One Squngee....Ready for squirrels...

Come on back squirrels! This squngee is all loaded and awaiting your arrival.

The squngee sat in the garage all summer. You may recall that last spring I ran out of corn, and the squirrels got mad and chewed through the twine holding it to the tree. I noted it here, and was promptly corrected by the inventor of the squngee that hanging the squngee with twine is specifically noted as a no-no in the squngee documentation. (which I will readily admit I didn't read). Any way...this week I went to buy corn and chain.

The squngee now hangs in the tree by chain. With fresh corn on it.

Come and get it, little guys. I don't know how many squirrels ate from it last year, or if they are still around and will come back. Or if a new generation of squirrels will have to try their skills and patience to get their corn fix. It sure is fun to watch them bob up and down, hanging on for their lives. (or it looks like it anyway).

If you want a squngee... let me know. I can find out where to get one. They are pretty fun to watch once the squirrels figure them out and if you keep it loaded so they get in the habit of coming back.

Late night park visit

Last night about 7pm we were finishing up homework. Amelia wanted to go to the park. It was getting dark.

I said..." not tonight dear, we can go tomorrow".

Then I realized, hey...it's beautiful out tonight! Tomorrow it might be not be. It could be cold, or rainy.

So...we piled in the car and got to the park about 7:15. We stayed until 8pm. There was light from the adjacent sport fields and lightning in the south. But really it was too dark to see.

We went home happy.



It's the sad thing about fall, but I'm glad I remembered it last night. Seize the day! Tomorrow it may be too cold...and who knows...you may not be able to finish that outdoor task until spring. (Like that deck sealing project...has to be over 50 degrees to do it!)

Enjoy the cool day. I'm not implying it's time to hibernate. Just that it's starting to be time where you may need to bundle up!

Science and Nature

"The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it
because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful."


- J. Henri Poincare, Science and Method, 1908



Now I need to figure out how to get that in my sidebar. It is a lovely quote.

Triangulate...Part 3

My reading public has spoken! (and reminded me) I have left you hanging on the Traingulate thread. Bad, bad blogger. (Rule #2 of blogging...always do something if you've told the world you're going to do it)

OK...I'm publishing without photos 'cause I didn't find the photos this weekend and probably won't for a week or two. I'll add 'em when I get 'em.


Part 3 of my traingulation thread goes back to an odd, happy occurence of the weekend of the Scrapped! premiere.

Here's a picture taken at our best man's wedding. Chris and Mary You can tell from the picture that this was the late 80s, early 90s, right? This wedding occurred over a Christmas holiday in Appleton, Wisconsin. The maid of honor? Her name is Deb. And Chris and Mary had arranged for Charlie and I, Deb and her husband Mike, and another couple, Victor and Sara, to stay in a home during the wedding. Friends of theirs were out of town and we had this large old home to stay in all-together over that long weekend.
We kind of bonded. Even though we had no reason to stay in touch with Deb and Mike and Victor and Sara (they were Mary's friends, not Chris'), we did. Why did we all bond? I think because we are all Christians who take the call of God seriously, but not ourselves. (Does that make sense?) We can talk on many levels and it just clicks. Really.

So here's what happend the weekend of Scrapped!.


1) Friday night, Victor and Sara came over to see us. What is odd about this, is that they live in England. They are missionaries for Wycliffe, and Victor does hecka' cool work on his Mac designing fonts. His most famous work so far? An "extended Latin/Roman" font called Gentium. I have used this font in my scrapping before! (Translators use laptops in the field, and they need these extended fonts to do their work.) Anyway, Victor and Sara were in the country on "leave" and this was the only night that would work for us to get together.

2) Unbeknownst to me, while I had talked to Sara about arranging a night to see them, Charlie had talked to Chris and Mary about seeing them. They live in Kentucky. They come north once each year to visit Mary's family. On the way home, they were swinging through the cities to see friends...including us. Charlie set up an appointment for us to see them on Sunday afternoon. Odd that visits with Victor and Sara and Chris and Mary would happen the same weekend. Kentucky and England to Minnesota and busy schedules all lining up like that.

Charlie and I talked about how weird it is that we see Victor and Sara and Mary and Chris once a year when they live so far away. The last couple from the original eight? Deb and Mike. They live in Hopkins. So go figure...we see them the least.

3) So guess who I ran into at the Scrapped! Movie premiere? Deb and Mike. They are friends with Wes, the Scrapped! Movie guy. Is that weird, or what? The eight folks who have eleven kids aged 20 to 5, live in two states and two countries, all coverged and mingled (although not all 8 of us together) that one weekend in August.
Very cool. Very serendipitous.

Here's to old friends and good friends, and cozy friends and the odd circumstances that bring all together. Triangluation part 3. No one famous, no name dropping, just coolness

Busy... and good

Wow. I have been going from work to events to sleep and back again since Sunday. So I haven't posted.

Margaret scored a goal in soccer Monday night.
Amelia is keeping up with her homework.
We are having fun, even if the only time we are all together is at bedtime.

Charlie's not feeling well. I think he has the cold (maybe allergy?) thing that has been bugging me. But we're still healthy. I'm thinking of a friend that is suffering through serious health issues. A cold is ok.

