Saturday's sunset

After the rain ended and the clouds began to break up, this is what was left behind. This is sans photoshop, just a crop to get out the 'worldy things'.

rain drops

This morning I opened my eyes to find a grey hue coming through the tight blinds. I looked outside and got a very pleasant suprise! Rainy days make me enjoy my day so much more thoroughly. Being 'stuck' inside with warm pajamas, oatmeal and a good book with rain tapping the windows is my version of a good day.

Because I was so cozy within my warm walls and new pajama pants, I decided to stay inside and look for a rain picture rather than go outside and risk my warmth.

I found this rain drops picture above from a site I've never heard of before. I was really impressed with the ones I browsed. I don't know what else could be on this site, so note that I don't endorse it 1oo%.

In other Jayci-news, I've begun a new book. I finished Eclipse yesterday, and instead of going into a post-good-book-funk, I reserved this book for this time. It's young and fresh and it's called Secret Society Girl. So far so good. Looks like another rainy day tomorrow!

babyshowers

Tonight will be my first triple babyshower that I'll be attending in an hour. I'm still a little sick, so I will bounce out after 20 minutes (a planned escape) to go get Pizza Hut with Mark.

Buying gifts for three different babies proved easy, just expensive. You can't get one girl something extravagant just because you're her visiting teacher, so to be fair, you get all three girls something just as fun.

Pajamas! Footsie pajamas to be more precise. With onesies to wear underneath. I always go a size bigger than newborns. This means getting the 3 month old size. I like to think that I'm helping them plan a few weeks ahead for when the baby outgrows all the cutsie teeny stuff.

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You see the gold shimmery bag in the back? That was the only bag I had, so I bought the cute 8" bags from the Base Exchange (BX) and stuffed white tissue paper at the top to hide the gift, of course. Usually, I try to give non-baby bags at baby showers so that they can reuse them for most any occasion. The camera light setting was on Sun, so that's why they look a little yellow. When I turned it off, the bags looked blue. I stuck to this one:

new banner

This is an older picture, but somehow it has a winter-ish charm to it. I'm still playing around with winter pictures.

Ah! stress of the holidays, even on a blog.

enchanted

No Lord's name in vain, no smoking, minimal cursing, marriage supportive, and fair. This movie I asked Mark to take me to was very sweet and very mesmerizing. It makes you appreciate Disney for what they do for families. They support the marriage system and never conveys the message of sacrificing all the good times for the bad ones; no one has to fall out of love. I had to laugh with this whimsical girl as she experienced the anger-emotion for the first time. Even in reality, we're still able to live happily ever afters.

happy things

It's nothing like last year's, but we needed a little Christmas spirit in our small apartment for the next three weeks.
We got a Christmas tree last night from the store for a grand total of 6 dollars. The crooked little berried tree sits inside a red Santa Boot. We strung a tiny strand of lights through the branches and hung silver ornaments around it.
How it sparkles!!

Thanksgiving Reeder's Digest

Now that we're home from a very enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday, it can be blogged about! I wouldn't doubt it if I've never had a busier holiday weekend before now. It was a record setter. My purse-calendar was nearly full for each day we were there. Just like my belly.

Mark and I slept in the car Thanksgiving Eve because we didn't like the idea of leaving a hotel early (after paying for only 5 hours of sleep) and then rushing to find a parking spot. It was much better this way. We flew into Utah at about 8:30 and were picked up from the airport by the Reeder's on their way out to Brigham City for Grandma Reeder's farm. There were 50 people there for dinner. Can you believe it? Neither can I. Grandma Reeder has a large room in the back of her house where there were about 6 tables set up. It was some party, and Mark's brother and sisters in law were the life of the party. I finally got to sit at 'the cool kid's table.'

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Below is a picture of all the Reeder's there for the holiday. We were missing Mo and Tory (Mark's brother and his wife). Behind us is the slough that freezes over every winter so they can go ice skating for miles and miles. It was just barely frozen around the edges. It looked cold!

After dinner we went skeet/clay pigeon shooting and then took all the pictures with all 50 people. Stacey's nephew Johnny (who's a Benson, not a Reeder) was the photographer. All the old ladies were saying, "Oh! Who's that? He's a looker." Poor Johnny (he's in the blue sweatshirt below), Mark is next to him in his leather jacket, who's next to Paps Reeder, and then that's Mike in the white. Now all I needed were the Judds. But Tessa, my sister, got to join me for some fun later on.
What a family I have; I'm thankful.

the Painted Veil

A couple of movies ago, I watched The Painted Veil. It is beautifully told, and set on a continent that Mark called home for a while. It is a cinematic experience that is now hard to come by these days, even if I still do love most movies I see. This is one for the books. Or blog.

The scene is set in China during the cholera epidemic. Her husband takes her into the midst of dying people as a punishment for her selfserving nature.

