New Camera, Round II

Well, let's hope this is the final round with camera trials. It looks promising so far. For one thing, the color is much better. This close up of the 7 year old is from about 10 feet away, zoomed in close.

I couldn't wait to try this camera, so I only charged the battery for about 15 minutes, then put it in the camera and started snapping away, without a clue about any of the settings. The first few were blurry, until I figured out I needed to push a button to let the flash pop up. The picture above was one of those.

Here's one with the flash open. We were in the middle of homeschool, so I just snapped the pictures of what was close by. I knew I wanted to see how well pictures of people turned out because this was such a problem with the last camera. So far, especially considering I haven't played with it all that much, I'm pretty happy.

My poor hubby is home sick today, so he got to be in the photo shoot too.

This weekend was a busy one. We had the seven year old's final ski team day. They always do a fun day for their last meeting. The kids (and coaches) wear costumes, and they race through goofy obstacle courses. They are awarded candy (or have it thrown at them). It's pretty fun. We started the day with a sourdough pancake feast at Bugga and Papa's. Then I let my husband, the 18 year old and seven year old go skiing, while I kept the 2 year old home, so no photos of that event.

I had planned on getting a lot of crafting in over the weekend, but I haven't been sleeping well lately (or breathing well either) so I took a nap with the 2 year old instead. I always have these symptoms with my pregnancies, so I guess I've hit that lucky point where the problems begin. That or maybe the high ozone levels we've been experiencing, thanks to the gas field, could be a contributor. I thought I might pass out in church yesterday while standing and singing. I think I'm going to have to choose to do one or the other ... stand, or sing, but not both at the same time.

Sunday afternoon my husband and I took a trip to Walmart ... 100 miles away, and did a little shopping. We re-affirmed the idea that we hate going to Walmart and we hate the town it is in, and it made me think I would probably be better off just to order from Walmart.com for the things I can't get at Kmart in the town I usually shop in (which is 77 miles from our house, in the opposite direction). I'm sure after paying for fuel - at $3.29/gallon (it's $3.51 here in town), I could pay for quite a bit of shipping. And, the bonus is that there would be less impulse buying :) We do a lot of online shopping here. In fact I'm currently expecting about 12 packages - WOW, I just went back and counted. Make that 17! packages (if you count the camera that came today). In fairness though, some are for the 18 year old, and one is for the 20 year old who is overseas and can't receive a UPS delivered package.) Crazy, huh? I get great deals online, and with the baby coming, I've got quite a few projects lined up, and supplies coming for those, as well as homeschool supplies and of course books ;) I always have books coming. Go figure.

So anyway, to add to my growing list of baby projects, I picked up some blue and brown yarn at Walmart to start an afghan for our next boy. Isn't it pretty? I'm thinking it will be a striped blanket - switching color on each row. I have a total of eight skeins (four of each color), so hopefully that will be enough. I will have a lot of fabric and craft stuff to show you in the next few days, so I better get working on my to do list (which seems to be growing daily.)

Decisions, Decisions

I'm getting there. I didn't get much sewing done ... okay, none, actually ... but I did manage to make copies of my pattern pieces and cut them out. Then I pulled out some of my western fabrics to see what will work nicely for the little baby boots. I'm thinking bandana fabric with denim would be a good combination. The part of the project that's holding me up is that the fabric needs to be quilted first. Not a problem to do the actual quilting, but I'm the biggest fabric miser in the world, and don't want to waste any fabric. So I'm reluctant to quilt too much of it. I've decided to draw out all the pattern pieces onto a sheet of paper (some of them are used multiple times) and then just quilt a piece slightly bigger than that. Maybe I'll get a chance to do that during nap-time today. But then, before I get too carried away, I really ought to work on the contest project that has to be done by the 10th... and our taxes... but that's no fun.

The other decision I made was to send the camera back. It just isn't taking crystal clear pictures with accurate color. If you spend $250 on a camera, you ought to be able to expect better pictures. But these pictures weren't even as good as the ones my little $99 camera I had before took. I went through the manual and tried all the different settings and couldn't notice much of a difference in the picture quality, so, back it goes. I've already ordered a different one, so we'll see how that one does. It doesn't have quite as much zoom - only 18x, which is still way more than I've had before, and it was a little cheaper. If that one doesn't work, I'll have to decide whether to go up a step, or back down to a basic, little point and shoot. We shall see...

