Tonite I am thankful

for several things.

1) We have drivers licenses in this house. We have eyes to see the road. We have legs and feet that can operate both the gas pedal and the brake. We have arms that can turn the steering wheel ... even out of a spin if need be. We have our hearing (even if one of us here is half deaf) to hear oncoming sirens should they be needing us to clear the road. We have car insurance that takes care of our mishaps quite nicely because we have a most wonderful insurance agent.

2) Clothes. Lots of clothes. Too many clothes. Enough clothes that the laundry pile never seems to end. Clothes (except for one person's jeans at the moment) that are nice enough to be worn to church. Clothes that can be worn to a wedding. Clothes that can be worn out fishing and camping. Clothes that keep us warm. Clothes that keep us dry. We are fortunate that we've been blessed with the over abundance of laundry problem.

You see ... the car that was suppose to cost under $500 to fix is going to cost $1500 and, rather than fixing, will come back home and park in the yard. That way we won't have the chance of a mishap and will miss the chance to chat with the lovely insurance lady.

The dryer decided that it will continue to spin ... but won't give out any heat. We hung clothes lines in the laundry room (Thankful for the nice big laundry room at the moment .. and always.) and made it a kuivaus huone (drying room) for the time being. Just think how fortunate we are. I just bought a new box of fabric softener yesterday ... at least I can spin them in cold fluff before I hang them ... we shouldn't be too wrinkled. :)

I made a large pot of salmon chowder

... and the fundraising committee forgot about the plan. Others thought it was off the agenda. Had a few folks to share the pot ... the rest we'll try work on again tonite! Not the committee ... the chowder.

Had a bit of time in the afternoon, so I took off with the truck for a drive ... camera in hand.

I've just had a stunning revelation. Driving around with a camera on the seat next to you and stopping when the visions move you is just as relaxing as the sewing machine. Much quicker than quilt making. You can listen to a good audio book doing both of them. Outside marveling at God's creation ... what better way is there to spend a few moments of your Sunday afternoon?

What a Saturday!

I started the day with paperwork. One kiddos tax return is done and indicates a nice refund. Yippee!! Another W-2 and I can do the other one. I've not done my own for a few years now, but am waffling. It's a boring tax year for us, for the most part, and am seriously contemplating doing my own again. I know the economy stinks for everyone. It stinks for the accountants as well ... but it really stinks for my household at the moment ... and I'd rather put the accounting fees into the refrigerator or freezer instead. Maybe I'll try it. Will see.

PFD's can be filed online and I can't find where I put the user name and password. When did life become something that can't nearly be lived without user names and passwords?! I have an address book that is JUST for that purpose. The page under "P" has paypal ... no pfd. The state doesn't recognize my email address either. Go figure. Would have been nice to get that little thing done .. but I gave up.

Had a baby shower to attend at 2 pm, so I high tailed it to the library with 3 minutes to closing, picked up an audio book to listen to while I clean and quilt ... and headed to the shower for a fun afternoon. I was one of 3 winners for the game guessing at prices of baby gadgets and gizmos. That was fun! How on earth am I suppose to know that a package of hair barretts costs $4.84 .. my baby is 13 years old?! Maybe some sanity reigns in this world. I learned that hair barretts cost more than finger nail clippers. :) According to some legend or lore, the giver of the 7th gift the mom to be opens is suppose to have the next baby. Me?? Medical miracle and spiritual intervention is what that would be! It was a fun day. I remember going home and putting everything away after my baby shower. She had a lot of lovely things ... I wonder if she's sleeping yet this morning ... or still putting them away!

Home to start cleaning. Can't hear the book and clean at the same time. That drives me nuts. It makes cleaning so much more enjoyable. Clean I did. Put a big roaster of scalloped potatoes and ham in the oven and hit it. Rearranged and cleaned the living room. Pantry got cleaned. Outside porch got cleaned. Front porch done. Under the sink done. Front bathroom thoroughly cleaned. Scrubbed the top of the stove (somedays I seriously miss my glass top stove). While I was cleaning and grumbling that I couldn't listen to a book, Jari started downloading it to the ipod that never gets used. Life is going to be grand. Problem is that I think everyone would really enjoy the book! My hips were hurting so bad by the time I was done that the bed was screaming my name. Played some Monopoly Deal, dropped off a car at work for Alyx to get home ... and hit the hay. Days with much accomplished just feel so good!

In the middle of my cleaning, while dinner was baking, the phone rang. I hear Jari say, "she's not available" and then he's handing me the phone. Silly me. I tried to win a free pair of Ugg boots off FB that I've been coveting. In trying to do that, I registred for umpteen million things. Now I have coffee coming from Gevalia, books coming from Doubleday ... and I managed to win something from Baby To Be. Babies must have been the order of the day yesterday ... and I'm so looking forward to a free subscription of Baby Talk magazine among other things. What a hoot. :)

Now we are on to Sunday. We have a houseful of folks coming over this afternoon. Time to hit the grocery store and see what we can manage. Big pot of salmon chowder is on the menu ... and I found some brats and dogs in the freezer as well. Should be fun!

Game days and evenings

We have probably played more games this winter than any other that I can recall. We received quite a few of them for Christmas and have had a lot of fun with them.

