Snow and Show

So it’s tried to snow during the early morning hours of many days this week.  Thankfully it didn’t stick.  Snow be thou GONE!!!

On second thought, maybe I should pray that it hangs around. 

Why?

After two straight days of near freezing constant downpour the sun peaked itself out from behind our ever present clouds…

and…

a conversation like this ensued when my husband called me from work.

“Hi Hon, how’s your afternoon going?”  Prince Erik

‘O.K.  I’m a little tired.  Hope decided to take off on me again today.’

‘The weather must be getting warmer.’

‘Wearing only her underwear.’

‘It must really be getting warmer.’

Fortunately when I discovered the little vanishing sprite gone it was about the same time I ran into the neighbor bringing her home.  The little vexing vixen.

I guess Hope considers 49 degree’s warm enough to strip down and prance around outside. 

So the couch is now blocking the back door. 

Heaven help us when the temperatures rise above 50 degree’s Fahrenheit, or when she discovers that the couch is easy enough to push out of the way.

And Heaven help the neighbor’s view because she might turn into a streaker.

Maybe I should purchase her this little tutu from Sugar Plum Fairy Princess.

Although I may have to replace those tiny jingle bells with Cow bells in order to hear the little sneak.

Nerds are Expensive

So my son Abner is a chip off the ol' block. His dad's, not mine. The whole computer geek stuff comes from Prince Erik not me. So being the son of a computer nerd, he is bound to have some of it rub off. And it did big time this week.

See Abner joined his schools Nerd Herd (I Mean Technology Student Association) and went off to State competition to compete in the State Geek Olympics. Where they throw down homemade movies instead of shot puts, and do extemporaneous speaking instead of the triathlon. My little Abner competed in four different events out of the 30 offered. And the little brain-ball qualified for Nationals in two out of the four. His On-demand video group won 1st place and his Computer Game Building team won 2nd place.

Now we've got to pull up couch cushions to find an extra $1000 + in chicken change to send him to Nationals in a couple of months. I'm feeling another dreaded garage sale coming on. Maybe we can sell his collection of Mech Warriors.

So I thought I'd let you all see his winning entry for the On-demand video. He didn't act because he is behind the camera the whole time. Each team is given 2 props, in this case keys and tissue, and a line that they have to use in the movie. The line was, 'It's the wrong size.' They then have 36 hours to write a script, film it, edit it and present it to the judges. Abner's team won 1st place with this little short

So for your viewing pleasure here's the nerd talent our State is sending to Nationals. If it doesn't work, come back later. I'm still trying to figure out the whole nerd stuff myself. Unfortunately the very last second of the film cuts off. So your missing these boys say the word 'Nothing.' And if it doesn't work try the Youtube version HERE!

Commissioned Detail

So I got my first ever commissioned art request. I’m starting to feel like a legit artist. One of my friends saw the Sleeping Beauty castle fairy door I did for another friend.



Apparently she decided that it wasn't a one fluke wonder and thought that she could pay me so I could try to create Cinderella’s castle for someone in her family. My only complaint with working on these fairy doors is that I want to then go back and improve the others that I’ve tried.

So I found this picture online to use as my guide.

I couldn't resist going overboard on the detail. Of course I set to work layering up the oben back clay.



I couldn’t resist adding Tinker Bell and a palm tree.

Why the palm tree? Well my friend sent me this little message about her mom in an email.

"On that strength note: Mom's worn a small palm tree charm necklace for years, maybe about 20 now. For her, the palm was always a reminder of strength and resilience in an unassuming package. When a category 5 storm makes landfall, manmade structures get destroyed and even mighty oaks get pulled up to the roots; palm trees sway and bend, but rarely break. Girl, you are one heck of a palm tree.

Cheesy as it sounds, I do believe we are only ever given what the Lord knows we can handle. If we already knew we could do it, we'd probably miss the lesson and growth in it."

So I just had to add the palm tree. I hope she likes it.

And while I was thus happily employed in fairy business – Princess and Hope decided to glue my nativity pieces to the stand.




