Kindergarten Holiday Show

Ella's school put on a holiday program last week. I had my camera set wrong, so the video is not too clear, but we had a good time and Ella was a little darling (front row on the left).

Here are some pictures of our Christmas Sweetie

Complaint Corner

Well the wall insulation is done and they did the basement, but so far this company has not impressed me with their ability to finish the job. Perhaps I need to contact those EnergyStar referral people and let them know about my dissatisfaction. I keep thinking I should be patient and give them a break because it's the holiday season and I am sure they are very busy, but this job was supposed to be completed on Dec 7th, and the head guy I have been talking to keeps saying they'll finish this part on this day and take care of the next thing on that day, and then it's not done. Grrrr.

The baby in my tummy is getting very big. From what I've read, all the major developments are done, so it's just hanging out in there getting bigger and stronger for the whole birthing process. I have an appointment tomorrow and am going to ask my Dr. how big this thing is. I am sure it's well over 6 pounds by now. And feels plenty strong to me! Sometimes I think my ribs are being dislocated!
All-in-all things are going very well and I am feeling good. I remember being this pregnant with Ella and being exhausted and huge and always uncomfortable. It is still difficult to be "comfortable" but I feel pretty good this time around. I hope the next 4 weeks are more the same.

Power went out at work so I headed home. The carpet guy is here to measure my rooms. Soon I shall have softness at my feet. How exciting!

A Busy Weekend

We had yet another busy weekend. Ron worked Saturday so I took Ella over to Clio's for the afternoon while I did a million errands then took myself for a pedicure. I know, sounds indulgent, right? Well it was, but I can't reach my toe nails anymore and those things were getting dangerous! It was very relaxing to look out the salon window and watch the blizzard cover the town in a blanket of whiteness...
On the way to pick up Ella the heater blower broke. Damn.
Sunday was spent at home prepping the basement for the insulation people who were supposed to come today but just called and canceled...
Ella had a ton of fun in the snow while daddy shoveled. She made a new friend!


She also built a house...



We are supposed to get up to 3 more inches of snow tonight. Thankfully the blower for the car heater has been fixed so we can defrost when necessary. How many more days till my due date? Something like 50 or 51...

It is soooooo cold!

I have the best news ever (well, not quite, but I am excited)!
We are getting our house insulated next week! No more arctic blasts across my face at night while I huddle deeper into the covers! Ella will not have to set up her little coloring station right next to the heat vent to keep warm! She wont have to get dressed while standing ON the heater vent, either! The curtains will stop blowing around! The upstairs will not be 100 degrees in the summertime, we can use the dining room without having to pre-heat it with the space heater, I could go on and on and on.... And my family will not freeze their heinies off when they come to stay the night on Christmas Eve! Yippee!

Next UP:
Downstairs windows and a water heater.

Little baby Katherine is still happily swimming around in my belly, but she is running out of space in there. I can't believe how quickly my due date is approaching. We still have to get a car seat and a stroller. And those window shade things for the car that stick on with suction cups. Hey LA, if you are reading this can you tell me where you got that nifty car mirror thing so you could see Esther when she was rear facing? It's cool, useful, and I want one!

Only two days till December!

Christmas Pictures

I took Ella to get pictures done at Sears because her school pictures were not so great. Here is a little preview for those of you on our mailing list...

The horrors of it all...

I took the week off of work to get crap taken care of at home. I figured it needed to be done before I can't bend over, right? Well so far I have done nothing but nap. Nap, nap, nap... So it's Tuesday, 10:45am, I am out of bed and I even took a shower. Now what? Return library stuff for sure, but those dishes in the sink can stay there. Maybe I'll finish the laudry?

I seriously need an organizing coach. Someone to force me to do get all of this stuff organized, purged, taken care of. My piles of junk have piles of junk on them and the cat hair and dust are begining to mate. The offspring are horrible dusty hairclumps that I keep finding in every corner of the house ( I swear I can hear them laughing at me). And I refuse to even go into the basement. I think someone is doing some kind of scientific mold experiments down there. It's a nightmare. I think Ella is the only person in the house with a clean room.

It's just so overwhelming that I can't even think of where to start cleaning. I think I'll just move and leave all of the garbage here.

10 more weeks

My insides are feeling all squished together, and the time is just flying by. I am really looking forward to meeting this little critter!
http://pregnancy.about.com/od/pregnancycalendar/p/week30.htm

Happy Halloween!

