A Bit Too Orthopedic

My younger brother is getting married in March, and I recently ordered a pair of black Clarks Unstructured shoes that are fairly dressy with a small heel in hopes that they would be suitable to wear with a gray dress that I'm planning to wear to the rehearsal dinner.  I was excited to see that the shoes were delivered to me just a few days after ordering them.  That evening, I tried them on and immediately noticed how comfortable they were and initially thought that I had made a good purchase; however, the more I looked at the shoes on my feet the more I felt that they didn't look quite right.  What was wrong with the shoes?  They certainly were comfortable enough and were a take on the Mary Jane style that I usually like.  As I looked down at the shoes on my feet, I couldn't help but think that they looked a bit orthopedic on my feet even though they didn't look orthopedic off my feet.  After Jay looked at the shoes on my feet for a minute or two, he agreed.  Since the orthopedic look is not what I'm going for, I decided to return the shoes.  Last night, I ordered a pair of Anne Klein shoes that are completely different in style from the Clarks Unstructured pair.  I hope they look good on my feet, feel good on my feet, and look right with the dress.  Otherwise, I'll have to start searching yet again.

Letting My Hair Grow

Several weeks ago, I was flipping through an Eddie Bauer catalog and noticed a long hair style that I liked.  It's been quite a while since I've worn my hair long, and I decided that now is a good time to grow it out.  For the past two weeks, my hair has looked awful.  My short hair style had lots of layering, and the lower layers have not been cooperating as they have been getting longer.  Yesterday, I finally had a decent hair day, so I'm hoping that the worst is behind me.  I think it will take at least a year for my hair to reach the desired length.  We'll see if I make it that long before missing short hair.

New Year's Eve Dinner

A while back, Jay received a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory.  We decided to use it for an early dinner on New Year's Eve.  After Henley's nap, we drove to Charlotte and arrived at The Cheesecake Factory around 3:15, I think.  We were seated about 15 minutes later at a table that had tables directly beside us on each side (the type of table where one side has a very long booth that runs the length of several tables and the other side has two chairs).  Although I would have preferred a more private table, I was happy to get seated fairly quickly.  As we were taking our seats, a couple was arriving to be seated directly beside of us.  When the woman saw that we had a child with us, she made it very evident that she was unhappy about being seated next to us.  I figured that the couple was on a date and that the woman was worried that Henley would interrupt their privacy; however, I knew that wouldn't happen because Henley is always very good at restaurants (partly because she loves to watch people and partly because we try to take her at appropriate times of day for her schedule).  Well, it turned out that the couple was rather loud while looking through their menus and discussing every type of cheesecake, the man spilled his drink all over the table and himself, and the woman talked to us several times during the meal.  She commented on Henley's good behavior and let us know that her two year old son would never behave well at a restaurant.  I found it interesting that the woman had assumed Henley would disrupt her meal simply because Henley is a child.  Meanwhile, she and her husband ended up doing what she thought Henley would do. :)

The 15-Minute Blog

I've been thinking that I really would like to start blogging again.  It's been nearly six months since my last post, and that's way too long.  I often thought of a topic about which I would like to blog, but I never seemed to find enough time to do so.  Now that Henley is taking just one long nap a day instead of two shorter ones, I'm thinking that I should be able to find 15 free minutes to blog during most of her naps.  I think my biggest challenge will be convincing myself that I do not need to spend a lot of time editing what I'm writing.  I'm even having difficulty typing this post quickly because I continually want to change a sentence or word that I just typed.  Limiting my time, therefore, should be a good exercise for me.  I'll have to say what's on my mind and then move on.  Speaking of...

Oh, the wonderful sounds...

I can't recall what used to run through my mind during a day.  Nowadays, I catch myself repeating Dr. Seuss's clever rhymes along with familiar nursery songs.  In fact, I was able to extend my jogging time yesterday by silently reciting Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!, which I now know by heart.

Where's the Dad?

I only have a few minutes to write about a topic that bothers me: the notion that dads do not participate in caring for young children.  I know many dads who take very active roles in their children's lives (and not just during playtime).  Jay is a wonderful father who enjoys spending time with Henley.  He and I recently purchased Playtex's "The First Lil' Gripper Twist 'n Click Straw Cup" for Henley after she began to show interest in sipping water from a straw.  She loves the cup, and I do, too; however, I do not like what was written on the packaging material for the cup.  Here's a link to a picture of one of the Playtex cups in its package: http://www.playtexstore.com/cgi-bin/item/PLA05908.  Notice that the package says, "Mom Squeeze here!"  The features are listed on the back of the package and state that the cup was designed for child and mom (along with the reasons for each).  There is no mention of dad anywhere on the package.  Is it so unreasonable to think that a dad might help his child learn to drink from a straw?  Instead of writing "Mom" multiple times on the package, couldn't Playtex have written "Parent" instead?

