The weekend

Where do I begin?

We started the online shopping at midnight like I told you in my last post. Ronda clued me in to blackfriday[dot]com and I was lost in cyper shopping land. I really don't need much, but found at least one thing that I was excited about and thrilled to be able to add it to my gift giving pile ... without hitting a store and standing in line at 5 a.m. Because, I'm sorry, but no gift is worth that. I tried it once. That was enough for me.

We did hit a few stores on Friday. Fred Meyer for the sock sale was high on my list of places to get to. Where do socks go and why don't they last forever? The nice wool ones are just not cheap. And I like cheap. I'm the girl who expects the $10 toaster to last 100 years or more. See what the problem is with the socks? We got our fill of socks. I'm sure I could have picked up more. Already wishing I had grabbed more black ones, but so be it.

Chapstick? Maybe this was overkill. Maybe not. Winter is here. The season of dry skin, dry lips, dry everything. We're good to go in the lip department.

I think we were home on Friday evening. It's been a few hours since then.
I played with the sewing machine over the weekend. I may be a wee bit silly in my wrapping this year. For the few things I'm sending ... some of them involved a sewing machine for wrapping. Worked on them Saturday as well ... and yesterday I packed boxes. I have one more to go that needs shipping. Packing tape? I'd never remember that so I could just be done with it all. By Saturday they will all be in the mail. That will feel good.

Christmas cards are a big thing in my life. Receiving them is big. I save all the photo cards and sort of scrapbook them into albums. It is so much fun to take them all out at Christmas time and see how families have grown and changed. Only once have I not sent out cards. And this year may make it twice. I'm already feeling major guilt about it.

Have photos to share with you from Friday's snowfall. Just not today.

Ham and scalloped potatoes are in the oven and nearly done. We need to leave for Sunday School Program practice in 30 minutes ... and I should shag a napping teen off her chair so she can get ready.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone. All the preparations (with the exception of some potatoes, a bit of turkey and a few slices of pie) have been enjoyed.

I'm visiting Nostalgia Lane this morning. Blogger won't let me put these in the order I want to, so will sort of wing it here.

We mismatched china this year. I do love a dinner with china and linen. These two sets represent two different families. Ones that were joined nearly 24 years ago in Minnesota on a cold wintery day. The set in the foreground (sorry you can't see it) comes from Jari's aunt Martta who passed away recently. She was instrumental in bringing Jari's family here from Finland. Thank goodness. Otherwise this dinner might have never occurred on Thursday.

Then there is my mom's china. Somday I'll have to share "Who Gets Grandmother Yellow Pie Plate" with you, but suffice it to say that one of the most cherished things I wanted of my parent's was the set of china. We used it often. Special visitors were fed off these plates. Sometimes the table was turned diagonally in the kitchen to accomodate all the bodies, but these plates adorned the table every Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. A lot of nostalgia in the silver trim of them. I don't have the turkey platter that goes with them. Isn't it amazing that even a set of china can have bits of stories and life tangled in with them? The turkey platter took a spill one time and hit the floor. I even remember who was holding it ... I just won't tell you.

I also have a tremendous fondness for linen. My fondness for linen just might be surpassed by my love of starch. I don' t remember if we used starch at home or not. I do remember the large, strange colored green plastic bag that held the ironing. In there it was misted and allowed to sit and wait for the ironing board. I did love to iron. I wonder if I groaned about it then. I learned to appreciate non wrinkled things. I especially like the crisp of freshly starched. We don't use these often. They used to grace our coffee table often when we had visitors over for the evening. And I mean MY home, not my mom's. This Thanksgiving we used the linen. I'm going to find a convenient close by place for it so I can use it often and make it a regular part of life once again.

I did miss watching the polishing of silver this year. I must hand that off to one of the boys and teach them tradition as well. I really don't use much of anything in the line of silver, but just watching the polishing adds enough nostalgia to the day that it might be worth it.