Only 31 Shopping Days Left!

That's right folks, it's one month until my birthday! To make gift giving easier on you I have decided to post a list of the things I would enjoy the most:

1. A $60 gift certificate to Salon Mode for a manicure and pedicure. Pregnant Women really need pedicures because they can't reach their own toe nails. I don't need the "French" business...


2. Another Salon Mode gift certificate for a Hair Cut & Style. Because let's face it folks, I have no style and need plenty of help. Feel free to e-mail pictures of any hair styles you think might work on this moppy head of mine.


3. Money: It goes with everything!


4. A gift certificate for a massage. Here's a link to the Harmony Wellness Center. They have a nice woman named Tammy who does pregnancy massage. It's $30 for 1/2 hour, $45 for 45 min, and $60 for an hour. Go ahead, splurge for the hour! I'm worth it.


Or I guess you could just send me an e-mail or card or something. Maybe one with a Target gift card in it?

Happy Shopping, and have a super day!

Hi! We're still here!

I know, it's been a long time between posts. It just seems like we have been very busy lately. And our home computer is broken, so it's hard to find time to post things while I am at work.
Last week Ella's school had a dress like a farmer day, and Ella looked very adorable. She wore her very pretty pink cowboy hat with attached tiara fromGrandma Esther. Then we went over to Clio's for a sleepover. Big fun. Here is a picture of Ella with Clio's pumpkin. Enjoy!

Better late than never, right?

Here are some pictures from our trip to Iowa June 29 through July 1:
1. Ella driving Grandpa's boat

2. Ella being cute in her too large life jacket

3. Ella and one of her relatives (perhaps a fourth cousin?)at the family reunion. This little guy was so completely adorable.

4. Ella and Grandma Leota. The family reunion was a big affair, with Grandma's sister, brother, and all of their offspring, too!

5. Ella and her Grandpa and Grandma. She loves them soooooo much! I wish we could see them more often!

Something to Blog About!

If you have not heard by now, I do apologize for not e-mailing...
We are having another wee Hardy due January 24th. Pretty exciting for us, and Ella is thinking of all the things she is going to do as a big sister. Last night she sang all the lulla-byes and recited every nursery rhyme she could think of to practice while we had our bath. She even read the bed-time story last night in preparation!
We do not know if it's a girl or boy, but are hoping to find out soon.
Oh, if you want to look up fun facts about pregnancy week, we are in week #14.
Have a super day!

These mean streets...

Posted July 26, 2007 in the Oshkosh Northwestern:

Boy in custody for lemonade stand robbery


Oshkosh police have taken a 17-year-old boy into custody in connection with the robbery of a lemonade stand on Tuesday in the 800 block of Knapp Street.


Authorities said the boy was apprehended at 9:35 p.m. Wednesday and arrested for robbery and physical abuse to a child and was then taken to the Winnebago County Jail.

Austin Cundy, 11, told police he was selling the lemonade to save money to go camping with his grandparents. Cundy said he saw two teenagers on bicycles eyeballing him as they were riding past.

About 2:45 p.m., one of the teenage boys punched Cundy, shoved him off his chair and took a plastic container with $20 in change along with Cundy’s wallet, which held his library card and student ID.

HI!

Okay, three and a half weeks is a long time to go between posts, but jeez-louise have I been busy. And not feeling very well. Bad combination!

Impatience

The roof of my mouth hurts, right behind my front teeth, because my peanut sauce was a little too hot and I was a little too impatient to wait.

Sunday, 23 June.

Dramatic Look

A memorable day

May 30

Wow, I can't believe it's almost June. I better go pay for my car tabs today!
Can you believe that two people want my car?! It's great news! I am going to get an estimate on the CV joint work this week. It feels pretty darn good to be taking care of this at last. I just didn't know what to do... Keep? Fix? Sell? Done. Well, almost done... I should have sold it before the tabs expire tomorrow.

Hey, Hows-it Going?

I know, I know, it's been a while, right? We've just been busy. And every time I get a chance to post something I don't have pictures handy or anything. Sorry.
We are looking forward to a little down time this holiday weekend. I am absolutely certain that G-Peg will need a ton of time and attention, but other than that I just want to finish sorting through boxes from our move 2 1/2 years ago, getting rid of clothes that don't fit/will never fit again (yes, I've resigned myself to this fact), and cleaning out the fridge. Sometimes do you take a good look at the shelves in the fridge and think to yourself "that's gross"? Two weekends ago I pulled the fridge out and cleaned the walls and floor under and around it. It was a great accomplishment. I still need to do under the stove. I also have high hopes of going through all the kitchen cupboards to purge/organize/clean. I did ONE cabinet a few months ago but the others just didn't follow along. So I'll start from the top.

