Saturday

I've been having a hankerin' for a cookie from my childhood. My grandma use to make these .. we called them Turtle Cookies. They're, quite obviously, a chocolate cookie made on the waffle iron. Can be quite time consuming if you are down to one iron! Not nearly as fast as baking 2 large cookie sheets of something yummy in the oven at the same time. However, when one has a hankerin' that won't go away ... one starts stirring chocolate! They were really very good.

Then on to watch the big boys play hockey in the evening. Hard to believe that this may be one of the last times they play this year. Don't know how many more times they'll rent the ice. Then it'll be on to camping, fishing and that kind of summer fun.

Good use of some energy by Blayde ... who says he doesn't even know if he scores a goal ... he just keeps on going!

Brock laying in wait for the puck. Fun to watch him scoring!

Between two trips to the grocery store for full carts, baking chocolate and watching the boys skate ... we had a fun Saturday!

It's one thing

when the kids get tired of you trying to figure out the camera. It's another when it is your dog that finally gives up on you. For anyone who doesn't know him, this is Duke. He is getting old, is overweight and lazy. Unless there is a moose lurking around. Then he can up and boogie with the rest of them. He only allows them to come so close to the house and thinks he can stop them from coming closer. :) He certainly tries. I usually end up shooing him into the house for a while.


"So, ma'am, you didn't like the last pose. How about this one?"


"This is really getting a bit boring."

Althought I like the color in the last one ... this one shows the ultimate giving up. He's in for the long haul and he knows it.

He's a good chap.

Thursday already!

I'm on call this evening .. so far my luck has been holding out. No on wants Thursday evening call as they have history of being late evenings. Will see what tonite holds. Kind of a mixed bag this call business. Get called in and you're on overtime .. which is certainly nice considering the checkbook balance. My debit card isn't usable yet, so it isn't all bad. :) Not being called in is like getting an extra 5 hours in the day. Hmmm.


I did get to leave work nice and early yesterday. I didn't get as much spring cleaning done as I thought I would. Jari was home from his overnite jaunt to Fairbanks and Talkeetna. Blayde and I did go get some more information on school. Fingers crossed that everything works out and he starts in June.


I did stop at Fred Meyers, got Jari to help out in the "putting things up" department ... and worked on the pantry. Emptied the beaver skull (science project gone uncompleted) out of a box and moved other stuff in. Put up several curtain rods to hold spools of ribbon. I'm not done in there, but if my girls could learn to put things back where they take them from ... it would be awesome!




Got towel hooks up in the bathroom as well. I went for the good deal with a reduced sticker price. My color in the bathroom, as far as metals go, is completely uncoordinated. I may take these new things down and spray paint them a dull black. They are hooks ... and I am thrilled. There will still be towels on the floor ... just like I still have to throw some clothes down the laundry chute as well! Dinner on the days when Mom is motivated to clean ... Finnish pancakes.
This plate looks like a little pancake with a LOT of whipping cream and a smidgeon of strawberry freezer jam!




My goal of getting scrapbook pages done has not been met. Missed the free shipping deadline ... will wait for the next one. Have been focusing on the things that drive me crazy. Towels, ribbons, clean laundry disorganization. Those have been higher on the list.


Time to get to work!

I feel like singing! Can you believe this?!

8:52 p.m. this evening ... I just had to go snag a picture or two. Doesn't this daylight make you just want to sing? It does me!

And imagine ... this is not digitally enhanced ... not even one teensy bit. The trees were still visible against the sky an hour later. Wouldn't make much of a picture ... but I could see the trees.

Before we know it ... this picture will have nothing but green out there. I can hardly stand it. (Just in case you can't tell!)

An extra hour today

is all it took. I was motivated big time! Spring fever has hit. Doesn't matter if it is still snowing a bit every night. The afternoon was absolutely gorgeous with sunshine galore. And I hid in the basement. Right now I can't afford what I would really like in the laundry room ... so am improvising with things that can later (if ever) be moved somewhere else! I keep hoping to win Target's $5,000 from completing their online survey ... but no luck so far. :) Anyway, I worked on the basement ... and it felt downright wonderful! There is a lot of work to be done down there, but feel better looking at it now.

Tomorrow I offered to leave early as well. Probably shouldn't be doing this, but this week I just don't really care. I am in the mood to clean house and if I have the chance for an extra couple of hours to do it ... that is awesome! Whichever direction the motivation takes me tomorrow ... I'll just follow the path. Am really hoping that it takes me to the pantry. It could really use some help. Things like hooks, pegs, rods ... the trash can.

My kiddo is calling me. We have a date scheduled in the living room ... with a heating pad behind my back.

Think spring!

Mt Redoubt is silent this morning

It has been interesting to keep tabs on this mountain. No ash at our house. We've had enough glacial wind coming from the other way that it probably couldn't settle here if it tried! This morning the mountain seems to be behaving itself.

I'm a bit doubting about this fund thing. I've already borrowed money from it! So, not only do I have to fund the funds, but need to have cash for lunch money so that I don't have to borrow from it! If you're a really good guesser, I'll bet you can even figure out which pocket I borrowed from!

Happy Monday!

This morning Tia & I headed for the dentist. She had an appointment for some fillings and I for some hygenist work. Both at 8:00. The hygenist usually doesn't come in until 9, so when we scheduled the appointments she had asked them to please call her the Friday before to remind her. Guess what. They forgot. Not an easy thing to reschedule. :( The office assured me that she had been reminded. I don't think so. She came in at 9 a.m. and was a bit embarrassed. I skipped my appointment and learned about organizing my life according to Good Housekeeping and http://clutterdiet.com/. I haven't had a chance to explore the sight myself. Can't tell you what is there. And to be perfectly honest ... I think I already forgot what I learned this morning. NOT a good sign. As a consolation prize for missing her appointment with me, I left with this package this morning. Should be fun to try!

We've been batting 1,000 around here. Alyx drives this lovely vehicle.

She has learned to pour oil in almost as fast as gasoline. To the shop it went last week. We picked it up Friday. Would cost more to repair everything than the car is worth. So we are hoping and praying that it will gimp its way through the rest of school. Drive nicely ... very nicely. I'm back to threatening the horse and pooper scooper again.

Have you ever had the pleasure of standing at the checkout lane at the grocery store, items are all rung up, you slide your wonderful debit card and the cashier looks at you and says "your card has been declined" experience? You shudder and ask her to do it again. Same response. Just great. I did on Saturday. Then I headed over to the gas pump. Figured as no one could see me to humiliate me even further, I'd try it again. This time it said "contact card issuer". Either the banking world had just shut down or my IRS refund check was no good. What on earth!! So I called the bank on my way home, got disconnected at just the point where we had figured out what happened, and called back again. Somehow, when I opened another account on Saturday morning, they had changed MY debit card to be attached to the new account. The account with not a red cent in it until the bank clears everything on Monday evening. Not happy. They straightened it out and were very apologetic, but talk about humiliating. I really need to remember how I look at folks. Heaven only knows what their story is ... they may actually be telling the truth!

That, in a nutshell, is my shareable fun stuff over the weekend and today. Yesterday evening I was gazing through magazines that hinted at planting vegies and flowers. Dreaming big time. Trying to figure out which zone I live in and what I might add where in the yard. Where do I move the tulips? Can tulips be moved? That kind of thing. This morning I actually took the tape measure out on the front porch. Two inches of brand new snow and it was still falling. Guess I'll have plenty of time to dream about these.