A Thousand Words

If it’s true that the worth of a picture is a thousand words, then pictures from the first five months of my life contribute no more than five thousand words to my life’s story.  That’s right… I have fewer than five pictures capturing the early days of my existence.  As the third of four children in my family born about 26 months after my older brother, it seems that there was little extra time to have my picture taken.  Of course, I was born in 1977 when digital cameras for household use were merely a dream.  Still, my siblings were captured on camera much more often than I was.  Interestingly, Jay has very few pictures from childhood, too.  Our dearth of photos as babies makes it quite difficult to know whether Henley favors either one of us very much.

Henley will be five months old on Sunday.  With technology so readily accessible to capture images for future recall, it should come as no surprise that Jay and I have taken several hundred pictures of Henley since she was born.  In addition, we have captured many moments during the past five months on video.  I am confident when I say that we already have more pictures of Henley than I have from my ENTIRE childhood.  Isn’t that really amazing?  How many photographs of Henley will we have taken by the time she goes off to college?  Will she ever be interested in looking at ALL of them?  Further, how many words will each picture be worth to her?

Below are two recent photos of my sweet Henley that are worth at least one thousand words each to me.

The Name Game

For as long as I can recall, I have known why my parents chose the name Rebecca Maria for me as well as why they chose the names given to my sister and brothers.  My sister's name Danita Jane is a combination of the feminine form of my father's name (Daniel) and my mother's name (Jane).  My older brother has my father's name, so he's a "Jr."  My younger brother's name Jonathan David combines the names of two best friends in the Bible.  I was given my maternal grandmother's first name (Rebecca) and a slight modification of my paternal grandmother's middle name (Marie).  Although Rebecca is a very common name, I think I have always liked it.

I'm sure Jay's parents had a reason for giving him the name Jeremiah Brandon, but he doesn't know what the reason is.  I think I asked his dad about it once, but I don't recall what he said.  I do know that he goes by Jay because his sister started calling him Jay when they were children.

How did Jay and I settle on the name Henley Elizabeth for our daughter?  It wasn't easy.  I know that some people decide on names for their children many years before they have any.  Some think it is very important to use family names.  Others choose trendy names.  Although I like my mother's first name for many reasons and believe it is a good choice for a middle name, the combination of our mothers' names didn't work well.  Since we didn't feel right about choosing just one mother's name, we decided that it would be best to avoid family names.  We also decided that we wanted to select a first name that didn't bring to mind other people that we know, which is quite a task given that we have taught hundreds of students.  We looked through so many lists of names before Jay mentioned to me the name Henley.  I immediately liked it, and we couldn't think of anyone we know personally who has that name.  Its origin is English, and BabyNames.com states that the meaning is "High Field."  We searched the Web to find out more about the name Henley (and its many uses).

Since Henley is considered appropriate for females and males, we decided that a feminine middle name would be best.  Settling on a middle name proved to be the most challenging part.  For a month or two, we thought we had decided on our daughter's full name; however, we never felt completely comfortable with the first middle name we had chosen, and we continued to mention other possible middle names.  My favorite female character of all time is Elizabeth Bennet.  Further, Elizabeth is considered to be a powerful female name.  Early on, we had ruled out Elizabeth as a possible first name, and I thought Jay did not want to use it at all.  One day, he mentioned it as a possible middle name, and it did not take long for us to agree that this middle name would be much better than our first choice.

So, there you have it.  After many hours of careful thought and consideration, we settled on Henley Elizabeth Wills.  Jay and I like it, and we hope our daughter will, too.

Henley's Mom

My sister sent me an email this past Tuesday to wish me a happy birthday.  She included the following birthday song, "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to Henley’s Mommy. Happy birthday to you!!!!"  With the exception of our visits to see Henley's pediatrician, I think the song was the first time I have been identified specifically as Henley's Mommy.  Prior to December 15, 2010, those acquainted with me would likely have thought of me in terms of some combination of the following: spouse/wife of Jay Wills; daughter of Danny and Jane Smith; sister of Danita, Daniel, and Jonathan; friend; student; professor; and mathematician.  I couldn't be happier to know that my identity now includes that of being a mom -- specifically, Henley's mom. 

