DiamaHippopatamus

"If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders." ~Abigail Van Buren

2012-01-23T14:49:00.000-06:00

okay, first the quote for this post totally random, first one i read today, so I'm going with it...

(hippo watching butter soften in the sun)

Random list

Taste of Texas coffee... thank you Lola Savannah, as long as i remain in Texas, you have one loyal customer
it's cold here, why is it on average 10 degrees cooler than houston? and only during winter?? We had the SAME HOT DRY weather all summer... come on! Today, it's 20 degrees cooler
speaking of cold - our bed needs another layer, done! MUCH better!
emails from PEOPLE, not ads, and letters, packages of any sort, even if just a potty trainer seat, makes my day
it's really fun to have a yard! love it!
the bubbles from an aunt and uncle in Chicago are way cool.. the dogs two doors down even enjoyed them - yes they flew that far

I'm a HUGE closet fan of Taylor Swift - there i said it. Love her music, LOVE singing with her, I'm a sing along kinda gal. did i mention i found her old x-mas album on clearance at target this year, Score!
cant get over this awesome Uff da mug that my in-laws gifted me for Christmas, it ROCKS! I just cant stop wondering why someone would ever put it in the goodwill pile? why? seriously questioning someone's taste here...
making another mobile.. if you wish to help, i need the bottoms of soda pop bottles, any size, just those little bumpies on the bottem, please and thank you
what was i thinking - mobiles out of soda bottle parts - we dont drink soda (so far i have two, hoping to raid a recycle bin soon otherwise this could be a few years in progress.)
finishing up the chairs! DONE!
i'm missing the smell of our Christmas tree
told Penny that the tree was going to be made into mulch, and she said, oh, so i'll see it at the playground! ha
countdowns rock
so close to being done with curtains
love that penny insisted on wearing safety glasses while 'sawing' the tree

Winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained about the heat. ~Author Unknown

2012-01-21T08:52:00.002-06:00

Houston, currently 70*

Fort Worth, currently 34*

That's really all I have to say right now. Especailly since yesterday was 68*

However... It's not -7* as it is where JD was this week, and my dear friend LIVES! stay warm!

"If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it." ~Mary Engelbreit

2011-08-25T11:25:00.006-05:00

Okay, I've finished up some things, and am halfway through some others.

sorry for the low quality pictures, but i figured i should post it know while in my head then take more photos and forget to post it later...

working on the chairs i got at a yard sale, here's the finished seat. fabric was a cheap-o 50cent find at an estate sale (and i got atleast 4 yards of it!), and then used iron-on vinyl so i would be able to wipe them down. I had to order more vinyl, but should arrive today and once the tacks come in the mail, the chairs will be close to done
finished plying this yarn before we left Houston. This fiber drove me crazy! It was a soy silk sample I got at the Handweavers Guild in Houston and was so glad to get it OFF my spindle!!! What a mess is was, static made this stuff hard to work with, and them with the humidity in Houston, it was just s bear. Plus - I'm still a beginner - note to self, stick with the easy stuff girl! (I did just score this book, at the border's clearance sale!) I still have to wash and set this yarn and then we can have a better look at it. Worst part is I'm have no plans for it, and there's such a small amount (wonder why...) any takers want it?

the quilt block is finished and shipped to the craft museum! Hope the project finishes up nicely. It was quite the project. I will not jump into stitching on this scale any time fast. It was hard on the hands, but i loved the portability of the project. It did make me learn that it didn't take as much time as i thought and i loved the different textures i could render with a varity of stitches. Next time the thought crosses my mind to stitch a fun something around a hem or neckline, I will not dismiss it as fast as i would have before

(note: could not figure out WHY that picture is posting on its side, and so that's what it is. I did post a picture of the back (which posted fine?!?!) cause if you're like me you you always want to see it!)

Ordered a CURVED needle for the braided rug! So before we moved, i tried and tried and tried to sew those braids together on my machine. NO LUCK! It was awful. the thought of doing it all by hand made my fingers ache. But, slow and steady is okay, and i have the time and it's nice to work on while the girls play, or while watching a movie. But I need the right tools, so no progress on that one until they show up!

other projects that come to mind are still of the move in sort. Rearranging the kitchen, putting up shelving, things of that nature. Very fun!
Cleaning up our yard! No more bees, um hornets, no more hanging dead branches to walk under - time to rip out all those crazy looking vines! oh wait, it's still 107 out there and the grass in the back yard is dead enough to hurt your feet... I'll give this one some time until it cools down. Though I had the urge to rip at it last night (yes, it's driving me that crazy!) at 8pm, and it was still 103 outside, but the 15 minutes i spent ripping was rewarding and i came in and was wet with sweat, but that's a nice feeling too, sometimes :)
projects in my head are repainting the one frame i have (for the THIRD time), displaying some of our old family buttons, and making curtains, dreaming of weaving rugs, and finally getting a bed frame.
what are you working on?

"Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes." ~Author Unknown

2011-08-18T10:20:00.003-05:00

i'm not even going to think about the last time i posted... it seems like ages ago. so a fresh start.

changes and happenings:

we moved!
bought our first house
drove to the east coast and back
replaced the air conditioner in the car
still missing all of June's mail
someone around here turned 3!!!
plenty of unpacking
resorting and moving piles, but only a few boxes left
hot hot hot hot hot HOT HOT HOT HOT weather... today's high: 107
went to the beach :)
finished the quilt block and shipped it off
had special time with FAMILY!
ate some very very tasty peaches this summer
broke my french press, so sad! (good thing i had a one cup press for back up! and a drip brewer too...)
bought an aeropress and am excited to try it out! (that may not be the exact name for it)
read a lot of books while at the hotel
oh yea, we lived in a hotel for 3 weeks, so fun....
wondered why i had not read Jane Eyre sooner!!! what a story! loved it *note* if you haven't read it, stop what you're doing and reserve it at the library - i mean it
missing family and friends from back home and in Houston
been raking and sweeping up lots of leaves
am excited and overwhelmed at making design choices over rugs, curtains, where pictures should go, my brain is like mush at the moment
still debating a second car purchase, the bus route is reasonably priced, but the time is not great, one hour on bus vs. 20 minutes of car and walking to building from garage, so a 40 minute difference each way
love love love skype :)
having fun recovering chairs, and enjoying the iron-on vinyl stuff to make them easy to clean
waiting for the weather to cool down so we can be outside! and clean out our new back yard... it needs HELP
Ellie has 4 new teeth, all of which popped through the gum at my parents place
i'm in extreme need of baking some biscotti! huge lack at the moment of things to dip in my coffee... and must not open the sweetzels yet! (it's too hot to enjoy their full yumminess)
laughing at the time estimate for the pictures to download onto the computer: 108 minutes!!!
pictures shall come, but not today
back to my lists...

"You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance." ~Franklin P. Jones

2011-04-05T16:13:00.003-05:00

Sitting next to Penny, writing a 'to-do' list, I ask her, "penny, what else do we need to do today?"

And this is what she said:

"oh, we need:

yogurt
telephones
bottles
dots
letters
airplanes
milk
flowers
orange juice
socks
bowls
sun (to warm up the grass, she says)
socks (i guess we really need these)
buttons
lotion
doors
blankets
hot dogs
bananas
pants
kitties

and that's all, mom"

"The person who is waiting for something to turn up might start with their shirt sleeves." ~Garth Henrichs

2011-02-12T14:37:00.005-06:00

...or start by cutting up one's shirt sleeves. About 3 more t-shirts needed to cut up and less than 15 braids to braid until they are sewn together.

"Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a crayon." ~Peter Lynch

2011-02-07T09:54:00.002-06:00

There is currently a pile of works in progress and little ideas that are overtaking our apartment. and that's okay. I'm enjoying it and not overwhelmed by mess, but glad that things are getting done.

the t-shirt rag rug is taking shape! all the t-shirts are prepped and cut, almost half way done with braiding, and i think i'll only need about 3 more t-shirts! I'm soooo excited about this rug
cutting and prepping material even though i can't move forward as i wait for some supplies in the mail, it's good knowing things will be ready to go once the package gets here
a countdown has started! Penny helped alot. she even learned how to use a hole punch, we'll hang it up this afternoon :)
making things for friend's babies and kids is super fun, and helps pass time while stuck in the house due to colds and waiting to hear news of a baby girl!!! seriously on pins and needles here, it's good to have a list to work on
penny and ellie seem to enjoy the scraps from the t-shirts more than most their toys, I'm glad that i can work on it with them playing around. penny calls the braided sections her jump ropes... i may have to put a few sections in the dryer to shrink them back up again
i sketched the other day and now misplaced my sketch book, urg
JD helped me sort out and move things around to make working on things a bit more time efficient
how many weeks of signing to ellie has decided to be effective! ellie started signing this weekend, so amazing. ellie's also working on tooth number 7 lately, hard work
keeping up with laundry, a task that is never crossed off the list, but how i love seeing an empty basket! love it
enjoying the 'work' of these birds outside. we got a bird-feeder and a few birds are starting to find it. it's been addicting to watch these birds think about coming to the feeder, i'll give them another day or so
we got our printer to work again! and that means JD's game printing is back in full swing.

i have no idea what i'll work on today during nap time or this evening, but i'm sure having fun with a handful of projects to work on here and there.

"Weekends are a bit like rainbows; they look good from a distance but disappear when you get up close to them." ~John Shirley

2011-01-23T21:11:00.002-06:00

Normally our weekends are nice and quiet. Nothing planned. Grocery shopping, finding new parks to play at, playing games, taking naps, stuff like that. However, it seems that one weekend a month ends up a bit busy. This weekend was that weekend.

a list on our weekend:

lost my voice
breakfast club, a high light of the month
hung up a 'headboard' for our bed, finally
finished cleaning our closet, again
mailed packages that were piling up
found out other friends from book club have not been reading les mis, i am not alone! (well, i didn't even try to start, but whatever)
got a really cute sweater from a friend
went to the Houston screening of Handmade Nation, thanks Nancy!!!!
rearranged some cabinets
have enough t-shirts to start my project, not quite enough to finish yet
keep girls home from activities and church and such as they have a cold, which i guess i'm now getting??
dropped off stuff at salvation army
missed both trains when dropping stuff off at salvation army
enjoyed the galleries at the Center for Contemporary Craft
went contra dancing with some very interesting people
had a funny conversation about my new hand-me-down sweater, friend: "hey, did i give you that sweater?" me: "um... did you give it to so-and-so first?" friend: "yup!" hahaha, good times, maybe we need a more regular cloths swap
cleaned up a lot
really enjoyed antidote, hadn't been there in a long time (coffee shop)
got a slight cough this morning, and voice is even worse, bummer
went through my friend's pantry that was emptied into my trunk as she's moving back over seas, anyone need a pantry full of spices?
hung a bunch of 3M hooks, gotcha love them, especially when renting
jd working on his new x-men game
trying a few of the more interesting things from my friend's pantry, with no english on them, we have yet to try the glogg
swapping out ellie's cloths for the next size up, she's growing
and a quiet Sunday evening as jd's driving youth group guys around

and that was a slice of our weekend, hope your's was great

"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity." ~Voltaire

2011-01-15T14:05:00.002-06:00

Moving to Texas is quite an experience, and one of the most unexpected surprises for myself was the food. So, here's a list of some of the foods I've tried since moving to Houston. It keep growing longer so i figured i have to stop now and just be done. *note I'm only listing foods I've enjoyed, not the ones i didn't like - who wants to re-live those?

avocados and guacamole
cilantro
hummus
tamale
tres leches cakes
fresh mango
feta cheese
fish tacos
horchata
eggs benedict
king cake
polenta
cumin
spring rolls
figs
brisket
tomatillo
crawfish
greek yogurt
meyer lemons
leeks
kale
smoked paprika
lots of different lamb (more likely due to JD, not the move to houston)
falafel
collard greens
okra
soy milk
mexican vanilla ice cream (thank you amy's ice cream!)
risotto
sushi
almond paste
many new cheeses, wines, beers, etc... how can i not living a block away from specs
fajitas
Vietnamese food!
creme fraiche
fresh ginger
swiss chard
and many, many more

"Sometimes it's more important to be human, than to have good taste." ~Brecht

2011-01-07T13:14:00.007-06:00

it has been too fun to hear penny ramble on and say such interesting things, she is just being herself - a little spunky toddler who is constantly exploring. she has explored so much our place this week, it is kinda a mess... a big one, she helps clean up most of her messes, but then there are my messes too. And in fact i have delayed the calling of our leasing office to replace the light bulb in our shower (how does one get a light bulb in there?) because my pride over my not normally spotless apartment being really not so spotless... so here's to just being human (and to taking showers in the dark) and accepting the mess this week as penelope, ellie, and i had a blast playing and learning and making messes

a random list of sorts:

hearing "you wear this one to the grocery store, this one to church, this one for the car..." as penny empties and explores my underwear drawer, which she again emptied this morning in to a hello kitty bag at the end of our bed
my little day planner FINALLY showed up in the mail yesterday - WHOOHOO!
i started making coffee today but never got to it, here's to the second time around, i'm currently awaiting the sound of the whistle on the stove
for dinner last night we made this for these, and they were awesome :) I mean it looked like the picture, words can not describe my joy when something i cooked looked as it was meant to (from the everyday food 'great food fast' book which is just my level, simple, easy and a pictures for every recipe, us visual folks need that motivation)
to top things off jd loved dinner last night and there are no leftovers
having the windows and door open in January is both odd and nice at the same time
i was dreading this week as jd went back to work, but it has been a really good week. nice weather, lots of time outside everyday, yummy dinners, morning naps during sesame street, ellie walking much better (less falling), and only one outing the whole week, needless to say - we are still very much looking forward to having jd home for the weekend.
the three minute walk to get the mail can easily turn into at least 20 minutes (or longer) if penny walks and takes her cart or play stroller. she checks out everything, a good activity to do before dinner prep and the wait to dada to come home, oh fresh air is so good for little (and big) lungs and minds
okay water's ready for coffee, 4 minutes and counting
you know you live in a city when at the playground there are three homeless guys sitting on a bench passing a joint back and forth talking about how to fix the bike they just found
our paperwhite just bloomed, and to penelope's disappointment the flowers are white, not pink, we tried to warn her
our knives need to be sharpened

oh coffee! you are so good
it's really not worth it to go to another grocery store for your big trips if you don't 'know' the store. too much time wasted. at least in my opinion. other stores are fun for quick little 'milk runs' but not for the big ones. there are too many grocery stores here are all fun in there own little ways
mary from our little people nativity set has been missing for two days, penny has been hunting very seriously for her, will she ever show up???
ellie is turning into a climber like her sister. she's climbed up onto my plastic fabric storage bin, the little set of chairs we have, our bed, and she even pulled herself up on the first rungs of a ladder at the park yesterday! penny is climbing to new heights daily. we've enjoyed some different playgrounds that allow this safely. she even helped a boy 2 times the size of her (a three or four year old) go up the climbing wall, after putting her graham cracker in her mouth - quite the sight. she's also got caught scaling our book case this week, oh what will she be into next, wait i don't want to know
i'm really looking forward to the summer plans we have with jd's family, and i'm also dreadfully in need of a countdown

dinner prep is much fun when panned ahead with something for penny to do, this also requires ten minutes of clean up after dinner
it kinda feels like fall here, leaves are falling, over a few weeks, not just two days - weird
coffee is finished, time to move on...