Life is good.

No pictures today.

From the archives

I have a few minutes to post before heading out to church. (What's that about? Up and ready early on a Sunday?) I have been sorting, printing, and backing-up digital photos this weekend. Here's a few goodies I found.


Margaret playing at the Lake Harriet Playground in the summer of 2005. Look at that long hair!

This is Amelia holding out her medal after finishing the TCM Half-Mile Fun Run last year. I wish we could go this year, but we will be at a friend's wedding in Alexandria. That will be fun, too!


Make sure you have all your digital pictures backed up somewhere...either on-line or on DVDs! You would never throw away your negatives, would you? Don't risk losing those digital files!

First Soccer Game

"I had fun mama!" She said to me without prompting on our way to the car after her first game. She played defense for two 5 minute periods (one of which she didn't understand she could move from her "spot", the other where she happily chased the ball all over the field) and forward for one 5 minute period.

"I want to play center next time." She said later this evening.


Here she is sprawled on the grass during one of the time periods when she was not playing.

And she crashed about half an hour early tonight with no prompting. Kindergarten AND soccer make for good sleeping when you're five.


And here is the non-soccer playing sister. There were dogs and friends there. She was happy and didn't miss being the one on the field at all!


I can see that taking pictures on the sidelines is a lot more fun than of the game. Oh..and I must have been the only new mom there...only one with a camera. I guess after the first game or two, you probably run out of things to take pictures of. Does it make me a scrapbooker that I'm glad we have green shirts and not bright pink or some other hard color to work with?

So...guess what? I am going to make my first soccer page this weekend!!! I can then say I am a complete scrapper. (oops..still need Disney pages, too, eh?)

Woo Hoo! I can justify buying some stuff. I can say I don't have a single soccer thing in my stash (unless I have some old Mrs. Grossman's soccer ball stickers where they came with a big pack I bought) Hmmmm...I wonder where I can get some good soccer ideas?

I remember the quiet

Last night while laying in bed, I finally had my time to reflect on 9/11. And I remember the quiet.

My house lies just north of the flight path into Runway 12L at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Airplane noise is a fact of life for us. Every night as I lay in bed I hear planes landing and taking off. Especially in early September when the windows to the bedroom are open.

The most enduring memory of 9/11 (and the next night, too). Absolutely no airplane noise. Nada. None taking off. None landing.

I remember laying in bed with our 3 year old and 9 month old tucked in between us. I remember needing to feel them touching me. I remember just holding them. And not hearing airplanes. The silence was a deafening reminder of what had occured.

Later I put the girls in their beds. Amelia had night terrors that night. She was thrashing and moaning and crying. First time ever. It's never happened since. At her young age, she had picked up on the angst everywhere.

Charlie and I went outside for a breath of air. And looked up. No airplanes anywhere in the night sky. Go look sometime. You will see lots of plane lights flashing as the planes move through the air. That night there were none. Except way, way, way up high, higher than I had ever noticed aircraft before, you could see some lights. There were two of them and they appeared to be moving parallel to each other, one going straight north, the other straight south. Military aircraft, silently keeping vigil. Criss-crossing the night sky over the USA. The only thing in the air.

And absolutely no airplane noise. nada. none.
I remember the quiet.

Sleeping in socks

What is this weather change about? Last week through Thursday it was summery and in the 80s. Now I'm sleeping in socks. (the sure sign that it is getting cold out)

I hope some of the glorious high 60s/low 70s weather shows its face. (Not that I'm picky and whiny or anything :-))

Clausses do soccer

Yep...it's official. We're now a soccer family. But it's very, very low key.
$20 gets Margaret a T-shirt and 10 games at the local park about 3 blocks away. No practices.

Saturday was the "jamboree". One and a half hours of drills to get the teams together and get started. They had four stations. First they all were to stay inside a marked off area. They threw in 4 or 5 balls and the kids were supposed to dribble them around and try to steal them from each other. Margaret did not understand this and got VERY upset that other kids were taking the ball from her. After a talk from her coach, she got in the spirit and was happily stealing from other kids.
Then they did a dribble and pass station. Then the throw-in station, and then the "shoot the ball at the goal" station. Guess which one Margaret liked. Yep...the shoot the ball at the goal station. Predictable...I guess it is the part everyone likes (sort of like getting to spike the ball during volleyball practice)

Here is Margaret in goal. After she saw that there was a kid in goal she wanted to do this soooo badly. And she got a turn. Only about 4 or 5 kicks at her. And they were really slow (wouldn't have gotten in the net had she not been there). I hope I don't have a budding goalie. I suspect everyone likes to try that at the beginning, too?


And what does the sibling that's not doing soccer do?

This one rolled down the hill at the park about 20 times, took a friend's dog for a short walk, and was even lucky enough to get a shoulder ride.

Well..I need to go and get ready for what looks to be an action packed week. Our first Brownie meeting, a Brownie leaders' meeting, and two soccer games. Oh...and Amelia's first homework Math packet. That's bound to be fun.

