Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Bullets

  • I'm ashamed to admit I've been wearing the same socks for the past three days because I hadn't done any laundry. And yeah... here at the end of the third day, it's obvious.
  • I've got laundry running RIGHT NOW.
  • In line to vote, there were two women wearing the same boots. They were separated by a couple of people in line, but they ended up right next to each other at the voting booths and so it was very obvious. Awk-ward!
  • I pulled off a beautiful parallel parking job there in front of the elementary school.
  • On the drive home we passed an overturned vehicle in the median, which completely amazed Holly.
  • My parent-teacher conference was very short since the teacher had no problems to report about my girls and their grades are good.
  • I wrote all of 550 words yesterday for the first day of Nanowrimo. All 550 were crap. But as my friend Tracie says, that is the true spirit of Nano.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

New Pictures

For dinner last night I ate over half of a pineapple and then washed it down with a cup of coffee. Unsurprisingly I have a belly-ache this morning.

I put up new pictures from the summer in our photo section: start with July and August here, including our trip to Rehoboth, and be sure to click through to see our summer boating trip to Lake Moomaw in Virginia. Here's a little preview:

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Books

Over the summer I got into a reading groove and was tossing books down like tequila shots. I got all the way to 26 for the year (see the list) and then ground to a halt two or three weeks ago.

I don't know what changed -- was it my attitude? stress level? did I just pick some dud books?

I tried reading In The Skin Of A Lion by Michael Ondaatje. I don't know where I got the idea I should read this -- maybe because he wrote several award-winning books, including The English Patient which was then made into an award-winning movie -- but I couldn't get very far. It was like slogging through deep snow.

Next I tried Water Bound by Christine Feehan. After (guiltily) enjoying a romance novel earlier in the summer, I thought I'd go for another one, and this one got good reviews somewhere. I wish I could remember where that "somewhere" was, because I'm not going to trust it again. Only made it two chapters into this one before all my eye-rolling was hurting my head. I skipped ahead to the first sex scene and then called it quits.

Most recently I've been trying to read The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I picked this from Amazon.com recommendations after I so enjoyed The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. Unfortunately this book is just not doing it for me. I only kind of want to know what happens, and I don't feel like dealing with the minorly annoying writing style to find out. I think I'm going to give this up too.

Many of my favorite reads have actually come from NPR recommendations, especially Nancy Pearl's lists. Guess I'll be returning to her...

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Why So Serious?

Rain and traffic that make for over a two hour commute on a Monday morning... not a good way to start the week off.

Waking up to find your three-year-old looking like the Joker is not a good way to start Sunday morning off either. She got into her sister's purse.

It may have been mixed messages for me to take her picture and then scold her and send her to her room...

And here is a random picture of the dog wearing Minnie Mouse ears. Enjoy!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Happy Sabbath


At my little church it is tradition near the beginning of the service for the congregation (as they are able) to get up out of the pews, move around the sanctuary and greet fellow members and visitors alike with a smile and handshake or often a hug. The phrase you will hear repeated is "Happy Sabbath!"

It was a happy Sabbath for me indeed this week as both Thea and Faith were baptized. What a feeling of pride and joy for me to see my daughters declare their faith in Jesus! Their grandparents (my parents) and their dad were able to make it to the service. The pastor asked their family to stand up, so we did, and then he asked their friends in the church to stand in support of them, and I felt so blessed and loved to see basically the entire church come to its feet. I can only imagine that Thea and Faith felt the same.









The baptism was originally scheduled for later in the year, but with some other family goings-on we needed to move the date forward quickly. Because of this we weren't able to get the word out to everybody that we would have liked to have invited to the service, or plan a party for later in the day that I would have liked to have had. But I think the church members who were there really came through in making it a very Happy Sabbath.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Sunny days



We went to Centennial Park on Sabbath for a picnic with some people from church. Beautiful day. I do realize I'm way behind in getting pictures up -- I've only done through June. Sometime I'll sit down and work on getting July posted. July was the week-long camping trip, and I have between 200 and 300 pictures to go through... a daunting task.

Emily -- "Not a Kitten, Not Yet a Queen" -- became suddenly affectionate last week and we all thought, well isn't this nice! Until she began yowling and behaving obscenely and we realized she was in heat. It's not fun, and less fun is going to be the vet bill for having her spayed.