Henley is over four months old now, and she brings so much joy to my daily life.  I love being her mom!

12 Weeks Later

It’s been quite a while since my last post --- over 12 weeks!  I had hoped to write this post much sooner, but my days have been quite busy since the arrival of my daughter, Henley Elizabeth Wills.  The story of Henley’s arrival picks up right where my last post ended.  I finished writing my last post on December 13, 2010 at 7:38 p.m. during the time that I was holding a couple of evening office hours at Queens while Jay gave a final exam.  We arrived home quite late that night.  Just before we went to bed, Jay helped me with a few of my physical therapy exercises for my hips.  He was so tired that night, but I seemed to have more energy than normal.  In fact, we joked about how much energy I had and how we wondered if that meant that I would be going into labor soon.  I climbed into bed right around 11:00 p.m., and just a few minutes later my water broke.  Since my doctors had been monitoring my amniotic fluid level closely and since I also needed an antibiotic (for Group B strep) before delivering my baby, Jay and I knew that we would have to make our way to the hospital even though my contractions had not started.  We got dressed, called our OB hotline, grabbed our bags (this time we were ready), and headed to the hospital.  We arrived about 10 minutes later (we didn’t speed… the hospital is that close to our house).  After checking in, we spent the next hour awaiting confirmation that my water had in fact broken.  Then, I officially was admitted.

My hospital room was very nice except for the fact that the bathroom was about 50 degrees.  We had problems with the temperature during our entire stay.  In fact, the hospitality representative at the hospital visited our room and gave us a gift card to Target because of all the trouble we had with the temperature.

I could post pages of details about everything that happened between the time I was admitted and when I eventually gave birth at 12:25 a.m. on December 15; however, I’m going to try to only include the major points of the delivery. 

•  Except for my first nurse, all of the nurses I had during my stay were terrific.  Nurses really do make a huge difference when you’re preparing for and recovering from a rough delivery.
• To start my contractions, I was given pitocin.  After 24 hours of labor, it was determined that a C-section was necessary since I was not dilating past 6 cm and since Henley periodically showed signs of being under stress.
• My least favorite doctor of all that I saw at my OBGYN performed the C-section.  Although she’s very nice, she has never been gentle with me, and she wasn’t during the hours that preceded the C-section.
• I opted for an epidural early in labor.  I always thought that if a C-section were required, the epidural would at least prevent the need for general anesthesia.  I was wrong.  While in the operating room, the anesthesiologists started preparing me for the operation.  As they administered drugs, the doctor would poke my belly to see if I could feel anything.  I always could; however, the anesthesiologists were confident that what I was feeling was normal and that I was ready for the operation.  They called Jay in to be by my side, and the operation began. I remember holding his hands. The pain was unbearable, and I remember asking if the doctor was pulling my baby out already.  I heard someone say something about feeling better in just a minute, and then I saw heads popping in and out in a weird way with a very bright white light.  I honestly felt like I was dying.  The next thing I remember is waking up in recovery in excruciating pain.  I have never moaned the way I did while there.  I kept asking what they were doing to manage my pain because it was awful.  I also wanted to know where Jay was and if my baby was okay.  Someone came in during my recovery to ask if it would be okay to give my daughter some formula (since I was planning to breastfeed), and then the person asked what type of formula I wanted to give her.  I had no idea, so I told the person to ask Jay.  When I finally returned to the room, I requested that I be able to spend a few minutes with just Jay and my daughter before our parents returned to the room; however, I can recall seeing them in the hall as I was wheeled into my room.  There was so much concern on all of their faces.  Jay says that the first thing I did after entering the room was request that “that man” be turned off of my TV.  For some reason, Glenn Beck was on (our parents like Fox), and I do not like him.  After spending a few minutes with Jay and Henley, our parents returned to the room to see me before heading home.  They had been at the hospital for many hours and needed rest.  Although I was still hooked up to lots of things, I finally held my sweet girl for a few minutes.
• Henley was 8 pounds, 1 ounce and 21.5 inches long at birth.

