My Make-over

I know, I'm a little slow getting this up, but I actually did this a few days ago. I'm not sure I would actually do this, because I keep reminding myself that I don't like my hair that short, but every once in a while I am desperate for a drastic change and this one does kind of appeal to me. Steve doesn't particularly like it, but I think it's mostly because he knows I won't want to actually style it every day. Short hair can be a lot more work that way than long hair. Anyway, it was fun to see all the different styles that they had on the site, and Kellen enjoyed looking over my shoulder while I tried things on and tested out the make-up :)

Pic of the Day #73

"Morning Colors"

These finally are getting ready to come into full bloom and, so far, they're the only pink bloom that I have in my yard. It's just too bad that there are only two tulip plants in my front yard, other than the ones in the flower box that the cat has been pooping in (and, no, that's not over), and these reddish-pink ones are the only ones ready to bloom. I know, I'm impatient :)

How Many People Have Your Name?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How Many Of Me?

There are 1,519 people in the U.S. with the first name Calista.
Statistically the 4019th most popular first name.
More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Calista are female.

There are 5,164 people in the U.S. with the last name *****.
Statistically the 6775th most popular last name.

There are 0 people in the U.S. named Calista *****. While both names you entered were found in our database, neither was common enough to make it likely that someone in the U.S. has that name.

Big Words for Li'l Britches

We were sitting at the table for dinner last night when Madison pointed at Steve's chair and said, "He is so disappointed!". I know she's pretty verbal, but a four-syllable word is quite a bit, even for her. It was so funny to hear her say that. Now, since Steve wasn't home, there was no one in his chair, and I'm not sure why "he" was disappointed...

Clarifying...

Just to make sure there's no confusion, the quilting group does not quilt any of the quilts. How many times can we use 'quilt' in once sentence? We only tie them. There is no way we'd be able to get so many done if we were actually quilting them. Since there are about 10 of us who go, there are two people assembling top, batting, and back, and then four people to each of two tables to tie them. Since we spent almost 3 hours there, it becomes less surprising that we got 6 quilts done :)

Our Morning...

I had been mistaken (a month ago) when I said that the church quilting group met every Monday. It's the first Monday of the month and, since that's what today is, Madison and I went this morning. So my fingers are sore again, but it was a nice morning of visiting and putting together quilts. I think we got six done today, and then one of the ladies took those six home to put bindings on them. One of the ones that we did today was the one that I pieced last month, so it was really satisfying to see it reaching completion. The batting that they use is fairly thin and it's folded in half and wrapped on a large roll. Madison took advantage of this today and, with her snack and juice, sat down in the batting, pulling the folded layer over herself like she was in a bed propped against a pillow! Oh, for a camera :) But I had left mine at home today. Everyone thinks she is just so adorable. They have no idea how much trouble she's capable of causing! But we love her, and it's impossible to stay mad at her.
When we got home, it was almost 1230pm, and Madison had snacked much of the time that we were at the church, so we skipped lunch (she had worn herself out and was being rather grouchy) in favor of the nap. Ever since she was about 9 months old she has had a real fascination with hair. At that age, she actually pulled out her hair (what little there was) so that she could see it and finger it, which meant it looked like I had buzzed one side of her head! She only did one side because, at the time, she would suck her left thumb and play with her hair (or mine) with the right. I have a similar habit, since I will take a section of mine and wrap it around my finger all the way up to my scalp, but her's causes her a little more trouble. She doesn't wrap it, smooth and even, she actually twists it. The problem is that it causes knots. Twice now, she has twisted it so tightly that she can't get it back off her finger easily. The other time this happened, I managed to loosen it enough to get it off, but today I couldn't. Fortunately, she doesn't twist it all the way to her scalp; it's just the ends. I couldn't loosen it and I couldn't pull it off, so I had to actually cut it off the end of her finger. I haven't had a chance to see if it's going to be visible, but there wasn't much else I could do. At least it was just a little section of hair at the very ends. Oh, well.

