Fun Run

The school held a fun run yesterday, and it was really nice being in the fresh spring air and sun all morning!

Baseball

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Flower Quiz

This is my answer. Isabelle picked the square with all the roses and Joseph picked the Gerber daisies. Just some of the quizzes we just had fun doing. Good thing these things aren't for real! Unfortunatly I do forget names! Faces I do better at. I did wave at someone this week who I thought recognized and realized as soon as I did it that it wasn't who I thought it was!

What These Carnations Say About You

You have a distinct style... one that many people find fascinating. You are charming and alluring. People are drawn to you - and you are very popular. You never forget a name or a face. And the people you love are always on your mind

What Do The Flowers You Pick Say About You?

Sandwhich Quiz

The kids wanted to do some quizzes. This is my answer on the sandwhich quiz. Sounds kind of boring!

You Are a Ham Sandwich

You are quiet, understated, and a great comfort to all of your friends. Over time, you have proven yourself as loyal and steadfast. And you are by no means boring. You do well in any situation - from fancy to laid back. Your best friend: The Turkey Sandwich Your mortal enemy: The Grilled Cheese Sandwich

What'>http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofsandwichareyouquiz/">What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

Ok..I did the questionair!

1.MAYBE I SHOULD..get off the computer.
2.I LOVE...coffee..ok seriously...I totally love coffee
3. PEOPLE WOULD SAY THAT I'M...in love with my family
4. I DON'T UNDERSTAND... algebra
5. WHEN I WAKE UP IN THE MORNING...I like to drink my coffee
6. I LOST...lots of sleep with the time change (why do we need to change time?)
7. LIFE IS FULL OF...experiences
8. MY PAST IS... part of me
9. I GET ANNOYED WHEN...I have to deal with govt officials!!!!
10. PARTIES ARE...fun. I love hosting them and attending parties.(ditto Shelley)
11. I WISH...that life would slow down
12. DOGS...I love my dogs and I couldn't live without them
13. CATS...can stay outside..I"m allergic
14. TOMORROW...is Thursday
15. I HAVE A LOW TOLERANCE FOR...negativity
16. I'M TOTALLY TERRIFIED...of my kids being orphaned
17. I WONDER...all the time!
18. NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I...been to a hockey game
19. HIGH SCHOOL WAS...hell
20. WHEN I'M NERVOUS...my hands sweat and I want to run away
21. ONE TIME AT A FAMILY GATHERING...gosh there are so many!..who can say
22. TAKE MY ADVICE ABOUT...enjoying your family to the fullest
23. MAKING MY BED...is something I recently started doing most days
24. I'M ALMOST ALWAYS...sleepy and groggy in the mornings
25. I'M ADDICTED TO...coffee and the computer
26. I WANT SOMEONE TO...clean my house daily and do the laundry!

Happy Easter!

I did not get a picture of us dressed up, but we were just so tired yesterday. We had a half day of school on Thursday and were busy all weekend long. Some friends convinced me to get up early and run a women's race on Saturday morning. I'll admit, it was fun!
The kids have a day off today and I'm so glad. I ate sugar and cake and bad candy (I don't even really like candy!) this weekend and I'm having a sugar and bad food "hangover" today. I wish I could blame it on something or someone else, but...!

Early Spring Blooms

This is in my backyard. It's really big. Do you know what it is? Please tell me if you do!

Up close of blooms.

Vinca in the backyard. The dogs don't actually eat these!

Garden update

This is our little garden in the backyard so far. The kids love to help plant and water. It's really fun for all of us!

Do you see that trail behind Joseph? That's Mavis's (our border collie) track. We have fenced off that area and she is not happy! She "patrol's" our yard all day long and now that corner is blocked off and she is really worried! Since we moved to this house Mavis has lost a lot of weight because she is so busy and our yard is so much bigger. There are geese and birds, possums and who knows what, plus lot of children around. She has a big job keeping us safe! Our lab Sarah, is getting older, but she is much happier here too and she can't stand the cat next door who sits just on the other side of the fence licking her paws and driving our dogs mad!

Storm

This was our crazy hail storm on Saturday. It beat up Joseph's lima bean plant, but I think it'll survive anyway.

Carefree day!

Here are some cute pictures of the kids playing on the swings over the past weekend!

First Garden Plant

This is Joseph's lima bean. He started it in Sunday school as a seed and it outgrew the paper cup and so right now it's in the pot. Later we will transfer it to the garden.

Beginning a Garden

This is the first stage of our garden. Look for updates! LOL

Little Love Notes

Isabelle and Joseph are always writing me little love notes. This one is from Isabelle. She writes

less often, but they are more elaborate.

Joseph writes me little notes all the time. He's learned how to fold paper

and make hearts and he writes to me on them. This one isn't a heart, but

is one that he used stickers to tape two pieces of paper together.

Swim Lessons

We are still taking swim lessons. It's fun and they are swimming now.

My appointment

is today for finishing up the root canal! Aren't y'all excited? I know I am (not)! They called yesterday and wondered if I would mind moving it up from next week to today?
So at 11AM this morning please think of me lying back getting shots in the mouth gripping my hands together and trying to to act like a big girl!

Normal Week!

We are going to try and have a normal week after being sick for a week and a half! Everyone was up and out the door on time this morning! We have been sleeping like crazy just trying to get ourselves back to normal. It will probably be another week. Joseph starts baseball this week. The kids have been swimming twice a week for the past two months, but we are cutting that back to once a week. Isabelle still has dance once a week too. It's going to be crazy on Tuesdays because of course Joseph's baseball is on the same day as Isabelle's dance class. What can you do? He's going to have fun!

New Haircut

Toothfairy visited again!

This tooth!