I spent the next few days recovering in the hospital, and Henley and I were finally able to go home on Saturday.  Jay was as wonderful as he always is.  I think he changed nearly every diaper during our stay.  Other family members were very helpful, too.  Although I was glad to go home, I knew things were going to be crazy for a while.  I still had to grade final exams and report final grades, and the registrar’s office wanted the grades ASAP even though everyone knew about my delivery and recovery.  In addition, I had so much swelling that it made sitting in a chair for any length of time very uncomfortable.  I was so swollen that I could not wear any of my shoes and pregnancy pants.  My mom had to buy me some pajamas so that I would have something to wear.  I wore the pajamas and bedroom slippers to Henley’s first checkup and to my first visit with the lactation consultant.  After several days, the fluid finally started leaving my body, and I lost 16 pounds in a 3-day period.  My legs felt so much better!

Life was quite challenging for the first 5 weeks, but Jay, Henley, and I survived.  Henley is doing quite well now, and she is so much fun to be around.  Hopefully, I soon will have a chance to write more about the past 12 weeks, but this update will have to do for now.  I’m just happy to finally have something written.  I have included some pictures below.

Early on -- not so bad!

No more smiling or popsicles!

Jay prepares for the OR.

Jay meets our sweet girl!

I finally meet precious Henley.

My favorite picture of me with my daughter

My favorite nurse

Going home!

Off to see the doctor!

Any Day Now

According to my doctors, Jay and I will be meeting our daughter any day now, and we're getting excited.  I must confess though that it still seems a bit hard to believe that Jay and I will be parents very soon.  We started dating in 1995 and were married in 1999, so it's been just the two of us for many years.  I do believe our quiet, predictable life is about to become much noisier and more chaotic.

On Friday, December 10, I had an ultrasound before my doctor's appointment.  The week before, our baby girl had dropped, so we were no longer getting accurate measurements regarding her size.  The ultrasound was really neat.  It was the first time we actually saw our daughter in 3D.  We were able to see her face really well, and she was sucking on her arm the whole time.  As of Friday, the pregnancy was 38 weeks and 1 day, and the ultrasound estimated her measurements to be 39 weeks, 2 days.  It also estimated her weight to be right at 9 pounds, which was quite unexpected. 

After the ultrasound, we met with one of our doctors, and he indicated that the amniotic fluid level was quite low (the 5th percentile), so he decided to hook me up to a monitor to check the baby's heart rate and movement and my contractions for a period of time.  Based on the time of day and the fact that I had not eaten in a while, I had a feeling that our baby was not going to be very active while being monitored, and I was right.  Thus, the doctor decided to send me to the hospital to have a stress test done there.  I actually was having contractions although I couldn't tell that I was; however, I wasn't having enough of them during a 10 minute interval to determine how our baby would respond to contractions if I went into labor over the weekend.  Thus, the doctor at the hospital decided to give me a small dose of pitocin to increase the number of contractions.  Of course, Jay and I were worried that this would send me into labor, and we were NOT ready for that to happen.  I had not yet packed a bag for the hospital (shame on me), and we did not have our camera or video camera with us.  Luckily, the contractions sped up just enough to confirm that our baby could handle the stress.  Shortly after 8:00 p.m., we were able to leave the hospital.  We were starving, and we had lots of family members worried about us since they hadn't been able to get in touch with us for several hours.  After calling family members and eating a late supper, we packed our bags!

I had a follow-up doctor's appointment today to check on the amniotic fluid level to make sure that it had not decreased over the weekend, so we were able to see our daughter again via ultrasound.  She still was sucking on her arm!  I wonder if she will do that after she is born.  We both prepared ourselves for the possibility of having the baby today; however, the amniotic fluid level had not dropped and the baby was doing well, so I was able to go home.  We'll have another stress test done during Thursday's appointment, and I'm thinking that I'll be having the baby very soon thereafter.

Jay is planning to proctor my final exams for me tomorrow and Wednesday so that I can keep my feet up (the swelling has been quite bad for a while now).  Hopefully, I'll get all of my exams graded before delivery; however, I'm at least glad to now have all of the final exams written because that was not the case on Friday.

Well, that's it for now.  I mainly wanted to record what had happened on Friday so that I wouldn't forget later.  I anticipate that my next post will be as a new mother.  Until then... 

Time Keeps on Slipping, Slipping, Slipping...

