You know, it's so wonderful to be loved! I pulled up in the driveway of my students' house this morning after having been gone for over a month, as Christmas break and my "personal vacation" time had run into each other. I wasn't exactly excited about diving back into the daily routine of teaching, and honestly, I was somewhat dreading this moment.

As soon as I was out of the car, the front door was flung open, and a wave of excited children and dogs came running out to welcome me back to work. A barrage of questions immediately flooded my ears, and the next few minutes were spent frantically trying to catch up on all the news of late. "The house was on the market, look at the new bow and arrows, see the new wood floors, lets play the new Xbox game as soon as school is done, etc etc". But soon, the books were pulled out, and we switched back into school mode.

I then asked them, "So, kids, did you miss me?" They stopped their work, looked at me with "are you kidding?" looks, and said "Ha! YES!!!!" 

Ah shucks.... 

I stepped out of the doorway and into the long hallway yesterday at the church. My gaze was immediately captured by something black fluttering around the ceiling at one end of the hallway. I have been frequently acquainted with birds entering my own home uninvited through the chimneys, and as I was always the one elected to chase and capture our marauding visitor, this posed no dangerous threat to me. It only caused to arrest my sympathy for this freedom-loving creature now doomed to a life within walls. I watched it fly towards me....closer....closer....closer...until it fly within just a foot or so above my head.

It was then that I realized that this was no ordinary bird. In fact, this bird wasn't even a bird. It was a bat!!! *scream*

Now, it's disturbing enough to have a mere bird come flying towards you while you are alone in a long narrow hallway, but when you have a bat torpedoing towards your face, with a malicious and diabolical grin on it's devilish face as it zone's in on you, there can most certainly be cause for panic.

And I am no exception from that. I became a harried creature, alone, undefended,  helpless in the clutches of my imagination. I bolted towards the door across the hallway, saying a prayer as I ran. With thanksgiving, I sheltered myself behind that closed door, unmolested. But what to do next? I needed to reach the end of the hallway to make my complete escape. But my winged assailant kept his vigil, leaving me temporarily safe, but trapped.

After a few moments, upon some sudden whim of bravery that possessed my being, with a lung, I shot out from the doorway. I ran, ran, ran! My escape-- the yawning doorway to the staircase-- loomed in front of me. With a final burst of speed, I dove into the sheltering walls of the staircase, and with stealth and cunning, executed my complete exit from the premises of my batty friend.

I have now recovered from my frightful experience, and life does go on, even after the worst of nightmares. It's a beautiful day, and the sun in shining...and there's not a bat in sight. *sigh*

Chick-fil-a got my complete vote yesterday. They had....<drum roll, please>.... a TOOTHPICK DISPENSER!!! In all the world, there is nothing that can beat that in my book, I say. Ah, for the love of a toothpick.... 

It was a momentous day this afternoon. As we were sitting around our dimly-lit table at Cracker Barrel, the triangular "peg-jumping game-thing" was placed before me, and a challenge was declared.

A champion of the said game, I am not!! Never before have I gotten to the coveted title of "genius." But today, what possessed my mind with the exact moves to make? What invisible hand guided mine to the right pegs? It shall forever remain a mystery in my mind. But the outcome is such, that there I sat, with the wooden triangle before me....the triangle that possessed a mere ONE peg remaining!! Shockingly amazing, to say the least! It's a day that I will forever remember......*happy sigh* 

When I'm having a bad day, or just need to have some time by myself and think things through, I have two outlet points. 1) I get in the car and drive somewhere. 2) I find a lovable cat, and sit down with it and pour my thoughts into it's listening ears. For me, there's nothing quite as comforting as a cat's purr. Crazy and laugh-provoking, yes I am aware, but uniquely true. Everyone must have some kind of unique twist to themselves....this is one of mine.

The past few days have been some-what challenging and "thoughtful" days for me, and I have felt sometimes like my brain couldn't hold any more, but unfortunately, I didn't have any outlets available. No car, no cat. So, you can imagine my extreme and insurmountable joy when, as I was walking along the outside of the church, what did my eyes see, but a orange and white cat come running towards me, meowing for my attention. I was in the ecstasies of bliss!

After dropping my back-pack off, my first goal was to go locate that heaven-sent cat. I found her, and we had a good, much-needed talk....for about a mere 2 minutes. *sigh* I guess it just wasn't meant to be. A bunch of fun-seeking boys came by, and the next thing I knew, my one listening friend was a orange streak through the dusk, with a band of screaming natives at it's heels. I watched for a little while, as they chased her around, hoping that they would go away, and let me finish my talk with her....but I finally gave up. They were having too much fun to stop, I could tell. 

And so, I was left with my thoughts all alone again. I've looked for the cat every time I went back outside since then, but no matter how hard I've looked, no little orange and white purring feline came out. Oh well.....*sigh*

Now, people celebrate the dawning of New Year’s in many different ways. Some bang pots and pans, ring cow-bells, or shoot fireworks, thinking that a cacophony of noise and lights will somehow usher in the next year sufficiently. Others stand in a crowded square or in front of the tv, to watch a mere glowing ball drop from the sky. And then there is that stodgy class who have no hope for the future, and so cocoon themselves in bed at a civilized hour, ignoring the celebration around them.

