uggggg so tired and sore.

Today I took the kids to the library and then lunch with friends, came home repaired a hole in the sprinkler line, put down several yards of weed block to finish covering the new shade bed, bought and planted 25 new plants ranging from 1 gallon size up to 3 gallon size, watered all the plants, chased yet another trespasser off of our neighbors fire damaged property, and snuggled a bad dream shaken little boy. I   am   done! Until tomorrow that is :o)

The house across the street (to the right if your back is to our house) caught on fire last week. There has been a steady stream of gawkers, one of which actually tried to break into the house to see the inside. Adam tailed her around the corner while I called the police. She was arrested for not cooperating with the officer. Oh and she was apparently drunk! Tonight I hear a crash as I was headed inside and I call my neighbor who lives next to the burned house. There are two large men going through the dumpster and one headed behind the house. Scrappers. As I'm on the phone with my neighbor one of them comes over to talk to me. I informed him that we were told to call the police if there was anyone on the property and that he should come back in the morning for permission from the owner (not likely to happen). Just what the neighborhood needs...people trying to strip the house for scrap :o(

First apologies....I didn't know that LJ was not forwarding messages left for me her on LJ. mixter11nm  you left me a nice note so long ago and I never answered it because I didn't get it. I'm so sorry to leave you hanging like that! If anyone else tried to get a hold of me while I was away from LJ I'm sorry.

Observations:

A little snow falling from the sky effects the rate of speed people drive....in other words snow makes people stupid!

A preschooler with a fever weighs more than when he/she did not have a fever. Fever increases the weight of any child for that matter.

We go through a great many straws...I feel it is more than a little wasteful. These may be my next step in composting.

Over the holidays I made this star. It is lovely and now hanging in the kids room. Now I want to make this one, it is lovely but I am wanting the colors to be different somehow. I'm having a thing for stars and pinwheels lately.

The socks that Adam bought me in Paris when my feet hurt from so much walking and blisters (and the cold) got a hole in one heel with no real way of repairing them (bad hole) So I made a pair of these :o) They are lovely and warm and remind me of Paris.


A Quote:

Emma is sitting on Adam's lap at his computer. It's late, she can not sleep and Adam and I are playing City of Heroes. Emma is talking about the outfits the toons are wearing. When Adam points out lumineaux 's character Emma says:

"That outfit is not so good. She's a little nakie I think"

A Photo:

During that big snow storm we had a few weeks ago, the one that dumped 24 inches on us, I burned my hand on the top of the snow blower. 2nd degree burn in a spot about 3 inches long by 1 1/2 inch wide and 1st degree burn all around that. It was caused by the steam that formed in my glove when the water in the glove came in contact with the hot muffler. So in essence a steam burn.

Fast forward to today. Oh look more snow! Only about 4 inches but still, the driveway needed to be cleared. Today Adam is in the city so it's up to me to get the driveway and sidewalks clear. No biggie...my hand is doing better and I have fixed the problem with the auger belt on the snow blower. Oh, didn't mention that....  The auger belt on the machine kept slipping off and would catch in such a way that the blades would keep spinning even when the auger was not engaged. I got out the ball-peen hammer of persuasion and wrench of this had better work and well, I made it work :o)

It took me 2 hours but I got the entire driveway clear, all the sidewalk in front of our house and went across the street and cleared for the older woman who lives across for us. The kids, thankfully, napped the entire time.

Now they are awake and we are suiting up to head out for some snow play!

Is this thing on?

I'm still alive :o) Hope to start posting on a more regular basis.

That is all!

Sorry if you get this twice (I also posted on Facebook)

One of my former students is a singer and competing in a  Southern NJ talent competition in the under 18 category. I think she has an amazing voice and a chance to win.

Please take a minute and go vote for her (or if you like one of the others that's ok too..I wont hold that against you)

You can vote on her page here:



Thanks!!!

This post has been percolating in my head for a few days now as I decompressed and came off the "Court High" :o)

Mudthaw was awesome, even though I though my head was going to explode from trying to keep it all a secret from  tonypatriquin   . Keeping secrets is not something we do :o) It's hard to get a vigil prepared and set up when your living with the person and have two toddlers to work around. Thankfully we have a tremendous group of friends that did a huge amount of work to make the day special for Adam and myself. Adam's knighting was everything I had hoped it would be and my elevation to Baroness was a shock I was not ready for. Darius, as always, made sure there was laughter and tears. I have know him for 17 years now and yet he can still shock me :oP
(  I have sent out my thank you's by email, so I won't re-post them here. Instead I will share with you some of my favorite photos. )

Right now I'm listening to Emma and Caleb play on the slide in the living room.

E "Hi Kay! What doing?"
C "Hi Mmm I go"
E "Oh wow wha happen?"
C "I owie"

Both giggle

The interaction between the two of them is incredible. The other morning after getting them dressed Caleb went and sat down next to Emma on the floor and said "Hi Mmmm!" Emma replies "Hi Kay!" then there is some babbling back and forth after which they look at each other and giggle :o)

Caleb's energy is boundless (as some of you saw at 12th night on Saturday) and I sometimes wish he would play a little more independently. As it is now he will play for a few min by himself or with Emma and then demands that I play too. I'm trying to extend the independent play time by a little each week but he is fighting it hard. Right now Caleb is into peoples names and will go through the whole list of people he knows and match them to photos I have.

Emma is a word machine. She can speak in sentences up to five words though sometimes its hard to understand what she is saying unless your tuned to her frequency. She likes to sit and read book after book either by herself or having you read to her and there are many books where she will fill in words if you pause. Emma is also into counting but not always in sequence :o) "1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10!!!!"

The house is shaping up nicely. Most of the boxes are unpacked and there is art up on the walls. The garage has become an indoor play ground for the winter and early spring. All of the kids yard toys and bikes are inside. Though even with a space heater it has been a little too cold out there...so yesterday I brought the slide and little basketball hoop into the house and we played for quite awhile. It's very funny how full of static they get while playing on the slide!

I have an orchid ready to bloom...it currently has six buds and there might be more. Plus I got my seed order, 90% heirloom seeds this year and I'm planning the raised beds for the backyard. Going to do a combo of square-foot and lasagna gardening. I'm looking at making 3 or 4  4x4 beds that are 12 inches deep. My citrus trees are doing ok...though the move and a case of scale is stressing them a little.

Me...I'm doing well too :o) I'm back to exercising a few times a week and am getting into a routine for housework. I am doing a little knitting here and there but no spinning has gotten done at all which makes me a bit sad. I'm going to bring some to Birka so that my fingers don't forget what to do :o)

Speaking of Birka... The kids will be staying with Adams parents Friday and Saturday, we will pick them up on Sunday midday. So those of you that were looking for a toddler fix will have to wait until Mudthaw..sorry :o(

Mudthaw is getting close. I know there are a few of you that talked about staying here with us (Hugh, Red, Nicola, Svava, Mark, Nicollette and her student...)
If anyone else wants to stay here there is plenty of room and we will be opening up the hosue for a post revel since we will not be attending the feast. The site is a little over 23 miles north of our house.

And now some photos!!!

( Photos behind cut )

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I went over to the condo today to check the mail box. The post office has been lax in forwarding all of our mail and I'm still catching up with changing addresses.

As I pull up to the house I see a small fuzzy black lump in the road.

Macy was hit by a car right in front of the condo and is dead. It must have happened not too long before I pulled up in front of the condo because she was still warm.

I feel awful. She was still in the neighborhood maybe looking to get back into the condo.

I have her here at the house and Adam and I will bury her in the back yard. I think I will have my mom make a small marker out of slate.