Today I am very taken with this song: "Laughing With a Mouth Of Blood" by St Vincent. Don't be put off -- the name sounds more Goth than it really is.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Becky's Top 40

I'm told I'm picky about music. This is probably true. The thing is, I love music, lots of different kinds of music, but I tend to form strong opinions for sometimes random reasons. I have completely arbitrary rules about what we can listen to in the car on the way to school. Thea likes to flip the radio channels and choose music, but she has to abide by my rules.

For instance, no Katy Perry. Because once she was a guest judge on American Idol and I couldn't stand her, plus I hate "California Gurls" because I think the lyrics are stupid. So, I decreed No More Katy Perry.

Also, I don't like songs in which the singer announces his name (I'm looking at you, Jason Derulo, and also at the three of you, Jay Sean, Sean Paul, and Lil Jon) because for one, it's arrogant, and for two, if you sound so much like a hundred other artists that you have to remind the listener who you are, why do we need you cluttering up the airwaves? Hence, No Saying Your Name.

I don't like Buckcherry's "All Night Long" because it has no hook, no musical piece of interest at all, it's just non-stop caterwauling. It's like hearing my kids whining and wailing at me for four minutes or whatever. Also, pretty much anything by Avenged Sevenfold. Tiresome. It sucks that I used to be into 98 Rock-type rock music, but now much of what they play seems just like a bunch of noise. Great! I'm officially old! No Buckcherry or Avenged Sevenfold.

But lest I (and you) think I'm just the grouch that hates all the kids' music these days, now and then something truly interesting and original will come on the radio and I'll perk up. Here are two things that caught my ear this past week:

"Believe" by The Bravery
-- This is a unique sound, leans to the alternative... but still you can turn it way up with the windows down on a late summer night and rock out as you drive.

"100 Yard Dash" by Raphael Saadiq -- Do yourself a favor and check this out. The video is cool too. Very retro and fresh, makes your hips want to move.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Suddenly Last Summer

We went to Rehoboth Beach last weekend with friends and had a good time. I can't believe it was the only beach trip we've made yet this year. I hope to also go once to Ocean City after Labor Day, after the prices drop, but before it gets too cold to go in the water.

I don't have pictures from the July camping trip up yet, let alone beach pictures, but here is a picture of tonight's injury:



See my purple toe, second from the left? Tomorrow morning we'll see if I can move it, because tonight I can't and it hurts like #$^@.

I'm up to 23 books read for the year, which is the most since 2007. It feels good to be reading a lot and I hope it will get me in the mood to write some, myself, for Nanowrimo in November.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Sometimes I just want to tell people to put on their big girl (or boy) panties and get over themselves.

In other news, yesterday Holly asked me, "Does Jesus have a phone?"

Monday, August 16, 2010

Three-year-old Movie Critic: Despicable Me

Becky: What did you see today?
Holly: Spickle!
B: What was it about?
H: A bad guy.
B: What did he do?
H: He was mean. And there were yellow things. What were they?
B: I don't know!
H: Thea, what were the yellow things?
Thea: Minions.
H: Yes!
B: Then what happened?
H: There were girls, and they were good. And they went like this: [makes frowny face]
B: That's all?
H: Yep.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Facebook Fail

For all this personal data Facebook is supposed to be collecting and learning about me, they're doing a crappy job putting it together. First there was this:



I think even people who pass me on the street know my opinion of Nickelback.

And now this. Really, Facebook?

Monday, August 2, 2010

Name calling

Holly to her sisters: You're a butt crack! You're a peanut butter and jelly puncher!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Christmas In July

Overheard Holly singing:

"Jingle bells
Frosty melts
Jingle all the way
Old MacDonald had a farm
And ...unintelligible..."

Unrelated, there are ants all over the counter and the sink in the kitchen. I keep wiping and wiping but the little pests aren't going away. Usually we have two rainy periods a year and ants appear in certain spots around the house, but it's sure not rainy now. Maybe they were driven inside by drought this time?

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Summer Rain

A summer rainstorm knocked the 100 degree temperature down into the 80s. Woohoo! It also soaked the load of laundry I had hanging on the clothesline. Dammit...