We spent the evening at the Mat-Su Borough gym with a nice size gang of others. Visiting with Mary Maki, who is up here visiting, was certainly enjoyable. Lots of desserts ... another couple cups of coffee.  Then home to start Black Friday shopping at midnight. I got the one item I really wanted. Was thoroughly disappointed with Target's shipping policy and, quite honestly, couldn't find much in the ads that I couldn't live without. I'll certainly be online again next year.

Friday morning we woke to the phone. Heini called to let us know that Charisse and family lost everything in a fire on Thanksgiving night. All were alive and well .. for that we are certainly thankful. I did talk to Charisse yesterday so I'll share on here. I have these visuals going on in my mind. Once past the horror of being chased out of your home in the middle of the night and surviving, imagine the rest of it. Paint a picture in your mind. It really begged to have a photographer there. 0 degrees in Fairbanks. Only time enough to run, which meant whatever you were sleeping in, you ran out in. At least one in boxers. Do you know anyone who sleeps in their shoes? Not me. They didn't either. Some kind souls stopped and they were able to warm the 5 children in the car. The couple got them to a hotel and settled in. Red Cross has stepped in  to assist them tremendously and we anticipate there will be an outpouring of support from the community when it learns of the tragedy. Someday they will have serious giggles over this. Imagine shopping for clothing on Black Friday .... in your pajamas. And not shopping because you need another pair of jeans because 12 of them wasn't enough. Shopping because you have nothing. We are certainly thankful.

Happy Friday!!

Really, it's Wednesday.

But it may as well be Friday.

4 day weekend is here with much to get done in the next not too many hours. But I'm thrilled. Will be much fun. Time with family. Stress free time with family. How's that? I could use some.

Today ends another chapter in our lives. It's all about chapters isn't it? The clothes pin waiting for the next seasons laundry. Another chapter begins and comes to a close.

Tonite we are without our foreign exchange student. That chapter of life has been closed. He has left with his luggage and will be boarding a flight back to Finland early Saturday morning. It has been an interesting experience. We have met a very talented young man. Some of his finer qualities could rub off on all of us. :) He is very dedicated to anything he attempts to do. Let's hope we all learned from this exprience and will grow in some way. We send him home with our best wishes and know that God directs our path through this life. He hears our prayers, even those that we cannot utter. He has a plan for all of us. That our lives crossed paths with Samuli, even for a short while, was of God's design.

Off to start Thanksgiving dinner preparations. Pie crust is thawing. Strawberries are thawing. Shoot! Forgot the rhubarb! Turkey is thawing. Vegies are half chopped for stuffing. Heather thinks I'm a bit nuts, but I really do iron my linen napkins. With starch. I need to go find those. Table is covered with Christmas stuff. Have done a little bit of that this week. Feels good to try and accomplish something in that direction.

Wishing you all a blessed Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for. Faith. Health. Family. Friends.

O Little Tree of Christmas

What do you think?

Will it work for an outdoor Christmas tree? At night it is quite lit. The power ends of the cords aren't quite twinkling, but they're lit.

It actually warmed up these last couple of days. I almost don't like it. The wind was threatening to start blasting with a gusto, but it died down. The slushy roads will turn to guess what. Need a massage by the time I drive too far. I actually felt a few snowflakes tonite while I was outside hauling out trash. That would be Mom Job #412. Anyway, it was 32 degrees when I ran to get Tia from school today. Gotta love those calls. "This is the nurse from Colony Middle School. Tia is in the nurses office and really needs to go home." Again? So she didn't feel good this morning, but I did the mom thing and sent her anyway. She was home last week Thursday and Friday with a stomach ache. Fine all weekend. What's up with a stomach ache again on Monday. Does sound a bit fishy, doesn't it? When I got to the school to pick her up, I felt horrible. She was white as a sheet. I don't own any white sheets, but I'm imagining what white sheets probably look like. Brought her home, fed her Ibuprofen and ran back to work. She's fine this evening. Wonder what morning will bring.

