Snow Day

Snow day = Snowman

Piano Recital

Abigail had a Christmas piano recital tonight. She played Jingle Bells and Away in a Manger. She did a beautiful job.

Beauty is Everywhere

Spring has sprung and there is beauty all around.

100 Days

Tuesday was the 100th day of school. Abby's 1st grade had to wear something with 100 of something on it and then they were going to go to each classroom for a fashion show.
I had the brilliant idea (it was at the time) of using some buttons from Abby's great grandmothers. 50 from my grandma and 50 from Perry's grandma. After I sorted through all the buttons from both grandmas I placed them on the shirt before sewing, to try to make some kind of pattern.

Then I took tons of pictures so I knew where to put the buttons once I took them off the shirt.
I placed them on the table just as they had been on the shirt. My cat thought they were there for her to shove off the table with her paw.
Some of these buttons are very pretty.

I sewed the first 10 buttons on and I was pretty much done. The thought had crossed my mind as to how much of an idiot I am. I am not a sewer. (that looks like sewer, as in the pipes that your poo goes in, but it's not. HA) I am not a sew-er.
But I already had sew holes in the shirt and Abby did need something for 100 day, so I pressed on. One button at a time. 70, 60, 50... 20 more to go. Those last 20 were at the bottom and were just clipped on. No sewing.
I worked at it for a little while for 3 days. Finally I sat down and finished the thing. It weighed quite a bit, and the bottom buttons that hung off the shirt were kind of noisy but Abby loved it.

Yup, there's 100 on there.
Those 100 days went so fast. Soon it will be summer vacation, then possibly home school next year. If that's the case, then on our 100th day of home school, we will count 100 M&M's and eat them of course. 25 for her. 75 for me.

4th and 1st

School started today.

Phoebe is now in 4th grade and thinks it is the coolest thing because she has a locker, and that she is upstairs.



Abby started 1st grade and loves it. I cried having to leave her there all day.
I celebrated pacified my new alone time by geocaching with a friend.

From 4 to 2

Abby finally let go of her training wheels and is now a 2 wheeled biker.
She was never interested in bike riding until this summer started. I thought that at age 6.5 she should be able to ride a two wheeler, so I tried to teach her on Phoebe's bike. She couldn't figure out how to balance and after a while she would get frustrated and quit. She said she would NEVER be able to ride a two wheeler. But I kept on with her throughout the summer. As of last week, she was still at NEVER riding a 2 wheeled bike. Last night the girls were biking up and down the street, then Abby changed over to riding her scooter. I saw she could balance pretty good on that, so I told her to get on Phoebe's bike and pretend it was her scooter. She wasn't getting it. I asked Perry to help her a little. He told her to keep her eyes ahead of her and took a run up the street with her. He came back in a minute huffing and puffing. So I took over again and this time Phoebe told her that her feet are lava and if she looks down, her eyes will burn. She kept her eyes up, I ran a few feet holding the bike then let go. Away she went, with the whole time Phoebe yelling at her that her feet are lava.

A little wobbly at first, but she was off. We forgot to tell her how to stop, so she just hit the curb and went down. She practiced her turns and had that down in no time.

She is one happy little girl. She went from NEVER learning how to ride a bike 1 week ago, to zipping up and down the street and even around the block in about 15 minutes.

She learned 1 month before her 7th birthday. Phoebe learned 2 months after her 7th birthday. Better late than NEVER.

Wordless Wednesday - from Abigail

Sick or Snow?

It's all I seem to be writing about these days.
Are we sick? Or is there a ton of snow to talk about?
Happy to report we are not sick.
Unhappy to report that we have a ton more snow coming.
I just shoveled about 3 inches with about a foot more at the end of the driveway when the plow goes by and we have about 4-5 more inches coming.
It's wet and heavy and of course Perry is out of town, so I get to shovel it all by myself. It's really packy (just for you Cheeseboy) so I'm sure snowmen will be popping up around the city.

This was a picture that Abby drew when school was called off a few weeks ago.
I think we are having enough snow today to call off school.
They didn't, but this picture is fitting for today too. Her drawings make me laugh.

I don't know who this is supposed to be, but I can relate sometimes.

I go around to other blogs and see pictures of Spring popping up everywhere. Very nice, very encouraging.
Not very nice and not very encouraging here. Here's what I got of our Spring coming in a few weeks.

Even the birds won't come back.

Waiting and hoping.

Snow Day

After the foot of snow we got yesterday, school was canceled today.
That didn't stop Abigail from getting up and out.
While Perry cleared the driveway,
Abby started building a snowman.
The snow wasn't packy enough to make a snowman, so she just made a snowblob.
Then she took shelter under a big pine tree.

