And the winner is...

I'm trying to enjoy what I've looked forward to all week: Sunday, the day of spring. In the midst of our wintery weather, today was supposed to be sunny and originally 59 degrees. Then as the week progressed, the hi temp. slowly slid downwards to a predicted 53 degrees. Last night we had an unexpected snow accumulation of a lot (didn't check my sources to get any more detail than that), and beautiful snow is thickly covering everything. But, it doesn't exactly feel like spring. Just as I write, the sun has come out for the first time (about 4:00); maybe we'll get a couple of spring hours... Here's hoping.

I just have a few photos and catching up to do...

I love the day after Valentine's Day; that is when Greg and I have decided to celebrate. Candy and flowers are at least half off, and it's only one day later. Greg came home with THREE DOZEN red roses for me on Feb. 15. They were absolutely gorgeous and put us back a whopping $15. Way to go, Honey!

Abby, Emma, and I finished our first quilt on Friday. It turned out to be beautiful (primarily due to our very talented instructor, Jenny). I can't post pictures of it yet, because this is for our eagerly anticipated new niece/cousin who will be adopted into our family by my sister and brother-in-law, Erika and Darin, any day now. Once we've delivered it, I'll post pictures.

Jenny came on Friday with awards and certificates for each of us in honor of completing our first quilt...

Abby won "Most Organized" with the most perfectly and patiently done stitches. She always sewed with the "turtle" setting on the sewing machine. So Jenny presented Abby with a seam ripper of her very own, a box of pins and a magnetic holder for them, and fabric for her next project with funky turtles all over it. CONGRATULATIONS, ABBY!

Emma won "Most Creative," because she was so inspired, she pulled out her sketch book and started her own quilt designs. Jenny presented Emma with a folder, graph paper, and a seam ripper of her very own. With Emma's love of horses, Jenny gave her some cowgirl fabric for her next project. CONGRATULATIONS, EMMA!

I won "Most Enthusiastic," and Jenny presented me with new needles for my sewing machine and a sewing gauge. She gave me some beautiful blue fabric for my next project to match our blue and chocolate brown bedroom colors. CONGRATULATIONS, ME!

And Miss Jenny also brought some fun purple with green polka dots, butterfly fabric for Grace who promptly fell in love with it and has worn it a little each day as a cape. Here are Grace and Miss Jenny.

And, Jenny, you win "Best Quilting Instructor Ever" by us. CONGRATULATIONS, JENNY!

Laughing Alone

Don't you hate it when you think you're connecting with somebody, on the same wavelength, in the same zone, only to find out you're actually standing in a spotlight all by yourself with a clown nose on?

On Mondays, I work at our wonderful local coffee shop, Lincoln Perk from 1-6. We cram school in as efficiently as possible before I leave, and since it's Greg's day off, he and the girls get great Daddy/daughter bonding time while I'm gone.

At about 5:00 today, Sean Connery walked right into Lincoln Perk and up to the counter. Okay, he looked a whole lot like Sean Connery, and he ordered a large coffee in a rather boring way for someone as dramatic as Sean Connery. My next question to him had to be:

"And would you like Ethiopian Harrar or Sweetheart Blend?"

As soon as I asked it I started to chuckle under my breath, right, like Sean Connery is going to ask for a 20 oz. Sweetheart Blend.

"I'll have the Ethiopian Harrar," he said VERY SERIOUSLY. So, thinking we were on the same wavelength, I said,

"I knew as soon as I said it that there was NO WAY you were going to say (my voice got a little deep here) 'I'll take a 20 oz. SWEETHEART BLEND,' " still chuckling as I said it.

That guy, Sean Connery, looked at me like I was crazy and said NOTHING! He did not smile one tiny little bit. In fact, he didn't even look like he liked me very much.

That took me back to an experience I had while working at Wendy's. I went on a summer project with Campus Crusade for Christ while I was in college, to Panama City Beach, Florida. Part of our experience involved having a full-time job and having classes and Bible studies in the evenings and opportunities to talk with tourists on the weekends. Along with 4 other students on our project, I worked at a large Wendy's.

One day, again while working at the register, two guys came in wearing their blue-collar shirts with their names on them. This was during the crux of the t.v. show, Newhart. These two guys stood right in front of me side-by-side, and I am not kidding, one shirt said "Larry" and one shirt said "Daryl." I started giggling, and knowing that this was a prank they must pull all the time, I said, "And where's your other brother?!"

They looked at me dead silent. "You know, 'Hi, I'm Larry. This is my brother Daryl, and this is my other brother Daryl.'" Nothing. Absolutely no wavelength connection, except with my fellow employees who found the whole thing excrutiatingly funny.

So, my sweet friend Sherlynn who worked with me today, here's hoping I gave you a laugh and a good example of why I sometimes really wish I had just a wee bit of your soft-spoken personality.

SUPER RANDOM

We seem to have dropped off the planet, but it's not true. We are here and finally starting to feel better! This whole thing turned out a little more flu-like than I usually enjoy.

