Rain Day

We woke up this morning to a steady rain. Such a rare thing around here - we even had some thunder last night! Our yards will all be 3 shades of green darker tomorrow. Of course, right now it is sunny and 66 degrees, who would have thought? Unfortunately, it is supposed to rain more tonight, so the kid's fun school night at the amusement park was cancelled. Next week!

I have about $2000 worth of books sitting in my dining room right now, getting ready for the Parenting Conference this weekend. I am the official bookstore coordinator. I missed getting a picture of ALL of the books on my dining room table, that was a sight (no, I'm getting them all back out of their boxes!). I'm going up alone, since grandma will be here this weekend, so that means 3 uninterrupted knitting days (well, except for when I'm making a sale, and maybe listening to some sessions - but you can still knit through those!). I had to find a new project, this is too good an opportunity. The end of school is coming up, so that means another teacher bag! I went to my local yarn store and picked out some yummy stuff. Not *my* colors, of course, but the teacher's. I'm not sure what I will do with it, but I got a nice free pattern from the LYS of a bag with a ruffle at the top. VERY cute. Can I work in both colors, the ribbon yarn, AND a ruffle? We'll see.


Oh, and of course I'm taking along my felted balls to sell for my group. They turned out very cute - the only question is how much to charge for them? If I ask $5, will they all sell? If I ask $7, is that too much? I'm leaning towards $7. I saw them listed for $8 - $12 (similar size) on etsy, so I think $7 is resonable. They are about the right size to fit in an adult's palm, like jugglingballs, or the perfect size for an older baby to grab, gnaw on, etc. Oh, and they all have jingle bells in side them, so they have a dull ringing jangle to them. Don't they just look like yummy scoops of ice cream?

We're also selling "leftover" felted toddler hats, some soft baby hats knitted by Brooke, and some cute hair clips made by Janie.

And a blast from the past. Another Christmas 2002:

How does your garden grow?

Pretty slowly for me, right now! I can't wait until it is warm enough here to plant everything out. SO far I have planted sugar peas and spinach, chard - which did not come up, and lettuce, which came up very slowly, and I have now reseeded with different seeds. The reason the lettuce and chard didn't come up, in my opinion, is that I was using seeds from last year (and the year before that) to use them up. Obviously not a great plan. Then I got some seed potatoes and onion sets from a friend (sharing seeds and starters is a great idea) and they are all out now too.

I have chives, oregano, and sage plants going strong. There is some garlic coming up, but I haven't looked to see what the bulbs look like. Maybe I'll actually be able to harvest some this year? I have a few cilantro and nasturtium seedlings reseeded from last year, too. These are all from two years ago, and since I turned the garden over really well this year, there aren't as many as I would like, so I will buy some more seeds of both of those. The kids sprinkled the garden with marigold seeds (harvested last year by the kids), and we put carrot seeds in between my rows of peas. I have started some zucchini, gourds, and cucumbers inside to put out in a week or two. We also have a bunch of seed packets obtained over the past few years of random annuals and wildflowers, that will go into my lower two "terraces". The bottom one still needs walls to hold all the soil in. This spring I split up my second terrace into an upper and lower area, because the slope was too much, and added new soil and compost to the lower part. It looks much better and should be more productive this way. This is where the potatoes went and where the cucurbits will end up as well. And I will buy roma tomatoes and various peppers from a garden center next week for the upper terrace.

I just spent the past few days turning over my garden completely (except where I already planted, I turned that over before planting) - a lot of work! I put most of my maple leaves on the garden last fall, so there were a lot of partially decomposed leaves to work in. Next year the soil should be very nice....

Then of course comes the clean up of my patio and planting (and building of) the walkway between the patio and the yard. It looks awful right now - that is a major goal this year!

As my little crabapple tree in my garden gets bigger, I will need to expand my garden beyond it. Too much shade in that area. I have planty of room to expand, it just takes time, energy, soil, and money. And I don't want to take out the tree, it's such a perfect place to play under.

And just for fun, this is a gift Owen made for me yesterday. What a lovely windchime made of "found" objects!

Here is the next photo from my albums, Owen with Grandpa Jack:

Pandemonium

Need I say more?

This was the finale, where every child is onstage, and you can only see those in the front row. I don't get it, but then I don't get much of why we do this stuff.

Much cuteness was to be had everywhere

Some boredom

Including a very patient brother:

And finally - the star of the show!

The "real thing" is Saturday afternoon, but no pictures or videoing then. SO this is what you get to see, until we get theDVD ;-)

By the way, if you want to see a clearer video of the dances, go to the youtube website, my account, and click on view higher resolution under the main video.

Then - from my next folder - look at much they look alike already!!!!!

Snowy May Day

We did get some snow this morning. It never accumulated, since it has been so warm lately, but it was so beautiful to see the flurries coming down so thick earlier!

I wanted to share some work from my talented artist/poet. The kids are making, as a surprise, an end of the year gift - one of them is actually for a retirement gift - for their teachers. Parent volunteers are putting together a book with all of the kids' written poems and drawings.

And then of course my other artist's version:

Here is today's photo folder - I couldn't pick just one!

Almost May Day

To celebrate May Day, we spent an hour today at Hudson Gardens. Very short visit, but lovely. It was quite hot today, I'm sure it was over 80 when we were out. And another reason we went to the gardens today, not tomorrow - well tomorrow, it is supposed to snow. Yep.

SO today is a picture day. I've got lots of them. I caught many flower fairies on my camera today..... Enjoy!

And here is my next photo folder - November 2002, Blessingway:

No new pictures today

Too busy to take pictures. Although busy days can be the best. Now I'm super tired, although I did sneak in a quick nap while Elise and I were watching Night at the Museum (a must after a day at the museum), even though she kept telling me to "wake up mama!"

Inspiring Nia excersize class this morning, a good day working in the classroom, where I felt like I was actually helping rather than just butting heads with kids who don't want to do the schoolwork (read busywork), picked up the last of the books for the parenting conference - whew, even though they messed up one thing, that doesn't affect the conference at all, just a promise :-(, a trip to Vitamin Cottage (badly needed that deoderant I can only get there), watched a movie with Elise (see above), pick up Owen from a friend's house, start dinner, clean a bit of the kitchen, then finshed off with a very relaxing and enjoyable yoga class.

Now the fun part, the next folder - October 2002 - a very pregnant mom with a tiny Owen in our beautiful fall backyard:

An Enjoyable Day

Owen and Elise both had no school today, therefore a perfect day for a trip to the Museum of Science and Nature. All three of us haven't been there for quite a while. We got to tour GOLD, see some animal dioramas, the Native American section, play in the children's area, see the Gems and Minerals, and Space Odyssey. It was not crowded at all.
We found a cool pink wall and had to take pictures in front of it. It looked so good as a background to the kids' clothes ;-p

Ollie has gotten a clean bill of health. Last week, after trimming an overgrown claw and removing a cyst on his belly (both under anesthesia, I might add), the vet took some blood from Ollie since he is so old. Apparently he is quite healthy for an 18 year old cat. Good news!

Meow!

Brought home my first "pots" today. I took a picture. They are more like very small drinking cups. Smaller than my small glass jars. Anyway, they are mine, and I made them.

And finally, a photo from September, 2002. Just Owen:

Books

SO last Thursday was Author Night at school, where the kids reveal their books they have been working on for the past few months. The books are bound and nicely presented. Each book is available for viewing by classroom, and there is space in the back for comments by kids and/or parents. Of course there were many wonderful stories.

The other good reason to go is the Used Book Sale that goes along with Author Night. We have always gotten some good stuff here. Here are my finds from this year, I will post reviews as I finish them:

• The Girl With No Shadow - Joanne Harris. A few months ago I ripped through everything she has written, and was sad when I was finished. Lucky for me there was an advance copy of her new book sitting on the table at the book sale. I grabbed it up. This is the sequel to Chocolat.


