Ten things I love that start with the letter “L”

September 27, 2008 at 1:58 pm (family)
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Lisanne over at Bathtub Junkie invited folks who read her blog, to comment on her post about what she loves about the letter “B”, and she would then assign letters.  She assigned me the letter “L”, and I thought I could have some fun with it!  So here goes.

1.  Learning.  I have always had a love of learning, about many different things.  Even when something we are doing totally sucks at the moment, I can always tell myself, well, it was a good learning experience.  I hope to continue to learn new things until my brain fails, and since I am hoping that never happens, I hope to learn a lot my whole life.  There are just so many things I want to try!  I won’t ever get to all of them.

2.  Lattes.  Actually, I probably like cappuccinos better, but that’s not an L word.   I am crazy about coffee and I can’t imagine life without it!

3.  La La La, Linoleum.  Just a cute sketch from Sesame Street, from my childhood!  A lot of L words in this song are favorites of mine, including Bert’s “lumps in my oatmeal”.  :)

4.  Laughter.  The best laughs come from my children when I am tickling them mercilessly.  I especially like the sound they make just before the screams at me to stop (which I do promptly!).

5.  Lunches out.  I don’t get to do this that often these days, but when we do go, the kids and I usually meet up with my husband somewhere near his work.  It’s a nice outing, breaks up the day, and the kids usually fall asleep in the car on the way home.  One of our favorite places is a local chain of diners.  The food is decent (it’s diner food!) and the kids can always get a pancake if they don’t want anything else.  We always take home leftovers.

6.  Long weekends.  It’s always such a relief when my husband has 3-4 days off work!

7. Linguine, lasagna, and other pasta-filled, Italian delights!  (Add lemon in there too, since it is a main flavor in a lot of Mediterranean foods.)

8.  Letting my kids (and myself) lick ice cream cones on a hot summer day.

9.  Little things.  Anything miniature.  Model trains, planes, dollhouses, even tiny parts at a hardware store always make me laugh.  Little baby shoes.  Little baby animals.  We found a little baby snapping turtle today who was the cutest little guy ever!

10.  Life.  My life is not perfect, but I do love life!  I complain, about the kids, about being tired, about the house’s quirks… but I need to say that I am so very lucky.  I have both of my parents, and my husband also has his, and one grandma!  We all live in Michigan.  Our kids are healthy, active, bright, and such a blessing.  There are so many good things happening in my life, even though times are scary.  Even when I bitch that life sucks, it’s really only a small part of it.  The things that count are really quite good.  And I am thankful for all of them!

If anyone else wants to play, just leave a comment and I’ll assign you a letter!

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Summer again? And a case of start-itis!

September 20, 2008 at 11:12 pm (family)
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It was 80 degrees here today, after lows around 40 at night all week. I even went through Sophie’s closet and pulled out all the cold weather stuff that is too small for her. I kind of like doing this seasonal change-over thing, and she is still little enough that I take something out of her closet, say “Ahhh…. this was SO cute on her!”, fold it up, and put it away.

Thankfully we got the water out of our basement. My husband’s brother and our sister in law live very close to us and they had a small pump, and an extra sump pump. Good thing too because ours died, on top of everything else! So the next day, my husband went out and bought a new one. I think we have a clog in the foundation drain somewhere because there was a lot of water in the drain at the opposite end of the house. We have not had rain all week and there isn’t much in the forecast, so it is probably a good time for someone to come take a look at it.

No news on the land. We haven’t put an offer in yet. Husband has been too busy at work and we were sick all week, all 4 of us.

Please give a shout-out to my friend Nancy at I.T. Chick, Running Dork. She is running in the Fox Cities Marathon tomorrow.

I am working feverishly to try to finish another pair of socks. I started them this past winter and because I LOVE STARTING PROJECTS, I never wind up being very quick at getting stuff done! I think having a few things going helps keep me from burning out on one thing, but the downside is that I don’t finish stuff that fast. I’ve got about 1/2 a sock to go and I’ll have another pair done. But I can’t keep away from Ravelry, I just go through pictures and sit here and think of what I can do with the yarn that I have already. I am trying to really curb spending – I have always been a bit frugal but now I am really being mindful. I just want to start a zillion new things. Must… stop… self…….

Today we managed to get a bit of housework done. Our son helped my husband do some vacuuming. Our daughter “helped” with the laundry! (Read: scattered it all over the house!) Some days it actually feels like I’ve made a dent in here. One day, my house will be clean again. It might not happen until everyone is in school, but it will happen. We’re all still kind of tired from being sick, and it was hot. We drove around, looking at the land we want and a few other places, again, just to get it set in our minds that this is what we want. And this evening I did our grocery shopping. I am winding up with 5 shopping days this month instead of our usual 4, so I have really had to focus on sticking to my grocery budget. I am coming in well under the wire though, even though I included diapers as groceries.

We talked about taking another trip to the U.P. this fall sometime, I would like to go before the weather gets bad, and even before hunting season. We need to sit down and take a look at the calender. Usually fall is kind of long, because there are no holidays to break it up, so it might be a good time to go.

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I don’t like Ike

September 14, 2008 at 10:39 pm (Uncategorized)
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We’ve gotten about 2 1/2 inches of rain in the past couple of days, mostly from the remnants of Hurricane Ike. Now our basement is leaking water. I’m so not happy. We spent all this time trying to fix the grade around our house so we wouldn’t have this trouble, but we have it anyway. My husband has spent the whole evening vacuuming up water and setting up a borrowed pump. I am sure he’ll be down there on and off throughout the night. It has stopped raining and it isn’t supposed to rain the rest of the week. I know that folks who REALLY got slammed by Hurricane Ike would LOVE to have my problems instead of the troubles they have where they live… but you know what? This is Michigan. We get snow, not hurricanes. And I am frustrated about this water stuff… I think we are going to have to probably do the unthinkable and put in new tile. My husband and I haven’t actually said it to each other, but I’m afraid that’s what is going to have to happen. It’s always these annoying problems! I wound up putting both kids to bed tonight and that was not for the faint of heart. Will actually fell asleep on his own although I had to get all over him to make him do it. I need a shower. I should go before someone wakes up.

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Recipe and kitty news

September 12, 2008 at 7:12 pm (family)
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We think the girls have names! The black one is going to be Betty (Oh black Betty, bam ba lam) and Roxy (ROOOOOXanne! You don’t have to turn on the red light…). We wanted to name them after songs and this is what we came up with! I think the names are going to stick. They are doing really well! After pooping in the wrong place a few times, I’ve kept them confined to their own room on and off through the day so they will get the right idea. Also it gives them a break from the kids, who tend to love them, er, a little TOO much!

One cool thing that happened this week, was that I got in touch with a friend of mine from grade school! We’ve been having fun exchanging emails. (I hope I don’t get her in trouble with her work!) She’s got a blog and I’ll see if I can link to it. We haven’t talked in probably 15 years so catching up has been fun.

I just tried a recipe that my mom got off the radio at home (WMPL) and she LOVES IT. It’s a cake that you make in a coffee mug in the microwave! Here are the directions:

3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
dash salt
Mix thoroughly, then add:
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk (can use dairy substitute)
3 tablespoons oil
a little vanilla
3 tablespoons chocolate chips

Mix all together and pour into a large coffee mug. Microwave for 3 minutes on high. No need to oil the mug. You can slice it and dust with powdered sugar.

IMO, it is pretty rubbery. It tasted OK but I’m going to let it cool before I really get a mouthful. You could split this easily between 2-3 people. It was interesting to try it anyway! It was kind of fun to see it rise out of the cup. Kind of like blowing up marshmallows in the microwave.

Hope you all have a good weekend. We are feeling like we are coming down with colds so it might not be that great of a weekend. Plus is it supposed to rain. I am knitting some Selbu mittens, they are the ones with the big snowflakes on the back of the hand, and they originate in Norway. I haven’t taken pictures of them yet but I will once I get a little more done. I also finished some felted slippers for my husband. They were so huge when I got done knitting them, that I could put one on my head. They felted down perfectly and the pattern was a very well-engineered one! I’d make them again. Definitely not something you can do while the kids are still up!

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Please welcome…

September 6, 2008 at 12:44 pm (Pets)
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Our currently unnamed girls! :)
girls1
girls2

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Hurry up and wait

September 2, 2008 at 7:43 pm (family)
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I just haven’t felt much like blogging.  I think I am finally better, since losing the cats.  I’m not feeling quite so raw about it anymore.  I finally cleaned out the food and water bowls, but I don’t regularly go out to their graves.  I can drive by them on the lawnmower if I’m mowing but otherwise I don’t go out there at all.  We haven’t gotten new kitties yet.  I’m still on the fence about whether it is the right time, although a friend has kittens ready to go.  I can’t say yet what I’m going to do.

The kids are fine.  Sophie has had a summer cold and she is getting all the rest of her teeth in, all at once.  That would be 1 molar and all 4 eye teeth.  Will is going between using the potty and not using it but I guess for him it is going to be a process and not an event.  He is really changing a lot, though, the closer he gets to 4.  The 3 year old crazies are finally passing and it seems like he is becoming more of a kid than a toddler.  Sophie is nuts though, taking everything apart and dragging it all over the house.  I am guessing sometime around 2, she will stop that for the most part and things will get easier.  She is so headstrong and not easily distracted!

I don’t want to speak too soon, but we are right on the edge of deciding to make an offer on some land.  It is at least 25 acres so plenty of room.  I don’t want to say much more, because I don’t want to jinx ourselves!  So far we’ve had good news on a few of the issues at hand.  I still need to make a couple more phone calls tomorrow.  As soon as we know what is going to happen, one way or the other, I’ll post it here.  That’s where the hurry up and wait title comes in.  I’ve made lots of phone calls and you always wind up leaving lots of messages and waiting for them to be returned.

I had my physical today.  It looks like I will live another year!  It seems like if I can keep my sleep issues under control (intractable insomnia plus being awakened every night by Two Bright Children) I can keep my fibro symptoms under control and keep the now chronic Epstein-Barr virus symptoms from flaring.  Just glad it’s done for the year.

Many friends and family started school today!  We have a niece and nephew in high school, I have one friend who is back to college and several other friends who have new Kindergarteners!  So I will be excited to find out how the start of the school year has been for everyone.

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