So, speaking of Christmas trees. Christmas this year is going to be a bit on the slim pickin' side. I just spent several hours on the phone with Ronda. Love those chats. :) She had several fabulous ideas. Idea #1: plasma donation. I don't know if they pay for it here or not, but they do in Phoenix. Might be a bit on the negative side financially for me to boogie down there to earn $50, but am going to check and see if Anchorage has any such thing. My vehicle gets about 10mpg ... let's say 60 miles to the donation site (if one exists) ... that should be 6 gallons, right? Now ... at $3.50ish a gallon we're up to $21 for a trip to town. Hmmm. If they pay big money it might be worth it. That means I only put $30 in my pocket. Unless they pay like $150 per visit. Then it might be worth it. Might be able to buy more than a tub of licorce at Costco. Might even make it to the produce section of the store. Enough of that idea. Idea #2: I'll share another day after I check it out myself. (That wasn't nice, was it?)

Mailbox prizes yesterday

I ran to the post office yesterday. Part of the usual Saturday routine around here. No more running to race my dear hubby to the mailbox when the letters came raining in the mail chute.

In the box of goodies from Mummu was this telephone. Made for great fun on Saturday. Tia has never dialed a rotary telephone. "Why do they have numbers on them?" Society changes, we change along with it and never even realize that there are such simple things that our kids will never know as being a part of everyday living.

The bread was certainly "flat" bread. The pulla delicious. Thanksgiving preparations are tucked here and there. Thanks to Fred Meyer for the free turkey. Still need to go get a few more of them. They may not be free, but they'll be turkeys.

The temperature has warmed up but not enough that I can't use my outdoor refrigerator. Gotta love this time of year. Count the blessings for even the little things. Such as left over pizza that doesn't fit in the fridge, but certainly keeps cold outside.

So much for my boasting about my bread machine.

The bread really won't do any rising in there if you forget to add yeast.

Ugh.

Shhh ... don't tell anyone ...

it's snowing outside this morning.

The cars are covered with white and nobody knows it yet.

They're sleeping.

I love Saturday mornings.

I mean ... I REALLY love them.

I don't wake up the kids at the crack of dawn to start dusting window ledges. Maybe I should, but I don't.

My theory is that if the work gets done ... I don't care how or when it gets done. Just don't let me see it UNDONE!

Maybe it's because I really like Saturday mornings.

My alarm rings at 7 a.m. on both weekend days. That is quite a sleep in for me. After the 5:15 a.m. ring the rest of the week. I feel quite rested when I get up.

8:12 a.m. as I post. It is still dark outside. I've hopped a few blogs this morning and chuckled and ooh'd about a few things. My pulla dough is rising. Double batch mind you. The bread machine is mixing bread dough for me. I really have come to love that thing. 99% of the time I don't use it for baking bread. I use it as a mixer. I cut Mummu's bread recipe in half. I dump the ingredients in the bread machine and hit the "Dough" button. It mixes and sits there to rise. I punch it down, put it in pans and get myself 3 loaves of flat bread. I do love flat bread. The other bread I buy at the store. I really don't want to spend my precious time making bread for sandwiches or toast. I want the good stuff with my dinner. When it's done, I slice and freeze it. (Thanks Mom!)

Now I'm off to try and find the grocery store ads. Haven't picked up anything for Thanksgiving yet. I thought I was going to be off on Wednesday and running to the dentist all day long .. and baking. Not to be. Good thing I looked at the vacation book yesterday. I need to cancel the dental appointments. Oh well. Couldn't afford that trip anyway. We have 2 more days scheduled in December. The moral of all that was ... I need to accumulate the food fixins for the holiday!

Yesterday I was thankful for ...

mailboxes that bring us things other than the usual bills. ($800 in medical bills and $35 insurance reimbursement ... somehow that just doesn't equal out to my benefit.)

So, maybe this was at one time a mailbox.

Now I just like it.

It is totally nonfunctional.

Although, maybe it does serve a function.

