Nature Connections: January

Nature Connections

is a collaborative link collectionposted at the end of each monthon Living and Learning.
Its purpose is to showcase photos of childrenenjoying nature to inspire all of us to get outdoors more.

We must be in some sort of winter weather pattern that is giving us the most beautifully sunny and calm Sundays. The last 3 have been perfect for ice skating, so that's what we've been doing.


Don't get me wrong, the kids love ice skating on Grandma and Grandpa's pond, but since someone else *ahem* recently bought a pair of skates, he's been working on some fancy moves of his own.

Be sure to stop by Living and Learning for all of the other Nature Connections links!

Puzzler

Binny is finally feeling better and back at school today, but not before using up every tissue we had in the house and feeling pretty miserable for a handful of days. Most of those days, we did puzzles.

Wardrobe Wednesday

Yesterday, Binny woke up with a runny nose and a wicked sounding cough. I kept her home from school and we sat around in our jammies watching PBS kids and put puzzles together most of the afternoon. This morning when she emerged from her room at 5AM, her cough and runny nose were accompanied by a fever, so it's basically a repeat of yesterday. Home again. She's in a good mood and believe it or not, when she gets sick, she's a real doll. She loves to cuddle and drink hot cider and talks in this sweet, sick kid voice that just melts my heart.

Link up your Wardrobe Wednesday posts below!

Binny Lost Another Tooth

Wardrobe Wednesday

My dad gave the girls these toe socks for Christmas. I wasn't so sure they would like having their toes individually wrapped, but they love them.

Link up your Wardrobe Wednesday posts below!

If Flash Could Talk

Our not so little puppy is finally starting to learn some of the house rules. For a while there I'm pretty sure he thought his name was Dammit Flash. He now knows that peeing on the floor makes me very upset and usually involves him getting pulled around by his collar, a nose rub in the carpet/ rug/ clothing the girls left laying on the floor that was way too easy to pee on without making that telltale splash noise, ending with a walk out the back door. He discovered that standing by the door and barking or ringing the bell is a good way to avoid such unpleasant activities. His biting and chewing are getting better as well but not before he chewed off the upholstery on the end of the foot rest of our recliner and pulled up a silver dollar sized section of carpet out of the living room.

Who's a naughty good boy?

ME, ME, ME! IS THAT A BEGGIN' STRIP? I'M A GOOD BOY!

LOOK AT ME! I CAN DO THIS STAY THING ALL DAY IF YOU WANT. AS LONG AS THAT BEGGIN' STRIP IN YOUR LEFT HAND WILL BECOME MINE IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

WELL, ACTUALLY I NEED THAT BEGGIN' STRIP RIGHT NOW!

LOOK! I CAN LAY DOWN TOO, JUST LIKE YOU ASKED. DOES THAT MEAN I GET ANOTHER ONE?

YES, I DO THINK MY LEFT LEG MAKES A GREAT REST FOR MY UNIT.

YOU'RE NOT GOING TO CUT MY NAILS AGAIN ARE YOU? NO REALLY, THAT SUCKS.

ARE WE DONE YET?

Snow To Sunshine

I mentioned a few weeks back that we need a new bed. I also mentioned that buying a bed costs about as much as a beach vacation. Although a new bed would be nice, the Gardener and I are WAY overdue for a nice vacation alone.

About 6 months after we were married, we went to the Grand Canyon for a few days on a trip out to Arizona to see my family. I was already pregnant with Mae at the time and while it was nice, it did lack the honeymoon feel that we're going for this time around. 9 and a half years after getting married, we're finally going on a honeymoon!

After searching the Internet for a deal on a beach vacation for 2, we booked a 4 night all inclusive trip to Jamaica. A gorgeous resort on a beach with 5 pools, almost guaranteed SUNSHINE and highs in the 80s every day (according to Weather Underground), unlimited rum drinks and NO snow. Unlike the 4-6 inches of snow we're getting here today along with 20mph winds. Sure makes me wish we were leaving right now. Mama needs some sunshine!

Funny thing though, this morning (after we booked and paid for everything last night) I started reading some reviews of the resort. The first page of reviews on Trip Advisor were so negative I felt a knot start growing in my stomach, but I then remembered that this is, after all, the Internet and I've read enough terrible comments on Youtube videos and blogs to know that some people just like to be negative. Not that I totally discounted the negative reviews, but after scouring many review sites and reading what I would consider a good sampling of reviews both positive and negative, I feel confident that we'll have a nice vacation. SO many of the negative commenters started out with "I'm not a picky person, and normally I don't complain, BUT.... " then left a long list of minor annoyances. Really? Not picky, but complaining about one staff member rolling their eyes at a guest when they asked to have their room changed for the third time because they weren't satisfied with the view? Sounds picky to me. I'd probably roll my eyes at them too and I hope that enough picky people read the reviews and choose not to go... at least the week we're there.

Wardrobe Wednesday

It snowed about 2 inches here yesterday. So the first thing the girls did when they hopped off the bus was ditch their backpacks and run to get the sleds and shovels out of the garage. They were soaked and cold by the time they finally came in after the sun went down. Until the snow had melted and dripped off enough to be dried in the dryer, their wet clothes sat draped all over the bathroom.