Today's Hollyism: "I need a Band-aid for my finger or it's going to bleed! Is that what you want?!"

17 books read this year and I'm more than halfway through the 18th. My goal for the year was 15. At least I am exceeding expectations at something!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Ugh

  1. It is hot.
  2. My truck died.
  3. I don't have anyone to watch my dog next week while I'm away.
  4. It is hot.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Ulrich Schnauss - Between Us And Them

One of my Pandora stations I've tuned to what I call my "Writing Music" (even though I haven't done any significant writing in a while). It's mostly instrumental, atmospheric, mood music. Music that makes me feel a variety of emotions, just listening to it.

Here's something that station has been playing me for a couple of years: "Between Us And Them" by German electronica musician Ulrich Schnauss. This is music that will really take you away.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Three-year-old Movie Critic: Toy Story 3

This time, I only knew she had gone to see a movie, but I didn't know which one.

Becky: What movie did you see?
Holly: I don't know.
B: Well what was the movie about?
H: A bus!
B: A bus? What did it do?
H: It went to a scary place. There was fire.
B: There was fire in the scary place?
H: Yes!
B: (still no idea what movie this was) Were there any kids in the movie? Any girls or boys?
H: There was only one girl. And a cowboy.
B: A cowboy, huh? Was the cowboy's name Woody?
H: Yes!
B: Did you see Toy Story 3?
H: Yes!!!

A bus that went into a scary place with fire? I haven't seen "Toy Story 3" yet so I don't know what actually happened, but apparently this was the main plotline that stood out to Holly.

For the record, Tim Burton's recent "Alice In Wonderland" was described by Holly thusly: "A girl stabbed a dragon. That's all."

Friday, June 18, 2010

Three-year-old Movie Critic: The Karate Kid

Holly went with her dad and sisters to see "The Karate Kid" (the 2010 version obviously) in the theater. Here is her take, in Q and A form.

Becky: What was the movie about?
Holly: The Karate Kid. (duh, Mom)
B: Oh? What did he do in the movie?
H: SHE. It was a SHE.
B: The Karate Kid was a girl?
H: Yes. SHE. (Sorry, Jaden Smith.)
B: All right. What did she do?
H: She kicked! (Kicks her own foot into the air.)
B: Oh yeah? Who did she kick?
H: She kicked the bad guys! They were being mean to her!

And there you have it, plot summary of "The Karate Kid." She kicked the bad guys.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Do the Dew



I tried "Mtn Dew Distortion," one of the three test flavors of Mountain Dew. It's described as "lime blasted." It tasted similar to when I used to squeeze limes into my regular Mountain Dew. Which was super tasty when I did it myself, but strangely not exciting when it was coming from the bottle that way. It tasted a little bit like dish soap smells.

Sorry, I'm still loyal to good old classic Mountain Dew.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Emily



This is Emily, the new member of the cat family. She's a lot of fun. :)

I have been working hard updating the photo albums on Zebranest, so check them out here: http://www.zebranest.net/photos. Lots of stuff up from the beginning of the year up to the end of May. Also, I'm looking to sail past my goal of 15 books read this year, since I'm already working on the 13th -- woohoo! You can see my reading list here. The older girls are supposed to be reading plenty this summer instead of rotting in front of the computer or Wii... you can check out their progress on their blog, Chickpeas.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

A US Census worker stopped by my house yesterday to get my census information. But why? I had dutifully mailed in my census form weeks ago, AND I already took a phone call from a census worker who got all the information again. If this continues it'll look like Baltimore City consists mainly of white single moms of a ton of middle-schoolers and preschoolers.

I got a summons for Jury Duty, again. I went 30-some-odd years without anyone wanting me to be a juror, but now that they know I'll actually show up, I'm getting called every year. Unfortunately the date of my summons is right during my vacation in July so I have to call up the court and ask them to change it.

We have a new member of the family -- Emily, a nine-month-old kitten that we took in when a friend couldn't keep her. She's solid dark grey and very impish. I'll put up some pictures when I get my camera working -- it's on the fritz.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Garden update

In gardening news, we have eaten the first strawberries! Picked a small bowl -- maybe 15 -- on Friday. The patch is in bad shape, overgrown with weeds, and after this harvest I'm going to try and relocate the plants.

