Peas In A Pod

Really Kinda Random--Mother's Day Edition

Welcome to Really Random Thursday! Shall we just get right down to it?

Well, alrighty then!

The other day on facebook, someone posted a link to this video, in which men are strapped up to a machine that simulates birthing contractions women feel.  It's pretty funny.  As you might suspect, the men are practically crying when it's over! 

Speaking of giving birth....  Remember that bird's nest inside my brother and SIL's wreath on the front door?  One birdie hatched....

And then there were more.  They won't win any beauty contests, will they?  But they are kinda cute.

Speaking of birds.....I love goldfinches.  When I was at my BIL's house over Mother's Day, I saw these finches on his feeder.  They were everywhere.  I sure wished I had brought my telefoto lens with me!

Speaking of Mother's Day.  Remember when I said my Mother's Day was "interesting?"  Well, I wanted to stay home and go to Scrappy Bee with Caroll.  But Papa Pea wanted to go to Wisconsin to cut wood with his brothers.  We had already agreed that he would go that weekend when we realized it was Mother's Day.  Oops.  So, I went with him.  His brother and girlfriend live on about 120 acres of farm and woodland.  A few months ago, Papa Pea and his brothers had cut down some hardwood trees for making stuff....walnut, hickory, oak, and cherry.

It was time to cut it up into boards for building purposes.  They hired a guy to come out there with a Wood Miser and slice up the logs.  When I arrived to take some photos, they had accomplished this.

Although a different wood pile, it all started like this.

The Wood Miser was amazing.  The guys would put a log on the arms of the thing.  The arms would go up and roll the log onto the bed.

The guy would then saw off layers of the log until he got down to the hardwood.

Flip it over and repeat.  Do this on all four sides.

Then, it would be a big square.  And he would cut planks off it.  It smelled good.

Here is a particularly large log.

Here is one of the first planks off that large piece.  (This is one of my BILs.)  This is some of the walnut.

Sometimes, they'd have to adjust the position of the log on the bed.  The logs were very heavy, as you might buess.  These are two of my BILs.  The guys were really tired at the end of each day.  The lifted a lot of wood and boards.  Papa Pea estimates he lifted over 5,000 lbs.  We have a lot of really nice wood now.

The boys were all in heaven playing with their power tools.  Here, Papa Pea helps drag one of the logs down into position so they can roll it down this little hill and onto the cradle arms of the Wood Miser.

Sweet Pea sat and watched from the four wheeler a safe distance away.  She had fun baby sitting Wolfie, my BIL's dog.

Sometimes she even got to go for a ride.  Did I mention it was really cold last weekend?  Really cold.

Speaking of going for rides, Sweet Pea begged her uncle to have a ride on one of the horses.  He was kind enough to abide, even though I know he was bone tired.  This is Gracie, one of his good horses.

All saddled up.  This is one really happy little girl!

I thought this was a precious sight.  BIL, leading Sweet Pea down the road, with Wolfie and Tori following behind.  When Sweet Pea came back, she said, "Mom!  I'm back from my magnificent horse ride!"  It was a thrill for her.  She loves visiting her uncle, because she loves his dogs, she loves his horses (and she loves him and his girlfriend)....It's kind of like a menagerie at his house.

He's got goats and long horned steers, too.  They all need to be fed.  Sweet Pea loves helping.  She was up at 5:30 am when we were there, wondering when BIL would be up so she could help him with chores.  :-)

As far as a Mother's Day gift, Sweet Pea and Papa Pea went very traditional and got me a new helmet for my scooter.  And I love it!  Makes my scooter riding much more pleasurable for me.  (My other helmet catches the wind too much, and is always pulling my head everywhere. This is much more comfortable for me!)

That's a rundown of the weekend, to some extent.  On Saturday, when the boys were cutting wood, Sweet Pea and I drove up to see SisLH.  She gave me a crochet lesson, which I'll tell you about tomorrow.  Then, we took MIL and FIL out for dinner, and drove back to BIL's house.  On Sunday, the boys cut more wood, we observed, Sweet Pea went for a horse ride, and then we came home.