When I was a young 'un, I had this umbrella that I took to the end of the driveway to catch the bus. I remember pitching it in the ditch when the bus came. Wasn't going to be caught with one of those in my hand. Not cool. At all.

This "mailbox" is a dropping spot for my kids now.

Tia told me the other day that she shoved a pair of socks in there.

Will have to go and look.
Maybe there are multiple pairs in there.
Maybe the pair she put in there is multiplying and I have my own little sock industry going on.

As Thanksgiving approaches ...

I'm joining in with other to come up with things I'm thankful for ... post your comments with your Things I'm Thankful For and join me.

 

This picture was taken on Sunday. From that date, only 36 days until Winter Solstice. Wow!

Today I'm thankful for a hubby that is not working out of town. He got 2 cars running today and replaced the plug on my car. (I sort of disassembled that this morning). Router got replaced on the computer. Runs a wee bit faster today. Still having problems with uploading photos to Facebook, but I'll get there eventually!

Happy Monday

It looks like I may just assail you with photos.

One every day.

Then again, probably not.

This is driving me crazy. I'm typing and the photo keeps moving to the right of the page. Minor issues.

I have a fabulously ridiculous picture for you.

Not this one.

This one I snagged on Sunday.

I accidently wore my work shoes home and needed the shoes that I'd left at work.

Really, to be honest, I needed the worn out Dr Scholls inserts from inside the shoes.

The older I get, the flatter my feet get.

The flatter the feet get, the more the arches hurt.

And Sunday ... snow, cold and all ... I was wearing heels ... and my feet needed those inserts.

Would you go for a drive on a sunny day without a camera?

I'm getting better.

It went with me.

I'm guessing that no one is renting space at this place right now.
The thermometer has dipped and I mean drastically.
-18 on the way home from Liz & Leroy's last night about 11 pm.
Yikes.

Ken & Maureen were here this weekend. How fun to see them and get to visit with them. Oh, we miss you AZ folks something furious sometimes. Maybe lots of times. Especially when we get to enjoy your company when you come and visit.

Friday evening I went to a Ladies Night. Super duper fun with yummy food and great company. Maureen's first question to me was, "How can you live in this cold?"
Good question.
Today ... I'm thinking about checking on airline tickets to Phoenix for February.

Just kidding.

Miss Vivian

It looks like this blog is going to become a "one photo a day" blog. This new blogger puts pictures wherever it wants and I can't handle it!!

I don't know if there are pictures floating around in cyberspace of this wee little one ... so I'm sharing. Vivian was down to 5.25 lbs the day we met her last week. She is just a sweetie! Gaining slowly and doing swell. The parents are all smiles as well!

I'll try be back later today with new photos. Gotta run!

Friday the 13th

Wow!! My internet this morning is just clicking along like it use to. What's up with that?! Thank you!! I haven't managed to clean anything more off my computer lately ... don't think that is the moment's miracle cure.

How do these weeks just seem to get busier all the time?

My day usually goes like this:  get the kids up in the morning (someday they'll be using wake up call service like I did for a while) for school, hang out on the internet for a bit, hit the shower, dry the hair, start the car, fix the hair, head to work. Spend my day either laughing or crying .. this week it has been the laughing kind, thank goodness. Home to make dinner. Have been teaching the kids to make dinner lately. This week kind of got messed up as the salmon wasn't thawed on Tuesday. One little monkey wrench just throws off the entire weeks job list. I'm telling you. It's challenging. Usually shut my eyes for 20 minutes after dinner and then move to the next thing. Haven't felt like doing too much of anything after dinner. Sometimes just living life can get to be a bit draining. We may be living our Alaska Dream, but life along with all of its speedbumps came along in the crates. Last night I picked up Alyx from work at 11:15 pm. Thank goodness she only works 3 miles away. See why I need that nap? I don't function well with no sleep.

Tonite I should be heading out to a ladies night. Will see if I feel like going or not. I know it will be fun, but once again it is Friday and my energy tank is getting close to empty. Not red lining this week ... just getting down there somewhere.