Even though I have kid nativities that I let them handle they can’t keep their little fingers off mine. Maybe they were thinking if they glued them in place they wouldn’t be as tempted to play with them?

However I don't know what they were thinking when they glued the lamb to the stable roof.



Oh well. Fortunately I found the glue still wet so un-doing the damage was do-able.

Random Nuggets of Reality

I'd like to think these are musings but in reality they are random pop-ups in my already scattered brain.


1. You can take the dog off the farm but you can't take the farm out of the dog.




Here's itchy remembering the good ole days of chasing my brother Speedy around the farm. Hint Speedy - you really want Itchy back right?


2. The kids will generally avoid and ignore you until the phone or doorbell rings then they will absolutely regale you with the loudest, most chaotic ruckus your ears have heard all day.

3. They will also develop temporary and selective deafness which seems to only apply to sounds that come out of your mouth.


4. I have proven this theory. So I guess that means it isn’t a theory but a fact. Your husband will go about the day perfectly fine until you sit down at the computer to do something - then all of the sudden there is an emergency that needs your upmost help – right away! Hence, I get my best blogging in after he’s in bed. I pointed this out to him the other day and he had no idea that he does it so I think it’s a subconscious thing.



5. Go ahead and plan for the worst thing possible to happen with whatever the situation. Then no matter what, you’ll either be pleasantly surprised or prepared.


6. Homework will always be delayed until the last possible Second…


7. As will the dishes…


8. And the laundry.


9. Reading the scriptures will get you out of doing chores if your a kid.



10. When you suggest exercise to the kids they are not interested, but if you offer to take them to the Skating Palace – they are hopping up and down to go. I think next week we are going to offer some upper-body strength training in the form of canoeing.



11. Every time you are running late for a meeting the family tank mobile will be empty and in need of an emergency trip to the money-sucking gas pump.



12. When the kids, cat or husband decide to get sick and hurl – you can guarantee they will never make it to the bathroom, but will find the most inconvenient patch of wall, carpet, furniture, or vent duct, or parent on which to get sick upon.

13. Outside allergies hit you the hardest at the precise time you want to be out of doors doing yard work.


14. If there is an important piece of paper that you really need – you’ll never be able to find it until you are no longer in crisis-mode while looking for it.


15. No matter how early you intended to go to bed, you’ll probably fall into it exhausted a mere 2-3 hours later, after you folded laundry, reloaded the dishes and helped everyone with their homework.

Consequences DUH!

Well, what did you expect would happen when you hit the can of spray paint with a Hatchet?

5 School Uniform Shirts down only 1 to go. Sigh!

The Back Forty.

So I attempted to tackle our back forty since the weather has been cooperating lately. No, it’s not the lower forty acres like the wheat fields I grew up with. Instead it’s more like 40 bags of grass, or 40 bushels of dandelions, take your pick. With all the rain and no let up, the back lawn was looking more like a mountain meadow. Knee-high grass anyone.


So I pulled our ole’ reliable Toro lawnmower out from under the deck and proceeded to mow. Every 20 feet or so I had to stop to empty the mower bag it was so full. Needless to say – my progress was slow.

The girls, enchanted by playing outside in such nice weather were having fun playing with Itchy the dog, and rolling around in the tall grass out of reach of Itchys chain of course. I then encouraged them to pick me as many sunshine flowers (dandelions) as they could. But when I turned around they were busy blowing additional seeds everywhere.

Great, more flowers, I mean weeds to look forward too.

So I changed tactics and persuaded them to pick up toys and sticks so I wouldn’t pulverize some treasure as I hacked my way through the jungle growth with ole’ Toro. When I paused again to check on their progress they were busy collecting cherry blossoms off our cherry tree. Apparently they wanted to make a petal path for our future fairy garden. ‘Swell,’ I thought, ‘Now we won’t have any cherries because what bee is going to pollinate a stick.’

Time to try something new – I then sent them to the old play area with specific instructions to find as many white pebbles as they could for their future fairy path. That seemed to do the trick and keep them happily busy. Later I found they brought the pebbles into the house and stashed them in whatever drawer and container they could find. When you have a bucket or two of small rocks they are bound to scatter to every possible nook and cranny. Time to find a broom. Is there anything I can suggest that they do that won't require twice as much work in the long run? I don't think so.

