Day 170: Thanks, curling team.

I mean, really Kevin Martin, it was such a fine gesture to win the gold medal in men's curling for me.  I do so appreciate it.  And Norway?  I love you.  I love The Pants.  You really didn't have to dress up for my birthday, but it added such flare to the celebration.  You.  Rock.  *brushes away a tear*

I'll save a piece of ice-cream cake for all of you guys.  You deserve it, after playing such an awesome game.

Miss J  put the candles on.  She rummaged around in the drawer, trying to find one for each of the little icing blobs.  Then she said, "We're gonna need another pack of candles, Dad," to which he replied, " I don't think the fire marshall will allow that many candles on the cake."

Thank you so much.

Note the candle put in upside down.

Also, I am pleased to report that I blew all of them out in one go.

But I completely forgot to make a wish first.  Oops.

Day 169: Princess carpenter

Miss J. received a bird house kit from Grandma C's backyard birdies for Christmas.  Today it was blizzarding out--roads closed, winds at 50 miles/hour, heavy snow.  A perfect day to put the birdhouse together.

She was wearing a blanket cape, which you can't see.  One must be properly attired when you're a carpenter princess.

Validation

A friend shared this, and I just have to pass it on.  Beautifully done.  And I love that TJ Thyne, one of my favorite Bones actors, did this little gem of a film.

Now if it will only show the whole thing on the site.  For some reason, whenever I try to post a video, it gets cut off on the right hand side.  If you can't see the whole frame, just pop over to YouTube.

I'll post my photo later.  If I can find something.  It is a virtual blizzard outside, so once again my photo will be something pretty mundane.

But for now, enjoy "Validation."



Have a lovely day.  You are GREAT!

Day 168

The snow had started to melt, but now it is cold and stormy outside again.  If it doesn't let up soon, I'm going to be forced to start taking pictures of my sock drawer and dirty laundry!  And I'm only partly joking.  Hmn...sock drawer.  That might be an option for tomorrow...

I took this next one last night.  It's not much of a photo, but I thought Miss J. might like to see The Mooch curled up with her stuffed animals.  Of course, being the Mooch, as soon as he heard the camera beep, he lost his oh-so-comfy look and acquired his usual supicious mien.

OK.  Now to bed.  It's way too late to be up, but I had to watch the women's skating.  I have to admit to shedding more than a few tears.  So much emotion, and I love that with this competition, everyone skated their best.  Just awesome.

Nighters,

Lynn

Day 167: Ow.

Dug out the lonely, dusty, hibernating weights yesterday to use while I Wii ran.  I am pleased to report that while I could only go about a quarter of the complete island lap with the weights yesterday, today I made it through the whole thing.

I can't feel my arms...

Day 166: I Spy

Do you spy...
a cheetah?  a beaver?  a pioneer?  a dinosaur?  a cowboy? a hippo? 

Day 165: O Canada!

I have the best past-roommate EVER!

I put the call out for Olympic mittens, and she immediately recognized my inherent need...nay...hunger...and responded in jig-a-rig time.

The best part?  They're fleece lined!  I didn't know that before I tried them on!

Receiving these in the mail today ALMOST made up for the hockey disaster last night.  Almost. 

And they made women's hockey and the ice dancing gold all the more sweet!

Thanks Keran.  I loooove you!

Day 164: Crispy and creamy

Again, this should have been posted last night.  Once again, however, I had a child with sleep issues (consisting of falling asleep in the car in the late afternoon, then not wanting to go to sleep at bedtime), which then turned into my falling asleep before he did!

But these photos were taken yesterday.

These ones were taken in the church parking lot.

Crispy!

And these ones were taken when Miss J said, "Mummy!  The snow looks like whipped cream!"

Creamy!

***

We went for a walk in the afternoon, since it was so warm and everything was melting.  As we walked, we made about half a dozen mini-snowmen on people's stairs, by (and in) their trees by the sidewalk, and by their driveways.  Here are a couple.  Remember that it was pretty muddy, and we had trouble finding things to decorate them with, but we hope as people walked by that they got a bit of a smile from our little people.

