Jane Eyre: Masterpiece Theatre 2006

I stumbled upon this Masterpiece Theater movie last night on PBS and was instantly enthralled. THE BEST adaptation of Jane Eyre out there. I can't believe I hadn't heard of it earlier. I love what this Amazon review says about it:

You may think the world doesn't need another adaptation of Jane Eyre--but you're wrong. This new and wonderfully lush Masterpiece Theatre version, directed by Susanna White (who directed the equally sumptuous miniseries of Bleak House starring Gillian Anderson), contrasts Jane Eyre's vivid inner life with the harshness of her outer life; both Georgie Henley (The Chronicles of Narnia) as the young Jane and newcomer Ruth Wilson express the inner vitality of the outcast orphan girl whose spirit captures the heart of the rough, charismatic landowner Mr. Rochester (Toby Stephens, Die Another Day). Stephens, it must be said, is far too conventionally handsome for the part, but he makes up for it by capturing Rochester's abrasive and mercurial temperament. (Wilson's looks are perfect; at one moment she seems awkward and homely, at another utterly luminous.) Jane Eyre is so often remade because the story is so potent; this production brings all of the novel's juice and passion to the fore, emphasizing the characters' sensual experience while staying true to the restrictions and mores of the period. All in all, exceptional. --Bret Fetzer

But don't order it from Amazon, try Overstock.com first. Right now the two DVD set is $18.73 with only $2.95 shipping. I love a good deal. : )

Anyway, I actually haven't seen the second half yet. I was sorely disappointed when the climax was nearing and bam, stay tuned for next week. But I'm sure it will be as excellent as the first part.

Painting Henry's Room

Now that Christmas is over I'm itching to do all the aesthetic changes to the house that we've talked about. It's the same old domino affect though.

Before I can paint I need to rearrange the kids' beds since the only time to paint is while Henry is sleeping.

Before we can install new flooring we need to have a handyman replace our cooktop and ancient oven with a range so the flooring will go under the new range as well.

Before we can have our single paned windows replaced with new double paned vinyl ones we need to wait til the holidays are over. Hey! We can do that now.

Anyway, this past week I finally bit the bullet and moved Henry's bed into the girls room and moved Linnea's bassinet into our room and started fixing the crazy paint job.

Here's before pics:

The text is my own addition : )

During:

After:

Do you think the blue works? I was going for something lighter blue but I think it matches the denim and red gingham look. Now I'm just stuck on the trim. White makes the most sense I suppose, any other ideas?

Also for the closet door (and bedroom door) I was going to paint it white/trim color. Or maybe replace the bifolds with some white louvered once that are less dated.

Our First "Wild" Christmas Tree

This year we cut ourselves a "wild" Christmas tree from our nation's wilderness lands. It was quite the adventure. With all the loose ends around the house, I was almost inclined to buy one from the grocery store for $30 bucks, but Matt was insistent that we go together and cut one down from the nearby hillsides to herald in a new family tradition.



So the first Saturday in December, Matt got our fluorescent orange permit from the local Forest Service office for $10, some maps and directions and we set off in our becoming-less-trusty MPV (which was still with us...). Our destination was about 40 minutes away due east across the Shasta Valley to the Shasta National Forests lands. By the time we actually left the house and got to our turnoff, we realized that while we had packed bottles for Linnea and plenty of warm clothes for everyone, we had no food for the kids (or us)and it was way past feeding time! Rather than turning around at that point we figured we'd just continue northeast along Hwy 97 until we came to the next town and we'd get some snacks at a gas station or something. We left Matt's truck at the View Point where we'd stopped to conference about our poor planning.

We drove through some gorgeous scenery but didn't find a gas station until another 40 minutes later, the not-so-booming metropolis of Macdoel where we gassed up, ate some chicken strips and chocolate milk then went back another 40 minutes. It was simply stunning though driving south west straight at Mount Shasta on a clear winter's day. We got back to Matt's truck and turned onto the road that heads to the snowmobile park where the good tree cutting is. We drove a short way up and pulled off, geared up and started wandering around in search of the perfect tree.

I was a little hesitant at this moment whereas Matt was full of excitement and enthusiasm for our family adventure. My reservations were: I only saw scraggly junipers and pines that were in the size and location requirements (100' from road and less than 6" diam at ground), and no pretty firs or spruces; There were no trails and I didn't want to hike too far from the car and get turned around and lost or injured with our three very small kids. (A friend and I got lost in the woods for most of the day one time when we wandered off the marked trail: scary, and that was by the beach in the summertime!) Plus I kept seeing trucks and SUVs coming down the road loaded with beautiful trees.

We spent some time in pines and junipers with me dragging my feet and feeling bad about putting a damper on things while my gut kept saying just get back in the car and drive up the road some more. My thinking was if we couldn't see the kind of trees we wanted from the car then it was too far to go with tiny ones in tow.

So that's what we did. Evalyn was such a fun little hiker just plunging along and chattering away, it was simply delightful to watch her enjoying herself. Henry was in the carrier on Matt's back for the first part and Linnea was snoozing away on my back in the Ergo.

Another five minutes up the road the snow got deeper and the trees changed to the Christmas tree kind and we were in heaven! We pulled over and found a great tree in about 10 minutes time. It was so peaceful in the quiet snow covered forest with stunning firs clustered around. Matt used our now traditional Christmas tree saw that we found at an antique store in Maryland and cut our tree last year near Mt. Airy.

Twelve feet of tree was much more than we needed so Matt trimmed it down when we got home. He'd gone in and out of the house about 5 different times and the second to the last time it was almost perfect, but we still needed another 6 inches for a star. Something got miscalculated on that last cut so we'll just say it was a bit shorter than we envisioned but it was still beautiful with white and blue lights and filled the house with that lovely pine scent.

