April 9, Play Day

Today was much nicer than the weather reports suggested. I got up early (as always) and went outside and got this photo of our driveway...

I kidnapped Tori after lunch to bring home with me for a play afternoon. She had a long list in her mind of what she wanted to do, so we had to get right to work. First, she wanted to clean out the "fort" which we have kind of turned into an outdoor storage shed. She has always imagined it would make a great play-house. It had inches of fir needles and stuff in it and we swept it all out and made it nice and clean. She also wanted to have a picnic in it, but that will have to wait for another day...

Oops, this got out of order, but after the fort, and after singing karaoke with you-tube, I helped her make this banner for her room. She was extremely creative and really enjoyed the process and finding cool stuff in my craft room to use!

Back to the fort - its all cleaned up, including the very little swing. Walker loved that swing too and all the grandkids. Its only about 12 inches off the ground!

But Grandpa challenged her to touch a certain tree branch with her feet and the contest was on!

This was hilarious! Also the photos of Grandpa with the princess puppet, which are priceless, but I think I'll hang on to them for some future blackmail material.

Then, Victoria wanted to go for a walk - to the beach! So we headed down there. Very nice and Tori thought it was summer and wanted to take her shoes off - but grandma said no.

It was still tons of fun to collect shells, throw rocks into the water, and order grandma and grandpa around. . .

This is a kind of tumbleweed barnacle bush. I think it rolled in with the last tide. Kind of cool I thought.

A thoughtful moment on the beach...

Our little mermaid posing for me. . .

Then home for hide and seek, pizza, The Cat from Outer Space DVD, a tea party, and then she had to go home. Its been a long week of vacation for her and she conked out immediately in the car and her daddy had to carry her into the house.

Ah, that's my kind of fun day. I hope she remembers it always. I know I will.

April 8, 2010 - Singing...Breathing...Laughing...

I attended my first choir class last night. I was a little nervous. I didn't know exactly where the classroom was, I didn't know exactly how to get a parking pass, I wasn't sure how I would fit in with the rest of the group, I wasn't sure if I would be discovered immediately not to be able to read music "Judith, please sing an "A" for us". . . As usual, no bad things happened! Why do I worry so? The teacher was very nice, the other students were a wide range of abilities, and everyone was there to have a good time. We will be learning a medley from Phantom of the Opera, and one from Les Miserables. We will also learn a couple of other pieces we don't have music for yet. There is a big performance in June, with us (our class of 25 or so) singing along with the 50 student Community College Choir. Singing always makes me feel happy. Maybe it is just really breathing for once. Today I had lunch with a couple of my friends. We planned to go to New Market, but when we got there, the parking lot was EMPTY! oh-oh. Spring Break! So we went to Iron Rabbit instead. I've been there several times before so I knew it was good. We got there about 1:00 and stayed until 3:30! The restaurant was deserted for the last hour and a half. We discussed many worthwhile topics and laughed a lot. Thanks Vicki and Melode for brightening up an otherwise cold and windy day.



The wind howled last night! It woke me up several times. Finally the cat thought we'd slept long enough and meowed pitifully until I got up and let her in.

April 6,7 "Things that are UP"

This photo is an afterthought, and really belongs at the bottom of my post - but I am not good enough to figure out how to add it in after the fact. Just read on and you'll enjoy the punch line.My Easter Flowers are fading fast, but all the yellow ones are holding up nicely. I wonder what this globe is - will all those spots open to little flowers? Looking at my bouquet of YELLOW flowers is very cheery!

My friend AJ is on Spring Break this week, and for months we have been looking forward to how we will use the time I usually go to school with him. Watching the animated movie "UP" has been our plan. Finally it happened! I really enjoyed it. It had many emotional moments in it (tissue please!) but I really enjoyed it. I wouldn't mind watching it again and would recommend it to all my grandchildren. That same day, Phil brought home a movie to watch: "UP in the Air" with George Clooney. It was very good too, although it was kind of sad at the end. We really thought Walker should see the part where George Clooney was showing his young assistant the ropes at the airport. That part was highly educational! However, I would not recommend that one to my grandchildren!

This was a beautiful moment! UP! I was reading in bed, looked over the side, and saw something between the mattress and the bed frame. I reached down and retrieved this adorable bookmark made for me by Tirzah!

It is even signed and dated (October 24, 2008 if you can't see it). I remember the day we made these for each other.