"I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's." ~Henry Moore

2011-01-04T13:55:00.002-06:00

to be honest, i haven't made a new years resolution since grade school when it was part of an assignment, thus required. however, i was thinking of possible ones to make and here's what i can up with:

clear the dining room table EVERY NIGHT before going to bed (i can hear jd laughing now)
watch (be aware) of my posture, especially while sewing and working on little projects
donate my hair to locks of love again (this i can do soon)
use the fabric i have before getting more
drink more water
play guitar some more, haven't done that in a long time and miss it
be a more helpful wife/mom in the morning
learn how to do something with my hair
NOT to talk myself into trying to learn how to knit or crotchet, again
to sketch regularly - i think this is my favorite
to continue to be OK with the fact that i haven't woven a thing since the week before penny was born... i miss it, but an looking forward to weaving sooo much - some day
to keep up with my summer experiment of timing tasks, in hopes of continuing to motivate myself with daily cleaning, dinner prep, etc
try reading more non-fiction, maybe...

so i might pick a few, or not. maybe they'll just be some goals. any resolutions you've made and STUCK too??

"...the joy of getting your desk clean, and knowing that all your letters are answered, and you can see the wood on it again." ~Lady Bird Johnson

2010-12-18T13:41:00.004-06:00

Well they're off my desk (or table) and in the mail!
I enjoyed seeing how many states Christmas greetings will go...

Illinois
Indiana
Maryland
Minnesota
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Texas
Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin

fun fun :)

"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think." ~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

2010-12-16T14:30:00.001-06:00

a mental list of things i've been pondering for over the past few weeks

to vacuum out the car
write a thank you card or three
mend my two t-shirts
i do not wan to read les miserable for book club, just not feeling it
must pay library fine...
clear off the dresser, again
ellie, stop trying to walk
on second thought, just walk allready, so you don't get upset
the weather has been super nice, though not holiday-ish
how i love christmas lights!!!!!!!!!!!
i'm not going to read les mis for book club, i'm going to netflix the movie, if i even go to the discussion next month....
to put away penny's little potty, she doesn't even want to use it anymore, just wants the big potty (even though she can't climb up on it herself...)
don't buy the fabric, even on sale, i know it's beautiful but you have too much right now, urg
must sew some more to empty fabric bin and get some super cute on sale fabric
having visitors the past month was awesome, but we're looking forward to the quiet Christmas and just relaxing as a family unit
i hope pandora hours don't expire before christmas...
have you seen how long les mis is?? it's 1232 pages long!!!
really, ellie's going to be 9 months old this month!!! crazy
can't the milk distributors agree to make all the types of the milk have that same colored caps?? I mean can't all whole milk have red lids and 1% have blue and so on... I'm confused everytime i get milk - haha, yes i look for colors and labels, I don;t actually READ the labels... so sad but oh so true

"Everybody should believe in something. I believe I'll have another coffee." ~Author Unknown

2010-12-16T14:13:00.001-06:00

okay finally getting some much needed coffee and finally writing this post i started forever ago...

so i've been toying with the idea of the whole blogging thing... do i continue, do i not???

weel i think i'll keep it around for a bit, but have a more constant format of just lists. I seem to write a lot of them, and it's more enjoyable to me than writing full paragraphs, i mean i did go to school for drawing and weaving, my writing skills are not to desired.....

that's all for now, lists and a photo, i think that's how it'll roll, see how it works

"I have my own little world, but it's okay - they know me here." ~Author Unknown

2010-10-26T14:08:00.007-05:00

Some things i never thought i'd think... and yet i have.

we went swimming in October
cool is 75 degrees, when the air conditioning is on 78, it feels cold
to make knee pads out of swiffers cloths and have ellie crawl around the kitchen
to make sure you run the water fountain at the park before taking a drink, as the water that first comes out is SCALDING HOT! yes, even at the end of October
i need a break from shopping on ebay...
mealing planning is awesome and has saved our dinner time
i have too much fabric
play pens are awesome!
wow, i have too many countdowns! so cool!
being excited about staying home for Christmas, even though we'll miss everyone
i love mail, oh wait i knew that...
knitting and crocheting are just not for me... I've finally decided to just leave it alone
my pants are all dead... really. I have one pair that fit and they now have a hole, whoohoo...
no skirts when teaching Sunday school
cooking dinner can be enjoyable, imagine that
that i'm very encouraged and motivated to get other things done when our apartment is tidy than when messy
houston can had nice soft grass? how can this be!
how can the landscaping crew be at our windows cleaning/trimming/etc exactly at naptime, every time, every week, it's amazing... just wait 20 minutes guys, that's all i need
wow, i've had a 4H highlighter from 6th grade and it still works
why are there no sippy cups that are stackable? I'm tired of them taking up so much room
there's no room for ice creme in the freezer
can't target be within walking distance?
I never seem to be done writing thank you notes, which is okay
how on earth do i get groceries in the house with two girls and the car's parked in the parking garage - oh, don't go grocery shopping with the girls! duh.
the dresser never stays clear... not even for 48 hours, I'll never earn my orchid
getting a new bright colored washcloth made dish-washing more enjoyable
i need a nap too, haha, wait! I've thought that too many times before

"You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it." ~Charles Buxton

2010-10-10T21:36:00.005-05:00

Wow, i like that quote. How true, to make time - it's been the theme of my summer, going over how i do things and the time involved. I'm hoping that it will result in better use of time. It's quite convicting to 'time' one's self at tasks. Um, so I didn't have time to get such and such done but I did have all that time to search for that awesome pair of shoes on ebay... talk about highlighting where my priorities are, it's reminded me about what people say about checkbooks. As in if you want to know what's important to someone, find out what they spend money on - or something like that.

Anyway, I started this post to try to get some videos off my camera that I mentioned to some people and I need to keep my end of the bargain. So here goes a try! hope you enjoy. (ps they're taken with the cell phone, so LOW LOW LOW (I repeat "LOW") quality.)

(the weird clicking noise if JD snapping... loudly)

Here's the link to the vimeo site with ONE whole video on it, but that's okay! The cell phone ones are too small, so that why they're here. funfun.

okay, i have no idea why there's no sound - any help out there?

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." ~Ansel Adams

2010-10-03T21:36:00.006-05:00

Penelope: the photographer

"Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower." ~Hans Christian Anderson

2010-10-01T13:41:00.003-05:00

This morning Penelope and I planted some flowers. It is good to have some color in our little pots outside. And the weather has been so lovely this week, it was asking for time spent outdoors. Above is a random picture of some sedum - i love it and we planted a few different ones. So that's what we've been doing, spending some good time outside, letting the air inside and wake up you lungs - enough of this air conditioner air - ick...

Ellie's a full blown crawler, going everywhere. Under tables, around chairs, climbing the gate at the door, even Penny's enjoyed it - proclaiming "Ellie crawling!" It's quite the treat to see.

The newest countdown is for my sister to visit - only 33 more days! :) we can not wait!!! just had to share!

So i haven't been on here awhile and I'll tell you why. I tried a few silly and interesting things this summer in order to get back into the swing of things after Ellie was born. I realized i was putting things off because i thought i didn't have time. Fact was i wasn't using my time very well. So, i started timing myself at different tasks, learning that in fact i do have time to empty and load the dishwasher, start a load of laundry, prep something for dinner, quick clean up the floor - those types of things. It's been an interesting journey and i'm glad i've been doing it.

However, learning all this about myself made me rethink some other things too. Like, time i spend on the computer, watching any tv, and so forth. So computer time is limited, hard to do but good. and I used to watch a cooking show while nursing Ellie to sleep for her nap and realized if i didn't turn it off right away, i'd leave it on most the afternoon and get half the stuff done i needed to. So i've cut that out too. It's left me with more time to get the necessary stuff done, like wash the dishes in the sink, but also the fun stuff too - like extra time to read that next chapter in the novel I've got going, or write another letter, finish bible study or work on some sewing projects. So we're trying to figure it all out. To make new habits and work them out in our little family unit.

That being said, both the dryer and dishwasher have finished their tasks. Both girls are sleeping and I'm secretly hoping JD will call and come home from work early... not likely, but I can hope anyway!

"We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting laundry." ~E.B.White

2010-07-18T20:25:00.004-05:00

"Okay, time to learn about playing with laundry, I've already put on your rag hat, but you'll need to do it yourself someday"

"Flatten the rag out and hold it like so"

"Place in on your head for a nice hat"

"Is this right?"

Penelope sure does love her laundry.

“And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days." ~James Russell Lowell

2010-06-04T22:19:00.011-05:00

June is here, and here's what has been happening thus far...

beautiful evenings, sitting outside and swimming

sewing and FINISHING projects

a new COUNTDOWN has begun for the MN trip! (picture coming soon)
I can listen to Pandora again after expiring my hours in May...

we have no doctor's appointments for the whole month, and we hope to keep it that way!

the boxes that have been crowding the dinning room chairs, FINALLY got mailed

we have caught up on uploading and printing photos, which hadn't been done since last summer

at target, for 5 bucks was a plastic bag of mystery fabric that was super cute, I took a gamble and got it thinking i could reuse the fabric, and it was a spotless Dwell Studio crib skirt that matched our green crib perfectly!!! Is it not the cutest!

Penny is still doing really good in her underwear and takes all her naps in her new bed

I finished the baby carrier I've been thinking about since way before Ellie was born, Penny loves it! and so do I! these are awful pictures, but you get the idea...

I get to take an art class this weekend that I'm super looking forward to

Ellie is doing new things daily and becoming cuter by the day!

wow... a lot has happened in 4 days, wonder what will happen next week...

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." ~Bill Cosby

2010-06-02T14:22:00.003-05:00

So, we're trying the video thing again... and we'll see if it works. Otherwise I might just try to upload on you tube or something like that.

We've been busy and not busy, if that makes sense. Busy here at home, changing diapers, playing, nursing, cleaning up messes, and well, you get the idea. We've not had many trips out which is okay. Plus, it's quite hot already. Penny will not even go down the slide or use parts of the playground, because they are hot! She passionately blows on them to cool them down, but this doesn't help.

Okay, cutting this short... more pictures/update later. I'm curious if this worked!

"Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order." ~Samuel Beckett

2010-05-26T20:43:00.004-05:00

wow... failed attempted at posting video... after 5 tries, I need to figure something else out...

"Beginning is easy - continuing is hard." ~Japanese Proverb

2010-04-05T14:10:00.003-05:00

so much newness!!!

New little Ellie is here and is a pure delight! Penelope is a new big sister - doing well, after she learned her blankets were not in question. New sight! I finally have new glasses and am still getting used to them - it's taking awhile. New home? looking around for a new place to stay, our lease is up soon and we had to give a notice to move out of where we are now. and new spring! flowers (and pollen) are everywhere in Houston.

well, i don't have much time to type - so I'll just leave you with some pictures, which will be what you're interested in anyway... :)

"Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces." ~ Judith Viorst

2010-02-24T10:40:00.005-06:00

Penny has had her first chocolate - and enjoyed it terribly.

And no, not from a grandparent, not from an aunt or uncle, not from her mom or dad, or any close friend - no, she got it fun Una's nanny at the playground on Monday! hahaa.. It was quite funny. I love these nannies on the playground, not one I know speaks English. We rarely hear English on the playground. (It's not even Spanish, I'm not sure what they all speak!) They bring their 'children' to the park and share their abundant snack pile with most the kids, including bananas that one kid just bite off and offering to the next kid. Thankfully Penny refuses the banana, I think she knows they might have pretzels - or better yet, little chocolate covered pretzels!!! But such is life, I'm glad we got out in the sun, and I'm glad that the kids can play together despite not knowing what the other is saying, heck, I'm not even sure what Penny is saying most of the time.

I changed the blog colors a bit. I'm not sure if it's the overwhelming need I have at the moment to get new glasses, or what. But it was nicer to read things dark on a light color. Maybe because I've been reading books a bit more.

The book for the Forth Friday Fictionistas (new book club), is amazing! Not ever being part of a real book club, I was really excited - and nervous at the same time. I love to read. However, I wasn't sure if I would be able to 'keep up' or even understand the type of reading we might do, it possibly being over my head? These are VERY SMART women... they know literature and can toss names and such about quickly, they are also very careful to include the group, for which i am thankful. I had to laugh when I started reading "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society." And I should have know better.. the lady who started the group and selected the book is very witty, the book is about a book club and it's highly unlikely members. It has been a incredible read thus far, I'm truly enjoying it. Here's the link to the book and a little blurb from one of its authors. If you read it or have read it - let me know!

Other exciting news?? A sewing machine came to me IN THE MAIL last week! I am so totally excited! I can make buttonholes, zigzag, stitch knits to my hearts content - all in my pajamas if I desire. My parents said the deal was too good to pass up at the sewing shop and knew i would use it, and believe me, I will. My 'little machine that can' is great, and i still love it, but with no stitch options, things get hard to finish. The machine was accompanied with little goodies, including homemade cookies decorated as conversation hearts, saying things like: "JD loves Sarah," "Cute Penny," and our favorite, "Skype me!" and please do, skype us! (as long as it's not during Sunday afternoon naps, that is.)

