Tag, I'm it...

Apparently you can play games in blogland.  Tag...who knew?  Anyway, I have been tagged and these are the answers to the questions my cousin would like answered.  And she's a teacher, so I have to do a really good job so I don't flunk. (Me flunk English?  That's unpossible...) If you want to see the questions she was asked and answered, check it out at Words that Sing. 

Anyway, here goes:

1. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be and why?
Sing really well.  I know this isn't really a "learning" issue, but a complete lack of talent.  Regardless, if I could learn to make beautiful music, not just a joyful noise, that would be awesome.  I am a very bad singer.

2. If you could paint a picture of a landscape/something from your memory perfectly, what would you choose and why?

The day Jake and Maggie caught a squirrel and came down the hill in our yard with Maggie holding it all squirming by the tail.

3. What is one career/occupation that you would NOT want to do/ or would not be suited for you? 

Podiatrist or masseuse.  Feet gross me out.

4. What is something you keep extras of on hand at nearly all times in your home?
 light bulbs, toilet paper, paper towels, nothing really weird

5. If you could BE a fictional character and live their story, who would it be? 

Lucy Pevensie in the Chronicles of Narnia.  She has her own magical country, becomes and queen and is best friends with a talking lion.  Duh.

6. What is the story that your family always tells about you?
The time I drug a tent behind my car all the way to town.  Don't ask.

7. If you were a flavor of ice cream, what flavor would you be?
Probably just plain old vanilla, but with a different topping every day...nuts, chocolate...

8. What is your morning routine?
Wake up at 7, get the kids up, make breakfast, get them to school by 7:45 and then, either work out or come home and go back to bed. Which I am a bit ashamed to admit.

9. What were you doing the last time you had a really good laugh?
I was with Scott and Jake and Maggie.  Those two are constantly cracking us up.

10. If you could make all of one kind of thing go away, what would it be?
Hunger.  With all of the excesses we have in our country, no one should go without food, ever.

11. What is one thing you think all High School students should be taught before they graduate? [This does not have to be related to a "core" subject]

 How to take responsibility for your own actions; and not to blame everything in your life on circumstances around you.  

And now, I am supposed to keep the game going, but I am only going to tag one person - my sister, Sara at Don't Blink.  And I'm only going to ask her one question.

What is your favorite recipe and when is the last time you made it?

Because she makes really good food.

Something I'll Keep

Scott has a recliner in our family room that is sort of his "office."  He reads and works on his laptop there.  I had a couple of small end tables - one by the couch and one by his chair that were overflowing with books, paperwork, etc.

We talked about getting rid of the two small tables and replacing it with something a little more substantial to give him some room for his stuff.

So, I started looking for the perfect piece...it needed to have storage, couldn't be very deep and had to be about 36 inches tall.  Oh, and really cheap.

I found a desk at Goodwill that fit the bill.  It was five dollars.  That fit the cheap part.  It had drawers, that fit the storage part; and it was the right size.  The only problem was, it looked like a desk and was REALLY ugly.

Of course, I took no "before" picture, but just picture a really ugly five dollar desk.  There.  And this is what we turned it into.

Scott rebuilt one of the sides - it was angled, and added the shelves. 

I painted it black and added new hardware.  It was the first project we worked on together in the workshop; nice and toasty with snow falling outside.

I LOVE it.  Perfect size, I can shove all of his stuff into the drawers when we have people over and it was certainly the right price.  Yay!  I need to go to Goodwill more often...

Benched

The CCS Auction is in a few months, so we are working on a few things to donate.  I've had this little bench for years; it was oak (I am especially bad about taking "before" pictures of things, I get too excited to get to the "after" that I don't take the time to do it...)

Maggie helped paint the lid.

I painted the rest of it and then we decided to add a little twist.

I love all the subway art that's popular right now, so we decided to do that to the lid of the bench.

Maggie suggested words that mean "Stuff" because that's what you can put inside. :)  She's a genius!  Jake suggested the word "doodads."  It's my favorite.  He's a genius, too.

Their mother on the other hand, is not a genius.  I had to remove a word...because I misspelled it.  (I have a degree in journalism; was an English major for a year and a half before I changed my major...I should know how to spell.)  I had "Paraphanelia" where "Accessories" is.

It should say "Paraphernalia." And every time I looked at it, I thought of drugs.  (You know, they always say "drug paraphernalia" on the news...) So, off it came.

We rectified the situation and now it's all proper and such.

Once again, I want to keep it.

Once again, I probably won't.  Sigh.

We're also working on a really cool bookshelf and chair that the 3rd grade class will be donating along with all of their favorite books.  Sort of a "ready-made reading nook."  We selected "The Chronicles of Narnia" from our family.  Can't wait until it's all done and ready to go!