I suppose ole’ Toro was sick of the frequent stops, either that or I have the strength of Wonder Woman, because I yanked the starter cord right out of the engine.

So much for tackling the lawn.

I couldn’t waste such nice weather so I instead focused my energies on another eye sore. I have to, you know because I don’t get those energy surges very often. And they never happen when the weather is hot. So Spring is the best time to tackle the unsightlys for me. Believe it or not, yard work, is my kind of release. The plants don’t talk back, and it takes me back to my childhood farm memories.

So anyway, the front flower bed or more appropriately our front weed bed was the new focus of my yard work aggression.

I think I did o.k.

It now just needs some flowers and a little edging, before all those dandelion seeds take root. That and I’m sending off Prince Erik to the local home improvement store in hopes that they carry starter cords so we don’t have to replace the whole lawnmower.

Up Next... The Secret Garden.

The Darling Dasher

Here is our family's version of a famous magician. We'll just call her

Hairy 'Hope' Houdini.

Remember the whole discovering the world outside the door adventure we went through last week.

The Curly Catapult tries to hurdle through the upper lock barrier.

Elevated Escaper... Using a counter high kitchen chair.

Foiled by the camera wielding mom she makes a dash for the back door. Since we haven't installed an upper lock on that door we have a tempory makeshift barrier. But can that stop her?

Here she is pulling the plastic storage bins away from the back door. That bottom box is chuck full of legos so she has to be packing some little pint-sized muscles, too. She foiled us again.

We will have to go back to the drawing board because she has figured out how to undo every silly door lock we have.

My darling wonderful husband came upstairs the other night asking me if I had just heard the front door open. I replied no and he had this huge grin on his face.

'Please don't tell me you oiled the hinges,' I pleaded.

'Well, yes,' he replyed a little deflated by my reaction.

'I thought you had been reading my blog, remember how I said I loved the mystery theater creak to the door. I use it as a child escape alarm.' I reminded him.

Apparently he had missed that blog or skipped over the paragraph where I mentioned the door. Poor guy doesn't get a break. He finally fixes something that's been needing to be fixed for years and get's his head bit off by me.

The Darling Dasher has freed herself from our home no less than two times today alone.

Fortunately, she still hasn't discovered the world outside our yard. I give her a week, Tops.

She also figured out how to open the car door while I was doing 60 down the interstate the other day. Thank you Childlock doors. I almost forgot you were there. Now I'm going to rely on you with a vengence no matter how loudly the teenagers complain about being trapped inside the car with little screamin sisters.

Scary Hair

Warning: All the good home improvement pictures you are about to view, actually happened before Fawndear got incapacitated with dreaded sickness known as flu-nasty cold. So if you’re hoping for some more wows pic's, well they just ain’t coming this week. A couple of opp’s, did I do that pictures? But hey, what can you expect from a sickie. Here is my biggest before and after pictures for today. It’s called Miss Scary Hair. Hope has beautiful natural curls. Her grandpa even calls her his Little Shirley Temple. Well first thing in the morning she is little Miss Scary Hair.

So I made it my one goal of the day to wash it, comb it and throw in a fancy barrette, guaranteed to last all of 30 seconds, while I take a picture. She then promptly pulls it out and hands it to me to put in again. We do this routine about 4 or 5 times before I intentionally get distracted and somehow lose the hair bauble so I won’t have to put it in again.

Yes, folks, those curls are all natural. We call it comb and curl. Awfully cute now, but guarenteed to be a big pain to comb as she grows up.

Last weekend before the nasty bug visited us I was able to get another load off to the thrift store. See that wine cups in the center. Had them eight years and the box was still sealed. Never used them. Don't know what I was thinking buying them when I don't even drink wine. Maybe I was thinking of making them dessert cups or something? That just shows I really wasn't thinking, because, give my kids anything made out of glass, and it will be broken within a week.

And as for the future mud room. Here it was last week.