"Bloom where you are planted" ~Grannyism #49

2010-02-12T11:30:00.001-06:00

(For those not familiar with Grannyisms, they're found on the lids of my favorite Sweet Leaf Ice Tea bottles - yummy!)

We're 'planted' in Houston. It's currently chilly and rainy. Up back home it's snowy and cold. After watching some news on the "February Fury" it saddened me to look outside and not see any snow. Commenting to a friend about missing snow days, she suggested that we have one anyway, and so I tried.

Penny and I had been invited out to a playgroup, but JD needed the car - so perfect snow day excuses. I did have to make one quick trip to the grocery store as we were planning on making a meal for a fellow church member on long term bed rest. We would walk I had decided Wednesday evening.

It started raining Thursday morning, and didn't stop until late late last night. JD didn't need the car until close to lunch time and missed the rain on his walk to work by minutes. It appeared as though it would rain all day - which it did - so after breakfast, we suited up to get the few groceries we needed. At this point I should add, living downtown has advantages, we can walk through the apartment buildings to the parking garages and stay dry, AND we can park in the garage under the grocery store and take an elevator and stay dry!

We managed TWO more trips out! So much for a complete 'snow day.' I didn't mind the trips, they were both to get JD back to work dry after using the car, and to pick him up. But it just mentally was exhausting and I was bummed not to spend the day indoors and not cramped for time. I had yet to make our dinner, start prepping the meal for tomorrow, and Penny was having a hard time going down for her nap. A bit discouraged was I.

But things improve. God is good and works in many ways.

Even though we trekked out in the rain a bunch, it was nice to see JD for those little bits

the lady on bed rest, whom I was to take a meal to - went into labor yesterday afternoon, so I no longer had to stress about getting it finished for today

JD was able to easily request new insurance cards after Penny pulled them from my wallet and I hid them and now can't find them ANYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!! (of course, they'll show up after we get the new ones)

my dear friend that suggested the snow day had a true snow day and didn't leave the house - this encouraged me greatly

we are almost completely over colds!!!!!!
In the laundry room, I dropped the gallon on distilled water for my iron. It landed in the washer (the lid was open?!) and emptied it's self there where i had no worries over cleaning it up!

I still made something chocolately (the lady one bed rest listed her favorite food on the 'details' page of the calender, I've never seen anyone list a favorite before - it was chocolate cake, so I had things ready to make her - I made them anyway!)

Penny was up early from nap and I was in the middle of prepping dinner. I stressed over getting it done!!! To my amazement, she played with Popsicle molds and nibbled on some cheese crackers for the whole half hour under my feet - I was in shock! We put dinner in the oven, picked up JD and had a nice hot favorite childhood dinner of mine when we returned! :)

Long story even longer... we didn't really have a snow day. I'm hoping to have more of one today. I'll leave you with a picture of the chocolate something I made. A new recipe for Rocky Road Brownies. Simple and nice - super rich though. I'm thinking of giving most to the maintenance crew here (as they come to look at our dryer...). I'm not sure what I was thinking... JD and I have a lovely date night planned for tomorrow, a part of which includes taking JD to the Chocolate Bar in Rice Village!

"If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it." ~Andy Rooney

2010-02-12T11:15:00.005-06:00

I've been meaning to post a few pictures for some time now - here's some!

the center piece I constructed for the women's dinner at church, a friend and I co-hosted the table (provided plates, linens, and such). My friend made the napkins and ornaments on the plates. hard to get a good picture of...

Penny discovering the piano! With the antlers on, we like those antlers, lets us know where on earth she is.

First time playing in the snow, not too sure what to think at first, tried to eat it - way too cold.

we went through paper work in the file drawer, one paper bag of paper equals 5 paper bags of shredder paper, if you needed to know.

The newest 'hat.'

Drinking yogurt, life just keeps getting better.

Having a sick day, battling colds since the return of our trip from PA. We had a few afternoons of resting on the couch watching some Arthur on PBS.

"There is nothing sillier than a silly laugh." ~Catullus

2009-12-07T11:10:00.002-06:00

Penny wants to feed herself, with a passion. She also likes patting her head during dinner, this normally results in a quick washcloth shampoo before she's 'released' from her chair to play. We think she likes the mohawk!

“The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event” ~unknown

2009-12-04T11:12:00.006-06:00

Well, snow fall is sure magical down here - especially when a week ago, it was 70 degrees outside! But as I write there are corn flake sized snowflakes falling!!! quite fun

(hunting for tree in our 'forest' aka Ikea)

So we got a Christmas tree! And got quite the deal again. Ikea had their 20 dollar tree sale, so we went the first night and picked one up and borrowed a tree stand from some traveling friends. We got to decorate it last night and I'm totally loving it!

But the one thing we are amazed with is the beautiful shape. We both commented on it when we unbound it once in the stand. (the past two years we've bought the trees without knowing their shape, so we could put them in the car!) so I searched for pictures of the tree last year, and JD's first comment was "I don't remember it being so ugly!" Haha! I don't think we thought it was ugly last year, we loved it as it was a cheap nice smelling tree. But wow, compared to this year's it's quite shaggy looking.

(last year's tree)

Penny has too enjoyed the tree, petting it and kissing the hanging 'kid-safe' ornaments at her level. She's only pulled at some garland once, so we'll work on that.

*snow update* it's now sticking to the grass!!! when penny wakes up we might have to explore after lunch!!!

and I'll leave you with some Houston snow fact - just for fun!!

Snow in Houston Since 1895

33 total snowfalls (not including today)

some details on the last 4 snowfalls in December in Houston:

Dec. 10, 2008 (a dusting if you could call it that)

Dec. 24, 2004 (a rather good snow, the kids I babysat/taught talked about it often!)

Dec. 17, 1996

Dec. 22, 1989

enjoy your weekend, we're going to enjoy a nice quite cool weekend in.

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." ~John Ruskin

2009-12-01T10:46:00.005-06:00

It got chilly here in Houston! Our heat kicked on for the first time this season. Bright and early this morning, the lovely sound of the fire alarms were going off as the first firing up of the heaters produces a smokey smell. (This happens when your heater only goes off a few times a year...) It was rather nice that it went off this morning while JD was up and moving around, and not in the middle of the night. We've had it go in the middle of the night - it's scary waking up to smokey smells and fire alarms!!!

But I'm totally enjoying it! Wearing socks, sweatshirts (from MN of course), and just having it feel winter-y. It hard to get into Christmas time spirit when it's 75 outside and my flowers are still growing and blooming. So, we welcome the weather and the 20 dollar trees that Ikea is selling again! We will go Wednesday as it's first come first serve, and maybe because it's the first day, we can get a small one. oh, so excited!!!!

Thanksgiving was nice, We spent most of the long weekend in and enjoyed it. JD grilled lamb which was so very yummy, and we still have one piece of pumpkin pie to share tonight. JD finished another version of a game to try playing and I made Penny a backpack, just her size to carry her things to nursery and such. There's no Velcro or zipper, so she can put things in and out herself, I might put a small magnet closure to keep it closed when there's things in it. But I'm not sure it's even needed.

So not too much new is going on other than Christmas music being played and socks being worn. What's new with you?

"Those who wish to sing, always find a song." ~Swedish Proverb

2009-11-12T16:46:00.002-06:00

Whether or not or singing is enjoyable to others, we sing any way. We've enjoyed that Penny has started 'singing' along to things in her own little way. Today at lunch I had iTunes playing and she was bobbing her head the whole time.

So for fun, I thought I'd share a little song - from Sesame Street. We started watching 10-15 minutes of it in the mornings (especially when I was feeling ill...) and I've really enjoyed it. So has Penelope, she dances and claps along. One of the really fun things is seeing artists performing their songs with new lyrics - lyrics for Sesame Street. I've seen Nora Jones, Diana Krall, the Plain White T's, and the list goes on and on. Most recently my favorite is by Feist and her 1, 2, 3, 4 song. We have the album, but I'm wishing this version was on there too! check it out here. I'm sure you'll find other goodies also! :)

Okay, that's all I have time for - plus I have to shut the door asap - I just got about a minimum of 5 mosquito bites (and I'm not joking) do they not know it's November!!!

"There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes." ~William J. Bennett

2009-11-06T10:14:00.006-06:00

Yesterday was spent keeping up with Penny. What a mess we had - all day long. It didn't end. But that's okay. We survived. I'm not sure why some days are way worse than other, but it's a very good thing that it's not everyday. After the second mess, I had an idea this might be a sign of the afternoon and so pulled out the camera... here's some snapshots. and I wonder why there is tupperware in the closet, the remote for the dvd player is missing and why we have to keep moving things to higher ground. The scary part is how fast all these messes happen - wow.

She had fun, I got some done, and then had more to do. Notice the completely empty cabinet in the picture above, I'm surprised she wasn't sitting in it.

Mom's moccasins.

And the new skill of the day - climbing into my toy box!! However, she can't make it out just yet, I'm sure it will come soon enough.

"Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger." ~Saint Basil

2009-10-29T15:13:00.005-05:00

More and more rain. But after such serious drought in Texas this summer, it is a nice break from the hot sun - and the ground needs it I'm sure. Although today is extremely humid. I only managed to miss the rain completely once today, while walking to and from the dentist. It even down poured while I was there. Later, after lunch, we went walking to the car, and I decided to quickly turn back and get my sling and umbrella - just in case. With in moments of locking the door, the rain started pounding! So much for staying super dry. And within 5 minutes it stopped. We park at the grocery store and had I taken not even 5 steps and the rain lets loose on us! So we run, again. Fortunately it let up for us to put groceries in to the car to deliver them to a friend who just had twins. However, when leaving her house, we stepped out of the door, and the rain started yet again. The same happened on the walk into the apartment... so I took the opportunity of walking through the apartment buildings and past the leasing office - stayed dry and picked up a little chocolate they had sitting out for Halloween... I enjoyed the Reese's peanut butter cup. It's a good thing there is currently no chocolate in the house.

Well, the real reason for this post is to share with you the new countdown!! We finished making it last night. I was wanted to do something a bit different than the paper chains and a little festive for the holidays coming up - so I think it turned out well. I really like it! I'm not sure if you can notice, but there are two countdown numbers, one for when we see my side of the family, and the other for JD's side. We are so super excited!!! I truly enjoy looking forward to going home, and the daily visual countdown.

I'll leave you with some pictures of Penny since my Dad might be looking for some :)

The new trick of the week: peeking through her legs!

And enjoying her new chair that we got last week out eBay. Just her size.

"Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures." ~H. Jackson Brown, Jr

2009-10-28T15:59:00.005-05:00

We had a lovely Sunday. We got to church almost on time. Came home and had a nice german pancake with berries. Played a little and everyone took nice long naps until about 4:30! The weather here was wonderful! So we decided to look for a playground I've seen and didn't know how to get to. With some luck I'm sure, we made it - and so did everyone else! It was packed!!! The actual play ground structures had hardly any surface showing - just kids climbing everywhere, picture ants covering a dropped popsicle...

So we enjoyed the swings, walking around and keeping Penelope from taking other kid's balls and playthings. We need to bring her one of her own next time. Next we enjoyed tacos at one of our favorite taco places - yummy!! Here Penny had her first taste of horchata (a Mexican drink - basically a cinnamon rice milk) and loved it! It was still quite early, so I asked if we could drive home the long way past my favorite water fountain. JD was up for it and we head through town and were surprised at the construction progress was almost entirely complete on on of the main drags in Houston! We passed by the bookstore we used to frequent before Penelope was born and I commented on it. At the next light JD asked if I wanted to go - so we went to the bookstore! A new one though, closer to us that had just opened up. It was huge and nice, Penelope was overwhelmed with a huge rack of calenders, all pictures of dogs. we walked around for a little and Penny played in the little chairs in the kids section. We ended up finding a fun wooden xylophone for her which she loves playing with in the nursery, went home and played with it all night until bed time. It was a very nice and pleasant end to the day.

Monday was filled with 20 plus hours of rain... but that's okay i guess!

While stuck in some traffic a few minutes from home yesterday, I tried to take some pictures of one of my favorite structures in downtown. It's not too exciting, but I call it the "floating ring." It simply connects buildings, mainly the old Enron building (all mirrors) to the others building and parking garages... We hardly have any pictures of where we live, so I thought I'd share a few!

"It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do." ~Jerome K. Jerome

2009-10-08T15:55:00.002-05:00

Currently enjoying:

sweet leaf honey and mint iced tea
fresh from the oven ginger snap cookies
Penny's good and long afternoon nap, still in progress!
mail from friends!
ebay - even though I haven't won anything yet...
pandora
hair ties that last longer than 2 days
not being sick this morning
looking forward to the Bulb and Plant Mart tomorrow, even if it rains
a some-what clean kitchen
trying to pretend that it's autumn and cool outside
getting a much needed break from sewing almost everyday
runny noses going away
not doing too much today
knowing what we're going to have for dinner, even though it's insanely simple
smelling my mom's birthday gift yet to be mailed (Texas pecan coffee - no worries, she knew what she was/is getting...)
thinking about Thanksgiving, Christmas - holidays, family, friends, food and all that good stuff
just one more cookie!!! I can't stop eating them :)

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal" ~Albert Camus

2009-09-29T15:25:00.003-05:00

Life is always interesting, and always takes energy. Slowly, my energy is returning!!! And it is a huge encouragement. (Thanks for prayers!) I can almost stay awake the whole morning until Penny's nap, and have been trying very hard to keep some order to your place - especially after JD and Sol worked so hard the other week in getting everything caught up to speed.

Bible Study started a few weeks ago, for which I am thankful. I admit to not doing the daily study every day, but to doing a few days at one time, the homework is good. What I needed was a push to stay in the Word, and this is helping. God's always working, even though I often am not. Even though growth is hard, it is good.