Maggie Doodle Did A Design

I don't know why blogger won't play Maggie's videos.  I will work on it.  Sorry!  They really are hilarious!

We didn't have school last Monday, so Mags decided she needed to make something.  We decided on a sign to hang outside the workshop door.

We first made a stencil with the world's most awesomest machine - a silhouette. 

Picked a lovely color of paint for the wording.

Let Mittens help select a board from our stash of old barn siding.

Then let Maggie pick the actual board, because the one Mittens liked was too short.

We used spray adhesive to get the stencil to stick to the board. 

And started painting.

Peeled off the stencil...

...and gazed lovingly at our new workshop sign.  It now hangs by the workshop door out in the garage.  Makes me smile.

They Crack Me Up...

Check out Maggie's blog today...she took this video when the cousins were here over Christmas break and I discovered it when I was looking through iphoto on my computer.

Maggie Doodle Designs

There are a couple of others, including a very funny Ninja one...stay tuned!!

Ski Club & Snowboarding

Jake signed up for Ski Club at a ski place this winter...ten bucks for the season and he skis free every Friday, including lift ticket and ski rental.  Can't beat it!!  We carpool with another family and this past Friday was my turn to drive.

As soon as we got there, Jake and Jacob took off and I didn't get any pictures of them. Suffice it to say, my son is a crazy skier.  Our one rule is, no skiing in the trees unless he's with his dad.  And don't get  hurt.  I guess that's two rules.  He wears a helmet, which makes me feel a tiny bit better...

Mags isn't old enough to sign up for ski club and really wanted to learn to snowboard, so I signed her up for a private lesson.  She did AWESOME!

Her instructor said he had never had a beginning snowboarder take off like she did.  They even took her up the lift and came down one of the big hills.

She was quite wiped out at the end of it all.  So, she took a nap in the chalet while Jake and his friend were on the slopes until about 9 p.m.  (They all fell asleep in the car on the way home.)

And here is my very first video on my blog.  I decided if my 9-year old can figure out how to post a video on her blog; then I can too.  (I am 40, after all!)

The Shed

Scott told me the other day he was a little hurt that I never blogged about the shed he built, so here it is.

We originally bought a pre-fab sort of thing at Menards.  It wasn't quite as elementary as those snap-together rubbermaid things, but close.  We had the whole thing up and were on the last step, which, incidentally was screwing it all together (yes, the instruction said to first use duct tape to "stabilize it" and then at the end, put the screws in - um, ok).  One gust of wind came up and the entire thing came crashing down.  The back wall blew out towards the lake, the roof came down on top of our heads.  We were both bleeding in various places.  So, I called Menards and asked to talk to a manager.  The gal on the phone said, "I can probably help you." So I replied, "Ok, a shed we bought from you just collapsed on my husband and me and we're both bleeding."  She said, "Let me get a manager for you."

They were super nice about it; refunded our money and sent a huge truck to pick up all of the pieces.  And then we decided to build a shed ourselves.  From scratch.  Using real wood and screws.  Not duct tape.

We tucked it back into the trees on the only sort-of flat spot in our back yard.

And the finished product:

Yay!!  We cleaned out our workshop - lawn mower, summer stuff that we store in the winter months, etc. and put a furnace in the workshop.  It is A.W.E.S.O.M.E!!!!!  Scott and I worked on a project the other day; toasty warm while the snow fell outside.  We are sorry we didn't do this ten years ago when we bought the place.

Mittens

Maggie got some new "mittens" - of the feline variety.  Maisy ran away while we were on vacation in October.  Maggie cried herself to sleep for a good month so we decided this might help.

Thankfully, there's a cat factory (Uncle Dan's farm) just north of us, so we were able to get Mittens on short notice!  She likes to climb up my back and sit on my shoulder while I'm painting furniture in the workshop.  Annoying little thing, but we love her.  Max didn't love her very much at first, but he has been warming up to her lately.  (I think she climbs up his back and sits on him, too.)

The Wreath

Maggie has one of the best teachers on the planet, and she wanted to do something special for her for Christmas. You may remember the sheet music wreath we made.  She decided to do something like that, with a little twist.

She used an old Mother Goose nursery rhyme book instead of sheet music.  It had some full color illustrations in it; it turned out so cool.  (I wanted to keep it...but I restrained myself.)

Needless to say, Mrs. Peters was thrilled with it.

I wish I had thought to take some pictures of it at home, but I just snapped a couple quickly at school.

Incidentally, I got the book of nursery rhymes from Grandma Schoon.  It was falling apart and she thought I could do something "crafty" with it.  I held on to it for years, never coming up with just the right project.  Until now.  I think Grandma would be thrilled.