Closing out the month

My brother and his wife are celebrating their 41st birthdays today, and their 10th anniversary. Happy everything to them! :)

Jan 28
When Katy came home from work the other night, she used her feet to write this in the snow ("I heart you" in case you can't make it out). I thought that was sweet.


Jan 29
This has definitely been a year of new. New kid living with us, new school, new major, new outlook. In keeping with that spirit, we got a new phone company for our cell phones. Actually, we have been counting down the months, literally, since AT&T bought out our contract with their takeover of Cingular. We absolutely hate AT&T and danced a little happy dance when we finally switched service. I can now announce that I am no longer a text virgin thanks to my new phone and new unlimited text service. The girls are on cloud nine and thank goodness it is unlimited. In the first hour of opration, Katy had sent 127 messages. Sheesh!


Jan 29
Mandy and Katy all dressed up for dates with their boyfriends. The guys wore jeans. Typical!



Jan 31
Speaking of new, this is what I bought today. We decided that since the van and truck get horrible gas mileage and the car's transmission is going out, it was a good time to get me a commuter car. Driving 100 miles round trip each time to class is not a good place to break down! We earmarked our income tax refund to get me a car, and here it is. Best deal in town, works great, and it's paid for. :) Can't beat paid for. One nice side effect...the extreme envy in Katy's eyes. She's dying to borrow it, which won't happen. Mean mommy!!

Almost the end

I can't believe January is nearly over. I'm glad to see it go, because that's one less month I need to worry about bad weather. Of course, right now we are getting pounded with about our fourth inch of snow on top of a layer of ice. I'd rather have snow than ice, so I'll just stop griping right here.


Jan 24
The boss from my last job gave me this cute little frog to use as a candy dish. I think it's adorable and still keep him on or near my desk. Right now it's full of Cadbury eggs I'll do my best to avoid over the next few weeks.


Jan 25
Organization. It's a good thing. We had a small one of these, but it wasn't enough to keep track of everyone. Today we installed a big one. Problem solved.


Jan 26
As much as the adult in me hates snow, ice and all things winter, the kid in me will always be in awe of the beauty and fun of a good snowfall.



Jan 27
This is a picture of Shona under the street lamp, filling her tongue with snow. It is one of those photos that makes me smile. :)

Another week gone by

January is moving right along this year. I know it's because I'm so busy, but it really is speeding by. It will be spring before I know it, which I won't complain about, but then I'll be sweating mid-summer and I will be griping about that!


Jan. 19
Just in case anyone should believe my kids get along, I documented this lovely door posting. I got a chuckle out of it, and the English major in me had to fight off the desire to mark through the words spelled wrong. After all, she's just eight and a note of protest should remain raw and emotional!



Jan 20
Just a photo of part of my walk through the park. It's so brown and gray out during the winter, I find it a stark, depressing landscape.


Jan 21
I finally managed to get a shot of what I see as I walk. Mostly the dogs as I keep them moving along, trying to avoid being tripped up by their leashes. Yes, Pedey does love to yank me along. If only he weighed more than 15 pounds, I'd strap on roller skates and let him do the work.


Jan 22
I call this one "Anticipation" because it just about kills those two yahoos to have to ride to the park. They want to get there NOW. They start this pleading stare as soon as the garage door opens behind them. Poor babies. Yes, I took those three shots on the same day, but loved them all so they're going in my book!


Jan 23
For once I had my camera on me at the right time. We were out running errands when we started getting a snow/ice storm. I whipped out my camera and started snapping. This was my favorite.

Jan 18

Jan 18
Today is the 18th of January, and it is my 18th wedding anniversary. Perfect photo for today. :)

Jan 16 & 17

Jan 16
So it got cold here this week. Really cold. My fingers were numb just walking across campus to class kind of cold, and I was wearing lined leather gloves. As we were driving to Home Depot to buy paint (more on that next), the reading in the van hit 0* at one point. I admit I took the van out for a spin around the neighborhood at 11:00 p.m. just to get the temperature reading to drop to outside temperature in order to get this shot. We do what we must!


Jan 17
Today, we painted Mandy's room (my former office). The purple is actually darker than this in real life. Think Barney the dinosaur purple. Now that I think about it, this photo is odd anyway because the wall underneath isn't gray, it's a very dark blue. Funny how those colors change in the camera. In any case, the purple still beats white in my book. Katy and I did the first coat, and when Mandy got home from work, she helped me do the second. It is FINISHED. Woo hoo! This is some of Katy's handiwork as she weilded the roller. She even took a pic for my 365 project. Do I have that girl trained or what?

Jan 15

You know the company that puts boxes on people's television sets and notes everything they watch in order to figure out the ratings for shows? Turns out they also have a scanning program where you can scan the UPC codes of everything you buy, upload the data every week and build up points for free stuff. I was on the waiting list for nearly a year, but last week I was finally sent a scanner. It was a hassle at first, but once I got the hang of it, I kind of enjoyed it. I am also on a survey panel online (and have been for years) that works the same way with the points. A few months ago I received a set of new cordless digital phones for the house by finally spending my ridiculous amount of points. I didn't even have to pay shipping. Sometimes it pays to take those surveys!

Jan 14

Nope, I didn't forget. I got bogged down with homework today, plus a couple of hot games of Ticket to Ride. :) This is the long eared bunny I fell in love with last month. I loved it so much I nagged poor DH to death about buying it for me for Christmas. Poor thing had no choice but to have it under the tree.
And see my smile on Christmas morning? Wasn't it all worth the nagging?

Jan 12 and 13

Triple tug-o-war! Shona took on both dogs and I'm not sure which side won. I'm not even sure the dogs were working together!


For my birthday last year, Shona and Katy painted little rocks as pet rocks, probably because they heard me talk about the ones we had as kids. I keep them on top of my desk and just love the cute little faces. They make me smile, especially this one. :)

My new obsession (Jan 11)

This is the game we got for Christmas at the suggestion of some ladies at Playground of Memories. I have become completely addicted. We've already purchased the 1910 expansion pack and later this month I am ordering the European version. I need to collect them all!

Yesterday and today

Jan 9
First, my new purchases. I've been searching for a new purse for at least a year and I am really picky. I'm never happy with my purses and I know this one will be no different, but I was trying to downsize. We'll see how long it takes me to become fed up with it. Someday I'll just design my own. The bag behind is my pseudo briefcase/bookbag. The books I need to take to campus this semester are really light (one is a paperback!) so I don't need a huge bag. Why not go in style, especially when Penney's was having a 40% off sale? Just call me the bag lady today.

Jan 10
My new school. I am nervous about moving on to the "real" campus instead of the two year local school, but I'm also very excited. I'm not ready for the work, but I am ready for the change and thrill of getting through another semester.

Yes, I confess I took both photos today, but yesterday's just didn't excite me. And it's my book, I can put what I want into it. ;)

Day 8

Today's image isn't a fun one. Shona got up for school this morning complaining of a scratchy throat. When I touched her face, it felt like it was on fire, and sure enough she had a 101* temperature. I've been pouring Tylenol down her throat all day and looks like she'll be home tomrrow as well since she's still not rid of the fever. The poor thing zonked out on a 10 minute drive this evening, so I know she's not feeling well. At least she got sick this week, while I was still home from school to stay with her.

Photo 7

Yep, another closeup of Shona's darling little face. I can't help it, I like my kiddos' faces. That's my hat, too. It's the one buried underneath the furry parka hood of my coat when I go out to walk the dogs. Not only is it insanely warm, it's oh-so-fashion forward. *snort*

Day 6 Photo

I just loved the face wrapped in a towel as Shona dried her hair. I haven't taken today's photo yet, but I'll get there!

Fashion Disaster

Katy definitely marches to the beat of her own drummer when it comes to her clothing. I guess it could be worse and she could want to dress like Britney Spears, and sometimes she does look pretty cute...but here ya go: the picture of the day. Yes, she DID wear this to school. All day.

Jan 4

Shona's room is completely finished. I'm so happy to be able to say that. It always takes so much more work than I think it will. You'd think I'd learn. We had to replace half the border along the wall that some little girl destroyed, and I touched up the paint in a lot of areas, but no matter how hard I stirred that stuff, the colors were just enough off to not match. You have to look to see it, but it's different. I'm not bothering with it, though. In a few years she'll want to ditch the princess theme and we'll be repainting anyway. And check out the nice floor. I still can't believe the last owners covered that with WHITE carpeting. Crazy fools.

And a bonus photo for today. I wanted to record the fact that Shona's closet is organized. It might only happen one day a year, but here's photographic evidence. We are finally going to put the doors back on the closet this year. Yippee! :)

Day 3

Here's the photo for day three...a sign down the street from me. I loved the sky behind it, too. :)

Today will be busy here. We are ripping out the carpeting in Shona's room and doing some minor repairs in there. She has hardwood underneath and has pretty much destroyed the carpet (who the heck puts WHITE carpeting in a kids' room?!), but it's something we've been planning on doing for a while anyway. We ripped out the carpet in my scrap room when we moved in but didn't have time to do the girls' rooms. Katy isn't sure she wants to rip hers out, but she'll move out in a couple of years and then I'll have my way with that floor!

Photo of the Day

In an effort to get scrapping again, I've joined in a group doing a photo of the day for the entire year of 2009. Hopefully I can keep up. We'll see. The blog is my effort at keeping track of said photos, and again...we'll see. Things seem so optimistically possible in early January.

January 1:



The new welcome mat for our door. Welcome, 2009! Cheesy, yes, but I have another 364 of these to go. I'm going to want for material.

January 2:


In with the new. Katy went on a shoe buying rampage over the past week and these are some of her new favorites. I think they are pretty darn cute and I know that somewhere I have scrap paper that matches those shoes precisely....