Koalas

Man, they have a lot of Koalas at the SD Zoo.

Gorilla

Lunchtime Adventure...

I went to Michael's at lunch today because I wanted to get scalloped scissors (Yes, my vast extension of decorative scissors did not include a basic round scallop) and some small number stamps (about 1/2" tall).

I was crabby about buying number stamps because I know I used to have some. I must have sold them during my extensive purging. But I have several calendar projects to do and really wanted stamped numbers. Well... I was able to use my 40% off coupon so they only cost me $3.50, and the scissors were only $1.99.

What else did I get for my $6 Michaels trip? Well... a check out lady named JoAnn (I loved that! Made me smile) and when I got back to work I got to park next to....get this...a Hummer.

I thought Hummers were conspicuous consumption and pretty stupid at $2/gallon. Now at $4? Wow. I think they get 2 miles to the gallon. In fact, I read once (3 or more years ago) that in a customer satisfaction survey, the #1 complaint of Hummer owners was gas mileage. Hello?!? Were you paying attention when you bought it? Anyway, I always smile when I see the Hummer in the parking lot. It just seems silly.

Orangutans

Wow! Has it been Sunday since a picture?

Hippo

It's that time of year....

Polar Bears

Zebra

I guess I had better keep up with this, since someone is actually looking!!!

Today's picture

I never know what to do with Zoo animal pictures. They seem a bit odd to scrap. Well, we have a lot from our trip to the San Diego Zoo. So I think I'll post some over the next few days.

Cheers!

Silly Miscellanea

I took this typing test. I get razzed a lot at work for typing so fast. I guess this confirms it.
78 words

Speedtest

Oh... and here are a few pictures from this week. We were taking pictures at our Girl Scout meeting (working on our photography badge). These are my favorite (of my family. I guess I won't post other peoples' kid's pictures.)

Signs of spring

Hopscotch drawn on the sidewalks and driveway.
Street sweepers out cleaning up the sand and winter debris.
The orange cone out in the alley. (To warn drivers that kids are playing nearby)
Bike helmets by the back door.
Walking outside at lunch.
Motorcycles.
Going to the park after supper.

Ahhhhh.

When I grow up...

I need to interrupt (what was going to be) continuing ramblings on vacation to record a great coversation I had with Amelia last night. She is in 4th grade.

A: "Mom. Did you take one of those tests to tell you want you wanted to be when you grow up?"
M: "Yes. But not until 10th grade."
A: "So that's high school, right"
M: "Yes. High School"
(By the way, smary pants Margaret interjects at this point "Aptitude test".)

A: "I can't decide if I want to be a musician, a veterinarian, a weather forecaster, an on-screen meteorologist, or a storm chaser when I grow up"
M: "Well, you have a lot of time to decide. Some people even change their minds after college."
A: "Well, I don't want to be a hurricane expert. That's scary."
M: "Maybe you can be a veterinarian in Kansas and be a storm chaser."
A: "Yeah. Maybe I can combine all of them. That would be a perfect job. I wonder what I would need to study in college."

and so on...

You know what I love about this conversation? The realization that just maybe I am giving my kids the gift my parents gave me. The expectation that going to college is just "how it's done." My Gram Shaler was a smart cookie.. she wished she had been able to go to college. So was Grandpa Anderson. He had a scholarship to go to college and had to turn it down because his father died and he needed to run the family farm. But all of Grandpa's children who wanted to go to college, did. That included my mom for 2 years (Luther College in Decorah!), My dad went two years to Rochester Junior College. Growing up, there was no talk other than.. "when I go to college". I didn't think much of it then, but now I realize what a gift that was. Not that you have to go to college to lead a great life, I realize that. But I'm glad that the seeds are growing in their little brains that college is the normal thing you do after high school. Makes me happy.

Magic

"Mom, Mickey kissed me. Twice!!!"


I was frankly surprised at how much Margaret loved the "magic and fantasy" of Disneyland. I knew Amelia would get into it, but Margaret? I wasn't sure. Well, Margaret ended up being the one who loved the parade and the characters and all that.

I love this picture I took on the teacups. We were riding it during the parade and it came right by. This is a picture of Margaret waving (either to Ariel or to Mickey an Minnie). Look at her face. Glowing. So into it.

She did not, however, like the fantasy of the rides. Turns out that any ride that the line was in darkness, she would not go on. Nemo's submarine ride scared her. Even Alice in Wonderland (right next to the teacups) was not for her. She deemed it "Kind of freaky". (Well, I agree it's kind of freaky too, but in a good way) So she wouldn't go on anything except the roller coaster in ToonTown, Dumbo, the Teacups, and the Carousel. This is a kid who has been on Excalibur and High Roller at ValleyFair. This just totally amazed me.

Amelia, on the other hand, actually went on The Pirates of the Caribbean with her dad (I ended up going alone so we could do the kid swap thing). This girl won't even go on the kiddie roller coaster at ValleyFair. So I was REAL proud of her. She loved the rides like Nemo's Submarine and Alice in Wonderland. So this girl EARNED her pirate ears (which I totally love. Totally).

OK... and here's Shamu...

In the interest of equal exposure... we had one Mickey picture, some zoo pictures... here's some SeaWorld pictures. Much more to come on all of these topics...but I'm just going through the pictures for the first time myself...

The coolest experience of my vacation...

...was not Shamu or Mickey, as wonderful as both of those experiences were.

This was...


and look for the baby up in the tree in this one...



Look close. She's real small. But I can't believe how high in the tree the little one climbed!!!

We got to the San Diego Zoo right when it opened. It was a chilly morning (for SoCal) and threatening rain. So... we walked right up to the Pandas and got to stand and watch them for as long as we wanted. No one prodding us along.

And one more cool photo. We went back several times throughout the day. Just totally cool. Really...

Home...

Lots to tell. Will fill you in over the next few days. Glad we missed the snow earlier this week...

What I found today...

I was digging clothes boxes out of my closet today, getting out all the summer clothes so we can try on and pack for San Diego.

I found a box of shorts from before the girls were born. Early to mid 90s. High waisted, pleats, about 4 inches above the knee, cuffs, large diameter legs. I tried every single one of them on and they all fit. And then I put them in the donate box, because they are hopelessly out of style.

I did keep 2 pairs of blue jeans. They are a bit high waisted and narrow, narrow legs, but they are cozy and they make my butt look great.

I had cleaned out boxes of clothes several years ago and had given away all the 14s in despair that they would ever fit. I guess finding this box was a nice little gift to myself... I didn't want to keep them, but if I wanted to, I could have... and WORN them.. :-)

I took this picture a month or so ago to celebrate my purchase of size 12 pants. I can't remember if it was ever posted here on my blog, but it goes great with this subject.

San Francisco!!!

I just got back from a business trip to San Francisco. Of course we did have a bit of fun... that included a dinner cruise on the bay. Here's me with the Bay Bridge in the background.

Now we're getting ready for Easter and the family spring break vacation to San Diego and Carlsbad where my Aunt lives...

So don't expect blogging anytime soon. It just isn't the season for it...

I want to see what punishment you are going to give Margaret...

My kids were bickering really badly today. To the point where we had to sit down with each and coach them through trying to discuss the conflict with the other. They didn't quite get it, I don't think. Amelia was particularly upset with the whole situation. So she had to go leave the room for a while. When I went to check on her she asked me, "I want to see what punishment you are going to give Margaret." Yeah. She definitely didn't get it.

My Cat

I had a cat once. I don't really remember her... or do I remember some scratches on my arms? I guess we had her for one week. I was 3 and a half years old. Her name was Kris.



The story Steve told me is that my mom ended up deciding "no cat". She grew up on a farm. Cats were supposed to live in the barn and protect the hay and feed from mice. They were not supposed to be in the house. I don't know who talked her into trying, but it didn't last. This picture is the only memory I have of Kris the cat.

Wrinkles

OK. I have never characterized myself as an incredibly vain person. Not high maintenance. Don't even bother with make-up most days. But wow, the wrinkles around my eyes are quite prominent. I think the glasses are magnifying them. Yeah. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

No more close up shots of the face for me. and I think I'm going to go moisturize..

