The dynamic duo is caught!

Whoa! Hope you were sitting down - six months later, I'm actually putting up a post on the poor neglected blog!

Having hearing impaired children occasionally has its advantages.  Today was one of those days.

I walked out towards the kitchen this morning and see Butterfly and Panda huddled at the cabinet where our food is stored.  The doors were open wide enough for them to stand between them, so that basically they could "hide" at the cabinet between the doors.  I heard Butterfly say something about each of them getting 10 of the candy/treats they were trying to raid.  I continued to walk towards them - they did not hear me.

I finally got right behind them, when Panda caught sight of me out of the corner of her eye and said to Butterfly, "Ummm..... I don't think that would be a good idea..."

I was about to fall over laughing!

Butterfly still had NO clue that I was standing right next to her. She was still busy trying to conspire.

I leaned in right next to her ear and said, "BOO!"

She jumped and I laughed and told her to put the treats away and to stop trying to sneak them out of the cabinet. I had to leave the room to go laugh some more!

Happy Father's Day

To my most faithful blog reader:

I wouldn't recognize my Dad if he wasn't doing something silly...

(He checks every day, even though my blog is highly neglected....)

My Niece's Wedding

Last weekend my niece, Rebecca, got married.  Panda was asked to be a flower girl.  She was SO cute!  I had to share photos.

Her hair was SOOO cute!

With the beautiful bride

Dropping the rose petals

The puppies are 1 year old!

It's hard to believe we have had them for a year. But, then much of the time it's hard to imagine our house without the puppies. Ladybug took the picture above.


This picture shows how the puppies camped out while I worked during February. They like being nearby and so would curl up under one of the desks while I did my work.

I thought it was funny...

I sent Brian to the store. Not too long later the phone rang but I missed the call. It was Brian so I returned the call and here is the conversation (banter) that took place:

M: "What did you need, dear?"
B: "Well, I got to the store and I remembered the paper towels, but I forgot the other item on the list."
M: "Honey... it was a two item list!"
B: (chuckling) "I know...I did finally remember that it was cheese. But, meanwhile I found coffee on sale. While I have you on the phone, where do I find the paper towels anyway?"
M: (pause) "Um...in an isle...."
B: "Thanks, dear."
M: "What do I think I am - the store map?"
B: "Well, I thought you might know."
M: "You look at those little signs above. Look for paper products. (guessing) Gee, try isle 12."
B: "Actually... that is correct."
M: "Ha! I guess I'm more all-knowing than I thought I was." (laughing) "Now if you think you can navigate your way out of the store, I'll take my shower now."
B: (chuckling) "I'll do my best."

That was interesting...

I was trying to update my Garmin with my computer downstairs. I heard a squeaky "scritch, scritch" sound coming from near our rabbit. That was a sound I had never heard the rabbit make. I went back to my work. I heard the sound again, only in paying attention more closely it sounded like something scratching at the window (which is behind the rabbit cage). I went to investigate. There in the window well was a .... (say it with me mom...) It's a opossum!

The ugly critter was stuck in our window well. I went upstairs to tell Brian and see if we could figure out what to do about it. The girls heard me talking about it so we all rushed back downstairs to look at it. We shut off the lights in the basement and used a flashlight to look out and hope to see it better. It was a fairly smart critter - it began wedging itself between the wall of the window well and the metal rungs of the ladder and it worked itself up each rung one at a time until it got out!

Good. I hope it is far away by now. Especially since I didn't have my mom here to burn it... but that story will have to come some other time. :)

Home school Rant

Yeah, skip it if you don't want to hear about it... I just have to think "out loud" for a bit.

Ok, so those 3 precious children you see in my photos. I gave birth to them. I love them more than my own physical life. I decided to home school them because I believe I am the BEST teacher BECAUSE I love them. No other teacher in this world will ever love them as much as I do. Period. Am I a perfect teacher? No. Are they perfect students/children? No.

But, who is responsible for them? I am. If they fail- that means I have failed. That's a lot of pressure all on it's own.

So, there are days that I just really don't want or need to hear about how inadequate people feel my children are performing in certain areas in comparison to other kids their age. They have strengths and they have weaknesses and I KNOW what they are. How many public school teachers know each student that well?

You'll have to excuse me if I get a bit testy when my children are criticized. If a person wants to help - great. If all a person has is comparisons and complaints - that department is open every 5th Tuesday from 9:51 p.m. to 9:53 p.m.

Rant over/

93 Years Old

Here's my Grandpa. No one would ever guess that he's 93 years old today! We brought him one of his favorite desserts (Swirl) and went to visit him today. In the middle of our visit, he was called to go downstairs to be in a commercial for the senior living facility. He was a newspaper reader. :) I'm hoping I'll find out the schedule so that I can see the commercial.

Way to Go!

