happy happy birthday, baby!

my dear husband dan is 37 years old today. yesterday his mom called and asked to come over at 7pm with his present. then she added that she had an ice cream cake. then she added dan's sister and fam were coming, too. ha ha ha!!!!! dan told me that he did not want me to throw him a party. as luck would have it, his mommy goes and throws him a surprise b-day party at MY HOUSE!!!! so funny. i got to decorate and have people over... but I COULD NOT GET IN TROUBLE FOR IT! thank you, claire!!!! the joke is on dan. there were blue balloons and blue/pale blue/white crepe paper and a huge ice cream cake. it sure was a lot better than any of the junk on tv on a tuesday night. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAN!!!!!!!!

dragon lady

i set jack's playhouse up in the living room this morning. he seemed a little forlorn, so i decided to "join" him. i laid on the floor, covered myself with his baby blankie, and stuck my head in a door. i suddenly felt like a dragon in a cave keeping watch over my hoard of gold and jewels. just thought i would share.

a very good day

"those are nice to have..." - lauren (moberly) pope. a good day is very nice to have. the house is CLEAN, the washing machine and dishwasher are washing, 2 loaves of homemade white bread are baking (tuusen takk to my cousin travis who gave me a killer tip for raising bread! it worked!!!), a crockpot full of chili beans are soaking, i am knitting/perusing the internet, jackie is sleeping, daddy and papa allen are off ice fishing, and God's in His heaven all's right with the world. i feel very happy and content. hope you, person reading this, are too.

kiss kiss

"i like coffee, i like tea..."

"a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup. AH!" i LOVE coffee, is more like it. and i LOVE chai tea. it is an addiction. a cozy winter addiction. but i only like certain kinds of chai, the kind that tastes like cinnamon and vanilla, not the kind that tastes like pumpkin pie. ew. not a fan of the pumpkin pie. i will make a confession here on this blog... i bought myself 1 chai tea mix from my "tastefully simple party" in early dec. -- and i got 2 free. that is $30 worth of tea. a drink. and it goes down fast. i am down to one mix. alas! alack!:)

this is one of six mexican mugs from the mug tree in my kitchen. they are my favorite chai mugs. they make the chai ritual a little bit special. right down to the cinnamon dregs. ah!

what we are doing lately

well, the very latest is a bout of stomache flu. i was feeling queasy, but jack was worse... yesterday as i sat here facebooking, jack threw up over my shoulder and on me four times. the joy of motherhood!;) ew! ew! unclean! unclean! so i got us both upstairs and threw our clothes in the laundry sink. then we both took a bath. since then no chuck has come up. hooray!

during the two week Christmas vacation dan and andy have been doing a lot of snowmobiling and ice fishing. andy has a friend, james, who lives down the road and they have been spending a lot of time together. these photos are from the day that james was snowmobiling over and he got stuck in a huge drift. he called andy...instead of his parents!:) silly boy. i drove andy over with a shovel to dig him out. i had jack in the back seat -- placated with chocolate chip cookies. i, naturally, knitted while i waited. and i couldn't resist a few unbelievabley funny shots.

"poo poos"

yesterday jack told me he had pooped. he turned to me and said, "poo poos". very exciting! thanks jack! maybe he will be a fast potty trainer. trust me, as a mom this is very good news indeed. time to get the potty chair dusted off!:)

this is not a photo of jack doing a "#2". his is just contemplating his cookie. but, it's about the same face.:)