Today and yesterday

Wow, it's only -22° today. The sky is clear and bright. I almost feel like breaking out the swimming suit! It's so nice to see what my neighbors house looks like again. I couldn't remember what color it was. The ice fog was so bad that it was impossible to see the back of the car in front of you. Now it's so bright and clear that my eyes are watering so bad I can't see. I'm like a vampire that disintegrates in daylight! I better get out more....or go to a tanning salon!

Yesterday I refinished my kitchen chairs. My husband helped me (thank God!). I don't know what I would have done without him. After the seat is recovered you can't find the original screw holes so he had to make new ones. It really looks so different...... which is not so bad. I really liked the way they looked before but this is good too. Now they have a pattern to them that shouldn't show stains as bad but they still look classy. I think I'll make the kids eat under the table as an extra precaution. Now that I know how to do it.......I never want to do it again!

Is it spring yet????

A friend of mine gave me a Burpee seed catalog and now I can't stop thinking about it and all of those glossy photos! I really miss playing in the dirt. I can't wait to get our back fence up so I can start planting in the backyard. I can't plant until the fence is up because the neighbors back up and turn around in my yard where the alley is. Last summer I planted a couple of lilac's back there near where the back fence would run and watched about 50 hit and runs out of kitchen window. Only one person actually got out of their truck after hearing the crunch of my poor lilac and stared down at it wondering what he should do. He finally jumped back in his truck and took off. He probably realized it was already dying from all the other times he'd run over it.

Anyway, my backyard garden in taking shape in my mind. I can't wait until I can plant again.

Lonely birthday party

The party was a bust. No one showed. I even sent my oldest out on a secret undercover mission to try to scope out some neighborhood kids. He couldn't find anyone at home. It's just been too cold. No one wants to do anything. What a time of year to have a birthday. I knew it was going to be hard though and had prepared him. Still it was hard to watch him stand at the window and jump every time a car came around the corner..only to drive right past our house. Poor guy.... I think I'll throw him a surprise birthday at the new McDonald's when it opens. Hopefully that will be soon. Hmmmmmmm maybe I'll officially change his his birthday to March. That's a much better time to have a birthday and it's not too close to Christmas!

We still had fun by ourselves though. Dad said it was actually pretty cool that we got to eat the ice cream cake all by ourselves. That got a laugh out of the little man. Than he and his brother had a blow horn battle. They also called Gram. She always seems to make things better.

The oddest thing of the day was the mystery dead fish in his tank. He was all in a panic saying, "which one is it, which one is it" with his eyes scrunched closed. None of his fish are mising. It's a pretty small fish. I'm wondering if his guppies had a baby and we just never noticed.

BRRRRR!

What, is it January or something? It's 30 below Zero!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My youngest son's birthday was today. He's been a little butthead too. I rushed my butt all over town to get him a few gifts since what we ordered online will be coming late and he seemed very ungreatful. He seemed disappointed that he didn't get any new video games. He may just be tired. He had a busy day. I think he'll really enjoy his gifts if he takes the time to check them out. His birthday party is Sat but I'm not real sure we will get many people to show up. It's been soooooooooo cold and people dust don't want to go anywhere they don't have to. The cold is supposed to last for a while too.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I guess we can have another party later if no one shows up.

I got my butterfly watch that my husband bought me on QVC today. I love it! I just wish it didn't say it was almost midnight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SloooOOooooow going days

Well this has been my first week back at work and I'm so thankful that tomorrow is Friday. I only have one file so far and it's been soOOooooo terribly slow. I do get to go in a little later tomorrow but I also have to stay later as well. That's no biggie. I always love late days since I can watch my boys get on the bus safely and have an extra few minutes to get a Mocha from Starbucks. I'm not a morning person so these days are good for me and I'm not my usual growly self when I arrive. Even better than that is the beautiful quite I get to enjoy at the end of the day (hopefully). I can get so much more done during that time. Of course I have nothing to work on right now..... Sigh. So I'll have to figure out what I'll use to keep me busy. My supervisor is dying to send me to the dungeon for some dust bunny hunting...I mean, old file cleaning.

I really am glad to be back to work though. I love my time off but after a while I start to get bored at home and I tend to get lazy and waist my time. I do have a lot of projects planned but if they are spread out over weekends I don't get burned out so fast. My bookshelf project is sitting unfinished for that reason.... I just lost steam and inspiration. If I focus my mind on something else for a while I'll be able to get more creative when I need to be. Now that I've had a week I'm starting to think of some idea's to use for that project to make it more fun in the "fishy" room.

The boy who lives in the "fishy" room is having a 9th "fishy" birthday party on Saturday the 21st. So I have some planning to do for that this weekend. We have already done whales and a rainbow fish cake. This years theme is a shark. I have to figure out if I can make a shark cake or if I should have one made or do something else. I could also just do an aquarium cake to make things easier.