We had a good time squeezing the tree cutting into the busy days before Matt went on a 4-day whirlwind tour of the field offices he's working with and the kids and I drove to my parents. I need to get him to write a post on that, quite the adventure indeed. Yreka to Arcata and back again. Then Yreka to Klamath Falls then back again before driving to Salem for the family reunion.

We're already looking forward to next year's tree cutting adventure. Only next time we'll be a bit more prepared with a campfire for hot dogs and cocoa perhaps. This post was much longer and much later than I intended, so here's some pictures if you've stuck it out to the very end. Enjoy the slideshow!

New Ride in the Garage

After quite an ordeal and several back and forths, we decided to trade our much loved 2001 Mazda MPV in for a 2007 Toyota Sienna. In hindsight, we should've bought a new car in Maryland before we moved and saved ourselves almost $1,000 dollars in two different repair jobs after arriving here. Plus when the Toyota dealership pulled the Carfax it had a previous collision (which we knew about but it wasn't a serious one) and so they could only give us auction price of $2,800 instead of the $4,200 blue book price. :( Even as we compared Town and Countrys, Grand Caravans, Siennas and the Hyundai Entourage there were still several small things with our little '01 MPV that weren't in these newer cars and at the last moment I almost chickened out.


But our pretty light blue 8-seater Sienna is great. It is much roomier than our MPV and has a lot of newer features: 40-60 split back seat that folds flat, 5 latch seats (3 middle 2 back), power sliding door, garage door opener, Aux port for my iPod, tons of cupholders, tinted windows, etc. But the main reason we went with the Sienna was because Toyota has the certified preowned warranty so after adding on the bumper to bumper to the 100,000 mile powertrain warranty, if anything major goes wrong we only have to pay a $50 deductible. That is peace of mind.

So even though our car payment is $60 more a month, we have a much more comfortable and safer ride. The 8 seater has some great flexibility. The best being we don't have to climb in the back to buckle kids in since all 3 car seats fit across the middle. Still though, now that I have ONE power door, I see the slots for power tailgate and the driver side power door and start to wish we'd waited another weekend and shopped around more for a used XLE with ALL the features, even if it was a 7 seater instead of an 8. What's that joke about a woman shopping for the perfect man and never being satisfied? That's me with a minivan!!

This car will definitely suit our needs for the next 5 years at least and who knows, by then we may own one of those quad cab trucks and be towing a camping trailer across the country for fun in the summer.....

(regarding the photos, we were showing Matt's uncle around on Christmas Eve and drove up the Klamath River canyon and while we were stopped taking in the view, the van was just beckoning for a photo shoot!)

Oh and we actually unpacked our garage enough that we can park it in there. Only problem is I keep forgetting to close the door when I back out because I'm used to parking in a carport!

We're still here

I keep trying to catch my breath and squeeze in some blogging time, but it is a hard thing for me! Now that Christmas and all its fun and crazy prep work and our family reunion earlier in the month are passed, perhaps I can. I've started composing some posts that I've saved, so when I do post them they'll show up as a past date, but hopefully you'll all enjoy them still. And if you've been following our blog but never commented, please do! It's super easy and you don't even have to login to do it. Just click on the Comments link at the bottom of the post, type your comment, click Nickname and type your name in. I love knowing who's reading and (hopefully) enjoying what we're sharing.

I think about everyone back in Maryland often, though I rarely get the chance to email or call with my thoughts. At the moment, everyone in the house is sleeping and it's only 8:15! Henry has been climbing out of his crib again so that has added to the bedtime craziness. My sister was borrowing our crib tent, since we thought we didn't need it anymore. We should just tough it out and train him for a toddler bed since Linnea is almost too big/heavy for her bassinet and we gave our 2nd crib away because we figured we could make do without, etc etc. But the freedom of safely containing our very active almost 2 year old is very nice, too. He'll be in a big boy bed the rest of his life, no need to rush into it.

Linnea is in her cute burbling cooing smiley talky stage without moving around or sitting independently yet. She's having fun reaching out and grabbing things, chewing on cloth, chewing her hands, and eating a ton! She just turned 3 months and went from taking 4 oz to nearly 6 oz within a two week period of time. It's amazing how fast they grow!

Henry is starting to talk a little more and show more interest in boy toys (cars, trains). He got some new PJs recently with cars and trucks on them and was very insistent on wearing them over anything else in his drawer. One of his most endearing habits of late is that he gives me his dishes or takes them to the kitchen when he's all done eating. Already cleaning up after himself in one way at least!

Evalyn has taken to insisting on wearing the same purple dress with flowers on it everyday if she's able too. It gets washed 2-3 times a week because as soon as she can get it washed she's wearing it again until it gets too dirty!! She's also very into containerizing her special toys/playthings and keeping them with her at all times. Lately her crayons have been the special things and the containers have ranged from a green lidded box, a blue sparkly crayon box, a latex painting glove, a cloth princess dress-up glove, and most recently her new pink Dora purse she got from Grammum for Christmas. She has always loved bags and containers, my kind of girl. I guess some things really are genetic!! :D

As for Matt and I, his job is shaping up to be pretty intense for the next few months as he gets himself established with each of the field offices he's working for. I'm just trying to keep my sanity as everywhere I look there's something that needs doing, changing, cleaning, organizing, etc. and yet finding or making the time with my very needy little ones is difficult to say the least. I finally went out and bought paint at Wal-Mart yesterday and tackled Henry's room, putting the first coat of primer over the crazy flowery paint job in there, more on that later.

So, keep checking in. We're still here.