All in all, it was not a bad Mother's Day.  Probably not a very typical one, but it was peaceful, enjoyable, and spent with family.

Linking up with Cindy, at Live a Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday.  Hope you enjoyed.  Check out her blog for more lovely randomness.

Until next time,

 

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It's Really Random Thursday!  Yippee!  :-)

Let's hit it.....

I didn't feel like lugging my machine to my Friday Night Sew In last week.  I took handwork, instead.  Man, was that a relaxing way to go!  I'm going to have to consider that carefully for future sew ins!

Last weekend was so.  incredibly.  busy.  Sweet Pea had three birthday parties to attend, one of which was a sleep over.  Then, Saturday night, she had a friend overnight.  They wanted to sleep in the tent outside.  Papa Pea set up the tent, and they immediately got inside (see that child's arm sticking out of the door?) and played for HOURS.  Loved it.  Belle kept watch.  She slept outside with the girls to keep them safe.

On Sunday, we took Sweet Pea and her friend to Wicked.  We were all really excited about it.  I think I've said it before...One of the really great perks of working for a university is that you get faculty discounts on play tickets.  :-)  We try to take advantage when we can.

The stage was incredible.  I enjoyed this play so much.  The scenery, costumes, story, acting, music....everything.  It was great.

There were some really funny lines in the show.  I liked how the folks in Oz treated the wizard almost like a god.  They would call him, "Your Great Ozness."  And one time, I think someone said, "Oh, my Oz!"  I really cracked up at that.  I know some bloggers don't like OMG or "Oh, my God."  It is like taking the Lord's name in vain.  "Oh, my gosh" has never really gotten it for me.  But I'm kinda liking "Oh, my Oz!"  So, that's my new thing.  If you see me say, "OMO!" you'll know what I mean, now!  haha.

The tulips were in full bloom outside the auditorium.  Very beautiful!  Michigan has a really big Dutch community.  I think it's "Tulip Time" right now.  I really should get to one of those festivals one of these days!

The weather has been beautiful.  Our tree out front still has the blossoms on it.  It's starting to leaf out now.  The blossoms have gone from white to pink.  (Well, at least this is how it looked yesterday morning.  It rained a bit in the evening last night.  When I took Sweet Pea out to the bus this morning, I noticed we now have a pink driveway.  Even Sweet Pea noticed.  She was mad that the most of the flowers were done in by the rain.)

I love this tree.  We really need to figure out what kind it is, because we want to plant more of them.  It's a great shape, and we love the flowers.  We put our little café set outside under it.  It's such a nice, shady spot to sit in the summer.

And now, our apple trees are starting to bloom.  (Can you tell which way the wind blows by the way the tree trunks lean?  LOL)

Some flowers are open, while others are still buds.  So beautiful.  It's such a treat, because last year there were no blooms (and no apples either!).  We had that really warm week in March--like 80 degrees--and then everything froze.  Totally ruined it for the fruit trees here.

The trees are all buzzing with bees.  When you are standing out there, all you can hear is buzzing.  They are everywhere.  And this is a really small bee.  Most of them are huge and fuzzy.

I needed some new summer sandals, so I went to DSW the other day.  OMO.  I love DSW.  So does Sweet Pea.   She was definitely having a blast in that store.

When she was about 18 months old, she went into a shoe store for the first time.  I almost died.  She RAN into the store, sat down on the floor, ripped her shoes off, started grabbing shoes out of boxes (and I mean adult women's shoes), and was trying them on.  Seriously, she had NO previous experience in a shoe store.  But she knew exactly what to do.  I swear, it is genetic.

Last week on Thursday, we had a UPS attempted delivery.  I wasn't home to receive it.  I got this notice saying someone had to be home to sign for it, and that someone had to be at least 21 years old.  I tried going online to schedule delivery at a better time, but it didn't really work.