It was wonderful to have 3 cool days in Houston last week!! I believe the first day of autumn was when the short lived cool front started. They were preceded and followed by some relaxing and much needed days of rain. Last summer was so very rainy, that I've kinda missed it. I haven't worn my wellies or wind breaker nearly as much. Granted, this has made life easier with a one year old, but the rain is still appreciated. That being said, I am grateful for the low key hurricane season thus far!!! It has been over a year since hurricane Ike, and just 2 weeks ago our street sign was fixed! The blue tarps on many homes are still seen and I'm sure families are recovering in many ways.

So, in other random thoughts, I went grocery shopping today... it was a nice quick trip. I picked up some instant coffee for some baking recipes that always call for brewed coffee. Many times it is late a night, and a quick fix is needed. I figured I'd grab some instant grounds to have on hand and make the late game night "let's make some Texas brownies" a bit easier. I figured why not try a cup and see how it is. ICK!!!! totally gross!!! Did I make this stuff wrong??? Oh man is it bad... I'm kinda nervous to put it in any baked goods now... but we'll try it at least once, I guess.

Not to much as been going on. Just hanging at home and keeping up with Penelope. She is quite the joy to have around and makes the day go by fast. It's been hard to keep up with her play - tupperware in the living room, groceries in our bedroom, her playing in our laundry and emptying dresser drawers, shoes moved into the kitchen and so on. These happen fast enough that they are just going to happen, so we try to enjoy her playfulness and curiosity while encouraging her to put things away too. The book bin is emptied every single day, and her taste for new foods is getting much better, especially for meats and cheese. JD was trilled and very amused that she ate and even asked for more Branston's Pickle Relish stuff! (yuck!) She enjoys walking with me to get the mail and running around the courtyard collecting rocks and leaves, and the occasional sitting in mud.

Life is good and I'm glad I'm starting to feel better and can enjoy it more. This coffee has got to go... I really can't believe I just took another sip.

"A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth." ~John Singer Sargent

2009-07-16T21:10:00.001-05:00

Okay, first - love that quote! I mean John Singer Sargent... he could paint, I wonder if he was being totally sarcastic...

So I've drawn many, painted a few, and photographed even less self portraits. One would think the camera deal would be an easier catch. Again I teach myself that cameras and I just don't always get along, behind OR in front of them! so much for trying to show you my little experiment this morning...

Story goes: I've been planning on sewing a least one dress this summer, just one. It hasn't happened yet, I've been parked in a slump of not creating much. After my bathrobe disaster last year (don't try sewing things to fit while pregnant, for when you're not pregnant... for some reason stuff does doesn't work out.. i wonder...). I'm trying to forget that one. so again, I'm still looking for ideas of bathrobes - lite weight cottons, blah blah blah... It may sound awful to you but when i wake up in the morning, the 80 degrees we keep our apartment at seems a wee bit chilly. I use JD's old flannel. Long sleeves in everything, do not, I repeat, DO NOT stay rolled up. Last night I'm reading a blog that I frequent and got up this morning and was ready to try it! No sewing, but totally fast. fun, and i have a few old long sleeves that I have not worm since moving. Anyway, thought i would share it with you all, and can't take a picture worth a penny. The camera also ran out of batteries and i wasn't about to make another attempt, at least not today.

Hmm, that was a longer story than I thought it would be, oops. I spent today working on my goal of finishing a dress - this included a fun trip to High Fashion down the street and pattern is cut out and ready to be made into something!! I'm only pausing to enjoy some vanilla ice cream and nutella, yum! :)

Hopefully a picture of the dress will be more descriptive than what you have today of the t-shirt-turned-cardigan, but I'm not promising anything.

"It's a sure sign of summer if the chair gets up when you do." ~Walter Winchell

2009-07-06T21:53:00.005-05:00

It is summer in Texas, this is for sure. It is a dry start to summer, there are droughts in many areas, burn bans, water bans, and all sorts of such. An interesting and slow start to the hurricane season. However the humid air and heat of Houston have made there mark and everyone is busy with staying cool.

Big news! We finally made it outside of Houston! Friends, all hailing from Pennsylvania, went on a little weekend getaway to a cabin on Lake Conroe, north of Houston. Lucky for us, the cabin had a window AC unit and keep us from roasting as the heat was in the 100's . Fun was had by all and it was nice to see a different part of Texas.

And! on yet another 102 degree day, Penny and I ventured out to Austin to visit dear friends from Minnesota. It was quite a relief to be able to say I'd seen this city, and to finally meet my friend's husband for the first time - very nice guy. So after checking out the capitol and jazz, Penny slept the entire car ride home, and i enjoyed some local Sweet Leaf Tea.

All in all, many things are happening. The main central thoughts running through my mind at the moment are all on... 16 more days until we are in Minnesota!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CAN NOT WAIT!

"One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind." ~Dorothea Lange

2009-05-28T09:45:00.008-05:00

some pictures until i have a few minutes to put thoughts into words...

“Like everyone else who makes the mistake of getting older, I begin each day with coffee and obituaries.” ~Bill Cosby

2009-04-20T10:20:00.009-05:00

Um, well, I don't start my day with the obituaries, but I do start it with coffee. This morning I filled the kettle with water, got the french press ready and filled it with cold water. What was I thinking... Hot coffee is on it's way as I write.

The weather here is back on the up swing. After a weekend full of flooding rains, the sun has come back and I'm glad for it. Other than the normal goings on, a great visit was had with my folks over Easter (and my birthday!), Penelope is now 8 months old, has her two top teeth and loves to eat bananas! (JD was very alarmed that she didn't LOVE banana the first time, he is now much relieved.)

We have been enjoying our daily walks again, weather permitting, and the flowers and allergies are in full bloom. JD surprised me with an awesome red dutch oven for my birthday that I'm super excited to put to use. SO EXCITED!! I've been looking for enameled, reasonably priced dutch ovens on craigslist, ebay, esty, and at marshalls, macys, ikea, tjmaxx... and he finds a very affordable, and beautiful RED Lodge Dutch Oven at an outdoor shop! Would have never thought to look there, but it makes sense - cast iron and camping... so exciting - JD did good. (But he always does!) He's also encouraged my cooking habits and the meal plan. Okay, so he still ends up making (I mean rescuing) one meal a week, but it's been going well. Also this week he has been super helpful as Penelope is finally, FINALLY taking a bottle much better! However, feeding a bottle to the girl who is only still while sleeping is quite the task. What a wiggle worm we have, it is unreal and exhausting at times. She scoots everywhere and is so close to actual tummy off the ground crawling. She is a very happy little gal and plays really well on the floor. She especially enjoyed the dutch oven box, JD knows both his girls well! She knows how to push the box forward and walk to it, it's her little 'walker.'

Yum, hot coffee is so worth the wait!

"Lost time is never found again." ~Benjamin Franklin

2009-04-06T12:04:00.006-05:00

Wow. I've wasted time... I mean we all have, but I've wasted time looking for things. A very nice weaving shuttle disappeared from me over a year ago. I have looked up and down our apartment over and over and over looking for it, many times (our place is not that big). Talk about frustrating! Well... last night while looking for a piece of fabric (which i still haven't found) I found the shuttle! Talk about exciting! It was the centerpiece at dinner last night. Our company was a little confused, but I was happy to share the fact that it has returned!

Also found this week was my trusty bone folder (for bookbinding/paper folding/origami), a pattern piece (this wasn't really lost, it just blended in with the mess for a day or two), fun and beautiful fabric at IKEA, dress patterns, a lamp for over the computer, and Daim coffee (thanks you Grandpa D!)!!

Speaking of finding things, serious fun has been had by finding dollar coins around the apartment hid by my father in law. Really, who doesn't smile when you are putting away dishes and happen upon a dollar in the silverware drawer! So yup, JD's folks were down visiting us, um I mean visiting Penny, and good times were had by all. The weather was a bit cooler and grayer than normal for this time of year but that's okay. We of course sampled some of Houston's diverse food venues, played many games, made more felt food, and simply enjoyed each others company. Penny took to her grandfolks quite well, and smiles were a plenty. New happenings include Penny scooting across the floor while Paul and Linda were here, she uses her arms quite well, and her top two teeth are poking through her gums this week! She is a growing, quickly. I'm glad that JD's folks came down and got to play with Penelope in her environment, and we look forward to my folks coming over Easter to see her too! Visitors galore - what fun! Only 4 more days until my folks arrive, and Good Friday, and my birthday... hehehe

p.s. video of penelope scooting, enjoy

"Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on." ~Samuel Butler

2009-03-16T09:41:00.005-05:00

It's been a rainy week in Houston. Some things we've been learning this past week...

Lamps make a big difference in a room -thanks Sol & Jonathan!!
a few new shirts can change a whole wardrobe (and attitude), and old shirts need to just get thrown out -thanks again Sol, I needed your help
Trying to pull a baby out of a bumbo seat with bear legs in sticky Houston, is not easy work.... pants are helpful, or extra arms/hands... a sense of humor is also needed
You can get a lot done in little time, if you want too
I'm really enjoying sewing a lot!!!
Tulips are beautiful to watch grow
Mashed peas + Penelope sneezing = mess
Memorizing Bible verses is hard
Bias tape makers (folders) are super fun and helpful!
Cutting my hair super short is always like a new start, I'm glad i cut it
taxes are done and it was worth the 15 bucks to have the step-by-step on Turbo Tax
Azaleas are blooming, remember to drive the 'long way' home more often to see them all!
Coffee is still favorite

Questions and thoughts:

Why do I not go to the fabric store within walking distance more often?
it's hard to find a nice fitting bathing suit...
i LOVE books!! too many on my list...
why does Penny go down sooo great for naps and fight sleep at night?
where do i find pattern/tracing paper for sewing?
having some what of a 'dinner meal plan' has made our evenings so much less stressful, I'm surprised for some reason...
I'm so super excited for all the count downs that we have going on
why is going to the Post Office always postponed? oh - never mind, I know why.. urg
we need to see Houston, and a bit more of Texas for that matter
my coffee needs a-fillin'

"This is really the first fall that everybody's on it, ... I think there's some social pressure." ~Chris Hughes (one of the four facebook founders)

2009-03-06T09:51:00.011-06:00

So I quit facebook. Yup. It was eating my time. Enough said... I'm sure I'll miss the pictures, statuses, posts, and such, however I think I need to focus attention elsewhere. Every time I'd log on I felt pressured to post photos (which takes ages on our computer, so it never got done) and respond to every little thing. can.not.do.it.anymore. I logged on and off for the last time yesterday afternoon and I am excited.

the high today might hit 82! 82!! I mean come on people, come and visit! hehe.. no really - it's been beautiful here lately. But we do need rain. My little plants are growing big already. In other news, I have used the broiler on our oven again and no fire alarms went off!!! So cool! and the dinner was great. It even looked like the picture! Turkey meatballs with roasted peppers and a simple green salad. yum.

Penny's cutting some teeth and I think they are almost all the way through. You can see the tops of them and feel them - so sharp!!! But her naps and sleeping at night have really improved the past two days/nights, I'm hoping that this is a sign of her returning to her normal happy self! She is such a happy baby! It's really thrown me for a loop the past few days when she was a bit sad when she wouldn't sleep, she would sit there crying with, oh, all her fingers in her mouth - not to be comforted. Gladly, she'd smile for a song or dance or the best yet - her Dad holding her up high! good things.

Other than that - the latest countdown is underway! only 35 more days until my folks come!!! Which also happens to be Good Friday, and my birthday too. Looking forward to it with much energy. Enjoy your coffee and the sun, it's a beautiful day.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards" ~Soren Kierkegaard

2009-02-20T09:00:00.001-06:00

Well life sure has been moving forward. Quite quickly. I've saved quite a few drafts on here and don't end up posting them for one reason or another. So here's to a fresh start.

I really am enjoying my mornings. I'm not a morning person. People have told me many times that teaching and/or having a baby will change that. Teaching did NOT help make me a morning person, ask the students I taught. I would repeat things, read poorly, and then apologize for my lack of energy (with or without coffee). However, having a baby is slowly starting to change this. The day just goes better when I get myself up and moving with Penny, instead of letting her play next to me while i take awhile to wake up - or fall back asleep. Plus - her naps in the morning are much better this way. I look forward to making coffee, checking the weather and loving my little plants on the concrete slab outside of our apartment. First flower on the vinca appeared today! It's been warm.

Happenings here have been many! Penelope is 6 months old this week and growing. JD and I are tickled pink by her everyday. Words can't describe it - I'll leave a photo.

My brain is constantly swimming with ideas to create, sew, weave, and yes - even cook! So I've started a few of them. One of my very best of friends has challenged me to do atleast a minute of 'creative' work for every load of laundry I do. It's been good to have a balance and helps with the motivation to get stuff done. I'll soon be able to share some of it on here.. we'll see how far we get. The latest completed project would be flannel shoes for a little nephew and a felt banana! I would post photos of the banana but I already gave it away to some favorite little friends of mine. It has a removable peel and everything! Oh, and I finished stitching a felt carrot too... fun fun felt food, it has been a hit for our friend's girls - they got a play kitchen and it needs some groceries. Anyway, most of all the baby gear we have been given has come from these girls, so I'm excited to make them some play food.

Okay, well I'm going to post this. For real this time (I tell myself)...

**picture from this weekend. JD helped plant olive trees at a friend's lavender farm, we (Penny and I) tried to help too. It was so windy and was sprinkling off and on, we got a bit done... I think she enjoyed the ride**

"Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf." ~Lewis Mumford

2008-04-30T15:16:00.003-05:00

um, so less than 6 weeks ago I trimmed off about 6 large leaves that take over our little concrete slab, aka, our porch... and all ready there is a HUGE beautiful leaf! So incredible! If I didn't have so much going on at the moment, I would print it. It's perfect and I enjoy seeing it all the time. Oh, and the little plant next to it, in the lower left hand corner is the little avocado tree that was started from the pit. woohoo green things

"It is easy to be brave from a safe distance" ~Aesop

2008-04-09T11:16:00.001-05:00

I have a brave husband, for he eats what I serve... but it was quite good this time! I made a chicken and rice soup that was lovely, and SIMPLE!