Phil talked to Walker today. He is going through "initiation week" for Mu Alpha. Today he was made to wear a Fireman's Outfit ALL DAY. Size 15 boots, helmet, coat, the whole outfit! There is some new thing every day, ending in initiation on Friday. I don't think we'll ever see a photo - we just have to imagine it! He was having FUN and enjoying the exposure! Better than wearing a lobster hat?

....

One last thing, W has received a $500 supplemental scholarship for next year. It appears that we have crossed a line into being eligible for "need based" scholarships. So, it is need based but also based on his high achievements to date. GO WALKER! (Very UP).

April 5, 2010

Happy April 5th. I don't have any photos today, but I wanted to do something with these images I have picked off of other sites and had in storage on my computer. (another FIRST for me, being able to manipulate this stuff!). I like this little bird tag and I may try to re-create it in my own workshop.

I think this is a nice Easter lady, with the birds' nest hat. If I had been a little more ambitious I would have made my mom an Easter card out of it (3 girls - 3 little eggs, get it?). I worked at the law office all day and we had big computer problems gnawing at us most of the day! Finally they were resolved and with no apparent damage . These butterflies are how I felt afterwards!

I went to the library during my lunch hour and picked up books I had reserved there: "COLLAGE UNLEASHED!" COLLAGE, ASSEMBLAGE, AND ALTERED ART" "al.pha.bet.i.ca", "The Creative License" and KALEIDOSCOPE". These are all beautiful books with colorful ideas and I plan to pour over them over the next few days. We have gloomy weather ahead for a week, so I'll enjoy these bright ideas.

April 4, 2010 Happy Easter!

Claudia grabbed my camera and got this picture of me pulling stuff out of the oven. Everything we had was great - Ham, 2 quiches, Claudia brought croissants and potato salad, Jonny brought Chicken Marsala, Cheesey potatoes, and brownies. Alan made a 7 layer mexican dip with tortilla chips. It was a nice easy meal with lots of happy talk around the table. Here is my Wal-mart ham. It turned out great.

Claudia marked her place with scrabble tiles! (why didn't I think of that?)

Here is Alan and Sara and Victoria arriving. And, they brought a surprise visitor with them!

Victoria playing grandma's lap harp. She was very good at it and could play London Bridge, Mary Had a Little Lamb, baa baa black sheep, and lots of others.

See the music under the strings - that's how she knows which string to pluck.

And here is the surprise guest! A teacup chihuahua! They are puppy sitting for Tori's babysitter. Isn't he adorable. He isn't named yet. Our little cat is twice as big as him!

We had a nice visit with Walker this morning too, before everyone arrived. He is enjoying his last day before the school fills up again and everyone starts getting ready for final papers, final exams, initiation of the mu alphas.

I had three years worth of diary entries about our Easter Celebrations: 2003, 2007 and 2009. It was really fun to read them and see what we ate, who attended, and what we did.

April 3, 2010

Not as rainy as yesterday, luckily, as the Tree guy came today to finish up. Here is my tree guy moving bark chips. Things are really getting open and lighter now. This is back by our supplemental parking area, the tree professional hauling branches to the chipper (that's the neighbor's house through the trees.

I bought a bouquet of flowers for Easter. It had sunflowers, strawflowers, snapdragons, I think pink gerbera's some kind of globe looking things, and salal leaves. Is this a gerbera?

I know a sunflower when I see one!

I've been doing some baking - below is my jalapeno pie. Its a can of jalepenos, cheese, and 3 eggs. I also made a cottage cheese-spinach quiche, and some shortbread cookies. I looked at the horrible disorder that is my recipe file, and took everything OUT. I am only putting back in the recipes I love! It is just stuffed full of maybes and wannabees. I am re-writing the good ones on new card stock and decorating them a little.

Our company is coming at noon for a nice feast. I hope your Easter is filled with love too!

April 2, 2010

Happy April! We had a stormy day here, but not as bad as predicted. We mostly stayed home today so I don't have much to blog about, and this photo doesn't mean a thing, except that I copied it out of a book I have and I think it is a charming image. I love the way these lupin plants capture the water droplets. If you look closely, they have fine hairs that help grab the water drops.

Tomorrow the tree guy is supposed to come over and finish up our tree trimming, and we start getting ready for Easter company.

I'm working on a couple of art projects that may be ready to share tomorrow... We haven't been hiking much at all!