Black Friday-Blue Morning

There are many lethal combinations in this world; gun powder and sparks, kielbasa and bananas, spring skiing without sunblock, and Darla and Barbara shopping together without adult supervision.

At 11:45 the night of Thanksgiving we headed out to see what a night of shopping would  hold in store for us, we had no plan just a huge stack of newspaper with tons of prospects.

At Toys R Us we found a slew of people with the right idea.

      By the time we hit up Fred Meyers at 5 am, I was more than willing to fall asleep in public with no shame.

The couches at Fred Meyer had never looked more comfortable.

 Sharlene joined us at 5 am, can't you tell that she had at least 5 hours of beauty sleep? The events that took place during our 8 am breakfast stop are foggy in my mind, I know we laughed a lot and we weren't making a lot of sense. I have confirmed that people over the age of 25 need sleep to function. The only thing that Darla and I could come up with to explain our behavior toward the end of the long night was "YouTubes David goes to the Dentist"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs

It took me 3 days to recover enough to get my loot from Darla's garage and when I went through the bags it was like shopping all over again because I barely remembered the things I had bought. If you would like to come over to my place in the near future we will be watching $1.88 'Gone with the Wind', while snuggling in a $10.00 'Electric Blanket', while eating $4.99 'Worlds largest tub of popcorn', on my new $49.00 'blu-ray' player..

Keep Laughing,

Barbara

At Least My Kid's Like It...

My husband is gone for a few days and this is an excuse to spoil my kids with things like cereal for dinner, no showers, a messy house, pj's all day, and numerous other favorites of mine that I have managed to hide from my husband for the last 10 years.  He really wants me to spoil them while he is gone but I'm not sure that is what he had in mind.

This weekend was the annual Artisan Fair that manages to have the cutest homemade stuff that I don't need and buy anyway.  Every year I plan on having a booth and I am such a procrastinator that I buy my supplies about 3 days before and then make about 2 things and put the rest of the junk in my closet.  This year was no different, I made my 3 things to make my 8 year old happy and sent her in to sell them at her cousins booth.  A smashing success!  We sold all 3!  What can I make for next year!  My head is already checking off the ideas.  

After stopping at the Fabric Store with a few different ideas rolling around, I remembered the most adorable Christmas Tree Skirt that I had seen on pinterest.  It was a tutorial that Miss Mustard Seed had done for HGTV.

The tutorial is a no sew method where they use hot glue to put it together.  Knowing that I can sew and I have an awesome ruffler foot, I know that I can whip one of these up in no time. 

Here is where the kids come in.  We have 2 Christmas Trees in our house.  One is for "me" and the other one is for my kids to do whatever they like.  Their ornaments come in many shapes and colors.  Blue, Hot Pink, Red, Purple, Green, Glitter, School Photos, Popsicle Stick Frames, Cut Out Handmade Stars, and so much more...  My brilliant idea is to make my kids a ruffled Christmas Tree skirt!!!  My husband is going to be so proud of me!  Being a quilter, I know that you can just take colors and incorporate them and they have a way of blending together in the end.  

I am pretty sure that I got one of every color in there.  The kids were so excited while I was sewing each ruffle on.  They think it is the coolest thing ever!!!  I quickly finished it up while they were getting ready for bed.  Like anything that I have made I usually don't know if I like it until it is completed.  I brought it upstairs to show them and they showered me with kisses and told me how much they loved it.  As Maddy picked it up and put it around her waist I realized what I had done....

I had made the world's ugliest Four Square Skirt.

This sucks... Why do my kid's have to like it????

Darla

The Tale of Mario and Bowser

 A few months back Walker decided to invest his allowance money in some frogs that were on sale at Hi- school pharmacy. He named them Mario and Bowser. As the weeks went by we realized Bowser was getting very large and Mario was shrinking. It was apparent that Mario was malnourished and needed his own tank because Bowser (being the evil hearted villain he is) was eating all of Mario's food.  

It has been a month since the separation and this morning Mario was "swimming funny", belly up for very long periods of time. Time was of the essence. Walker was informed that we needed to get Mario and Bowser back to their families in the river, where they could get girlfriends and have babies of their own.

I don't believe Hudson was fooled, he completely sensed the true sadness of the occasion, as we made the trek to the river.

Walker was happy for his frogs, hoping that they would find their parents before the day is through.

I believe that Mario is hanging with his parents right now...swimming in rivers of gold, in the little frog heaven in the sky. Bowser on the other hand is probably fulfilling all of his dreams of women and chillin with the princess frogs here on the East Fork of the Lewis River.

Keep Smiling,

Barbara

February Snow Blast

Remember when you were young, the feeling you got when you woke up in the morning to a fresh white blanket of snow on the ground? Watching Walker brought back those memories for me and living in the N.W. I know that you will only get that "feeling" once or maybe twice a year. It is an un-written law that the second you wake up in Washington and there is snow on the ground, without brushing teeth, without breakfast, you must pass go-you cannot collect $200, you MUST get outside and play in it, or it will be too late.

We knew that the snow was coming because Oprah was interrupted due to a special report on “The February Snow Blast” and I heard the radio was referring to it as “Snowmageddon 2011”.

The news reports lived up to all the hype, at least in my 4 year olds mind. 

So where-ever you found yourself during the storm of February 2011, I hope you had a nice cup of warm coffee, a good book, and a snuggie to keep you warm-because that 38 degree snow storm can really send a chill through the bones.

Keep Smiling,
Barbara