Franklin Park Conservatory

Almost 11!

The bunnies: Buttercup, Daffodil and Petunia are still in the backyard. It was so tempting to reach out and grab Petunia last night, she was so close and sitting so still. Yes, we can tell them apart. Buttercup has a white streak on her forehead, Daffodil is darker and Petunia is lighter. I want to pick them up and snuggle them but we are concerned that the mother will take offense. We are hoping that they will get used to us checking up on them every evening and stay in the yard. they are so adorable that I would almost be ok with them eating my plants!

Samantha is turning 11 in 9 days! Last night I was sitting on her bed while she tried on her new shorts. I noticed her brown clogs and slipped them on. They fit perfectly! OMG! We are entering dangerous territory here. The brown clogs are now in my closet because Samantha said I could borrow them!

Baby Bunnies

We have 3 adorable baby bunnies in our back yard. On Saturday evening we were enjoying family time out on the deck. We had hamburgers on the grill and after we ate John and I relaxed and chatted while Samantha played on her swings. I absolutely love times like these and try to presently imprint them in my mind to recall on those dark and cold February days when summer seems a long way off.

Samantha saw a baby bunny from one of her swings and we went to investigate the little guy. Oh so tiny, furry and cute... and we named her Buttercup!

A little while later I asked Samantha where Buttercup was. She said she was sitting there in the garden watching her. I said I was too... we have 2 baby bunnies! We named the second one Daffodil.

Then Petunia, the third appeared. We had to make sure we could see all three at once as conformation that there really were three. Their nest is under one of our Weigelia bushes and I'd love to see them all snuggled in there.

We had a wonderful time watching them and then checking on them the rest of the weekend. I'm glad they have a beautiful and safe yard to grow up in.

Misc. Updates (since I haven't posted in forever!)

I got a new camera for Mother's Day! It is just like Samantha's so she taught me how to use it. (I feel old...) There are a bunch of pictures that I need to post but I just haven't gotten around to it... Lately I've been quite busy playing Path Words on Face Book and John and I were just elected President and Vice President of our Home Owners Association.

We are really enjoying the HOA. It is a lot of work currently because we are just learning the ropes and figuring things out. And, we have met so many interesting people so far.

Samantha only has 4 more days of 4the grade left! And, only 19 more days until her 11th birthday! I can't believe my baby is turning 11! She said she wants a puppy for her birthday... she's getting a new bike instead.

Over the weekend we went an saw Peter Pan at the Great Southern Theater. I used to stay at the Great Southern when I was at Ohio Wesleyan and it was parents weekend but I'd never been to the theater. It was really beautiful. I think Samantha really appreciated the architecture as well. and the play was cute.

Over Memorial Day weekend we went to the Franklin Park Conservatory. I got some great butterfly pictures that I will post soon. Every year they have butterflies among the gardens in one area. They are really neat... I love it when there aren't too many people in there and it's really quiet... it is so relaxing watching the butterflies fluttering around. My mom had taken Samantha there when she came to visit and it was cute to hear Samantha point out the things they had seen together. It made me smile listening to her recall their outing.

Naked

This morning Samantha was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast when I came out, naked, and said: "I think I'll go to work like this so everyone will notice my hair... I am having a really good hair day." Samantha just rolled her eyes.

So, someone has been swiping the McCain bumper sticker off my Element and it's pissing me off. I've replaced it twice now and this time am coating it with pepper spray. That will teach whomever to mess with the little blonde's Element and political views!

Anyway, when we were leaving for school I sprayed the sticker and got some of the pepper spray on my hand. I washed it off and then told Samantha that I hoped I had gotten it all. She told me I probably should take a shower... "oh, but that would mess up your good hair day." The kid cracks me up.

Finished Mosaics

This is the mosaic I made for Mom for Mother's Day... She loves Sunflowers...

Here is Samantha's Peace Sign...

And Samanth's Robot...

Crazy Bird!

On Friday John took these pictures of this little guy who was at our window from 1pm until 8:30pm. He kept flying into the glass and climbing up the screen.

On Saturday he was back again around 6:30am when I woke up! And he was there again Sunday and this morning too. Poor little guy. It is annoying g to have him banging into the window as well as the fact that I feel bad for him. I wouldn't be surprised if we find him dead out there. He's got to have a headache or beak-ache!