So I'm not sure how to write today... so much has been happening, so here's some random thoughts

my plants are growing and flowering
my rep weave rug turned into a looped rug
in-laws visited and a great time was had by all!!!!!
the warm sun and air is wonderful
we cleaned out our closest - I realized that I had not worn many things since we moved to a warmer climate, and gave them away
re-organized the pantry so I'm not trying to throw the container of flour up over my head
cut half the strings out of the rug weaving
got some new music which I've been enjoying, including Jack Johnson's new cd
the car passed inspection
the rug weaving is now a different type of looped rug
found two awesome chairs at an estate sale and an having too much fun looking around for fabric to recover them
the rug weaving is now simply going to be woven into some lace...
I'm thoroughly enjoying the Amy Butler book, the pictures are amazing
the biscotti I made a few days ago is almost gone
we finally got a guitar tuner!!!
popcorn is very tasty
JD gave me a birthday I'll remember and love for years to come!
my parents came to visit, it was too short, but I'm glad they could make it and see were we live - and yes, my Dad noticed that I vacuumed the car, and trimmed my finger nails
I'm excited to try making another dinner this week
the lace weaving is hopefully going to change one last time to a different type of lace...
my friend's veggies are growing and I'm super excited to help weed the garden and EAT the veggies!
I just ate almost a whole pint of strawberries
I have 13 pairs of shoes, my sister bet me by 55... she loves shoes
fresh flowers are delightful
re threading a loom is a lot of work...
um, I think I'm procrastinating

“I've been a long time coming, and I'll be a long time gone. You've got your whole life to do something, and that's not very long.” ~Ani Defranco

2008-03-04T19:00:00.003-06:00

so what have we been doing...

well, not too much. I've been enjoying a clean apartment now for a week! A WHOLE WEEK! It's been lovely! JD had been away for almost 3 weeks and things got behind, a great friend came and helped me get my rear into gear and it's good! and JD's been home for a whole week now, which is wonderful, he was working, but ready to come home!

the weather here has been warm and inviting. Everything is green and many plants are blooming flowers all ready. The windows get opened and being outside is enjoyable as there are not many bugs around - yet. But then we get some cooler days in between... So I've been working on the same weaving that's been warped on my loom since the beginning of January! urg. It has not been going well. So after some thought and counsel on the project, I ended up cutting out half the strings and now it's weaving smoother than ever. I'm attempting to make a looped, or 'high pile' rug. We'll see, I've never tried this before. It takes a lot long than I thought it would... but then most of my projects do, so I'm not sure why I don't expect this?

um... what else has been happening.. oh! I made an alfredo sauce to go with chicken and tortellini tonight, and it was so good! I had some cream from a dessert I made on Friday and never use the whole little carton, so I figured to try and use it up. Well, it actually worked! It was so yummy to have nice sauce and it didn't take extra time or much effort at all. So that was a nice little end to today. That and the nice accidental nap that happened while watching good ole Arthur...

"It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them" ~Agatha Christie

2007-12-05T09:41:00.000-06:00

I love that quote, and can think about it much as we get to know more friends in Houston. as they most likely see the ridiculous side of JD and I as we are still new to the area. and JD gets to see my ridiculousness daily with all the messes and projects and such...

So we've been having fun doing all sort of things. Thanksgiving was great all though almost two weeks ago, I feel like I can talk about it since the flowers from it are still hanging on! We had a total of 7 people around our table and it was lovely! We roasted a turkey - note, it was the smallest turkey we could find - 8.5 pounds! But it was fun and it turned out lovely and such. We enjoyed eating much and then some of the guys dove into a 'short' RISK game... yup that that 'short' game only lasted a few hours. I forgot to take pictures, but no surprise there... I hope to someday remember we have a camera during events. We also been having a lot of fun working on a Habitat for Humanity house! JD's really enjoyed being outside working and I like doing the jobs that are on the ground level... it's been fun! There will hopefully be pictures through Habitat of the house we built, so I'll see if I can post them!

Other events have been low key and fun! The avocado tree needs to go into dirt asap!!!! and I'm learning to force paperwhite bulbs in water and have been amazed at the root growth! This weekend we're at our friend's lavender farm, so I'll try very hard to remember my camera... Also, a dear and lovely friend here in Texas has been baking away - She has made over 30 chocolate flourless cakes for our church's women's Christmas dinner! That's a lot of chocolate! The event is tonight and I've been attempting to help her out, so our fridge is filled to the brim.. all but one shelf, with thawing cakes and the garnish - which smells divine - is still drying in my less than tidy kitchen.

But it's been quite fun! It's rosemary twigs dipped in egg whites and run through sugar. All though it is a long a sticky job, it looks great! And it reminded me and my MN friend of snow, so the work was continued! Needless to say fun stuff is happening, even if it is sticky...

okay, so after the fourth attempt to take this picture and it still being blurry, it grew on me! and it also reminded my of Christmas and winter!!!!!!! (and anything that reminds me of winter I enjoy, as it is quite warm out)

So besides all that, my weaving is quite close to being woven... um, yea. It's on my loom and needs to be tied on and then it good. But with stuff happening and my shoulder being a bit sore from putting up siding at the Habitat house, I'm going to wait until tomorrow. and that's that.

"Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air, and you." ~Langston Hughes

2007-10-25T11:51:00.000-05:00

Wow. It's almost 'fall - like' here in Texas for the past few days. Last week and weekend it was in the mid 90's and quite humid. Then on Monday it rained like crazy and bought the heat down to a refreshing 60! It's nice! I've been enjoying hot chai tea and I've been able to wear a long sleeve shirt for 2 days now!

Yes, so I've been working off and on the past week, leaving the tactile arts slow in coming to shape. However, my little plants continue to grow with or with out my full attention, so I thought I would share my avocado experiment with you. It has been growing a full 1/2 inch for the past week. Once it reaches 7 inches, one's supposed to hack it down to about 4 or so inches to encourage more root growth before you put it into a planter. Fun stuff.

So now I'm trying the same thing with paperwhite bulbs. I'll keep you posted. And that's all. For now. I'm so close to being done threading my loom to get started but I keep playing with spinning the sample of soy silk that I acquired on Thursday... crazy stuff...

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas, I'm frightened of the old ones." ~John Cage

2007-10-10T12:32:00.000-05:00

New ideas of ways of working on things continue to flood my mind, and I think it is slowing be down quite a bit sometimes. But I'm grateful that I have time to experiment and try to merge new ideas with what I've been working on. My most recent idea is with the peas in the pod and using new ways to transfer images. I keep reading about transferring images on to fabric using a 'blender' pen or marker in these fabric surface design books from the library. (FYI, no I didn't draw these peas in a pod, but found them an old copyright free image catalog and then played with them on photoshop.)

And WHACK. This always seems to happen - I'm reading about a medium of art and techniques specific to them and instead of applying it to that medium, I go to some other realm. Example with the fabric photo transfers and the peas in the pod. I work in fibers, how cool is this, I can transfer images easily and fast on to fabric, without the bulk of iron on transfers and such. However, the ENTIRE time I'm reading about it, I'm thinking of if it will work to transfer the image onto a block of linoleum for printing. You know, it takes forever to transfer drawings in reverse onto the block and the pencil rubs off so easily, why, this would solve many problems... let the photocopier do the work, use the blender pen and then get carving! To my amazement - IT WORKS SO WELL!!! Not only did the image transfer crisp and cleanly, but it doesn't rub off, AND even after test printing and scrubbing it with soap and water, the images stays on the block, which is super helpful is reworking the plate! So here's the plate, it's been inked a few times already, so it a getting stained, but you can get a good idea of how well the image transferred. I'll post the finished print posted once I get there, the proofs, are simply that, and show were I need to rework.

Okay, I'll show a proof, so you can see what the print 'looks' like, bear with me as it is not on the best paper for this image and it also need a lot of work, but these things take time!

As you can see, it's quite rough, for a few different reasons. So as I work on this, I've been reading printing books, and translating them into the fiber world and am energized by doing so. Currently warp is being prepared for weaving and my mind is spinning with how exactly I'm to do what I'm envisioning in this project, we'll see how it goes. Until then I wait for a cone of cotton to arrive to I can get weaving!

"How beautiful leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days." ~John Burroughs

2007-10-01T13:13:00.000-05:00

So here are the prints I finally finished from the massive plant that was discussed in the last post. After printing them a light wash was painted over them to define the shape a bit better.

Again, sorry the photos are so poor. But they translate the idea okay. And best of all they occupy a blank and lonely wall that needed some type of love. Each one is 22x30 inches, and the leaf was huge! With the next group of leaves, I'm going to pound the leave on fabric to create the print, it should be interesting.

"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot; others transform a yellow spot into the sun." ~Pablo Picasso

2007-09-16T21:24:00.000-05:00

Yes! The sun was out today -the WHOLE DAY! No clouds, no crazy rain! It was great and everyone knew it! People were out and about, including us. It was a hot sun but there was a nice breeze that kept it a bit cooler. For the first time in a long while, and since I can honestly remember, when we passed the Bark Park, the 'lakes' of water and mud that all the dogs would roll in were totally dried up.

Other than that, JD's working on his game again. We went out and found some fun new dice to use. The new game board is 3-D and a bit smaller. Which is good - it makes the game go faster. His goal is to complete 3 missions in order to win points and you might need 5 points to win the game. However, the last practice game was the first time that a single mission was completed on the 'faster' version of the board, and it still took 4 hours. So he's fixing it again.

In the meantime I worked on planning some weavings and sewing ventures. I also worked on 'editing' some long sleeve shirts of mine that I will now wear! After going through one whole drawer of long sleeve shirts, I pulled the ones that I actually wore last year - a total of 4 - and the other three, I'm converting into more wearable short sleeved shirts. Fun stuff... so that's almost done. I miss colder weather - I think..

So now I'm thinking about taming the crazy plant which is overgrowing onto our little concrete slab known as our porch. Right now it's hiding the three plants that died after some workers sprayed a bee hive. The plants were covered in weird dust and piles of dead bees... ya, I'm too freaked out to deal with them yet. But I can cut back the crazy plant. I've cut about 50% of it back the last two times, and it comes back like crazy... it's the crazy bright green leaves the size of doormats. I think I might make some prints with the leaves before I throw them out. We'll see, until then another cup of coffee sounds great.

"When life gives you scraps, make quilts."

2007-09-14T14:24:00.000-05:00

It's almost done. There was about 5 or 6 fat quarter sized samples that I had dyed while taking a class at Penland, and I figured it was about time to do something with them. So I started cutting and decided it would be simply as large as it made itself. And so it is. There's nothing too fancy about it other then that it's all silk and feels super soft and cool. So I need to finish binding it and then it shall be finished!

Yup. The sun is out and beautiful. It's hot and drying out the everlasting puddles that we've been collecting down here. My few surviving plants are perking up quickly to the sun and I'm excited to see them start to flower again. The avocado pit is splitting in many places and you can see the start of a root tip emerging into the water. I'm excited to see it sprout from the top of the pit!

Math and planning for the next weaving adventure has started... I've been looking for the right material for the weft and I think that a jersey knit fabric would work well - it's going to be a rug. Well, at least I think so. The last weaving that I finished, with the indigo colors, was really fun even though I'm not sure how to use them now... ideas are welcome. There are six squares in total. The texture is really great and it was a successful experiment. Figuring out how to dye everything in the bath tub, weaving two sections at the same time, and all that jazz...

"Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it." ~Robert Motherwell

2007-09-06T19:13:00.000-05:00

I'm very excited!! PBS is airing the new season of "art:21" in October! I got this big huge poster and booklet of info yesterday, and I'm hooked - again...

The first two seasons where awesome, and no matter how many times I tried checking them out of the library in college to see them again, some faculty member ALWAYS had them... which is fine. I totally missed the third season, but the catalog and resources online are really good. Either way, it's a great introduction for people who are 'scared' or 'put off' by contemporary art. Not that you will like all of it or agree with it, but at least it will open up new lenses to look at it through.

So besides the art rush, I've been sewing, planning the new weaving, and enjoying a latte. The weather is lovely today! It's the first day with no rain in at least ten days. Which explains why on Labor Day we stayed in and for some reason I decided to try to make a quilt - which is almost done. JD's been spending HOURS on his new game. But it does look better than before. He's cutting out a lot of foam core and so most of last night all I heard was the little jeweler's saw cutting up and down, followed by the sound of his hands rubbing together, which is JD sign language means: "YESSSSSSSS!"

With the living room now scattered with foam core bits and pieces, threads strewn across the ironing board, and clothes waiting to be put in the dryer - I shall go and finish my coffee - first things first.

"And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall" ~Bob Dylan

2007-08-27T14:17:00.000-05:00

Okay, so it's been awhile. So sorry.

It raining buckets. Really. It's that heavy and intense, like buckets full, nice and loudly.

Which is good, our car needs a wash. JD got the old New Yorker running two days ago. Can you believe it? I hardly could, I had to start it myself. Right as it did, it started raining so we pulled it out of the parking garage where it was living for oh, about a month and of course, once I put it in park - it stops raining. I call these the 'teasing rains of Houston.' It will do that ALL day long. Okay, it's not raining, lets go walk to the grocery store. Shoes on, list in hand, bags all ready, and I lock the door, walk to the sidewalk, and BAM - buckets of water - everywhere...

at least it's not boring.

So we've been in PA and MN, both wonderful trips! Weather was fantastic and I was even able to get some sun. (Which of course, returning to rain... all peeled away) I've gotten one weaving finished since we've been back. We dyed the fiber for it very carefully in our bathtub. Talk about a bit challenging. I was trying to make an indigo color, with no indigo.. it's actually really close.

The finished product will be up shortly. For those of you interested, this is a 20/2 natural cotton dyed soda soak method. It worked really well, without a lot of run off dye. Hopefully I'll get an indigo pot going, and soon!

Um, other than that, the only other thing I'm working on it trying to grow a tree from an avocado pit. I hear it works really well and makes a nice little house plant. So, I'll let you know how it goes.

“She was told, if she folded 1,000 paper cranes the gods would grant her wish, she wished to get well, ...

2007-06-29T15:18:00.000-05:00

... She ended up folding 644 cranes before she died.” ~regarding Sadako Sasaki

If you don't know the story of Sadako, check it out. She folded cranes, and so do I - just not as many, and not because I am ill!

