I was just sitting here at the computer and thought it might be time to update again. Thing is, whenever I think of updating, it seems so overwhelming because I think I need to fill you in on what all has been going on in the gap between now and the last time I updated. But, I guess I'll just have to squelch that urge or this post would be a mile long, esp if I add pictures to it!

I've had lots of inspirations of things to write, but they usually come at times when I can't write them down... on the treadmill, scrubbing the kitchen floor, or driving in the car. I don't have pens at any of those times. Yeah, not even in the car (or in my purse). I think my car and purse eat pens. One time, I went to the bank, pulled to the side to get my deposit ready before going thro' the Drive-Thru, and could NOT find a pen! I didn't want to bother unbuckling the girls and herding them inside so I could use a pen in there. My next stop was Walmart, so I tucked the check and deposit slip back into my purse, went to Walmart, and bought a pack of pens along with the other things on my list. Then, I went back to the bank and did my Drive-Thru deposit. I bought a 10-pack of pens and put half of them in my purse and half of them in the car. I wish I could tell you that I've never had the can't-find-a-pen-in-my-purse-or-car dilemna agian, but that would be lying.

What's been taking most of my time is starting up a new website and keeping it updated. It is www.KitchenScrapbook.com.

I think that site is not news to most of you though. It's actually seasoned_to_taste taken off of xanga. I didn't shut down stt, I'm running them side by side, although stt only has partial posts... then I don't have to upload all the pictures twice.

If you're wondering why I took it off of xanga, the main reason is because I wanted to see about making a bit of money with it. It just would seem like a dream come true if I could do what I love doing AND make money at it. Seems like most of my hobbies cost money instead of make money. Anyway, one main goal I have is use the money to have some contests with hefty prizes... you know, bigger than a $10 Starbucks gift certificate. That contest was just so fun and I want to have more and the bigger the prize, the more fun it would be, right?! So, I've been spending time trying to get more traffic on it by getting good Google ratings and basically just getting it 'out there' and updating more often.

Shannon got it up and going for me. He's my tech support. He learned/was born with the common sense of how to work with that HTML jibberish and whatever all it took to start a site from scratch, having it's own URL. One day, it struck me funny when I thought back to Shannon's first email address. It was technophobic1 at juno.com (it made it a link if I wrote it the correct way and I was afraid someone would try to email it and it's so obsolete). Things have come a long way since then... now it could be technosavvy1 or technojustaskme1 or technoknowmywayaround1.

Another event: Tiffany had a birthday. Her second one. Can't believe my baby is 2 already! I guess I just forget, but I don't remember being so charmed by a 2-yr-old before. She has this thing where she comes up to one of us and says, "Ho' me." Just a flat statement said really fast sounding like she's from the south and a smirk on her face and you can't help but pick her up (she means 'Hold me'). One thing I do get tired of is the forever "Mom! Wats!" (watch). And then she does something really amazing, like jumping off the bed or balancing a teddy bear on her head. I'll add a couple pictures here of her growing up...

Newborn. I just could not get done holding this baby. Even at night, I didn't mind at all getting up with her... I was always ready to hold her again.

6 months old. All decked out in a Pooh outfit...

1 year old.

18 months. Giving me gray hairs by climbing up on everything...

2 years old. With her cousin Kaitlyn who is 2 days younger. I know, not a very good picture, not sure what happened with the eyes!

Another thing that happened in the past month is that I sprained my ankle. Never did that before. Crazy thing is, my mom sprained hers a couple weeks before that, so we could compare our misfortunes and empathize with each other. If you're at all interested in how it happened... It was carry-in Sunday at church and I had brought a fruit tray. It was kinda big and heavy and since it takes some skill to tuck everything in the fridge at church, I decided that the outside temp was ok to leave it out in the car. So, about 20 min before church was over, I went out to the car to get it. I took Tiffany along to give her a break from church. We were on the way in and I slipped on the ice. Tiffany and I both fell down and my ankle was hurting like crazy. I tried to get up, but putting weight on it just killed it, plus it felt sorta numb. So, there we sat, out on the ice, wondering what to do next. I was holding Tiffany. I tried to get up again and still couldn't. One good thing is that my ankle was on ice right away for what ended up being about 10 minutes, I'd say. As I was sitting there, I noticed the fruit tray sitting on the ground beside me, still intact except for a few banana chunks that fell off. I don't remember setting it down and I wonder WHY it didn't go flying! Anyway, after awhile, I decided that I'll just have to get up and go in, pain or no pain, because church wasn't over yet and nobody was coming out to help us. So, we gingerly went in and then came home right away after church. That happened on a Sunday and it was Thurs eve before I could put weight on it. Shannon was working double-shift between home and going to work. I got x-rays done and it's not broken. Now, 3 1/2 weeks later, I can still feel it all the time, and it still hurts to go down steps.

