You Don't See That Every Day

Or perhaps your computer? I think mine is getting sick. It has been acting weird the past 2 days. Of course, now that the Master of the House is home from his travels, it is working perfectly fine~! I had a few moments of withdrawals today. I couldn't check my email or read any new updates or, horrors, I couldn't even Facebook. Thankfully G got home, booted up the computer, and wallah ( how do you spell that one?! ) here we are. *** So do you change your wallpaper as often as the weather changes? Today I have these beautiful daffodils to cheer me, one of my favorite flowers. Earlier in December I had the snow on my computer, since we didn't have any outside. At one point, when it was freezing for a couple of weeks, I had a picture of the beach up. It seems to be a habit of mine ... one type of change I like.

I decided to take a day off today, and we headed to the coast. My sister C. came along too. What a beautiful morning it was at the coast! The sun was just barely peeking through the clouds. There was no rain and no wind at the time we stopped to look. But the waves - oh they were tremendous! After spending some time at my sister L's house (she's about a mile from the beach) we headed out to see the waves up close. And maybe walk on the sand a little. It was cold so we didn't stay long. By this time - afternoon - the sun was just about gone, and the clouds were beginning to let little drops out on us. The kids had fun running across the sand hills, and through the grasses there. My sister C and I had a nice time just watching the huge waves rolling in. The dark section in this photo below is a wave, not a rock. They were amazing, rolling in from way way out there, crashing against the jetty, and so loud, the boom of the water hitting the rock was incredible.

It's time once again for basketball in our household. Not that we play basketball in the house. Football, yes, but not basketball. No, the church league - Upwards Basketball - has begun again. This is the 6th year we have been involved; the Boy has played for 5 of those years, and assisted on his sisters' team last year. He gets to play again this year, and he is so into it. And he is so much better, more coordinated, more aware of what needs to be done on the court. ( The action shot is a little blurry!) I did not get to see his first game last Saturday. G took him down to the game while I stayed at home with the girls ( One had been throwing up all morning .. I didn't think it would be prudent to take her out ). The Boy had an amazing game, good dribbling skills, good offense, etc. At the end of the game, the coach on each team gives out stars to his players. This time our Boy earned the Yellow star for sportsmanship. Makes a parent proud. He's the one in the white j...

I have a streak of curiosity in me. Often it gets me into trouble. (There was that one incident years ago with a clothesline and loppers); but sometimes my curiosity actually pays off! Occasionally I will receive 'blind' products in the mail to test and see how they work - and then I take a survey from the company, and get reward points, etc. Well, this time I decided to have my own experiment. I happened to have both of these fine products in the laundry room, and a pair of very muddy boy's pants. (disclaimer, neither of these companies know me, or know I did this, nor sponsored this very scientific test) I thought for sure the blue cleaner on the right would be the winner. It has been my go-to stain remover many times. The results: I don't know how well you can see it, but the one on the left was the winner! The blue product didn't diminish the stain as well as the green one. Good thing I have plenty of that spray left for upcoming muddy pants.

I found some shoe picts from the past! Here's 2001 And 2007

Our family has created some of our traditions throughout the year, like camping in a yurt after Labor Day, buying a special book for Christmas time, celebrating a certain birthday with a party, eating chili and rice on Christmas Eve. G and I have taken some traditions for our respective families and used them too. One of them is the Shoe Picture. My parents have a number of these taken throughout the years, showing the addition of siblings, and the change in shoe size. I try to get take one at the beginning of each year ... but I guess I haven't been so good at it. The ones I do have from the past were taken before we went digital, so I can't bring them up here. If you want to peruse the family albums for the past photos, you'll have to do it at my house. And I think I missed the past couple of years somehow! But I finally remembered it this time! So, the annual shoe photo - another documentation of how we are growing, in number and in size.

As I was waiting with my 4 year old I asked her to say the alphabet, just to help pass the time. And so she started out, " a.b.c.d.e.f.g.h.i.j.k.l.m.n.o.... (big breath) q.r.s.t.u.v.w.x.y and z " I pointed out to her that she did a great job, but left out the letter p. Quite seriously she looked at me, shook her head and said, "No. P is a potty word. That's why I didn't say it."