Last night we popped over to see Kevin & Renae's little love. Oh. My. Gosh. It has been a long time since I held such a little person. I did take pictures. Went to upload them this morning and the camera shrieked "change battery pack" at me. Hoping to get them on here tonite. She is quite the little love! Was a frank breach baby ... best case of frank breach they've ever seen. That means not only was her head upwards, her toes were there too. She's apparently good at scratching her ears with her toes. I know I grumbled when the kids were up all night. When I was so tired I couldn't see straight anymore because I rocked 2 or 3 babies all night long. I know that. But ... to have a baby around again. Almost dreamy.

Off to a Friday at work. Then a weekend coming up. Jari is bringing in the Tahoe today to get an estimate from Alyx's accident. Don't think anything is wrong with it, but we'll find out. Tires are getting changed today. We've been trying to get all the mileage we can out of the set we have on there now, but spinnning up the hill outside the driveway just isn't doing it for me. It's doing it TO me. May as well use the good ones. We'll put these bald things back on again when the snow is gone.

Happy Friday!!

Sunday afternoon

we hung out for a bit and played some games. Samuli wanted to play Scrabble and so we did. Great way to learn some more English for him! Ben joined in the Scrabble game to be the scrabble [dot] com person. :)

Before I'd sit down to play, though, I hopped in the car for a few minutes and ran around with the camera. Could have stayed out there all afternoon just watching the clouds make the mountains have a whole new appearance every few minutes. It no longer looks like this on Wednesday. It didn't look like this on Monday morning anymore either. So glad I went when I did. We woke Monday to at least 4 inches of snow covering the ground.

Beautiful! What else does one need to say?

And just because I was trying to play with the camera indoors ... and trying to work on manual lighting and holding a camera still ... my baby girl.

The kids are off school today for Veterans Day. I got to sleep in an extra hour which was totally appreciated. Thank you Veterans. Most importantly for your service ... secondarily for my sleep.

Thankful for Saturdays ...

Home made bread to cut and put in the freezer. Thaw some at each meal for dinner. Aaah. Yum.

Working out in the yard. The guys around here finished insulating the cabin (remember the water line got done several weeks ago), moved the ramp to the front of the cabin. It use to go off the side. I figure this is the way the two who live out there can get inside when they're injured after winter sporting activities. We'll just wheel the wheel chair up the ramp (shucks! left that in Phoenix too!) and dump them in! Might help with the mud in the spring as well. Landscaping is still somewhere in the future plan.

Thankful for the new grill on the deck. Will see how this serves us over the winter. When summer comes the grill can move down and outside ... making way for peas again! Jari is going to close in one side of the porch temporarily for the winter. Keep the wind out and maybe keep the grill cooking! Salmon on the menu for Tuesday.

Thankful for the newest set of wheels around here. This little thing is quite sweet. Has less than 100,000 miles which is an extra bonus. Good gas mileage I'm sure ... and something other than the Tahoe for the kids to get around with. :)

More yard cleaning and a blaze to boot. No wind on Saturday (another reason to be thankful) so part of the pile got burnt!

The firebug himself having a bit of a break for lunch.

While the girls took their picnic out to the tramp. Note the clothing has become a little heavier in nature. No more "just" sweatshirts ... now we've added jackets and even hoods.

A moment or two of burning up a little energy before a long afternoon 4-wheeling ride. Tia's still complaining that she's aching from that. Someday we'll have a nice warm way to soothe aching muscles. Just don't know when that might come into being.

Thankful, always, for friends. They share our joys and trials. They share our tears and laughter.

Thankful for a beautiful day! We had more company on Saturday evening. Bronte Paski and Ben Skoog came to visit for the weekend. Matt joined us for dinner as well. Good times all the way around.

