Tagged

Scatterville tagged me!

Four Jobs You've had in your life
1. Retail for Timberland
2. Collection Agent for CheckRite
3. Internet Researcher for a construction company
4. Art teacher

Four Places you have lived
1. Washington State
2. Boston, MA
3. Manhattan, KS
4. Bozeman, MT

Four Albums You Can't Hear too often
1. 10,000 Kisses, Patty Griffin
2. Indigo Girls, Indigo Girls
3. In Between Dreams, Jack Johnson
4. Crash, Dave Matthews

Four Favorite Books
1. Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
2. The Red Tent, ??
3. Harry Potter (any of them!)
4. She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb

Four Movies you could watch over and over
1. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
2. The Big Chill
3. Anne of Green Gables (all of them)
4. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Four TV shows you love to watch
1. American Idol
2. Trading Spaces
3. 6 Feet Under
4. Friends

Four Places You've been on Vacation
1. Oaxaca, Mexico
2. Maui, HI
3. Soldotna, AK
4. Prince Edward Island, Canada

Four Websites you visit daily
1. My Site to visit my links
2. Undercoverhippie
3. Scatterville
4.Various Yahoo Groups


Four favorite foods
1. Peanut butter
2.Chocolate
3. Cheese
4. Pesto

Four Places You would rather be right now
1. With my sister, where ever she'd like to be
2. On vacation somewhere warm, like Greece
3. Skiing!
4. With my Mom and Dad

Four People You Tag
1. If you read this your tagged!
2. Megan
3. Matt
4. Jane

I Can't Complain

I have bad days just like everybody else, but I can't complain. Every Friday morning this month I will be spending 4 hours skiing, all by myself, headphones on and an array of music ranging from Dave Matthews to Patty Griffin to Sublime narrating my scenic views! Here are some photos documenting this past Friday...

Really, I can't complain!

P.S. I ski at Mission Ridge.

North Carolina

Sam and I have been in Charlotte, NC for the last week visiting my sister. We leave tomorrow and as I write this Aunt Meg is at a local park with Sam and I am in the library! I don't have time to write much, except to say that I miss my sister and the relationship we share.

Homeschooling and the Urban Forest

After feeling like I didn't know what to do with Sam during the day, I started researching homeschooling for preschool. I have found so much wonderful information and it has all been so inspiring to me. I no longer look at our day as empty time I need to fill. I look at everything we do as an opportunity for Sam to learn about living. So today we read books, and squished playdough through our garlic press, we folded laundry and packed a suitcase, we played with water in the sink and we made some peanut butter playdough, played with it and ate it!

We also went on a walk to the canal and then along the canal. We got about 2 inches of snow last night and it warmed up to 50 degrees today so everything was melting and wet and muddy...what fun for Sam. As we walked along the street I watched Sam walk in and out of yards, through flower gardens and bush gardens. He stopped to touch and feel everything! He watched every trickle of water flow and was fascinated by the sun and the shadows it cast. I realized that for Sam our walks in the neighborhood are for him walks in an urban forest! Things are so large to him and even the little bushes and rocks are big! We had a great time, but as he is just getting over a cold, we didn't stay out long.

I am having a terrible time getting Sam to sleep at naptime or bedtime. He tosses and turns and sings and plays. I have resorted to telling him I will leave of he doesn't calm down, then leaving when he doesn't, letting him cry for a few minutes and going back and trying again. It was working for me, but in the last few nights, I end up letting him cry twice and then Matt goes in and gets him to sleep! What am I going to do on this trip? I feel at such a loss and hate letting him cry, but sometimes I feel like it is the only thing that will get him to realize it is time to sleep. We've tried earlier bedtimes, and later bedtimes, we have a routine, I've read all the books! He sleeps fine once he's asleep...how do I get him to go to sleep? Argh!

Illness

Well, I see it happening again this year...the illness cycle! I have friends in Kansas with 3 very sick kids, friends in IL just getting over illness, Sam has two friends down with nasty colds and now Sam has a horrific cold, as well. His cough is so deep in his chest that Matt and I worried about Bronchitis and took him to the DR today. She cleared him of everything except a nasty cold. The poor guy is losing his voice and he wants to play, but just doesn't have the energy. He was in bed with us practically all night, tossing and turning and whining. I felt so sorry for him. I wish everyone the best health in the upcoming months...boy, am I ready for spring.

Amazing Evening

Last night I went to a Passion Party (like Tupperware, except for sex!) hosted by two women that I did not know, but was invited by a common friend. I had so much fun. We ate good food and drank wine and laughed. I really enjoy meeting new people. As the party ended I stayed and helped clean and started talking with the hostesses and we really hit it off! We talked an talked and before I knew it, it was after 11 pm! I had been there almost 6 hours! It felt so good to connect with some new women and really feel a strong bond.

Vita-Mix

On Saturday Matt and I made a purchase that we've been wanting to make for over 5 years....we bought a Vita-mix!! If you don't know what this amazing machine is you MUST check out thier website: www.vitamix.com

This machine is a blender on steroids! It can make ice cream in 30 seconds, foam milk for lattes in 2 minutes, ( I made a cafe au lait today in less than a minute), mix and cook soup in 5-7 minutes ( I made a great Roasted Red Pepper and Artichoke Soup last night for dinner in 15 minutes), it juices and makes amazing smoothies, makes nut butters, regular buttter, and grinds grains to make flours!! We'll never need another blender!

I am so excited to have this machine...even Sam eats raw carrots now if we blend them up add 1/2 a banana and a little soy milk or fruit juice~