And now I'm off to take today's photo.  I know EXACTLY what it's going to be, because something very fun came in the mail today!!  :o)

Cheers!

Lynn

Day 163

I was computerless yesterday.  Here's yesterday's photo, though.  Today's will be up this evening.  Need to find something to photograph.

Anyway, I love these little cut glass ice cream dishes. Got them secondhand at Salvation Army or Value Village or something, which is cool because I was able to get about 8. 

The best thing about them is that they're quite small, so you can't put tons of ice cream in the dish, but they make the ice cream look pretty, so you aren't quite as offended by it.  :o)

Day 162: Sweet sugar

I just thought this was really cool.

Hubs and Miss J did a little experiment where they boiled sugar and water (I'm sorry, I don't know the proportions), added a little food coloring, put it in a jar, and suspended a string inside the liquid.  After about two weeks, they got this:

Sugar crystals formed on the string!  And it was like a crystal garden on the bottom of the jar, and a hard, sugary coating formed on the top.  It was fun to watch. 

Hubs asked what we should do with it now that the experiment was done.  I suggested making it into a necklace.  They were certainly pretty enough.  I'm not sure if having a necklace that attracted ants would be such a brilliant move, though.

I certainly wouldn't recommend eating it.  After two weeks...bleh.

Day 161: A Little Late Corner View: Wisdom From An elder

I have a little book from an amazing octogenarian, Marjorie Pay Hinckley, that sits on my bedside table.  It is chock full of little bits of wisdom, recipes, and beautiful photographs that make me swoon  It's like a little power booster for the soul.  I love it.

So this morning, I opened it up to find something for the Corner View and found...

Not just on one page, but about six.

So...get ready for some wisdom.  This is from my mother.

"If it doesn't matter in 50 years, don't worry about it."

It is this piece of advice that allowed me to keep my cool this morning, and the only reason a particular young man hasn't been disowned.  HA!

There you have it.  Wisdom to live by.

For more Corner Views, head on over to Jane's spot at Spain Daily.

Day 160: Yet more snow.

Maybe I'll just move out here:

It's cozy and snug and there are NO leaks!!

***

In a snow house, what would be more apropos than snow ice cream?

Mix together 1 cup of sugar, a scant 2 cups of milk, and about 2 tsp or so of vanilla (the recipe called for 1 TBSP, but that's a bit too vanilla-y). 

Add enough fresh, clean snow to make the correct consistency. 

Hint:  Avoid yellow snow.

Yum.

Paula Dean has another snow ice cream recipe here.  It involves sweetened condensed milk, so you know it's going to be good!

Day 159

Just coz I had no idea what to take a photo of.  Found another leak today, over the door.  It's still snowing.  But I have a bowl out catching snow to make snow ice cream!  So hopefully tomorrow we'll have the time to make it, and maybe eat it in our snow fort!

Day 158:

The photo that I meant to take and post on Valentine's Day that got pushed back because of the water issues.  And the last night, I fell asleep while putting Adam to bed.  Whoops!  So it's being posted today.  :oP

Julia is always looking for things that are heart shaped. Pieces of wood, soap, candy, shadows...anything.  When we were in Canada last year, she found a bunch of heart shaped stones and tucked them into my purse.  I found them this weekend.  So here's a photo of one of them. 

I need to figure out Photoshop.  Tried to put some texture with this, and cut out the stone.  Nothing I did seemed to work.  I think I'm going to need to get a book or hire a tutor.

Day 157

As I'm typing this, hubs is doing a Wii Fit Plus run.  My mii passes him.  I tease him about letting me pass him like that.

At which point, my mii trips and falls flat on her face.

***
So.  This morning, I come downstairs and whilst walking into the living room I hear...

drip...drip...drip

Aw Jeez.

Yup.  Ice damage.  I can't believe I'm about to say this, but for once I'm glad that we DON'T have window trim in our living room, because it would have potentially been worse.  And it's not coming in through the window seal, which is also good.  But still.  What a mess.

