Wardrobe Wednesday

With the excitement of the Winter Olympics (Seriously, did you see the South Koreans get hosed out of a short track speed skating gold medal again?), I thought I would dig out some old photos of me from waaaaay back when I was a kid and took figure skating lessons every winter.

At the end of every skating season, our figure skating club would put on an "Ice Show" as both a fundraiser for the club and also an opportunity to show off our latest moves (Which always included at least one kid in the group falling and getting run over by another member of the same clumsy group.), plus there were costumes. It was also the one time a year my mom would happily apply gobs of make up to my face and help me into my extra shiny pantyhose.

Not exactly sure what the costume was supposed to be or what the skate was for this year but I do remember that while we were all posing for this photo, my left knee went numb from holding it on the ice for so long.

I'm the girl with the terrible perm on the bottom left.

The next year (or maybe it was the year after that even), I landed a special role with another girl and together we were Tweedle Dum (me!) and Tweedle Dee. We stuffed pillows into our giant yellow leotards and wore these crazy orange suspendered pants over top.

Shut up. We thought we were pretty cool.

More Wardrobe Wednesday at Heathen Family Revival.

Monkey Business

You all remember Monkey right? Well, Monkey hasn't been doing so well lately. He started coming apart at the back seam (again!) and I can only assume that the cause for his rupture was being loved almost to death. The choke hold Binny puts on Monkey nightly is somewhat scary but at least he's only a stuffed animal and not her sister.

Anyhow, Binny insisted that we sew Monkey back up, and while he was open I decided to do a little stuffed animal liposuction by removing all of his old stuffing. I also took this once in a blue moon chance to run him through the washer and dryer to clean his soiled little body and fluff up his matted fur.

After his bath and tumble dry, we stuffed him up with fresh stuffing and I sewed a new seam in his back. This time I used heavy duty thread.
Good as new!

The Kitchen Band

Here I am

It's been way too long since I've posted an update. I missed both Random Tuesday and Wardrobe Wednesday this week. *gasp* So here's what's been going on...

Last week Mae came down with strep throat and a double ear infection (sweet!) and the day after that I decided to go to the doc for another antibiotic after the sinus infection I was treated for a few weeks ago came back with a vengeance and slid right down into my left lung. At first I thought it would just go away on it's own, after all I have been taking vitamins and garlic to boost my immune system but by the time I drug my wheezing ass to the clinic, I had pneumonia. All weekend my lungs crackled and I coughed up green stuff and still today after 8 days of antibiotic (that also has a fun side effect of a terribly bitter taste in my mouth) I went back to the doc to have my meds extended into next week to be sure that I kick this bug once and for all. I am feeling better and I'm not coughing up stuff anymore but I'm still coughing and wheezing a little, especially last night after 3 hours of running around at the farm.

Speaking of the farm... My boss had a cow butchered last week and delivered a quarter of it to me today. I asked for mostly ground hamburger and a few steaks and that's exactly what I got. My freezer is once again full of local meat and I love it. Tonight the girls and I decided to try out the new batch which came just days after we finished our last batch of happy cow and almost all of the happy hog we bought last fall. I made tacos for Binny and I and Mae insisted on trying one of the tenderloin steaks. Actually we all took a bite of the steak just to see if this year's cow was as good as the last. It was one of the most tender and flavorful steaks I have ever tasted. I even tossed a piece to Oliver as he stood with his nose up in the air catching a whiff of the beefy goodness.

I gave Binny a haircut! For the last 3 years, I have been the only one to receive a haircut by an actual hair professional. The Gardener and the girls are forced to endure my choppy yet free haircuts done right in my kitchen with an old tablecloth clothes-pinned around them in place of a cape. So far they haven't complained too much, but I'm sure the girls will start to beg me take take them somewhere when they get older and all of their friends are going to salons, but for now free works for us.

