Leaving church today, Emma told me in that I-know-what-I'm-talking-about-voice "a long time ago when the people in heaven were here, they didn't come from their mommy's stomach." Huh? They didn't? "No. You know, they were here before they went to heaven, but they didn't come from their mommy's stomach like we do."

Matthew had already told us that they talked about a boy who packed all of his clothes, left home, lost his clothes, then came back home. Best I could figure was the story of the Prodigal Son. So, I was racking my brain trying to figure out what Emma's class had talked about, and what she would've heard to be making this statement.

Couldn't think of anything, so I said, "Why do you think they didn't come from their mommy's stomach?"

She says, "Well, for example, Jesus came from Bethlehem, NOT his mommy's stomach."

There ya go.

Not a Lemonade Stand

Most kids have a lemonade stand. Not our little nature-loving entrepreneur. She wants to sell leaves and branches. In the middle of winter. "Really Emma?" "Yep." So, Matthew and I helped her gather the collection.

She sat on top of the wanna-be garden bed shouting "I got leaves and branches for you right here." Over and over and over. At first, I was holding back little smirks/smiles. It really was cute. Then it became a little painful, because I couldn't quite figure out how to tell her there weren't going to be any buyers. She deep down inside just knew that nobody could possibly turn down the opportunity to own one of these prized possessions, and she WOULDN'T give up! (You know how stubborn she can be.) It finally got to where I was praying for someone to PLEASE walk by and humor her. There was nobody out and about to give us even a glimmer of hope.

Then she informed me that no one was coming, because there was nobody outside to hear her.
She figured she needed to "ring some doorbells." No really Emma, you don't want to waste your time. People are at work and school...that's why they aren't coming. If you rang the doorbell, nobody would answer. Although not happy, she accepted this answer and was content with mine and Matthew's pine needle and leaf purchases.


The "Stand"........
The Goods........

Feelin' the love.........this was probably about the time she was contemplating and wondering "why doesn't anyone want to buy you?"

At one point, when she was starting to get discouraged, she asked Matthew to help her sell. He said he couldn't, because he was on a rocket ship about to go into space.

Besides, he was having problems with his vision.........

Roof Calving

Yikes! This is what is falling off the roof. We've had temps at or a little above freezing the last few days, and the compacted snow on the roof is coming down. It reminds me of a glacier calving, and sounds like the whole roof is coming down. It's startling when you're inside, hear it, and feel you need to run look to make sure nothing or no one was caught underneath....even though you know there is no one out there. It is a little exciting to see how big of a chunk fell. :-/ Emma and Matthew have been warned about it, and she makes sure to remind him every 30 seconds....."Don't go near the building!" But, I will still go out with them until the roof is clear.
You'll have to excuse the porch bar.

Day of Play

I took Thomas and a friend to the ski hill on base today. Bonus: found out last night that first 100 people recieved a free tubing pass, and the lift tickets were free for the day!! I didn't ski, snowboard, or tube. I sat in the lodge with books, food, and hot chocolate. Meandered out a few times for picture taking, but that was all. I was hoping to sit by a fire, but they didn't have it going. We were there from 11:30am to 6pm. They only came in twice! They grabbed a snack, used the bathroom, and ran back out. His friend's mom said to me, "Thank you for taking him and staying up there with them for so long. I can't believe you stayed up there that long just sitting in the lodge. That was so nice of you to do that for them." HA HA I told her, "I had ulterior motives." I was pretty much by myself for 6 hours....caught up on my bible study reading and worked on the crossstitch that I started 6 yrs ago....in between my snacking and picture taking. I ate a whole corn dog and order of french fries without sharing. LOL Don't get me wrong....I don't mind sharing, but every once in while you need a little alone time. Next time, I'm getting the chili cheese fries.

Now this is the way to sled......sit on the tube and get pulled up the hill!
They hooked their tubes together.

Lanes were made with little ridges of snow....reminded me of the slides at the amusement park.

DUDE! Get up!!!

I have noticed that my children are looking quite pale lately. We may need to take a trip to Hawaii during the winters. Wouldn't want them to get too pasty looking.

Getting started.

He landed this, but it was too out of focus to post.

See? Pasty. Not good....must.go.to.Hawaii. Oh, and if you ask him, he was the ONLY person wearing a helmet. He wasn't.

Reminiscing

I found a couple of SD cards that had been missing. Sat at the computer for a long time last night going through pictures that I haven't seen in almost a year. Can you believe that one of those cards had over 2,000 pictures on it???? Yeah, told you I was at it for a long time.

This one really makes me miss WF and our friends. :-( I'm missing that table cloth too.....haven't seen it since this day. What in the world did I do with it? That's what happens when you move.....at least one thing always goes missing, but you don't know it's missing until you're reminded of it.
Someone is missing.......I remember he wasn't too excited about getting in the picture.

There's trouble brewing on that there rock, and G knows it......LOL

Love this of W and Emma........they look like they're having lots of fun.

Science "Pets"

Our New Neighbor

Science Fair

(1) 12-yo boy + (3) goldfish + (1) science fair experiment = do you really want to know? I will tell you if you promise not send those P-E-T-A people after me. It's not that bad really. It's not very intelligent or thought provoking either.....I'm thinking not anyway....maybe I'm wrong?? To put a goldfish in the dark to see if it lightens in color? Maybe a little interesting, but change the world? Nah. Change the world? Did I say that out loud? Guess my expectations of a 12-yo take-the-path-of-least-resistance boy are a little high. *Sigh* Who knows though? Maybe this experiment will lead to the discovery of some sort of pigment injection that will prevent skin cancer in humans 30 years from now. See, I can think positively.

I will say though, I was quite pleased that we didn't have to provide him with examples of what he could do. When I first asked him about it, he said he already knew what he was going to do. What???? Really???? Cool!!! So I didn't argue. He also didn't get it teacher approved. (He insists that the science teacher doesn't like him and won't talk to him.) Hmmm....I'm not arguing that one either. He's a big boy....let the would-be consequences of his actions fall where they may.

At one point, he did say, "I like this school better, but at least at Burk we weren't required to do a project for the science fair. Why do we have to do it anyway?" To which I replied, "Maybe because the words "science and math school" follow the name of this school? Cal came home from lunch and said that I'd already messed up the entire experiment. Because, the lids are different colors and each color will reflect light differently. Ooops. Oh well. He said he was joking and it wouldn't be a big deal with these little plastic pieces. Plus, it's not like Thomas is trying to develop some skin cancer preventative. He's not?

We'll keep you posted on the status of Mr. Goldfish's skin color.....I know the anticipation will keep you on pins and needles. This little experiment is two or three weeks, so you'll have to settle down a little.

Sky Light

I'm not really sure that this picture does it justice. All morning, I kept getting glimpses out the window of the sun trying to peek out of the clouds as it was coming up over the mountains. The light reflecting off of the clouds was blinding BRIGHT and amazing. At first, it was just a little hole, but by 11:30ish, it was this. You really can't tell how blinding and bright the light is in the picture, but it's still pretty. Everytime I see the clouds and sun doing this dance, it makes me think of scriptures that speak of blinding light whenever Angels or God made an appearance.....like what Paul experiences on the road to Damascus. Not that it could possibly compare, but just makes me think.

Ice skating lessons

They missed 2 classes because Matthew was sick. He has had a little bit of a harder time than Emma, but today he was doing pretty good. He was getting back on his feet much quicker......course, today was the last day.






The teacher would throw little beenie baby animals out and the kids had to go get them and bring them back to the "basket."

If you sat with your feet out, arms up airplane style, she would slide you as far as she could.....FUN.....but you had to get up and skate back. :o)

I have no clue what happened with the formatting on this one.

Sometimes, her eyes and facial expressions say way more than her words. Funny though, that I don't always 'see' it until I look at the picture. Guess I need to pay more attention.




She had just thrown a cupped hands full of snow into her face to eat. By the time I got back with the camera, all that was left of the snow is what was in the hair below her chin.

Need soup?

A friend who I trade/buy coupons with was given a stack of $1/1 Muir Glen (organic brand) coupons. She gave me 20 of them. The Muir Glen tomato soup is on sale at the commissary right now for $0.80. Yeah, I went today and got 24 FREE cans of tomato soup.

Also got 5 FREE 4-packs of yogurt. Had some $1/1 Yo-plus yogurt coupons and the 4-packs were on sale for $0.99. Made a penny off each of those. :-D Ummm....I still have 20 of those coupons, so I hope they get more in stock before the sale ends. (They freeze well....actually, let them thaw just a little and they're perfect in smoothies.)

Just so they wouldn't think I was trying to get away with something, I also got a gallon of milk that I didn't have a coupon for....darn the luck. Sometimes you get cashiers who are in denial and don't want to admit how coupons really work. They think you are stealing. No problem with this lady. When she finished scanning all the Q's, she looked up and said, "Wow, that was a great deal on the soup. They were only eighty cents. You made twenty cents off each can." And exactly how am I supposed to respond to that? I didn't want to offend her, but how am I supposed to act surprised???

Oh, and got Matthew some 7-Up. Poor guy is not feeling too well, and I thought the 7-Up might entice him to drink. He had a hard day today. It seems like it's a bad cold. Congested with runny nose and eyes. He had a fever ranging between 102 and 103 today......he didn't want to do anything but sit and be held. He started perking up a little when Thomas came home, but was back to puny by bedtime. We'll see how tomorrow goes. The fever makes me wonder if there is not something else going on than just a bad cold. Maybe ear infection?

Dads vs. Team

Thomas' team had a game scheduled for Sunday, but no refs could be found and it was officially turned into a "practice." For fun, the coach decided to make it a parents vs. kids game. (only dad's showed up dressed out and ready to play, LOL) This was Cal's first time playing. He had to go buy a helmet, stick, and skates just for this ONE game. Hopefully, he will get more use out of them. I still think there is something out there calling my name for a one time big item purchase......thinking, thinking, thinking. Got any ideas for me?

The first time player.

He can skate..........
..........and fall!

(He admits that he can't stop.)

This one can definitely skate without falling.

The day before the game and all that morning, they were both razzing each other about who the better player was, who would win, etc. They had fun giving each other a hard time and "competing" on the ice.

This was a classic though, and I'm so glad I got it on film....digital film. :o)
Cal was going for the puck and Thomas snuck in..........

Without missing a beat, he takes the puck and flies right past Cal.

Yes, he just did what you think he did. LOL

Not only that, but he keeps going and shoots........
SCORE!! See the puck in the top right corner of the net?
Take that Old Man Goalie!

I almost missed the goal, because I was laughing at Cal's expression!

Matthew and Emma thought it was pretty cool to watch Daddy play hockey with Thomas. However, Emma found a baby to watch and didn't pay much attention to the game during the third period. Her back is to the game.