In a Crafty Mood

I guess all the fabric and pattern buying I've been doing is getting my creative juices running. I've been wanting to make time to get some crafting in. But given my hectic schedule, it hasn't happened yet this week.

I was thinking I would start back in on the crocheting I keep by my bedroom rocking chair.

But someone was in the chair. He loves to "rockabye" - especially with me, and especially right before bed. He usually brings me a book (or seven) and tells me to "read it!". Once we get all snuggled in, he'll say "rockabye!" and we'll rock and read our stories. It's a sweet bedtime routine.

Tonight, though, he was being ornery, and wouldn't share the chair. He was enjoying making the rocker go as fast as he could.

Anyway, after all the rocking and reading, I was finally able to get my crocheting out. This is a project I started around New Year's, when we were in Utah. I was in the mood to make something pink, and figured with my sister and I both expecting, chances are one or the other of us would be having a girl. Well, I sure hope she has a girl ;) I guess if she doesn't, I'll put it in my "someday" box. I've been reading a blog by Karen Andreola (author of several books on homeschooling with the Charlotte Mason method). She keeps a hope chest style box which she calls the someday box, in which she places hand made items for a grandchild she will eventually have. (She has some already, but no girls yet). I thought that was a pretty neat idea. I'm sure with five children, I will have grandchildren "someday." No rush though ;) Anyway, I think this will end up being a pink and white striped afghan, maybe with a lacy border. We'll see. And we'll see in a couple weeks (hopefully) whether I need to get this done by August :)

Master Gardener, Class Complete... sort of

Last night was my final Master Gardener class. We had a class on soil - where we brought our own soil samples and learned what type of soil we have. Surprise, surprise, I have "sandy clay" in the back yard (at the new place) and "silty clay" in the front. What does that mean? It means when we walk in the mud, it will glop onto our shoes. Big surprise. It also means the soil will hold water well, so we won't have to water as often, and when we do water, it will need to be done very slowly. It also means we need to add organic matter - which is the advice regardless of what type of soil you have.

We also did our "graduation" party - we had pizza and played a version of Jeopardy, and our table (me and one other person) finished 4th out of about 12 tables. Everyone got a prize, but we were allowed to choose them in the order in which we placed. I snagged a package of Asparagus roots. I really hope that works out. We grew asparagus when I was a kid in Nebraska, and there is no comparison between store bought and home grown asparagus. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the store-bought stuff. But home grown? Now that's another story. At the end we were allowed to pick out a couple of seed packets. I gathered up the instructor's "favorite" lettuce blend, and a packet of "tendersweet carrots." I really don't expect to do much gardening this year, with the baby due July 1, but I think I can handle a few little things. And think how good a tasty home-grown salad with real carrots will taste.

Anyway, we're not quite done with class. There is a pruning class in April, and then if we want the Master Gardener certification, we have to put in 40 hours of volunteer time. I hadn't intended to go that far. If you get the certification, you are "qualified" to consult with people who are having problems in their garden, or with their landscape plants. I don't feel qualified to do that. I've learned a lot, but I'm a beginner to all this and don't have many answers. I took the class to learn how to grow things in my own yard, not tell everyone else how to do it ;)

Caroline Classic Ski Race, and Adding to the Fabric Stash

Last week I couldn't sleep and was up super early. What a treat! The sunrise was gorgeous! I love this first picture with the icicles.

The icicle picture was actually taken a little later than this next one. In a matter of a couple minutes, the sky changed from rust orange to blues and pinks.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early for the next ski race. I enjoy these, but I'm also very thankful there are only two races. These events take a lot of time and energy.

We were again #13. This is before the race. See how his bib is all blue with white letters? That meant he would be starting from the lower start, as opposed to #160 next to him, who would run the whole course. This race is held on the big hill. It takes the high school skiers about a minute and a half to race the whole course. So the younger skiers start toward the middle of the hill. As it was, it took him just over a minute to complete his run.

His stance looks a little funny here, be he was flying, and one the edge of being out of control.
Can you see the spray of snow coming off his ski?

When I asked him why he wasn't tucking down like he did last time, he said he felt like he was going too fast, and was trying to slow himself down a bit. At the last gate, there was a rut and one ski kicked out, but he was able to save it and make a good finish. Last race, I heard one of the coaches tell the kids, "Today, we want to go really fast ... somewhat in control, but mostly just go fast." That particular coach is a hoot.