I went to a wind ensemble performance tonight. Little Lucy was performing with an ensemble which will be featured at a state music convention after the first of the year. The performance was fantastic! Little Lucy was cooking on those mallet parts - especially on the last piece!

Excellent work!

After

The post yesterday was the before. The puppies were definitely looking mop-like. I was just procrastinating trimming them because I didn't want to cut the hair around their face. It's so cute when it's put up in a rubber band. I thought about taking them to a professional groomer, but they cost at least $50 for the two dogs. Instead, I bought a really good clippers and did it myself. I think they turned out pretty cute. I did decide to trim their face because I wanted to see their eyes. And hair does grow back...

Lucy

Snuggles

Snuggles & Lucy

When Children Decide the Use of Shelves

The puppies were thankful that we didn't receive file cabinets....

Impromptu Leaf Fun

I got a phone call Tuesday requesting our presence in my friend's back yard for some fun in the leaves. It was 63 degrees out and the forecast for the next several days didn't look too pretty. We loaded up and went over so that my friend's youngest could try to scare the girls by hiding in the leaf pile. We told them that they were going to help rake back there. It was pretty cute. Panda completely got into jumping into the leaf pile. The other two had fun...but as usual were more cautious. I had so many fun pictures - it was so hard to choose which to post. I had to get a picture of the whole leaf fun group in there, but then I couldn't resist the last two pictures of the two youngests who were ready to pose for all pictures. They did the serious pose with the rakes and then at the SAME time turned on the smiles when we told them to smile! A fun time was had by all. :)

11/11/11

This has to be one our of family's favorite numbers. I still remember that we would catch the time 11:11 on the clock so many times. I love numbers!

So... Happy 11/11/11 at 11:11!

On the series side of things - I thank the Lord for all the Veteran's. It's mind boggling to me that so many people are willing to serve our country and they give up so much of their lives to protect ours. May they be blessed!

Snow

Yes, we had some - for about 30 minutes. All that cold and dreary weather for 30 minutes of snow. The good news was that it rained all day and we really needed that moisture.

To stay warm I baked two more of those monster potatoes (which fed all five of us), fried up some hamburger that I got on manager's special, made apple crisp, and then washed all the dishes. After that I crawled in my bed and hibernated under my electric blanket. I did get some Christmas presents ordered from the comfort of my bed. :) I wish I could say I was more productive than that this evening, but I was just too cold.

Amazon

Amazon is my favorite company. I do nearly all my Christmas shopping there and get so much throughout the year too. I became a prime member a while back and wondered if it was really worth it and then they pulled out the stops in this past year. First they added the ability stream movies for free with my membership. That's kind of neat deal!

But they didn't stop there. We can borrow books for the Kindle with our prime membership.

That's pretty impressive customer service. There has been no price increase and yet they are providing more for their customers.

Where's the "like" button?

Earthquake

While we were working on our undergraduate work, Brian and I actually felt an earthquake for the first time. It was strange. It felt like a bubble went under our house. Neither of us even mentioned it at first because we both thought we were crazy.

Well, Saturday night I felt my 2nd earthquake. This one lasted longer. I could actually see the clothes in my closet sway. What a strange feeling! I'm thinking that if we are going to have earthquakes that there should at least be some sunshine and a beach to go with it! But, I'm definitely not enticed to move near a coast anytime soon after that. That would shake me right out of California very quickly.

Fall Back

I really dislike setting the clock back in the fall. You would think that I would enjoy the extra hour of sleep. I do like that part... sort of. Somehow it still makes me tired! What I really dislike is the shorter days. I really enjoy sunshine. The early darkness makes me want to be lazy and crawl in my bed under my electric blanket.

So, I have started counting the days already until the days become longer. 48 days is the count for today. In the meantime, I have plenty to do to keep me busy. Brian's brother's 50th birthday is next weekend. Thanksgiving is coming up. (which means I have shopping to do) I take my friend, Dee, to Mayo after Thanksgiving. The concert season begins after that. My registration work should pick up shortly as well. Christmas sneaks up quickly after all that busy work!

Family Time

Tonight we were able to enjoy time with my cousin and her son. We baked a few of those giant potatoes with hamburger and cheese and other toppings for supper. After supper we enjoyed a variety of games on Wii and then we popped popcorn and watched Kung Fu Panda together. It was a very nice evening.

Potatoes anyone?

Now THIS is what I call a baked potato! We got potatoes from the same place where we got the apples and pears and these things are HUGE! I think one could almost feed all of us.

What now?

I don't have a title any more - hahahaha!

Well, today was the typical day of school work. Following that, I started rearranging things to fit the bookshelves my dear friend gave me. It was quite the afternoon/evening of musical bookshelves, but I think I've got everything going where I want it. (going... it's not there yet.)

This evening it snowed for about 5 minutes. I don't want snow, so it can come and go that quickly and I'll be happy. But I vote that we bring back the warm weather. :) Meanwhile, I guess I will snuggle up under my electric blanket.