And that about brings us up to date with some of the things that have been going on around here. Oh, I've been Spring cleaning too, but that's nothing new. Unless I get the entire house done this Spring... now THAT would be something new! Just a few pictures yet.

Watching the Birkiebeiner Ski Race...

and a few of the 6000+ skiers...

Lexi said, "Mom, do I look like a cowgirl?"

Tiffany cuts everything she gets her hands on, unless we catch her first. We keep the sharp scissors out of reach...

I was cleaning out the fridge and took the 2 bottom drawers out to wash them. So, it became a playground for a few minutes...

Tiffany insists on getting herself dressed. Her shirts are usually on backwards...
 

Just being goofy, peeking thro' the hairdo...

Strawberry Shortcake gets a ride on a tire swing. Lexi created one with a hair scrunchy and beads tied to the rocker. She was sitting there pushing her for awhile...

Have a good day!

Juvenile conversations and Valentine pictures...

I actually started writing this yesterday, so some of the 'today' stuff actually means 'yesterday'.

Conversation this afternoon:

Me: "I'm gonna clean up the rest of the house, then do all the floors last."
Lexi: "That would be a good idea because there's my socks laying on the floor and I still use them and you might sweep them up with the sweeper."
Me: *laughed* "I wouldn't sweep socks up!"
Lexi: "Yeah, you did one time. Remember? We were up in my room and me and Tiffany were standing in the crib. You sweeped up one of my socks and I said, 'Hey, you sweeped up my sock!' and you said, 'Oh, sorry.'"
Me: "How long ago was this?"
Lexi: "It was pretty long ago. I think I was 3. And Tiffany was maybe 1 month."
Me: "Hmmm, I don't remember it. I didn't know the sweeper could sweep up a sock."
Lexi: "Well, it did."

End of conversation. She won that one. It still stands that my vacuum sweeper ate a sock.

Another conversation from today:

Me: "I have a job for you."
Lexi: "What is it?"
Me, getting a couple disinfectant wipes out of the can: "Clean the bathroom."
Lexi: "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

15 minutes later...

Lexi: "Mom, I decided to organize the cupboard in here for you too."
Me: a leary "Ok."

Moments later...

Lexi: "Where should the mouthwash go?"
Me, not in the mood to obsess over the organizing: "Wherever it fits is fine."
Lexi: "No, Mom! That's not organizing! Organizing means putting the same things all together, not just putting them wherever. Like, all the lotions are together on this shelf because that's the things-you-rub-on-you shelf. And you DON'T rub mouthwash on you! *laughs at her own joke* Oh, I know! The mouthwash can go on the top shelf with the medicine!"

Hmmm, must be the things-you-put-in-your-mouth shelf.

In other news: I'm excited about this... I was trying to drum up a special meal for tomorrow (edit: 'tomorrow' actually now means 'today') evening  because we didn't have anything special planned, when I got an email from my Mother-in-law that said, "I have this empty slot from 4:00 - 8:00 on Valentine's Day. Any ideas how to fill it?" After thinking long and hard for about 1/2 second, I got a GREAT idea! I would fill her slot with 2 little girls and go on a date with my husband!   I'm so glad she offered because grandmas are in love with grandpas and I'd hate to ask for babysitting because what if they were planning to go on a date themselves?!

Just a few pictures yet... I know I've been in a major Valentine mode over on seasoned to taste, so I'm gonna stay in that mode till after this post, then I'll snap out of it for the year, on xanga anyway.

Making pizzas. To see the whole meal, go over to seasoned_to_taste.

The table. The children sat in the middle and the adults around the outside. Worked great! We could sit across from and help our own children.

My grandpa Schrock was there too.

Me and mine.

Timmy drinking pop.

I like this picture... 3 of the little granddaughters all in a row with their boxes of Valentine chocolates from Grandpa.

