Sunday 30 December 2012

An Afternoon Interrupted

 
 
Twas the afternoon before New Year's eve, eve
and DH was napping, can you believe?
It was cold outside and the wind was a blowing,
But so sad, it wasn't even snowing.
 
The kitties were sleeping on the tv,
Not a whisker was twitching, I can guarantee.
The boys were pretty quiet, doing their thing,
And mamma should have been stitching with her string.
 
When all of the sudden, there was a loud noise.
Much, much too loud to be one of the boys.
Daddy screamed and jumped out of bed,
Scared of what we had heard overhead.
 
We ran outside and looked at the roof,
We couldn't see anything, certainly not a hoof.
We went round the house and looked on the side,
and couldn't believe what we spied.
 
Our neighbor's dead tree had come through the fence,
Hit the roof and damaged the side, it just didn't make sense.
But what the heck, the house won't be here long,
Our next one will be super strong!
 
 
 

 

 

Saturday 29 December 2012

Our latest adventure, come follow us!

 
 
It's really happening, and here's where it starts...

This dumpster is now filled with an old doghouse, shed and, so sad, an old swing set, among other odds and ends from the back yard.
 
We are getting ready to tear down our existing house and rebuild a new one. 
If you'd like to follow our adventure, please email me your email address and I'll send you an invitation to another "blog" I'm getting ready to start.  I think this one needs to be a bit more private and not totally out there for all to see. 
 

 
This is going to be an exciting, yet scary time for us - come join the ride!
 
 

Thursday 27 December 2012

Blogging Comment Question

 
 
Okay, I have a question for all my fellow bloggers/friends about comments left on your blog... how do you respond? 
I have just recently started to respond to comments, so sorry I didn't in the past!  I've been emailing the person directly from the notification email I receive - as long as there is an email to respond to. 
On my comment section, I have enabled the comments to show reply, but wouldn't the person who wrote the original comment need to have clicked "Subscribe by email" to see it?  Does any of that make sense? 
I know I don't always subscribe after leaving a comment on a blog, but am wondering if I should?

Example - Here are two comments on my post "Our 2nd Jingle Bell Walk for Arthritis"
 
 2 comments:
 
Astrid,
What a great family/friend walk for an important cause. You have a great group and the pic of your Mom and Dad is so sweet.
Hugs!
ReplyDelete
 
  1. Are you parents from Essex UK or were they on holiday?
    ReplyDelete 
Now I did respond by emailing both Carolyn and Nicola, but thought about just replying to Nicola on my blog since she asked a question.  Would she have seen it if she didn't subscribe?  Or should I just do both?   (btw, my parents were living there at the time - might have to have my Dad guest blog about it!)
 
Any thoughts or suggestions would be helpful, or maybe I'm just spending too much time thinking when I could/should be stitching?!  This is what happens when I'm sick with a stuffy cold, no energy, and a new laptop!

Wednesday 26 December 2012

#1 Son - Stay out of the kitchen!


This mess was supposed to be a beautiful, orange-cranberry cake.  
 But when someone turns the oven off after the first 15 minutes, this is what you get!  I went to check on it when it was "supposed" to be close to being done and noticed that the oven was off.  I proceeded to have a raging, screaming fit find out what happened while DH turned the oven on again to finish baking it.  But the end result was that it totally stuck to the pan and I had to scrape the rest of it out.  So much for bringing this to our friend's open house!

  You'd think our #1 14 year old son would know how to turn off the timer and not the oven at this point in his life, but maybe not.  It could be partially my fault since I used the microwave timer for the oven (I like it better) and then he used the oven timer for his lunch.  Although he'll tell you he really didn't want the cake to go to the party, but stay here for us to eat.  Nice try... although it was still yummy!  Next time I make it, I'll make sure he stays out of the kitchen.

 Now this piece of work was also done by #1 son, he was 12 years old at the time.  While at the beach one summer, instead of putting the nuggets in the oven for 12 minutes, he put them in the microwave for 12 minutes.  I had nothing to do with this one and needless to say, the house stunk big time!
Now I know that these are only two incidents (that I'm aware of) that have happened, and normally he can be a help in the kitchen, but I will be keeping an eye on him in the future!

Christmas Festivities

 
 
Every year I try and avoid it, but here they are - decorating sugar cookies on Christmas Eve.  That's Santa's favourite cookie in our house, so it's a must.   

It wouldn't be Christmas Eve without Santa leaving the boys their new PJ's and ornaments.  I love how excited Nathan gets when he sees the tree and presents! 
 
It was a Space Angry Birds kind of night. 


We had a white Christmas, at least before it melted!  It looked so pretty when it was snowing on our way to church, too bad it didn't snow all night.  But at least it looked pretty Christmas morning.   

Here we have Gammy opening her goodies that were left in her new stocking I made her.  She was pleasantly surprised and loved it!  But I told her we were keeping it for her because if she took it home she'd probably lose it.

Ming had to check the boxes to make sure nothing was left in them.  

Another Christmas dinner success!  DH always picks a new dish to try and this year it was Pepper Steak... yummy!  

And thanks to that wonderful DH, I am writing this on my new laptop.  Since my other one "died" and the mini one I was using (which was actually his) was way too slow, I was lucky enough to get a new one.  I have been told not to kill this one so I'll do my best!  On the stitchy front, Gammy gave me these two patterns I've been wanting and can't wait to start.  But I must restrain myself, I have too many unfinished pieces I need to work on first.  This is going to be hard!  Did anyone else get any stitching treasures?
 