Anyway, here's some (badly taken) pictures of the crane mobile that JD and I made last weekend! I love them!! I'm so excited to make some more different types of mobiles. I've been yearning to make a mobile for a couple of years now after seeing them in some import shops in Minnesota.

So there they are, one really big one and one nice and small. They fly gracefully around and handle the fans and a.c. air much better than we expected. It's wonderful entrainment and doesn't cost a thing to move. When you see it in person, the strings are hardly noticeable and look completely free from any structure. The yellow rods are a constant allusion to one's eyes, as they appear to be colliding with each other. We are greatly enjoying this contraption as it took us all Saturday to make it, and it was some great time spent together. Especially since this was the same day the car decided to not start correctly. Yes less than a few weeks from all the repairs and inspection issues, and it now is being silly about starting. Thankfully we had some family advise us to start it in neutral instead of park - weird right? Well, it did the trick, much to our surprise, it works, and we'll continue with this new discovery until the car learns that we've tricked it and pulls something else! God has been good to us in keeping us safe in this car!

Besides making new mobile plans, weaving, and eating biscotti with coffee, I'm enjoying the sun. Yesterday and today are the first days in almost 2 weeks that it's hasn't rained. I don't mean sprinkles of rain here and there, I mean hard big rains with loud thunder that flash flood roads. Crazy stuff.

Regardless, all is well. Including little plants and the snails and caterpillars that keep trying to eat them. The storms and winds have knocked a few over rather harshly and many flower petals were ripped from their home. May they come back better and stronger than ever! Have a great weekend, ours might include more mobile making, even though JD doesn't know this yet, I hope he'll agree that it's worth his time.

"All work, even cotton [or wool] spinning, is noble; work alone is noble" ~Thomas Carlyle

2007-06-22T16:06:00.000-05:00

I finally did it! JD help me ply my first bit of yarn! What exactly I'll do with it I'm not yet sure... but that's okay! I'm just glad that we figured it out! Again, I'm sorry the picture is not great. I have another spool of singles ready too. There's been much time to get things done, which of course don't mean that they all get done.

It's been raining and storming tremendously lately, and is supposed to until Wednesday. It's okay if there's rain, just not on the 2 days that I have to drive on the scary highway. Mind you, it's really only scary if it rains... because it floods! I drove through a LOT of water last week and was freaking out in the car. I had to wait to get off the highway because the water was forcing the four lanes of traffic into one, to drive through somewhat shallow water. I managed to get off the highway to find the pelleting rain was also plaguing the neighborhood I just exited into. I found a street I knew and prayed the entire way home. Parts of town got over 4 inches of rain that afternoon.

So other than spinning wool and watching the rain pelt the sodden ground, work and life here at home is great! My plants are growing, the car passed inspection, and I made some good tasting dinner last night. We then spent the evening making paper cranes. Okay, well I made origami cranes for the mobile I'm trying to make and JD spent TWO (yes 2) hours trying to fold a dinosaur dude. He wanted no help. However after watching him for 90 minutes I decided to try and finished in less then 20 minutes. He still wanted to figure it out himself. I later found out that he's NEVER done any origami before, why he choose the hardest one I don't know. But I'll leave you with a quick shot of the out come, and yes the pink one is JD's! enjoy and count your blessings!

And he's ready to make some more...

"Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation." ~Kin Hubbard

2007-06-13T15:12:00.000-05:00

The heat index yesterday was 100. Today the high was the same, 93 degrees but the winds from the storms blowing in an out made it chilly driving home. So I'm waiting to see if I need to water my plants or if the rain will do it for me. I'll give the clouds a few more minutes.

Speaking of plants, some are doing great and others, well... not so great. Oh, and the car was almost not so great either. But - in the end it did pass inspection on it's second try!! Yeah, we get to drive around in the big 'ole car another summer - without air conditioning. I've come to the conclusion that I will NOT complain about the heat because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it other than change my attitude to try and enjoy it. So I will try.

However, if we do need a new/old car, I don't think I'd mind having one with air. I shouldn't worry about it either, while watching some kids this week, and driving them around in my car, they are amazed. Wow, your car is 17 years old! They also assured me that if my car didn't pass inspection that I would be able to get a really great car, "Don't worry, you'll sell your car for lots and lots of money because there aren't many old cars like this still running, so someone probably really wants one!!" Yup, every collector's looking for an old run-of-the-mill Chrysler that's a whooping 17 years old. fun stuff though!!

Weaving and spinning is going well. I am a few hours still away from cutting the current project off my loom. So excited to start the next experiment. I got the rest of the supplies on Monday that I'll need. In the meantime, I'll try to finish all the odds and ends I've started... I have a few friends that keep me company...

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered." ~N. Mandela

2007-06-01T10:47:00.000-05:00

while away many things happen ~ some changes to you, some to others, and some to your plants

It's good to be back in Texas. I think it's finally okay having me back! It rained for the first 5 days that I was home. But I kinda of missed the hard heavy rain of Houston. Traveling was good. The wedding was great, the floor my mom and I re-did looks awesome, my drop spindle yarn is improving, and the time with family and friends was invaluable!

Oh, there was only one plant tragedy during all the traveling. I think I might survive. JD did try. I know he did, because the plant died of over watering, not under watering... the poor plant was swimming. But the rest of the mini garden on the concrete slab outside are doing very well!! I enjoy having some plants to look after.

New weaving and printing ideas have been flooding my mind's eye since being in Pennsylvania. This also happened in March when I had some time to step away from the material - while my loom and equipment was folded up for a week. Anyway, this surge of ideas has been exciting, I hope that a few of them happen soon. My main obstacle right now is finding a print shop to expose silk screens for me and not print them... so I can print them... apparently they don't like to give up their screens, and I don't blame them. So I'm planning on joining the Houston Weaving Group and maybe I can gain some idea or connections. I'll take any suggestions, please!

Good 'ole Blue Day

2007-04-17T11:23:00.000-05:00

Actually, it's more gray outside. But my fun friends would call Tuesdays 'blue day' and we'd all wear something blue. Silly but fun... back in the good 'ole Jr. high days. The things you remember, and the things you wish you didn't. Funny stuff...

Anyway, my plants are growing well!! I have dahlia shoots as tall as my longest finger, 5 shoots of them!! The other bulbs are still thinking about coming up and I found 2 new shoots from one pot today. Seedlings are getting their first real leaves, so now that I can tell them apart, I'll start thinning them.

What else is happening... I finished ALL the chocolate from Norway, so sad. I had a delightful birthday with two of our friends at a nice Mexican place a few blocks down the street. Mr. Jack Daniel's himself is away in Africa, so I'm just keeping busy, or trying to. The weaving is going good. I hope to finish it this weekend. I'll take pictures once the camera is back.

Oh, and I can tell I'm using a PC when it takes over 10 minutes for my iPod to update... I don't think that there is much new, but whatever. My new fun friend down here is actually from PA and just moved here about 3 months ago. She has an awesome taste for music, so we've been having fun finding new stuff to listen to.

Well, it's done loading (the iPod) after only near 15 minutes... I'm going to make some treats for bible study tomorrow night. You're welcome to help me eat them!

Enjoy your blue day, and go ahead wear something blue, just for those days when stress meant figuring out who to sit with at lunch.

Roasting Marshmallows on a crisp 82º evening

2007-04-04T10:36:00.000-05:00

It has been in the low 80's here for the past week or more. The air conditioning was turned on to 80º to simply get some of the moisture out of the air. Plus if you do anything that uses heat in our little kitchen, the whole apartment heats up! But, none the less, it's nice out. It's usually the time that if starting seedlings, my Mom would start them inside. Sitting them on the dryer or on top of the fridge for some heat and humidity. The flowers here are all coming up all ready. The flowering bushes are beginning to lose their blooms this week.

Anyway, I was inspired. Or at least interested to have a little garden. So I got some ideas and we went to home depot and got some window box liners, seeds, a bulb, and some dirt. (I've never really grown a bulb and wanted to try) And the adventure starts. Not even two weeks ago we plant the seeds in the dirt and leave them outside. I researched the bulb for a while before we even got it to make sure I didn't plant it upside down. With in two little days, sprouts for the seeds are coming up! They will need to be thinned out by next week. However, I kept waiting for the bulb to show little shoots of life. I was reading and searching for information to tell me about how long it might take to see something come out of this pot! Alas, today I go to check them out and there are 3 whole little shoots starting to pop out of the dirt! So cool! Yea, I'm that excited about the little green things...

It's nice to spend some time outside now, but the humidity is quite high. Last night JD grilled some salmon that was on sale and afterwards, we roasted marshmallows!! Such fun. Yup, I believe that it was 82 at around 8:20pm last night.

Oh, and our neighbors had their baby the other day, a week ago from today! Very exciting. A beautiful healthy little girl and Mom are doing very well! The new 'big sister' is still adjusting to the change, but is very happy that her grandparents are visiting from Norway. And they even brought ME some chocolate from Norway!! My dear friend told them to bring some for us... We visit with each other a few times a week and somehow always have a small bit of chocolate! Any way it was a real treat, don't worry I shared some of it with JD.

I'm still warping my latest weaving and planning some printing ideas to use the new setacolor fabric paint/dyes I recently got. I'll let ya know how it goes.

What have we been up to...

2007-03-17T12:50:00.000-05:00

Um good question. So we've been busy, with what I'm not sure. You know getting over colds, sitting in the sun, preparing future weavings, going to the library, reading books, and oh, having my in-laws visit for a week. We had a wonderful time and they brought good weather with them! It was sunny and warm, not to humid... we only turned on the AC once or twice if the oven was on and cooking. However there were no major outings outside of Houston while they were here. We had the idea of exploring San Antonio or Galveston, however I was rather sick the entire time and slowed things down considerably. So many of my trips involved the three block walk to CVS for more cough drops and such things. Talk about exciting.

Regardless we had a great time, well at least from my point of view. We eat outside for many of our meals and even learned how to use the metro rail that took us to the rodeo! The rodeo was quite fun, a highlight of the week. We also explored my favorite grocery store which is a field trip in itself. Also a few other adventures included venturing into some secondhand shops and having a grand tour of the downtown underground tunnel system which connects the skyscrapers, lead by Mr Jack Daniels himself.

So today, the rain has stopped and it's beautiful outside, there are flowers everywhere! We're hopefully going to the livestock section of the Rodeo today. I'm excited because the Houston Weaving Group has a booth set up that I want to visit. Plus I love walking around and seeing all the animals. However we must wait. JD got a lovely speeding ticket and is taking a drivers safety course to clear the points and lessen the fine by a large amount. So I've been playing with the fabric paints I just got in the mail and am interested in painted some warp with them. It will be a fun experiment. Yup, and then even more exciting, we'll get our taxes finished, and possibly have a popsicle. Yes, a popsicle sounds nice.

Why didn't I know about this?

2007-02-27T10:33:00.000-06:00

yes, so last week, my head was very clogged up. I think it must happen every February. Regardless, on Sunday of last week, my dear husband lets me know he tried to get me out of bed three times and than gave up and figured I needed the sleep. Well, I did need the sleep but it went clear through both church services.

We attend a small group and have discussion on a set of questions that focus on the sermon that Sunday and JD was asked to guide a question this week, but we had missed hearing it. I go to our church website and was getting the recording of our Sunday school class that we also missed (the membership/intro to the church class) and remembered that they 'podcast' the sermons. I'm wasn't quite sure what this pod casting thing was so I decided to check it out. It worked really well and is completely free. One gets the sermon and can listen to it as many times as one desires and the order of worship also comes with it in some PDF file. It was really great to figure out, especially as our pastor is teaching this incredible series on Numbers. So we listened to it and the sound quality was excellent.

This is when I start to wonder! This is when I look around and think 'who has known about this and has failed to pass it on?' Why not share good things? So this is what I'm doing, sharing with you my newest fun find!! With the podcast you can now get the song of the day from local and worldwide radio stations. You can listen to classes and learn how to do you taxes. But there are two that have really stood out to me, and I want to share them:

1) "Coffee Break Spanish" and "Daily Phrase Italian"
These are podcast which teach you languages, there are about 6 or 7 major languages, through 15 minutes lessons every few days. Some even include worksheets that you can open and print off to work on while listening! The greatest part is the Scottish dude who is teaching them!!! I love it!

2) "Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion's News from Lake Wobegon"
This is actually the #1 podcast right now on itunes! How cool is that! One new monologue is released every week, just like on the radio. I have really enjoyed it! I've been listening to these while painting. I'm not used to radio down here, so this is easier and you can listen to them as many times as you wish.

Well, if that wasn't a commercial for the podcast, I'm not sure what is... but I have been thoroughly enjoying it and now my only dilemma is to figure out if I want to subscribe to the Spanish or Italian lessons?

Happenings

2007-02-26T12:45:00.000-06:00

So, it's been awhile, since the last post. I've been busy doing substitute work at a local private school and really enjoying it! However, I'm still even more enjoying creating some exciting things. I finished the orange towels and am tempted to make some more with different colors. They were really fun to weave and the simple color pattern strikes my eye. They washed really well and became nice and soft.

And as usual, I had more warp than needed and got 4 nicely sized towels out of the deal! But the next weaving I ventured to work on did not have so much luck. I was totally short on the warp. Please consider, this warp was some which was pre-measured out sometime in college and wasn't used. So the take-up during the weaving was not truly accounted for. The weaving that this warp was newly assigned to was a rep weave I had tried in college and couldn't quite figure out. I've read the book about 7 times, to still not understand the treading patterns. Regardless I decided to just go for it.

It was all going well, until I was about 6 inches into the weaving and things weren't matching up with the treddling patterns. The thick versus the thin weft... which next? So I undid it all and started again, only to find the same problem. Oh what to do... the theme song of so many facets of my life... (including making dinner) I come to a conclusion, I'll just make it up. And I did. The crazy part was it worked! Unbelievable! Apparently one is just supposed to use his or her own judgement and research to determine how to weave the cloth once it's on the loom. Weaving continued with the make-it-up-as-you-go theory. It was going swell, when for what I think is the first time in my personal weaving history, the warp is too short! I only need to weave about 6 more inches to complete the pattern to make it symmetrical!! Hm, what to do. I waited until my lovely husband returns home from work and bombard him with problems of the weaving. He graciously sits behind my loom and detached the back bar and holds the warp a few inches from the heddles for a good bit of time and I was able to finish it up! I have such a wonderful husband, he was able to hold the bar nice and stable as the beating part of rep weave is very important. Regardless, it is finished, and now occupies a once bare wall in our apartment.