I figure there is some sort of old wives tale that says something horrible about what's to come when a bird repeatedly bangs itself into your window. I wasn't sure I wanted to know but halfway through the day I couldn't resist googling odd bird behavior and here's what I found:

Q. I have birds repeatedly banging into my window. Why are they doing this? Will they hurt themselves?
A. In the early spring, male birds are trying to establish territories for nesting sites. Their behavior results in attacking other male birds that are invading the territory. When a male bird flies into a window, it is trying to attack another male bird, which actually is a reflection of itself. A bird may knock itself out by this repeated window attack; therefore, cutting down on the reflection on the window will prevent these window attacks and injury to the bird. Placing a sheer cloth or crinkled plastic wrap in select places on the inside of the window will help cut down on window reflections.

Samantha's First Art Show

Here is Samantha's picture from her very first art show! I am so proud of her!

Community Clean Up Day

Today was our neighborhood clean up day that I organized. I must say, I do love organizing things. Anyway, the weather was perfect! There were 8 of us. We cleaned up along the road in front of our neighborhood, along the creek and back by the playground and ponds. We saw this guy swimming around one of the ponds and couldn't resist taking a picture of him. He was so beautiful gliding across the pond and it made us all realize how worthwhile what we were doing is. He deserves a clean pond to swim in. At one end of the pond a neighbor came out to say hello with her 2 dogs and her cat. She said her cat, Scarlet, is more like a dog. It was hysterical to watch this grey cat trot on down to the pond, sit down and watch the swan. We are going to get one of those "adopt a highway" signs once we have completed 3 clean up projects. I can't wait until the next one in June.

Mosaics

Last night Samantha and I went to our very first mosaics class with Susie. It was amazing. I am making a sunflower for my mom for mother's day and can't wait to finish it next week. Samantha is making a peace sign. the studio was beautiful and the instructor, Beth's work is fabulous. The very large piece on the wall in the background of the pictures is a tree she did that is so beautiful. It is 4' x 4' with the prettiest shades of pinks, blues and greens. I just loved all the jars with the many colored tiles. they were like jars of candy all lined up on their shelves. Cutting the tiles was the only not so fun part. Half way through I realized i was bleeding from putting my hands down in the tiny glass shards. Susie told me that's normal though. Susie is making a beautiful blue star of David. She specializes in Jewish themed pieces. More pictures to come!

Facing my fear!

Yup, that's me holding a BIRD! It's creepy little bird feet were on my hand and everything. It was really gross not to mention terrifying but I survived.

Earth Day Projects

My friend Kelly gave me her library card # so I can pick up her reserves when I go to the library. She always has books on reserve because she loves to read, has 3 kids and is a pre-school teacher. Anyway, the other day I picked up a book for her entitled: "Every Day is Earth Day". It has the cutest children's projects for Earth Day that I thought I would share with you.

My favorite is the Seedling Necklace: It is a small plastic jar on a string with seeds that germinate in a wet cotton ball inside the jar. You can wear the necklace and watch your seedlings sprout and then plant them in a flower pot.

And, I also liked the Paperweight Rock: Paint & decorate a rock... simple but fun. They suggested using it outside in the summer to keep the pages of a book or coloring pages from blowing away.

How cute...

School Supplies

I really do have the best kid in the whole world! Yesterday she asked if we could go by Wal Mart so she could get some new school supplies. She went on to say that she would pay for them with her own money. I told her that she didn't need to spend her own money on them but she said she didn't mind. Finally I had to insist that she would not be paying for school supplies with her own money. What a sweet kid. I can't believe she is almost 11 years old. Everyday I am amazed at what a great person she is becoming.

Samantha's Art Class

Samantha's art class was featured in our local paper... I'm so proud of my baby!

(and that's me in the background reading a book!)

Golly... It's been a while since I've written anything here... Now that I've discovered Face Book I have been ignoring my blog world. Have you ever noticed that when you discover something new it has the tendency to totally consume you.

Special Flip Flops and Twilight...

Do you ever say a really common word so many times that it starts to sound funny to you? Ok, say the word special 20 times... it sounds funny doesn't it!

It has been so warm here that Samantha wore flip flops to school on Friday with capri pants! I went running on Thursday and just about died because I am so out of shape. I was only able to go two miles. My mind wanted to go further but my stupid 40 year old body said no.

Several of the girls in Samantha's class are reading "Twilight" so she had me get it for her. I decided to read it while Samantha finished a Molly Moon book and I am totally addicted! It was an awesome book and I can't wait to start the second one.

I plan travel for the company I work for... I make all the arrangements and put together itineraries for the technical and sales reps... I thought this email was the best and just had to share it here:

A Washington, DC airport ticket agent offers some examples of 'why' our country is in trouble!

1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!)

2. I got a call from a candidate's staffer, who wanted to go to Cape town.I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, and then she interrupted me with, ''I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Cape town is in Massachusetts.''
Without trying to make her look stupid, I calmly explained, ''Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Cape town is in Africa ''Her response -- click.

3. A senior Vermont Congressman called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando ... He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that's not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state.He replied, 'don't lie to me, I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state!'' (OMG)

4. I got a call from a lawmaker's wife who asked, ''Is it possible to see England from Canada ?'' I said, ''No.''She said, ''But they look so close on the map.'' (OMG, again!)

5. An aide for a cabinet member once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas.I pulled up the reservation and noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas.When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, ''I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.'' (Aghhhh)

6. An Illinois Congresswoman called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 a.m., and got to Chicago at 8:33 a.m.I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois , but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones.Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.

7. A New York lawmaker called and asked, ''Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?'' I said, 'No, why do you ask?'She replied, ''Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said(FAT), and I'm overweight. I think that's very rude!''After putting her on hold for a minute, while I looked into it. (I was dying laughing). I came back and explained the city code for Fresno , Ca.is (FAT - Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.

8. A Senator's aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, ''Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train To Hawaii?''

9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman who asked,''how do I know which plane to get on?'' I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, ''I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.''

10. A lady Senator called and said, ''I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola,Florida ... Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?''I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola, FL on a commuter plane.She said, ''Yeah, whatever, smarty!''

11. A senior Senator called and had a question about the document she needed in order to fly to China . After a lengthy discussion about passports,I reminded him that he needed a visa. 'Oh, no I don't. I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those.'' I double-checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, ''Look, I've been to China four times. and every time they have accepted my American Express!''

12. A New Mexico Congress woman called to make reservations, ''I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York .''I was at a loss for words.Finally, I said, ''Are you sure that's the name of the town?'''Yes, what flights do you have?'' replied the lady.After some searching, I came back with, ''I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a rhino anywhere."''The lady retorted, ''Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!''So I scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, ''you don't mean Buffalo, do you?''The reply? ''Whatever! I knew it was a big animal.''

Look what John gave me for Valentine's Day!

Samantha and Tara

Valentine's Day

This is the HUGE Valentine's Day card Samantha made for John and me....

New Haircut

Samantha said she wanted to get her hair cut short. We went yesterday after school and it was a surprise for John. She picked the style out and everything. It was so much fun watching her!

My Child Doesn't Wear Socks In February!

I Love Lists and All About Samantha

And so does Samantha. Her latest list is a pig list. It is a list (in order) of how she loves her pig:
1. Bacon
2. Pork Chops
3. Ham

Samantha also is Student of the Month at her school! She was so excited to come home and tell John and me as well as to get her certificate from the principal today.

Windy Weather and Wheel of Fortune...

Samantha is obsessed with "Wheel of Fortune"! It's kind of cute how she runs to the TV to watch her program each night like a little old lady. The other night she went running in to John's den to tell him that the cable box had locked up right in the middle of the good part of her show. John tried so hard not to laugh at her.

We had a wind storm last night. Lots of blowing and gusts that made a lot of noise and freaked Samantha out. This morning I found our neighbor's trash can blown over in our yard with bologna in our bushes. Yuck! And, she's not the type to clean it up either...

Dads and conferences...

We had Samantha's parent teacher conference last night and it went really well. I love Samantha's teachers. She has been so lucky each year to have such amazing teachers.

While we waited to be called in for our conference we chatted about my dad or BaBa as Samantha calls him. His name is Bob and when Samantha was a baby she heard my mom call loudly and always twice to him so much that she said : ba ba as one of her first words... so, we have always called him BaBa. Anyway, she asked me why BaBa always pokes her, pinches her, grabs her with bbq tongs and picks her up by the seat of her pants. I told her she had no idea! I told her all about the things BaBa used to do to me when I was little:

• My 2 front teeth had just come in. Mom went out to do errands and when she came home I was crying. She got me out of my crib and saw that my 2 front teeth were gone. She asked Dad about it and he said I had gotten out of my crib, he put me back in but I hadn't stopped crying... and no, he hadn't noticed that my teeth were gone.
• When he was putting an exercises bike together for Mom he told me to stick my finger in the spinning front wheel and I did.
• Once when he was changing a light bulb he told me to put my finger in the socket and I did.
• There were many many very well packed snowballs.
• He would hide in dark rooms and grab me when I'd walk by.
• He tried to tip over a port a potty I was in when we were skiing.
• When I went to college we had these Opus penguins with our names on them on our dorm room doors and Dad drew a widow's peak on the forehead of my penguin. (I cried & Mom yelled at him.)
• When I got married he told John that I had a no return policy so he was stuck with me.
• When we danced at my wedding he tried to pull the pearls off the back of my dress while the photographer was taking our picture.
• When I was in pre-school I was a clown for Halloween. We have all these happy pictures of me in my clown costume with my big orange balloon. Then there are the pictures where I am crying with no balloon. Mom asked him why he popped it and he said he wanted to see what I would do... duh.
• I used to slide down the stairs on my butt and one time Dad let me sit on his lap and we slid down the stairs. Then he sat on my lap and slid down the stairs.

This is only the list I could think of while were were sitting outside Samantha's classroom. I'm sure there are many other things! I called Dad on my way to work this morning and reminded him of all my memories. We had a good laugh.

A ham continuation...

So, yesterday on the way to school Samantha said: "Some people have pigs as pets. They say pigs are really clean. I don't know about that but if I had a pig I would cook it in a pot like that woman did in Fatal Attraction to the bunny. Then I'd eat it and lick all the ham off it's bones like a big ham lollipop."

It's February Already!

The weather here is wild. We had a winter storm with lots of ice an snow last week. Samantha had 4 snow days last week! All of our trees are covered with a coating of ice. I know it is so bad for the poor trees but it sure does look beautiful when they sparkle in the sun. Yesterday we had our front door open and the sun shining in really warmed things up. John was out trying to clear out the sewer drain by the road for all the melting ice to run off and not back up in our yard. Samantha built a snowman and I sat in the doorway and watched them.

I actually watched part of the Super Bowl! I think the only reason might have been because Ryan was over. But, I did see the Steeler's guy do that really cool thing where he ran really far with the ball... farther than anyone ever has in the Super Bowl. Huh...

One of my favorite things is sitting in the car with Samantha in the mornings before school. We talk about the silliest things! Today Samantha went on and on about her love for bacon. She said, "I feel bad that they slaughter them but I sure do love those pigs!"

Samantha had a snow day today and she came to work with me. I was so proud of her for keeping busy and quiet for so long because I was really busy today. Lynn had some files that she needed help organizing so here is Samantha helping.

Last night was Samantha's first art class at Wagnall's. She really loved it and I am so proud of how well she did. My baby drew this monkey! I sat and read last night while she had class and every now and then I'd look over to see what she was doing. I really enjoyed watching her interact with Teresa, her instructor. She is great and I think Samantha really took to her. Tara's older brother is in the art class to and it was cute to watch them sit right next to each other and not say a word.

OH MY GOSH!!! I STILL CAN NOT DOWNLOAD PICTURES!!! I HATE BLOGGER RIGHT NOW!!!

Samantha starts art lessons today and she is very excited. We went out and purchased all her supplies that she carefully placed in her "art bag" and then this morning she insisted on taking the bag to school. She was so cute that I couldn't say no. I think she wanted to show them to her friends.

It is snowing here... a lot... except it never stays on the ground. I'm not sure which is worse: cold with lots of snow or cold with no snow and just grey slush. And of course I am having coat issues... I have this full length down coat which is the warmest thing ever but everyone laughs at it because it makes me look very puffy... then there is the comfortable fleece which is not warm at all... I have been wearing my latest thrift store coat: a vintage fur... beaver... it is very warm but it's not big enough to wear a sweater under... (You know John just loves asking everyone if they want to pet his wife's beaver...) And then there is my other vintage coat: long black with a mink collar but it is quite heavy... Anyway, I guess I am just thankful that I have a coat...

So, I thought I would fill you all in on the latest stupid thing I did: John and I are doing this block watch thing and we've been working with this police officer who sets these things up... Well, I'd seen him about 4 times or so but always in his uniform and police hat... so when he showed up at our door in his regular clothes with no hat I had no idea who he was... but I opened the door and held it open for him to come on in... He could tell I had no idea who he was and he asked why on earth did I open the door... um, he had a package, duh... He and John of course think I'm nuts but I totally am sticking behind my logic: guy with a package at your door... you want the package, right!