The Gardener hasn't been around much lately. He's still on second shift but even when he's home, he hasn't really been home. But fear not, he hasn't left me for another woman...
he's been out in the shed cleaning and painting his tractor.That's a whole lotta green!

I talked with my grandparents the other night. Grandpa's hanging in there and still taking a crazy amount of medication but it seems to be keeping him out of the hospital which is definitely a good thing. My Grandma was thrilled to tell me all about her big Bingo win the other night. She won 50 bucks! Woohoo, Grandma Dee!

The Olympics have also kept me me away from blogging. I love both the Summer and Winter Olympics but especially the winter Olympics. Partly, I'm sure because of my North Dakota childhood which included both hockey and figure skating. I played hockey only a few years early on then switched to figure skating for the next 5 or so years. I was never really that great at either but it was fun and really what else is a kid to do in the middle of winter living in one of the coldest places in the US? I'll tell ya. Not much! So yeah, I like the figure skating and speed skating (short track especially, with it's roller derby like qualities) but my favorite is (believe it or not) curling. It totally sucks though that we don't have cable because curling is one of the events that is only shown on cable and cannot be pulled in by our rooftop antenna. I thought I would be able to catch it online but it turns out the curling video is a premium feature only available to paying cable customers and no pay per view option. Big bummer. Oh well, I'm getting my fill of skiing, snowboarding and skating so I can't complain too much. Maybe my sweet husband will take me out this weekend to a place that is showing curling on TV... Did you catch that Honey?

Last weekend I went out with a girlfriend that I haven't seen in a very long time. We drank beer and laughed until the wee hours of the next morning. It was so much fun and long overdue for the two of us to have a girls night out.

That's about it and now if you'll excuse me, I have have some men's figure skating to watch. I hope the costumes are as flashy as the music I can hear in the background!

Ice Fishing '10

Just a warning. This post is very picture heavy, but after all of the questions I got last year after our ice fishing trip I wanted to show everything. If you happen to be on a dial-up connection (do those even exist anymore?) it may take a while to load all of the pictures, but it's worth it.

With the warm weather over the weekend we decided to go out for our annual ice fishing excursion on my in-laws' pond. My brother met us out there and brought all of his fancy ice fishing equipment including a 2 person collapsible shack and we brought the Gardener's green machine for transportation to and from the pond.
My in-laws' pond is full of blue gills, and bass and a couple of other pan fish types and frozen this time of year. Uncle T set up some tip-ups to hopefully catch some of the bigger fish but we didn't have much luck with them. We had one flag go up but the fish came off the hook. Or so I'm told. I don't know a whole lot about the sport.
While a few of us were setting up for fishing, the Gardener and his dad (and little farm dog, Shadow) drove around the pond with their snow plows and cleared a path on the ice all the way around the pond and to most of the holes we drilled.

Once we started fishing with those short ice fishing rods (apparently the technical term is jigging) we caught a big crappie (pronounced craw-pee). We let it go back into the water along with the rest of the fish we caught that day. We don't eat them and my father in law didn't feel like going through the work of cleaning them all, but they were fun to catch.
Uncle T's shack with the top down.
And this is what it looks like with the top up. And yes that is my brother cracking open the first beer of the day. He said his friends give him a hard time when he gets out all of his gear. They refer to his area as a refugee camp. I can't say that I completely disagree.

This little toy sitting inside the shack is called a Vexilar. It's a depth finder that actually displays (with lights) where your hook and wax worm are and where the fish are. Really cool and almost like cheating since you can position your line right where the fish are.

Binny and Mae each had a turn to fish in the shack with me and uncle T. He had the heater going for us (see I told you he has LOTS of ice fishing gear) so it was nice and toasty in there.
Before we started packing up for the day, Uncle T insisted that I try out the hand auger to drill a hole.
Even with brand new blades it was still a lot harder than it looks. The ice was about 18 inches thick.

After I caught my breath from drilling one hole, we started packing up.
I called the Gardener down (from in the house. He was thawing and drying out after getting his 4 wheeler stuck in the creek.) to tow us back up to the house for lunch.

It was fun. Thanks Uncle T and Grandpa Bern for a fun ice fishing day!

Wardrobe Wednesday- Way Cuter Than Cesar Millan

Now that I have your attention and nothing else to add to this photo of my Binny playing with our two unamused yet surprisingly tolerant dogs, I would like to highlight a few new (to me) blogs I have come across lately. First off Courtney from One Loopy Life passed on the Sunshine award to me last week. Thanks Courtney!

I decided not to follow the rules along with the award (feel free to revoke it at any time, Courtney) and only pass this on to one blogger. One very new blogger looking for some readers!

I met Chris from Let's Connect With Nature! a few times over the last couple years as she and her family are good friends with our trusty neighbor firends K&B. I just recently heard that she started a blog about getting kids interested in all things nature. What a cool idea, right? You don't have to be a kid or even have kids to appreciate her love for the outdoors. She even made a list of 8 activities to do in winter! Now if only the weather would cooperate...

Go over and check out Chris's blog and make sure you say hello while you're there!

More Wardrobe Wednesday at Heathen Family Revival!

RTT- Short And Sweet

Again I'm cheating and writing this Monday night. 2nd shift still. Dinner was chicken noodle soup. The shitty kind from the can, which also happens to be Binny's favorite. I wasn't feeling the power to fight over yet another meal today so I caved and now she's full and happy and sleeping. I call it a win.

Mae came home from school early today. Not feeling well. She laid in the recliner most of the day. I gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed. Tonight would also be the first night in many that she hasn't come down with the complaint of not being tired. We'll see what tomorrow brings...

Speaking of tomorrow and bringing... we're expecting snow! Not Snowpocalypse snow, but maybe enough to close school and give us more time to make Valentine cards. The girls' class Valentine's Day parties are this Friday and we haven't even thought about making Valentine cards yet.

My Mother-in-law lost over 65 pounds and wrote her weight loss story to share with all of the Internet! Although being overweight has never been an issue for me (almost the opposite, in fact), I know many people do struggle with their weight and I'm so happy for them when they finally get a grasp on it. Bravo, Linda!

I finished our taxes and filed them. Our refund should be here in a week and then maybe, just maybe I'll convince my husband to go out and buy some new clothes. There are only so many times I can effectively spot treat the same greasy sweatshirt, and don't even get me started on those hole-y jeans. I'm thinking $200 cash at Fleet Farm should outfit him pretty well, as long as he doesn't wander into the tractor parts section...

That's it for me. Be sure Click to over to Keely's blog for the whole Random Tuesday line-up.

Ice Fishing

Saturday after swimming lessons, the girls and I decided to bundle up in our most extreme winter gear and head out to the frozen lake to see what Uncle T was catching. Since he was fishing relatively close to where we live, we decided to pay him a visit. The girls knew to bundle up but I had to laugh when Mae told me all she was wearing. She had on a pair of long underwear (top and bottom) plus a t-shirt and jeans over that with a sweatshirt, snow pants, neck warmer, hat, winter coat, boots and mittens. Binny and I were also wearing some mighty winter wear but Mae was the most unrecognizable once she suited up.We only stayed about 20 minutes. Just long enough to slide on the ice and snap a few photos.

Too cold for us to stay and do any actual fishing but hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will be able to do some late season (meaning warmer!) ice fishing like we did last year...

Wardrobe Wednesday

With the Gardener working evenings, I have been doing the bedtime routine solo. Not that my kids need lots of hands on help anymore but I do need to keep them motivated otherwise they'll catch a glimpse of what's on the TV and stand there half-dressed watching some crappy infomercial. That's my cue to turn off the TV and mention to Binny that her PJs are on backwards.






More Wardrobe Wednesday at Heathen Family Revival.