Throughout this movie, you witness the transormation of a girl into a lady. She is socially forced into a marriage by her parents who don't want to take care of her any longer. She thinks the man is kind, but her interest stops there. Their hearts soften and realize how lucky they really are to have one another. Her transformation is a hard one, but it makes the viewer appreciate love in all forms, and motivates to improve life in any situation. My synopsis does no justice; watch and enjoy.

it's beginning...

to feel a bit like Christmas.

And the need to begin some gifts!

the big 22

Today marked my 22 time around the sun (Mark's way of thinking of a birthday)! I got so much love from everyone, I almost fell over.

Much of the day was spent in my pajamas while enjoying Dancing with the Stars, chocolate, New Moon, and the company of Mark and Buckwheat, and talking with and/or texting many of you.

Later, when Mark was home from his simulator, we scoured the town in search of a restaurant. Our plan of Applebee's was dashed with bad reviews. We settled on Tres Rios, a Mexican Restaurant with yummy sopapias (sp?) that come free when it's your birthday!

The restaurant at 9:30 pm. Scratch that, we had it privately reserved:

Me about to embark on the quest for achieving 'sugar lips'. mmm delicious! It looks like the plate is about to dump on me, but I was careful of course! My name ain't 'Stain' for no good reason!

happy things

don't you love 'happy things' that resemble colorful one of a kind, hand-painted dishes? Me too.

This one was for Chelsea (if she ever reads this). She has a thing for black and white decor spun through different designs as the one you see above. Below, the blurry picture is just a red tea mug, with a country sort of napkin stuffed inside it like a feather in a hat. I know it's sort of like Luke's diner, but I love differently ornate dishes and mugs, especially mugs. Pick your favorite. I'm still looking for mine!

Veteran's Day

Today was our stake conference in Lawton, Oklahoma. When the meeting started, the Stake President got up and started to get choked up. He said it gets him every time. I didn't know what he was going to do.

"Will all the active duty in our military armed forces stand up."

"...and their families."

"Will all the reserve military stand up."

"Will the retired military please stand."

"Will the veterans who fought in wars please stand."

More than half of all the people in the stake center were standing. As I stood there looking at young and old, I teared up at the realization of how lucky I am to be a part of something so special, a part of something that I have so much respect for.

I'm so thankful for Mark bringing the military to me, and me to the military.

Reeder's Digest

When we moved here to Oklahoma, we met a lady in our church who was just so fun to spend time with. Our first time over to her house we got to talking about her house and how much work she has put into it just by herself; she just needed shelves for some food storage. Mark knows how to build sturdy things, so he volunteered for the job. I was a little skeptical seeing is how all we had to work with was what's in the picture above and a box of nails! But it took off when Mark got working.
After 700 nails and lots of arm pain, Mark and I finished the shelves for Ruth. I only hammered about 200 or so, but I did come up with some time-saving, sturdy-ensuring ideas. Regarding those ideas, Mark had to tell me, "Jayci, I'm sure glad you're smart." He made my day.

good mail and happy things

Two days ago I got my first official 'good mail' from Jamie in Texas! It was really nice of her. So thank you, Jamie! It was a sweet card for a special day coming up around the weekend and it had this simple wish with a note written on the opposite fold. The two words that stuck out to me were HAPPY and things. I looked around thinking 'happy things' and I caught a glimpse of my little dangley-mirror that I have on my purse; a simple joy. I have so many 'happy things': simple ones, complex ones, and immeasureable ones.

Here was the first to make my endless list of 'happy things.'

*another current simple-joy of mine is reading the book below called Twilight. I can't stop!

overdue

It's getting colder outside so I haven't been out to snap pictures of things out there. So I have been inside catching up with some good new books. I'm still working on Queen of Babble (I left it in Enid on our weekend visit to meet Mark's old friends, so if you see my librarian, dodge her!), I just finished One Good Knight (2 stars), and I'm almost done with The Angel and the Jabberwocky Murders (I have a feeling it will be 4 stars). fyi: my rating system for books and movies consist of 5 stars maximum.

While perusing the library's first row selections, I kept passing up The Thirteenth Tale. Until I saw it on a list from the Border's website. So I clicked on a review; it was a good review. So yesterday I went to pick it up. I already knew the exact location, so it only took me less than a minute to zig in and zag out. Mark didn't need to wait long in the car at all! I think he's afraid of libraries. That's between you and me.

Because of countless recommendations to read the Twilight series, I finally looked into it and needed to order it from another library. It came in today from the Great Bend Public Library in Kansas.

I wish I could blame my blog absence on reading myself silly, but this week has been a little stressful, causing a bit of a blog drought. But now that I have all sorts of stories to fill my thoughts, let's get reading!