The blackberry bush has blossoms and some things I assume will turn into blackberries.

I planted bean seeds at least three weeks ago, but they never came up. I replanted them Saturday as well as put seven pepper seedlings into the ground. Tonight I put in seven cauliflower plants.

Left to plant -- tomatoes that are currently in paper cups, and cucumbers I was planning to seed directly in the ground. Had a little surprise -- I found some volunteer cucumber plants growing over where I had them last year! There are about five plants all clustered together. One of them in particular is very robust and I'll have to do the rest of the garden around it, apparently!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

A Silly Tale

So Thea and Faith (although mostly Thea) are obsessing over the new hottest thing: Silly Bandz. Basically these are like those jelly bracelets we used to wear in the 80s, except when taken off your wrist they take shapes -- animals, stars, letters, symbols, etc. I really don't understand what is so exciting about them, but they are being traded at school and I do remember what it was like to want desperately to be involved in the recess trading post (*cough* sticker albums *cough*). Anyway, the girls have been dying for their very own Silly Bandz for three weeks now but they're not easy to find since apparently every other middle schooler in the region is also dying for them.



Finally last night their dad took them to the mall and they found some at Claire's. These are in space shapes -- rocket ships, moons, planets -- and while they are definitely not the shapes my girls coveted, they glow in the dark! Ooooooooh! It was all Thea could talk about when I got home. Faith was similarly excited, but she was busy working on homework in her room.

I went up to see her and she had her 11 (she had given one of her 12 to Thea) Silly Bandz laid out on the floor while she was sitting on her bed doing her handwriting homework. I sat with her for a few minutes and talked to her. I dimly registered that the dog had followed me upstairs... you see where this is going, don't you.

The dog gobbled up all 11 of her Silly Bandz.

Yes... For Faith this was indeed a Woohoo Dammit moment (although since she's only 9 let's call it Yay Nuts) She finally got some Silly Bandz YAY! Not two hours later the dog ate them all NUTS!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Caught

Trying to get a morning-after picture of Holly's new haircut, instead I captured Spot sneaking out the door...

Monday, May 10, 2010

In the Fridge

Something smells bad in my refrigerator. Unfortunately I do not have the drive right now to play rotten-food hide-and-seek.

Monday, May 3, 2010

First lie?

Me: Holly, did you scribble in the library book?
Holly: No.
Me: Then who did it?
Holly: Um, a bad guy did!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

April Flowers!

April has been a good month for flowers. I missed getting a picture of the daffodils, which bloomed very early, but I only had a couple anyway.

But here are my tulips.



I swear I used to have several colors, but it seems I only have pink now, and only a few of them. But the irises:



The irises are spreading. They are from bulbs that sat in my shed for over a year before I finally got around to planting them. Hardy. This is the first flower.

The sprawling azalea that came with the house awes me every year. It is the most vibrant, stunning bush on the block. (Although it needs some pruning.)



I planted two new azaleas this year, and although I feared they wouldn't flower until next year, if they even survived, the purple one erupted about two weeks after the mature azalea bloomed.



It's small, just a tight mass of flowers. I love it.

I planted phlox last year under the mature azalea and although the plants lived, they didn't seem to be thriving. I was pleasantly surprised when they all bloomed this year -- little rugs of color.



And last but not least, my roses. The first flower came almost two weeks earlier this year than last year, I believe.



It has been open for about a week and already looks pretty rough, but it endured a couple of strong rain and wind storms. There are plenty more buds on the red rosebush, and the pink bush is budding too. The other two bushes are a little behind but I have faith in them.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Cloudy With a Chance Of...

The little weather widget on my desktop shows a bleak weekend ahead.

bad weather

Is it just me, or are we bracing for a cockroach invasion on Sunday?

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Gardening update

No pictures until I find my missing camera (grrr) but we did a lot of work over the weekend that I want recorded.

April 6 -- Replanted the bulbs I dug up from the front of the house. In related news, I have blooming tulips. :)
April 10 -- Weeded the rosebushes (which are growing excellently). Planted cauliflower, peppers and tomatoes in cups to sprout inside. Mowed the lawn. Put two new azaleas out front and made a nice mulched area bounded by old cut-up branches from the tree that fell in my yard two years ago.
April 11 -- Tilled the vegetable garden area and the flower garden area. Did a lot of other yard/outside work unrelated to garden.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Yard stuff

Played in the dirt yesterday. First I planted a blackberry bush.



Then I dug up some unidentified bulbs from the front of the house. I plan to replant them over on the side, although if they don't survive it's not a tragedy since I'm not even sure what they are. In their place I'm going to put two new azaleas.



The other side of the front of the house has a lovely mature azalea already, but the patch of land in front of it looks terrible. I put phlox there last year and it is still there, but has barely grown at all. I don't know how long it takes to spread, if indeed it spreads. And it's not flowering.

Friday, April 2, 2010

The Price of Vanity



It's a gorgeous day so I broke out the new heels. I love how they look but OUCH.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Spring in the air

A two hour drive, all by yourself, on a sunny spring day, great music on the radio, sunglasses on, highway driving and no traffic problems -- priceless. I got two of those this weekend as I drove to and from a quiet girls' weekend "away from it all." Refreshing!



I hope the spring temperatures are here to stay. I'm hoping to get the garden area tilled next weekend, and I've got seeds that need to be started indoors. Trying not to be super ambitious this year with the garden, but I definitely want to do more than I managed the past couple of years. I'm planning to plant tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and beans, plus lettuce and salad greens and then maybe one or two surprises. In addition I want to do some kind of landscaping in front of the house. That's definitely a big enough goal for this year.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Catchup (mmmmmmm ketchup)

Some things that have been brewing in my head.

Things that are yummy:


Chocolate Pop-Tarts.

When you toast them, the warm gooey middle tastes just like licking brownie batter out of a mixing bowl. How can you go wrong? Yes this is my hand in the picture -- I am refraining from gobbling the rest of the pop-tart just long enough to snap this photo.

Also, the Mac Snack Wrap from McDonalds.

I could never get myself to eat the Big Mac, with its two all-beef patties, but the snack wrap goes down easy. Includes plenty of special sauce.

Songs I Like:

"The High Road" by Broken Bells



Heard this one last week and it's been playing in my head since.

Things People Shouldn't Say:


My friend Sarah last week bemoaned her colleague using the word "chillaxin'". I would like to add my disdain for my white peers who use the word "peeps" (and aren't talking about the marshmallow chickies that are in your neighborhood Walmart right now). I can't really speak to whether it's still OK for my black peers to say "peeps," but my gut says No, Not Really.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Home is wherever I'm with you



Song of my day: Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

How catchy is this! Makes you want to run around in the sun with those you love. Now all I need is some sun...

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Chickadee

Here's a picture Thea took at school last week. :)

Monday, February 22, 2010

Hair

Thea actually let me curl her hair on Valentine's Day. I did it with a thick iron and then pinned each curl with bobby pins and hair-sprayed the heck out of it. A few hours later we took it down and her hair floated in bouncy waves around her head.

0214 thea

Despite a lot more hairspray, the waves didn't survive more than a couple of hours. Thea's hair is bound and determined to be straight.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Appaloosa - The Day (We Fell In Love) (Ted & Francis Remix)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFJqESssWpY

I have this free sampler music CD and this is the last track on it -- it was on continuous replay on my drive to work.

Like.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Poor kids... joke's on them. Their school decided to open, independent of the county closing. It's a private school and there are few enough kids that the teachers can call everyone to let them know, so they can do what they want.

It'll be good for the girls to get back to school.

Me, here at 10:15 pm on the eve of going back to work, I suddenly have a big list of things I want/need to do around the house. Why couldn't I have gotten these big ideas and accompanying energy when I was stuck here for a week? At least I got kind of caught up on sleep...

Noooooo

The girls are off school again tomorrow! I have responded by giving up and letting them watch a lot of TV.

I will probably take them to my dad's tomorrow morning so I can go ahead and go to work. Not because I love work so much, but because I'm done with sitting around here.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

It's in the letters

Valentines for my sweethearts.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Warmth

It was going to be a very cold weekend here, until a friend took the boiler apart and cleaned it, and apparently fixed it. 24 hours later it's still working properly. Looks like I will get to call BGE Home and cancel the repair appointment for Tuesday! It's nice to be warm.

