Valentine 2012

Thank you grandmas and granpa for the valentine cards and gifts.

Your thoughtfulness made the day extra special.

A few sweets helped make the day special too.

Flowers from kids to mom.

Guess whose idea that was?

Flowers from Dad to Mom.

Isn't he a sweet guy?  He hasn't missed a year in twenty years of marriage.

Hope yours was special too!

The Simple Life

This is a pretty good artistic representation of our life.....

To quote the Grinch...

"mangled up in tangled up knots!"

It was actually Grant playing with silly straws.

You can tell from the background he has a severe shortage of toys to play with.

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His nose is fine.

So is the wall he crashed into.

The truth is I was standing right beside Grant waiting to clean his face up but David was holding him and took the picture before I started washing him off.

For the record

we are not so insensitive as to let our child suffer unnecessarily for the sake of a picture.

Well, MAYBE for a really good picture we would.

Kidding.

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This is one for the record books.

Why would I spend all of my spare time photographing bouillon cubes you ask.

The answer is pretty simple really.

This picture represents the last two cubes from a jar David bought when we were first married.

That's right.  Twenty year old bouillon.

Surely that is a record of some sort.

I had to take a picture of the jar before tossing it in recycling.

That jar has been to every house we've ever lived in.

It's seen a lot of history.

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The bouillon jar also happened to be out the same day I was taking other useful pictures

like this one of a partially consumed bottle of vodka.

Remember this little project?

Here's the latest view.

Still not a finished jar of vanilla extract, but it's getting there.

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My latest foray into the world of 'homemade stuff' was making lye soap.

It actually turned out pretty good.

It has been one of my more successful science experiments.

I might quit buying soap at the store and get my lye kettle cooking on the fire out back like Granny Clampet instead.

I'm sure the neighbors would appreciate that.

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Going to bed tonight.

Have a good evening!

I fought the wall

and the wall won!!

Sorry for the bad pun on song lyrics.

I couldn't resist.

Grant's nose is going to be fine.

The wall, well.....

I am not sure it fared quite as well.

Taking the Show On the Road

Coming to a location near you.....

We are taking our traveling circus zoo on the road.

We have this talent for buying things we didn't plan to buy....

similar to how we ended up with horses last fall after a trip to the petting zoo.

David and I went to the Boat and RV show when it was in town just to look and somehow ended up coming home with a little more than we planned on.

We've talked the past couple years about loading the kids up in a motorcoach and traveling out west for a few weeks during the summer.

This sure isn't a motorcoach, but it fit our budget a little better than the big motor homes do.

PLUS

 not only does it have a bed for mom and dad.....

but it comes equipped with a bunkhouse in the back that has two sets of bunks plus a trundle bed on the floor.

Bonus points are awarded to the designer of this thing because we don't have to make beds for anyone on a pull out couch every night we are on the road.

I'm not sure this is the summer we'll make a big trip in this thing.

But you never can tell when the zoo might just surprise you

by pulling up in front of your house!!

You've been warned!!

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So

what is the significance of this picture??

It shows that I am diligently working to sort and rebuild all the files I lost when my HP computer crashed and burned on me last fall.

We never did get things loaded back onto the HP after it was rebuilt (twice).  Now that the new Sony computer has been up and running for a week or so I'm trying to get things back in order.

The problem is each and every file name has been messed around.  I opened something that said "Printer" on it last night and found this picture.  That means I have to go through everything the drive saver guys recovered and see what it is and name it and file it accordingly.

That may take a few hours (or a few hundred hours I fear).

That also means Joselyn can finally get her 21st birthday present from me before I have to (with much embarrassment) renumber it as her 22nd birthday present.

I'll be working on that and let you know when I send it your way, Jos!!

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I'm killing time while waiting on cupcakes to cool tonight.

John and Emily are having an end of season party tomorrow after school for their quick recall team.  My daughter graciously volunteered me to bring cupcakes. 

Isn't she a sweetheart?

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Speaking of sweetheart, did you wish yours a Happy Valentine's Day today?

David and I didn't go out to eat or anything overly romantic, but he had a long day on the road today and had an even longer day scheduled tomorrow.  I'm not sure a date night would have been much fun in the middle of all that.

He did buy me roses

and a card.

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Grant had a party at preschool today for Valentine's Day.

I left my camera at home by accident.

Last child syndrome is taking over.

I forgot to take it in for his Christmas party too.

He had lots of fun and got way too much candy.

The dentist is going to love him some day with his penchant for sugary treats.

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Speaking of dentist orthodontists, John had his final evaluation yesterday with his orthodontist.  They will either release him as "done" or sign him up for braces if they feel he needs them.

So what would you bet they'll decide??

My pocket book is predicting there are braces in his future.

Anyone ever played a trumpet with braces?

Any words of advice you want to share with a 'non-braces wearing' parent?

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Grant had "Donuts With Dad" at school last week.

Once again, no pictures.

Sorry Grant!

Here's the words to one of the songs he sang that day and still sings with regularity around the house.

1, 2, 3

I can count on you.

4, 5, 6

I can count on you.

You're all I need to make it through.

7, 8, 9, 10

I can count on you.

It's pretty sweet to hear those words coming out of your five year old son's mouth.

He was so excited the day of the program.

He voluntarily wore jeans and a long sleeve shirt.

YES, he was THAT excited.

As he walked into the sanctuary at the start of the program he said to his teacher

"I can't believe it's finally today!  I've been waiting a long time for this day!"

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Grace had her Valentine party last Friday.

I took Grant in and helped celebrate the holiday with Grace and her friends.

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Monday was a day out of school for all of our kids for Parent-Teacher conferences.

David and I had conferences with Grace and Grant's teachers.

Both are doing well and are right on track with where they should be for their ages.

Grant will definitely be moving on to kindergarten in the fall.

She thinks he's ready.

I'm not sure Grant and I are ready though.

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Okay, cupcakes are cool enough to finish up tonight.

I'll get to downloading pictures tomorrow.

I hope!!

Sorry for the LONG post.