One great thing we did manage to complete is going through all of our CDs and organizing them into books (or trash!) and disposing of all the cases we no longer wanted. That little feat has saved us shelves upon shelves of storage space AND has made it so much easier to find what we want to hear. We are actually LISTENING to music again! LA, you were so right when you expounded on the virtues of the CD books 5 years ago. Why didn't I do it back then? It's been on my list!





Ella, Clio and I had a lot of fun painting ceramic tiles a few weeks back. Ella's is the one of the girl in a garden (note the blueberry bush) so I mounted it on a cast iron garden stake thing. Clio's is the lovely striped tile that I put into a trivet holder thing. I sure hope her Mommy likes it!

We are a little bummed out about not making the trip to Iowa this weekend to see all my family, but honestly, we just have not had any down time all month! And we have some house arranging that must be completed now that two of the three summer boarders have moved in! What are we going to do with the Nissan? I am about ready to just donate it to some non-profit and take the tax write off. Seriously. It's hard choice to make because it still runs great and gets good gas mileage, but we NEVER drive it and the CV joints need to be greased and re-packed. And we have more pressing things to spend our money on. I tried to give it to my dad, but he said "Grandma can't drive it, Jo can't drive it, so I don't think I'll take it". It's a manual transmission. Too Bad. It's really a good car.

So, we were hoping to plan a trip to Iowa City that would coincide with a trip to Pella, but our contact in P-town does not have a firm date/time for Robin's retirement party. I have a long weekend June 1 or 2 to the 5th, I think (it keeps changing!) And my folks want us to visit the 30th for a family reunion that I really, really, really should attend, and Ron's Dad wants us to come to California (which we really, really , really should do, too) so who knows what this summer has in store for us. If only we had the money to travel. Or take time off of work.

Blah, blah, blah... Now I can't seems to quite blathering on about note a whole lot of nothing. I bet you're wishing I had maintained my blogging hiatus! Have a super great Memorial Day weekend. We're supposed to be in the mid to upper 60's with chances of thunderstorms so it might make it easier for me to get through the tasks on my list.
Bye!

May

What a beautiful day!
I keep forgetting to post. Probabaly becasue we are spending all of our time in the yard! I have some lovely pictures of Ella's little fairy garden to put up, but I can't get them right now...
Our students summer boarders have started moving their stuff in. Ella is pretty excited to have them live with us. Last night she said "I am going to be sad when they move out". They haven't even moved IN yet! Silly bean.
The farmers market will be starting soon and I am totally looking forward to it. I think we are going to start our food experiment soon. Ron and I are attempting to only purchase items produced in WI. If we can't get it from WI then it has to be organic. And we are going to journal our experience. Maybe Ron will write a book about it someday. I think that would be cool. I like the way he writes. Actually, I like everything about him. He's the best ever. Except he's kind of messy... But it's a small price to pay!
I have been attempting to purge and organize all of my crap. We have boxes and bags of stuff we have never opened since moving to WI. It's been 3 years. It's time. I wish I had a pick-up truck or something to haul everything down to the goodwill. I am going to photograph/document everything I donate and write it off my taxes. Waiting 3 years for that elusive garage sale we are "going to have" is just not working out for me. Out, damn stuff, Out I say! (Wringing my dirty hands...)
I started a myspace page and realized I didn't have many "friends". It's so sad. I go to Jenny and LA's pages and they have LOADS of friends. I have friend jealousy. And I can't get my songs to play on myspace. And I don't really think my layout suits me. Maybe when the college kids move in they can help me out. They are much, much cooler than I could ever dream of being.

The soulful groove of Marvin

and my absolute favorite song of all time, seriously:

The Big Show

Ella and Clio put on a great performance Friday night:

My folks are up here for a visit so the girls were very happy to have a large audience. I think they should start touring!
The weather has been beautiful. We (Ron, Me, Ella, Clio, Grand Pa and Grand Ma) went geocaching Saturday morning and found two caches. I think my parents are hooked on the sport!
I have nearly completed Ella's purse to match Clio's fancy new one... If Clio doesn't like this one I think I am giving up! It's the prettiest, sparkliest, funnest purse in town. And it has a twin. Here they are in all of their Spring Glory.