I can't believe that today is October 6.  It's been well over a month since my last post.  Many times during the past month, I have wanted to take a few minutes to post about things going on in my life or topics that have been on my mind; however, I have been swamped.  Right now, I'm holding office hours.  Since I don't have any students visiting me, I really should be doing some course prep; however, I'm just too tired to think mathematically tonight.  Thus, I'm posting a blog!  I make no guarantees that it will be inspiring or particularly interesting to read, but I'll at least be able to say that I've updated my blog.

Speaking of time slipping, my pregnancy now is at 29 weeks.  Thus, I have just over 25% of my pregnancy left to go.  I definitely can tell that I'm in the third trimester now.  My stomach seems to grow noticeably larger daily, my legs hurt after going for a while without reclining, my hips hurt at night, I'm unable to teach my classes without getting winded because I feel like everything has shifted into my chest making breathing difficult, spicy food is becoming more difficult to eat, and the list goes on.  Despite all the normal third trimester symptoms that I'm experiencing, my pregnancy is going well.  So far, I'm on track to have my total weight gain be less than the number I did not want to exceed.  Hopefully, I'll remain on track.

My teaching is going pretty well; however, I definitely have a full plate.  Course preparation is taking quite a bit of time.  It was a bit ambitious of me to think that I could easily handle teaching a writing intensive abstract algebra course, a second semester calculus course, and a statistics course with only a few weeks' notice before the start of the semester.  Although I took qualifiers in abstract algebra, I haven't really looked at the subject since 2004.  Also, I taught Calculus II at NCSU; however, the course is completely different at Queens (much more theoretical).  After teaching on Mondays and Wednesdays, I'm completely drained.  Jay finally convinced me to start drinking some Powerade after classes, and it seems to help a bit.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to maintain enough energy to make it to the end of the semester teaching.  I don't want my students to have to get used to someone else right at the end of the semester.

Okay, my office hours are ending, and Jay and I will be going home soon.  I guess this will have to do for my blog for now.

Back At It

Last semester, I decided to take a break from teaching to rest, spend time with family, read, take a class, and “recharge my battery.”  The break has been great especially since it afforded me lots of time to rest during the first five months of my pregnancy.  Tomorrow, the fall semester begins at Queens, and my break officially ends.  I’m looking forward to being in the classroom again.  I’ll be teaching three classes: Introductory Statistics, Calculus II, and Abstract Algebra.  Since the Calculus II and Abstract Algebra courses are 4 credits each, I’m teaching pretty much a full load even though I’m considered part time. 

Two of my classes have a Monday-Wednesday schedule, and the other one has a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule.  The courses meet back-to-back, so I’ll be in the same classroom teaching practically non-stop from 12:00 to 4:40 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.  I’ve never taught three college-level courses back-to-back before, so this semester definitely will be interesting (especially since I’ll be in the third trimester of my pregnancy for most of it).  I don’t think I’m even going to carry my Statistics and Calculus books to class with me because their combined weight is 10 lb., and I don’t have office space in the building where my classes meet.  I’ll be giving my last final exam the afternoon of December 14.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to finalize grades before going into labor (the due date is December 23).

I do feel like my battery is recharged, so I think this semester will go well.  Let’s hope my pregnancy brain is able to jump from Calculus II to Intro Stats to Modern Algebra without difficulty and that my pregnant body is able to survive being on my feet for several hours a day.  Let’s also hope that I make it through the semester without my water breaking during class. :)

Discontinued or Hard-to-Find Groceries

I apparently have a knack for falling in love with food items that soon after will be discontinued or no longer carried in most grocery stores.  My taste buds must be different from those of the average person.  Although the following lists are not exhaustive, they'll give you an idea of what I mean:

Discontinued Items

• Pillsbury's frozen crusty french rolls
• Pepperidge Farm's Baked Naturals Snack Sticks -- Artisan Cheese

Hard-to-Find Items

• Classico's Sun-dried Tomato Red Sauce (only available at Harris Teeter)
• Pepperidge Farm's Baked Naturals Wheat Crisps -- Multi-grain (still listed on the Pepperidge Farm site; haven't seen it in stores in a long time)
• Nestle's Simply Dipped Cones -- Cookies & Cream (still listed on the Nestle site; periodically stocked by Super Target)

The most frustrating thing about the vanishing of these items from grocery store shelves is that other products, which I deem inferior, made by the same companies remain.  For example, I do not at all like the toasted-sesame variety of Pepperidge Farm's Baked Naturals Snack Sticks, but it continues to be stocked by every grocery store I visit.

