Cutesy alert! I made these ATCs for a We Love Hello Kitty swap at Swap-Bot. I know, you either love her or hate her. The girls and I fall into the first camp.

So instead of just doing whites sorting all day on my husband's birthday, we went to Ikea where he exchanged a defective transformer and I took Kai and Tess to the cafeteria for a snack. Good thing I did because after that we decided to go out for Indian food and of course, the Boy child would not eat anything there. So the not so healthy PB&J Uncrustable he ate at Ikea turned out to be his dinner. Mine and David's on the other hand was delish, Vegetable Pakora, Samosas, Channa Masala, Onion Kulcha, Naan, Vegetable Biryani and Chicken Tikki Masala. Oh so good. I was disappointed in the side of pickle, but you can't have everything, I guess.

Birthday presents for Daddy.
The girls got out their polymer clay and made these adorable creations for their daddy. The 8 year old made the two bears and giant birthday cake tableau and the 12 year old made the bear with neck tie and cute little 'Happy B-day' sign.
Hee, hee, don't look too closely or you'll see some fuzz attached.

Happy birthday to my dear husband! We are the same age now until my birthday in July. Birthdays sure do change as you have children and get older. As he left with Lydia to take her to ice skating lessons, he told me what he really wanted for his birthday.
Was it a nice dinner out? A new power tool? A night at the movies?

Nope.

The poor guy said he really wanted for us to sort through the whites wash and get all the socks paired up.
Pathetic, no? What have we become? LOL

Yes, I am a dork.
I just got this in the mail today and boy, am I excited! I am a total Columbo/Peter Falk fangirl. I own seasons 1-5 and now 6 & 7 on DVD and I watch at least one episode a week. I can quote episodes, I know how many times Jack Cassidy played the killer (that would be 3), which episode starred Martin Sheen as the murder victim (that would be Lovely But Lethal).

I am a complete and total Columbo nerd and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Should I be?

I've always wanted to make microscope slide pendants, here is a sample of my first few tries. I need more practice with the putting on the silver foil tape. Some people use solder to hold the pieces of glass together but I don't mind the look of the tape. I made the group of 3 last night and Lydia did the one with the giraffe. They are really fun and I will definitely make more soon.

I somehow ended up with a subscription to Body & Soul magazine, I think I got it from a freebie site. All I know is that I never paid for it. Anyway, I was reading an article about an American woman who married a Swedish man and now they live on some Scandinavian island with their twins. She wrote a book about Scandinavians and their relationship with the outdoors. The article said that instad of nesting and hibernating in the cold weather months, that we should embrace the change of seasons and go out into the cold and experience winter to the fullest.

Well, my first reaction to that was, yeah, not a bad idea. I get depressed in the winter, I should go out and become one with nature and all that. So this morning I decided that Kai and I should go out for a walk around the block. We bundled up, headed out and I was miserable the whole darn time. It was even sunny but I just could not get into the spirit of it. Kai was fine but I was grumpy and mad at the cold. Yes, a 4 year old was more mature about being cold than I was.

Moral of the story? We won't be moving to any Swedish islands anytime soon and that's the last time some free magazine is going to get me outside in below freezing weather.

Another swap completed. This was a Recycled Stuffie/Softie, the point was to re-use materials. I made a sock doggie out of 3 of my little boy's mismatched baby socks. hee hee, I like the way he came out.

My oldest daughter has had a milestone moment in her life, I won't go into exact details of what that is. Suffice to say, she's growing up and it's bringing all sorts of different feelings up for me. The first one I felt when she shared this news with me was happiness, she's passing into a new world now, something that we can share, she's becoming a young woman and while I am first and foremost her mama, I also feel like I am her friend. We talked about my passing onto this stage of my life, I just happened to also be 12 and in 7th grade at the time. I told her how her grandma reacted when I told her. Not much hoopla, of course, my mom is not known for being very emotional, just very practical. That's ok.

I made her a bracelet and told her I hoped she would remember this day when she wears it. She was very reserved about it and non-plussed, like it's no big deal. Maybe it is no big deal, maybe she talks about it with her friends, I doubt it though. She is not one for talking, I wish she was but I can't force her to be something she's not. I do keep yapping at her about growing up and changes and yes...boys...ugh, she still seems uninterested but I told her I hope she's never embarrassed to ask me anything.
I wish my mom would have told me that, I never talked to her about anything personal, I wish she would have opened that door just a crack.

Oh well, one more daughter to go through this. Not for awhile, I hope, she will be another story entirely.

Happy 2007!