Hello everyone! It's a rainy Saturday here in the high desert. But much warmer than home, I'm sure! I'll probably go home to 7 inches of snow on the ground! We missed that a few days ago while we've been soaking up the warm (at least to us) AZ and CA weather. So, we've had a great couple of weeks. Some of you know that we took the kids out of school and traveled to my parent's house to visit and then to Hubby's parent's house to visit them as well. It's been nice to visit with family. I especially loved spending time with my nephew Lil C. Such a cutie! He wasn't too sure about me at first but he finally warmed up to me. Unfortunately, the next time I see him he will probably have forgotten me and I'll have to start all over again. Of course, he was very interested in Big R and MoMo. He followed his cousins around and was soaking up all the fun things big kids do.


I did enjoy spending time with the grownups, too. (But I'm sorry to say, you're just not as cute as Lil C). While in AZ my mom took us to Oatman and we looked in some of the shops there and fed the burros. Well, Big R didn't want to get too close to the burros but MoMo loved feeding them carrots.



My mom also forced me (ok, she didn't force me, contrary to what she may tell you, but she did encourage me) to make a quilt while I was there. See, I have a list of quilts I want to make and people I want to make quilts for. Hubby's grandma and grandpa have been on my list. But as often happens, I thought, "Oh, there's time still to make it. I'll do it next month or next year." I had commented to my mom that I really ought to get the quilt for Hubby's grandma done soon as her health has been declining. So, Mom convinced me to make it while I was there and assured me she'd help so it would get done quickly. Off we went to Wal Mart (pretty much the only place to buy fabric there) and picked out fabrics and got to cutting and stitching. The day before we were planning to leave, the quilt was finished. Hubby was able to take it to her as they live in the same town as my parents. This is the finished quilt.
I have a photo of her with the quilt but I can't seem to find it right at the moment. Anyway, I'm very glad that my mom encouraged me to make the quilt and we got it done. Just a few days later, we found out that Hubby's grandma has advanced cancer. If I had continued put it off as I had been doing, I may very well have missed the opportunity. I am so very grateful that I was able to give her the quilt and I truly hope that it will provide her some warmth and comfort in these difficult times.
Yesterday we drove down to see my favorite auntie. We had a great time visiting with her and her daughter. We went to eat at King's Fish House and it was so delicious. Auntie even tried some sashimi and liked it! After we went shopping in some of the nearby stores. Big R got a new pair of shoes. Hubby had promised to get Big R a hat a while back but we didn't find any that would fit. Then we went to the little girl's store and MoMo was like a kid in a candy store! She knows exactly what she wants/likes and went through the store and selected a gauzy skirt, a brightly colored shirt, a glittery scarf, bling-y sunglasses, sparkly headbands, glitzy bracelets and a multicolored necklace! Whew! Oh, I forgot the neon nail polish. And you might think that with all that she'd have forgotten all that she had gotten by today. But this morning she was putting it all on for a photo and kept asking Hubby, "Where are my bracelets?" and "What about my necklace?" She knew exactly what she had. So, here's a pic of her all decked out in her new things.
My girl is something else.
We really enjoyed spending some time with my auntie, who we hadn't seen in several years. She took some other photos of our visit so I hope to be able to share those with you all soon.
Ok, I know this has gotten quite long so I'll finish up. Love to you all! And a very happy International Polar Bear Day, too!

So, last night the kids were watching a movie so I decided to take a bath and relax a bit. Unfortunately, when I got out I discovered that my darling daughter had decided that her hair was "too long" and gave herself a haircut. She seems quite proud of her new 'do. I, on the other hand, do not find it so charming. We have an appointment this afternoon to see if the damage can be minimized. Here is her current haircut...

You can see that she didn't just hack off a section and call it done. Nope. She cut a number of sections. And those sections are various lengths. Oh boy. I totally thought she was past any danger of doing this. She has access to safety scissors because she loves to do art projects and has never to my knowledge used the scissors inappropriately. She cuts her paper and perhaps some ribbon but that's it. And she loves having long hair. She never before wanted a haircut when I suggested one. When I cut her hair last I insisted that it be done. She didn't want me to cut it. So, I never thought she would use those scissors to cut her own hair. And she did. Completely took me by surprise. I think I'm still in shock...

Hello, hello! Just checking in with you all. I've been busy working on my MT course and got a big box of study materials for it in the mail yesterday.I also went and bought me some school supplies, a notebook, pencils and some nice pens, which if anyone here steals from me, they will face my wrath. Pens seem to disappear around here, particularly the nice ones which I generally like to use to take a bit of the sting out of writing checks. Not that I actually write too many since I use online bill pay most often, but I digress. Anyhoo, I'm studying medical words now, in particular the combining forms such as esthesi/o, colcane/o, and cholecyst/o (referring to feeling, the heel and the gallbladder, respectively). Basically memorizing a long list of terms that are put together to make medical words. Also, I've been trying to practice my typing skills. Mainly trying to do it the RIGHT way, as opposed to the way I've evolved on my own, and increase my speed and accuracy.
So, I've been keeping busy. Haven't had time to squeeze in any scrapping lately, though I have gotten in a small amount of reading unrelated to my MT course work, purely for my own enjoyment.
The kids are doing well at school. MoMo was Student of the Week last week and got to share some things about herself with her class. She had been anxiously awaiting her turn to be SOTW, even carrying the photos she wanted to share in her backpack for the last couple of months. And then Big R is excelling at math. He recently completed his math facts 1-10. They need to know all the facts (ie, 1+1=2, 7+6=13) up to 10 and they take timed tests on them. He had been the furthest along among the students in his class and is the first to complete all of them! He loves to do math and he's very good at it. My little mathematician.
Well, I better go. I've got plenty to do here. Happy Groundhog Day!