We are all sick. Joseph and I are on the upswing, but Isabelle is still really sick and Brendon is in between of either getting worse or getting better. Anyway, just to make things fun here's a picture of Isabelle's current loose tooth. It's just barely hanging on!

Flowers!

Brendon sent me flowers for Valentines day!

Happy Valentines Day!

The crud has hit the kids school and it's crazy how many

are absent with it right now!

Anyway they were so excited to get up this morning!

We had a piece of candy before breakfast even!

Joseph isn't feeling well at all and was up and down last

night, but that didn't stop him this morning!

Joseph and friend at Valentines party (both are sick)

Isabelle and friend at a valentines service project

Deorating stage two.

Those chairs have been around for many sticky hand years and it was showing big time.

They have stood up well to little ones sitting on the arms and all that. But, it was time for them

to get a facelift. Simple was the only way to go with the mantle and it

works for now. I hope to get another lamp for that little round table

at some point. We painted

about 2 months ago and have slowly put together

a few things. Anyway, I said I'd update on the progress

and this is it.

Of course it's always this tidy!

Decorating

Why buy expensive rugs? Tinkertoys add that touch of spice in seconds!

Why...

did I think I could cut a beet without an apron? While wearing my favorite green shirt?

Was it a full moon week? or what?

This week has been a bit slow. There was a full moon and maybe that attributed to the general craziness of the week. We had a long weekend and then Tuesday when it was time to go back to school, the children got sick. Thursday I headed over to see a friend for a bit and then off to the dreaded dentist appointment. I've never worried too much about the dentist because I've never had many problems....until I had two children! These teeth of mine decided to get some cavaties after that, and now I need a root canal. Yikes!

Last night I went out with some girlfriends and watched Spirit of the Marathon. It was a great movie! Plus it was great just getting out with the ladies for an evening!

Snowman

We don't get the frosty stuff all that often, so our kids are enjoying it as much as possible. Of course since it hardly ever snows down here we do not have snow clothes and we get pretty wet, but who cares, it sure is fun!

Snow!

It is SNOWING! It is! It Is!

The kids are outside running around having a blast. (It's not sticking, so unless ice comes along later, they'll have to go to school tomorrow!

This and That

These are some swatches of fabric that I chose to bring together our sitting area and kitchen.

The square on the right, on top of the green swatch was my second choice. My first choice was more muted, but they were out of it and if I wanted it I would have to pay for 20 yards!

I needed about 7 yards. We are recovering our favorite chairs. After 6 years of childrens hands and yogurt etc..they are in need of new coverings! These swatches don't show the caramel and browns that are also in the fabrics. I've never been into using a fringe or tassles before, but it seemed to really add to the valances so I decided to go with it this time!

I will post pictures when it's all completed. I did find some drapes for the sitting room that were already done and the chairs will be done in 10 days, however the valances needed to be sewn and it'll be 4-6 weeks before they are completed.

OK...so now I've totally bored you all!

Other news..it might snow here! It hasn't snowed since Isabelle was 9 months old (7 years ago) and Jospeh has never seen snow, so the kids are totally excited!!!

Swimming Lessons

Isabelle and Joseph started swim lessons on Monday. They go on Monday and Wednesdays for 30 min. On the second lesson they were swimming! I really couldn't believe it!

Boars Head Feast

I coordinated this Boars Head Feast. It is an annual tradition at the church. It was alot of work, but alot of fun. The boyscouts served the food and one lady organized the

decorations. The men cooked barbeque from a very very early hour all day.

Other people prepared side dished.

We had a local High School acting group come and do a comedy

about Shakespeare.

Most of the people who attended dressed up in medieval costumes.

It was really fun.

Brendon was so sick that he ended up not being able to attend.

These are pictures of some of the families that came dressed up.

The Smiths
I forget their names! (They don't have kids yet..you know how that is!)

Me and the kids.

Judy, Jennifer and Vince (she makes all those costumes!!!)


Our good friends Peter, Julia, Susanna, Sonja

What's missing?

The Toothfairy is coming tonight!

Our time at th beach!

We left for the beach the day after Christmas for a relaxing time! All the grown ups read their books and the kids swam in the indoor pool and played on the beach! One day the elevators didn't work and were on the 19th floor, so we certainly got our exercise in that day!

blog header

Right now blogger is having a problem with the header and that is why I can't get the Christmas lights off. Hoping it'll change soon!

Dog Days!

Our dogs live outside, but if it's really cold they can come lay on the kitchen floor!

However, Brendon was busy cooking up a delicious stew and didn't notice who snuck

herself into a comfy chair and curled up for a nap!

Who can blame her..right?

Sarah will be 9 years old in February.

She's a good dog!

Christmas lunch and afternoon

I think this is the last of the Christmas pictures. We had a nice lunch with everyone. All my grandparents and Kelley and Lora. Then we relaxed the rest of the day. Joseph got a bugsucker from Mimi and Papa as a gift and he went outside with Uncle Kelley to look for bugs. Isabelle received and electronic diary from Mimi and Papa and Brendon helped her figure out how to use it. The rest of us exchanged books and you can see we were all reading! I finished mine down at the beach.

Presents! Gifts! Santa!

These are pictures are of us opening gifts. If you look at the first picture of the gifts that Santa brought and look to the left you will see a little plate where we left cookies and milk for Santa, and you can see he made a mess and scattered jelly bean on the hearth!

If you put the cursor on the pictures there will be captions.

Aussie Christmas (Eve)

We always open our gifts from Australia on Christmas Eve, because it's Christmas Day over there.

I'm slowly catching up to the blog. I'll be adding along now that I"m home. I'm organizing a Boars Head Feast (like a Madrigal) that is coming up on Saturday, so I've got my hands full starting out the new year!

Happy New Year!