*****

And here's some of the ice:

A piece from a huge icicle.  The rest of it is still on the house.  It was too huge to take off without potentially doing more damage.  Not to mention that it was attached too strongly for hubs to knock it down.

So, guess who's calling the insurance company tomorrow morning.  Joy.  But when I think of how bad it could have been, I'm grateful.  Really. 

The photo that I was going to set up and take today is put on hold until tomorrow.  This obviously trumped!

Have a good evening, all.

L

Day 156 take 2.

There was something goofy earlier when I tried to post, and I couldn't get to this page.  How odd.  But anyway, here we are.  With yet another shot of...wait for it...

snow

The flakes were as big as goose down.  It was like there was a pillow fight on Mount Olympus and the pillows burst.  They were coming down so fast,  and it was starting to get dark, so all you can see is the sheet of motion.  I would have so liked to be able to capture how huge each flake was, but for proper exposure, everything had to be set a bit too slow.  The picture looks like sleet, but it didn't actually look like that.  So this is an example of a photo that DIDN'T work out, and I'm a bit bummed out by it.

Just listened to the forecast.  More snow tonight, more tomorrow, more Monday.

I wish we could send some of this to Vancouver.  We have plenty to spare!

So, to make myself feel a bit better, here's a quick photo of daughter's sewing kit.  Why?  Because I'm quuickly running out of inspiration without being able to go outside. 

Guess what?  I now have proper workout clothing.  Oh yes.  A nice pair of yoga pants (black, feel soooo good on) and a couple of bright tops, one in salmon and one in grape (for Miss J., who loves purple.) Hit AWESOME sales.  It has been awhile since I've shopped, so I wasn't even aware of them prior to going out.  A happy happenstance.   Worked out for an hour today, and although I'm feeling achey, and will probably not want to get up in the morning, it was a lot of fun.  I'm back on top of the leaderboard in the slalom again, but I'm afraid I got the giggles trying to do that exercise where you make a V.  I am so out of shape that I made it, oh, maybe an inch off the floor.  Ah well--there's nowhere to go but up!

Day 155

The finished product.  Very.  White.  Product.

The very DEEP product.

Ok.  I've stayed up way late watching the olympic opening ceremonies.  And getting a bit weepy, missing being there, seeing the places where I walked and lived and loved.  And when those whales were projected across the floor?  So beautiful. 

Bed now.

154: The Mooch

HA!  FINALLY a picture of The Mooch that isn't of his hind end or all fuzzy as he runs away from the camera.  This was it.  As soon as he saw the light and heard the click, he was gooooone.

One of our favorite comic strips is Mutts.  Mooch is the name of the main cat in the strip, and Nellie (our other cat) is the name of his girlfriend, although all you see in the strip are her ears.  Cute. Cute. Cute.

Day 153: Vegemite sandwich, anyone?"

earworm [ˈɪəˌwɜːm]:  n.  •A song or song fragment that gets stuck in your head. It's the literal English translation for a term used in Germany to describe this phenomenon. c.f.: "earhead" derivative of airhead; refers to a borderline neurotic who is more than usually susceptible to earworms.  (courtesy of the Online Slang Ddictionary)

Do you see it?  It's not being very inconspicuous about it, is it? (BTW, do you know how hard it is to take a photo of your own ear?  Try it sometime.)

Thanks to a post from a friend on Facebook OVER A WEEK AGO, guess who is going absolutely MAD?

Yes.  That would be me.  Thanks very much, Russ. 

It seemed like an innocent little post.  A music video from a group involved in a copyright case.  OK, sure.  It was a very well known group and the song is well known.  But maaaan!  A WEEK later?  Other than about half an hour where I had "Me and My Shadow" doing a jig, this song has taken up permanent residence.

I know.  I'm evil.  But I soooo needed the company...

Oh!  And I just remembered that it's Corner View day.  How could I forget?  Duh.  Anyhoo, the theme today was something repurposed.

