Friday Funny

This is one of my favorite Calvin & Hobbes ever:

When You Put It That Way...

Sadie was making valentine's yesterday afternoon.  She was making one for Savannah's friend, Bubba (obviously not his real name, but that's what everybody calls him), when she and Sterling had a conversation that went something like this:

Sterling:  Sadie, why are you making a valentine for Bubba?
Sadie:  Because I love him.
Sterling:  But he's too old for you.  He's in middle school and you're just in kindergarten.
Sadie:  I don't care.  I love him because Jesus said love everyone.   

Sadie's Words

I found this fun tutorial a few weeks ago and decided to adapt it for Sadie.  She loves putting the words together to make sentences, especially when it has something to do with Evan the elephant.  The rest of us have had fun with it as well.  With a 10 foot roll of 1" magnet tape, some old scrapbook papers and the words, Sadie and I put everything together in a couple of hours after school the other day.  Easy and fun!

My Favorite Super Bowl Commercial

This cracks me up!

Too True

Ice Photos

I'll be the first to admit these aren't the best quality photos.  I took them with my iPod because that's all I had with me while at our friend's house on Thursday waiting for our power to come back on.  But if you've never experienced an ice storm, maybe they are good enough to give you some idea of what it's like.  The hardest thing to capture was the light shining on or reflecting off the ice making everything shine as if it were made of silver or glass.  While driving through town, every tree seemed more beautiful than the one before.  Breathtaking!

Friday Funny

Q:  How do you catch a unique rabbit?

A:  Unique up on it.

Q:  How do you catch a tame rabbit?

A:  Tame way, unique up on it.

It's Like Spring Break -- Minus the Spring

Tomorrow will be day 4 of no school this week (the 8th snow day this school year)! The University opened today so Jeff is back to work.  Today we were without power for several hours so we went to hang out with friends who never lost theirs.  Before we left the house, we ran from room to room grabbing a few things to take with us.  It's amazing and somewhat comical how you can run into a room, flip on the lights and think, Oh duh, the power is out, and then do the exact same thing in the next three rooms you walk into.  :)

I'm planning to post more photos of the trees around town in the next day or two.  They are so, so beautiful.  They all look like they are made of glass.  When the sun gets behind them, they light up like it's Christmas.  I just don't quite understand how every single branch and twig become completely encased in ice, but it's like that all over town.  So pretty!

So we've been trying to find fun things to do and I think the kids have had a good time out of school these past several days. Here are a few photos of a cute and super easy treat Sadie helped me make the other day.  My mom sent me the idea.  The kids loved them and I was happy to finally use up the rest of my mini Christmas candy canes.

One Hour A Day

A few months ago, Sadie's Kindergarten teacher asked me to finish a project that was started by a mother of one of her students a year or so ago.  The mother had this great idea to make a set of ABC books -- one book for each letter of the alphabet.  Either this mother was really busy or else the project was bigger than she anticipated because only 7 books were finished when the year ended.

I don't scrapbook.  I don't have cute stickers.  But I love Sadie's teacher and am willing to do what I can to make her life easier, so I said yes.  But I just couldn't get excited about it and so, other than one day in October when I completed three pages for the "S" book, I did nothing.  Finally, I realized I needed to finish it just to be able to move on to other things.  So last week I made a commitment to work on it for at least 1 hour a day until it was finished. 

And that was all it took.  I just needed to commit to it and suddenly the way opened up.  Most days I worked for 2 or 3 hours instead of just one.  Working on it was fun and I found myself anxious to get to it each day.  Where a die cut wasn't available, I was able to visualize how to make the pictures I needed and cut them out freehand without even drawing on the cardstock first.  Eight days later, all 19 books were done. 

The experience reminds me of a favorite poem by W.H. Murray (emphasis added):

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way."

I have a whole list of projects.  I'm going to keep up my hour a day.  I'm looking forward to it!

 

Closed

The University canceled classes today so Jeff is home. Yippee! :)  This storm has managed to shut down our little community.  Even the mall in the next town and a huge outlet mall about 30 minutes from here are closed.  I've never seen that happen.  Here are a few pictures Jeff took this morning.  Beautiful!

The net around our trampoline -- completely encased in ice!

Apparently the worst is yet to come.  It just started sleeting and then we're expecting snow then more sleet and ice.  If the wind picks up like they say it will, there may be widespread power outages - probably due to all the trees and power lines covered in ice.  There's a large downed branch in our neighbors yard that narrowly missed our garage.  We're so happy to be warm and safe...inside!

UPDATE (9:30 p.m.): The ground has a solid coat of ice over the sleet/snow that fell earlier and the kids are out sledding in the dark.  So funny to watch them slide clear across the not-so-sloped yard on a solid sheet of ice.  They are having fun.  All schools, including the University, are closed again tomorrow.  As long as the power stays on, it should be a fun day!