Back from Boston

I had a little bit of a whirlwind trip this weekend to Boston. Left on Friday am and came back this am. My big brother Steve got married. I got to see my niece and nephew. Had lots of fun!!!

Here's few pictures...I'm not into much writing right now.

Layout a Day summary layout.

I did this calendar page layout to showcase the 31 layouts I did for the Layout a Day Challenge. This whole calendar layout with thumbnails was a common layout I saw on day 31 for many. (I did have the idea before I saw it... along with a million other people. So I guess it was te obvious extension here.)

This is not digital. I printed out the thumbnails and then cut them out, found some number stickers and cut them apart/combined them for the dates. Not much else here. Just putzy work, to good effect.

Layout a Day. The end.

Page 50 for the month...right here...



OK, I have officially uploaded #31 in the Big Picture Gallery (and here). I did a total of 50 pages this month. I am almost embarrassed to say that the page I uploaded each day was actually done on that day. A few may have been started the day before, but the bulk of the page and the completion of each page was done on the day it was uploaded. I have indeed scrapped every day for 31 days straight.

What did I learn?

I am a little OCD about things like goals. Once I got in my head that I was doing this, I couldn't stop.

"You are Perfect Just the way you Create!" Well...you know how I create? Chronologically. Acid-Free. Mostly Non-lumpy. Non-whimsically. And that's the way I am. I don't think that is going to change. And I don't have to be artsy or eccentric or wild to be "perfect". I can be old-fashioned and boring and still be great at scrapbooking!

I use a lot of brown and distressed papers. Brown layouts don't look as nice online as bright ones. 'Tis the truth. And brown layouts got me very, very down. You will notice I ended the month with several bright, non-distressed, real white on them, pages. I needed that. I will go back to brown eventually.

I have a lot of great stuff in my stash. I was guilty about having so much. Well, you know what? I reach into all corners of it. I may never use it all, but I will use all types of it. Nothing is sitting idle, lonely in a corner collecting spiderwebs. If it does, I will get rid of it. If I love it and even might use it? I will keep it. Heck. I already own it and have room for it.

To scrapbook every day you need to ignore your family some. My kids watched too much TV this month. That is why I won't do this again. I am not happy with the amount of time I spent scrapping instead of with my kids. There was some coolness in saying right after dinner, "OK. I have to go make my page now." They expect it now. Even more than ever now, I want to carve out 6:30- 8:00 each evening as family time. No TV. No computer. No scrapping (unless we are all doing it together). Read together, play together.

And one should ever underestimate the power of a community with support, prayers, cyberhugs, ideas to scraplift, and praise. (Oh... and a store) I have really enjoyed being a part of TallyScrapper for the past 7 months and I love it there. Come join us if you haven't already!!!

26 miles in January

I have been tracking my miles walked to help a friend walk to Iraq and back. Her husband is going to be re-deployed to Iraq in July, and wanted to do this to ready herself until then, and occupy herself after.

I have set a goal of 600 miles this year, which is roughly 50 miles/month. However, I know I will walk more in the summer, so I'm not too worried about being a bit behind right now.

So... 26 miles for January. 26 miles for the year.

574 miles to go!

Mark the Baptist

That was the subject in Margaret's Sunday School. I hate to correct her when she is so animated and excited about something.

However, her older sister was quick to correct her.

"That's JOHN the Baptist"

Forty Three pages since January 1

I decided to set a goal around number of scrapbook pages this year, and then keep track. I put a tracker at the bottom of my blog... you would need to scroll down to see it.

My goal is 300. I am so getting pages done quickly right now. Having photos organized is a big help, for sure.

Now the negatives? That's another mess.

Oh... and I wanted to share that I have used the end of my Hermafix Tabs!!! Why did I keep this puppy for so long? The Tombo monoadhesive I am using now is so much better. Really.

RIP

Broomball?

The other day the girls were swatting around balls in the kitchen with brooms. I asked if they were playing broomball.

I was informed that they were playing Quidditch.

Charlie just finished book 1 (that would be Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.. I purchased the book in Singapore and it is the British version... crisps, trainers, windscreens, and jumpers!), and the girls have enjoyed it very much.

