Ballerinas, blue jeans and Barbie

Yesterday Principessa & I went to the ballet. We saw Cinderella performed by the Fort Wayne Ballet accompanied by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. It was a lovely classic performance and the music was wonderful. The costumes were exquisite.

As Bethany and I walked in behind a mom and daughter in jeans with a granddaughter in play clothes, she whispered, "They didn't read your blog." I am happy to report that they were the exception. There were many little girls in their finery accompanied by moms, aunts, and grandmas also dressed for a special occasion. (We will ignore the teenage girl in a tie-dyed tee shirt and sweats. It is too painful to recall.)

The little girl in front of us was a hoot. There were lots of very excited little ones in attendance, but she may have been the most exuberant. She had a ballerina Barbie. In fact, she had a ballerina Barbie with a spinning light-up skirt. It was quite a sight. Especially when the ushers caught a glimpse of the light flashing from the spinning skirt and thought that they had discovered another contraband camera.

As we left, my 20 year old said, "Mommy, I want to be a ballerina."

Photo Hunt: Empty

This one was easy. I love this photo that Bethany took last summer of my empty Higher Things mug sitting in the back yard. It is most certainly empty.

The urge to nest

Generally if you hear anyone talk about the nesting instinct it is in relation to pregnant women getting ready for baby.

I am definitely not pregnant.

But for the past week I've been cleaning, organizing, picking out paint, making plans for my garden, and just generally wanting to stay home and work on my nest.

Anyone who knows me knows that this is far from normal.

I think yesterday I finally figured out where this urge may be coming from. The past few weeks have been incredibly stressful. There is the grief of losing my grandma, which although it was expected has still been very hard. I keep getting the urge to go see her, and then I remember she is gone. Last week my younger step-sister was in the hospital and came far closer to death than I think most of the family realized at the time. On Sunday a dear friend unexpectedly lost her younger sister to cancer.

On top of all of this, we're refinancing our house and it is spring, which always makes we clean and plan a little.

So that's why I'm nesting.

Sartorial agony

This piece by Lars Walker on the American Spectator site was a very timely read for me.

We've had our first warm days here in the midwest during the past two weeks and people are coming out from under their winter coats. I wish most people would keep them on. As I wondered through our local outdoor shopping center last week I was once again assaulted by cleavage and muffin tops.

As it gets warmer we will have the opportunity to read all sorts of vile messages on t-shirts. We'll have the pleasure of sitting next to some hairy guy in a tank top at a nice restaurant or some 60 year old woman wearing shorts and a t-shirt to the philharmonic. I'm just hopeful that the news has reached the young women of Fort Wayne that ultra-low jeans displaying a thong are OUT.

Join me in my crusade. Wear a dress to that concert. Don't go shopping in sweats. Wear clothes that don't grip your torso. And please, please, don't let your husband or son wear and tank top and baseball cap to a restaurant.

HT: Cranach

Global swindle?

I would love for this video to be required viewing in every classroom where Algore's movie has been shown. The Great Global Warming Swindle is a BBC production. It is very scientific and rebuts many of the claims of An Inconvenient Truth.

I have only had time to watch part of it, but plan to watch the rest with my kids tonight.

Thanks to the Loopers who shared this!

Global hype?

It's a big peeve of mine that global warming has gone from theory to cultural dogma with little more than well-placed news stories and a questionable "documentary" to back it up. The Anchoress has an excellent piece on her blog: 17,000 scientists dissent, no consensus on global warming.

I read an article last night about guilt-free vacations that allow people to buy carbon offsets --kind of like environmental indulgences--for their vacation travel.

This is the lefts new religion.

HT: Sob'ah My Soul

Helen Beery, 1917-2007

Wednesday afternoon, my grandma, Helen Beery, went to be with Jesus. I can't begin to imagine her joy as she was welcomed by the Savior she has loved for so long.

Even though we were expecting this it has been hard. I feel so blessed to have had this loving, talented, incredible woman for a grandmother for 42 years.

My latest crisis

In the grand scheme of things this isn't a big deal, but my web site is gone. Apparently my hosting deal ran out and I didn't know. Sometime in the last couple of days my site ceased to be. For now my indianajane.com address is redirecting here.

I need to figure out exactly how I'm going to use my site when I rebuild it. I have some ideas and plans tumbling around in my head, but no clear direction yet. I am sad to have lost some bits of writing that were on there, but I'll just have to write them again better.

So if you're one of the three or four people that actually looked at it once in a while, it's not there anymore.

Photo Hunt: Salty

Kettle corn. A great combination of sweet and salty.

Not on vacation

We have been looking forward to our Florida vacation for months, but sometimes things just don't go as planned. So instead of battling our way south through wicked weather last night we were having dinner before church with our friends, going to church, and then watching The Devil Wears Prada.

I still would like to be heading to the beach, but, since it isn't happening, Colin and the boys are going skiing Sunday and Monday and I am going scrapbooking with my friend Lori Saturday.

It's cold and windy with some blowing snow this morning. I think that Bethany and I are going to head out to the Home Show.