Stuff and Things

Arg, Winter. My least favorite time of the year. If there was a way that I could sleep straight through January and February, I totally would. As it is, I am going to sleep extra early at night and sleeping until it's time to get Evie up for school. In fact, there are only a few things that get me through this dark, cold time (as Garrison Keilor would say--I identify with this because it was winter about 7 months of the year up there and in a way, those are still my people. I am way out of practice at snowblowing and I am embarassed about that). So here's my list of things that get me through the winter:

1. sweat suits, velour or otherwise. If you are stuck in the house all day, you might as well be comfy and have an elastic waist band.

2. NCAA mens basketball, specifically, the Big Ten. Every night there are at least 6 games on the ESPN networks and I make sure that I watch at least part of two of them. Nothing like getting to know your commentators and making fun of the low point totals. I also like to see students dressed up as Mario and Luigi. And I also like to see which college kid can be the all time Ugliest player. Right now the reignning champ is Kyle Singler from Duke. When that kid gets sweaty and mouth breathing, he is UG-LY.

3. The Gym. Seriously, the only thing that gets me dressed in the morning is my trip to the gym. You may have heard that I have committed myself to running the Indy 500 Festival Mini Marathon. That's 13.1 miles. That's about 10 more miles than I have ever run at one time in my life. But in the interest of fitness and the fact that I'm not getting any younger, I am doing this. Plus, I do have to admit that I feel a little better when I leave the gym.

4. Wine. A glass of day is recommended for heart health. And it gives me a reason to look forward to dinner. And if I go to the gym regularly, I am working it off anyway.

5. The snowblower. I still maintain that this is the best gas powered thing we have ever bought. It may have even saved our marriage when we lived in MN.

Anyway, now that I have that off my chest, I will give you the update from the last week.

The SC Turners rolled in last Tuesday on the last stop of their Ohio Valley Christmas tour 2010. Henry was bribed to eat dinner with the promise of ice cream.
What's up with this kid??

June flat out refused to eat.

At some point, Evie decided that she had a scratch on her eye. Since Uncle Bran is a Doctor (in what emergency would you need a Dr. of Political Theory? ) he examined her eye and determined that she would , in fact, live to see another day.

Georgie sat in the middle of the table commanding attention, but not getting any ice cream. Probably because she slept for a grand total of 46 minutes while at our house. Her mom was not happy with her.

Uncle Jim tried to hypontize Georgie to sleep, but as we said, it didn't work. Probably because he isn't a doctor of anything.

The next morning, June didn't want to go home, but didn't want her picture taken either. We had lots of fun with all the Turners. We were sad to see them go, but they had enough travel and wanted to get home. Now because of a crippling blizzard that dropped 4 inches of snow, they have been stuck in their house since Sunday. Ha.

While in Cleveland, Grandma Taller took the girls to a pottery painting place and they painted new mugs which work great for Hot Chocolate. Thanks Grandma!

Now we are home. It's been snowing and I don't really want to go out unless I have to (like a class at the gym). So to fill my time, I have started spring cleaning from top to bottom. So far, the guest bedroom and each of the kids' bedrooms have been cleaned, polished, vacuumed, dusted, windexed, and all the furntiture moved. Next up, the upstairs hallway and the bathrooms. I hate to think about the family room because that's a lot of wood to clean.

I just haven't been sitting around while watching the basketball. I have been knitting. Evie requested a hat like "Waldo". This is what I made up. I think it looks cute.