I left the following note for our UPS driver, "I will be home from 2:00-5:00 pm if you can deliver then.  Is there some way I can sign for it so you can leave it?"

When I got home, I saw he had been here (shoot!).  He left me a note, saying no he couldn't leave the package. I had to be here to sign for it.  He'd be back on Monday, or he could leave it at the UPS station for me (wherever that is!).  Bummer.

But then, about 5:15 pm, the UPS truck comes down our driveway.  I said, "You came back!"  He said, "Yeah, I had to drive right near here to head back to the shop at the end of my shift.  I usually take the other road, but it was just as easy to come down this road instead.  Since your note said you'd be home, I thought I'd come by and try again."

How's that for nice???!!!!  Seriously restored my faith in humanity.

My brother and his wife had sent me a bottle of champagne as a congratulations for my new position at work.  How sweet!  Loved it!  Drank it already!  Thanks, Bud!

I had my Art Quilt Group meeting on Wednesday night.  One member brought this old family photo of hers.  She said there are no names on them, and she doesn't want them.  Would anyone else like them?  We all looked at her in disbelief!  We tried to convince her to keep them.  But she would not be convinced.  I said if she was going to chuck this one, I would take it for my cowboy bedroom.

Won't it look great in there with my vintage Zane Grey books and our other cowboy paraphernalia?  I love it!  Now, Donna, if I could just get you to come to my house and artfully arrange everything for me.  You are so much better at it than I!

Today, I'm driving to Charlotte, MI for my rug hooking class at The Hen House.  (I blogged a review of this shop here.)  I get to meet blogger friend, Sue, in real life for the first time.  She is taking the class with me!  How fun!

Well, that's it for me today.  Hop on over to Cindy's space at Live a Colorful Life for more awesome randomness.

Until next time,

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Really Kinda Random--Spring Has Sprung Edition

Well, spring has FINALLY sprung here!  At least until the snow that's in Colorado and sleet that's in Iowa hits here!  Here's how I know it's spring:

We were able to get our bikes out this weekend and go for a nice ride on one of our local trails...one of my favorites.

Our tree burst into flower yesterday.  Seriously.  This happened over about 2 days.  There were no buds.  Then there were.  Then, they burst open.  I love it when this happens.  Let's hope for no hard rain or winds for a few days so it lasts a little while.

It was warm enough to sit out on our deck and have a beer last night.  Soooooo what I needed!  I also got some awesome new porch furniture (we needed it so badly) at Target.  Remember that conference I spoke at last week (and I stopped at the Hen House on the way home)?  Well, as a thank you for speaking, the group putting the conference on gave me a $50 gift certificate to Target.  How nice!  I bought two turquoise chairs for the deck.  Awesome.  (But then, Sweet Pea wanted the little pink one, so I got her that, too.)

Papa Pea was at a conference for the past couple of days in a really swanky hotel.  In that hotel, he saw this book, and he got it for Sweet Pea.  It's really cool.  It has a fabric cover, beautiful drawings, two satin ribbon bookmarks...

Sweet Pea just LOVES the TV show Grimm.  (I know.  Kinda weird for someone her age.)  She dove right into Grimm's Fairy Tales.  She sat and read to me, as I sat and drank my beer.  Nice!

Sweet Pea has been wanting to do a fairy garden.  Over the winter, Michael's had a super sale on some fairy garden supplies.  I got a few fairy garden supplies for Sweet Pea, and she set up her garden.  Here is her little arrangement.  (She's also using some of my old garden ornaments with it.)  My little plant, there, barely made it back this spring.  We'll see how it does....

Sweet Pea asked if she could go out each day and move the fairies around, so people would think they're real and moving around on their own.  So cute.

She worked hard at getting everything just so.....

We got our motorcycles out last weekend, too, and we went for a ride.  Papa Pea has befriended some Amish folks.  We rode out to their farm to say hello.  Lee showed Papa Pea a buggy he's trying to sell.  I know Papa Pea wanted it and wished we still had our horses.  Papa Pea told Lee, "We call this an Amish buggy.  What do you call it?"  Lee said, "A buggy."  Snort.