I think they will be watching that movie today (girls have the day off of school) and we just started book 2. I'm not sure how far we will read, Margaret is in 1st grade and the books get pretty intense in a few books. No nightmares so far, so we'll see how it goes.

Orchestra

Here is Amelia with her violin. She had her first orchestra concert last Thursday. It was great to see her play with the group. Violin is a really tough instrument. You have to coordinate a lot of things to get a decent sound. Amelia is doing fine, but could do with a bit more practice, which I am discovering is as much about the parents as it is about her. Also the fact that homework can take her quite a bit of time also cuts into practice time. But I hope she sticks with it. It is bringing back so many great memories of when I started violin. In 4th grade. Just like Amelia.

I am Mia Hamm...

Today my daughter's class had a "Wax Museum" at school. These are first graders.

Each child chose a person and read an easy biography (or had one read to them). They picked out the born and died years (if dead), and three facts about that person. They had simple costumes and a prop or poster if that made sense. They stood still in a pose until you came up and "pushed their button". Then they recited their list of facts and went back into their still pose at the end.

Margaret picked Mia Hamm. Here she is...



Here she is painting her poster last night...


There were a lot of atheletes. Current (Adrian Peterson, Randy Moss, Kevin Garnett) and retired (Babe Ruth, MaryLou Retton, Mia, Jackie Robinson, Michael Jordan) It really is quite amazing how much impact atheletes have on culture today.

Also artists. (Georgia O'Keefe, Pablo Picasso, Mary Cassat) There was one ballerina (Maria Tallchief). I also saw Houdini, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, Sheryl Crow, Christopher Columbus, King Tut, Florence Nightingale. It was pretty cool.

An Ordinary Life

I don't think I ever posted this before. This is the text of a speech I delivered at my Toastmaster's club back in July of 2007. I won "best speech of the quarter" for this speech. I have edited it a bit to make sense for this blog.

I am sharing it now because I have been thinking about a word to choose for this year... for an Art Journal and just for meditation in general. I have chosen the word "Today", and the text below explains the reason for this word.


____________________________


I remember visiting my Grandma once when she was about, oh I would guess, 98 years old. She invited me to join her in Butter Brickle Ice Cream and Dad’s Root Beer. We sat around and watched the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour, eating our ice cream. I remember her commenting on how she was sad that other people in the apartment gave up on current events, and how they made her “so mad” because she was sure they were “liberals”. And I remember thinking it odd that a 98 year old woman would keep Ice Cream and Root Beer in her kitchen. But looking back, I remember that my Grandma was an extraordinary person.

Sure, living to 103 is pretty extraordinary, as is living in your own place until you’re 99. But what was so extraordinary about my gram was how ordinary she was. She wasn’t the first woman to fly a plane or find a cure for cancer. She didn’t lobby against societal wrongs or volunteer to teach kids to read. What Gram did was teach me (and all her Grandchildren) to knit and fry eggs. She taught me how to do laundry and play Canasta. I remember her telling me that she would not play Canasta with me any longer if I kept getting upset when I lost. Gram was a pretty normal down to earth person, just what you would expect for someone born in 1895. Yet she was extra ordinary.

I have an extraordinary friend struggling with Cancer. Yet she strives to live every day as normally as possible. Her cancer is part of her life right now. Last Hallowe’en when she had no hair, she dressed up like Uncle Fester. Complete with the light bulb. When she was re-diagnosed for the second time recently, she said “Some people say to live every day like it is your last. I say, Live every day like it is the first one in the rest of your life.” I thought many months about what she meant, other than the obvious thought that she didn’t want today to be her last.

I now realize that what she was saying was that it’s not the extraordinary things we do that make our lives what they are, it is the ordinary things.

Some of you may have noticed I have lost some weight over the last year. I get a lot of questions about how I did it. I have trouble answering that question. Yeah, I go to WeightWatchers, but anything extraordinary? Nope. It wasn’t Thanksgiving dinner that did me in; I had put the weight on through ordinary, day to day eating. So the best way to take it off? Day-in day-out eating better and moving more. The actual means to weight loss was nothing extraordinary in itself, but overall I’d say the results are extraordinary.