While I was in there, I snapped a picture of myself in the mirror just for fun. I bought this sweater a few weeks ago at the thrift store for $3 but after I took it home and washed it, one of the seams in the armpit came loose leaving a gaping hole. I finally got around to stitching it back together yesterday and wore it for the first time. It's incredibly soft and warm. A great find for $3 and 10 minutes of repair on a snowy afternoon.
Only after I took the picture did I realize that I hadn't brushed my hair at all yesterday. You're welcome, Internet.

Link up your Wardrobe Wednesday posts below!

More Ice Skating

We went ice skating again on Sunday. This time, instead of going into town, we loaded up the 4 wheeler and went out to my husband's parents house. They have a pond on their property that gets most of it's use during the summer months (with the exception of our once a year ice fishing expedition), but now that the girls and I have ice skates and the (4 wheel drive) Gardener has his toy, we can go out there for a little ice skating.
It was the most gorgeous winter day on Sunday. The sun was shining bright and there was NO WIND. A rarity around here! Even in the 20s, it was perfectly comfortable. The girls even took their jackets off toward the end because they were sweating so much under all the layers.

There was some snow on the frozen pond, but the Gardener didn't mind cleaning it up for us. It was just powdery snow, so it didn't hamper our skating one bit.

We brought along a chair for Binny to push around while she is still trying to get the hang of having 2 skinny blades strapped to her feet.
The girls also hitched a ride from Daddy...












It was a fun Sunday afternoon. Except for the part when Flash thought it was so much fun to run full speed into us and knock us over. Not funny, you little shit.

Wardrobe Wednesday- Classic Binny

For the first Wardrobe Wednesday of the year, we're going classic. Classic Binny that is.
The jumper dress came from Santa (via Gymboree). The boots are hand me downs from Sister. The leggings never really went with any outfit, but she loves them nonetheless. The necklaces were part of one of those make your own jewelry kits from Christmas, and the hair styling is all her own, after I asked her about a hundred times to brush her hair, of course. Classic Binny.

Link up your Wardrobe Wednesday posts below!

Moving Right Along

This is my annual I can't leave those trashy, drunk, party pictures up for one more day or I might die of embarrassment post. At least I'm consistent, right?

Moving right along... After 2 weeks of nonstop parties with ridiculous amounts of food and drinks, you'd think I would be making a New Year's resolution about health or exercise or whatever else people resolve to do this time of year, but once again, I'm not. It's not that a New Year's Resolution isn't a good idea, it's a great idea, but I know I won't last one week. I can't even think of a decent topic for this blog post (and stick with it for more than a few sentences) and have erased and started over roughly 4 times now.

Moving right along... The girls went back to school today. Can you hear me cheering? They were actually as excited as I was to go back to our school year routine. Mae woke up bright and early, got dressed without any prompting from me and had her school bag packed and her coat on a good 20 minutes before the bus pulled into view. Binny was a bit slower but still even let me brush her hair without kicking and screaming.

Moving right along... The Gardener and I are in the market for a new bed. The bed related backaches have been getting so bad that if we try to sleep in on the weekends, it's downright painful. Sleeping in on a cold Sunday morning should not be a painful experience. We finally started looking for new mattresses yesterday, but once we saw the prices at the furniture store, I saw my dreams of taking a vacation this winter all but evaporate. Really, $1800 for a mattress and box spring? For that price it better serve me breakfast in bed for the first year. After doing a little comparison shopping on the Costco website this morning, I found a very similar mattress set for less than half as much as the set we saw at the furniture store yesterday. Plus, it goes on sale later this week!

Moving right along... Sad news about our local ice skating rink. Last week the weather turned warm and rainy, melting all of the snow that was on the ground and also melted the ice rink. When the cold weather returned, it came back with 30 mile an hour winds making for super bumpy ice, and while that would have been bad enough, all of the gravel and sand from the parking lot blew into the rink and froze into the ice. Boo!

Moving right along... Santa brought Binny this puffy skirt and she's has worn little else since. Guess where Santa found it? Costco! Another reason why Costco rocks!

New Year's Eve

Like every year, we knew this year's theme for the costume party several months ago, but like every year, we waited until the night before to start making our costumes. If you haven't already scrolled through all of the photos and figured it out already, this year's theme was Prehistoric.

The Gardener and I decided to go as a Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
For the second year in a row, I won the contest for best female costume.
And this guy won best male costume. He totally deserved the win, spending the entire evening in little more than a pair of women's shape wear.
The rest of the costumes were fantastic as well. New Year just wouldn't be New Year without synthetic wigs and over the top accessories.

Have you ever seen so much animal print fabric in one room? As usual, the party was a blast and we all had a great time ringing in the new year.

The only low spot of the night was when poor T was busting a move on the dance floor and wound up busting her knee. Yes, a broken kneecap and a trip to the ER this morning was how she spent the first day of the new year. Feel better soon, T!