And Remember...
 

Friday 21 December 2012

Our 2nd Jingle Bell Walk for Arthritis


Earlier this month, we walked our 2nd year of the Jingle Bell 5K Walk/Run for Arthritis in honour of my Mom.  She is now doing physical therapy to try and avoid surgery.  She's still upbeat and doesn't complain although I know she's always in pain.
Arthritis sucks.
Here's my post from last year's Jingle Bell Walk. 

We were "Oma's Angels" again this year and our group grew!  Some of my friends I grew up with joined us, as well as our next door neighbours.  We all wore our halos proudly, at least for the picture!  The girls got pretty girly halos this year and my crafty friend, Nina, said we were "dressing up" next year.  Uh oh, I don't think the boys will wear the tutu she's talking about!

Diane and her Moo Chicks!



Our wonderful neighbours and DH and 2 out 3 boys.
Cute!


 
My gf since elementary school and her family.

It was a little cold, but once we started walking it felt good.  We took our time and pretty much kept the same time as last year, about a hour and 10 minutes or so.  Next year one of them said they wanted to run it - see ya!

Last year we ended up walking on my parents anniversary, but not this year.  Here's a picture my Dad sent me that was taken the night before they were married.  So Mom/Oma, I love you and we're planning on walking again next year!

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Wow, I finally finished some ornaments!

 
I'm not even going to tell you how long I've had these stitched, just not finished into ornaments - embarrassing!  I love this little wishing snowman, almost didn't want to see him go.

 These little pair of mittens were made for DJ.  They should have been on her tree last year, but they didn't quite make it!

And here's little Rudolph keeping the snowmen company on her tree.

And this little treasure is what DJ made for me, I love it!  Here she sits, stitching away, wish it was me.

Friday 7 December 2012

Day Seven of Advent, Stockings all the way!


Welcome to day seven of Jo's advent calendar!  The theme this year is, "Stocking, Sack or Something Else?"  We are a stocking family, although different from when I was growing up.

But first, here's an oldie but a goodie I made for my parents years ago.  They still keep it on their wall all through the year.  I think it would look great with the nutcracker print I recently got framed, (thanks to DJ!) but I don't think my parents will give it up.



Ever since I was a little girl, mine was a true stocking... as in pantyhose.  You can take a look here at my last year's advent post to see what I mean.
 
 DH has at least three stockings, maybe even four, I wonder what made him so special?!  But he's only allowed to put one up, mustn't be greedy!  I never had a "real" stocking, so my MIL, aka Gammy, was sweet enough to give me one with my name on it.
I wish I could say I made these, but I can't. 

After all these years, Gammy doesn't have one of her own.  Or if she does, she doesn't put it out.  So when DJ came over earlier in the week to stitch, I decided I needed to finish the one I started to make her.  Although I'm embarrassed to say, I started it over 6 years ago and never finished.  And all it needed was fur and buttons! 
So here it is, nothing too fancy but it's her!  I'll surprise her with it on Christmas morning, hanging on our mantle.

Enjoy "opening" the rest of the Advent doors, I know I'm looking forward to seeing what others have posted.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Football and Frustration

Our gmen were both on the JV football team at school.  Their season ended and the team could have done a littler better, but they tried.  Garrett ended up hurting his leg in the third game and when he finally was able to play again at the last game, he ended up with a concussion.  But he was there for every practice, even though he couldn't join in.  Griffin got to play quite a bit, he had to cover for his brother!  Anyway, here they are at their banquet and luckily Nathan was kept busy so we could enjoy it.

Some of the JV team was "bumped" up to varsity for their final games, mainly for recognition since they are not allowed to play.   
The varsity team was undefeated and made it to the State Championship game at the M and T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.  Since the gmen were part of that bumped up group, they were able to be on the field for the championship.

During half time the band performed - that's our godson!

Love the Hawk.

And look who joined us?!  DJ and her men braved the cold to come watch the game with us.  I'm still learning about football and was happy to actually "teach" DJ some of it.  We've still got some learning to do... but she can't ask her hubby, he was trying to confuse her and have her cheer for the other team!

The first half wasn't going so well, the team was behind.  BUT, they got their game pants on and played as they should and won! 

Here are the gmen standing behind one of the coaches.  It was a televised game and they were being taped at that moment.  It was a very exciting night, but I was quite happy to head to the car and get warm. 


Here's my FRUSTRATION - has anyone else been having problems with uploading pictures on blogger?!  I just recently asked Danielle why she switched over to blogpress and she said it was mainly because she had reached her photo limit.  Well guess what message I have been getting for the past few days?!  Stupid blogger. 

DJ was over yesterday (she stitched, I sewed... next post) and I was asking her about it and she said she always compresses her pictures, so they are web sized - or something like that!  (Please correct me if I'm wrong)

Well, I did that today and it seems to work!  Although I tried using google chrome and it wouldn't upload, but when I used Internet Explorer it worked.  Stupid Internet.

I think that's it for my frustration for now, except I can't seem to get in the mood for Christmas.  Maybe because it was almost 70 degrees here today!  I wanted to put up my inflatable snowmen, but I was afraid they'd melt...