• Sisters of the Earth - Women's Prose and Poetry About Nature. A compilation that looked too good to pass up. Many many wonderful authors and poets.


• women on the edge of a nervous breakthrough - isabel sharpe. How could I pass this one up? "Sometimes the only thing women on the edge need . . . is a push."


• Last Rituals -Yrsa Sigurdardottir. AnIcelandic Novel of Secret Symbols, Medieval Witchcraft, and Modern Murder. Mmmmmm, sounds yummy!


• The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga. "No saris, no scents, no spices, no music, no lyricism, no illusions - this is India now."


• A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving. I read this back (~10 years ago or so) when I was on a John Irving kick. An epic of sorts. It's where I first heard of the name Owen, and liked it. Not that *my* Owen is at all like the title character, if you have read the book :-) I loved this book, and just had to have it.

The next photo folder is: September 2002, Erin's Visit - Owen and 2nd cousin Natalie playing:

A New Family Member

So, we have a new neice and cousin, Catt Minka. Hopefully we'll get to meet her and see her sisters soon.
So in our family (I am including my family and John's, including our cousins' kids) that adds to the majority of girls as grandchildren. A few boys have slipped in, but they are few and far between. As far as I can recollect, it goes - girl, girl, BOY, girl, girl, girl, GIRL, girl, girl, girl, girl, boy, boy, boy, girl, and tbd. (Mine are in CAPS, of course:-) 11 girls and 4 boys. Among just our brothers and sisters kids it goes - BOY, girl, GIRL, girl, girl, girl, and tbd.
Welcome to the world baby Catt!

Our new family blog

Okay, now I'm going to do it. I'm not saying I will do this every day, but I have been motivated by reading my friends' blogs lately (thank you Google Reader). And this way I can post a few pics, without making you view 200 each time I do a photo shoot :-) But you might find in this blog my creative endeavors, things my kids have done, my kid's posts, and many pictures thereof. We'll see anyway. Yesterday and today I have been dying roving with kool-aid for some projects to offer up for sale at the upcoming LLL Parenting conference in Estes Park. My group (well, me anyway) is selling felted wool balls and other kids felted toys. Also the few hats we have been trying to sell, if they sell there they go into our treasury. Here is some of the roving: Hanging is Ice Blue Raspeberry Lemonade, Berry Blue mixed with Blastin' Berry Cherry (2:1), and painted Orange, Lemonade, and Strawberry. In the colander is Lemon-Lime, and painted Lemon-Lime with Grape. I will post all of the felted toys as I get them finished, but so far I have made the sunset painted colors into balls, and they turned out great. I have started a pottery class (okay, I'm halfway through it) - and I hope to have some results to share soon. We went in tonight (me and Sara, my buddy who is brave enough to do this with me) to practice, and I threw 2 decent looking bowls. We'll see if they survive - my last bowl cracked during the drying phase. My suspicion is that someone put something else on top of it by the way it cracked, but my teacher says it might have gotten water-logged. I guess both guesses are possible :-0 But anyway, we got to see the glazed results of our earlier projects. My glazing turned out okay. I am jazzed to see some other color combinations on my future work. The ones that turn out, that is. Pics coming soon, I promise. SO here are my wunderkinder. They got up this morning and just started working on various art projects or reading (as I slept in, as John went to a swap meet and made me miss my yoga class ;-(. Then they pulled out the "purler beads". They were just being so cute, they were singing together, that I had to get a video. They were well aware that I was taping, however. I call them the O'Haley Family Singers:
Aren't they cute? And I hope to keep updating my other blog, Moon Garden Fibres with my projects. Feel free to check in there as well, although I won't update that site nearly as often. http://insalamandercity.blogspot.com/ AND - finally, for my own amusement, I will pick one photo from each of my folders from the past 6 years (okay, some even earlier if I find any good scanned photos on my computer, I won't scan any new old ones in for now) to show in each post. I can't decide if I should start at the beginning of my folders, at the end, or in the middle. I'm afraid I will lose track if I don't go in some type of order.... So here goes, my first picture folder, September, 2002, Owen's first haircut: