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Today is the 2nd anniversary of my blog, and I am thinking of my first posts, and how difficult it was for me to find something to write about. I felt awkward beginning and ending my posts. Now, two years and 287 posts later, I hardly have to think about what to post. While i still have trouble finding a good closing sentence, I have come a long way in two years
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Wow! December was two months ago! These are pictures of a sun dog that I saw in the sky on a -9 degree day last December. I meant to post then, but for some reason forgot about it. Sun dogs are formed similarly to a rainbow, except that sunlight is refracted through ice crystals instead of water droplets.
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The last day of January 2009 was gorgeous; with the temperature at 55°, it felt like spring. In fact, it felt so much like spring, I am having a hard time getting used to the idea that it is still winter. It was just to warm to have the following day be 30°. I am looking forward to Thursday, which is supposed to be 45°, and Friday, which is forecasted at 56°. Oh, I hope it gets there. I am more than ready for spring.
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A few nights ago, I prepared a turkey for supper. I brined it for two days, to see if it would make the turkey exceptionally tender. I watched it closely during cooking, and the result was a gorgeous looking bird.
The outer layers of skin were the juiciest pieces of turkey I had ever tasted, and the inside was good, though not as good as I had hoped. Alexander, however, thought it was good no matter where the meat was.
Alex enjoys his drumstick.
Alexander shows his approval.
I made delicious gravy with the drippings and cornstarch. I was surprised at how simple it was. We poured it over mashed potatoes and it was GOOD!
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Ever since we have been telling Joseph there is a baby in Mom’s tummy, he has been a little confused. The other day, he pointed to his belly button and told me that it was his “Baby belly.” He also told me an amazing story, to complicated to repeat, about the baby being lost. He concluded his fantastic tale by declaring, “The baby okay now.” It is not rare that I wonder just what is going on inside his little head, and what gives him these ideas.
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This house seems to attract lost dogs. So far we have found a black lab, a white and black spotted great dane/lab/something else named Oscar, and a little beagle called Maya. The latest of these, Maya, we found last weekend, wandering around our yard with no owner in sight. She was a cute, but timid little dog. We found her owners pretty quickly, since they came walking past our house looking for her. Unlike the other two dogs we have found, her owners were close by, visiting relatives that live down our street.
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If you haven’t heard already, there is a baby coming. (The due date is June 1st) There pictures were taken when the baby was 16 weeks old (now it is at 21 weeks). It was a little soon to tell for sure, but the ultrasound lady thinks it is a girl. : )
Little footprint.
On the left is a good shot of the arm, and you can see the little face on the right.
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Today, our family went to a class for some homeschoolers at our local butterfly house. It has been many years since I have been to the butterfly house, and I was looking forward to going there. No butterflies landed on me, but I didn’t care, because many posed nicely for my camera. Here are the pictures
Alexander is holding a butterfly chart in his hands. If you look closely, you will see that there is a butterfly on his right shoulder.
This is a White Kite butterfly that I found coming out of its chrysalis. In this first picture, it has just cracked the chrysalis skin.
Now it is a little farther out of its shell.
Finally, after a tremendous amount of squirming, the butterfly manages to escape its chrysalis. Its abdomen is filled with fluid that it will pump into its currently wet and crumpled wings. Then it will be prepared to soar!
This is a butterfly which has recently emerged from is chrysalis. He wants out of the glass box that holds the chrysalids.
This is a gorgeous Blue Morpho butterfly
This is an Owl Butterfly, which gets its name from the eye spots on the outside of its wing
This rude little butterfly is standing on an Owl Butterfly at the fruit dish.
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With the winter dragging on in the state of South Dakota, my thoughts turn to the happy, and warm, memories from our vacation. I remember that they were playing Christmas music, which did not match the scenery. Especially out of place were the songs ‘Let it Snow’, and ‘Winter Wonderland’. The weather is frightful? I don’t think so!
I have been meaning to post these pictures of the most notable characters we saw in W.D.W. It was strange, we didn’t see many girl characters while we were down there, except in a play. However, we did stumble upon Cinderella’s Stepsisters and Stepmother, who were amusing to watch. Unlike other costumed people, they interacted with the people posing for pictures with them. For example, one girl had a sparkly, multi-colored hairband. When it was her turn to pose for photo with them, the sisters fingered the band and said in a high pitched voice, “What is this? It looks like a rainbow smashed into her head and collapsed on itself.” I was interested in what they would say to Maria, so I hurried her into the short line. When Maria was a baby, she was terrified of people in costume. While she waited, she looked nervously about her, as if still unsure that such people were safe.
