Winners Again

Well, my beloved Tar Heel boys did it again last night--beating the blue devils in Durham. And for most of the game, they looked darn good doing it. Why is it that we, as fans, get so wrapped up in this? We have absolutely nothing, NOTHING, to do with winning, losing--we don't know these boys, will (most likely) never meet these boys, gain nothing but bragging rights (to what?!), waste hours thinking about or researching or writing about the game/rivalry, spend money to watch or commune during a game, and for what? The opportunity to align ourselves with winners. Or, in my case, with a premier program/university. If you have read my previous postings regarding Coach Smith, then you know the influence he has had on my life and my outlook on the world. That is where I come from.

So, here's to you, boys! Let's do it again in March. Show them who's boss.

God Bless those Tar Heel Boys!

New Quilts

This is Austin's quilt that I made for him for Christmas.

This one is for Taylor for her Christmas. It is classic Winnie the Pooh motifs.

This is a quilt I began about 7 years ago and have just gotten it quilted. I am binding it (soon) and will put it on my bed.

I really like the way this turned out, even though I amde so many mistakes on it.

Long Time, No Rants

Wow, has it really been since August that I posted?! So much has happened!

I completed 4 quilts, all of which have been given away as gifts. Kim just called yesterday to thank me for hers and the kids; they love them, and that is gratifying. Now, on to the 8 that I have waiting for me!

School started, and Kate is enjoying her senior year (I think!). She is off to Manhattan, which is making her dad crazy, and I am enjoying every minute of that!

Sam's grades are marginally better, but any improvement is good, right? He is proving to be a good kid, even though he makes his parents crazy.

Emma's one desire of the year was to see Tyler Hansbrough play in a Carolina uniform. To that end, we traveled to Chicago and watched the Valparaiso game. She got the other Tyler's autograph and her picture made with him, and she was happy.

I read several books that I didn't post, notably, Gods Behaving Badly. A memorable premise, but disappointing in the end.

I promise to post more in the future--especially as my beloved Tar Heels begin conference play on Sunday.

Another Book--Another Rant

I finished another book this weekend: Escape, by Robert Tannenbaum. I loved his early books. I really liked how stand-up Butch Karp is, how flawed Marlene is, and how loyal Guma and Espey and the others are to Butch. Escape is about 550 pages long, and of those pages, about 50 are dedicated to a court case, and about 100 are dedicated to the other plot (yet another bombing of NYC that the Karp clan prevents). The rest is backstory. Really frustrating when you have read all the other books. It is almost as if he pulls synopses from the other books and works them in. There was no characterization in this novel--we learned nothing new about any body except the new ADA Kenny Katz. Well, we really didn't learn anything about him either, just that Karp sees himself in him and wants to treat Katz as Garrahy treated Karp. I reallyliked Tannenbaum's books, and I am sorry that I was so angry at this end of this one. I won't read another, and that makes me sad.

I wish I could say that my summer has been spent joyously with my children, putting up scads of home-grown produce, and creating lots of peace and comfort in my home. But, No. My summer has been spent going, coming, cleaning, sewing, reading, picking up, dropping off, ad infinitum. I can say it has been a fairly good summer--no broken bones, no surgeries, no car accidents--nothing to mar the landscape. I did get my very first (and second) quilt tops made, and they are at the quilter's even as I type. Here's a photo of the first one:

I have read several books this summer, and here lately, I have really been on a reading jag. Since June 20, I have finished several books, not all noteworthy, except that they belong on my list. I read Jimmy Black's Tales of the Tar Heels, which is a great account of the 1982 Tar Heel trip to the Final Four, Coach Smith's first championship. I was very pleased to see that he addressed the "dark years" of Matt Doherty's coaching stint at Carolina, and he did it sensitively. I appreciated that. I have read The Whole Truth, by David Baldacci, A Quilter's Homecoming (Audiobook), by Jennifer Chiaverini, Motor Mouth (Audiobook), by Janet Evanovich, Petite Anglaise, by Catherine Sanderson, Inside the Mind of BTK, by John Douglas and Johnny Dodd, You've Been Warned, by James Patterson. Two of these I want to discuss a little: Petite Anglaise and Inside the Mind of BTK.

I thought Petite Anglaise was a chick-lit book. I tend to check these out and keep them in the car to read while I wait for children to get in the car so I can take them someplace else. The cover gave that impression. But no, it is an account of what happened when the author began keeping a blog. It was interesting that she (1) started writing a blog that immediately had a huge readership. No one reads my blog except maybe, sometimes, my husband. And SoSock, but I haven't heard from him in a long time (I hope everything is OK with him). So that in and of itself is pretty impressive. But then, she meets the people who comment on her blog, and who email her about her life as she has written in her blog. It as a very interesting read for a blogger, even without the crux of the book, which was her love life. I enjoyed the book very much, much more because I blog.

The other book I want to talk about is the BTK book. I truly enjoy reading books that make me uncomfortable in my faith, books that make me see things about my knowledge of God and my faith in God from a different angle. Because I live in the city where this gross little man with severe psychological problems committed his crimes, I have been very interested in reading what is written (in a professional, clinical sense) about him. I think I have read all the books that have been written since his capture, including Beatty's book that drove him out of hiding. One book apparently was written after extensive interviews with his minister. In that book, BTK is credited with the thougtht that staying in the church is not only good cover, but that he can ask forgiveness after he kills and still be covered, as it were, on the salvation part. This is while he takes the body of a woman he has killed and poses her in his church (one book said on the altar, or in the altar area, while this book said it was in the basement [ this book had some other things really very wrong, so I am going with the altar]). Anyway, the point is, in relation to my thinking about faith: I know that anyone can be forgiven of anything if they ask. I completely believe in God's grace, and I know that His love can cover any mountain of sin. But can you sin, horribly and purposefully, with the knowledge that "all I have to do is be sorry" and that is OK? or at least forgiven? See where I am going with this? How sorry do you have to be? I don't think that BTK is crazy. I don't believe that he is insane, at least inasmuch as that he was impulsive and couldn't control that. I believe that he is simply an evil, evil man. How does his love of torture be forgiven? Even Nazis were in a better position than this; they at least believed they were being patriotic in some strange, misguided way. Still evil, mind you, but not selfishly so.

Old Friends

Last weekend, I went to the wedding of one of my college roommates. Most of my old roommates were there, and it brought to mind the how and whys of friendship. We were thrown together randomly, and 28 years later, brought together again. We laughed at old times and things we did when we were (much) younger. We talked about where we are going at this stage of our lives. We talked about our children and husbands (and ex-). For a weekend, we were friends again.

When I was younger, I read a book about siblings. One line impressed me a lot: "Your sibling knows exactly what button to push; he or she created the button." That is true, too, of old friends. Each of these friends created in me a facet to the person who went to Chapel Hill in 1980. Each gave a bit of themselves, and (I hope) each took something from me. None of us live in North Carolina any longer, but our history made it important enough for everyone to come together again to see each other, and plan to do it again. I hope and pray that happens.

We are different people from those who lived in Ehringhaus in 1980, but a part of us remembers who we were, and we celebrate that together. Mostly because no one else understands--just those who helped make us who we are now.

Something New

I wanted to post some of my "art" for lack of a better term. I have never thought of myself as creative, but I do love to scrapbook, and have gotten into swaps involving altered things, ATCs (Artist's Trading Cards), and greeting cards. The top photo is the last ATC I made for a swap; we had to do something for the letter A. I cut the apple on my Cricut, and was really pleased with the way it turned out. The brad was one I found in a package with different colors of postage stamps. I really love the way this turned out, although most ATCs are more collage-y and altered. I am not sure that I am completely comfortable with a lot of the techniques, not the mention the content of some ATCs that you will find on a search, but I like the clean lines of this one.

The other two photos are scrapbook layouts I did yesterday. I did five all told, and these 2 were my favorites. I get frustrated looking at magazine layouts that ooh and ahh over children, and layouts made about a cup of coffee or something like that. I scrapbook to document the life of my family--nothing more, nothing less. I want each page of my scrapbook to show something that we did; an event that occurred in the regular day of family life. Consequently, I start each year's book with summer vacation or summer sports, have a page dedicated to the beginning of school (my favorite day of the year), and follow through with birthdays, get-togethers, Homecoming, holidays, and so on. I like to see my scrapbooks as sort of a diary of our year.

I also hate journaling. I will put a note on a page sometimes, but I can't stand the "letter to your child" kind of journaling. Mostly, I think that 99% of that kind of journaling is a load of crap. I mean, really, most days, I am struggling to talk to my kids about something reasonable, instead of just issuing commands (like: get out of bed--it's 2:00 p.m., or get off the phone--the house is on fire, or get in the car--school starts in 2 minutes). Rarely do I look at my child and think, I love this child so much my heart will break the first time she talks back to me, or this boy of mine is such a bundle of joy--I hope that everything good happens to him (knowing that he flunks each grade he starts and would rather stay at the YMCA all day long shooting hoops than come home and spend 2 minutes with his little sister). I don't think this makes me a bad mom; on the contrary, I think our family is normal. I am just realistic. I wonder if the scrappers who gush about their baby does the same for their last child as their first.

Anyway, the first layout above is when my husband took my kids skiing to Frisco. I used a layout sketch for this, but I changed in slightly so that all the photos on the left side tilt up like a mountain, where the sketch had them kind of hodge-podge-y. I cut out the titles with my Cricut.

The second layout is Thanksgiving of 2006. I liked the colors and papers, although I think I might need to go back and outline the green chipboard letters on the lower right-hand side of the page. Anyway, I liked the way this looked, and am pleased with the book so far.

I wish that I had a 12x12 scanner, so I wouldn't have to take a picture of my layouts. My husband spoils me enough, so I just should leave it on my wish list.