Back to School; Part II

Here's the Kindergartener


Foiled again on outfits. Margaret picked out a great brown and orange peasant-like outfit for the first day. Decided to wear the pink dress instead. It is a very pretty pink dress and makes for great pictures. Just not the outfit we had discussed wearing for two weeks. :-)


Here's the kindergarten mid-day bus driving away with just my Margaret on it.


As predicted...she came back. Mostly the same little girl. She didn't want to come home with me, wanted to stay at daycare so she could talk to her friend, Skylar (the third grader :-)) She is all about the friends. She will love school, I think.

Back to school part I

Here she is on the first day of school. Third grade. Of course she is not wearing the outfit we bought for the first day of school. sigh. oh well. That's just my Amelia. Immortalized in a hoodie sweatshirt from Cedar Campus. It's a good look for her (in my opinion).


A great picture of Amelia and her daddy. They are so sweet together.







Here's the stop before the bus came. It kind of has the 50s baby-boomer feel to it. Look at all those kids! And that's just from two sides of two blocks! A little different than the 50s? Only 2 stay at home moms. One single mom. The other four families? Dad is the usual dropper-offer. Moms tend to go in to work early (I guess so they can come home early to get supper ready)


I will try to finish the triangulation thread tomorrow. It is kind of a longish story, and want to write it well. (Since it will have only a few pictures).

And then Thursday...Kindergarten starts. (yep. My kindergartner snuck into this picture..she can't wait!) WooHoo! (or is that Wah!?)

Traingulate...Part Deux

See these three ladies? They are very popular scrapbook artists and celebrities. I read their blogs everyday. I used to think people who read blogs were just above stalkers. And by some of the comments people post, I'm not sure my thought is too far off.

Anyway, enough about that. You see...I now am going to act like I know these ladies. I ripped off the above picture from Donna Downey's Blog. These three ladies went to New Zealand and Australia to wow the scrappers there. I have had classes from two of these ladies, and actually cropped one evening with another.
Here's my 15 minutes of fame with these three gals...and our Traingluation for today.



The first one I met was Cathy Zielske. Makes sense, she lives in St. Paul. I met her first when she was invited (and showed!) to the first anniversary party of a cool scrapbook store in Savage called Artsy Tartsy. She said she had never been invited to a local store for something like that. Her friend teased her that she was "making it up", so that they might think she really was a celebrity, somewhere. Cathy's stock has gone up since then. Her blog has taken a million hits. I also met her at CKU (although I didn't take her class, then). The picture I show here shows Cathy and the bunch of us that bid $$$ to crop with her for a Red Cross Benefit at Scrapbooks Too! shortly after Hurricane Katrina. Obviously Cathy is a friend of mine.



The next gal I met? Ali Edwards. Here we are. If you know the cover of her first book, you'll understand the picture.
Anyway, I met Ali at CKU. I love her idea books; love her blog. Ali and Cathy have really added a lot of needed professional graphic artist talent to the scrapbooking pool. Ali has a son with Autism, lives in Oregon, and her husband is running for state congress. See? I am almost her best friend!



And here's my most recent "acquisition" of the three.. Donna Downey. Donna is not your ordinary scrapper. For one thing...she smokes. (At least she did at midnight after teaching five classes in one day). She went skydiving in Australia. She has a bleached blonde strip in her hair. She does scrapbooking segments for QVC. See? She is a great friend, too!



OK. I am done with my delusions. I don't really know any of these great ladies. I might think I do, but reading a blog does not give you the entire picture. As much as many folks would like to believe it, it ain't true. And they are as real with us as they can be (they tell us about bad days), but they aren't letting us in. They shouldn't. We're just voyeurs. Stalkers.

And what does that make you to me? Well...a friend. See. I'm not famous. I'm probably not any more real on my blog than these chicks, but you read my blog because you already know me. You read my blog to check in on me. You read my blog because you think I'm funny or smart or take great pictures (ok...maybe I'm stretching it, but I can hope, eh?) You don't read it to try to make such an insightful comment that maybe I'll notice you. You have a life.

Um...it's late. I'm rambling, and probably not very politely. I will have one more triangulation this weekend, and the last one is cool, not me just doing celebrity name dropping.

Triangulate...Part One

Hmmm... Me....Wes....Cathy....Hmmmm

(Note, first picture taken at CKU-Minneapolis in April 2005.
Second picture taken at Scrapped! premier, August 2006 by Minda
Third picture stolen from Cathy's blog September 2006. Honest, I had the idea to steal this picture before I saw it on Minda's blog ;-))


Another Triangulation tomorrow (No Kevin Bacon involved, sorry)

Knock Knock

Warning! Cute Kid story ahead. I know that sometimes they're annoying. Sometimes I think they're fun. Depending on your mood, you can skip today. I mostly record it here so I remember to put it in Margaret's scrapbook.

Here's a classic, as told by our five year old. (This one here..I guess I should crop out Aunt Carol, but I won't bother tonight.)

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Orange.

Orange Who?

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Orange.

Orange Who?

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Orange.

Orange Who?

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Orange.

Orange Who?

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Banana

Banana Who?

Aren't you glad I didn't say Orange?



>tee hee hee<