When it was Maria’s turn with the stepsisters, they looked her over for something to make the highlight of their talk with her. They found one: a goofy piece of ribbon that maria insisted on wearing about the park, a substitution for the Minnie Mouse bows other little girls were wearing. The untied the sloppy bow, and retied it beautifully, as if they were professional bow-tie-ers, making all sorts of comments such as, “This is the biggest bow I’ve seen. it looks just like mine.” Maria was thrilled about this. Take a look at her face in this picture:
We also saw the Winnie the Pooh characters in a restaurant. This is Eeyore, who approached our table while I was facing in the opposite direction. I noticed Dad getting out his camera and wondered why to myself. Moments later, I was scared out of my skin by a large, gray, furry object descending down onto my shoulder. I nearly shrieked with fright.
I give Eeyore a hug after he scares me to death
Landon hugs Tigger
Another important character was Buzz Lightyear, because the entire time we were in Disney World, John Paul had a bee in his bonnet about seeing Buzz Lightyear. He couldn’t stop talking about it. Finally, we saw him on our last day. Also, Joseph and Alexander had Buzz Lightyear hats which Dad had bought for them.
Buzz and Children
Last but not least, two characters from the movie Cars. Alexander and Joseph love to play with their toy Lightning McQueen and Mater, so it was fun that they got to see them in person.
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Monday morning, I was sitting at the kitchen table doing school. In my head, I was calculating a multiplication problem and gazing out the window. It was snowing lightly, and the wind was still. I looked down at my math book and worked a problem. When I looked up, I noticed the wind had risen and the snow was blowing so hard it blocked a water tower behind our house from view. I wondered if my ballet class would be canceled, since half the class lives out of town. Mom didn’t think that they would cancel ballet, but I wasn’t sure. The wind was blowing strong and the snowflakes were large.
Sure enough, later on we received a call from my teacher, saying classes were called off for the night. This has been the first time this year ballet has been canceled, and I hope it doesn’t happen again. I am hoping to take my Grade Three exam this march, and I need all the practice I can get.
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Just in case you have lost track of how many birds we have, I am going to review them all and introduce a few that I haven’t blogged about yet. We got a few more because a pet store that was going out of business was having a big sale.
This is Clover, our first bird.
This is Penelope, my first bird. She is very nice and loves head rubs.
This is Romeo. I got him for his whistling abilities. He has a sweet little song, but he will only sing for Penelope!
Here are Shasta and Jasmine, the breeder birds. The redder one, (the one who is hanging upside down by one foot) is nicer, and he likes to lick my fingers.
Last but not least is Mango. He belongs to the family. He is a sun conure just like the breeder birds, but since he is a baby he has some green feathers on his head. These will fall out as he matures.
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This is a shirt that Joseph got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa on Mom’s side. The picture says it all!
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This afternoon, the Johnathan, Alex and Joseph were enjoying their Christmas gifts. Joseph and Alex each received a package of eight juice boxes.
Here they are displaying the flavors they were given.
Johnathan put together these little wooden toys and painted them himself. He also made that orange lego recycling truck.
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My nativity scene set-up is completed today, Epiphany, which commemorates the arrival of the magi in Bethlehem. This nativity was a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa on Mom’s side.
This was also the day we opened up presents from Mom and Dad. We didn’t do it on Christmas because with our trip to Florida and the sickness that struck immediately when we got back, Mom had no time for shopping. We have thought about opening gifts on Epiphany for a couple years, since that was the day Jesus received his gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, but we had never done it.
Dad handed out the first presents to the four boys. They were small, identical square boxes about two and a half inches on every side. Dad built suspense by making the boys count to seventeen in a painfully slow manner before they could open them. After the number ten, Alexander tried to say seventeen at the beginning of each number. “Sev- eleven, sev-twelve, sev-thirteen,” etc. etc.
Finally, the boys reached seventeen, but not before sixteen and a half, sixteen and three quarters, and sixteen and seven eights. When seventeen was reached, the boys tore into the wrapping paper and opened the box inside. Alexander declared, “Springies!”
“Slinkies,” I corrected him.
“Oh, I knew that,” he mumbled.
Dad has a fondness for slinkies. I remember him showing me how they worked when he found one at his friend’s house a long time ago.
It wasn’t long before Dad and the boys had the slinkies lined up on the stairs for a race. Unfortunately, our stairs are too wide for slinkies, so the race was abandoned and attention was turned to the other gifts.
The first present I opened was a calendar. Dad made me guess what was inside the wrapping paper, but the size and fact I get one every year gave it away. I got it right on the first guess.
This calendar has some beautiful pictures inside.
Maria and I each got one of these sun catcher kits. She got butterflies and I got a parrot.
This is a cross stitch pattern. I can’t wait to get started.
This is a pair of sun conures. They are not pets, they are two year old breeder birds. I got one for Christmas and I bought the other bird. Aren’t they the most beautiful thing in the world?
Well, that’s all for now. I will post more later as I get going on the cross stitch and sun catchers.
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