Dag Hammarskjold wrote the following in his book “Markers”. "The great commitment is so much easier than the ordinary, every day one”. Mr. Hammarskjold was the secretary general of the UN from 1953 to 1961. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961. One could dare say he lead an extraordinary life. Yet he knew the importance of the ordinary.

And I’m glad that ordinary can be extra ordinary. I strive for ordinary experiences for my family. This past week I have been to the wading pool 3 or 4 times. I have played Monopoly with my kids. I had to tell my daughter I wouldn’t play with her anymore if she pouted when she lost. I read them books and told them stories. I have eaten Ice Cream and drank Root Beer. I have charged my girls to clean off the table and make their beds. My charge to you? Infuse your life with a sense of extraordinary in the ordinary.

And maybe even teach your kids to play Canasta tonight.

Wildcats in the House!

Well, I have allowed something I have always been dead set against. I let Amelia buy High School Musical sheets and comforter for her bed. In all the years of requests for Pooh, or Cinderella, or whoever, I was always able to say no. The whole idea of supporting that Disney machine by buying sheets or whatever was just an icky idea to me.

Someone must have pleaded just right, or I could tell it was something she would really appreciate, but I said "yes" this time. (Yep. Supporting that Disney Machine in a new and different way.)

I've been painting the girls bedroom and it took awhile to get them to decide on colors (they were going for gold with black dots for ahile.) As I was finishing up painting dots Amelia asked me, "Mom. How are we going to get the Wildcat Logo painted on the wall?" Um, "I wasn't planning on it, honey". Crying ensued. Mom held firm. I am not going to paint the High School Musical Wildcat logo on the wall. Having Troy and Gabriella peer at me from the comforter and pillow every day is discomforting enough. (Although, maybe a wildcat logo wouldn't be as bad as that)

Yep. Wildcats in the house!

Four Bedrooms needed

Since I've been painting the girls' bedroom, there has been much discussion about bedrooms. And the fact that they have to share.

Well.. Today Amelia came up with this one.

"Mom, I wish we had a house with FOUR bedrooms"

"Why honey?"

"Because then we could each have our own room!"

My dreams are bigger...

Daughter 1: "I had a dream last night where all the flakes came off my head" (she is being treated for seborrheic dermatitis right now)

Daughter 2: "Well, my dreams are bigger than that."

Anyone else have a kid where EVERYTHING is a competition? sigh.

Do you think we should tell him?

Our neighbor of about 7 years had his girlfriend move in about 2 years ago. Last evening as we were sitting at the dinner table, we saw her car pull into the alley. Charlie mused out loud, "I wonder if she and Chris are going to get married?"

Our 7 year old, the outgoing one, decided she needed to ask her. Margaret ran outside with no coat and just crocs on her feet. We could hear some discussion, but not any actual words. Margaret came in and proudly announced, very loudly, "YES!". "What?", I said? "She said she would marry Chris."

About 10 minutes later Chris' car drove into his garage. Margaret said, "Do you think we should tell him?"

Charlie and I had a super big laugh on that one.

Yes! Sometimes they get it!

Sometimes I worry about some of the things my kids are picking up from me.

Tonight Amelia said something that let me know we are on the right track in some areas. After finishing Math homework she asked, "Well, I have reading, but it's not due until Thursday. Should I do it tonight?" I said, "Well, let's look at it and see how long you think it will take".

With no further prompting from me she looked at it and said, "I think I should do these two pages tonight, and then I can do the last page tomorrow."

Yay! I think she's getting it!

How time flies!

How did this happen? Count the candles. And this is my baby! The older will be 10 in February. Wow.

Please don't say five minutes...

Yesterday my daughter asked me, "Mom, how long until supper is ready? And please DON'T say 5 minutes." (She was really hungry).

Methinks I use the term "5 minutes" a bit too liberally around her, and she has figured out that 5 minutes is not 5 minutes.

Reminds me of the discussion between her and Margaret about the answer "maybe".

"When mom says "maybe" that means yes. When dad says "maybe" that means no."