Then off for a venture to the backyard.
It's deep.

Finally, enough was enough.
Where is Phoebe during all this?
Both ways are great ways to spend your day off from school.

?'s & Answers

I asked Phoebe and Abigail some questions.
Here are their answers.

List an occupation you do NOT want to do when you grow up.
Phoebe: be the person who walks behind horses and picks up poop in a parade. ( Whew, and here I was worried all along)
Abigail: clean up (she's got that one mastered already)

What was the nicest thing anyone ever did for you?
Phoebe: went to Subway when I asked them to.
Abigail: did what I wanted to do.
(Ahem! what about taking care of you two since day 1? I think that's pretty nice!)

If your house is on fire what will you grab on the way out?
Phoebe: Pearl (our cat)
Abigail: binkey (what once was a beautiful pink blanket is now a knotted up bunch of string) (for the record, they do know just to get out and not try to grab anything, however, Abby will have that blanket in her hand.)

Suddenly you're on Jupiter, what can't you live without?
Phoebe: air
Abigail: binkey (naturally)

You can have lunch with one person living or dead. Who is it and why?
Phoebe: George Washington because he was the 1st president and he was interesting.
Abigail: Abe Lincoln because his hat is tall and he looks spiffy.

How much do I weigh?
Phoebe: 135
Abigail: 800
(Um....no)

What's the perfect age to be married?
Phoebe: 25, because it seems like you're not old and you're not young.
Abigail: 35, because when you're in your 30's it's the medium age to get married.
(as compared to the small age of your 20's and the large age of your 40's, and the super sized age of your 50's?)

What age is old to you?
Phoebe: 55. It's just old to me.
Abigail: 72. because your skin gets all wrinkly and your hair starts to turn gray or white.
(well Happy 72nd birthday to me!)

Thanks girls. You have quite the interesting minds.

3 of a kind

Abby lost her third tooth tonight in less than a week.
The tooth fairy needs a second job to fund this girl.

Another one bites....

The Tooth Fairy has to show up again.

Busy Weekend and FINALLY!

Us girls had a filled up weekend.
It started out with my MIL calling up and saying that Disney On Ice was coming to our area soon and would we like to go.
Now, I'm not one to pass up an offer of other people buying my and my childrens way into an event, but I thought $60 a ticket was a bit much. She insists on front row seats. I told her that we have been to DOI many times and maybe we could find something else to do with the girls. For less money.
So Friday night we headed out to an old Victorian house that was decorated still for Christmas. It was the first house in the world to have hydro powered electricity, back in the 1800's.
Their website said it was open Thursday and Friday nights until the 15th. HA!
We got there and the sign on the door told us that the last night tours ended on Dec. 23. The website made no mention of that.
Now what?
MIL brought up a play/musical that was playing in the area, but didn't know where. Well gee, let's head right on over....WHERE?!
Called Perry, he looked it up somehow and we made our way there.
The only seats left were balcony, last row. Whatever, it was something to do.
Come to find out that the theater is not that big and balcony, last row were perfect seats. The seating was so steep, that the person in front of you was not in our way at all. And to not have anyone behind us was great.
The musical was really good. It was called Forever Plaid.
My MIL really liked it because the music was from her era.
I liked it because I knew most of the songs, and the actors really did a great job. Their singing was awesome.
The girls liked it because it was a grown up thing to do and they felt pretty cool going to a grown up musical.
After that we went to a greasy burger joint and ate junk food. Yum,

Saturday, I went to lunch with my long lost high school friend. She was at our wedding 11 years ago, and I saw her at her moms funeral a few months back. That's been it in 11+ years. How terrible.
It was an awesome reunion. We sat at the restaurant for two hours eating and gabbing, then went to her house and caught up on more years for 7 more hours! We picked right up like we never had that big span of years between us. It was wonderful and so much fun. We promised each other that we will not let years go by like that again. Good grief, she only lives in the next city. It's not like she lives forever away!
Perry asked me before I left when I would be home. I told him..."getting together and talking with "L"...about midnight". He laughed but didn't think I was serious. Well it wasn't midnight but being on a lunch date for 9 hours made it pretty close.

Today my MIL called and asked if we wanted to go to that Victorian house today. So we went. What a gorgeous house! We had a guided tour and the lady was so filled with information. The woodwork and decor was so beautiful.
Sadly I could take no pictures of either the play or the house.

