Conversations and Observations from the Home Front

The other day Katrina and I had this short conversation after I was petting Vader the cat and realized he had something hard and crunchy on his fur.

Me: Do you guys know what is on Vader's back?
Katrina (in the most matter of fact voice): It is probably hairspray.

Not sure which kid did that, but someone clearly thought his hair needed to be styled.

Disney on Ice is coming to the big arena here in about six more weeks and I bought tickets for all of us as the kids love skating so much and are getting so much better so quickly. We went onto YouTube to watch some of the clips from the show and it really is amazing what all they can do on ice skates - jumps, splits, being launched from a teeter totter into the air and landing on someone's hand, etc. Katrina studied all of these videos closely and after watching them for some time, she says in her serious voice, "I'm going to try some of those moves tonight during free skate." During skating, I could see she was trying to get airborne, but didn't quite make it. Maybe next week. I wouldn't put anything past her.

I am often surprised when I walk into Ethan's room as he loves to do different things with his toys and other objects. Right now, Ethan loves to stick stickers on all kinds of objects in his room. His favorite spot for stickers is on the end of his bed. This weekend ,while putting clean sheets on Ethan's bed, I happened to look at his sticker collection and realized that he must have found a book of stamps at some point as he has a whole bunch of new postage stamps in his sticker collection. Not sure where he got them from, but had to laugh.

So anyway, those are my conversations and observations from the home front. The kids LOVE skating and I'm signing them up for more after this class. So fun to watch them skate a long. Happy Wednesday!

Lake effect snow

We have had several warnings for lake effect snows this winter, but today is the biggest lake snow that we have seen. According to the definition, lake effect snow occurs when cold air moves across the warmer lake water. The wind picks up the water vapor which is then deposited as snow. What seems to happen - here is my simpler definition - is they forecast flurries and then it snows a ton instead. That is what I guess a lake effect snow is. It is snowing a ton outside right now and the roads are really bad. We were suppossed to go to a work party tonight, but Greg thinks it might be cancelled. This is the biggest snowfall that we have seen up here.

On a different note, I have decided next holiday season that I am throwing myself a work party. There will be chocolate, presents for me, decorations are a must but nothing too complicated as I will have to hang them, and perhaps some party games. And I might even give a speech. Not sure who will be here to listen to it (haven't decided if a spouse and children will be invited), but the dogs are normally a receptive audience. Perhaps this idea comes from cabin fever, but I think it is somewhat brilliant. Something to look forward to next winter!!

Ice skating

Last night the kids had ice skating lessons for the second time. The week before, Katrina was very disappointed as she was moved from the 6-8 year old class down to the 3-5 year old class (she didn't know the age groups - just that there was a beginner and an experienced class). She has a friend who stayed in the bigger kid class, but Katrina and I discussed all week that her friend had skated before. She begged me to talk to the teacher to get her moved back into her friend's class, but I just told her that her teacher would move her if she thought she was ready with that class. Every night we discussed this. Yesterday she went out determined to skate. I was talking to a friend when I looked over and she was in the big kid class! And she was doing great!! She only fell one time. Afterwards, I was telling her how proud I was of her for getting moved up. I had assumed that her teacher had noticed how well she was doing and moved her up. Wrong - Katrina went up to the teacher and told her that the class she was in was too easy. The teacher asked her to do some various skills and she did them all and was moved up! I never would have been brave enough to ask that when I was her age!! The video of Katrina is of her skating backwards (she struggled a bit, but has gotten really good at skating forwards). Ethan's clip shows his determination - the kiddo falls all the time, but he gets right back up!

Igloo, Ethan's toys, and sleeping

This is how Ethan now sleeps (and may I add through the night FINALLY) - curled up next to Mater. Mater seems to know that this is job and does it without complaint. I took this last night when they were both konked out.

This is how Ethan loves to play with his toys. He has to arrange them just so. Please notice that the last row inside the circle is dedicated to aviation.

Another example of how he likes to play with his toys. I just thought it was funny that his Battle Zhu Zhus' have invaded the dragon castle. Sometimes I walk into his room and laugh out loud at how he has arranged things. His mind is very much like his dad's.

Success! Igloo complete!!

Here are just some of the latest pictures. Here is also a funny little story that Katrina told us yesterday in the most serious of voices - "Our teacher told us that Austin wasn't at school today because he had pink eye. I told her that I had pink eye before. Anna told her that she had purple eye once." Very serious conversation. I laughed out loud at that one.

Katrina's big day!

Right above these words is our final picture of our little girl without earrings. Yesterday she bravely sat in the chair at the place where we get our hair cut as two stylists pierced her ears at the same time. She didn't cry a single tear - she looked STUNNED after it happened, but we immediately gave her a mirror to see them in and she was content. She did say that they hurt yesterday, but she has been diligently turning them and we have been putting cleaner on them.

In one of the pictures above you can see Greg leaning over the railing - he is busy dumping buckets of snow down into a pile to make an igloo with the kids. We LOVE LOVE LOVE snow and it has snowed every day for the past week or so. Tomorrow the kids start ice skating lessons. Winter fun!!

Turkeys galore!

As I am typing this, there are over 60 turkeys in the yard (possibly over 70 - they keep moving around and I have to run around the house to count them - there could even be 80 - I can't see all of them through the woods). I can hear their turkey noises through the window. We love watching them although I have still never seen them eat from my turkey feeders. Betsy, the bassett, REALLY wants to go outside and chase them right now. Poor Betsy has a touch of arthritis this winter. She had a very hard first few years as a country dog/stray so I'm glad she is with us now. Might need to get some medicine for her.

Yes, in case you can't tell by all my blogs about turkeys, my life has become a bit uneventful since settling in. I used to have experiences in Arkansas every day (at least one a day unless I didn't leave the house) that gave me something to blog about. Arkansas and I were not compatible. Now I feel like my life is blissfully unexciting. It is happy here. Today a mom that I had met one time at a school function was sitting in her car and as I walked by she flagged me down and hopped out to talk to us. Little things like this might sound really not exciting, but to those of us who lived in Arkansas and rarely if ever had someone new talk to us this is still a BIG deal to me. That was my excitement of the day. :)

Perhaps I should be more adventurous to make my blog more exciting. Or I should rename my blog "Steady as she goes. . ." ha ha! But really, very content here. Tomorrow Katrina has her first eye appointment up here. She is dreading it as she despises the drops. Saturday at 1pm she is scheduled to get her ears pierced. Oh my, I am dreading the drops AND the piercings!

Walk Like an Egyptian. . .

Many of you may know that Greg loves to dance. And he is actually quite good at it. I have no rhythm whatsoever so I taped him instead of having him tape me dancing. My sister and her family gave us the Just Dance game for our Wii and we are having a blast with it. Enjoy the video (this was his first time actually doing this particular song - pretty good, eh?). Wishing you a non-manic monday, tomorrow.