Bring it on, Mother Nature!!!

When I was growing up (yes, this will date me) there were commercials for Chiffon Margarine. You cannot even *find* a margarine named Chiffon anymore. . .so that's got to tell you something. I just remember the running joke, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature. . . !" And then this sweet grandmotherly looking woman would cause lightning strikes, and show her wrath. And the jingle would play:

"If you think it's butter, but it's not. . . it's Chiffon!"

There you go -- a walk down Madison Avenue, via Memory Lane. Wow. I'm getting old.

One might think Mother Nature is having a bit of a bad day today by our weather. Mind you, it's not like she's extremely peeved . . or even experiencing PMS or a migraine. But, we did get a little snow. Therefore, by 12:30 p.m., both of my children had been dismissed from school (a rarity for Edison) and we were on our way home for the afternoon.

That was not without its drama, however. Edison had the second of two nosebleeds as he was coming out the door of his school. He had grabbed one lone paper towel, and we had no kleenexes in the car. And this was an unusually bad nosebleed.

What did I do? Grabbed a spare diaper that was in between the front seats of the van. That's right, we drove down the snowy, slushy roads -- me tense because of the stress, and Edison hemorrhaging into a disposable diaper.

Yeah, it was one of those afternoons.

We turned the day around, eventually, by taking the kids out to build snowmen. Today's snow was that wet, mushy, "good packing" type of snow. And my did we have fun. Wanna see?


As soon as I opened the door, Caroline was out -- she paused at the edge of the yard for just a second, and then, she started making her way around to the back yard before we could catch up to her. I think she wanted to swing on her swingset.

Seasons don't mean diddly to a 4-year old.







She and Edison started building their snow creature, and found that although it was good packing snow -- too much pressure wasn't good for the snowman.

At one point, he had a 6" waist -- kinda looked like Barbie. At another point his arms got "loved" off.






I went inside for a carrot. When you only have baby carrots -- you have to carefully place the nose. At one point I nearly ran my hand through his little snow head. . . .but eventually I "packed" enough snow around his baby nose to hold it in place.










It was love at first sight. We had to stop her from kissing the snowman too much, because she nearly knocked him over at one point.

That's my girl -- love 'em until it hurts. . . .or until one of you melts. :)







We just learned that, indeed, both kids have another snow day tomorrow. I'm afraid there won't be a lot of snow left. I think it's more preventative because of icy roads and such. Regardless, we'll all be home together -- watching the Wiggles, making popcorn, finishing Edison's science fair display board (the last one for a year or two) and enjoying some quality time together.

What else is going on? Let's see -- I did finish Mom & Dad's table runner (Christmas present). The quilting turned out nicely -- it wasn't exactly perfect, but then again, consider the source. I forgot to take a picture of it -- but will do so the next time we go to their house. It really turned out pretty.

I started making some burp rags for one of my "kids" (Vanessa) to take back with her to Arizona. She's a missionary to the Apache people in Show Low. Mark and I went on a mission trip out there before Caroline was born. One of the ministries they have is a "mommy store" for young girls who have babies and need supplies for them.

These are just simple flannel burp rags -- but they're kinda cute, if I can say so myself.

I'm also nearly done with Laura & Kweku's baby afghan. . . so it will be on its way to them very soon. I love the colors. Very non traditional. . . but knowing Laura like I do, it will work well!

I also got squares cut out for two throw pillows for our bed -- and I got squares cut out for a new throw for our living room. I have found that I sew best when I have my mp3 player on. . . don't ask where I "store" it while I'm sewing. (No strap -- I put it down my shirt) I figure it keeps Michael McDonald very, very close to my heart. . .where he lives anyway! Regardless, I do very well with classic pop playing in my ears. The past couple weeks, it's been the best of the Doobie Brothers and the Eagles. No better way to sew, I promise!

I guess that's about it. I don't think I posted this picture from our previous snowfall (2 weeks ago) so enjoy this picture -- I've printed it out, and it's on the credenza in my office.