FINALLY! After many months of it hanging by a thread, Abby's front tooth came out. Seriously, this tooth was hanging at Thanksgiving, and everybody was ready to hand over their money when it came out. Thanksgiving came and went. For sure by Christmas it was going to come out and she would have to sing, All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth. Everybody was ready to hand over their money on Christmas too, Nope! Christmas came and went. She hung on to it. The new tooth was already growing behind it. Finally last week, I told to just get behind it and flip it out. She tried but didn't think anything happened. I saw it fly out across the room and she tried feeling it with her tongue and found out that nothing was there. Yahoo! At last it's out. She has about 4 or 5 other loose ones too. Who knows when they're coming out.
The tooth fairy came through well.

It was a filled and fun weekend.

Hat, Hello, House

The title of this post has nothing to do with anything. I'm just continuing my December posts that start with "H" and I had my family yell out the first word that comes to mind, that starts with "H".
So, hat, hello, house.
This is my 80th post of the year!
Of the YEAR!
As compared to 234 of 2009.
What on earth did I have to say in 2009?
As I look back at 2009 posts, it was a lot of "who really cares" posts.
I guess that's why 2010 posts were way down. Who really cares?
I don't mean this as a mean girl thing. I just didn't care to post if I had a Terrific Tuesday or a Wordless Wednesday or a Fall On My Face Friday.
Although posting a Fall On My Face Friday might have been amusing.

Christmas was nice. It was here and gone so quickly. All the preparation over the months and in a flash it's over.
It's been a fast year. My girls are growing way too fast. I'm heading in to a new phase of girl attitudes. Both good and bad. God help me.
A few photos of my growing girls.

sigh...where did my babies go?

Another year about to end. It's been good.

Happenings

15 days til Christmas. Ya think we would have our tree up?
Heck, we don't even have a tree yet that we can put up.
I did decorate my fireplace mantle. Big whoop.
I am getting to the very end of my gift shopping.
Not looking forward to the wrapping of gifts.
All us girls in the family are suffering from sore throats. I think mine is strep. I'll survive.
We had a 2-3 inches of snow tonight.
Of course it came between the hours of 2:00 to 5:00.
5:15 is the time we had to leave for the girl's Christmas program at school.
Yes, my kids have sore throats, but the show must go on!
I wanted to tell Phoebe to break a leg on her performance, but I think she's had enough broken legs to last her a lifetime.
Real nice having the girls tramp through the 2 inches of snow in their fancy dancy little shoes, with the wind and snow blowing their perfect hair-do's that I spent some time on.
Eh, no big deal, they survived. Or should I say I survived. It's no big deal to them.
Phoebe was the angel Gabriel. She did a great job. "Greetings you who are highly favored" (her first line) Her next lines were way to long, and I don't know them. Read Luke 1:28-37 if you want to know the rest of her lines. :o)
Abby sang some songs and did some reading from the bible. She did a great job too.
And how can a school program be complete without a kid peeing on stage?
No, not one of my kids. Poor kid. I felt bad. Still do.
So I came home and shoveled. Of course it only snows when Perry is out of town.
I have had night sweats lately. How gross are those!? Oh the pleasures of late womanhood.
All I want for Christmas is pajamas made out of Sham-Wow material.
Go along with me here...here's my commercial.

Tired of those nasty night sweats waking you up at all hours of the night?
Sick of changing pajamas and undies, and sheets at 3 a.m.?
Do you finally want a full nights sleep?
Then you need the new Sham-Wow pajamas!
Made from the same material that sops up gallons of water with one quick swipe.
Now you can sleep in peace and comfort knowing that when those nasty night sweats come, you will stay warm and dry.
No more waking up just as every pore of your body is spewing out buckets of sweat, and whatever other body fluids.
The Sham-Wow pajamas will soak up that sweat the instant it leaves your body.
Say goodbye to restless nights, sweat soaked everything, and start enjoying the rest and dryness that the Sham-Wow pajamas will give.
Buy them for yourself, or for that special woman that lay next to you at night. (because you know, that if these night sweats occur when you're in bed she will roll over to your side to avoid the wet sheets on her side)
Just $19.99. But wait! Act now and receive 2 pair of Sham-Wow pajamas for the one low price of $19.99. But wait! Call in the next 5 minutes and we will throw in this portable mini fan for those hell fire hot flashes. Call now!

I need to start sewing now. I could make millions!

Anyway, that's what's happening around here.
Goodnight. I hope.

Dad/Daughter weekend

Perry had some work to do on his deer stand, so he took the girls and his nephew to work on it.
They ran in to lots of rain and some snow.
What a way to travel!
Oh oh, here's a creek! What now?

Why, let them float through, of course.
They did some shooting. (poor tree)
I think his 4 wheeler needs a bigger mud flap!
The girls had a great time, and Perry said they passed their first Navy SEAL training course.
What troopers!

I did lunch, shopping and coffee shop lounging with a girlfriend. What a trooper I was.