I is for...

oh my dog! two of these wordplays in one week? that's right, my friends, two in one week. remember, i'm trying to catch up to debR and deirdre and everyone else doing this...do you want to play? want to know more? you can check out laume's wordplay ( i have a little doohickey on the right side that says wordplay - you can click on that or on the word wordplay. it really is fun, so play!

Irene - first and foremost, irene is my 6 1/2 year old preciocious and joyful and sometimes exhasperating daughter. it's hard to remember what life was like before her. she's a joy and delight and is loving 1st grade. irene is also my middle name. and my mother's middle name, and oma vicki's (mom's cousin - like an aunt). we all have that name b/c of my great grandmother, Irene Peace Romig. I was born on her birthday.

internet - i think i was in college when i first did internet kind of stuff - and that was more listserve than anythning else. rob had prodigy and i utilized one of the groups to find out as much as i could about OCD. my co-worker's daughter was suddenly dealing with it and we were trying to get info. that was in 1992. it's been amazing to watch the changes. i think the internet, for the most part, is really wonderful. i don't look forward to the monitoring that will need to be done when irene gets a little older, but i can't imagine not having it for long periods of time.

italy - i loved italy. i REALLLLLLY loved venice. wowsers was it wonderful. i'd planned to spend several days in florence and only one in venice. florence was disappointing to me. i had such high high expectations for it, that, in hindsight, i don't think it ever could have measured up. i loved the art and the museums, but decided to cut that trip short and head to venice. i was in love. i stayed there for 5 days, i think. i stayed at a girls' hostel run by nuns. we had to be out by 10:00 am and in by 10:00 pm. i met some other fun girls there and we had a fabbo time. rome was outstanding too. i was only there for one day, but i did indeed see the sistine chapel. holy cow. just thinking about how long michelangelo was on his back painting and painting. oh my. pompeii was cool and eerie but i really liked it.

ice cream - for several years after returning from europe, i was ruined for ice cream b/c i'd had the most amazing gelato in italy. now i enjoy ice cream again. and rob is the most wonderful ever b/c when he has ice cream like ben and jerry's coffee heath bar crunch, he will give me one of his big ginormous pieces of the heath bar crunch. THAT is true love. *smile*

iced coffee - i love iced coffee. i will often make my own. i haven't been having so much coffee lately for whatever reason, but i do enjoy iced coffee. usually, if i'm getting a coffee, i'll get an iced hazelnut latte. yum. i had my first iced coffee in spain. it was the coolest. you got your little tazo of coffee (read espresso), you doctored it up w/sugar, then you put it into the big brandy snifter that was filled with ice, so you got some hot and cold. SO freakin' good!

indigo - i like the color indigo and i like the word as well

idyllic - isn't that a pretty word? isn't it a nice thing to which i can aspire? an idyllic setting?

insomnia - something from which i occasionally suffer. i had it a lot when i was pregnant with irene. it worked out okay b/c my mom was in ohio at the time and we'd IM at 2:30 am for me, 5:30 for her. i still have it - but like i said, it's an occasional thing these days. phew!

IM (instant messanger) - i have iChat which uses ichat and aim. i like it and have it on most of the time, even when i'm not actually AT my computer. i also have yahoo messenger

ibook, ipod, imac - all things i've owned or own. while i have used PCs, i really am an apple girl. mom and ken bought the apple 2 and the apple 2+, the apple 2e, apple 2g, i took the apple 2c w/me to college and when they bought the next new computer, i got my first imac. that was my last year in college.

imagination - both of my children have the most amazing and wonderful imaginations. mine is pretty good as well, but i love their imaginary friends (more on that below) it's fun to listen to them talking and makign up stories - especially when they think no one is listening.