Our newest addiction is Monopoly Deal. Buy it in the game section at Target, or anywhere else, and it'll be almost the best ever spent $5.89. Being as I haven't been outside snapping pictures, have been too busy doing other things to be capturing crafting pictures, figures I'd share a few of game evenings.

Okay, well maybe I was just snapping a few of the boys last night. One needs a haircut in the worst way ... the other finally has some! Everything else has been neglected around here, but the game has been fun.

Wednesday evening we had a slight stove pipe problem. All of a sudden there was smoke coming into the house from the wood stove pipe. Hmmm. Jari climbed up there yesterday and cleaned it out. Sounded like it looked like the ingredients for a rip roaring chimney fire. The learning curve continues. Ought to be circling the entire earth before long!

Friday morning once again. Work today and then Home Services this evening. Baby shower tomorrow, a fun group for late lunch/early dinner on Sunday with a photo shoot of sorts. Looking forward to a few moments of puttering around here over the weekend. Maybe clean a nook or two. Maybe even, hopefully, make it to the library so I can enjoy an audio book while doing a bit of scouring. Maybe I'll manage to get outside for a bit!

Visits in the middle of the night

First of all, let me preface this by saying that we probably shouldn't have cordless phones in the house. They end up everywhere. Lost most of the time. There are 4 of them that seem to wander around and occasionally make it to the charger. Last night one of them was on the bed with Miss Tia. She must have pushed some of the buttons. I wonder how one presses them in the correct order to get this kind of response.

Jari woke to hearing the buzzer go off. We have a visitor detection device outside. Tells us when someone is coming up the driveway because we can't see it easily from where our windows are. You really have to go and look ... usually out the front door if you really want to know. Anyway, the buzzer sound was followed by a long low growl from downstairs. The growl he recognized as being attached to this guy.

He may be so big that folks think he can't move, but the meter reader knows he can. So do we. Jari went to look out the front door and saw two guys walking up to the house. Good thing Jari saw them before he did. I woke to Jari calling me to come out and bring his wallet with me. From a dead sleep it takes a minute or two to realize that the State Troopers are standing in your entry way at 12:37 a.m. Apparently, sleeping child must have hit the 911 buttons on the phone. They called back and she said she had made a mistake in dialing, but they came to check anyway. All other bodies accounted for at that hour. No signs of distress anywhere. And a nice compliment (at least I consider it that!) from law enforcement who said "you are really hidden back here". They had walked up the driveway. Yup, that's the way I like things. I was really wondering what would have happened if Jari had not heard Duke and if he would have had access to his doggy door last night. The outcome would not have been good.

Not half an hour later, Anna bursts into the room saying that someone was in the kitchen making a sandwich. She thought it was Blayde, spoke to him, got no response. By the time Jari got there, the apparition was gone. Crazy or not, we are firm believers in ghosts. I really should have gotten out of bed, grabbed the camera and headed for the kitchen. Maybe I could have gotten a picture of something other worldly.  Denise, I hope you didn't pack your "friend" in my luggage when I left. This might get sort of interesting. Makes for great photography attempts!

Being as one couldn't sleep anyway, I may as well have the other problem of late. I need to do a serious vacuuming. Oreo really likes Jari ... she's much more partial to him than I. However, her dander is not my friend. I finally relented when Tia wanted the kitten the other summer, saying she must stay outside. In she came ... she was much too cute. Now that she thinks that the greatest place to hide is under my bed ... breathing is sometimes becoming challenging. Monday morning I got up feeling like I had extra swollen tissue around my eyes. For about the last 2 weeks it has been getting challenging for me to take nice deep breaths. Now what!!?! At least hubby has developed a good case of insomnia. If I quit breathing ... let's hope he notices.

Home from a fun 24 hours

at Mother's Camp. Didn't leave 'til noon on Saturday and left camp by noon today. The camera was a bit lazy, but company certainly wasn't. Maybe this one herself was. I digested a few magazines, relaxed in the hot tub, participated in a good discussion, ate lots of yummy food ... and enjoyed very pleasant company!

Alyeska Ski Resort out our window.

We were missing 2 ladies ... not bad! 24 of us made it. 9 babies. 9 expectant mothers. No births over the weekend. (That was a VERY good thing!)

Frost

the world is covered with white crystals of frost ... and by the time I got home to get a camera it would have been too dark to head out to take pictures. I have some beautiful ones

somewhere or another. I just don't know where at the moment.

Life is about learning, isn't it? Then there is the learning where you don't dare ask a question because it sounds ridiculous to ask. Why does that feeling never end? Do you know that this frost has a name? When someone first called it what it is, I couldn't imagine how it was spelled and the name just conjured up the wrong spelling. I had to come home and google the word to find out what it was. And learn I did. According to Wikipedia ...  Radiation frost (also called hoar frost or hoarfrost) refers to the white ice crystals, loosely deposited on the ground or exposed objects, that form on cold clear nights when heat losses into the open skies cause objects to become colder than the surrounding air.

Seriously, our world is beautiful at the moment. Covered with the beautiful frost. At least it was earlier. Now the wind is blowing. Temp was up at about 30 degrees yesterday, down to 5 this morning, up to 28 again today ... and the wind started blowing. Will see what it looks like tomorrow!