Day 55 - Feb 28th

Self Portrait, with level

I didn't have a very good day today. Which was surprising, considering this is the first full day I've had off of work so far this year. It started out nice enough, but once I got to Kohl's, it started downhill. Not very cooperative people, they are. I left in a pretty sour mood. Other things happened I won't mention, but all in all, not a great day.

I did see one of our local bald eagles. That was cool. I don't have a telephoto lens, though, so it basically photographed like a large bird way up in a tree. Oh well.

This picture reflects my melancholy mood. I want to build. I want it to be warm outside and for me to have several days in a row of just building. This itch, this urge has laid upon me for months and is only growing. I want to build.
Here's another picture I took today. I'm holding one of Kathie Olivas' creations - a nine inch Hazel figure. Kathie is a wonderful artist and person whose father just had a cardiac arrest about a week ago and whose mother saved her husband's life by performing CPR. Everyone should know CPR. I'm about 1000% sure that Kathie, her parents and the rest of her family are certainly glad that her hero mom knew it.

Day 54 - Feb 27th

I bought this little guy from a valentines clearance. The kids like it! It's not a powerful Van Der Graff, but it's fun.

Day 53 - Feb 26th

Happy Birthday, Peter!! Peter turns three today and is LOVING it.

Day 52 - Feb 25th

Gray Hair. Or grey hair, depending on your preference of spelling.

Jill's had this wonderfully cute set of stripes on her temples for a long time, but I didn't have any. We suspect she got it because of her propensity to internalize stress much more than me. And we've had our fair share.

Well, today I found gray hair on my temples. Doesn't photograph well because I keep my hair pretty short, but nonetheless, I spotted it.

In other news: the shoes didn't work. I need at least a half size bigger. They pinched my pinky toes. Also, our former Governor Gary Locke looks like he's heading to the Obama cabinet. I think that's fantastic news. Locke is my favorite Governor this state has ever had - and when he refused to run for a sure-fire win of a third term simply because he wanted to spend more time with his family, well, his stock rose even higher. I think he'll be awesome in Commerce. Well deserved. And, finally, it's lightly snowing as I type this.

Day 51 - Feb 24th

Alexander hit a goal in school and his reward was a fish - he's been wanting another fish for a long time. He carefully reviewed them all in Bridges Pets last night and chose this one because of the black tips on his/her fins. The current name for the fish is "Fin". Turned out we didn't have rocks for the bottom of the tank like we thought we did, so we couldn't put the plants in just yet.

Day 50 - Feb 23rd

Tonight I gave Jill what I called an "anti-date" - after dinner, I took all five kids to shop so Jill could get things done without kids underfoot. We were gone for nearly three hours which gave Jill some wonderful focus time.

One of my main goals was to get a new pair of shoes for the Fred Meyer job - mine has big holes in them. I have kind of squarish feet so normal shoes smash my pinky toes. When I first started at FM, I didn't realize this and the shoes I wore gave me enormous blisters - my pinky toes each had blisters half the size of the toes. I had to have six surgeries to correct them. I was limping so badly that customers still ask me if my feet are doing ok - and I haven't had an issue in about a year. I seriously considered using a cane last winter. I would cry at night from the pain.

And shoes wear out quickly. My mom bought me a pair last time she was in town, but those now are on their last legs. So I'm picky about my shoes. I finally found a pair at Kohl's that fit the bill - slip resistant, black, squarish toes, extra wide. But they didn't have my size two weeks ago. Tonight I found them! And for half price. Gotta love that.

Also bought Jill two pairs of slippers on clearance - a winter pair and summer pair. Bought Alexander a goldfish at the awesome pet store near Kohl's.

It was a good night.

Day 49 - Feb 22nd

Quick pick snapped just now with the flash. Peter cracked me up. When Jill was taking the pizza out of the oven, he started going on about the "fire alarm", grabbed a book, drug a chair under the smoke alarm and started frantically waving the book. The smoke alarm wasn't going off - but it's a sad commentary on our cooking skills that it was the first thing he thought of when he smelled the food...

Day 48 - Feb 21st

Some of you know I work two jobs - a full time job 8a-5p Mon -Fri for Stromberg, a division of Paychex. Then in the evenings and on the weekends, I work in the home department of our local Fred Meyer. I enjoy the work. Often weekends are nine-hour shifts. Today was a real nice day, so over my hour lunch, I rushed home with a disposable brush, popped on disposable gloves and quickly stained the edges of the table top. Didn't take off the work clothes or anything - so you see my name badge in the pic :) Got done with it plus ate my lunch with six minutes to spare! So I got to sit on the couch and chat with Jill before going back to work.

The pieces are all back inside because currently, it's slated to rain the entire next week.

Day 47 - Feb 20th

I love the view from our bedroom. There are several nice farms down in the valley and we have some mountains in the view - although they don't photograph well. Here is the view due East from our bedroom window.

Day 46 - Feb 19th

Sophia lost her fifth tooth today. And for some reason, has swimming goggles as part of her accessories today. Those teeth look so normal in their mouth and SO tiny once they are out.