what happens when you're iced in...

here are some pictures of what we've been doing this week.

first, all this you see on our porch is solid ice! we tried to stick a ruler in to measure it and it barely made a dent in it. our porch has looked this way since tuesday morning. the ice storm started monday night. i have never heard anything louder than the ice coming down on our roof/windows. we could barely sleep! then the snow came--i'll save those pictures for another post.

this is chris' busy time of year and to be stuck at home trying to work for almost a week has been a little stressful for him!

mckinlee & i have been crafting up a storm (no pun intended!)
here she is making stretchy bracelets.
(i'm so glad i made it to hobby lobby monday afternoon.)

and here is the collection of bracelets we made.

did you know you can use duct tape to make practically anything?
she has been making the cutest things! here she is showing the little pouches she made.
(never knew duct tape came in leopard and zebra!! i love it!)

here are some more. some are for pictures or coupons, to hold pencils, to hold kleenex...she is very creative.

she has also been making flower pens.
aren't these darling?

here's a close-up of one. love that turquoise and zebra!

and i've been a little crafty too. i made these flower pins out of felt. i followed this tutorial and thought it was one of the better ones i've seen. the felt is much easier to work with than fabric, i think. and it makes such a cute, full flower!

i've also been working on my project life.

in my scrapbook room i have this old tv that is not even hooked up to cable, but it can play vcr tapes. i've been buying some at goodwill or whenever i see them cheap. i also cleaned out a cabinet and found some old doris day movies that i had recorded eons ago!
(mckinlee was a little confused at how you could record something on a tape--isn't it funny how much technology changes in such a short time?)
i am a sucker for doris day movies--i absolutely love them!
these are just a few of the movies we've watched as we've crafted.
love the truman show too (even more since i've been where they filmed it--seaside, florida--and would move there in a millisecond if i could! ok--not really. but it is a beautiful little town.)

i haven't been doing a lot of cooking, except for dinner. but one afternoon, mck & i made these.
can you tell what they are?

apple nachos!

thin sliced apples, melted caramel & marshmallows, mini chocolate chips & sprinkles.
they were good, but MESSY & a little too rich--even for us!

so that's a little of what's been going on this past week.
the sun is out today--yay!!--we are so hoping it melts enough of our driveway so that i can get to the store...
chris is out of milk and cereal--that is a disaster!

girl's craft day

last saturday, michele had a little crafting party for several of the girls in our congregation.
they had a ball!
the moms got to come back about 30 minutes before it was over to take pictures and see all the fun. as each mom came in, you could hear a groan from the girl whose mom walked in--pretty funny!
sorry for the fuzzy pictures--i only had my iphone.

they each got to make some stretchy bracelets, decorate a shell-ring holder and our c.o.'s wife, tamara, wrote each of their names in calligraphy.

here is mck working away

all the pretty goodies they were working with

in addition to the bracelets she made for herself, mck made me "an early anniversary present"--a bracelet in my favorite color with a little seahorse attached to it! it's so cute.

here is tamara explaining the mechanics of calligraphy

i got a shot of her doing mckinlee's name

claire brought her cello. here she is playing while the girls sing one of our new songs.

all the girls with tamara and michele
(i think giana must have been behind mck)

mck & michele

mck & tamara

here are the pretties mck got to leave with!

in other news...

this is our 3rd day of no school because of the ice and i just got a call that they canceled tomorrow too! that is unheard of! we texas people are in no way used to be confined to our homes because of snow or ice for so long.
mckinlee and i are loving it! chris...not so much. he wanted/needed to go to work today but our driveway is one huge sheet of ice. he has been working from home most of the time (except for yesterday when the rolling blackouts messed up their network at work.)
he told me earlier that the only good thing about being stuck at home for so long is that we weren't out spending money!!! ha!
(i guess he doesn't know that online shopping is just as good! heehee!)

come back tomorrow and i'll post all the fun things mck & i have been making :)

quick catch up

i don't have much to say (haven't been in a blogging mood) but
i promised my mom (hi mom!) that i would post pictures of sunday at our special assembly day.
so here they are...

mck & amber before it started

me working the contribution box

mck & chloe

mck with claire, amber & abby.
they were very excited because claire had just got baptized!

the theme for the day

mck & i
(doesn't she look thrilled to have to take a picture with mom? ha!)

me & some of the girls

chris & i right before we walked out.
the lights were out and we were the last to leave (the joys of him being in accounting :)

we had a wonderful day and left so encouraged and invigorated!

i had also promised my sister (hi danielle--sorry you guys aren't feeling well) that i would post the cutest card we made at my stamp class last week.

you make all these score lines, add all your pretties and unfolded, it looks like this.

here it is folded up

and then you can stand it up. so cute!

i just loved the stamp set and the papers
(it was my month to host and boy did i make out good!
i will post all my goodies when i get them! just a little hint: it includes the paper and stamp set from the card above!)

finally, this is what i've been doing most of the day...laundry, cleaning, exercising, bringing out all my winter decorating stuff (very late, i know) etc. it's 9:15 pm and i never put on any make-up or took a shower--that's where i'm headed now!
good night.

my day

(image from wikipedia)

do you remember this book? i think i first heard it read by our librarian when i was in elementary school. personally, i always thought it was kind of funny.
(i mean what a day...you wake up with gum in your hair, don't get to buy the shoes you want, get blamed for stuff that wasn't your fault, don't get to wear your favorite pajamas. who wouldn't not want to move to australia after that?)
i'm thinking the humor i found in it can all be attributed to the fact that i am not alexander.

well, let me tell you about my day yesterday, which really started out better than alexander's already because i did not wake up with gum in my hair.

it didn't really get bad until i drove into the parking lot of wal-mart after dropping mck off at school. (i was making a new recipe of chili yesterday in the crock pot and needed some more tomato sauce and rotel.)
since it was before 9 in the morning, there weren't many cars in the parking lot and several spaces near the front available.