Karsten Golf Course gone Sun City

Trunk Road is being redone. I drive that road at least twice a day Monday through Friday. This is not the view I wanted. It has been nagging at me for a long time. At a spot in this road they made all kinds of little hills and valleys. Looked like oversize moguls or a golf course with a wee bit of challenge. Then they come along and spray seed in this lovely fake green color. Looks a bit Sun City fake lawn like to me.

Every day when I drove by that spot I just kept seeing Sun City fake turf and golf course ... all rolled in one.

Maybe I don't have enough challenges going on in my life at the moment ... or I've come up with a rather ingenious escape mechanism.

Friday evening fun

Happy 15th Birthday Anna!! We had a great time. Dinner was good ... the company fantastic!

Sugar is always a good thing ... isn't it??

Singing with Miss Nora. She's learned to sing with quite a voice and is so cute!

Male competition just never ends does it? I don't know who stuck it out the longest, but Nora was certainly joining them ... and the couch potatoes got a good chuckle out of it all. Reminds me of all the arm wrestling competitions every holiday get together at 8826 Keenan Road. I tried for years to beat Jari ... hope kept springing eternal ... 'til I finally considered it hopeless and gave up.

I have some more pictures ... coming soon!!

'Twas the night before the party

The household was a buzz.
The vacuum was running,
the mops were a swinging.
A trip to the grocery store mom did take,
the boys ran to shop so that burgers could be made.
Anna has tired of barbeques of seafood and fish,
she's invited folks over for Friday and
burgers are her wish.
From Alyx some flowers to brighten the day
when sunlight has turned to dark and the family still plays.

The boys came on home with a grill for the cookin'
and through the instruction book they even did some lookin'.

The oven at 350 warmed the house up just right

while we started the baking of cholate and white.

Noodles were cooling for crab salad to make

I'm starting to drool as crab salad I taste.

Next come the cupcakes with left over dough

not one to waste much .. to Bible Class Wednesday they'll go.

Taytekakku was baking tho' it may not be her choice

the rest of us would love some if given a voice.

A moment on the porch for a quick break I did take

to see my poor cakes crossing the room ... making a break.

This one was home from school and spied the pile

Just had to steal 'em back before he made it the mile!

Friday morning dawns

and we've nearly made it through another week.

I left the house at 9:25 a.m. on Wednesday to do the dentist stuff and didn't come back here until 4:50 p.m. The entire day spent running to and from the dentist and schools. Cleanings are done ... appointments are set for repairs ... I've gotten the days off work ... all is good. Somehow it doesn't seem right that I am going to spend every day of accrued vacation time at the dentist. Hmmm.

We have kids busy looking for jobs around here. Brock has dropped off applications and interviewed. Anna dropped off an application yesterday. I am kind of wondering how all these people are suppose to get to the places of employment should they become employed. Challenge with a capital C.

The wind has died down. The weather was beautiful yesterday ... at least that is what I noticed everytime I wheeled a patient out the door to their ride home. I had the pleasure of heading right back inside. Am hoping that it stays this way through the weekend. Would be so nice to be able to enjoy some of it myself.

The camera never got to click a picture on Wednesday. Not one little unfocused shot. Last night, tho', I was blogging in my head as I was shooting a few around here. A few minutes ago I went to upload pictures and am wondering what is going on. Aaah! Change battery pack is the message I got. Perfect. Will see if it is charged by the time I have to leave for work this morning.

Toodles!

Home from work today

and wishing that I had a few hours stacked together where I could whip up some bread dough and actually get it baked. Maybe if I get creative.

I am the world's worst job list maker. I am horrible at getting it up and then wonder why nothing gets done. I'm trying again this week. So far so good.

Another toughie for me is getting my kids into the kitchen to learn some dinner making skills. We all learned somehow, usually with grease splattered, hamburger flying, twice as many dishes as really necessary and triple the time. Patience. I asked for a bunch of it and added dinner making to the job list. My goal is simple. For the moment I want each kiddo to be responsible for certain meals. Then we'll work on adding more. Maybe we'll eventually get to the grocery list and having them figure out what they are making. When I hit the White Sauce Making Class part ... you'll know it. Today is Wednesday and I'm cooking. Monday was Brock. Tuesday was Anna. Thursday should be Alyx but she's working. Do you think I can survive through Tia making Mexican Curry for dinner on Thursday?

