debor026

No, not this one. Though Wendy is pretty. But I only took her picture with my baby. This is my baby (and my reading material to go with her). And this is my very sad and jealous Canon. It still gets to hang out in my purse, I guess. In my low-lighted living room (seriously, I need a lamp or 12) the shot of Pixel (the cat)just doesn't do well with the Lumix P&S. The flash lit up her eyes too much (and red eye fixes don't acknowlege the yellow eyes). But no flash with the Lumix means I can't see the cat... But my new baby, she's a performer. Now I can see Pixel (and pixels).

Do you see all 5 kids? With that much paper and color they kind of blend in a little. Our kids were amazing darlings and actually let us sleep till almost 8. I had cautioned them the night before not to wake each other up (I didn't want cranky tired munchkins on Christmas) but apparently they decided that meant waking us up was also out. What sweethearts. They even gave me time to make coffee before digging in. Seriously, Merry Christmas to me. If that's not restraint then I don't know what is.

Okay, well, my family is unconventional. But we all knew that, yes? Due to conflicts in timing this year (the downside of a very large family) it looks like I will be having Christmas with the kids and Eric's family on Christmas day and then Christmas with my sisters and everyone else on Valentine's day. My little sister jokingly combined the names into Valentristmas (though maybe Valentmas is easier to say?). Anyway, so if we do that then I think I need to put up a tree for this but decorate it for Valentine's instead of Christmas and put a big heart on the top of the tree. What do you think? Here are a couple trees and an ornament I found online for ideas. I think it could work. Pictures from here , here and here .

Sometimes in the winter we get a pretty heavy fog here, which is unusual for a desert. Unlike regular fog, though, this is an ice fog (called pogonip, meaning cloud) and everything gets covered in little ice crystals. With our temperatures reaching an uncommon -10 in some areas this week it's hung around for a couple of days. I'm told pogonip is terrible on your lungs (ice crystals can scratch up the lung and throat linings) but, despite that, it is rather pretty. Looking towards the sky the fog looks more like it's a snow of teeny tiny glitter. The ice crystals sparkle and catch the light and they are so fine and tiny that all of the air around you seems to shimmer. So cover your mouth with a scarf and drive carefully but take a moment and look around, too, because it'd be a shame to miss the view. This was the scene at the elementary school yesterday morning about 10 minutes before most of the kids started arriving. Don't you just want to climb that?

Over at the idea room the question has been posed of what was the best present you ever gave or received. I can think of a few really great gifts but the very best one ever came from my little sister. The picture above came long after the present but the present makes me think of it and vice versa. When I was in junior high I remembered part of a song but didn't know what it was called or who sang it but it was romantic and beautiful. I wrote down part of the chorus (the part I could remember) on a small piece of notebook paper so I would remember to ask someone later if they recognized it. I wrote down "And it's funny you should happen to walk into my life 'Cause I was just thinking of you". And though my mother and little sister said it sounded familiar, no one recognized it. Every couple of years I would come across it and try to find the song again. I had done online searches but online didn't cover as much then and the line returned no results and ...

7 years ago there was a baby Who got annoyed with picture taking for a while Until he realized there were worse ways to get attention My small but mighty little man With all the youthful spirit a mother could ask for And last Thursday (the 10th) my beautiful boy turned 7. And on Saturday in the midst of this: There was a party for the little artist. And the presents were opened And wishes were made And a good time was had by all. (Though daddy needs to practice his party face) Happy Birthday, Glenn!

Normally I am not a sports fan. I am, however, an Oregon Ducks fan. Today is the Civil War game with Oregon State Losers Beavers and which ever team wins gets the Rose Bowl. Go Ducks! To give you some family history, one of my brother-in-laws was the Oregon Duck. Yup, my sister married the duck. Another sister married a Beaver's fan traitor so we get some pretty good rivalry as evidenced above. It'll be a good game.

This morning I was reading Beth over on Be Yourself...Everyone Else is Taken and she is talking about the meaning of her blog title along with many people over at Synch-ro-ni-zing . It occurs to me that I've never really explained my blog, either the URL or the title, so this seems like the perfect opportunity. indigoamethyst came first. This has been my handle for some time starting with MySpace (yes, I have one of those) and then here and also on Facebook and Twitter. The amethyst is my birthstone but I'm not very fond of the very pale watery amethyst. I am in love, though, with the really deep amethyst. Indigo is a very deep shade for an amethyst and my favorite. And although it doesn't always come out in my blog there are deep facets to me too (somewhere), much like an amethyst which is reflective and doesn't always show the hidden depths, or at least I like to think so. Turning Stones came later. I love stones and rocks and, much like the ocean, feel a pull...