Don't ask me what I'm doing ...

just seemed a bit easier to play on here and move things around than move furniture or something. Especially since it is nearing 11 pm.

It'll change again tomorrow.

I really don't like it.

Done!!

PFD applications are done!!!
Just need a signature from Blayde and off it goes in the mail.
Whew!
Why I put off these things is beyond me. Always finding something better to do.

Like cleaning out magazines. And finding interesting places to stay. What about this one? A sphere hanging from a tree. Wish I had some really big trees around here. Am thinking that a treehouse (big people overnite visitor size) would be a lot of fun.

If you're interested in just checking this out (anything to avoid the dishes or laundry) click on here.

I am thrilled to be able to send things down to that huge Ikea bag in the closet downstairs. Let's see what else I found yesterday. Is this just the most amazing thing you've ever seen? This man does this amazing sand art ... only to be washed away when the waves come through.

It just makes me want to take a broom and head for a beach. I think that we could manage something little at Clam Gulch and be able to take photos from above. Stunning!

Off to do something a little on the productive side.

Still no washing machine. We have to buy a new one.
Jari started working on one of the "million miles to a gallon" cars today. Let's hope we can get those up and running someday soon.

Happy Monday!

Peace and calm around here

It was a nice relaxing Sunday.

I love that kind of day.

This morning I did a little picking up around here, got my usual Sunday School lesson done and headed outside with the camera to grab a picture I'd been wanting to get.

Along the way I found this. I've probably showed you this contraption before, but here you go again. It is the ice breaker upper tool. Pull behind the 4-wheeler and it works pretty good! Jari did some dragging on Friday to bust up some of our ice field.

A walk behind the greenhouse yielded an "oh, my" moment and a shifting of the foot path! Guess who has been visiting around here?!

Finally! The object of my mission. Spring must be around the corner. I am keeping an eye on the pussy willows down the road as they look like the ones I remember. This tree is rather large and the branches don't really look that good in a container. They are fun tho'!

Next I found this one ...  (note the buds on the right side of the picture!)

And then some more evidence of moose. They sure do like the little stuff.

Had a little moment of "wouldn't it be nice to have the volleyball net up?" and then realized that along with that comes the constant "... your turn to mow the lawn today!" stuff. It'll be here soon enough.

As I was meandering around the yard the snowflakes were gently dropping. Um. Hello? It is the end of March. Okay. It isn't unexpected to have snow at this time of year. I just think we're ready for summer. I came in and one kiddo said "hmph" to the snow falling.

And just to show us what the snow thought of that "hmph", it began in earnest. Huge flakes. Beautiful flakes. 38 degrees outside and snowing. Go figure.

It was fun to watch for a bit ... knowing that it wasn't going to last long. At least hoping it wouldn't last long. It didn't.

Then I had about the brightest idea I've had in a while. We have this huge hill behind our house. Some landowners dumped massive amounts of gravel and made a very steep hill of dirt. It is steep enough that the boys really don't like to snowboard that thing anymore. For the last couple of days I've been thinking that it would be great exercise to go up and down that hill.

I borrowed Jari's boots. I did ask him if he minded if they got muddy.

I just didn't quite anticipate what the adventure was going to entail. Mind you it had quit snowing. The snow was wet. The hill is covered with long dead grasses. My first "hmmm" moment was when I hit the grass. Quickly figured out that I was going to be soaking wet. Oh well. I made it to the top by grabbing those nice wet, loose weeds. Down was a different story.

Anita wasn't thinking.

At.

All.

Just melted snow on top of dirt = mud.

Wet grass on top of mud = slide.

And I did.

Good thing I was coming down where the trees are as they made nice little stopping points. Pretty soon I just started aiming for them! Think I'll hold off on repeating that adventure 'til things dry out a bit.

Off to safer things. Gave the guys a wish list. Get me one of these pallets. :) Let's see if I can get it to look anything like this one. Dark stain or black paint. White plates or a mix of other stuff. White plates and maybe some mirrors? Maybe some sea shells in some of the "boxes"? Maybe I can haul out the Hummel plates that have never been out of their styrofoam except to look at them once in a while? Maybe some copper pieces in a spot or two?

My living room is put back together. I went looking for a large mirror for the living room wall on Saturday. I was On Call all day and didn't get called in. Finally ran a few places in the late afternoon (after spending hours "scrapbooking" Christmas cards) and looked around. Too expensive. The things I had went back up on the wall ... and if I should come up with something different ... we'll just move the nails! I know I'm good at moving nails.

This week? No call. Nothing earth shattering other than the procrastinated PFD deadline for 2 kids. Tomorrow. (I've been saying that for far too long already.) Now I really mean it.

Oh yeah. The washing machine. It quit. It'll wash, it just won't spin. Makes for some mighty wet clothing hitting the dryer. Had a pining for one of those old ringer washer things. Thought a mop bucket would probably work too ... just don't have one of those either. Darling hubby gets to attack that project tomorrow. :)

Gotta love a Friday morning ...

when the bills are caught up.
when the checkbook looks readable.
when the purse is empty of receipts.
when the email box still has 900 some emails in it .. so I didn't get that far!!

when the snow is melting to unearth treasures left behind from last summer and the dead growth from last summer's rhubarb ...

when mud is a constant part of living in some parts of the yard at this time of year ....

when you don't have to go any further than the front yard to do some serious foot skating ...

when you know that soon (very soon) the cords of winter can go away and turn into the blooming trees of spring ....

when you're about to be late for work because you're on a blog of all things!

Happy Friday!!

The changing of color

It really took me several days to get used to the color ... and I love it! To go from stark white big and tall walls to completely nonwhite was a bit of a transition. I'll take pictures of the other side one of these days ... it's fabulous! My hubby has been a busy man.

I came home yesterday to this ....

This is not a normal sight. Just so you know that. He spent all day painting .. didn't stop for lunch anywhere along the way. The hall to the bathroom/bedrooms was done. Entry way was done. Wall behind the piano was done (including moving that heavy thing). Dining room wall was done. Alyx had told him I'd be thrilled if the kitchen was done before I got home. He was certainly trying ... crooked neck and all!

It's called Reddened Earth ... isn't suppose to be pink. It really doesn't look pink when it dries ... looks really good. Green would have been good, but I didn't want it looking like a Christmas tree around here. I already have Santa pictures still hanging and it's the end of March. Better not push it with Christmas paint as well!

I think I might just come home and gaze at it today. It has probably been 3 years since we had anything but a light or white wall in our world. Anna says it feels like a cabin in here. I like that. Cozy cabins are great places to be.

Anyone up for a game night?

I spent Saturday after "noon" at home. Blayde and I had an errand to run in Palmer, hit the library for another book and came home to the kitchen. Kitchen = relaxation in my world. Friendship muffin time again. This time I added applesauce and decreased oil and sugar. Delicious! I've come to the point in life where I really do NEED two more muffin tins. Baked bread for the first time in months. Yum!

And I cleaned. Tried to organize little corners. We don't have any book shelves in our house. We have closets ... but no shelves. Where on earth does a person store all their STUFF?! Downstairs in another closet apparently. I don't save books ... they just accumulate and then I pass them on to someone else to read. The accumulation is the problem. Should really have a "Book Swap" party some night with ladies. I do save magazines. Need to find some old milk crates for those. For now, I settled for a huge Ikea bag. I go through magazines and rip out pages of things I like. The things I like go into a 3 ring binder that is organized by things like Christmas, Wedding, Storage, Inside Gardening etc. Works well for me. I can go through them and dream about what I'd like to get done. My version of window shopping. The rest of the magazine goes into a pile for school projects. When I no longer have kids needing them .... then they can leave the house. For the next 2 weeks ... this closet will look nice. :) After that ... it will be back to bedlam again ... I'm quite sure.

Wow! This has been almost an hour of uninterrupted computer time! The kids were at hockey last night and they're sleeping in this morning. I have my usual Sunday morning work to accomplish ... and then try figure out where I fit in everything that didn't get done yesterday!