Today we play the Dentist Game. Move Child A from school to dentist (with minimal gas usage 'cuz I'm driving the million miles to the gallon VW). Move Child A back to school. Burn up 45 minutes. Pick up Child B and transport to dentist. Return Child B to home. Pick up Child C and motor to the hygenist. Return. You get the picture. If I'm on the ball today ... I'll leave my novel at home and take along Sunday School lessons. I'll read and prepare the next 6 weeks worth and then not have to worry about them for a while. In the middle of the driving to and from I might even remember my camera. These pictures are driving me crazy. I really have some that I need to get for you ... and we're suppose to see snow the end of the week. If I don't hurry the "look" will be buried.

Outta here. I'm getting frustrated this morning because internet connection the public library isn't fast enough to access my account. What's up with that?? Can't download a book to listen to as I wander around here picking up stray socks, washing left over dishes from last night and cleaning out photos on the computer. Cleaned off the computer Desktop the other day ... my computer runs a wee bit faster. Time to hook up the Mac but what do I do with all the stuff on this one!? And I mean lots of stuff.

Unbelievable talents displayed

over the weekend. I wasn't on the committee that put the craft show together and felt like I really didn't contribute a thing by the time the item were brought into the Wasilla Senior Center, but it was so much fun getting everything set up. It looked fabulous! Many creative minds working together to display items. The prices were a tad bit on the low side ... and that is an understatement. However, the goal was to establish the "home market" and get the items sold. It worked. I am not a great garage sale person. I like them, I just don't like hauling home all the junk I manage to when I stop at them. I'm going to start accumulating anything I can to help out for the next one. I'm sure I have plenty of corners in the basement where I can tuck all kinds of treasures for refinishing.

The baking. This is just one table and only half the stuff was there. The gals did a bang up job of packaging everything professionally ... and it went quickly. Some repeat customers with special orders for more. :)

I would have never thought of doing this! We've repainted half the girls room and this would look fantabulous in there. It was gone by the time we were allowed to shop ... and then even later when I finally got there. We let the public do their shopping until 2 pm and then we were allowed to go in and shop ourselves. Worked well ... though many of us were busily eyeing things all evening while setting up.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

In other great news ... we manged to get another set of 4 wheels over the weekend. Yes!! Brock has become very frustrated lately and I can't count the number of times I've heard, "I wish Dad wasn't such a Finn." I hope anyone reading this isn't offended. Let me tell you ... he is a tight wad when it comes to something. He would prefer someone sell a car with 2,000 miles on it for $20. Makes car shopping difficult. He did find one on Craig's List Sunday morning and it's now in our yard. Reminds me of dating days. :) I'll have to share a picture and you might understand.

This is Samuli, otherwise known as Sam. He went shopping several weeks ago for some cross country ski gear and was trying it on for us. We're waiting for snow to fly. It has warmed up to a balmy 16 degrees this morning, but the forecast is for snow this week. The moon is full ... and the clouds are flitting across the sky. We are ALL ready for snow. My camera is REALLY ready for snow. This may sound ridiculous, but the insulating feeling of snow is just wonderful. The world is quieter. The wind doesn't fill my porch with layers of silt. The world has beauty that isn't shades of brown, rather shades of black and white. I've always been a fan of Ansel Adams.

Off to work I go. I get to celebrate 2 Fridays this week. Today would be the first. I'm off tomorrow (am liking this day off every other week but will surely not accumulate PTO this way!) to bring kids to the dentist. We'll play dentist run nearly all day long. Last time we did this, Jenny and I visited in the waiting room all day. Anyone care to join me tomorrow? Anna turns 15 tomorrow as well. Fitting way to celebrate ... don't you think?