Silver and Gold

make new friends, but keep the old; those are silver, these are gold.

Goodbye Bangor, Hello Berwyn

Departure. Last view of Paul Bunyan. Video journals. Pig and Bobby's constant chatter. Stopping every other hour for bathroom breaks. Beef jerky. Alyssa reading aloud. Chocolate. Genet's ipod breaking. Five Guys' Burgers and Fries. Doggie problems. Hotel that allows pets exceeding my rather low expectations. Jojo and his american ingenuity. Kicking Alyssa off the sleeper couch. Thanks be to God for my own bed. FaceTime. Hotel waffles. Windshield wipers flying off the car while driving on the interstate. Moving van breaking down in Indiana. Snacks. Frustration and elation. Traffic. Mom hogging the chocolate covered pretzels. Bickering over music selections. The helium booth and all the hilarity it provides. First glimpse of the Sears Tower. More traffic. Driving past all the little places and streets that will soon become so familiar. And finally we can see our street. Oh, wait, it's the street next to that one. Hold up there's our house! Cue the fanfare! Arrival.

I'm Back!

I've thought many times of how to jump back into blogging, but my summer break from Scintillate has quickly stretched into a 6-Month black hole! I was not going to say "it's funny how time flies", but I just did, and it certainly is the truth. I almost posted a tribute to big brothers after the summer visits from my own came to an end. I just about uploaded pictures galore after a visit with my cousins. I practically gave up on tennis this past summer, so i nearly came to the blog to lament my lack of athleticism. At the beginning of the school year, I thought, "time to start blogging again!", but i didn't. And then, I'm ashamed to say, I didn't think about Scintillate until this month. And the reason I chose this month to resume Scintillate is the 10-year-old businesswoman in our family.

God Jul!

I've resurrected my blog just in time to wish you all a Merry Swedish Christmas! God Jul! I don't know if your Christmas celebrations so far have been merry or Swedish, but my family's certainly have. Our Christmas tree is standing (always a great accomplishment)! TSO is playing on spotify! Our stockings are now hung, with the utmost care and only slightly creased, above the fireplace! The tumptas are perched on the mantle! All of these things are shouting the joyous news: Christ is come!

Sibling Wars

Since the beginning of time siblings have been the best of friends and the worst of enemies. Our family is no different. We've all taken and distributed our share of teasing, pranks and whatnot. I realized the other day for the first time, however, that Alyssa is really becoming a player in this thing. Being the youngest, she has always been kind of on the receiving end of the heat, rather than passing it out.

A Lovely Sunset

I think i'm in love with this picture! I managed to take it just before my camera died when i was at my super cool friend Samantha Martin's graduation party. Needless to say, the sunset looked even more spectacular in person. ;)

We Have A Lawn!

Oh my, I haven't posted in like 9 days or so! I did write this week (i'm really not a big, fat, slacker!), those pieces of writing just never found their way to Scintillate. Why?! Well...that's not completely my fault. Our computer and internet have both been really nutty. But I guess i can't blame it all on the computer. I have also been quite busy. We were gardening last weekend, we had a couple baseball games this week, and we had a yard sale this weekend! I'm wiped! Anyway, the gardening was successful (surprised? well my thumb is not by any means green so you should be very impressed, actually), and one of the results of our toiling was....