Classico's Sun-dried Tomato Red Sauce is one of the very few pasta sauces available that has no onions, and I'm not a fan of onions.  Most grocery stores carry several Classico products, so I don't understand why they don't carry this one.  Luckily, Harris Teeter does.  When Jay and I lived in Christiansburg, VA, we always made a trip to Harris Teeter during our visits to Winston-Salem, NC, to stock up on the sun-dried tomato sauce.

I was so disappointed when Pillsbury discontinued the frozen crusty french rolls that I emailed Pillsbury to let them know.  I actually received a reply from the company indicating that the item had not been popular enough to continue making it.

I guess companies should hire me to taste-test their new products.  If I like the product, there's a good chance that it's not going to make it; however, the more I dislike the product, the higher the likelihood is that it's going to sell really well.

So frustrating!

Last Comic Standing

I was so happy to see Last Comic Standing return to NBC this summer.  Jay and I have watched each season except the first, and I think this year was the best of all.  In addition to having a great host (Craig Robinson, "Darryl" from The Office) and wonderful judges, the format was just as it should have been for a show attempting to showcase talented comedians.  Instead of having the top ten comedians live in a house together and perform various "funny" activities, this season focused on stand-up comedy from the start.  Thus, viewers were able to see hours of stand-up comedy throughout the season.

My three favorites from the top ten actually made it to the top three this year: Tommy Johnagin, Roy Wood, Jr., and Felipe Esparza.  Although I think Johnagin was the most talented of the three, I was not at all surprised that Esparza won because his personality is naturally funny.

The top five comedians are going on tour this fall/winter, and I was excited to see that they will be in Charlotte on October 28.  Jay and I are planning to get tickets.  It's been a few years since we've been able to see live comedy, so I'm very much looking forward to going.

On a slightly different but somewhat related topic, I also have watched The Next Food Network Star and Design Star once again this summer.  I think TNFNS has been enjoyable to watch, and I really like two of the final three contestants; however, I have not liked the changes made to Design Star this season.  The show has been much too serious, all of the challenges have been similar, and, most importantly, the show has suffered without Clive Pearse as the host.

19 wks = 133 days = 4 months, 11 days = 0.36 yrs

During the first trimester of my pregnancy, I thought that time could not move any slower.  Today, I am 19 weeks pregnant, and it seems like time now is moving at a normal pace.  I'm sure that my change in perception of time has something to do with the fact that Jay and I found out last week that we are having a girl.  Now, we are beginning to plan for her arrival.  We have our nursery room cleared out (thanks to my brother Jonathan who helped Jay move the guest bedroom furniture to another room), we have decided on a paint color, and we have begun looking for all of the necessary nursery items.  We're also giving more thought to first and middle names.

For the past six weeks, I have been taking weekly photos to capture my physical changes throughout pregnancy (no "bare belly" shots so far).  Here are three:

13 weeks, 3 days pregnant

18 weeks, 2 days pregnant

18 weeks, 5 days pregnant

Jay and I are looking forward to meeting our daughter in approximately 21 weeks.  Hopefully, we'll be ready for the challenges of parenthood.

A True Fan

From the moment I read Pride and Prejudice in high school, I have been a fan of Jane Austen.  In fact, she is my favorite author; however, until this year, I only had read two (perhaps three) of her six novels.  During the spring, Masterpiece ran adaptations of Emma, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey.  I absolutely loved the adaptation of Emma and found it to be far superior to Hollywood's adaptation in 1996 (starring Gwyneth Paltrow).  I decided that to really call myself a true fan of Jane Austen, I should read all of her novels, so that's what I did during the past two months.

Having read Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility before, I began with Mansfield Park.  Although I have no recollection of reading this book in the past, everything about it was so familiar to me as I read it that I have concluded that I must have read it at some point.  I must say that of all of Jane Austen's novels, I am most disappointed in the movie adaptations of Mansfield Park.  Fanny Price is a much more interesting character than she is portrayed in the two fairly recent adaptations.  In addition, the directors made too many unnecessary changes to the storyline.  I believe that you cannot improve upon Jane Austen's works, so directors should not try to do so.

After finishing Mansfield Park, I read Persuasion and really liked it.  In fact, I think it has replaced Sense and Sensibility as my second favorite Austen novel.  It's a really sweet story. Next, I read Emma and was delighted to see that the Masterpiece adaptation was very much like the book. 

