Festival of Trees

Today was our local Festival of Trees, where there are lines and lines of trees and lights, a Kiddie Corner, Santa Clause, treats, and performances from various local organizations.  Oh, and all the proceeds go to the Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake.

I love Christmas.  And that thing I said yesterday about waiting to celebrate? It's just on the blog.  My trees (okay, yes, we have two) are up, we're playing Sesame Street Christmas carols on my iPod, and I can still taste the chocolate-covered banana we ate at the Festival earlier.  The greatest thing about it is that you know all the proceeds go to the hospital.  Not to some crazy-big bank or corporation, but to sick children who could use the support.  And there are some awesome things to do!  I stood in the center of a giant bubble with my three-year-old, chased my one-year-old around the quilt section, saw a tree made out of tires and another tree made out of books (that you could still read!), ate delicious cinnamon scones, and watched my children's cheeks get sore from all the grinning.

This is a tree from a few years ago (2009).  It was made out of glass, and had lights that flickered and danced to a soundtrack that played behind it.  I love seeing the art people donate--it's so selfless and cool!

Patience

The past few years of my life helped me develop some patience, but I still could use quite a bit more.  Pregnancy is an exercise in waiting, especially at the end.  Children--ah, children are a wonderful way to learn you can't plan everything (or, some days, anything).  And then there's publishing, which moves slowly (it doesn't help that I query slowly as well), and finishing books, and polishing books before you send them out...I'd like to think I could tell my five-year-old self, who really, really hated it when her mom said, "Patience is a virtue," that I've finally got it down.

Except that is a lie.

At least I've been patient about talking about the holiday season on this blog!  I love Christmas.  I love the music and the lights and that warm family-together-fuzzy-nostalgic feeling I'm sucker enough to get.  I do not love sappy horrible songs like "Christmas Shoes," but old classics like "Silent Night" and "Angels We Have Heard on High" can put me in a good mood within three or four notes.

But I am patient, and it's November, and I'm not posting about Christmas yet.  Nope.  Not one word.

So here is a totally innocent picture of Auburn, Washington, where I grew up.  The pine trees are coincidence, as is the snow, because I am waiting for two more days!  Except for the fact that we've already put up the tree, and the lights, and the nativities, and the train...

New computer!

We are buying a new computer.  It will be able to play Portal 2.  So I can play the co-op mode at last!  This makes me happy.  In honor of our new computer, I shall give you this trailer video:

Should I become the round one? Or the oblong one? My three-year-old wants me to be the shorter, chubbier model...but we'll see!

Grateful: Days 3, 4, and 5

Oops!  I guess having a Thanksgiving at our house on Wednesday at our house and another (possibly more official, day-wise) Thanksgiving yesterday at my in-law's house made it so I did not update my blog.  At all.  Hopefully you were so full of turkey and pie you didn't notice! Except I should probably delete this intro...

Let's see.  On Day 3 I felt especially grateful for the family I grew up in.  Brilliant parents, three awesome and hilarious little sisters, and traditions that I still love.  I am sort of homesick for Seattle right now, but seeing my sister and her husband and his brother made me super happy, because they are, as I mentioned, hilarious and awesome. Yay family!

Day 4: I married into a huge family.  Fourteen kids (counting my husband, who's right in the middle), with over thirty nieces and nephews between all of them.  We have the best time playing games, chatting, sharing food, helping our children run on the ceiling...it is pretty much the happiest exhaustion ever, and I love it!

Day 5: Wow, there's lots more I should add.  Books, creativity, our house, lots of tasty food, cats, education, cars, friends, games, libraries...I'm sure I'm missing something completely obvious that I should talk about, but right now I'm most grateful for my friendships with people I've never physically seen.  The Absolute Write Forums helped me meet so many wonderful writers, and I've got amazing critique partners in the UK and all across the United States!  The internet allows me to toss ideas over to New York and get them back within a day, and I've encountered so many incredible support groups and agents and blogs in the past year that I feel truly lucky.  So if you leave comments, or silently lurk-read (usually me), or send me your wonderful stories for feedback (yay!), or blog or post on the forums...thank you, and have a happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

I am planning on putting up our Christmas tree today or tomorrow, which will be so much fun with our three-year-old and (gulp) baby!  I waited until after Thanksgiving, though.  Aren't you proud of me?

Grateful: Day Two

I'm grateful for my boys:

There's nothing I love more in the world than these three faces. And yes, they are sitting on a dinosaur at the zoo.  Aren't they awesome*?

*Speaking of awesome, my three-year-old made up a joke a while ago that goes something like this:

Knock knock!
Who's there?
Cow!
Cow who?
It ate you!!!

He told it three times tonight.  It cracks me up every time.

Grateful: Day One

There's lots of people posting about things they're grateful for every day this month, on Facebook and Twitter and such, so I decided to have themed week.  I've got lots to be grateful for, and I can't cover everything even if that's all I ever wrote about.  But I can try to say some of the big things.  And I will:

Monday

Today was the only day I have to work this week, because my students get Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off, and I teach every other day.  And I have to say: I am grateful for my job.

For those of you who don't know, I teach writing as an adjunct professor for the University of Utah.  I used to travel up to classes and hold lectures there, but they have a partnership with a nearby charter high school, and I've always loved teaching younger (freshman-aged) students.  Of course I volunteered, and it was the best decision of my career.

The students I get in my classes are generally smart, motivated, and super talented.  I love in-class discussions, and the questions I get from lectures, and watching how carefully and intelligently they review each others' essays.  I may not be especially fond of the grading process, but I do appreciate how my comments can help create a personalized dialogue between me and students, ultimately improving their writing and, in some cases, teaching me a thing or two as well.  I took a lot of science classes as an undergraduate, and I toyed with the idea of becoming a microbiology professor or something (chemistry professors get to blow stuff up!), but writers can tie anything in to their discipline.  Water polo rules? Woorari poison darts? Werewolves? You can write about anything you know (including explosions) and you can learn from students (I've learned tons!), so I'm pretty happy with my chosen subject.

I stayed at work late today to talk with a handful of students about Thanksgiving traditions, Ayn Rand, and fantasy villains.  I've worked a lot of jobs in my life, but I can tell you that I never stayed late at Dairy Queen during high school, or at the DoubleTree Inn in Seatac where I temped over summers between semesters.  I love my job now, though, and I know how lucky I am to spend time with such awesome people!

My handwriting on the board actually isn't that good, and most my classrooms have whiteboards.  Still, I can pretend this is something I wrote, blurs and all.

Game Night!

I'll post this morning, because last night my sister and her husband came over, so after the kids went to bed we played games.

Now we have a lot of games.  My dad loves games, and we grew up with whole closets full of games we could pick out and play.  Since we have many choices, we choose our game for the night by starting out with Mario Kart Wii.  Whoever wins the four-person race by earning the most points picks what we'll do next.

Yesterday we played Scribblish, which is super fun if you have the right group and completely deserves its own post.

So that's what I was doing instead of blogging.  Doodling kangaroos and mad scientists and zom-bees (terrible pun--I was tired).  Whee!