For those of you who have little ones trampling at your feet right now .. perhaps many of them and life at this stage seems sort of endless ... consider this. We are talking graduation here. Alyx will graduate in May. Blayde will graduate in August. Brock will have enough credits to graduate high school in September ... tho' he may walk graduation in Spring 2011. Time seems to march along like a hiking trail to the top of a mountain. There are rough rocky spots making you wonder how you'll ever make it, then gentle slopes where you just enjoy the view and before you know what's happened ... you've reached the summit.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

The Beach Party was a blast!

If I try adding text to the top of this post ... the photos all start moving around! Will see how they show up when I hit publish! (You should be able to click on a photo to see it larger.)

We enjoyed some games like throwing sponges into bowls in the pond, the fishing pond (which was made really great by the tugging on the line to make it a REAL big one) and blind obstacle courses. Plenty of balloons were left in the rafters when we left. We had "beach food" including soda, chips, salads and subs ... topped off with ice cream. A volleyball game that was played by the highest bidders to play. Keeping the kids out of the "red line" proved challenging, but it was fun. A raffle basket of beach items that the girls were really hoping to win. Wally and Lisa with family certainly won the best dressed award. I just had to giggle. Kiddos coming in with flip flops and shorts, topped by winter jackets and hats. Quite cute! Super fun evening that raised nearly $1,000 for the building fund!

Heather - the little love wearing the knit hat with flowers on it is Vivian ... just for you. :)

I'm rethinking the strike

At the moment I'm just trying to feel like I'm back in nursing school again. Not the studying and the stress of testing. The mess. I had to learn how to just let some things go. And go they did! Oh, did they go. Job list again starting Monday at this house. For the moment we'll just make it through the weekend again.

Jari has been over helping Ross & Denise work on their new house. (Can't wait to see it.) They've been putting a good deal of paint on the walls over there. I don't know that any of it has been white ... maybe the garage. Gives one the itch to do something at home as well. And it's getting done. :) We picked some colors off Sherwin Williams website on Wednesday evening. Then my thrifty hubby sent me a text yesterday saying that the paint was too expensive and he didn't want to spend that much money on paint right now. Silly me, I believed him ... he's done that numerous times. Later in the day I got a text that looked like this.

It looks kind of orange doesn't it? It isn't. The way the light was hitting it ... it did. It is Fired Brick red and looks awesome. He did the wall behind him as well. :) :) :) The other color started hitting the walls last night as well. We picked a color for the kitchen ... the master bathroom for accent walls. We never painted when we moved in here almost 2 years ago. I think it's due. (Justification going on here.) Absolutely love that it will all be freshly done before summer!

Yesterday, or the day before, I hit the internet button on my computer and was almost thrilled. Saddened and relieved at the same time. At the top of the Yahoo's news for the moment was an article about boots that I've been coveting.

I've really been wanting a pair of these. On our jaunt to AZ, I was going to hit Nordstrom's Rack and try find me a pair. But after reading this I feel much better. My feet would not be happy in these boots for very long. Summer is around the corner ... and then next winter will be here again .. and I'll be whining about wanting the boots again. I know me pretty well.

Tonight we have a Beach Party Fundraiser going on. Fun!!! We look forward to a lot of it! Years ago in Phoenix, we had a Christmas in July party at Lauri & Cindy's house. (I remember several super fun fundraisers at their house.) The Christmas Party was so much fun. Completely unexpected in the wrong season. Today the wind in Palmer is whipping like a winter gale. The snow is melting and it's 34 degrees outdoors, but yesterday it felt like there was a good storm coming on. Or I was really tired and it felt like it. Tonite the Beach Party complete with summer beach activities ... without water. Beach food ... beach games including a volleyball competition. I'll do my best to take photos. Fred has worked on a game here and I almost finished making the bean bags for it last night. If you're visiting at our house this summer ... be prepared to play lots of it outside as long as the skeets are biting too bad. We had so much fun playing at Dave & Jody's when we were there several years ago.

I really do like Google images for borrowing pictures. And I thoroughly enjoy this game. Looking forward to playing. Not tonight. I think I might be a bit busy in the behind the scenes activity tonite.