I am really loving this new computer with the media center. It's all tied in the with the TV so I can set it to record shows I want to watch after I get home. I love watching my DIY shows after dinner. Now I'm ready to crash.

Saturday, Sunday.....darn.

My vacation is nearing an end.

Actually I'm glad to be going back to work. I don't do well trapped in the house and without money to spend there isn't much else to do. It's too cold to spend any time out anyway. Of course I've accomplished a lot indoors. I've pulled out, sorted, purged, painted, mended, adorned, and put back.....and just got crafty and inspired. ...of course I also did some reading, writing, tuning in to music and even just tuned it all out for some all out relaxation and much needed deep thinking time. And now, I'm exhausted and I want to go back to work. At work I just do what I do and no one expects much more. Except for me to be my happy self without talking too much. I think I'll just be anti-social instead. It's much easier.

So I'm ready.....

Poetry

I haven't written anything in a long time it seems. I just haven't had much inspiration I guess. Since the beginning of the new year I've been doing a lot of reflecting. I keep rolling over old memories that I thought where long gone. My sister is in Texas and my brother in Alabama but it seems like worlds away from here. We certainly don't talk much anymore. I wish we could be closer.

Today I was watching my boys playing together and was suddenly hit by a rush of emotion. I can't stand the thought of them growing up and leaving home. One thing that gives me confort is that I've worked hard at keeping my family close. I know my boys love each other and they love us. I know this family wont just drift apart.


Don’t grow up on me

Two big brown eyes
And two slightly smaller
Sparkled as laughter filled the room
My sister had the biggest smile
Mine only slightly smaller then.
I loved it when she curled my hair
And dressed me up and let me spin.

When I was just five
I couldn’t understand
Why when big sisters grow up
they get their own wings
And they fly away from home.

A sly grin and a can of pop
And brown hair like mine only shorter
My brother always looked so cool
He tore down hills on Dad’s 3 wheeler
but I always came out on top
‘Cause my brother always took good care of me
And beat up mean boys at the bus stop.

Then when I was 16 years old
I learned to understand
When big brothers grow up
they get their own wings
And they fly away from home.

Two big brown eyes
And two slightly larger
Toss baseballs out on the field
They jeer and then laugh
Slapping high fives in the air
They don’t know just what they’ve got
And It seems so unfair.

I’m not sure how old I’ll be
But I’ve learned to understand
Those boys will grow up and get their own wings
And fly away from home.

DC 1/6/2006

Now I'm ready for 2006

but I still have to work on writing the year right on my checks.

Today I went to get my hair done and I feel great! I have been really bummed out because my hair is getting grayer. It really stands out at my part against my dark hair. So instead of just highlighting she added some color that is close to my natural color. NO MORE GREY HAIR! I have my regular low key caramel highlights like last time so I'm totally happy now ;O)

After that I went shopping and found some really great deals - which is always fun ;O) I found two sweaters that I almost bought last month on the clearance rack! They were $36 bucks each last month. Now they were marked down to $21 and clearance was 40% off plus I had a coupon for an additional 15% off :O) That's just awesome! It's funny that the very two that I wanted in the size I needed were still there on clearance. There were very few left. The two I got are brown and other neutral shades mixed with sky blue. It seems people liked the ones with pink better. Good :O)

Anyway, that certainly starts off my year wonderfully!

Garfield -This is a link *wink*

This is certainly how I felt this morning!

DIY Network

I am so hooked on this channel! I could watch it all day long.... and have at least for much of the day. I've learned so many things while on my vacation. I've learned a little about fixing cars (or at least a few things I can do myself), making my home more energy efficient, woodworking (my husband loves this too), scrapbooking, sewing, knitting, journaling, embellishing things to make them more unique and special......and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things. And the best part is the website. If I see something I'm really interested in trying I can go online and print up instructions. I already have a 3 ring binder with page protectors filling up.

Since I got a neat sewing machine for Christmas I've been trying to catch "Sew much more" which comes on at 9 am my time because of the 4 hour time difference. I keep missing it so my husband has it set to record every weekday :O) I've also been into the scrapbooking shows since I am planning to start my own and I really need help. My problem is I don't like clutter. I like to keep it plain and simple. I've been seeing some neat ways to make a main design on a page and then you can have little mini albums or envelopes with more photos tucked inside. Scrapbooking: Just Journaling with Sandi Genovese.

One of the idea's I saw today is available online in a PDF file: List-Style Journaling


I obviously love to journal. They had someone on today talking about these neat "circle journals". I have a friend (J) that I would love to do this with. She lives pretty far away and we have never met but we are pretty good friends. I think two of these (one for each) or something similar would be neat to pass back and forth!
www.Circlejourey.com