The kids were supposed to get two runs down the hill, but when it was 1:30 and they were just finishing up the first run for everyone, they decided there wouldn't be enough daylight to finish, so everyone had to be satisfied with only one run. I was a bit frustrated by that. I had sat out on the hillside all day with my 2 year old, thinking we would get to see the second run. Had I known they were only doing one run, I would have waited in the warm lodge. Thankfully it wasn't terribly cold.

See all these people? These are all athletes and parents - and not all of them. They had a record turn out for the race, with a total of 190 skiers. We had kids from all over the place - Jackson Hole, Idaho, etc. The bigger ski teams who practice on larger hills are crazy fast. And they have all the brand new, top of the line equipment. We even saw parents re-waxing their kids skis to fit the snow conditions. This is some pretty intense competition. I'm really glad we didn't sign up for the race team. Home team suits us much better. We were also surprised by how rude some of the parents were. Guess we shouldn't be, but good grief. This is a kids event! Let them enjoy it.

At any rate, we ended up with a fourth place finish. Not too bad, considering all the competition. He was really upset not to place higher though. He was aiming for second place. Actually, among the local skiers, he was second. He beat two of the kids that beat him last race. When we got the full list of results, he felt much better. Of all the boys who started on the lower start, he was fourth fastest overall - which meant he beat several boys who are in the next age group. But overall, I would have to say it's never a bad thing to have to learn to deal with disappointment. It builds character.

His little group was the J7 boys again. The kid that won his division is not on this section of the score sheet. Would you believe the kid who won (who was from Jackson, by the way) made his run in 39 seconds!? Crazy.

Okay, on to fabric ;) I really wasn't intending to buy much fabric yet, but there is a contest at our local quilt shop... 'nuff said, right?

Anyway, I had to use a particular challenge fabric for this contest - the hideous flip-flop material in the center. Okay, so it's not as bad as I anticipated, but it sure is a challenge to find anything that remotely goes with it. For the contest, they give us a fat quarter of this material, and it has to be used and distinguishable in the final product. I had to try to find something that would go with it, so I bought a quarter yard of the zigzag material (which I now think does not go with it very well) and a quarter yard of the red, which I'm leaning toward using. The other piece of material goes from a beautiful dark purple to a bright orange, blending as it goes. Parts of it go really well with the challenge material, and parts of it don't. We'll have to see how it all works out. I'm not telling what I'm making yet. We'll just have to see how it turns out. I picked up a fat quarter for my daughter to use too. She will make an accent piece (or two) for what I'm making. The contest entries have to be in by April 10th, and we get $5 for participating, and $25 if we win. It seemed crazy not to enter ;)

Of course I can't walk into a fabric shop and just buy what I intended to buy... I spotted this pretty pale blue and brown fabric and thought it would be perfect for a carseat cover - as in, cover up the baby so all the people at the store will stop touching him.

It's overall very much my style, and I loved it even more when I saw the little bunnies.

I thought I was doing pretty good, getting out of the store having spent less than $20, when on my way out, I passed this adorable pattern for baby cowboy boots. They even had a little pair made up from the pattern. I was hooked. I had to go back and buy the pattern. Ugh. I'm such a sucker. Oh well, this pattern is super cute ;)

Later in the week, when I went to Jackson for my doctor's appointment I stopped in the quilt store there too. I found this cute flannel dinosaur material there. I'm not usually interested in dinosaurs, but I thought this was pretty cute.

I was surprised I didn't buy any more than just that, but I guess I wasn't in a fabric buying mood. I did find a brown and turquoise fabric I would have loved to use for a diaper bag, but after searching the entire store and not finding anything - literally anything - to go with it, I put it back on the shelf. All the coordinating fabrics in that line were girly, and I just couldn't match the odd shades of brown and turquoise with anything else in the store.

After going through a sewing slump, I think I may just be getting in the mood to create again. I've been having a hard time getting interested in sewing, with my sewing "room" in the garage, and not being able to use my propane heater because of the pregnancy. It's finally starting to warm up some, and I've finally given in and brought one machine inside. I really don't have room for it in the house, and around the daycare, but I'm making an exception for a couple months. I can't wait to have a whole room inside the house just for sewing. It will be such a treat!