Just so you know. In case you wondered. Our yard is an ice field. Global warming has turned my yard into such a ice field that my car (which weighs about 17,300 pounds) has slid into the middle of the yard. No easy feat. That means it slid nearly two entire car lengths since I parked it last night. Maybe I don't want a lake outside my front door!

Won't be long ...

and it will be time to park the snowmachines for the winter. This is nearly impossible to see, but it is a path made by snowmachine through the trees. I dream of making a path through the trees that encircles the property for next winters fun. I envision this path for skiing (me) and snowmachines (the rest of the troops around here). Wonder how long it will take me!

Yesterday morning the clouds were hanging below the hospital. As far as you could see it was a hanging cloud. Beautiful!! Being as I can't manage to bring a camera with me to work ... this will have to work instead.

Last winter I was determined to buy a SAD light to make it through the long days of winter. I didn't get one bought ... and it may be my imagination, but it seemed like we had a sunnier winter this year making the mood a little brighter as well. Now spring and summer are around the corner. Sunrise today is at 8:12 a.m. and sunset at 7:58 p.m. Come on sunshine ... hurry up projects! I just found this Sunrise/Sunset Calendar on the internet. What on earth did we do before the internet??!! Quite obviously, we have passed the 12 hours of daylight mark ... life is grand!

Managed a major oops yesterday. Filled, and I mean FILLED, a crockpot with stew in the morning. I was on call last night and always plan on working if I'm on call. I did end up working and didn't get home until 11:30 last night. Came home in between to eat something and found that I had left the miracle cooking machine on WARM all day long. Good gravy. After cranking it up to HIGH, I think they finally ate at 9:00 pm last night. This morning it looks like they manged something anyway. There are plenty of dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. The computer room looks like a kitchen cupboard. Maybe I'll quit cooking all together. I'm seriously contemplating going on strike and reading several books instead. What do you think?

We had a visitor in the past few days

We had a visitor in the past few days. Spring came to call. Saturday dawned beautiful with sunlight actually streaming in the window at 8:30 in the morning. Gloriously beautiful!!

Saturday I was able to accomplish a few things. This cute little basket doesn't make the innards of it any more palatable ....

and the road to a completed job goes through much in the way of paper pile disaster! I managed to lose 2 girls and a husband over to helping Ross & Denise with their new house. One kiddo was working on school stuff. Another was out snow machining ... I was playing with yeasty dough and the paper pile!

Alyx treated me to a wonderful birthday treat! She and I headed out for manicures and pedicures. A first for me. We decided that we could forego the manicure, but the pedicure .... aaaah. Should I ever make it to warm beaches in the tropics where sandals are a must ... I know where I'm headed first!

Took a trip to Ross & Denise's in the evening. Their new house is going to be absolutely wonderful for a bunch of little people and entertaining ... which she does so much of so incredibly well.  :)

Sunday we had a new experience. In the past few months we met a young man named Cody who has battled with Muscular Dystrophy and lost his fight last week. Although Cody visited our house several times, I wasn't able to get to know Cody very well. His spirit and determination were evident from the stories that were shared at the funeral. What is the most important is that Cody was given the grace to believe the first part of January. Death was imminent for him at sometime ... his was not a life that would be long lived and he knew that. I have to call it one of God's miracles .. one that we were able to see with our own eyes. Imagine being afraid to die. Imagine knowing that you are not going to live long and being afraid of death. God knew what Cody needed and sent His angel to do His work. Cody was given the gift of faith at the end of his life and the peace to rest securely ... what a blessing.

We're going to celebrate spring. It probably isn't here yet ... we're just pretending. Oreo basks in the sunshine. I came home yesterday and headed out to clean the car. Washing nooks and crannies after a winter of yuck. Saved the vacuuming for another day ... good excuse to go out there tomorrow again for a while.

In the meantime ... I can sit out on the porch, close my eyes and pretend. Listen to the sounds of melting snow as it runs down the gutter system. Could almost sound like a stream. The thermometer out there hit 60 degrees yesterday. Am imagining that the greenhouse was about the same. I'm starting to feel the itch of spring and seeds!