With plenty of weaving happening, and I've been trying to use up what I have before I purchase more. In between planning my next happening, the blank wall above our couch is driving me insane! I thought until we can afford something that we really like to put there (or move?), or a fiber idea for it comes to reality, I started a few paintings to hang there for now. The paint materials are all here, and there was even a half gallon of gesso in the trunk of our car! We went the cheap route and got heavy duty watercolour paper to gesso. So I'm just painting large heads of flowers right now, one is complete, the others, on the way. I think I'll make 3 or 4... They may not stay forever, but it's nicer than white. The size is 22 inches square. Again, the picture is not great.. I really need to figure that out!

This has been the past 2 weeks here in my little world. The weather is absolutely wonderful! We had a cook out last night, and if the screen was not warped, the windows would be completely open! It's been in the 70's, sunny and not very humid! Hopefully it just might stay this way for a while, is there still snow in Pennsylvania? I know my family and friends in Minnesota still have it! Enjoy!

A Nice Blue Ball

2007-02-13T10:39:00.000-06:00

Yup, a new blue ball. I really did forget I had this fabric. Now, I just hope I have enough. A new weaving has begun. There was some warp already measured that I AGAIN forgotten why I had it. I do remember measuring it out because it was the first time I had used my brother's dresser drawer knobs as a warping board. It was really quite amazing that I've collected enough odds and ends to have plenty of fiber to match together!!

The weaving will be an experiment on rep weaving... to add to my collection of rep weaving experiments. So I'm going to be trying very hard to focus on the pattern making and threading order so I can begin to design my own patterns.

And the sun is out today! So happy! It makes for an enjoyable morning.. mornings can be rough (just ask the one who must wake me up). He's hopefully coming home for lunch, I enjoy it when he does!

Oh, I almost forgot! Some friends and I went to IKEA last night to get some doo-dads, and I found a milk whisker for 2 whole dollars! I also found a reading light so I don't have to use flashlights anymore! But, back to the whisker, it works very well and is much easier than using the huge plug in hand blender. So now I can have some 'bubbly milk' with my espresso and coffee or whatever there is brewing! yea, coffee is so worth it! Don't you agree?

Lovely Grey Days

2007-02-09T16:57:00.000-06:00

So it's quite dull outside. The beginning of the week was beautiful.. and then it just went down hill. The whole rainy cloud covering thing. The temperture has dropped from the 70's to the 50's which is now almost cold feeling. Either way I'm suprised at myself. I can home from work and was having some coffee and biscotti while watching good ole Arthur, and I totally feel asleep! I woke up about 30 minutes later, but was utterly suprised that I slept right after drinking coffee...

However, this lends itself well to my 30-45 minute thoery of when the caffine really kicks in to one's system.

Anyway, the week has been productive. Monday I was weaving a bunch and finished my weaving, and cut it off the loom. It washed and dryed really nicely. Tuesday was spent blocking it to determine where to cut it into 4 towels. This took forever, but am very glad that I did it, otherwise I might have eneven hems... Wednesday the hems were pressed and pinned, this also took forever and I defintely got some steam hitting my fingers. Thrusday and today I've been hemming.. fun fun. I'm over half way there.

But it's grey outside. Isn't that the ultimate lay on the couch weather? Where's the popcorn and remote? This is what fall is like... wait!! Houston didn't really have autunm! The weather feels like fall upnorth. The wind has a nice crisp coldness to it. So again, where is the warm apple cider? But all is still green, they cut the grass only two days ago.

Although, I rather sure it's about 15* back at home. Am I really missing out?

You knew I liked orange, right?

2007-01-30T11:15:00.000-06:00

So my latest weaving endeavor has lead me to using up the orange and yellow cotton I had and couldn't remember why! I recall purchasing it with a purpose almost two years ago (at least) and I'd been trying to figure it out since we've moved to Texas. This has added to my goal of writing things and ideas down. My very good friend was in Rome and found the greatest notebook for the job!! It's spiral bound with pages that tear out, yet can be added back in and re-arranged easily. It also has three sections of paper; blank, lined, and graph paper. I've been able to draft out weaving projects and ideas with color, the other sections have lists of websites, photos of inspiration, notes from library books, and ideas for the future. It also has hard plastic covers that open completely flat and a few folder pages to slip things in and such. Either way, I'm hoping I'll get into a habit of using it and not forgetting why I bought certain fibers!!!

However, I enjoy these colors and am making some twill fabric for various reasons. We have the coolest bright orange ceramic serving bowls and thought some more orange would be fun in out little kitchen.

Speaking of kitchens, I decided to make dinner again last night. It reminded me of the SNL (Saturday Night Live) game, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Here it goes:

The Good

The meal was really good!! It tasted great and if your can believe it... IT ACTUALLY LOOKED IT DID IN THE PICTURE! I made stuffed potatoes, aka baked potatoes with sour cream, bacon, cheese, and green onions mixed up with the baked potato insides and then stuffed back into the already baked skin. The preparation however was not as pretty as the picture.

The Bad

I've only used a broiler a few times in my life and never with this oven (I should have just used the toaster oven...). So I had the broiler preheating some half way through chopping onions and so forth. I was watching carefully and they were not in for more than 2 minutes when I was moving the tray to see them, and burnt smell is drifting from the oven... five hundred or so smoke detectors in our apartment go off. I hate that noise. It means I've just failed at cooking 101: if you want an eatable meal, don't BURN IT. Smoke alarms going off just seems to equal burnt meal, at least in my opinion.

The Ugly

The fire alarms are going off. I panic. Turning the over broiler off, I have one hot pad thing in my hand and go to fully remove the allegedly burnt potatoes. I'm so nervous that I've set the oven on fire, I nearly lost the potatoes to the bottom of the oven as they slide to the other side of the pan. My other hand on the oven door handle puts the door up just enough to catch them from sliding all the way off. The pan has to go somewhere. Oh dear. Hadn't thought ahead that far. There's stuff on the stove, I just made bacon and hardly room for this pan. I set it on the top of the toaster oven, and go to close the oven door and double check for any evidence of fire-ish happenings. However, I have forgotten this pan is NOT flat and warps even greater after being in the oven - it's sliding off the top and again, an instinctive catch by the oven mitt, which by the way, was NOT doing it's job! and throw the whole thing onto the cutting board. My thumb is now burnt, the fans are spinning, and I'm hungry!

The Final outcome

Well, as you know from 'the good,' the potatoes are still very good! Thank goodness, I was so hungry for a potato! The end of one of the potatoes' skin was blackened and that was it! I was surprised to say the least. Incredible... the smell, the noise, the burnt thumb, the notion that I have no clue what I'm doing, and it was still okay to eat. How do people do this on a daily basis?

So to all those of you who gawk and wonder how us artsy folk create our work with such skill: I ask you this - How on earth do you know when meat is really done cooking, which head of lettuce to grab, and for goodness sake - how much really is a pinch of salt?

And the sun makes an apperance

2007-01-25T15:26:00.000-06:00

Yes, the sun is shining today! So wonderful! The weather was getting rather depressing. This is the first day of sun we've had in almost a week, and it doesn't sound like it will stick around for too long. But, it is still good to have it brighten things up. And dry up these massive puddles we get! I really enjoy them when I'm wearing my red galoshes, however, without them the puddles are cruel long deep cold areas of water trying to gobble you up for dessert. There's nothing better, really, than stepping out of the car into an 8 inch deep puddle that is so big and wide that trying to avoid it would simply result in misjudging it's depth and hurting your ankle.

Actually, my favorite puddle here in Houston was almost dry today. I was completely shocked as this normal body of water remains for days on end. It lives at the gate nearest to the mailboxes. The hard part is, you must give in to the puddle in order to punch in the key code to unlock the gate. There is no leap - push gate - land on the other side trick, I've tried. And you can only do this while leaving from the mail area, and one still has to turn the heavy doorknob. The puddle extends from both sides of the gate an average of 2.5 - 3 feet. However on certain occasions, one might see it grow even larger. The best part is NO ONE can avoid it! We reside in a gated community, you one can only enter and exit through the keypad gates, and thus, this is why the puddles love living under the gates, they get lots of DESSERT!

Nice, so now the puddle gets dessert, and you get cold, wet, soggy socks. The puddle gets the better end of deal, every time, hands down. Deal with it... I guess, or wear your red wellies!!!

I Did it! I made another dinner that was eatable!

2007-01-23T10:53:00.000-06:00

... and even repeatable! It was quite exciting. There are a few things I can make for dinner and feel confident about. Like baked mac and cheese, cornbread, baked ziti, quesadillas and enchiladas, homemade pizza, and even rice and pastas!! (So exciting, I know) However, to change things up I've been trying to reach out and try never before eaten recipes in a collection of books my friend and I have been sharing. Mind you, I really enjoy baking! Last week I've been experimenting with making biscotti different ways, and made a very successful blue berry pie.

But cooking, - is just simply scary sometimes!! There's raw meat and more than one or two things going on the stove - at the same time! Things have to defrost and simmer for periods of time. The hardest part though, is the person in the other room, 'taking over the world,' can throw dinner together without thinking and without any recipe. Yup, Mr. Jack Daniels himself has a wonderful knack for just whipping stuff up. He just throws stuff onto other stuff and then pokes at it and then - POOF - it's done and wonderful. Which is great! Until it's my turn.

Now, please, I want it to be my turn. I would like to be sufficient in the kitchen and have something to eat when Mr. Jack arrives home later than normal. Otherwise we're cooking while we're VERY hungry. So I'm trying. We'll see what happens tonight. It's just the slightest bit odd feeling that Jack Daniels over there can make it all work with such ease, while I'm having a panic attack over how much salt and pepper I should actually put in the pan, I mean my pinch might be smaller than the recipe writer, my thumbs aren't that big...

Well, it actually happened: Houston Froze - Literally

2007-01-17T11:01:00.000-06:00

Light rains overnight and continuing through the morning aided in the icing of Houston and a large chuck of Texas. It dropped below 32 degrees for the second night in a row and lets just say that the water is not the only thing that froze. I completely understand the need to close the schools. The roads ARE bad, and the drivers out there are even worse. There were multiple car pile ups and major highways and ramps were all shut down. I'm quite confused, on Monday the local station reported that TX Dot was prepared and one would have expected them to be out last night before the freeze started... but it doesn't appear that way. Now honestly I could be mistaken - I'm beginning to think that there was no deicer agent used, but all I keep hearing about is some salt and sand. Another thought that floated my way was the possibility that Houston only had a few trucks out fit for salting and sanding... there is a lot of road to cover here.

What gets me though, is that someone got it right. Both airports were completely prepared and had minimal delays and cancellations. So the panic continues... straight through the morning news. Yes, stay home until the ice goes away, awe in wonder to icicles hanging from palm trees, and treat yourself to some hot cocoa. HOWEVER, do not subject your public to the same radar and accident reports for over two hours! UGH!!! Not only was it incredibly painful as I was thinking it would end sometime soon, I actually did the big morning 'no-no.'

I had already worked out for an hour, I was awake and hungry. As I gather my morning meal material and settle in for my morning news show, Good Morning America, I discover that there is extended coverage of the "ARCTIC BLAST" aka "look Mom! I never knew I could do the moonwalk!" Regardless I figure, um, it's still early - schools are closing this can't last that long. I couldn't have been more wrong. The cereal bowl is empty, the electric kettle is turned on for coffee and I settle down to wait and hope that they would return to the regularly scheduled programing. After a bit, I figure, um maybe I should be a traitor and watch the Today show instead. Great! At least I can see what happened outside of Texas! I should have known - they too were frozen in the "Arctic blast." So, water's almost ready, I turn it back to what should be Good Morning America - and THIS is when it happened! The big morning 'no-no,'

I feel back asleep, right there on the sofa. Not being a real great 'morning person' this was not a stellar move. I woke up to the theme song of "The View" and quite upset at myself. I sit here now drinking quite a bit of coffee as I try to wake myself back up, again. I'm sorry, but waking up twice in one morning is simply too painful (at least for someone who already has issues waking up). Hats off to all of you wonderful morning people, I admire your ability to get up and stay up, as a night owl who's married to a morning riser, I really am trying to get going in the morning... whether you think so or not.

Freeze Warnings?

2007-01-15T15:27:00.000-06:00

It's been rainy, grey and gloomy. It was 70 degrees yesterday, and today it's in the thirties. The highs are in the forties and I think Houston is not sure what to do with it's self. The highways and so forth are flooded because of the rain, so it's a good thing that there was no school today! Now there is quite a panic over the 2-3 times a year when it drops below freezing. The main concerns are about icy roads and pipes freezing, and then bursting. It is actually really nice to have some cold weather!! After hanging out with my friend a few doors down, we took a little walk to put her daughter to sleep. When I got back here it was so great to have a hot cup of coffee to warm me up!! I LOVE IT!

However, Houston is quite concerned, and with good reason. We all got letters in our doors from the leasing office informing us to watch out for something known to a few as "black ice" - they were even so kind as to define it for those unfamiliar to cooler vocabulary. Also, this letter has made us aware of how to dress correctly and to wear boots or shoes to reduce slipping or falling (and maybe keep you warm?). The one other item of note was about pipes and the importance of keeping faucets drippings to prevent freezing. There are 5 bullets about this issue, leading one to believe this is quite an area of concern. I hope nothing too extreme happens, and am glad that we are with in walking distance to many places should the city go into cardiac arrest tomorrow... Some people at church are ready to stock up and stay in until Wednesday. Umm, we'll just have to see.

In the meantime, I'm plainly enjoying the opportunity to wear a coat and hat!

We're Back!!!

2007-01-11T15:57:00.000-06:00

Yes, we're back in Houston! And we been back for just over two weeks, and life still is not back to normal! But we had a wonderful visit home, it was a blessing to see everyone! I really enjoyed just hanging out and chatting with people, drinking coffee with people I've known longer than 6 months and eating really sweet foods!