But none of these melodramatic displays for the Trout household this year!! Why waste energy on such carbon-copy routines? For us, there is no other ways to celebrate than...<drum roll>....a Marshmallow-gun War!! The hours before the great battle found us selecting our weapons from the family’s arsenal of blow-guns, made from select pieces of PVC pipe and glue. As the hour of the fight drew near, the bags of marshmallow came out of hiding, and battle stations were placed.

And then with a deep breath, the shot that was heard all the way around our living room was fired!! The air was filled with white flashes, and gasps of breath as we fought it out. Sister against sister, brother against brother, father against son, husband against wife, each out to defend his own! The great battle raged on, amidst the screams (of laugher!) and firing of the canonry. It was fierce! It was deadly! It was brutal to the end!!

As the great marshmallow war at last came to a close and the smoke of battle drifted away, we looked in awe upon our now white and powdery surroundings. Who would have thought such brutal war-fare would have been played out in such a domestic spot. But, what a battle! What a fight it was! The Battle of the Marshmallows will undoubtedly go down in chronicled history of the Trout family for generation upon generation!

Funny ....we’re still finding marshmallows in the oddest and most unlikely places around our house! But aahh...it was worth it! Here we are, posing for battle:

What do you do when your room is a chaotic display of disorganized confusion and paraphernalia, but you have no motivation whatsoever to clean it up? Do you....

1) Ignore the mess, humming quietly to yourself when you are in your room, staring at the ceiling, while consequently tripping ever few steps as you try to voyage through your room?

2) Face the fact that you are a slob, call yourself all kinds of mean names, but continue on with life as it is, reconciling yourself that you are a hopeless case and can never change?

3) Put a "Hazardous Area. Do Not Enter" sign on the outside of your door, and being the law-abiding citizen that you are, do just that?

4) Dig around through the piles on the floor to find the necessary items of life, pack them up into a suitcase, and move out?

5) Make signs and picket around your door in protest against your own habits?

6) Or do you buckle down, discipline yourself and your detestable habits, and clean your room?

Ah, decisions, decisions! But naturaly, this tragic senario is merely a hypothetical question and has no bearing whatsoever upon the current state of my room.

Well, I've stubbornly defied doing any kind of internet survey or whatever category that these questionnaire things fall into...but as I was tagged fair and square, I feel that I must fulfill my duty. So, here you go.

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Ground Rules: The 1st player of this "game" starts with the topic "5 Weird Habits/Facts About Myself" and people who get tagged need to write a xanga entry about their 5 habits/facts as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next 5 people to be tagged.

1) I don't like sleeping with my socks on, but I leave them on until I'm in bed, then I kick them off. So when I do my laundry, I have to go raid the end of my bed to find all my socks. I think that qualifies as a weird habit...

2) When we were younger, my sisters and I used to each pick one leaf on the big tree out in our front yard, and we’d tie a piece of yarn on "our" leaf. The goal: to see who’s leaf would stay on the tree the longest. Katheryn’s leaf had already fallen, so Kristine and I were both running for the finish. Well, I won. Only thing was, well <evil snicker>, Kristine’s leaf didn’t exactly just fall off.....

3) Every time I see a cat, I have to "meow" loudly at it. The only problem is, when there is a man standing next to the cat as I drive by with the window open....< blush >

4) My "life’s goal" is to go skydiving.

5) Around age 3ish, I contrived on Christmas morning, to insert my little curly-haired head between the rungs of one of our kitchen chairs. Mom had to break the chair apart to get me out!

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Well, I've complied with supplying my information, forgive me for not tagging anyone else. 

The Christmas tree is up, all shiney and decorated with all our bevy of ornaments. It's fun to stand next to the tree and see a "scrap-book" of this Trout generation hanging from the tree's branches. All the silly little ornaments made from clay, popcicle sticks, glitter, and glue we so painstakingly, and with such pride, made in kindergarten and sunday-school hanging right along side the ones we reverently take out of their special boxes and hang gently on the highest branches of the tree. Such a variety of different ornaments, but each holding an equal part of this year's resulting master-piece.

I love Christmas time. It holds something so quiet and special for me. And this year is extra special, as my long-absent and terribly-missed sister is "home for the holidays!" Christmas is such an amazing time. I love shopping for presents, I love driving around at night touring the Christmas lights, or just sitting around our living room surrounded by decorations, sipping on hot cider, and just enjoying one another's company. It's such a wonderful time be be together. It's a quiet, happy time.

But....Christmas time brings out the crazy in us!  Like me trying to dance some kind of "holiday hula" in our home-made Christmas-tree skirt:

But Christmas time is just a great time to be together!!

Seven hours until we pick up Katheryn at the airport!!