*I took this picture thinking it would look a little more like late night-reading supplies if I added a bit more contrast! And I don't know why I had my ginger citrus cream sitting on top. Probably because my hands get so chapped while my hands are holding (so tightly) the riveting tales before me in the cold night air

sailing in

On Ref-desk, the word of the day is "centerboard." I was thinking it had something to do with a professor's display board for class (or something as ordinary as that).

Centerboard: A movable keel in a sailboat that can be pivoted upward to reduce the boat's draft in shallow water.

hm! I can learn something new every day online. I thought Uncle Stan could appreciate that one. I remember looking over the brick wall that separated our back yard from the cousin's and seeing big sailboats back there that he would work on. I never asked him too much about them because I was too young to think up questions to ask, but I sure thought they were pretty.

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A couple of years ago I did this sketch, so I thought I'd share seeing how the word was about a sail boat. I promise it looks better small, so don't enlarge it! And thanks for all the votes below, I'll update when I get myself to tally all the votes.

all Hallow's Eve

While sipping on smooth and delicious pumpkin smoothies and thinking how Mark should go about making his homemade rootbeer, we brought out the steak knives and started carving our delightfully round pumpkins. As a new Reeder Tradition, we've begun an Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest.

All day I've been longing for a traditional pumpkin head, but I had just watched The Adventures of Ichabod and I really liked the Headless Horseman Pumpkin-substitute look; the pumpkin was even the perfect shape. It looks like it's leaning back and about to come after you! So I did a mixture. Mark decided to pull at the heart strings and make a buck-toothed cutie pumpkin-pie.

Because this is a contest, I ask you to submit one vote: for either Mark's or mine (no pressure on voting for mine). If you're family I'll try sending you an email to make it 'official' as well, if I've got your email. Stakes are high - the winner gets to choose a dinner to be made and cleaned up by the loser (I know, ultimate high stakes). If Mark looses, this is the Zoolanderish face he'll be giving you next time you cross paths.

cranberry pumpkin cookies

Tomorrow I teach Young Womens. Scary? Why yes, so I bring peace offerings.

mmmm...

shoe repair man

I bought these shoes a while ago (when I was still in Texas). I fell in love with them, they're based on a shoe style by Steve Madden. They were the last pair, and they had a bit of a heel problem. But they were too cute, and too Thoroughly Modern Millie/roaring 20s to pass them up. So I bought them for full price even though they were a little injured. It's like seeing a wounded puppy in a pound; you can't say no.

Eventually I found the shoe repair shop, walked through the doors saying, "Excuse me, hello, Sir?" and I still ended up startling the poor old man when he turned around. His npr radio station was on a little loud (probably because he was a tad hard of hearing). The repair man looked oddly familiar, and I associated his looks to little dolls I've seen, comical caricature dolls I've seen (look like wood or porcelain or something), but I couldn't quite place his familiarity... until the visit I had yesterday when I picked up my shoes.

This time I had a method for not startling him: stand at the door and knock very loudly. He heard me after a couple of tries. Improvement! He came up to the counter after placing a pair of worn boots down and asked which were mine. He asked how much he said he'd charge me. I recounted to him he said it would only be a dollar, but I thought he had been kidding. He said, "then that will be just a dollar." That's when I noticed his register. Beautiful antique!! And since I'm now an antiquing expert, I have an eye for these things, right? hm. I commented on it and he said he'd sell it to me. I laughed and said, "You wouldn’t, it’s too pretty! ..How much?” He said, "$80,000." My mouth dropped and my eyes widened...so I do have an eye for these sort of things. He said "it'll be worth something some day." To that I replied, "aren't they already?" Then he told me they were selling these registers for $68,000! I just handed him my dollar and said, "oh it's beautiful, and thanks for fixing my shoes!" Just as he smiled, the phrase "Tha'll do pig, tha'll do" came ringing through my head and that's when I realized just who he looked so much like!!

I raced home and pulled up a picture of Farmer Arthur Hoggett from the movie Babe. He looked exactly like him, just a little older with some big glasses on. It was an epiphany and felt like a breakthrough. I told Mark all about him and am waiting anxiously for another shoe to break so Mark can go back with me to see the resemblence.

I'm so glad my shoe is 'feeling better'. Now that it has glue and a nail holding it in place, I'm sure they'll last a life time. I have the Mr. Hoggett look-a-like to thank. What a charming shoe repair man.

the favorite antique

It's about 6 feet tall (taller than I would have thought it would be), blue and yellow with this little clasp handle. I tried to take a bigger picture, but it didn't turn out that great because the lighting (looks very florescent) and angle I had to hold the camera; I was smashed in front of it by all the other furniture, and so I couldn't easily get the whole piece in one picture. So if you really want to see it, you'll have to click here. ....Oh never mind, it's not that bad I guess. Don't judge. Don't compare the colors from photo to photo. Just adore its simplistic perfection: