Footprints in the Snow

Lately in the mornings we've been waking up to a light dusting of snow. The other morning before I let the dogs out I saw fresh tracks.

The footprints are likely from little bunnies cutting through our yard en route to our neighbor's bird feeder. I'm not entirely sure why, but I'm extremely charmed to see little animal prints in the yard.

I'll have to plant some carrots over the fence this year and see what they do with them!

Footprints in the snow


Bunny tracks leading to the neighbor's house


For comparison, my tracks alongside the bunny's


How exciting all this was to Thomas!

Okay, so maybe not the most exciting stuff, but I found it to be kind of cool. I hope when Thomas is a little older and can understand he will find such things to be intriguing. Since he is our offspring he is definitely going to love animals - I can guarantee that!

Let the Battle Begin...

We had another awesome round of D&D last night.

Top: Argo, Alfred, Thor, Caz & Skip on the bottom left

It was especially nice because we someone back who used to play with us - he was in town visiting. And then another friend come over to watch.

Our friend "Steve Lewis" who came to watch the action.

Our friend from out of town's character is a cleric dwarf - "Alfred". Skip wrote Alfred's absence into the story - he has been off praying to his Deity. Alfred came back to enlist the assistance of the "Heroes of Greyhawk" to prevent an evil joining with the Deity "Set" from occurring.

Our DM for the evening - looking up a spell cast by Caz to see how it will affect play.

This time it was a true dungeon crawl - my character "Eve" (magicuser) charmed the guards along with some help from her friends "Caz" and "Argo" and gained entry into the warehouse doubling as the Temple of Set.

After a menagerie of tricks and traps we made it to the joining ceremony only to walk into an anti-magic sphere and where we were to become the sacrifices needed to complete the joining.

En route to the joining ceremony - we stopped to examine some fishtanks - Eve used her fishing skills to obtain and preserve some babel fish that help anyone possessing one to comprehend all spoken languages. Argo on the other hand, ate one of the sharks and acquired all it's special abilities!

Argo, our archer ranger, along with his newly acquired ability to fly spread his wings, literally, and flew out of the anti-magic sphere. Caz, our druid, turned into a bat and flew out of the sphere. Alfred lassoed a couple of guards pulling some into the pit/sphere and then later allowed Eve and "Thor" (fighter dwarf) to climb out of the pit.

The archer on the cup is Argo - remember he is flying. The line of characters in the front are the guard looking into the pit. The tall figure to the right of the cup is Eve with short Alfred trying to guard the "helpless" magicuser. The two figures fighting in front of the cup are Thor and one of the guards.

While Eve was still in the pit, her super-powerful magical abilities were muted so she pulled out her six guns and killed the two priests performing the ceremony. Thor continued to hack on guards.

Thor and Caz

Argo focused his fight on Set along with Caz. Caz put up a wall of flame outside the anti-magic sphere and killed several of the guards. He also summoned a fire elemental to help as well.

At one point Set almost turned our neutral druid, Caz, into an evil cleric but in the end was saved. After this climactic turning point, Alfred closed Set's gateway and Set was sucked back into his dimension and the adventure was over.

Once again, the Heroes of Greyhawk save the day. And this time, no one had to die!

Thanks everyone who joined us. It was a very fun adventure and so nice to get to see and visit with all of you!

(P.S. Mul, thanks for letting us borrow your miniatures - it was nice to have a part of you there. We'll be so excited for you to finish school!)

Man of My Dreams...

I just have to brag a little about my fantastic husband. He gets up every morning with our little T-Rex and brings him to me to nurse. When we are done he takes Thomas out to the living room to give his morning asthma breathing treatment after which he feeds him breakfast and changes his clothes. By then it is time to get ready for work so he brings him back to the bedroom and wakes me. This allows me an extra 1 - 2 hours of sleep every morning! Oh, and while I met one of my friends for hot cocoa this evening, he made me homemade brownies while he took care of Thomas.

Yea, he's pretty good!

I think this deserves an entry into the book "Porn for New Moms" - I cannot think of a sexier man!!! (And not just for being such a great dad!)

(Click on the photo if you'd like to see what the book is about)

Darling, thank you for all you do for T-Rex and me!!!
I sure love you!!

Ecofriendly Bags

Last year I paid for my horse's grain by selling purses at the local saddle shop. In fact, I dropped off a dozen "BlackBerry Bags" - named in honor of my horse - just before Thomas was born in November 2007 (this is what happens when your baby is 2 weeks late! I had to do something to keep busy!) The earnings were directly credited to my purchase of grain for all of 2008. By year end, I had $20 to spare!!! That I spent on me!

My goal this year is to make all the gifts I give this year. I've already started by making what I call ecofriendly bags. They are light-weight bags intended to fold up into one's purse to take along to the store or farmers market.

These ones were my weekend project:

This one is my favorite - it is a fairly large bag - about the size of a paper grocery sack. Because I put in a partial lining it took me about 3 hours total.

These photos are of the same bag - the trademark of a BlackBerry Bag is the complete reversibility factor - 2 bags in one! On the second photo you can see the tie I made so once the bag is rolled, it can be tied to stay shut until ready for use! This design is really simple so it actually only took about 2 hours, although, it involves more fabric than the other design.

I'll continue to post more photos of the projects I complete this year. Watch out, one of these might be your birthday or Christmas gift! (Let me know if you see my post something you really like and I will make note!)

More Evidence of Possible Life on Mars...

The evidence continues to roll in for evidence of possible life on Mars.

The latest published reports by NASA mention high amounts of methane could be a possible sign of biological activity.

On Earth, methane usually comes from belching animals and rotting organic matter. (We must have a lot of methane in Idaho - I think in some counties there are more cows than people!)

Unfortunately, this just fuels my obsession with going to Mars even more!

I do hope in my lifetime we see Americans taking small leaps on the Red Planet.

(Photo courtesy of NASA)

4th

So, here is the 4th photo from the 4th folder of our photos. Try it sometime with your photo folders - makes for nice reminiscing.

Thanks, Caitlin, for the idea...

Thomas 1-13-2008 - Age 6 weeks (look how dark his eyes used to be!)
We did not know if he was going to be a boy or a girl, hence the unisex-colored clothes.

Sample Toddler Menu

I've been reading "The Baby Whisperer" - actually the second book where she answers all questions.

I really like her stuff. At the end of her feeding section I found a sample toddler diet. I have to admit - pretty darn funny.

For those of you who currently do have toddlers or ever had a toddler, I am sure you can relate.

Enjoy!!!

SAMPLE TODDLER MENU

DAY ONE

Breakfast: One scrambled egg, one piece of toast with grape jelly. Eat two bites of egg, using your fingers; dump the rest on the floor. Take one bite of toast, then smear the jelly over your face and cloth.

Lunch: Four crayons (any color), a handful of potato chips, and a glass of milk (three sips only, then spill the rest).

Dinner: A dry stick, two pennies and a nickel, four sips of flat Sprite.

Bedtime snack: Throw a piece of toast on the kitchen floor.

DAY TWO

Breakfast: Pick up stale toast from kitchen floor and eat it. Drink half bottle of vanilla extract or one vial of vegetable dye.

Lunch: Half tube of "Pulsating Pink" lipstick and a handful of Purina DogChow (any flavor). One ice cube, if desired.

Afternoon snack: Lick an all-day sucker until sticky, take outside, drop in dirt. Retrieve and continue slurping until it is clean again. Then bring inside and drop on rug.

Dinner: A rock or an uncooked bean, which should be thrust up your left nostril. Pour Grape Kool-Aid over mashed potatoes; eat with spoon.

DAY THREE

Breakfast: Two pancakes with plenty of syrup, eat one with fingers, rub in hair. Glass of milk; drink half, stuff other pancake in glass. After breakfast, pick up yesterday's sucker from rug, lick off fuzz, put it on the cushion of best chair.

Lunch: Three matches, peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Spit several bites onto the floor. Pour glass of milk on table and slurp up.

Dinner: Dish of ice cream, handful of potato chips, some red punch. Try to laugh some punch through your nose, if possible.

FINAL DAY

Breakfast: A quarter tube of toothpaste (any flavor), bit of soap, an olive. Pour a glass of milk over bowl of cornflakes, add half a cup of sugar. Once cereal is soggy, drink milk and feed cereal to dog.

Lunch: Eat bread crumbs off kitchen floor and dining room carpet. Find that sucker and finish eating it.

Dinner: Drop pieces of spaghetti onto back of dog, insert meatball into ear. Dump pudding into Kool-Aid and suck up with a straw.

REPEAT DAYS AS NEEDED!

Birth of Baby Giraffe

This was pretty cool.

I've always said God has a sense of humor because he created giraffes.

Click on the photo to view the video - it's just a couple minutes but worth watching...

I'm just glad I did not have to give birth to anything with hooves! And I'm sure Thomas was happy to not have to drop 6 feet immediately following his birth.

Honestly, I was most impressed with the length of the giraffe mom's tongue. If you watch the video you'll know what I mean.

Our zoo actually just opened an African exhibit and after one of our giraffes died suddenly and unexpectedly, we now have a new one, Julius, to keep the current one, Joseph, company - apparently very important for herd animals.

I'd love to hear what you think...

Bird Photos

As mentioned previously, I received a new camera for my birthday. I am still learning all the nuances that go along with it but so far I am having a really great time.

Thomas was actually the one looking out the window. Sometimes he will just stare and stare - probably watching the birds. Both of his grandmas love to watch birds so I am guessing that's where he gets it from.

As he was looking out, I noticed a dove land on the fence post.

Then it took off - the camera does auto focus so it decided the house should be in focus but I was snapping the photo when the bird too off - still kind of cool, I think.

Then a finch landed on another fence post - they are really tiny. My camera digitally zoomed in to get that shot. Again, I thought that to be pretty amazing.

Winter Garden Aglow

This week we took Thomas to the botanical garden - now what's to see at the botanical garden in January? Well, it turns into a winter wonderland of lights.

The photos don't really do it justice. As you can see, Thomas was in awe the entire time. He just kept pointing and saying, "I see!".

Last year, we met Shelley and walked the garden as a distraction while I was in labor. Thomas was born the next day. We've been every year for the past 8 years so I guess that counts as a family tradition.

We hope you enjoyed the photos! Just one more for good measure...

New Year's Eve Fun with Friends

As has become tradition for us, we host a computer gaming party on New Year's Eve. We usually play some old LAN style first person shooter game.

Last night - Unreal Tournament.

First, a family photo before Thomas retired for the evening:

We always seem to remember to take the family photo right before bed time - note the blanket Thomas is holding as well as the sleepy look.

Then on to the fun:

Most of the group of gamers

This is what we played - Unreal Tournament

"Grendeleater"

More gaming action

"General Electric" taking a break

Anya waiting and hoping a few crumbs will fall - she gets to come out to play once Thomas retires to bed.

"Ned Flanders"

Thank you to all our friends who participated in this annual tradition. As always, we had a great time and value your friendships.

Happy New Year! Wishing you all success and happiness in 2009!