Speaking of the house, the latest word was that it would be here the 18th, but he is supposed to give us 5 days definite warning so we can remove ice from the foundation we poured, and considering today is the 14th, I'm guessing we're delayed again. Like I've said before, I'll believe it's coming when I see the house pulling into town. Too bad people can't live up to their word.

He Made the Paper

I've been meaning to post this for a few days. Both local papers ran pictures from the ski race, and our skier made it into one of them. He's in the bottom center picture below:

Here's a closer view of that picture.

The Six Year Old is Finally Seven!

The first part of our day was spent on the lake - at the final day of the ice fishing derby. Normally we would have been in church, but we thought it was a worthwhile investment of our time to help his father and mother be able to get out and fish. This is a once-a-year thing, and given his dad's health situation, they wouldn't have been able to go without our help. We were glad to do it :) The birthday boy wanted to go to church, so we arranged for the kids to be picked up by a sweet lady in our church. They came home to the birthday boy's requested birthday meal - boxed mac & cheese - then went to work decorating his cake. When everyone came over later, we were treated to the 18 year old's homemade crock pot beef stew, cake and ice cream.

At the fishing derby, we won a $50 gift certificate to Half Moon Lake Lodge - where some of the best steak on earth is served - YUM. It was kind of funny, really. They announced what the door prize was, and I commented to my husband, saying, "We'll take that one." Then they drew his name! We were thrilled. We didn't catch any fish or win any fishing awards, so this was a nice bonus. My father in law also won a door prize - a survival kit to carry in his snowmachine.

When we got home, Papa and Bugga came over and we had the big seventh birthday party.

It was a big hit. In case you can't tell, this was a couple of packages of Snaps from Papa - a horribly yucky candy (in my opinion) which happens to be the birthday boy (and Papa's) favorite candy coated black licorice.

There were lots of presents to unwrap, and I'm quite pleased with the deals I got on all of them. The ones from us were all after Christmas sale bargains, or super deals with coupons or mark-down items. He ended up with a wide variety of items and was excited to have so many to open. Papa and Bugga spoiled him, giving him a new western shirt, along with the candy and bird nest. And he received a couple of cards with money, which always is a hit. We know there are two more packages on the way too, so he'll get to continue his celebrating into the week.

This monkey hat was one of the biggest hits.

Everyone had to try it on. And no, I won't be posting pictures of the rest of us in the hats!)

Here was one of the coolest, most unique gifts, which we will enjoy using in our homeschool lessons. Bugga gave him a bird nest, complete with one broken shell of a robin egg, and one in-tact egg. We're handling it very carefully! There is a pretty interesting story behind this gift. The mama bird built her nest on the track of Papa's snowmachine, which at the time was covered with a tarp, and parked in the big shed on the land where our house is going. We knew the nest was there, but left it alone. When they brought the machines into town, the nest was still there, and Bugga discovered the eggs when she moved the nest in preparation for the ice fishing derby. We were all excited to have it, and will probably use it in our decor, along with studying it in homeschool. This will be a very cool addition to our nature notebooks. We've been having a hard time coming up with examples of nature to draw - you can only draw so much snow - for our notebooks. His 20 year old brother called on Skype from where he is deployed and told him he will be getting a keychain from him when he returns home. The keychain has a scorpion in it. He is looking forward to getting that so he can see who all he can scare with it... BOYS! Last year the same brother bought him four acrylic bracelets with bugs, spiders, and bees in them - and they were actually very cool bugs if I do say so myself :)

The cake was a Candyland themed cake. The birthday boy and his 18 year old sister did all the decorating. I knew they wouldn't have enough room to get all the candy in place if we had made a regular 9x13 cake, so I baked a sheet cake from a recipe book my Grandmother gave me - one of those old church collaboration cookbooks, filled with everyone's best recipes. I had never tried this recipe, so I was a little worried that it wouldn't turn out. It was incredibly good! (The cake was moist and very flavorful. Next time I will need a little more flour to accommodate our higher elevation, but I will definitely make this again.) We did decide though that it might not have been the best choice for this application, though, because it was so shallow that some of the candies wouldn't stand up in it - like the lollipops that kept tipping over.

Here's the cake with the inspiration game board behind it. I left the decorating up to the kids while we finished up our fishing, and I think they did a great job. The scenes and candies are actually very accurate to the game board.