imaginary friends - Irene's first one was square circle - she was from another planet also called earth, but it was triangular. prince charmings (yes, charmingS, not charming) would bring her here on his rocketship. The imaginary friend that has stayed w/us is Shainda. What is especially interesting is that we were recently looking at some old video and on easter when irene was 2 and a wee bit, she mentioned the name SHAINDA. I didn't recall that when Shainda appeared soon after rhys was born. Rhys' imaginary friends are harry - who is usually a red pterydactile - and hamren or harren or something in between, it's hard to understand that particular name. But his first friend, was shainda also. he sort of took her on at one point.

inspire - i hope that i inspire people occasionally. i get inspired by watching my kids, by Rob, other people in my family, my sister (who is the most amazing mother in the world - very very calm. very very patient. it's a thing of beauty to watch her), friends, the list goes on.

iñigo montoya & “inconceivable!” - both from The Princess Bride - both a wonderful book and movie. i've watched and read them both over and over again (probably watched the move more than i've read the book). several of the things in this book are part of our family's lexicon - ROAS is one - "i think this word does not mean what you think it mean" is another.

ips beetle - were it not for this book (which i love and which has hidden beatles songs in most, if not all, of the pictures), i would not know what an ips beetle is.

iberia (airline and peninsula) - i flew on iberia when i went for my year in spain. lovely airline. even coach class got groovy footy slippers and stuffs. the peninsula is wonderful and amazing and fabulous and and and....can you tell that spain had a major impact on my life? i believe that if it's at all possible, every college student should spend a minimum of 6 months, if not a year, in another country. it's good to know how the US is viewed elsewhere and to get some different ideas and cultures and learn a new language/dialect/whatever.

“ice is nice!” - hee hee. anyone seen Real Genius? if you haven't, you should. Rob named one of his kitties Lazlo after Lazlo Hollyfeld.

ichthyosaurus - rhys is very into dinosaurs right now. i'm pretty good at identifying the different kinds now.

icing - yummmmmmmm. especially when it's ganache, or dark chocolate. my MIL makes a chocolate frosting that is TOO DIE FOR.

illustrators – edward gorey ,the guy who did the dahl books, angelina ballerina, stella blackstone, peter sís, peter reynolds, maurice sendak, etienne delessert, and so so many more.

Ish - this is another book by Peter Reynolds who wrote The Dot (a must have!) and it's very sweet and rings so true about how someones unkind word can stifle your art, but then, someone else sees it in a different way and shows you how special it is. RUN and BUY IT! or at least get it from your library :)

impatiant - i used to be much more patient. i started losing my patients when i was pregnant with rhys and irene was 3. i'm still mostly patient, but not nearly as patient as i'd like to be.

impatiens - sweet little flowers

∞+∞ - something I sometimes write after I love you when I am signing off a note to rob

Io - besides being in greek mythology (that zeus - he did love him some women!), it's also a moon around jupiter, which is another of rhys' obsessions.

irish music - i grew up listening to irish music. for my 22nd birthday (still one of my very best birthdays), we went to a local pub (me, rob, and girlfriend judy) where they had a live irish folk singer. i had everyone banging on the bar or clapping at the appropriate times. i really love irish music and the feelings it evokes for me. it's very homey.

iris - when we lived in rohnert park, we had hundreds of iris that would come up in our yard. well, maybe not quite hundreds, but many and many and many. it was fun to watch them all pop open.

irreplaceable – I have a several things that are irreplaceable, but I’ll name just a few. one is
the ring I wear on a necklace. it used to belong to my father in law. my mother in law wore it and I can recall only a few times she wasn’t wearing it. it has an R on it. she gave it to me when rhys was born. I don’t think I’ve taken it off since she gave it to me. it is hugely special to me. something else are my grandmother schoenmann’s pearls. my uncle had my (step)grandmother get them for me when I announced my engagement to rob. I wore them for our wedding. they are really beautiful. there is also my engagement ring that rob picked out by himself – an emerald with 8 little diamonds around it. it’s beautiful and I love it. he gave me an emerald pendant on a chain as a wedding present (note to self - I need to get the chain fixed for that) and emerald earrings for one of our dating anniversaries. and no, it’s not my birthstone. my birthstone is the sapphire - which i also like very very much. I just love emeralds.

and there you have it.