O.K. I know this doesn't look good. But when we moved the washer dryer to the new laundry room we had to open up some walls to re-route some water and electrical lines. Well we just never closed them back up again. That's my next project.

Note to self: Don't attempt home improvement while your head is stuffy and tummy is doing flip flops. It may be too distracting. In trying to remove the old dryer hose attachment, I thought the best way to loosen the blasted vent would be to give it a few little old harmless kicks.

Duh, behind the vent was the wall in our entry way. Nice job, don't you think. Fawndear kicked the vent right through and now we have a nice hole in the wall, in an entirely different room.

But, Ive learned my lesson, I've gone back to the sickness Acceptance stage where I don't care and just want to get better. My flu is done and over with but I've been attacked with the plague of the barking seals and stuffed-up-so-if-feels-like-it's-going-to-explode head. I'm fine if I just don't move. So I'll sit around and maybe work on my brillant idea for my blog title picture. I can't wait until I finish it because I'm so excited that I thought about it. It could be that it's a horrible idea but I'm too stuffed up to know anything. Hopefully I will have it, as well as my new mud room done as soon as this nasty bug has left. Let's just hope that happens soon.

One Sorry Princess

I’m surprise they lasted this long. Truly, I think of all the decorations I’ve made, they lasted the longest. The ceramic Thanksgiving figurines, I painted nearly 13 years ago, bit the dust. More like, shattered into so many pieces, that I’m unwilling to make an effort to resuscitate them with super glue (again). I also lost 3 pumpkin/gourds. The feast was spared, but seeing it without guests might make Princess start to cry and say she is sorry all over again.
I know she didn’t mean too, I’ve reminded her and Hope not to play with them like little dolls. I even told them they were special because Mommy painted them a long, long time ago. Two days ago I moved them to the untouchable top shelf. At least I thought it was untouchable. Still all the little colorful pieces of food on the table were too tempting. I would catch Princess climbing the bookshelf to pull them down again. She and 2-year old sister Hope would pretend Thanksgiving. Princess loved the blue pilgrims and Hope always got the Indians. They always got along and it was soooooo cute to see Hope ask for the ‘pum-in (pumpkin)’. Maybe I should have just let them play. But I was partial to these decorations. Not only had I painted them but I had purchased them after two months of coveting them at the craft store. Guess you really shouldn’t covet. At the time I had just finished taking a tole-painting class and they were calling to me. Plus, if you’ve ever been in the stores this time of year, Thanksgiving decorations are few and far between. The poor Holiday gets skipped right over in the retailers’ effort to start picking up your Christmas moola. Since I happen to love Thanksgiving, I couldn’t resist another reason to bring them home.
Yesterday evening, I heard the dreaded crash. I knew exactly what had happened. Princess was climbing the shelves again. She only had to step on the bottom one to reach the top, but it was enough to start to tip the bookshelf. I was panicking as I rounded the corner expecting to see the whole piece of furniture on top of her or Hope. I had been thinking of bolting it to the wall in the past because I’ve seen them start to tip it before. What a relief, it was still upright, and there stood Princess, wringing her little hands with a terrified look on her face, standing amid the shattered remains of her envy. I must have heard, “I’m sorry and I didn’t mean to,’ through her tears and whimpers hundreds of times over the next 30 minutes. I had her help me clean up the broken pieces. It was a bit tough to do since Hope kept picking up little Pilgrim parts and in her high squeaky voice, she would have them talk to each other. Both girls tried unsuccessfully to see if any of them would fit back together. Notice the Indian head on the pilgrim’s body?
We bid them farewell and sent them off to the garbage together with a few more tears.
Now the great thing is that I didn’t even get upset at her (and that is not normal, but something I’m working on). I guess I saw it coming and I knew she was sorry and felt horrible, and I’ve learned that if you rub it in they won’t always get that lesson. However I did think, darn where is the camera when you need it. My husband took some pictures with my flash-less camera so you can tell they are a bit dark. What I’ve learned over the past couple of years is that stuff is stuff, it comes and goes, but my little munchkins are mine forever and I’ll love them no matter what. Along the way, they are just happening to teach me patience, a little bit about simplicity, oh, and how to play nice.