(i didn't deceive myself into thinking that i'd actually get a front row spot since i recently had an experience in the same parking lot with a woman pulling in against traffic to steal my spot, me making a comment to her and then coming face to face with her in the greeting card aisle. but that's a another post for another day. anyone wonder why my word of the year is "patience"?)

i started to turn into the spot on the right, but at the last minute decided i'd take the one on the left. (do you ever think about how seemingly mundane decisions can affect your whole day?)
anyway, i opened my trunk and got out of the car to get my grocery bag when i came in contact with something that heretofore (love that word) i had never encountered before...black ice.
my cute sketchers flew out from beneath me and i came down on my left hip so hard that i just laid there for a second wondering what in the world just happened and being grateful that i don't have brittle bones.
i got up, gathered up my bags and limped my way in. within a few seconds i knew i would making a visit to the chiropractor soon as my back & neck started to hurt almost immediately. i got my few purchases, making sure to visit the advil aisle and headed home.
i was sore during the day but didn't hurt too bad unless i sat down.
and then evening came...
apparently when i fell i also hit my right knee, because in addition to the growing bruise on my hip was terrible pain in my knee.
i shuffled around the house in my slippers, barely getting my feet off the ground, and had to use the banister to pull myself up the stairs. i told chris i felt like a 90 year old woman.
add all of that to the fact that i now had horrible cramps and a backache because it's that lovely "time of the month"...i had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!

(actually it wasn't absolutely horrible because i still had my dinner ready at 10 in the morning, washed-dried-and put away almost all the laundry, and organized the linen closet.)

now i'm thinking that book wasn't so funny after all.

menu plan

these pictures don't have anything to do with my menu for the week...

i was surprised to open the mailbox and see a big envelope with "surprise!" written on it.
inside was a monogrammed pottery barn towel from my mom--what a sweet surprise. thanks mom!

lately i have been buying books like crazy. i know. one thing i do not need is another book in this house. but when i don't want to spend a lot of money, but still want to be in a store--half price books it is! these were all $1 each! haven't started any of them, but i love to open my cabinet or look on the bookshelves and see piles of books just waiting to be read! i have a problem--i know.

and now... on to my menu.
i was a little late posting this so it actually started last friday.

friday
southern chicken roll-ups
homemade mashed potatoes
green beans--this recipe
crescent rounds

saturday
homemade pizza

sunday
chicken enchilada soup--this recipe
but i made a few changes:
pureed a can of canellini beans
put 15 oz. can of green enchilada sauce
can of rotel instead of tomatoes & jalapenos
only 1/2 tsp. cumin
used 1/2 c. milk & 1/2 c. half & half
used less corn tortillas
used more chicken broth
i cannot even tell you how good this was!

monday
artichoke chicken
sauteed spinach
garlic bread

tuesday
chili--trying this recipe. we'll see how it is!
cornbread

wednesday
wild caught sock-eye salmon over mixed greens & vinaigrette dressing

thursday
lentil stew-for chris
chicken pillows & organic mac n cheese--for me & mckinlee

what are you having for dinner this week?
i am always looking for ideas!

SNOW DAY!!!

we were so upset this morning when we woke up and there was no snow. it was just nasty, drizzly rain. we went to our morning meeting and when we came out, it was snowing and beautiful!
it was the perfect day for watching football, scrapbooking, reading, taking a nap and watching the nanny (depending on who you ask!)

whenever it snows, i always take some pictures of this crepe myrtle. i just love the perspective and the glimpse of the rest of the street.

here's mck heading out for some fun--she had quite the outfit on let me tell you!

the series of cartwheel pictures...
they crack me up!

collecting snow for snow ice cream

one of the few times i actually like this tree in our front yard--when it's covered in snow!

cosmo ran out the door, took a few steps and ran right back in the house!

of course you have to make snow angels

something warm to drink

love those red cheeks!

here's my snow ice cream. have you ever made it? so yummy. you just mix lots of (clean) snow, sugar, milk, vanilla. add some mini chocolate chips and it's delicious!

love this one of her jumping and the scarf flying up in the air.

so we're all hoping that it will be too bad to go to school and work tomorrow--but we'll just wait and see!
in other news...
we're trying to take a picture of us at the start of each month this year--with the exception of me my subjects are not too willing! mck hates this one because she hates smiling with her mouth open, but i love it and it's my blog. so there.
(we had just finished our family worship evening--we usually all climb on the bed, snuggle up and study.)

have a good week!
tomorrow i am posting my meal plan (riveting reading, i know.)