We went to a car show in the city this afternoon. I sat in a bunch of minivans but wasn't absolutely wowed by any one. I think I liked the Honda Odyssey best, but honestly any one would do. Beggars can't be choosers.



Be afraid. Be very afraid. You could see this sight on the road five years or so from now.



You probably won't see my girls in a Miata though, unless some long-lost rich relative leaves me an inheritance.



Holly in some kind of Mazda.



Thea liked this Genesis coupe. It was pretty cute.



I always wanted a Corvette. This was my first time sitting in one and I have to say it felt awesome. Not sure it was $70,000 awesome. Where is that long-lost rich relative again?

Friday, February 12, 2010

Winter -- Do Not Like

Woke up this morning, my first day having to go back to work in a week, to a chilly house. The thermostat reads 63 and that's upstairs -- downstairs is usually at least 5 degrees cooler. It appears my boiler is not working. Yay!

At least my state tax refund got deposited so I'll have something to pay the repairman with.

Snow Days 5, 6, 7

(tuesday)

Waited for snow to begin falling. It began falling. Made great use of Netflix streaming movies -- too bad the mail could not get through to bring the disk that would allow me to stream them straight to the TV via the game console. Had to rig up a monitor instead.

(wednesday)

Seriously? Did I sign up for this?



School system announces it will be closed all week. No one is surprised.

(thursday)

Dig out, again. More of the same. Days are melding together. Kids have played way too many video games. They play outside for as long as they can stand it and come inside with rosy cheeks.



My work announces it will open Friday. Huh??? Work? What's that?

Monday, February 8, 2010

Snow Day 4

(monday)

The kids were off school and to my delight my work closed too. By mid-morning more neighbors down the road had gotten their butts in gear and cleared a path that four-wheel-drive vehicles, at least, could traverse. We took the opportunity to get out. First we went to CiCi's Pizza for lunch, and then we went to Costco to buy snacks to replenish the snack bar at work. (I am not generally a Costco shopper for my own household.) Back at home Holly went down for her nap and Thea and Faith had a prolonged snowball fight.

I woke Holly after two and a half hours because I really needed to get out to the store for groceries for the house. Since I didn't hit the stores before the storm, we were forced to "make do" with what we had in the house, meaning we ate some things that had been languishing in the cupboard for quite a while. And we had come to the end of even that, and there's this next storm looming on the horizon. So I left the older girls playing a game and bundled up Holly for the trip to the store, hoping to get out and back before the packed snow on the roads froze back over.

To my utter amazement Walmart was closed. Walmart was closed! That was almost more shocking than 30 inches of snow. I had to divert to Aldi, scrap half my grocery list and just pick up whatever I could find. I think we'll survive another couple of days now.

No school for the girls again tomorrow, and my work is closed again. I'm going to have to come up with some great ideas for keeping the peace, as the snow starts up again tomorrow afternoon and probably keeps us all snowbound for another two days.

Snowball fight!

Snow Day 3

(sunday)

In which we shoveled and shoveled and shoveled but still could not get out. No snowplows came down my street, and neighbors collaborated on and off all day but could not make the road completely passable, so in the end we just settled back in to watch the Super Bowl.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Snow Day 2 Pt 2

(saturday)



The view out the front door. I thought I'd better get out there and shovel a path up to my mailbox for the mailman... as if the mail truck will be able to get down my street anytime soon.



Holly's playhouse then ^ and now...



Late afternoon, the storm ended, and the sun actually broke through for a few minutes before it set.



Such a peaceful world, outside. Inside, we're trying to remain as peaceful as possible, with the potential for school to be out all week. I'm almost positive there will not be school Monday. Don't know about Tuesday, but then there's more snow in the forecast for Tuesday night and Wednesday.

The girls played lots of video and computer games today and then watched "The Goonies" before bed. They enjoy that movie just as much as I did as a kid.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Snow Day 2

(saturday)

It's a winter wonderland. The dog whines and hops in a circle before peeing right at the bottom of the back porch steps. The snow in my yard is thigh-high on me -- some drifts are up past my behind.


Views of the front ^ and back


Heading out into the snow!



My maple tree



Snowdrifts against my back fence. See the fence? Me neither.



Chester looking off the back porch.



Holly makes her way through shallower snow to a clear spot under the holly tree.



Faith and Thea, snow bunnies.