Can you figure out what is repurposed in this photo?  Courtesy of my husband's hobby.  :o)

Can you guess?

The paint sticks.  Used as a base for painting his miniatures.  Gotta love that we had SOMETHING repurposed in the house! Thanks hon.  You saved the day!

(The choices were either the paint sticks, a plant pot filled with odds and ends, or the Fisher Price Little People dump truck, which happened to be used as a Princess. It had play jewelery all over it and a bit of lace tied on it's wheels.  It was being repurposed with aplomb.)

For more, probably practical, repurposed items, check out Jane's place at Spain Daily.

Day 152:

I'm feeling like I'm neglecting everyone for a few days.  It is simply being crazy with work.  It's a whole new set of doctors and a new specialization for me, so it is taking me forever to get back up to speed.  Rest assured that I'm reading everything and visiting your blogs when I take a bit of a breather, although I simply can't take the time to comment much.  I will try really hard to get back on board this weekend.  But I need to get to work on learning how to process photos a bit this weekend, too.  I've seen before and after photos, and I'm inspired.  I just need to figure out if I can get the results I want from my old PSE 3 (ancient).  

It's almost midnight here, and I've been working almost all day  So here's a quick pic of our new..I was going to say toy, but that doesn't seem quite appropriate.

We just got it today, since it was out of stock for EVER.  Although I love the feeling after exercising, I have trouble finding something fun that I like that I can do at home.  I'm feeling in desperate need to do it.  My work requires loooong hours of sitting, and I haven't lost the baby weight from hvaing the kids, and I'm just feeling like my mind and body are turning into goo.  So hubs and I are going to have a competition. We both need some work!  The problem is that he'll have PE once he gets into training, so I'm going to have to keep on top of things when he goes, or I won't be able to hold my head up.

Problem:  I don't have anything cute to wear. Which sounds really shallow.  Seriously, cute or no, I have nothing appropriate for exercising in.  Which is kind of pathetic, really. Yet it brings me to another positive about the Wii.

I might just be forced to go shopping for some yoga pants or something.  It's a sacrifice that I'm just going to have to make.  ;o)

 

Day 151

Sorry, nothing special today.  I've spent the day struggling over a bunch of new dictators, trying to figure out the new mumbly voices as well as learn a new (for me) specialization,  and then this evening playing, for want of a better term, an ancient version of Photoshop Elements.  Argh.  A gazillion clicks to do one, itty, bitty thing.  But here's a photo.  Unphotoshopelementsed, because so far I'm not seeing the difference I wanted to see.  But I kind of like all of the snow on this tree.

Day 150: Whew! A Few!

I took WAY too many photos today.  A few things were going on.

First:  More snow:

Then a few Valentine's Day photos.  A friend lent the props.  This type of thing isn't really something that I usually do, so it was a bit of an adventure:

AND...

Both dollies are FINISHED!  They're haired and clothed:

Just realized when I see this photo that the dolly's cheeks need a bit of colour.

WHEW!  BUSY day!

Day 149: Snowy Saturday

We were nicely snowed in today, thanks to the snowstorm that has blanketed the eastern US.  I guess it was quite the sight in DC today.  The Lincoln memorial steps were used as a ski slope, and Lincoln himself looked like a snowman!  Apparently the city was pretty much closed down.

We had a lovely day here.  Well over two feet of snow, closer to three, in a 24-hour period.  I literally shovelled out the sled run, which was an adventure.  The kids played out in the backyard while we were shovelling walkways, rescuing the car, and making a trail to the birdfeeders.  The idea seemed like a good one, but when they actually got out there, they couldn't move!  The snow was up to Adam's armpits, and whenever Julia stepped, she'd fall forward and not be able to get up again. I'm afraid that I was laughing too hard half the time to help them much, which they were not particularly impressed about. 

I grabbed my point and shoot and caught some photos.  Here are a couple.  I'm not too thrilled with the rest, so I'm not going to post!  So there!  Maybe I'll get some better ones tomorrow.