Skipping School

I decided I needed a day with Maggie-Doodle, so she ditched school one day last week and we hit the road. Mags likes to shop, but not for clothes and such. She's an antique/junk store junkie. (That's my girl!!!)

So, we stopped at one store at the outlet mall (Jake needed some new Crocs) and then we found a dandy antique store on our way back to the interstate.

We browsed for at least an hour...and found these.



The walls in our house are plaster and every little imperfection sticks out like a sore thumb, hence, all of the stuff I have all over my walls - to cover it all up, you see. This spot in my kitchen was particularly bad, so we found some cheap old rug beaters and made our own little gallery.

(Now, just so you don't feel bad for Jake, going to school and all, Scott sprung him the same day and took him skiing.)

A Duet

I decided I needed something on the piano and I kind of felt like a project, so this was the result. I bought cardboard letters at Crafts Direct (spells duet...)
I scanned in wedding pictures and used old sheet music and a bunch of mod podge. Viola. Piano art.

Don't we look young? And skinny? And happy? (The happy part hasn't changed - thank goodness!!) Hard to believe it was almost 13 years ago...
I was pleased with the result, and now actually have some wedding pictures in my house that aren't just in my wedding album!

Happy Birthday, Scott!

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband! You're the best. (Notice I am not saying how old he is...that's because no matter how old he is, I am always a little bit older.)
Thanks for being the planet's greatest husband and dad. And thanks for making me hike (even though my legs are killing me).

A Very Valentiny Craft

Maggie needs to take valentine cards for each of her classmates, so she decided to make them this year instead of using the old Hello Kitty stand-by version. And then she thought we should blog about it - step by step.
First, cut out hearts - you need three for each valentine. We used our Silhouette machine - a Cricut would also work, or you can do it the old fashioned way - by hand.

Cut lengths of ribbon - you will loop it, so make sure it's long enough.

Write "Happy Valentine's Day" and your name on one of the hearts; then it's time to break out the glue.
Spread a liberal amount of glue (using a glue stick) on the back of the heart you wrote on. Loop the ribbon and press the ends into the glue.
Add a little more glue on top of the ribbon.
Fold heart number 2 in half...
Then press it onto half of the gluey heart. Spread glue over the exposed half of heart number 2.
Press heart number three on top.
Fold creases into the middle of each heart.


All done!

Make 16 more for your classmates. We plan to slice little cuts into one side of a heart (top and bottom) and stick a pixie stick through. (Because what is a valentine card without candy, after all!!) Hope you have a sweet Valentine's Day!

Just Keep Swimming

Swim Meet: St. Michael, MN; January 29
Time: Up at 5:30 am. On the road by 6; warm-ups start at 7:20 (You have got to be kidding me!!!)
Events: Jake - 100 Freestyle; 100 Backstroke; 50 Breast Stroke - 3 ribbons for beating his best times. Maggie: 50 Backstroke - 1 ribbon for beating her best time.
Number of inspirational stories told before the meet: 0 (I shared how my freshman basketball team was 0 & 15...Scott said that was worse than his stories last time...whatever.)


Maggie getting ready to do a flip turn - something her mother has yet to master. I am so proud!!
Hard to tell in this picture, but Jake's goggles fell down when he dove in for his breast stroke race. He swam the whole way with them down around his chin. And beat his time. I am so proud!


Home by 3:00 - I slept all the way home (hour and a half) then took a two hour nap once we got here. Cheering them on just takes everything out of me (not to mention getting out of bed at 5:30 am)!