They have a very beautiful peacock and a couple of peahens.  This was part of the purpose of our visit....Lee had promised some peacock eggs to Sweet Pea.  We went out to see if they were laying yet.  Nope.  Not yet.  I'll keep you posted on those.  We might have some peacocks at our house in the near future.  Can you believe it?  I can't.

Since I've had a little down time, I've been out "bumming" a little.  I was at Pier One the other day and saw this pillow.  Isn't it pretty?  It was hard for me to resist it.  But I did.  I did take photos for inspiration, however.

I also saw this and thought, "How cute!  Wouldn't that be a fun thing to store fabric in?"  And I loved the color.  But $279 was wayyyy too steep for this, if you ask me.  I could just hear Papa Pea...."You paid HOW MUCH for that little shelving unit?  I could have built it out of good wood for you for $30!"  So, I took the photo...Now I can just say, "Can you build me one of these, please?"  :-)

I hadn't cut into these last Thursday yet, so I didn't know how they turned out.  I took them to the party Thursday night and they were DELICIOUS!  They were a hit and were gobbled up quickly.  I posted the recipe link here if you are interested.

And, lest you think I drink too much, we also went out for dinner and a little celebration.  I am moving into a leadership position at work.  So, starting July 1, I will be working on a 12-month contract instead of an academic one.  This may mean less time for sewing and blogging.  Hopefully I'll be able to maintain a sense of balance.

As a follow up about my appointment at the eye doctor yesterday....indeed, my vision has gotten worse.  I told the doctor I really did not want glasses, but the whole reading glasses thing isn't working so well for me anymore.  Because my distance vision is great, my doctor proposed I put in one contact with correction for close up work.  My mom had suggested this to me.  I thought it was a little crazy and wasn't sure I could adapt to that.  But it seems to be working out pretty well for me so far.  I'm in a 2-week trial phase.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm quite pleased with the results so far, however!  I am typing this without glasses, and I can actually see what I'm doing!

I'm linking up with Cindy, over at Live a Colorful Life, for Really Random Thursday.  Won't you swing by her blog for some lovely randomness today?

Until next time,

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I am linking up with Cindy of Live a Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday.  Be sure to hop on over to Cindy's blog when you're done here for some more lovely randomness.

Check out this video--sorry I couldn't embed it--This dad draws cool illustrations on his kids' sandwich bags each day.  I love it.

http://blog.flickr.net/en/2013/04/19/dad-illustrates-kids-sandwich-bags-with-imaginative-drawings/

I hope I can give Sweet Pea some sort of cool memories like this.

 

(Photo from shugarysweets.com)

One of my graduate students brought these Fluffernutter Krispie Treats to one of our end-of-the-year meetings.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  They are really good.  She gave me the recipe.  You can access it here:  http://www.shugarysweets.com/2013/04/fluffernutter-rice-krispie-treats

You're going to want to try them.  Trust me.  And there's only a few calories in them.  Ha!

Here are mine.  They aren't cut yet.  They are still setting up.  :-)

Hey, have you heard of a website called CraftFail?  My graduate students showed me that, too.  It's a site where people can post their photos of craft projects they found on Pinterest, etc., tried, and failed.  They show the "what-it's-supposed-to-look-like" photo and the "how-mine-turned-out" photo.  It's hilarious.  I hope my bars aren't a fail.  I don't think so.  They seemed to turn out okay!  I'm taking them to a party today.  I hope they taste as good as the ones my student made!

In hopes of raising lots of money for our school district, Sweet Pea's PTA had a spring carnival last weekend.  Good thing they always plan it for indoors, because it was freezing.  There was face painting....

Well done, PTA Mom!

I am still hoping Rosa, our kitty, turns up soon, but it's not looking good.  It's been almost 3 weeks now.

There was the Jail.

Here are the rules of the Jail.  You can click to enlarge the photo.  If your school has a spring carnival, you might want to consider having one of these.  It is easily the most popular activity every year!  I think all the kids hoped someone would care enough about them to throw them in jail.

This Sumo wrestling activity was probably the second most popular at the carnival.  The wait was almost an hour long, in hopes of getting to participate!  This was the first year they had this activity.  Sorry this photo isn't the greatest, but I didn't want to get Sweet Pea's friend Breanna's face in the photo.  The kids put on these suits, and the adults blow up the suits with a hair dryer looking thing....and POOF!  They are off, wrestling against each other.  They feel like big hot air balloons, says Sweet Pea.  You do it until you knock someone else over.  Sweet Pea's friend knocked over Sweet Pea two times, but Sweet Pea finally got a little too anxious and mad and ran into Breanna and pulled her down......and POOF!  Breanna was off the mat and out!  {Dictated by Sweet Pea.}

 

Did you know this week is Administrative Assistant Appreciation week?  Yesterday was the official day.  I almost always am unaware of this week until I see some flowers on our secretaries' desks.  Then, I feel like a schmuck for not having something for them.  This year I got lucky.  I went to the bagel shop for lunch one day, and I saw a sign in the Cookies by Design window, reminding people about Administrative Assistant Appreciation week.  I ordered each of my secretaries one of these cookie bouquets.  I had hoped to make them something, but that was not happening in the last couple weeks of school.

I think they turned out very pretty.  I think my secretaries liked them and were grateful to be recognized.  I sure appreciate everything they do for me.  They save my life multiple times per week!  I hope they know how much I appreciate them.

Sweet Pea and Papa Pea went to the Father Daughter Dance a couple weeks ago.  They "double dated" with one of Sweet Pea's friends and her dad.  They had fun.  The theme was  '80's.  Sweet Pea and I had fun looking on the Internet at 1980's styles.  She put this outfit together out of her closet, based on the photos we looked at.  Pretty good, huh?!  We didn't have to buy a single thing!

Oh, and Papa Pea....well, he pulled out some clothes he still had laying around from the 1980's....his treasured satin jacket, a Gilley's t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes.  I think he looked great!  And it all still fit! (The t-shirt was a little tight.  But Sweet Pea said she thought it made her dad look "tough."  LOL!)

I hope the 1980's hairstyles never return...or the clothing, for that matter.  But the fact that Sweet Pea had everything she needed in her closet kind of scared me.

My brother sent me this photo.  He has a wreath on his front door.  The birds are loving it.  They built a nest in the wreath and have laid some eggs.  Beautiful, huh?  Remember, he lives in Boston.  Nice for them to have a little extra beauty and hope for new life in the world right now.

These are pretty spring colors, aren't they?  Hmmm....I wonder what this will become?  Can't tell you yet.  Soon!  I hope it turns out as it should, and I hope the recipient likes it.

We woke up to this the other day.  We are supposed to get more today.  I'm at least grateful I don't live in Minnesota, where I keep seeing bloggy friends with TONS of snow.

Spring is going to come, isn't it?  Please?  I hope with all my heart the weather predictions for next week--sunny and 70 degrees--are accurate!

Happy Random Thursday!  Here's hoping you have a wonderful day.

Until next time,

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I'm linking of with Cindy of Live a Colorful Life and Really Random Thursday.  Check out Cindy's blog today for more wonderful randomness.

We've had some great finds lately:

We get a lot of snakes on our property this time of year.  Last year was so dry we never saw many.

A great, snakey find:

The sun came out for a little bit on Sunday.  Sweet Pea went out to play.  She came running inside and told me to come out and see what she caught.  She caught these two garter snakes in our back yard.  Papa Pea helped a little.  He used a rake and held the snakes down.  Then, he picked up the snakes and put them in Sweet Pea's snake catcher cage.

Spidey is a curious cat.  So, he came and looked at the snake and when Sweet Pea didn't want him making a hole in the screen, she put the snakes up on a table.  Spidey jumped up on a chair next to the table and then onto the table.  Spidey took out his claws and clawed at the glass on the front of the cage.  Sweet Pea had to pick Spidey up.  P.S.  Spidey is sort of a fat cat, his rear end is heavier than his front.  Sweet Pea put Spidey back down.  Then he hopped back up on the chair and table again, so Sweet Pea put the snakes back on the ground.

Finally, Spidey did not want to claw at the cage any more, so Sweet Pea and Mama Pea gave him a pet.  Mama Pea wanted to take some photos.  When Sweet Pea was done playing with the snakes (and so was Spidey), she let them out in the grassy grassy woods up near the road.

{All of the above was dictated to me by Sweet Pea.  She wanted to tell you all about it.}

A great wooly find:

A while back, I said to Papa Pea, "I feel like I haven't seen your mother in forever.  Let's go visit her."  So, we took a weekend and traveled to Wisconsin.  While we were there, I visited with SisLH, and we did a little shopping day.  (I really enjoyed my day with SisLH.  We had a lot of fun together.  It's fun to have a wonderful SIL.)  We went to the Knitty Gritty Shop.  (I blogged a review of the shop here.  I love going there!)  I found this pattern and really wanted to make it.

I found the yarn that was called for in the pattern, but there weren't enough skeins of it.  So, I picked something else.  This is yarn that was made from wool from the shop owner's own sheep.  She has it professionally spun.  I thought it would be fun to use that!

It's pretty neat that she names the wool after the sheep it came from.  The wool above was called "Brownie."  I got to meet Brownie outside as we went back to the car.  (Knitty Gritty Shop is located on their farm.)  Brownie is the darkest sheep toward the back of the pack in this photo.  She is the only one with a pink tag on her ear.  Cindy, the shop's owner, said that Brownie is the worst mother, but she has great wool (the color is fantastic).  That's the only reason they keep her, I think!

I still haven't started the shawl.  Surprise!

A great greenish blue find:

Next, we went to an Amish quilt shop.  I didn't take any photos of it.  I was afraid it would be disrespectful.  It was also located on the family farm.  Half of the shop was quilt supplies and supplies for making dresses and hats.  The other side of the shop was a tack and harness shop.  The whole place smelled like leather.  I found these wonderful antique jars.  The are twice the size of regular quart jars.  Wish I had a quart jar sitting next to them so you could get a sense of size.

They were such a great price, I could not pass them up.

So many great finds:

We also went to Nancy's Notions in Beaver Dam.  I don't think I've ever shown you photos of the inside when it's not the big sewing weekend.  Here is the store to the left when you first walk in.

Here is the store straight ahead.  There are two more rooms other than these rooms as well.  It is really a fun place to shop.  I can poke around in here for hours.  It's fun to see the catalog samples in real life.  I can walk through once, then a second time and see all new stuff, there is so much.  You just can't focus enough in one pass through!

As I was up at the counter paying for this book (which was on sale for a great price),

I saw this black pin fabric on the shelf.  (Mind you, I hadn't seen it in my first two trips through the store at all!)  My friend, Jackie, had been using some of this at retreat, and I loved it.  I had never seen it anywhere before.  So, I grabbed it up.  Then, I couldn't resist this measuring tape fabric that was right next to it. I  had to get out of that store before I found more!

A doggie find:

As I was digging through my photos looking for random stuff today (I have been so busy this week, I haven't had time to collect good randomness....but I'm so far behind on my blogging, I had a stash of photos), I found this one from our Christmas trip to Florida.  I love this drinking fountain for doggies that I saw at one of the outdoor shopping areas.  Another great find.

How about you?  Got any great finds lately?

Tonight is my last night of class for the semester.  Yay!  (Yes, it's very early...we started very early in January.)  Next week is finals week and graduation.

For the record:  It's still cold.  And it has rained all week.  We had thunderstorms almost all through the night last night.

Happy Thursday.

Until next time,