Pen Pals

I had several pen pals when I was growing up. I think, one when I was in fifth grade and the other when I was in middle school. My first pen pal my teacher set me up with. The only thing I remember about her is that she was Jewish and that she was excited about her Bat Mitzvah. I acquired my second pen pal through a Christian girl teen magazine, Brio. The only thing I remember about her is that she liked coloring her hair. Every so often she would send me a new picture with her new hair color.
Do you remember what it was like writing pen pal letters. It was so awkward and looked something like this:
Hi, my name is Kristin,
I live in Mexico and I have two sisters, one older and one younger. Do you have siblings? We have a cat named Rascal? Do you have pets. I like to read. What do you like to do?
And so forth.
Mail was slow and I used to look forward to receiving letters from my pen pal. Excitedly I would open the envelope and read the stilted letter several times. Carefully, I responded to the questions and posed some more of my own. there is something special about receiving a letter in the mail with your name on it. Now, most of my snail mail correspondence is bills and credit card offers, not too exciting. Occasionally, I still get a good letter from friends or family. Knowing that someone spent more time to write the letter and post it makes them more special than emails and it is like a little piece of Christmas or a birthday in that you get to unwrap the letter and see what it contains. Writing letters may be outdated, but as a nice surprise for someone you love a real letter with maybe a picture or a cartoon cutout might just be the thing to make that person feel extra special.

The Perfect Stocking Stuffer

I know many of you are running around frantically trying to find last minute gifts and creative stocking stuffers. I have an idea for you. They are small, infinitely entertaining, and educational. The best part about this tiny gift is its price, $0.99. Yes that says ninety nine cents.
Are you ready for it? The best stocking stuffer this Christmas is Mexican Jumping Beans! (Imagine me standing up, raising my arms and saying "tada"). Your reactions to this revolutionary news is varied. Some of you are instantly nostalgic thinking about all the fun you had playing with jumping beans, your thinking "I haven't seen those in years." Some of you proclaim, "What those are real?" Others of you are puzzling, "Jumping beans, I wonder how they work?" And you seasoned moms are making a face at your screen, "Don't they have bugs in them or something?" Here is the skinny on jumping beans.
Jumping beans are actually seeds and no it is not derogatory to call them Mexican because the shrub they come from grows in the Northern deserts in Mexico. The shrub's genus is Sebastiania, and is commonly called the jumping bean tree or in Spanish arbol de los frijoles saltarines. A tiny grey moth lays it's eggs inside the seed. When the larvae hatches it eats away at the inside of the seed making a nice little nest for itself. Eventually, it spins for itself a cocoon, and turns into a moth. The moth crawls its way out of the seed and flies off to live its little moth life.
This still does not tell you why they jump. You know when you are at the beach and it is a particularly warm day. The sun is perfect for turning your pasty flesh into tanned perfection. You get off of your beach chair and step out into the sand. The scalding grains mold around your feet. You yelp "hot hot hot hot" and jump doing a funny hot sand dance. Well this is exactly what happens to the jumping bean. The seed falls off the tree and may lay for a while in the shade, but as the sun moves the jumping bean gets very hot on the sand so the larvae jumps, seeking cooling shade.
Now all of your questions are  answered. It is time to hurry out to the airport so you too can put jumping beans in your child's stocking this Christmas. You can put them in yours too, don't worry we won't judge you.

For instructions on care and maintenance visit wikipedia.com for all of your jumping beans needs.

Knife + Machete + 2 Women + Christmas Tree = Lasting Memories

Last night my roommate and I went shopping for a Christmas tree. A helpful young man hoping for a tip quickly helped us select a tree and sent us on our way to pay for it. We bought some lights and decorations for we decided a theme tree was what we wanted. Arriving home we thought it would be simple process to get the tree set up and decorate it. What we forgot to do, which some of you might have spotted already, is get the stump cut. We could have got it done while we were at the store, but it slipped our mind and our helpful attendant didn't consider it either. So what are we to do?
Being the enterprising women that we are, we pulled out our tools and got down to the business of cutting the stump of our tree. For round number one I held down the tree and my roommate grabbed her trusty survival knife with a serrated blade and started sawing with a will. In no time at all she had sawed through the bark all the way around the stump and then the real work began. With each push and pull of the knife saw dust fell onto the paper towel placed over the carpet. After a little bit I took my turn. Pulling, pushing, and rotating the tree so that we could cut all around it.

This became more difficult as the saw started to bind as the cut deepened. Round two of our stump cutting endeavor we placed the very end of the stump on a plastic storage container so that we gained more leverage. This was immensely helpful for a little while and we made some more progress, but once again the saw became less effective with each stroke. 
Enter stage three which for me was the most fun. With a flourish, I pulled my machete out of its leather scabbard. I planted one foot securely on the tree, gripped the hilt with the carved eagle head and with precise blows sent pine chips flying around the house. Now we began to make some real progress. We took a couple of turns and my roommate severed the end of the stump and with triumph held it up and exclaimed, "I am a woman, hear me roar!"

Our living room was littered with wood chips, saw dust, and pine needles. We put the tree in the stand, cleaned up and decorated it. Now we have a lovely red, white and gold decorated tree shining graciously in the corner. This is a straightforward account of what happened and I am afraid it excludes all of the giggling and jokes at our own expense. We took picture breaks to document this event and would often have to stop our industrious efforts because we were laughing so hard. I'm really glad we didn't have the attendant at the store slice of the stump with whir of an electrical saw. We had much more fun doing it with our knives and created lasting memories. We decided that next year we are ready to take our survival knife and machete and cut down our own tree now that we have practiced on our tree stump.