wow, it's cold wednesday!

wednesday morning the boys were in the kitchen hard at work.  i thought maybe they were cooking breakfast for all of us, but i was wrong.

they were boiling water so they could do a science experiment that they'd seen people do on tv.  the idea is you boil water, throw it out into the below freezing temperatures and the water will instantly turn into a snow-like vapor!  IT ACTUALLY WORKS!

ready, mom?

go!!!!

it worked!

they did this many more times until someone got hurt.  smudge ran out the door right as they were throwing a big glass of boiling water out.  all i know is we heard yelping, and smudge was sitting there looking hurt.  we don't know if some of the water landed on him or if the whole thing just scared him, so that was the end of the boiling water experiment.

while i was knitting, i noticed a cardinal in one of our apple trees!  cardinals are beautiful birds especially against the backdrop of snow!  i barely got a picture of it before the bully blue jay came and scared him away!

cardinal

bully blue jay

 photo of the day

2-9-11

hidden pictures

there are 3 blue jays hidden in this picutre.
i promise!

since we were having all these bird friends come by, i thought i would throw some bread out there one more time to see if they would come get any.  smudge was distracted by something else, so he didn't see me toss the bread out!

come and get it, little birdies!

i got my camera ready and laid down by the back door.  i could see those 3 blue jays in the trees, so i just knew they would come eat.  i even had the door open just enough to get my camera through!  i waited and waited, but they never came.  

daryl came through the living room and asked, "what are you doing?"  when i told him, he laughed and said, "of course they're not coming.  they're not stupid. it's too close to the house."  dream crusher!!!!
i stayed there a while longer, hoping to see the birds up close and hoping to prove daryl wrong, but they just stayed in the trees. bummer. (however, i saw a big blue jay swoop down and take a piece of the bread yesterday, thursday!  so daryl was wrong!  but now the bread is all gone because smudge found it!)

since i couldn't take bird pictures, i decided i wanted to knit a hat.  i was afraid i might not have the right size needles, but it didn't really matter anyway because when i found my pattern it looked like this:

SMUDGE!

apparently he had gotten hold of it earlier, and someone kindly got it away from him and put it on top of the lamp shade!  the little knob on top of the shade fit perfectly through this hole! argh...

quote of the day:  "birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?" ~ rose kennedy

calm before the storm

tuesday was almost as nutty as monday.

i was able to drive myself to work today, so that was nice.  school went well (except for the 30 minutes of my life i'll never get back letting my students make valentine's sacks! ugh!  chaos for my least favorite holiday of the year!  the kids love it, so i don't complain.)

after school, the boys had auditions at 4:00.  we rushed to the community center only to find out that colby had to be there at 4:00, and spencer didn't have to be there until 6:15.  great.  i was prepared for BOTH of them to be there from 4:00-8:00!

so, change of plans....

spencer and i dropped colby off, and went to staples.  that store is dangerous for me.  i {love} office supplies!  i could spend a ton of money just on pens and pencils!  i didn't though. i was good.

then we ate an early supper at Bueno!  yum-o!  bueno chilada and a root beer!

i also made a quick stop at dollar tree while spencer stayed in the car.  he said it was too cold to get out!  (it actually was miserably cold!)

then i took spencer to rehearsals and picked up colby.  i was tired of running around getting in and out of the cold by this point, so i got daryl to pick spencer up at 8:15!

i snuggled in at home, mad at the weather.  you see tuesday night a 2nd winter storm attacked oklahoma! it hadn't snowed by the time i took my photo of the day, but i knew the snow was coming.  i am sick of winter!

so in protest of winter, i moved my in-progress knitting into my swim bag!  i needed something to make winter a little more bearable!

photo of the day

2-8-11

new purpose

you can also see my bright pink nail!
i don't care if it's not a winter color!

quote of the day:  "the color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination." ~terri guillemets

manic monday

after 6 days of being out of school, we finally went back monday.  since there was still a lot of snow and ice on the road, daryl took us to school so he could use my car.  when he takes us, that means we have to leave extra early because spencer has to be to school by 8:10.

needless to say, we were all rushing around like crazy monday morning trying to get ready and make sure we had everything we needed.  daryl was already in the car waiting on us when smudge decided to be a nerd. argh....

i sat down in my chair to put on my socks and set my shoes down right beside my feet.  the little, hairy nerd ran past me and grabbed one of my shoes without even pausing!  it was a snatch and grab!

of course this was NOT the time for this.  he was definitely not earning any gold stars with me!  so you might be thinking:  "if you're already in a hurry, how did you have time to stop and take pictures of this?"

good question.  i took pictures to try and distract him while spencer and colby snuck up behind him to get my shoe back.

c'mon!  let's play!

on your mark...get set...go!

 i really don't remember how we got it back, but there was probably lots of yelling involved.

believe it or not, life at school was actually on the normal side of the scale!  of course the kids were super-chatty, but what do you expect?  they've been cooped up, away from their friends.  they had a lot of catching up to do!

our frantic monday continued that afternoon.  school gets out at 3:40, and the boys had to be at auditions for the missoula children's theater at 4:00!  i said good-bye to my students, grabbed my stuff and we were out the door!

this theater troupe tours the country, and the world actually, putting on productions using only children from kindergarten through 8th grade.  it is absolutely amazing what they can do with these kids in just one week!  last year the boys were in rumpelstiltskin, and they loved!  they couldn't wait to try out for this year's production:  king arthur's quest

photo of the day

2-7-11

auditions 

and once again, thankfully, both boys got parts!  we are so excited!

spencer is playing the part of the ghost of uther pendragron.

colby is a camelotian.  (that's a step up from a bumblebee last year!)

quote of the day:  "give me that squeegee!!!!" ~audition line

happy sunday!

today bible classes were cancelled because of the weather, but we still had worship time together!  and it was extra special because the Howe family came all the way from tulsa to worship with us!  it was so right sitting with them and worshipping god together.

photo of the day

2-6-11

lisa and me

Yay!  I got to worship with one of my BFFs today!

after a delicious lunch at dinks bbq, i tried to take a nap with smudge.  but he wasn't ready for a nap when i was. he just wanted to play, but i wouldn't play with him.  so he brought his tennis ball and wrapped himself in a pair of MY jammie pants that were on the bed and played by himself.

fine.  if amy won't play with me,
 i'll just play with her stuff!

 after what seemed like an eternity, smudge finally gave up and took a nap!

he's so cute when he's sleeping!

quote of the day:  "sunday clears away the rust of the whole week." ~ Joseph Addison