge the class.

*For y'all in other countries that don't allow this, it means one takes the final exam early and if you get a passing grade, that's the grade you have for the entire class and you don't have to show up to lectures or do the homework or anything because you _obviously_ already know the material.

She said she'd had lots of students ask to do so, and only one had ever earned an A (I need to get at least a B), but I was welcome to try, and "I already have a sense that you've got a pretty good grasp of grammar." :D But she still seemed a little surprised that I even asked, and even more so when I was like, "How about next week?" No, seriously, lady, I'm that confident. Also I don't want my flakiness regarding homework to adversely affect what should otherwise be an insultingly easy A

So last night I pulled out my old Harbrace Handbook (just in case) and skimmed the whole thing in a few hours, and took the test this morning and ACED that sumbitch. Not a perfect score; I missed five points which gave me 93% overall. But still. *spastic happy dance*

There were sections like, "Identify what is incorrect about the following sentences (comma splice, adjective/adverb confusion, dangling modifier, etc)" and "Write a sentence correctly using each of the following words," and the words were commonly confused ones like effect, affect, its, it's, imminent, eminent, etc. For srs, guys. She liked the sentences I came up with, and said she'd keep them for examples when the class gets to that chapter. *preens*

Oh, and the final section was to write a paragraph of around ten sentences which explains how to do something. So I wrote about maneuvering in a hoop skirt. :D Probably _not_ what she was expecting to read today.

So yeah, one less class I have to sit through, a whole lot less homework I have to do, and more time at home to do homework for my other classes. Woot!

What do you write when you don't know what to write about? Write about your writer's block.

God is chuckling at me right now, I can hear it.

Yesterday was nice. Thank y'all who sent birthday wishes. Dad took Morgan and me and Rew out to dinner at Outback. One of these days, really, I'm going to order something there other than the Victoria's filet. Really I am.

Dad's card said, "My dog ate your birthday present. But if you really want it you can have it back in a day or two!" and his gift was something kind of solid, wrapped in a paper towel, inside a plastic bag. o_O Once I was brave enough to open it, it turned out to be a bit of coaxial cable. Yay Sci-Fi channel! Oh, er, I mean, Sesame Street for Morgan. Yeah... *shifty look*

And Rew's gift to me was suspiciously DVD-shaped, and wrapped in what I at first assumed was shiny-ish silver wrapping paper. But no, that's way too normal for this family. It was wrapped in duct tape! I swear we get crazier about gift presentation every single year. After much loud ripping noise (there were like three layers of this tape), I found it was Stargate: The Ark of Truth. Yay!

So, good food, good company, cool presents. Life's all right.

I did, indeed, get a B on my Language & Culture midterm. 88%. Not fantastic, but the class average was 68 and the high was somewhere in the low nineties, so once she curves things out at the end of the semester it might morph into an A- instead of a B. Woot!

Yarg. This is what I get for doing my homework at the last minute:

"The weekly WebCT maintenance period starts on Wednesdays at 12am. WebCT is unavailable while maintenance is being performed.
online.csus.edu is scheduled to return to normal operations at 6:30am, though the system might be up earlier.
Please check back occasionally."

Guess I'll be waking up at 6:30 tomorrow to listen to the audio files I need for Linguistics. Grr.

ETA @ 1 am: checking back occasionally was successful! Homework is done! God loves me.

The orthopedist says Morgan's feet look beautiful (yay!). This despite the fact I can count on one hand the number of times I've put her in her shoes in the past three months. Bad Mommy. But this is the home stretch; just until she's four, which now is only a very little bit over six months away. At the beginning of this process, 3-4 years sounded like _such_ a long time. But it will all be so very worth it once we're on the other side and she can have normal feet for the rest of her life.

~*~

Rew and Morgan and I are heading up to Dad's this evening. My license plate and pink slip "and other mail stuff" are there, plus I need my allowance for October. Also we're going to spend the night and start working on the boat, which should be a fascinating project.

I love my insurance rep company.

8:30 am - car is found to be missing (what an odd phrase), call insurance and police to file claim/report.

10:00 am - claims rep named Steve calls with more in-depth questions for filling out claim, agrees to come by work so I can fill out paperwork and he can cut me a check for the value of my car minus my deductible.

2:00 pm - Steve shows up, gives me papers to sign, hands me a check. If and when the car is found, they will take care of it, bing bang boom, everything's all neat and tidy and wrapped up with a pretty bow. Everything in life should be this easy.

So yes, I'm feeling much better about this whole thing now. When I found my car missing, I was more worried about the whole process of reporting it and whatever else needs to happen, than the fact that MY CAR WAS GONE. Usually this is the kind of thing that would reduce me to tears and make me a depressed wreck for the rest of the day.

Amazing how a pair of blue eyes and a nice voice can fix things up, hm?

Alas, claims_rep Steve is married with four kids (one of whom is 3, like Morgan). Far too good to be true. Probably a Mormon, because he didn't seem that much older than me, and I don't know anyone else who marries as young and has kids as fast as Mormons do. *sigh*

In other news-that-was-bad-but-is-now-good: on Wednesday Dad and I went to Toys R Us to get the Princess bed for Morgan, but they were out, and the rest of the bedroom accessories (rocking chair, play table, toy chest) were slim pickings, too. Turns out they've discontinued that line and the next one doesn't come out until the end of September/early October. So the customer service gal called around to see if any other stores still had them out on the floor, and it sounded like the Elk Grove store might have some on a truck that was not yet unloaded. So today, Mom sics Grandma on tracking one down, and 'cause she's Grandma (who has supernatural abilities to find things, especially on sale. Also to get parking spaces near front doors. It's creepy), she finds it. The store on Greenback Blvd. has a bed _and_ a rocking chair _and_ a table _and_ a toy chest, all at 20% off 'cause they're on clearance.

Seriously, I think God just might love me today.

Heard back yesterday from the place I'd put an application in at, and they've accepted me. I'll have to put an extra deposit down because of my apparently borderline credit (no surprises there). But I've got it. I take possession on the 15th. And it's gated and pretty and downstairs and near the pool and I can't wait!

Plus this is coinciding with potty-training Morgan, so this is a good opportunity to buy and set up the Disney Princess bed I've been promising her when she gets "potty power", as we'll have to take apart her crib to move it anyway. We'll just put it back into storage while we've got it in pieces. And my dad is _so_ jazzed about it. It's adorable. He's even offered to _make_ a headboard in the shape of Cinderella's castle in the event that Toys R Us doesn't have any beds in stock when we need them (which I don't think is going to be an issue).

Dude, the update journal page is all wonky now... Anyway. Ahem.

So some of you have been aware that the term paper for my pseudo-geology class has been utterly eating my brain since Thanksgiving. Well, we took our last exam (thankfully not a comprehensive final) today, and our teacher handed the papers back.

AND I ACED IT!!!!!!!!

I sat there and stared at it in shock for a bit, because I had thought it was meh, and I'd just have to take the opportunity the teacher was offering, to rewrite by the end of finals week for an improved grade. But no. Flat-out 100% right out of the gate. Holy shit. I have never in my life gotten 100% on a paper before, and for it to be this one... whoa.

So yeah, I and my happy-dancing Tauren here are going to celebrate by playing some WoW.