Sunday, February 27, 2011

It's Not Just About the Clothes

Recently on the Nightly News this article about Goodwill was highlighted.  Timothy says  "It makes you feel good about what you do."  My cousin has taken some of these classes and he feels they've been very helpful.  Also if you are interested the Goodwill Community Foundation has some great online learning resources and classes for everything from Excel to Facebook...all of this for free!  Check it out!  J.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Saturday Morning Romp

Enough said!  :)  J.

Celebrating YOU My Love!

This week we celebrated my beloved Timothy's birthday.  When you get to be our age(said jokingly) in one sense birthdays are just another day...but in another, as each year passes, I have begun to treasure them more, to savor, and contemplate with gratitude the gift that we've been given.  I mean life...our life...together. 

There are many things about Timothy that are precious to me:

I love his easy, frequent laugh:

And the tolerance he has for my hair brained schemes such as:
And this:

I SO enjoy his playfulness:

and his ability to live in the moment:

His sweetness:
picture taken by Peggy Nash
  I'm moved by his tenderness:
 

His silliness:

His companionship:

And he's just cute too:

I'm truly grateful, and feel blessed to have this man in my life.  I love you Babe! Happy Birthday!

The Leak

We have a leak inside one of our walls...we aren't sure how bad it is...but we have bubbling in the drywall, and black mold...BLACK MOLD...that seems pretty bad.  

This is how pathetic we are...we have to get things ready for the landlord to come in and check it out.  We need to replace the...I think it is called weather stripping?!? on the stairs door where Hannah's cat Lilian has ruined it with scratching.  This wouldn't be a problem if Timothy or Hannah would reliably put soft paws(claw covers) on her(sorry guys...but you know it's true! I love you! Smooches!)  We had to straighten up the garage because there wasn't even a path to get through to the garage door(Joe has evidently added a bunch of stuff to the already packed...and not so organized pile of crap enormously important stuff that we are holding onto and storing down there in the dungeon garage.  And there is always the dumping ground mess that Hannah calls her room...there is NO WAY we are letting the landlord in to see that!!!  

The thought of what it will take to fix it freaks me out a bit...the leak is somewhere between the third and second floors, and it goes all the way to the basement.  It is hidden behind a bookcase...thus we didn't notice it until it had clearly been there a while.  Ah well....such is life.  

On an up note...the garage is cleaner than it has been for a while, and what a great opportunity to purge!

Note to self...just like one should always wear clean underwear just in case you have a bad accident and have to be taken to the hospital...one should try to live as orderly as possible so that should you spring a leak and landlords and repairmen need to enter, one is ready.  ;)  J.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Extremes

This morning while preparing for work there was thunder, lightening, and snow simultaneously. 

This was the scene on the way to work:
It's a very wet snow! 

So I get to work and this is the scene in my office:
ridiculous temperature for working in(in my middle aged, menopausal opinion)!!!   J.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Dribbles of This and That

The kids went out with some friends to celebrate Peter's birthday on the 4th.  So we got to babysit again.  *said in a very sing-songy excited voice*  Sweet joy!


Here she is sleeping under the blanket that Great Grandma Bismore crocheted for her.  Someday she will realize how special this is!

I had to zoom in to see what was on the blanket...it's her binkie.

Last weekend's plan to overhaul our bedroom was preempted by Hannah's being very sick with a high fever for two days.  Flexibility is our middle name...so instead of the super productive weekend we had in mind, it turned into a snugglefest on the couch with the sicko and watch movies weekend.  Did you hear the gears changing?!?

This weekend...it happened.  We accomplished SO much!  One of our goals for 2011 is to get organized.  Our household is crammed with people and stuff.  We love the people, but want/need to tame the stuff.  We started in our bedroom.  We have a need for storage space, and for it to be utilized well.  Check out our new closet set up!
 SO much better!
We also added some under the bed bins.

We added a few things in the bathroom...it's all about maximizing the small space we have.
Timothy gave me the mirror for my birthday.


And having my precious kitty means having a litter box.  He's a bit of an over scratcher and so he has been dumping cups of litter out on the carpet.  This was our solution(scuse the poop):
Instead of spending nearly $20 for a hooded litter box, we bought a Sterilite bin at Target for $7.99 and cut a hole in the end.  The lid makes it easy as pie(pun intended) to scoop the poops, and there is more room inside then the average hooded box.  GENIUS if you ask me!  ;)

We also got to spend some great time with our girl.  This is a terrible picture but I include it because it shows how she holds her hands under her chin in this ADORABLE way when she's getting her diaper changed!  Too cute!

Her face is changing and she's already growing up!!!  She's very drooly right now.

She LOVES her Auntie Hannah and the feeling is clearly mutual!!!:

We also celebrated Timothy's birthday which is Tuesday.  I was holding Eva so I didn't take many pictures, but I did take the following picture of the beautiful cake Hannah made for him:

I joined Groupon.  I'm not sure if you've heard of it, but it's my new favorite thing.  Groupon has daily featured deals.  It costs nothing to join, and you have access to great deals on everything from movie tickets, to cupcakes, to trips.  I got Timothy's birthday present there...two tickets to a 5-6 hour Whale Watching expedition.  50% off...2 tickets for less than $100.  Great deal!  I also purchased 4 tickets to the Museum of Glass which usually run $12 each, I paid $6.  Timothy and I were just talking about going this summer.  It's fun, and if you are choosy about what you purchase you can really get some good deals.   Here is the link to Groupon. Check it out!  See if you don't enjoy it as much as I do!?!  :)  J.


Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Domination of Outward Conditions

I had dinner with a friend last night.  During our time it came up in discussion that though we are both very happily married we struggle with not allowing our moods be affected by the moods of our husbands.  We find ourselves taking on, or matching their moods whatever that may be, negative, gloomy, frustrated, angry, brooding...or fill in the blank.  I'm sure this is common and I'm sure goes both ways in a marriage. 

My friend is very smart...she gave me some ideas that I am going to try and see if they work for me.  She said she asked her husband to say is this work or home related...so if she picks up on some mood she might say:  "Hey are you all right?" and he will respond...yes just work stuff.  She now knows that there isn't an outstanding issue that needs resolving between the two of them, and it also causes him to be aware that he may be coming across different than he may have wanted to.  Also she said sometimes she just separates herself for a little while...going to a different room to take a bath, check email or whatever.  This gives him the space to work through whatever he is processing, and allows her to maintain her peaceful and happy mood.

Robert Louis Stevenson said "The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions." 

Learning to maintain my mood or happiness in spite of others or circumstances is one of my goals for 2011. 

J.


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Mattie - My Loverboy

This is how we sleep almost every night...excuse the very poor quality there was barely any light in the room, and I took the picture with my phone which meant I had to lighten it...still it's cute: