Birds, buddies and BRRRRR!

I have been sooo busy lately, this poor blog has suffered! Unfortunately, I don't have that many pictures, but I can at least fill you in on our life this past month! A few weeks ago, Dean yelled down the stairs for me to grab my camera and come upstairs quickly. I figured the girls were doing something cute, so I rushed upstairs to find Dean looking out one of our bedroom windows. When I peeked out, this is what I saw. A large hawk had found itself a snack (a pheasant.) It had ripped most of the feathers off and as you can see in the picture, made a big mess of our side yard. I should have run down to the basement as the hawk was literally just 2 feet from our basement window, but alas, it saw us peeking and got spooked.

So, the reason we've been so busy as of late...we are back to working double time on our house. We now have the back middle bedroom mudded and sanded and it's waiting for me to drag myself kicking and screaming to prime and paint it. I despise painting! BUT, I decided I didn't care for the color scheme in our bedroom, so I repainted it a nice taupe color. I am currently sewing some gorgeous curtains for it! They are really pretty! Anyway, the color scheme in our room is now blues and browns...so cozy! We also installed doors on our bedroom, bathroom and closet and all the door trim and baseboard molding. The only thing left in there is to paint the trim and doors, install and paint window trim and buy a light fixture. I moved our bed to the center of the room and it's starting to look really nice in there now! :-) We added doors and trim to the other 2 back bedrooms, as well. Our dryer died recently, so we bought a new one. It'sone of those fancy front loading models that you usually put on a pedestal. Dean promised I could get the matching washer when our current one dies (which should be relatively soon considering the noise it's making!) We got it for a steal, too! Sears had ONE gas model in stock, and as they aren't supposed to stock gas models, he quoted us a great sale price! Five minutes after they hung up, Sear's called him back and told him that he quoted him on the wrong model. It turned out in our favor, though, as we ended up getting the upgraded model for the same price! We've made a few changes in the girls' room, too. We got rid of that behemoth playhouse/bunkbed that took up so much room and replaced it with two twin beds. It gave them SO much more space in their room, that we could fit another couple of kids in there! Speaking of which...I have been alluding to more kids for quite a while. Dean and I have completed the classes required to become foster/adoptive parents for kids in our county! That's why we've been hard at work on the house! As soon as we're finished, we can have it inspected and after a few more forms, we can officially open! We're very excited about this! Originally, we had every intention of fostering only kids who might become available for adoption. But as we met and spoke with more and more foster families in our area, our hearts changed. We are giving foster care a try...and though we hold no expectations of continuing indefinitely, we are certainly ready to give it our best efforts! It's a rather scary prospect for us as it differs from international adoption by leaps and bounds, but with our eyes wide open, we've taken the first step! Wish us luck on this new adventure! It may be a while before we open, but I'll keep you posted on our progress!

My brother, Thadd, has found a new companion...and his name is Boone! In this picture he was just 6 weeks old. He is the cutest little thing!

This shot is a bit blurry, but I included it to show how small he is compared to my brother's hand.

Sacked out from playing!

These shots show some hoar frost! It looks like we got dumped on with snow, but we didn't. It's very pretty!

Today's quote:

You are who you associate with. (That's why I no longer associate with backstabbing, two-faced, low-life_____________! I'm trying to keep this clean, but I'll let you have free roam with your imaginations!)

Hope for a better year ahead!

Well, FINALLY 2010 has arrived and I don't mind telling you...I am sincerely hoping that 2010 is WAY better than 2009 was! Eeeks! When I think back on all the BS I went through in 09...well, really, there is nowhere to go but up! The girls informed me that they were going to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve...and wouldn't you know it, they actually did! Although, you can readily tell from the picture below that they were WELL past the point of actually functioning normally! But they made some noise old school style with some pots and wooden spoons at the stroke of midnight! And then were promptly put to bed within 15 minutes of this picture being taken!


We took a trip to Canada to visit Dean's grandmother where she resides in a nursing home. She is 92 years young, and though her memory is failing, she enjoyed her visit very much. Especially since Luci was quite the entertainer for a large number of residents! As we were putting our coats on in preparation to leave, she turned around with a bright smile and said, "Bye everybody!" in her loudest voice. There were lots of giggles and smiles all around!

We never did get those ballet shoes hung on their wall yet, and the girls took advantage of that while watching a new ballet movie they got for Xmas. So I stuffed the toes with poly stuffing and secured their feet as best I could and away they tiptoed with the greatest of ease! Luci insisted on wearing a ballet dress!

January 1st was a beautiful mild day loaded with nice packy snowman snow...so we got dressed and got busy out in the front yard making this snow family. From left, Daddy, Mommy, Drew, Luci, Papa, and three dogs which we neglected to designate names. Note how much Papa Snowman is leaning...that'll come into play in a few more pictures...

Dean dug out the sled and had some more fun!

Remeber the leaning Papa? Well, he didn't last so long!

The girls love getting dragged by the four wheeler, but the snow in the face of the first rider is always a bit much!

Good thing they have face masks! Luci makes a face!

Drew!

Last Saturday, the girls and Daddy donned their ice skates for the first time in about 2 years to go skating with the area Girl Scouts.

Just like riding a bike, Drew gets back to doing some of her old tricks from when she took lessons.

Luci had only about 1.5 hours worth of ice time 2 years ago, so she wasn't as steady as Drew on the ice. But she managed for a while before finally grabbing a free "helper".

Even after a fall, she's still good-natured! Though she has her moments occassionally, she always comes back happy, which is a huge relief! If she were a major whiner I think I'd pull my hair out!

Luci grabs a "helper" and finds out that even using this she can do a trick or two!

Drew and Dean chase one another on the ice!

Today's quote:

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph! ~Thomas Paine

I am triumphant and victory is sweet! (also rather amusing! Ha ha!!) :-)