Our kids know us better than we know ourselves sometimes.

Now where did Linda put that?

I have been blessed to be able to afford and to find a house cleaner. We do try to pick up before she comes so she can focus on cleaning and not neatening. But she obviously does need to move some stuff around.

As a result of this, we have a new tagline in the house. That line is "Now where did Linda put that?" Instead of blaming our own laziness, memory, or messiness when we can't find something, we just "blame" the housecleaner.

Of course none of this is actually due to her (and I remind the kids of that), but it's kind of funny to say so. (We did have one thing the first week we couldn't find that I had to call her up to find it. That was the ONLY time, but I guess they remember that time.) And that item was part of my daughter's Halloween costume. That she LOST when she went trick or treating. How ironic.

Parenting Chicken

I have coined what I think is a new term... "Parenting Chicken". I discovered it because my husband has been out of town a few times this fall. I have discovered I seem to have evenings that are in more control when he is gone. I think I have discovered the reason.

I think we play parenting chicken sometimes. You know, you have done it I'm sure. You hear the kids do something they shouldn't. Or you see toys that have been left out. When home alone, you know YOU have to deal with it. So you do.

When the spouse is home? Hmmm. Maybe he'll deal with it. I'll just ignore that for now. Of course, he is dong the same thing. And things spiral out of control.

Yep. Chicken. I usually lose.

(Oh, and if you don't have kids, you can do the same with household chores. I always lose the bathroom battle on that one.)

My computer knows more about me than I do

Sunday I had a bit of a mishap with my computer. I'm not sure who pushed which buttons when or in what order, but my computer decided to "restore" itself to the factory shipped state. Which is thankfully different than having the hard drive re-formatted. But a pain nonetheless.

I am having to re-install most of the programs I installed since getting my computer. And I have had to un-install most of the crap and trial programs that came with the computer.

For many software packages, this means checking your account on their website, or checking your e-mail for some key, since there are very few install CDs sent out anymore.

Do you know how many different passwords you have? I don't. I have had to request so many new passwords, and change so many passwords, and rifle through papers for information to restore everything to its previous state (which wasn't perfect, but at least I knew where everything was).

When I think about that too much, I worry. How many websites know how many things about me that I don't even remember anymore? It's mind boggling.

I'm lucky that at work we have single-use sign-on (or whatever it's called). I sign into my account and every program that is web-based uses that same password. It works nicely at work because of firewalls and security and all that. I hope the outside world never comes to that, because then surely my computer would know more about me than I do.

Which I fear may already be the case.

Thanksgiving Plans

I always take something to my mom's to work on over Thanksgiving. I won't be shopping on the day after!!!

This year I am going to take a run at my negatives again. These pictures are of my boxes with negatives and the two binders I already have filled with negatives in sheets. We'll see how far I get this year!!

Fall Chores

The weather here has been beautiful!!! Sunday we cleaned the yard for winter.(mostly... we did leave this one small pile of leaves for the girlies to play in)

You do enough of these and eventually one of them pegs you straight on.

Here's my "color" profile. Thanks to Nicole for the link. If you don't know me, I can tell you I think this describes me pretty well. As for the color? Love it.

you are seagreen #2E8B57

Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days. Your saturation level is higher than average - You know what you want, but sometimes know not to tell everyone. You value accomplishments and know you can get the job done, so don't be afraid to run out and make things happen. Your outlook on life can be bright or dark, depending on the situation. You are flexible and see things objectively.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Tagged again

Leah from TallyScrapper tagged me. I had done this earlier, but no harm in doing again...
and yes, I know #1 is a repeat, but Leah probably doesn't know this about me...

1. I do these tag things when they come my way, but I never pass them on. I also break every chain letter sent to me. I never do those chain swaps..recipes, socks or anything else like that.

2. I grew up in Wisconsin, went to college in Georgia, went to Graduate school in California, got my first full time job in Colorado, and now live in Minnesota. I think a move to the Northeast or Texas would complete this. But no thank you...I'm happy here!

3. I'm an obssessive organizer. I love having everything labled and in order in category. Books, music, scrap supplies, photo, albums, everthing. I don't always have time to do this, however.