Ella spent Saturday afternoon sleeping on her bean bag chair in the living room with a horrible head clod. I felt bad for the wee lass, but she seems pretty perky this morning so I think we are out of the woods on this illness.
Happy Earth Day!

Good News/Bad News

Ella had a fantastic weekend. The weather was lovely, Clio is a fun friend, and she went on all kinds of adventures... The bad news is she seems to have lost her $400.00 glasses.
Last time I saw them:

Ron says we can use our tax return to replace them. I suppose we could also use it as a write off? Damn. I am frustrated.

You Are 54% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

A big 'ol post!

Things have been busy around here!

Last weekend we took Ella and Clio geocaching. It was rainy and chilly but we had a blast! The girls had so much fun tromping around in the mucky wetlands, and were surprized to find the caches were filled with toys! We went to one on the wiosh trail and one a t a place called Assylum Point park. BIG FUN. We wanted to go again this weekend but it is very cold, windy and (yeesh) snowing!

So THIS weekend we had Clio over night again! But no geocaching... so we had fun just hanging out around the house. The girls watched too much Sponge Bob

And got crazy hairdo's!

We got a call from the bookstore that Ella won the drawing for a Bunny prize so we headed down and picked it up. Thanks Apple Blossom Books!

We are hoping the Bunny can make it to our yard through all this windy snow. Brrrrrr, it is cold.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

More Knitting Pictures

Okay, here is the purse I made for Clio. It seems that she does not want this one, though. Ella does so it's no big deal, but Clio says she wants one that is "all pink" Hmmmm, I think I'll just try to come up with something a little more flashy and crazy for her. I have an idea in mind for using this cool silver fuzzy yarn I saw the other day at the store...

Sorry this is not the best shot of Clio... She was just way too into playing with the ball. She is having a sleep over at our house tonight and then tomorrow morning, if it's not too cold and rainy, we are going geocaching. It should be fun. I have little GPS units for each of them!

Well, I better go check on the gal pals. Have a grand weekend.

Arts & Crafts

I knitted this purse for Ella and she loves it! She wants to wear it every day and that is just plain cool! I made the shoulder strap a little too long wich is why there is a knot at the top. It's my first purse attempt photographed, but I have made one for Clio, too. That picture will be posted shortly. Here is Ella in her PJ's wearing the purse.
The colors are a bit funky because I was not sure how my first attempt would turn out so I used the odds and ends from other projects: yellow socks, pink socks, and her hat and scarf combo... All said and done , I am happy with the outcome if only because she really, really likes it.

Spring Break 07 the movies!

Here are some more movies from our trip to Two Harbors. It takes so long to upload them that I only seem to ba able to put up a few at a time. I'm just way too busy to sit and wait... Thanks again to Jenny and the gang for such a fun vacation!
Carl and his horn

The parade

Spring Break '07

In Like A Lion

No Kidding! We got dumped on by snow and sleet, but today it is 43 and very sunny. It's a nice change of pace... Ella had a successful sleep over at Clio's last night and we are looking forward to Clio coming here later today. I had to take an exam for Office Support people this morning down in Fond du Lac. All went fine but it's never fun to have to get out of bed at 6 on a Saturday to take a state exam, especially when your kid is at a friends house and the chance of seriously sleeping in for the first time in 5 1/2 years is spoiled.

On to other things, Work has been very busy because of Women's History Month AND I have added a second job at the University. I now also work for Women & Science. It's kind of a misnomer because the goal of W&S is to increase Math and Science participation from minorities as well as female students. But, whatever, I didn't name it. I just work there. I really like the job so far. I help coordinate conferences and assist with general office duties. In May I get to take my family on an all expense paid trip to the Wilderness Resort in the Dells. This includes free passes to the water park. I am hoping to have a super time! I think there is a similar trip in November, too. Two conferences a year.

Okay, here are some videos:

Ella and Clio dressing up to play fairies

Ella wearing a grocery bag mask and goofing around

here is a picture of some beautiful blue eyes...

Ella and I were talking the other day about her not writing on Sparklepockets. She said she was still thinking of a really good story to tell. It has been months! Sorry to all the folks who go over there to read her. Maybe she has writer's block? If she ever posts again I'll send out a link.

Time to sign off. Gotta play a board game with my sweet little baby.