Thursday, January 10, 2008

A Few New Year's Resolutions & A Couple Of Narrow Escapes

Okay John, I apologize if the following qualifies as "verminous."
Okay, I know that New Year's Resolutions are sometimes silly in that you promise yourself all of these wonderful things that are way too big, and then you never end up doing them. I don't usually bother with them. If you're going to improve, anytime of the year is a good time for a new goal. But having said that, I have made a few simple goals. Ones that I should be doing anyway, but areas that need improvement.

1: Go to the temple once a month. (At least through June, I'll be having a baby early in July, and as breast feeders can't always be left for 4 hours at a time, we'll have to do our best after that.)

2: 100 percent visiting teaching.

That's pretty much it. I can do that much. Bruce has set forth a family project that is pretty cool. We are reading the Book of Mormon as a family. The goal is to finish it by the end of the year. We have a special jar that we put a quarter into for every page that we read. If we finish by the end of the year, we will use our jar money for a big family outing. The kids are way excited about it (at least thus far). I calculate that we should have $134, when we are done. So, we will not only be reading scriptures as a family, but we will also be learning a lesson about saving for what we really want. I just can't figure out what we should do for our outing. Any suggestions?

Okay now for the "narrow escapes" (I hope they are actually escapes, and that they don't come back to haunt me.) (Will some wise person please tell me if the parenthesis are supposed to come before or after the punctuation! I don't feel the need for my blog entries to be English professor ready, but it annoys me that I can't remember that rule. So, is it supposed to be like I did a second ago after "haunt me" or is it like this)?

Anyway, Justice has apparently taken a new spin on David Letterman's "Will it Float?" game. He likes to play "Will it Flush?" Bruce stopped him just in time with a pair of socks in the toilet. I heard the toilet flushing rather too many times for normal use, and went in the bathroom to discover him trying to flush Lydia's shoe and a can of mouse. The toilet currently still works. Knock on wood! Is there anyway to childproof a toilet? Hmm, I'll have to give that one some thought. That child certainly keeps one on their toes!

15 comments:

Curtis Gibby said...

You were right in the first place about the parenthesis placement -- it goes after the punctuation. (Like this.)

Renae said...

Thank you! And a new reader to boot! I am so excited. Welcome Curtis. Do you have a blog that I can check out?

lizS said...

they sell toilet locks at walmart, or any hardware store. some kids figure them out really easily. other than that, why not put a hooky thing on the outside of the door out of his reach, and lock up the silly bathroom? that way he can't get into anything he's not supposed to in the bath, which is alot!! good luck!

timpani76 said...

The punctuation goes outside the parenthesis (like this). Parenthesis are not supposed to effect a sentence in anyway as they are outside of the normal parameters of sentences. Parenthesis also are not supposed to effect the punctuation inside the sentence either. That English Literature degree does come in handy once in awhile!

2 year old Vance defeated our toilet lock in about 2 weeks, and it cost $10!!! Not worth it, in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

Actually, according to Dr. Graham Penworth of The Grammatical Institute of London, in his textbook "The Royal Tongue" parantheis are only appropriate for weak clauses in which puncuation must be included and for strong clauses where it is inappropriate and even offensive to include puncuation inside a parentheical region. The stong case and the weak case are to be differentiated by the number of tenses contained within as compared to the interupted sentance, the strong parenthetical case have equal or more tenses involved than the primary of prejunctive sentance, the weak case having fewer. Hence a fragmented sentance, in itself an abhorrence, such as:

(Like this).

is appropriately parenthesized only as above. However the same statement, more appropriately couched as in:

The punctuation goes outside the parenthesis (like this.)

is only appropriately parenthesized if punctuation is included.

Thank you-
Miss Jane Yorkland
Sec. to
Dr. Graham Penworth
University of London

lizS said...

what the heck? you got a comment from a british university secretary? what? is that a joke? how freakin' bizarre!

Renae said...

Liz,
I think you should ask your hubby about that one. For one thing any English professor would know that a book title should be either in italics or underlined. The quotations are used for articles or songs, or things within another larger work. For another thing, they spelled the word "sentence" like this: "sentance" twice. Thirdly, they mispelled the word "parenthesis." Now, I don't claim to be some English genuis; maybe "sentance" and "parantheis" are different spellings in Great Britain like how they spell "colour." I for one, seriously doubt that this is anything but a joke. And if I were going to pull this one, I'd at least make sure that I spelled the words right. :) I suspect Johnny Boy. How 'bout it eyepoke? Going to fess?

timpani76 said...

It does seem like too many fancy words for a normal person (i.e. anyone besides John).

You know Renae, this blog is your own writing in your own words. Any mistakes you make you could claim as artistic license.

Eyepoke said...

...hum di de dum dee...OH HELP la...

lizS said...

dude, john was the first person i asked. he was right in the room with me! jerk! just let me go on thinking it was some british person, and comment on it! and he knows i can't spell worth a darn, i didn't even notice the mispelled words! i'm so embarrassed. i just hope this doesn't reach "cinco de mayo" perportions.

lizS said...

purportions? proportions? i hate spelling.

Eyepoke said...

You are cute though Liza!

Hey Renae I have an idea for your family vacation-

Have you guys considered being in the new, hated, Nauvoo pageant?

Renae said...

1: Why is it hated? I thought it was great!

2: Would totally love to. No wait, I will have just had a baby less than a month earlier. The first year they did it, the accomidation opptions that they offered were ridiculously expensive! As in it would cost my family over $1000 to be in it. Maybe they've figured out how to do it better since then? I don't know. As I totally loved, loved, loved being in C of J and as I owe a portion of my testimony to said pagent, I would someday love to do another one with my family. I think I'll wait until the young ones are a bit older though. Seems like I remember Mom having more than a bit of a hard time with Ashley & Trent.

Ryan said...

The faux explanation was EXCELLENT, in the Bill and Ted sense.

I'm often completely jealous of the humor in life that you all portray.

(But if you really want to know, my BYU education said that: you put the period inside if the entire sentence was in parenthesis. Otherwise, outside. Maybe you do things differently in Illinois, though.)

Renae said...

Ryan,

I can't tell you how tickled I am to know that someone else reads my silly stuff! Blogs are such a cool thing for keeping up with distant realatives and such. I'm glad to be able to get to know you Gibby relatives a bit. I've always felt left out of the loop, being so far away. So, if any else of you Gibby-type people do blogs, that I don't already know about, please clue me in. I'd love to read them.