Although many people save the best of anything for last, I'm usually quite the opposite.  After seeing the adaptation of Northanger Abbey on Masterpiece, I had a feeling that I would not like the book very much.  Thus, I saved it for last.  While I found reading it enjoyable, it certainly is much different from all of Austen's other novels and is my least favorite.

Now that I have finished reading all of Austen's novels and seeing at least one movie adaptation of each, I consider myself a true fan.  I do not, however, feel inclined to join JASNA (The Jane Austen Society of North America).

Piano

During the past year, I really have started missing playing the piano.  I began taking piano lessons in the first grade, and I continued through ninth grade (I think).  As a child, I didn't appreciate playing the piano primarily because I was required to do so a certain amount of time each week.  Thus, I usually spent at least 30 minutes every night in a room all by myself playing until Mom finally would say that my time was up.  The minutes always crept by.  If I stopped playing for any length of time, Mom would add minutes to my total time required.

Nearly every year that I played, I participated in a piano recital.  Although I enjoyed learning to play a tune so well that it actually sounded like music when I played it, I always was nervous about playing in front of a crowd.  I can still recall dressing up for the recitals, walking up the stairs to the piano, playing in front of the audience (consisting of proud parents and siblings who didn't want to be there), and curtsying at the end.  I think my favorite recital piece was Fur Elise. 

Of course, playing the piano had its perks even when I was young.  For many years, my piano lessons took place during school hours, so I was excused from class each time I had a piano lesson.  My Mom also wanted me to learn techniques from more than one person, so every two years or so, I started taking lessons from a new teacher.  Each of my four teachers was quite different from the others.  The most gifted teacher could play very well by ear and would often compose music for our school plays.  Since I do not have the gift of playing by ear, I learned the most from the teachers who also played by sight.

Because I was so busy with academics and sports during high school, I eventually convinced my parents to let me stop taking piano lessons.  Of course, now I wish I had continued lessons at least until I started college.  While in college, I played the piano every now and then at church when the other pianists were not available to play; however, I rarely practiced, so I wasn't very good.

It's been years since I have played the piano for more than a few minutes, and I would love to start again.  I think it would be so relaxing to spend a few hours each week developing my skill.  Of course, I live in a neighborhood and would not want to force all of my neighbors to hear my hours of practice.  Thus, I am considering purchasing a piano style keyboard.  I decided to look on Craig's list tonight, and I found one that I like.  I haven't decided yet, but I just might buy it!

Thunderstorms

On Monday afternoon, Jay and I were returning home from the fitness center when we suddenly observed a very dark cloud over our neighborhood. As we turned down our street, we saw a bolt of lightning. Within a minute of entering our house, the wind began to blow with such force that our trees were swaying back and forth. Soon thereafter, rain poured from the sky and thunder rolled. We decided to watch the storm from our front porch. When we opened the door, we immediately noticed a drop in temperature of at least ten degrees, which was most welcome on such a hot day. Although the thunderstorm lasted no more than twenty minutes, I found it so relaxing to rock in my rocking chair while feeling the breeze, smelling the scent of the rain, watching the lightning strike, and listening to the thunder crash and the rain fall. Our current house is my first residence to have a front porch, and I just love it!

At approximately the same time on Tuesday afternoon, the sky grew very dark over our house. Within minutes, flashes of lightning and sounds of thunder surrounded us. We waited and waited for the rain to begin. At the conclusion of the thunderstorm, a very few drops of rain fell from the sky, and they dried up almost immediately. I couldn’t help but notice how disappointing a thunderstorm is without rain. In addition to needing the rain badly to nourish our sun-scorched grass, I was ready to enjoy the rain for other reasons: rain cools the temperature, freshens stale air, and provides a soothing contrast to thunder and lightning.

I have thus decided that rain is a necessary element for an enjoyable thunderstorm.

Summer Time

I just realized that my last post was 2.5 weeks ago.  What can I say?  "Summer time and the livin's easy."  (Of course, summer technically does not begin until June 21.)  Jay's spring schedule ended early May.  Since then, I have been spending less time at the computer and more time with him, which has been nice.  Last summer, we were busy packing for our move from Virginia to North Carolina.  It's hard to believe that we've been in Huntersville for almost a year.

Jay begins summer session next week, so I'm sure I'll be back to posting topics again soon.

The "Contemporvant" Church

During the past year, Jay and I have visited many, many churches in Huntersville and the surrounding areas.  Although we visited quite a few churches when we first moved to Apex and Christiansburg before settling on our "church home," our Sunday morning worship experiences have been much different this time around than they were before. 