4. Reading is not very high on my list of things I enjoy doing.

5. I dread the short daylight hours in winter. The whole going back to standard time has gotten me sort of down.

6. During a 6 month period about 7 years ago the following happened:
We celebrated 15 years of marriage
My husband turned 40
I had a baby.
I turned 39.

I don't know what the craziest part of that is...probably having a baby at age 39. Really...I do recommend getting that taken care of sooner in life if you have the chance. :-)

7. I can knit. I like making mittens because they go fairly quickly. Sweaters take way too LONG. I want to learn to knit socks.

This makes me happy...

Here are my new ribbon jars and pink clock from IKEA. I do have more ribbons than shown in these jars, but I hope having them on the shelf above my desk will encourage me to use them!!




Also, I missed out on posting Halloween pictures. Here are a few...
Margaret is (obviously) a witch. I called her my princess witch, because she had PLANNED to be a princess for the FOURTH year in a row. Until she saw this costume. It's kind of pretty like a princess costume...but black. Hence, princess witch.


Amelia is Betsy Ross. She really loves to pretend to be characters from books she has read and is all over non-fiction (i.e. real people) so she was drawn to this costume right away.



And here's one from Margaret's Brownie Halloween party. She is doing the eat the donut off the string thing.

Speaking of fourth grade..

Amelia's Monday night homework had problems like this:


4 + x = 7

12 - 5 = u

18 - r = 9



Um... I was confused because I thought this was algebra!! I was all concerned that she would be confused.

So I said: this is the same as 4 + BOX = 7. (You know...they have been filling in the box for ages). Turns out she really wasn't confused by the letter variable. She just doesn't know her facts very well.

I guess the difference is that they are not writing the answer as x = 3, but they just rewrite the entire problem replacing the letter with the right number. Plus all the problems were based on facts that they should know.

Now are you confused? I probably didn't explain that well. Anyway...that assignment just threw me for a loop.

Gonna' have to keep an eye on this...

My older daughter is in fourth grade. In fourth grade they have planners and a parent is supposed to sign them every night.

Earlier this week when I went to sign, I saw this suspicious activity in the previous day.

The top signature? Mine. Below it? I think someone is trying to copy it!!!

Egads! Isn't it a bit early for that? I think I'm going to need to make my signature harder to copy!!!! I think she did a pretty good job!

Joke from a 6 year old

"Why are you hiding under there?"

"Under where?"


Total laughter. "You said underwear."

Somehow I missed that one when I was growing up.

Busted

I caught myself yelling at my daughter in the other room after she had yelled at me. I said "Don't yell from the other room! Come in here and talk to me face-to-face."

Ummm. Major league busted. I guess now that I know where she gets it from I can start retraining. Her or me? I'm not sure.

Music to my ears...

When I walked in the door last night, Margaret said.. "Oh. I haven't finished my homework yet, because I was busy reading." I guess she didn't read the part where her 1st grade teacher wrote that reading every day is the most important homework!!

And Amelia said: "Mom, I want to practice violin 15 minutes EVERY DAY." Well see if she remember that when I remind her it's practice time....

Conversation with Margaret

Margaret: "Are the Green Bay guys going to win the Super Cup?"

Mom: Well, maybe. But that is a long ways away. A lot could happen before then.

Margaret: "I bet they'd be happy if they won. Because you get a really big trophy"

Sad Days

Well, I haven't posted lately.

My father-in-law died a week and a half ago. It was a bit whirlwind at the end, with a swift movement from our knowing he was sick (because he finally went to a doctor about it) to his death less than two weeks later. Charlie was obviously tied up with that, including a trip to Albuquerque for a week. The girls and I flew out for two days for the funeral in the middle of that. He was 87. He was a kind and wonderful man.

I tried to post a few pictures from the day, but blogger isn't letting me. I always feel weird taking photos at the reception following the memorial service, but know from pictures of my family growing up that sometime that is the only time everyone gets together. (which is kind of sad, too)

Anyway, I have had a lot of blog worthy thoughts lately (well...worthy for my blog, at least) but just haven't had the gumption to write them down. October will be better. Maybe.