Questions I Don't Want to Answer

Mama, I know that the mommy has the baby, but exactly how does the Daddy help make a baby?

Why don't you have a real job?

Why didn't God give us any more babies?

Why do I have to get hair 'down there' when I get big?

Why do I have to get those squishy bra things? (a.k.a. breasts)

Love Your Heart

I had the privilege of going to the Quilt Expo not long ago. Lots of fabric, quilts, and gadgets all together in one place. A quilter's dream for sure. Two of my sisters and some friends were also there and so we decided to commemorate our day with a special picture. UW Women's Health had a booth where we could express ourselves pictorally. Little did I know that I would have a brush with quilting royalty. Nancy Zieman, of Quilting with Nancy fame, horned in, I mean, jumped in the picture with us.
Stunning, aren't we?!

Furnace Repairs

When the weather turned colder after our few days of warm weather, I noticed that it was getting chilly in the house. So, after putting on a sweatshirt and still feeling chilled I decided it was time to turn the furnace on. Off I went to flip the switch on the thermostat. I flipped it, and....nothing happened. Well, that's not necessarily unusual, Hubster says I must have a loose wire (guess it's better than a loose screw) so I waited a few minutes and tried again. Nothing, nada, zilch. Temp is now 63 degrees in the house. I tried every trick I could think of to make it work. Went downstairs to the basement and turned the furnace off and on, took out the batteries from the thermostat and replaced them, etc. etc. Still nothing.
So, about 3 hours later, after I finished muttering just a few choice words and lamenting the fact that the furnace people were here not 2 weeks ago and didn't it figure that it worked then but now, nothing, I thought I'd look one last time at the thermostat and hope for some divine revelation on how to repair it without costing an arm and a leg.
And, I found out something.
The furnace works really well when you turn it to "heat" and not "cool".

Success Measured in Small Ways

We had carpool success today! Right off to the van and hopped right in. Ah, much better than yesterday. Happy Mama :)
I forgot to add one thing yesterday. When calming Princess down, I told her to go get her new necklace. I put it next to my heart and then put her finger on my neck where she could feel the heartbeat. "See? I'm putting all my heart's love in this necklace and if you get scared or lonely at school, just touch your necklace and it's like touching my heart. I'll know you're there and you will feel better," I told her. "Oh yes!" she replied "It's just like I know Jesus and God and Mary are all in my heart too. Now I'll know you're all there together." Gulp! I love it when I see this shining through!!

School Days

I was not feeling well this morning. So, I was quite happy to send the kiddos off to school and go back to bed for a bit. At least, that was the plan.
The carpool van came, I hugged the kids and sent them off, shut the door (cause they were getting in the van), went upstairs, crawled in bed, turned on the tv, shoved the dog over, and DING DONG! Errggggh, I crawl out of bed, clomp downstairs and there's Wolfgang "I can't get Princess in the car. She won't go in the van today." I look over and sure enough, she's standing there sobbing and refusing to get in the van.
I tell the carpool Dad to go on, I'll deal with the child and off he goes. Did I mention that I'm barefoot, it's raining, and I have my pj's on? Anyway, we walk back in the house and after a few minutes of crying (her, not me), drying off (me, mostly, some her) and talkng (mostly me), I determine that she's scared to go to school. Yesterday, she panicked in the firehouse that the Fire Dept brought to school and she was afraid to go in there again. So, after much reassurance and a quick change into clothes, off we go to school.
Poor thing, I felt bad for her but I was so irritated that she pulled this. And, then, felt guilty for feeling that.
So, I'm off now to drink my oj, take my ibuprofen and snooze a little. What a Wednesday.

Oh Canada

We had a wonderful time in Vancouver. We took a carriage ride through Stanley Park, took the ferry to Victoria (and we saw seals just out beyond the trail of the ferry), ate lots of Asian food and toured a fun market. We also crossed a 100 ft high suspension bridge and walked the rainforest on a series of raised wooden walkways.

Vancouver has a large population of Asian folks (I think mostly students) so we had Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and a couple different kinds of Chinese. We had absolutely delicious food and surprisingly it wasn't a big weight gain week for me. Yeah!

The market had a whole case of different pate(s) and one with more olives than I have ever seen. Most of it was just pretty food and nicely presented. And it had awesome gelato, yummm.

I would definitely go back to visit again. Fun, fun, fun!

Lake Pictures

Finally, after much anticipation, here are my lake pictures (Note: even the adults were jumping for joy!)