In the not-so-distant past, the "contemporary worship" services were seen as necessary departures from the more traditional services that many saw and continue to see as formulaic.  Although Jay and I have attended several churches during the past year that still offer a "traditional worship" service or "blended service", most services are now contemporary.  What I find particularly interesting about the overwhelming majority of the worship services at the "contemporary churches" is that they are as formulaic (if not more so) as the "traditional worship" services.  Recently, one of my friends posted a link on FB to a satirical video about the modern worship experience.  This video sums up so well the typical contemporary worship service in many of the churches that Jay and I have attended since moving to Huntersville: http://vimeo.com/11501569.

The truth of the matter is that I like for a worship service to be structured.  I like being able to follow church programs and to know what's coming next.  I do not, however, like for worship leaders to dress, act, or talk a particular way simply to copy a "contemporary formula."  After all, I attend worship services to grow in my relationship with God not to be entertained.  As long as a service is authentic with a primary focus on true worship, I will like it -- traditional or contemporary.

Parking Lots

Quite a while back, Jay and I began noticing something noteworthy when we would return to our car after shopping at the mall, grocery store, etc.  Very often, the passengers of a car adjacent to ours are returning to their car at the same time we are returning to ours.  What makes this seem so strange is that when we look around the parking lot there are very few, if any, other people returning to their cars.  Especially when the parking lots are full, it seems like the probability of this happening very often would be small; however, I do believe that it happens to us more often than it doesn't.  I can't think of a good explanation for this, and I wonder if others experience the same thing. 

Strawberry Patches

As a child, I lived within a mile of a strawberry patch.  I always looked forward to strawberry season because my family and I would spend afternoons at the patch picking gallons of juicy, delicious strawberries.  The fact that we could eat all the strawberries we wanted for free while picking made the activity even more fun... and, yes, I made sure the ones I ate were clean.  It's been years since I have picked strawberries, but I usually manage to get some freshly picked strawberries from a local farm.  Since this is my first spring in Huntersville, I just did a Google search to find a local strawberry patch.  It appears that the nearest one is about 45 minutes away... how disappointing!  Although I have purchased a few containers of strawberries from Harris Teeter, it's simply not the same as getting fresh ones from a farm.  Hopefully, the farmer's market will have some.

It's about time!

I know... I know... It's been over two weeks since my last posting, so I figured that it's about time for a new one. The problem is, I can't decide about what I want to write. Should I write about celebrating my 33rd birthday? Should I write about having a lovely time at my 15-year reunion and being thrilled that the months of planning are over? Should I write about not being able to believe that the spring semester is about to end? Nope... none of these topics will do. Hmm... I think I'll write about grass.

For the first 10 years of our marriage, Jay and I did not have to worry about yard work. Having rented an apartment and townhome and owned a townhome during that 10-year period, our grass was taken care of by someone else. Last year, we purchased a house with a fairly large lot. Now, we spend our time worrying about the grass -- what we will do about the brown spots, how often we will water the lawn, when we will get rain, when we should mow, etc. I never realized that keeping the grass in acceptable condition is such an ordeal.

When I was a child, I often was amazed that adults spent so much time discussing the likelihood or necessity of rain. Now that I see my grass dying, I find myself looking at the weather reports and wondering when it will rain and hoping that the rain will be a good soaking rain -- not a passing shower. We are expecting rain tonight, and we need it. I do hope it's enough to give us a few days of break from using the sprinklers, especially since Jay gets up early to turn them on and then move them around the yard. He deserves a break! Yes, you're right, we really should take turns, but it's so cold outside in the mornings.

Butler's Coach

Tonight, Butler and Duke compete for the NCAA championship.  While I would pull for any team playing against Duke (except possibly UNC), Butler's coach provides even greater motivation to cheer for Butler.  I'm impressed that Coach Brad Stevens is 33 years old and has already experienced a distinguished career (see http://blog.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2010/03/butler_coach_brad_stevens_is_3.html).  If Butler wins tonight, Coach Stevens will be the youngest to win an NCAA championship since 1940 (see http://www.seattlepi.com/cbasketball/307202_coaches13.html).  Given that I will be 33 very soon, it seems extraordinary that someone so young already has excelled to this level especially since most coaches will never lead a team to the Final Four during their careers.

Thus, it is with great enthusiasm that I say, Go Butler!