Little Drummer Girl

Here's the deal, C is SUPER musically talented and I'm so totally not. The deal that we've worked out is that C takes the girl to choir and/or musicians practice, which they have once or twice a week, so that I can have a few hours to do whatever I want. Sometimes I just chill, sometimes I scrap, sometimes I have to use this time to clean the house. Tonight C emailed me this video he took of what happens at musicians practice. Sorry the quality isn't the best, its from his cell phone.
Enjoy!

Spring Cleaning

I LOVE LOVE LOVE when our yard is all cleaned up and we've raked and bagged up the fall leaves (months late, I know don't get me started!), sometimes we even plant flowers! WHOO HOOO!!! A couple of weeks ago, I paid a kid to rake and bag the leaves on the front lawn. He did ok. He missed a big ole spot on the other side of the driveway, but I had paid him and sent him on his way before I noticed it. Oh well. I've been dreaming of petunias and gerber daisies and a water fixture and some cool stepping stone type thingies..... and maybe even a cool park bench.

If you live in the part of the country that we do, you know the problems that the ground (and lack of rain) can cause on a house's foundation. C and I were recently lamenting the perils of homeownership to some friends of ours when the guy says 'my dad owns his own foundation repair company. do you want an estimate?' Um YES! C has been having nightmare about how much this was going to cost, so he saw this as an opportunity to get an idea w/out being pressured into signing away our um 2nd born! Well, shout hallelujah! the estimate is something we can slightly manage, so we called and said get started. We figured another arid summer was only going to make things worse. With all that being said, that image I described above w/ leafless grass, and flowers and cool water fixtures and whatnot.... yeah, my yard doesn't look like that. AT. ALL. right now. Instead, this is what greets me when I pull in my driveway or walk out my front door.











So NOT the spring look that I was going for. :(

I did find this though...



think it'll live?


~til next time!

OH what a night...!

OY! C and I went to bed close to 2am. (We've been playing World Tour a lot lately) Around 4ish, our upstairs visitor 'dropped' in and of course woke us up, he was making an awful lot of noise, more than normal and this time he was also squawking, I thought he was fighting with a buddy; at this point The Girl is also getting a bit fussy in her bed... we tried to ignore both but it wasn't happening. C went in The Girl's room to see what he could do for her and I remained in bed not sleeping of course, listening to to the commotion going on up in the attic.... then it hit me.... the squirrel was caught in the trap!!! YAY!!! YIPPEEE!!!! WHAAAAHOOOOO!!! FINALLY!!! Shortly after my discovery, C decides to bring The Girl into bed with us, as he's walking in I mention that I think we finally trapped ourselves a squirrel. He says 'ok, I'll take care of it in the morning.' HA! That stupid squirrel was making WAY TOO MUCH noise! We pounded on the wall a few times, but he was too freaked to care. I guess it was 5ish when C said he'd go take him outside b/c neither of us were getting any sleep. Sadly, he's not any ugly monster, but I still want him dead.

The Girl

We've been having nice weather here (yuck!) I snapped a few shots while we were out blowing bubbles and playing.







She was hiding behind the 'branch' and popping up to say peek a boo! Too cute, I tell ya!


Watch out, Josie!!

The Next Foodnetwork Star!

Not me of course, but The Girl thinks it could be her!
I was cooking after church last night and C caught her with the oven mitt on her hand. Please note that neither one of us gave it to her, she got it out of the drawer herself AND she put it on by herself! The fact that she knows how to do this kind of stuff may explain why I've put on a few pounds lately.

I've got some work to do.

The word cultivate has been going through my head lately. I was pretty sure I knew what it meant, but decided to look it up anyway. Dictionary(dot)com lists the following: (bold emphasis is mine)
cul⋅ti⋅vate   [kuhl-tuh-veyt]
–verb (used with object), -vat⋅ed, -vat⋅ing.
1. to prepare and work on (land) in order to raise crops; till.
2. to use a cultivator on.
3. to promote or improve the growth of (a plant, crop, etc.) by labor and attention.
4. to produce by culture: to cultivate a strain of bacteria.
5. to develop or improve by education or training; train; refine.
6. to promote the growth or development of (an art, science, etc.); foster.
7. to devote oneself to (an art, science, etc.).
8. to seek to promote or foster (friendship, love, etc.).
9. to seek the acquaintance or friendship of (a person).

It seems to me that the definition lends itself to more use in relationships than in farming. It has been weighing on me for some time now, that because of the 'busyness of life' that I have allowed myself to become consumed with, I have let some friendships fall to the side hoping that the other person in the relationship would be ok w/ picking things up from where we had left off when I was not so busy. I mean I haven't even taken time to send emails anymore!!! (TSK! TSK! TSK!) This may have been the same way for them and for a time we (may) have been totally okay with this format; recently I've decided that's not how I want things to be. Don't get me wrong, I do understand that there are things that we all need to do; however I also know that in everyone of us we have a place inside where we have the need for friends or we will just go crazy. I don't always need to have hours upon hours devoted to one person, I'm not looking to become a stalker, but I do have the need to have an occasional lunch with a friend and chat or perhaps enjoy a :insert beverage of choice here: together.
This all may be the ramblings of a lonely stay at home mom; or it may be a nudge from God that this is something He wants to see me do. I just might reach out to a friend gone by and change their life. (Its the simple things, ya know?)
So my new goal is this: to acknowledge my friends. (HI!) Either by an email, a card, a phone call and if they don't answer, I will ACTUALLY LEAVE A VOICE MAIL! (gasp!)


~Til next time!