Pic of the Day #72

"Birdie House"

Madison loves watching Micky Mouse Clubhouse and one of the episodes has Goofy building a "birdie house" for baby red bird. They start out with trying to make the house out of playing cards, and then drinking straws, and finally out of building blocks. Obviously, the first two materials are easily blown away (on accident) by Pete, and the blocks are the necessary material to use to keep the house from blowing away again. So now Madison's favorite thing to build with her blocks is a "birdie house".

Things From the Weekend...

Kellen didn't have school on Friday, but Steve had to leave for work early, so I still had to get up to make his breakfast, and the kids got up at their normal time anyway. I had made Steve a quick eggarito (for those of you unfamiliar with the term, it's a breakfast burrito of eggs, meat, and cheese inside a tortilla) and sent him out the door, leaving just breakfast for the kids and I to think about. I had left-over pancake batter in the fridge, so that was instantly nominated! A while ago Steve had been watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (I think) and we saw a place that combines the pancake with the fried egg. I happen to like a fried egg on top of my pancakes, so I decided to try out their method. You make a ring of batter first and then drop your egg in the center. Wait for the egg to cook a bit in there, and then carefully flip it. The bigger your spatula, the easier this is because, let's face it, this thing is almost the size of a dinner plate by the time you get done!

It was pretty good, and I would be willing to do it again, but I think my favorite is still with the egg on the pancake instead of in the pancake. I'm not sure exactly what makes the difference...

Saturday Steve had to work again, which had him gone from 830am until about 2pm. Original plans for Saturday were supposed to include a steam boat ride on the river with the cub scouts, but Steve was worn out after his morning at work (job interviews to hire new staff for the summer) and we decided to stay home instead. We grabbed a 5-meat stuffed pizza from Papa Murphy's and watched Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties with the kids. After they went to bed, Steve and I watched I Am David, a rather inspirational movie about a 12-yr-old boy who escapes a concentration camp in Bulgaria and travels alone to Denmark (going through Greece, stowing away on a boat to Italy, up through Italy to Switzerland, where he finds someone to help him get the rest of the way) and it was amazing to think about this little boy, who has seen such awful things, discovering some of the beautiful things in the world, and in the people he meets.

While he was Steve was at work in the morning, he made contact with someone (recommended to him by a co-worker) who was getting out of the business of raising pigs to sell for butchering, and he ordered us half a pig. It comes out to about $2.35 per pound that we're paying for it, but that includes the smoking of the bacon and ham, some sausage and Italian sausage, and the cut and wrap. Steve's parents are floating us the money for it since it's debatable as to whether or not the tax return will arrive in time for that. We have purchased bulk meat before and it's amazing how much easier it makes the grocery shopping when I don't have to worry about the meat. And we're planning on purchasing a side of beef after the tax return comes, too. Then the only meat in the grocery shopping is the chicken, really.

This morning, I had to re-live the daylight savings nightmare. I have an alarm clock that sets itself forward and backward at the right time of the year. Only, since the government decided to change the date when they do that, my clock doesn't do it at the right time anymore. So when everyone else was setting the clocks a couple of weeks ago, I had to change the time zone on mine to make it show the right time. Today, because it was the date programmed into the clock, it jumped forward, meaning that when my alarm went off at 630am, it was really 530am. When my clock said 730am, I was telling Steve that he would have to get up if we were going to make it to church today, and he asked for a compromise of attending the second service instead, because he was just not ready to get up. Okay, I agreed. Then I went out to the kitchen to start dinner in the crockpot and the clocks on the stove and microwave are telling me that it's really only 630am. Ugh! So I told Steve that he could sleep for another hour and we would still be able to go to the first service, and that was fine with him, too. Since we had a little extra time this morning, we had scrambled eggs and bacon with our pumpkin bread for breakfast before leaving for church.

Not a bad weekend, overall....

Pic of the Day #71

"All Done!"

This is a pair of slippers that Mom gave Kellen for Christmas this year and he finally pulled them out to put them together yesterday. I did one of them for him, to show him how it was done, and then he did the other one almost entirely alone. It was kind of funny that, on the one he did, he ran out of lacing when going around the toe because he wasn't pulling it tight enough. I had to show him how to go along and tighten all the loops in order to bring up enough lacing to finish the slipper toe :)

Pic of the Day #70

"We Won!"