The next day was Sunday and we had a belated birthday party for Mom... 

and then some games...

Have a wonderful evening!!!

SNOW... as far as the eye can see.

Here's the 36-hour forecast for our town... not too bad right now, but look at tomorrow night!

I'll copy and paste this from the 'Severe weather alert' page: "A WIND CHILL WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING...WHEN WIND CHILLS OF 40 TO 50 BELOW ZERO ARE EXPECTED. WIND CHILLS THIS COLD WILL FREEZE EXPOSED SKIN IN LESS THAN 10 MINUTES."

Anyway, I just happened to think about a poem my uncle Elv made up in Feb of '95, I think it was. My aunt Arla had it hanging on her fridge and I was so impressed with it that I memorized it one evening when we were over there. Seems like there were a couple more stanzas that I can't remember, but here's part of it anyway:

"Oh, I'm so tired of the snow and the cold,
It's makin' me ache and it's makin' me old.

I wanna go where the warm winds blow,
I wanna see people who've never seen snow.

I wanna go where it rains in the winter,
And pick my teeth with a cactus splinter.

I wanna go where the sun can shine,
And toast my hide in the weather so fine,

Cuz I'm so tired of the snow and the cold
That's makin' me ache and makin' me old."

HOCKEY! from my point of view...

This is our Saturday night entertainment around here. Some of the guys from church, plus a few friends, play hockey. The wives and youth girls watch the game, run the score board, and chase our kids.  We have a choice of bundling up and watching in the cold (which is better because then you can hear game noises) or there are a couple heated room options with huge windows (that's mostly what we do because it's warmer and you can still here some game noises).  

The 2 goalies are brothers (and happen to be my brother-in-laws)... they each have their different style, but both are very good! (Not that I know much about 'goalie style', but I do know that the one tends to venture pretty far away from the net sometimes! He obviously knows what he's doing though!!!) Here they are...
Paul: Nice save!

And Elvie (liz324's husband):

Action shots:

The rink:

There are usually too many guys to all be on the ice at once, so they take turns on the bench, trading off every few minutes or so. I'm pretty sure that's my husband at this end of the bench. Lexi KNOWS it's him 'because just look at the stick! That's his stick. See, it has some red on it."

The scoreboard at the end of the second game (they play 2 60-min games). I'm pretty sure Paul's team won that game. The winning score came in seconds before the clock ran out. Not sure who won the first game.

Hockey players in training. These little guys came out on the ice after the game. They were so cute in their gear. Tyler (6) in the white helmet, Austin (11) in black, with their dad Tim in the white jersey.

If you come visit us on a Saturday evening, now you know where we'll most likely take you! And we'll loan your husband some hockey equipment, too.

Disposable is a matter of opinion...

This morning, I was standing in the dining room and a mouse scurried from behind the trash can into the living room. It always gives me an unnerving dirty feeling to KNOW there's a mouse in my house! So, I got a brand new trap out, put peanut butter on it, and put it behind the couch. I thought this would be pretty good timing... it probably went down a hole and till it gets back around to finding the peanut butter, Shannon will be home from work and he can take care of it OR it will stay away with all the commotion during the day and get caught overnight tonight and then Shannon can take care of it before he leaves for work in the morning.

Lexi dutifully checked the trap every 10 seconds or so. After about 15 minutes, I went downstairs and she came along down. Soon, she said, "I better go check the trap again". I almost said, "Don't bother. It won't have caught one yet." but then I thought, 'Oh well, I'll let her go. She'll die of curiosity otherwise.' A minute later, she came down and said, "At last! It's dead!" I was quite surprised. She insisted there was a mouse in the trap and said I've gotta come see it. I said I'll soon be done, then I'll come up and see it. She said, "Ok, but this will surprise you... it looks VERY uncomfortable."  No kidding.

So, now I was in a pickle. It would be approximately 10 hours till Shannon comes home and the only thing worse than a live mouse in the house is knowing there's a dead one in the house. Anyway, to make a long story short, I thought it was so nice how they make mouse traps disposable ... that one was anyway. Next time I go to Walmart, I'll see what they cost to see if they actually are. If they're $1 or less, it's a no-brainer. $1 - $2, I'd feel guilty. $2+, I might reconsider letting the mouse lay dead behind the couch till Shannon gets home from work.