Think Spring

On Saturday afternoon Laina and I did an arts and crafts project. Laina made a card that she decided to give to her mom that said "Think Spring" on the inside. In the lower left corner on the front of the card you may notice a small black box. Laina explained that it was a trash can. If you are wondering why she drew the trash can as I was--Laina's explanation was 'after spring comes summer and after summer is Halloween and then your pumpkins get rotten and you can throw them away'. Makes sense I guess.

After we were through making the card Laina put Lola in jail.

Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

My brother is a physicians assistant and lives and works in Minnesota. Whenever there is a disaster he usually goes to try to help out. He has been in the Dominican Republic and Haiti for the past week or 10 days. He has 3 daughters that live in Texas and I copied the following communication from their blog (LaBump Sisters). Most of the communication has been through text messages. These were my favorites and shows that he can keep his sense of humor through it all. The picture above is from when he helped out after Katrina.

Tuesday, Jan 19 4PM: “Worse than anyone can imagine.”
Tuesday, Jan 19 6PM: “We are out of morphine. THERES NO F***ING morphine. Please pray for these people.”
Wed, Jan 20: 930AM: “I am fine – all is well.”
Wed, Jan 20: 939AM: “6.0 at 6AM all is well. (Referring to the huge 6.0 aftershock) Nobody died in the night. A miracle. Keep praying.
Wed, Jan 20: 11AM: “I begged some Morphine from the Operations Rainbow group this morning. More later.”
Wed, Jan 20: 12PM: “The bad news is that we have nothing left to eat but hot dog buns. The good news is, we have LOTS of hot dog buns!”

Top Gun

Our friend Jeremy doesn't really have any guns on his plane but with his sunglasses and everything this picture reminded me of Top Gun. Congratulations to Jeremy on his new job flying this PA-31 Piper Chieftain for a national carrier.

Unidentified Object

What the heck is this bright orb that appeared in the sky briefly on Sunday?

May The Force Be With You

Pictures from my great nephew's birthday party last weekend. He asked everyone to dress up in a Star Wars costume. Here he is as Darth Vader---I think?? I'm not up to speed on my Star Wars characters.

Laina dressed as---Princess Leah---maybe??? She doesn't have any Star Wars costumes but wanted to dress up anyway.

My great niece Sydney chomping on ice at the party.

Great nephew, and Charlie's big brother, Griffin goofing around at the party.

Another Birthday Celebration

We celebrated my birthday and our friend Michele's birthday Friday night at Orchard Green.

The BIG 5-0

Pictures of my Sunday night birthday celebration.

Laina and Bridget made this special birthday hat for me and wanted me to wear it the WHOLE night. And of course Laina wanted to dress up in her crown and jewels.

Laina and Lola helped me open all my presents!

My husband gave me a musical birthday card that played "Super Freak". He claims he likes the song and there's no underlying message. He lies a lot too.

Barry bought me a whole case of wine. Who will help me drink it?

Three Kids and a Museum

Laina, my niece Kari's son Charlie, and my niece Christie's daughter Sydney at the Childrens Museum in the hot air balloon.

Laina on the slide in the Air and Space room.

Charlie shooting down on his stomach.

Laina fishing for letters.

Sydney got tired and had to go home.

So Laina and I got some ice cream. Laina ordered watermelon sorbet but also liked my mint chocolate chip!

Tiger Attack

Lola attacked this tiger and wouldn't let go.

Then she fell asleep......oh yeah, Terri did too.

Books 'n' Brownies

Laina baked up some delicious brownies with her new Cook it in a Cup cookbook and silicone cups last Sunday. Thanks Liana!
She's also a little obsessed with "reading" chapter books. Hey, Laina--you're 4--get real! She even went so far as to tell me not to bother her while she was "reading" her chapter book.

I Do Solemnly Swear........

To clean out my cupboards more often. I wanted to be productive since I took the day off because I didn't want to deal with the weather so decided to clean out some cupboards. I started looking at expiration dates and found one expired thing and another and another and so on. Yikes.

Princess New Year

Laina wanted to look her best on New Years Day with lots of pigtails and jewels and her new Fancy Nancy shirt.

New Years Day Rendezvous

Lola and Elsa were glad to see each other on New Years Day!