Christmas was a reminder not only of Christ's birth but how much mercy has been poured out among our friends and family. It was so crazy to see changes and such after being away for a time. Not only was it neat to see what had changed in PA, it was also very enlightening to see how my new husband and I had changed and are really becoming our own. Quite exciting! We also had a good time with some great friends who described to us some of their marriage beginnings and happenings... we can't believe how similar ours mirrored theirs!!! We laughed the whole way home in the car and my other frequently mentions "the aura" issues. (You know who you are!)

Other fun bits of our trip was seeing my sister and hanging out with my Mom. We were also able to see some family friends which I had missed dearly! There is now not 2 marriages, but three happening this summer! Mr. Hulk-want-a-be (aka my husband) has a younger sister getting married to a long time friend in July sometime. She actually found the dress over Christmas break and is quite determined to make her own wedding cake. There's no doubt she can, she made ours, however it seems like a lot of stress to add to a busy bride-to-be's schedule!

Yup, so we're in Houston, and you think it would be happy to have us, but I'm not sure... 'Mr. Hulk' got sick for most of the week last week, right after New Years. Then it was my turn this week, however with a really bad head cold, and not the flu. I'm hoping that we can call next week a sick free one. We did fine over the weekend and recovered our dining room chairs, they needed it BADLY!! We found some really nice fabric, it's a pink/red leaf like design on a green/brown background... it's also been treated for spills and such, which the old fabric was not, nor was the fabric under that... lets just say we hoped that it was water damage and not some other things your imagination might lead you to think.

So the new chair is on the left, old chair: right. It makes a huge difference, I think we've re-glued all the chairs but one, it will surely need it soon. However we hope that they will last for a good few years! It's bee good to have them, when we first moved, everyone was over constantly to eat and play games... mainly because we were the only ones out of the gang with table and chairs!

Lights in Texas

2006-12-15T13:24:00.000-06:00

As we have been placed in a new culture, we are learning many new things. Like how Texas gets ready for Christmas. It can be very interesting, some times tasteful, many times not. However there are a few areas of town that I had to share with you. This pictures are of two sections of "inner loop" Houston. Both sides of the streets are lined with palm trees and they are all decked out for the holidays. Again, sorry for the rough pictures, I tried but it was even worse due to the fact that we were in a car driving.. at the tail end of rush hour.. so NO slowing down, this is the best I could do!

Yes, so there are some Christmas lights, here are a few lights that we really like! The next two are of bridges that span across Highway 59, there are about 7 or 8, but these are my favorite two. The artist Dan Flavin installed lights and they CHANGE color, it's awesome!! I really like them.

And ONE more for you!! This is Chuy's, our of our favorite places to eat!! It's a great sign, please notice the flashing Texas shape in the top of the sign. You see these types of signs a lot down here, it's like a tacky/cowboy version of Las Vegas. Sorry you can't read the WHOLE sign, there was a palm in the way...

It's finished

2006-12-13T13:42:00.000-06:00

Yes, I finished my Mom's Christmas present in 5 days! I made her a pink table runner, she's been asking for one since I started weaving. I also decided to do a new weave pattern with grouped warps. This was a bit scary as I wasn't sure whether or not I'd like it. Fortunately, it turned out quite nicely. The hem stitch also added a lot as it lends it's self so well to a fringe. Sorry about the picture quality, I really need help learning how to take a good picture.

The best part of this was that my other half has learned how cool it is to cut a weaving off of a loom! So last night he's making all these noises while cutting, this is his second time cutting a project off. I think it will be added to his duties, including winding bobbins (he's REALLY good at it!). He also cut the fringe. Leave it to an engineer...

So after we finish cutting the fringe, he asks, so are you going to start something tomorrow? We leave in 3 days! See you all soon, I can't wait! And don't worry my Mom has no idea (yet anyway) that I have this blog, so the surprise isn't ruined.

Oh, and if you're wondering I finished the book last night too.

I did it again...

2006-12-12T16:04:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I told myself that I would stop reading at a certain time.

Yea, right.

I only read around 150 pages last night, now I'm almost finished with the book. It's a great story and I'm hooked. My friend who loaned me the book has all of them, and all the movies, so sadly this won't stop after another 60 or so pages.

Besides my sleeping ruining habitat, it's 76* outside! It's December 12th!! That's 13 days until Christmas, it should be cold - keyword - SHOULD BE. I've been trying to get into the Christmas winter mode since Thanksgiving. I made little snowballs from white plastic bags to sit on our cabinet to remind me of winter. Target has gained some profit as I got a container of ornaments to fill a bowl on our table, since we don't have a tree. A lone string of lights is lit around our counter that faces the living room. And we have a total of two beautiful Christmas cards in full display!

Oh, and my poor other. I've been listening to Christmas music since Thanksgiving. It's just not feeling like winter time or anything. I don't know whether it really bothers him or if he's just not saying anything, because he doesn't want to know what might happen if he comments. I even made a batch of cookies the other night. Didn't really help as 15 minutes later I'm walking to get the mail in a short sleeved shirt and sandals.

However, only 4 more days until we leave. I'm excited to see trees without their leaves, and PLEASE HAVE COLD WEATHER!

Only Five More Days!!

2006-12-11T11:26:00.000-06:00

Oh, so exciting! I still can't wait to fly home. It's almost here and I'm still working on making Christmas presents... They're getting there, hopefully!

So for a least a week my sleeping patterns have been really terrible! It all started with the two Christmas parties in a row last weekend, that had us so drained we slept through church. Well atleast I did. So it started there. It also started while I was working.. I could hardly get any sleep at all! This was solved by two things. One. Having a glass of wine right before I went to bed. Two. I started reading Harry Potter. I never thought I actually read these books. I've heard so many mixed things about them, but I was in need for some light reading what was able to get my mind of work. Well, it did the trick. However, I'm still reading them!! And now my reading has messed up my sleep pattern. I think I've been up the past two or three nights reading late into the evening (I'm almost done with the third book). So this morning, I ate breakfast and was watching Good Morning America and found myself nodding off. I could hardly stay awake. I'm have no idea what time I went to bed, but I think I need to set a limit. However, at the same time, we leave in 5 days, and our sleep patterns are sure to be muddled, so do I bother??

This weekend was rather fun! On Friday I measured, and warped my loom in record speed. So I've been weaving like crazy. I'm almost halfway done now. On Saturday, some friends came over and we played Settlers!!! Later we all went to eat and go to Lights in the Heights! This was a treat!! I was so upset we ALL forgot a camera! Our leasing office holds breakfast for free once a month, it's a good reason to get out of bed on Saturday and meet new people. I was chatting with a ACTUAL Houstonian and was informed about the event. It was amazing!! This neighborhoods is one of the oldest in Houston. Everyone goes all out and decorates, but many hire artists and such to do the lighting designs so they were incredible!! Many of the houses hosted musicians on their porches, they were all good! Everything from bell choirs, country, bluegrass, choirs, bagpipes, soloists, rock bands, string groups, and lots of other bands (many of which included a washboard player!). There was also carriages going up and down the route of the neighborhood. The police closed the streets. There were also quite a few art cars!! They were so cool! There were so many people. It also was really interesting to see more Texans.. More palm trees with lights. And the best part was that it was ALMOST cold! We were okay in a sweatshirt, but there was a nice chill to the air. Most everyone was bundled up in gear like they were researching at the north pole.. Including our friend who just moved here from Australia last week. Any way, if I find any pictures on Google, I'll post them.

Yup, and yesterday was nice and quiet. We just hung out and watched a really odd Jackie Chan movie, The Acciendental Spy. And then I was up all night reading Harry Potter... the other still got to sleep on time, mind you he wakes up at 4:30 - can we say WEIRD!!

Anyway, enjoy your day. I hope it's not as grey and rainy as it is here, however it's matching my lack of energy feeling this morning.

Next Monday: I get to hang out with my MOM!

Cha Cha Cha Changes

2006-10-10T18:44:00.000-05:00

So, life doesn't stay still... Neither do ants, but ants aren't part of my story. So you can forget that part. I left my job, or as my wonderful husband would put it, he made he quit. I don't mind, I like that he takes the responsibility of me leaving my job.

Why did I leave, you ask? Why should I stay, I ask you!

That's all I have to say about that.. You'll notice that I had only written one post about my job. There's a reason, every time I thought about writing about my job... Well, let's just say that I ate a lot of chocolate.

What am I doing now then you ask? Enjoying not working!!! I've been weaving, making lino cut prints, exploring more of Houston, and counting down days to when we fly home for Christmas!!!!! I can't wait!! It's one of those happy waiting things that when you think about you can't even help but giggle out loud while by yourself! The hours aren't passing fast enough..

only 11 more days. That's a lot of hours. Each with 60 whole minutes. Bummer...

Well, I'm glad I wrote today. I plan on keeping you posted on my adventures in Houston, such as Texas Christmas decorations. Yes, there are two types: tacky and extremely tacky. No, I'm just kidding, well, not really. I'll take pictures, pictures of palm tree lined streets with lights??? Yes, believe it.

Glue runs out, yet, life goes on...

2006-10-07T14:31:00.000-05:00

Well, life should go on. This week at school was an interesting one. Many of my students are being taken out of class so they can get help on the state tests, and a few schedules were changed due to lack of chairs in my room. Regardless, even with less students I still am struggling with not enough materials. My smaller ESL classes are great. They enjoy whatever you give them to work with and they don't mind sharing, well at least most of them!

This week we've been working collages, using the 20 year old box of magazines I found in the closest in my room. I went and got a bag full of glue sticks from the dollar store, the few in my closest are brown and simply, not in that great of shape. A few were worth using, you could tell by opening it up and not seeing a stringy mess which leads you to believe that it has melted and then baked in the little plastic case (not hard to imagine happening here in Texas). So we spent the week gluing the pieces they had worked on cutting out the week before and by Wednesday, we still had glue for most everyone.

But after three classes, the glue was running out. In walks my 7th period class. Mostly ESL students, some with learning disabilities, and also the creators of some the most successful projects I've seen yet. They come in and are ready to go, always volunteering to pass out stuff and clean it up. Before we start I collect homework and start passing out glue. "Two per table today, we need to share. There will be plenty of glue tomorrow" (After another trip to the dollar store.) So everyone gets working, one table in the back only has two students and I explained to them that they would share one, the other tables having two glues for four students. Everyone gets working, it's great to see their story collages come together! However, coming from the back of my room, the two seat-er table boys are talking much to loudly. One of the boys couldn't believe that he had to share the glue stick! (One might of thought that you had asked him to give you his arm...) So I try to calm him down asking the other student if he could use the glue, he kindly gave it up. "here you go, remember, we're sharing today"

I DON'T WANT TO!!! I HATE THIS CLASS!!! I DON'T WANT TO COME TO ART! WHY ISN'T THERE GLUE??!!!!!

This is from the student who comes in smiling and laughing everyday and has never mentioned anything about not enjoying the class. There was not much reasoning with him. I explained that I too was frustrated that there was no glue too, because I was buying it. So for the first time, he didn't try to be class clown and sat with a frown in his seat for the rest of class.

So I went home wondering if he was really that upset over glue??

The next morning, I had a brand new glue stick with his name on it and searched out his homeroom teacher. I explained what had happened and was told that he was having quite a bad week. Regardless, I he wasn't in homeroom, so I kept the glue stick until 7th period. The day flew and before you knew it 7th period was outside my door, and I saw what looked like a still upset student. Greeting him I told him I had something for him, and he pouts "I know what it is, I don't want it! Change my schedule!!!" Well, this was interesting. He finally makes it to his seat and just sits there. We did a special Friday project, I've learned 6th graders are STRESSED OUT, so a free art day here and there helps them, a LOT!! But Mr. Grumpy wouldn't participate. I let him sulk in his seat. I'll try calling his mom tonite I thought. Yup, his mom speaks Spanish only. One of my duty partners has called for me, I find out on Monday what is going on.

It's hard to imagine that this is all over the glue...

a Crisp Newness

2006-09-29T22:37:00.000-05:00

After a few monthes in a new environment, one would think that one would have adjusted a bit. New faces, food, roads, landscapes, radio stations, churches, apartment, jobs, and so much more. These new things have been quickly turning in to daily adventures that seem to hold my interest long enough to notice that this chapter of my life should not be left undocumented. With so many new crisp creases being made in my life on a daily basis, I'm surprised that I'm standing on level ground!

So it all started on the busy rainy day that college ended. I didn't really know than how much my life would change as we ran from the football field to find the car as rain fell down hard. The transition of roles from the student to educator was about to begin after 17 years of schooling. Wow. Though I can say, I'm learning lots as it is in my new role! As a first year teacher in a urban city school, I'm feeling like a glass of oil and water. The mixing isn't going super well, but I hear from all around me that even for the veterans it's hard to mix. With a current art room budget of ZERO, my brain is constantly turning for ideas and solutions of cheap fixes that will prove themselves a meaningful fix. With students coming from an area with a current record of gang activities and poverty at such young ages and 500 standardized tests to pass, everyone's burned out, including the students. With a staff that is 30% new to the school, the veteran support is a bit lacking and encouragement is seen only at home, prayers, friends, and a few key students who's smilies are so big they clear the sky.

However there are other changes too! Wonderful changes, the fun and excited kind! Becoming a wife to an incredible man and starting a life in a new city half way across the country type of changes. These changes provide themselves interesting in so many ways, such as seeing palm trees lining the streets in a city instead of oaks or gingko trees. Realizing and owning the responsibility of making sure we always have toilet paper. Silly things. Silly new things.

So I'm learning. Learning through so many changes that God is in control of constantly. And this is the beginning of a new journey, a new chapter. As a friend once said, if we had known what God had prepared for us in advance, we would be prone to ignore it and run from it as hard as we were able. So it is with some of my new changes, such as my job! Had I known of the hardships ahead of time, I think I would have ran, however, being here I am assured that God has placed me there for reasons I can't know yet.

After a mountain range of up and downs this week, I'm glad a fresh start is always awaiting us every morning. A crisp new morning.