Some random tidbits I've pondered during the last week or so:

I saw a fierce red and white school bus with the mascot and word "Bullpups" painted across it while driving through Newton the other day. I couldn't see the picture closely enough to identify it, so my sudafed-induced curiosity got the better of me. I spent WAY TOO MUCH time wondering what, in fact, a bullpup might be. Is it the baby version of a bulldog or the infant male offspring of a cow? The baby bull would be a wee bit more intimidating maybe, but niether vision sent tremors down my spine, which made me wonder why not just "Bulls" or "Bulldogs"? Or even just "Big, bad, red school buses," because that definitely gives me the heebie-jeebies.

My sister sent me a card today that said...

I tried a dessert called "Death by Chocolate," but it only made me stronger.

I've sort of made into a shrine in my kitchen. I laugh out loud every time I read it.

We have a new word around here. A few days ago, Grace told me her tummy hurt, and I asked what was wrong. "O," she said with a crinkled up nose, "There's just a bellyfish in there." We have no idea where that came from; it appears to be a genuine Grace Original, and we LOVE IT!

And I am very excited about a brand new Women's Bible Study I am helping to lead at our church. We have a wonderfully mixed age and stage of life group of nearly 40 women involved. Within that group, we are made up of smaller groups of 12 for discussion. I am already so delighted by my group, that I smile whenever I think about them. We are beginning Beth Moore's Study on the Fruit of the Spirit called Living beyond Yourself.

My friend Brandey, during the most recent date night she spent with our daughters, helped the girls decorate paper hearts and put them all together into a giant heart to deliver to a special family in our church. They also made and decorated heart-shaped sugar cookies today, and we drove out to deliver our "HEART ATTACK!" to this family. On the way home, Brandey looked at my minivan clock trying to discern what time it was. She tried and tried, and finally I had to let her in on our secret code,

"Um well, see it's military time.. backwards... and one hour off."

And at the slightly disturbed look she gave me, I wondered why I've gone to the trouble to calculate the time every time I look at that clock, but haven't gone to the trouble to change it... one of life's mysteries.

So much to ponder, really.

Pink eye party

We just had a PINK EYE PARTY! In honor of our quarantine, the girls and I watched Anne of Green Gables. What a great movie. I don't think I've actually watched the whole thing before today. We laughed, cried, made a memory.

I cooked up a fun dinner including curly fries. Grace took one look at the wiggly designs on the cookie sheet and said, "EWWWW, icky worms."

And we capped the party off with a coaxing, pleading, prying hands off of eyes session of administering eye drops. Bet you wish you were invited.

Once upon a time

Yesterday, due to ice, snow, wind, and generally wintry conditions, our power went out from around 3:00 to 7:40 ish. We lit candles all over the house and wore thick clothing layers. Greg started a fire in the fireplace, so we could all snuggle up in the living room. We ate our nourishing dinner of bread with peanut butter and all the nacho cheese Doritoes we wanted.

And then we all snuggled up in the warmer living room. Emma, Grace, and I all snuggled up together in the same chair, because we currently have colds, and we told stories. Being my terribly creative self, I started with a story about:

Princess Gracie-locks and Mr. Frog the Horse (because to a 4 year old, if you kiss a frog and get a prince, you are definitely worse off). But with a frog that turns into a horse, she could actually ride it all the rest of the way to Grandma's house, seeing as how both grandmothers live in Texas (and like all good stories, it started with Princess Gracie-Locks on her way to Grandma's house). Anyway, it was great, and then the lights came back on just in time for everybody to get ready for bed.

And this morning, both Emma and Grace woke up with pink-eye. Yikes.

Beautiful Day

I'm sitting here at my computer waiting for my chai to steep and eagerly anticipating date night starting in about an hour and a half while my daughters watch PBS.

We woke up to the beautifully stunning effects of an ice fog. In fact, first thing this morning, Emma took one look out the window and said, "Mom, I've got to take a picture of that!"

She raced back to her room to throw on clothes and ran to the next street to capture this:

I'm so glad she did. Even though the temp. has barely risen above freezing today, the thick frost was mostly gone by later morning. I am continually amazed at our AMAZINGLY CREATIVE CREATOR. He inserts beauty to delight the ones looking, and I love catching one of His wonders in action. I am ashamed of my often unobserving eyes, missing His glory. Today, we got it!

After library storytime for Grace this morning and choir for Abby (we figure a guitar player better be able to hold her own when she sings; this is a great vocal training choir), we met some friends for swimming. It seems like a study in contrasts based on the above picture, but we NEEDED SOME EXCERCISE, and it was an indoor pool. I sat on my bottom visiting the whole time, but the girls swam for 3 HOURS! My friend Brandey who also happens to be date night babysitter will be VERY HAPPY.

And I'm feeling blessed by a chance to get away with my hubby tonight: dinner at Bella Luna (great mediterranean food), Target of course, Hobby Lobby for quilt batting and backing (not real excited about that stop, but we have to get it while we're in the big city), and who knows what else. I just enjoy spending time with that guy, and he's handsome too, which is nice.