I'd say the birthday party was a success!

Ice Fishing Derby, Day 1

Can you tell I got my new camera!?!

We had a crazy, busy, fun day today. It started with the annual ice fishing derby. This was the first time the kids had gotten to go. I was playing with my new camera which arrived late last night via UPS, and I haven't had a chance to read all the directions, so I'm sure there is a setting that does better in the snow than what I've managed to take here, but either way, here we go.

This is a zoomed-in picture of my six year old, who was at least 30 yards away at the time. You can see me in the reflection of his glasses, on the right side.

The two year old absolutely loved fishing. He was sharing a pole with me, and kept saying "Hold it, PLEASE, PLEASE." Then he would hold the pole for at least half an hour. He even knew to jig the pole from watching everyone else. Then he would give me the pole, let me jig it about three times, and then want it back again. He literally fished more than I did.

Here's my sweet husband, trying to catch a fish.

I had to include this one. There was only one time in the day - early morning, when everything was new and a little bit scarry - when the two year old was in a bad mood. The funny thing was that I had just discovered that my camera has a setting called "smile catcher," and I was on that setting when this picture was taken. Don't you think that's ironic? By the way, a few pretzels cured the bad mood.

And a little relaxation in the sun didn't hurt either. He was pretty tired. This was right before lunch time, and he almost fell asleep here. The kids and I had to leave right then to get the six year old to ski practice for the afternoon. This one fell asleep on the way, but when we got back to the lake, he became the main fisherman, holding the pole most of the afternoon. He also loved the ice dipper, which we used to pull the slush out of the holes. He would tell us "dip it, dip it!" He wanted to play with it, but I was afraid he could fall through the hole, or drop the dipper, so I held onto it with him. Later we let him "dip the snow." He also had a hard time understanding where the boat was. He kept looking at the snowmachines, and saying, "boat?". He hadn't been on a snowmachine before either, and it was noisy, so it scared him.

The six year old had been so excited to go fishing. But then he wouldn't leave the line in the water more than 15-20 minutes or so. He got bored easily. He really just wanted to go skiing. In fact, after we had been there about half an hour, he wanted me to take him to the ski hill early. I told him he had to wait. He spent more time eating pretzels and mooching granola bars than fishing :)

Here's a three generational shot of the fishermen. From left to right: Bugga (my mother in law), my husband, and the six year old. Papa was fishing off to the right, far enough away that I couldn't get all of them in one shot. The overflow was pretty bad in this spot. I even broke through up to my knee in one spot, while I was walking over to the fishing spot. (That was from overflow -the water that is above ice level. It had refrozen the snow and was crusty, but my foot broke through in one spot. Brought back memories of the first time I went ice fishing. My husband (before we were married) took me to Half Moon Lake. I was already really nervous about being out on the ice, sure I was going to die, and wouldn't you know it? I got off the snowmachine, and took a few steps, and one whole leg fell through the ice. I was sitting on the ground with my leg submerged, working myself into a full panic. Needless to say, we did not fish that day :)

Here's Papa with the only fish we caught this weekend. This poor little fish is only about 8 inches long, and Papa snagged it through the belly.

This is what most of my afternoon looked like. I found that I had to sit on his left side if I didn't want to get hit in the face with the pole when he jigged.

It was a really beautiful day. A couple times I was even able to take off my coat and sit with short sleeves. We all got mild sunburns too.

Note... since I'm updating this after the fact, I'll tell you that day two was nice too - warm, but snowy. In fact I took a book along, and wasn't able to read it at all because there was a constant very wet snow, sometimes pretty heavy. No fish, but we did well in the door prize department, which you can read about in the next post :)

Men's Work :)

My sweet husband figured it was time to shovel when he got the car stuck trying to pull into the driveway. The six year old rushed out to help (he loves shoveling). When the two year old discovered all the excitement, he headed out the door with the broom.

He wanted to be in on the action ... with the rest of the boys :)

The six year old was working on burying the trash can ... until I reminded him that he is the one who has to take the garbage out each day ;)


I love watching all the boys working together - and seeing even the littlest one knowing that's where he belongs too. I may be out-numbered, and that will soon get worse, but this to me is one of the rewards of motherhood. Too sweet. :) I am so blessed!