the exclusive on the effusive

Had a great time talking with our son on the way home from his first semester of college.  There was a sense of freedom in his chattiness, something that I tried to treasure especially as he's been mostly 'mum' since leaving home in August, probably responding to one out of ten of my texts.  I'm super grateful for how he shared that the honors program that gave him a sizeable scholarship has caused him to rethink a lot of his stands on & his approach to issues such as immigration, abortion, even day-to-day life.  Life with his roommates seems to have improved since our last talking, with acts of kindness mutually shared (eg: staying up to help one roommate not miss his flight back home up north, and sharing both light and heavy moments of discussion).  He's also getting to know an attractive young psychology major on a soccer scholarship who recently underwent arthroscopic surgery as they caught each others' eyes near the physics building.  Some of what he said...

"We already talked about that and we agreed that sex is only for before marriage."  (we laughed when I pointed out the error... Freudian?)

"Oh wow! I'd love to go with you on a mission trip, maybe to Asia!  I could teach the children."

"There's no way I would get into drugs or alcohol -- I don't even know why people would want to do that kind of stuff."

"God saved me in so many ways this semester." (favor with finals preparation and getting to his piano jury appointment)

"I need to stick to my schedule"; "I could do better with my time management"

May the Lord continue to build up this young man in His beautiful ways!

we rejoice for our voice

It's pretty neat watching Jadon discover his newfound vocal abilities since joining the school choir. We were in the car on the way back to college when we wondered aloud what are our personal vocal ranges in both regular and falsetto voice. Specifically, we were wondering not so much the upper level limit of our falsetto range but the lower limit. That led to the question of "What is actually physiologically happening when we transition from regular voice to falsetto?"  Jadon looked it up and found out that our falsetto voices occur when we are not modulating the entire vocal cords but rather only the edges of the cords to attain that higher frequency. How very interesting!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

On our way up returning to college, Jadon wanted to stop by OCSA for kicks. We were there for no longer than 5 minutes when he thought aloud, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I kind of miss this place."

Make a joyful (& beautiful) noise!

As expected, Jadon's first visit home from college would be full of new experiences and discoveries. One happy surprise is how good his singing voice is after joining the school choir (part of his music scholarship requirement). He reports his range will go down to low E (below the bottom G line of bass clef)!

Activated charcoal 7/29

It felt like I was trying to poop it out sideways!

Monetary mental manipulation

"In order to keep the thrill but not risk so much, I set it to Iranian Rials." Current exchange rate 1USD=42100Rial

Unified in spirit

We had a stressful evening, partly my own fault. But I was glad to see Jadon and Evangelina ending their day in prayer.

Sibling revelry

I'm not sure what it is about me that makes me so jazzed and joyful when I see siblings demonstrating love and care for each other: is it that we could see from our parents' generation the depth of animosity and harm that could result from unresolved conflict, or perhaps is it the sweetness of my memories growing up with Ruthie who cared for me and taught me and laughed at my jokes and with whom I enjoyed a close relationship even after she left for college?

Obviously I'm most jazzed when I see my own kids love each other. In spite of all the name calling and mild rivalries, I am so moved to know they love each other.

Evangelina had a rough night and wasn't able to get to bed until well after 1am on a rare night Jadon had already gone to bed. I don't know if he never fell asleep or if he woke up when she finally hit the hay, but later I walked past them (they've been camping perpendicularly on the floor of the family room) and noted in the dim light that they were holding hands.

Terms of enSMEARment

For Auntie Ruthie and me, it was "donkey this or donkey that," like donkey-breath or donkey-butt or donkey-head. 

For Jadon and Evangelina, they recently compiled their own list:

constipation proclamation. 1

Fat Brat 4

Ratus status  3

Mastered the bastard. 7

Amogus brogus  2

Litter sh_tter  6

Buttcheeker Peeker 5

Commander Demander

Positively Negative -- When What You Got Ain't What You Sought

Jadon was showcasing to Evangelina his new AP Computer Science project which involved some visuospatial task. Apparently, when users accomplish the task, Jadon programmed the computer to praise them with a "You got it!"

Evangelina was not only unfazed, but even discouraged by the intended compliment.  Apparently for her, she associated "You got it!" with Dad's half-sarcastic declarations (often on my way out of the room) whenever the kids would misbehave and "earn" themselves some unwanted negative consequence to be revealed at some future occasion.

faux-Finnish for "May I kiss you?"

Alla mina bichi nu?  (apparently 'mina' does mean 'I')