Friday evening we got out the Yahtzee! and played a round. I managed to win, which was amazing considering some of the stuff I was rolling, and Madison had a blast trying to roll the dice. She didn't quite have it down by the time the game was over, but we had fun playing the game together. Kellen still requires a little help figuring out where his stuff should go, so I kept track of the scores for Kellen, Madison, and myself all on one sheet. Getting things in the right column got a little tricky, though :)

Update: Feeling Really Silly

So, after conversations with both Steve and Dad about the kitchen computer not displaying things right, it was agreed that I should update the system, especially Internet Explorer. It turns out that I was running IE 6, which needed to be brought current with IE 7. I kept having problems getting it installed yesterday (which is why there was no blogging from me whatsoever) but I finally got it taken care of this afternoon. Voila! Now I can view everyone's pages correctly! I am so relieved :) Amazing what one little detail can do to complicate things...

Some Lazy, Some Not...

After breakfast this morning, we got a little housework done. That means that Kellen changed the sheets on his bed, I made my bed, he cleaned his room, I started laundry, he cleaned his bathroom, I straightened the living room, vacuumed, and mopped the floors. Oh, and I ran the dishwasher. Nothing massive, just a little maintenance so that I could tolerate it. That would be the not-Lazy part.
We haven't done anything constructive the rest of the day. Kellen played with Legos in his room or with the video games, Maddi played all over the house, and I continued reading The Man in the Iron Mask. It's pretty heavy reading, because the wording for everything in it is so very complicated, but it's great to sift through to the meaning and find the story that I'm somewhat familiar with. We used to watch the original movie (starring Richard Chamberlain) when I was growing up, and I always loved it. I keep requesting Netflix to put it up, so we'll see. But the movie starts at about the half-way point in the book, which isn't surprising considering the length it would make the movie if they covered all the details; it's just not practical. Anyway, what I didn't know (before reading the book) is that the books The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers are prequels to The Man in the Iron Mask; I had no idea they were all connected. I can see that Netflix is ordering those two movies (in their originals with Richard Chamberlain, too) because they're available to save now. Hmmmm.... I told Steve I was going to have to watch those, too. On the subject of Richard Chamberlain, did you know he was born in 1934, and was 42 years old when he did The Slipper and the Rose? Talk about aging well... I think that's enough random stuff for one day. Time to go get dinner out of the oven.

Feeling Really Silly...

I'm not sure now if the problem is with the computer or the monitor, but the computer in the kitchen doesn't display things correctly. I had been wondering why certain blogs weren't finished, because there was no outer wrapper on them and the words were just scrolling over the main background, which makes some of the really hard to read. It wasn't until today, during a conversation with Rachel, that I knew something was wrong. I mentioned one or two blogs that had appeared unfinished to me so she went to them and said they looked fine to her. She explained what she could see, and there was a huge difference, so I went to our other computer and found what she saw. Wow. I wish I knew what is causing the other computer to not display them properly, because I don't want to have to do my blogging shut away in the bedroom. Madison would bring the house down around us if I left her alone out in the front of the house for that time!

Pic of the Day #69

"Mixing Things"Okay, every child does this at some point. The funny thing is that Kellen told me a few days ago that he wants to be a chemist when he grows up. He really likes participating in science in school, and is reasonably good at math. When he saw that I was taking pictures of him playing in the dirt he explained that he had been mixing a few different things; there's some dirt, some water, and a few leaves in there that he's pulverizing with a short, blunt stick.

Pic of the Day #68

"Stand Out"
Another flower! Okay, this one was two days ago (because I am forever behind on my Pics of the Day) when Kellen and I were out doing the fundraiser stuff. We walked past this house that had an entire lawn full of grass. This flower is the only one in the yard, and it's down in a front corner with absolutely no rhyme or reason for its being there. I imagine the owners had nothing to do with it; it probably just decided to pop up there on it's own. But I thought it was cool.