"And I'm feeling good!" ~Muse

Today's post starts with old pictures. These were taken sometime last month and show how I've rearranged the girls' room after removing that huge bunkbed/playhouse that they used to have. We instead bought some bed frames and box springs and gave them two separate twin size beds. I reorganized the big walk-in closet so that all of their clothes are now in it and removed all of the dressers to make more space. The only update to the picture below is that Dean finally installed a computer in their room (with parental controls, of course!) He is currently working on wiping out one of his own computers to install in their room so that each girl has her own machine. I thought for sure they'd fight over the single computer, but they really aren't as bad as I thought they would be! They take turns and have fun watching the other one take her turn. They love their new room and I love how much space they now have! This is Luci's bed.


Here's Drew's bed.

Chinese New Year fell on Valentine's day this year, February 14th. Though Daddy treated the girls and me to a small token, we usually don't do much for V day. But to celebrate the new year, we took the girls to their favorite Chinese restaurant and met up with Dan and Tina, Sonja and Max and Dean's parents. And of course they wore Chinese outfits! My beautiful China Dolls!

Last weekend, Tina's niece, Ana celebrated her birthday. After the party, they all headed to a local sledding hill. Though there wasn't much snow on the ground, it was plenty enough for sledding! I couldn't make it as my chorus was having a coaching session in preparation for our upcoming regional competition in April! So these were the only two pics from that day that Dean could snap before the camera battery died.

Today was a lazy do nothing day...we take them when we can get them! The girls and I were goofing around on the piano when Dean decided to try his hand at it. So I taught him the old stand-by, "Heart and Soul". While he drummed out the chords, I played the melody. I think we impressed the girls (shhh...don't tell them that we really don't know how to play!!)

My brother stopped by today with his dogs, Gigi and Boone. So I set my photo stuff up to try and catch a good shot of Boone. (No easy task with a 3 month old puppy who does NOT sit still!) While waiting for him to calm down, I instead got this cute shot of Monty. He's a great posing dog!

Though the task was next to impossible, I actually DID get a relatively decent shot of Boone! He's so adorable and getting HUGE! My nickname for him is Tank-ass!

Drew wanted a shot of her and Monty...

In other news, the latest with myself is LASIK surgery! I had an initial appointment last week and have scheduled the surgery for April 2 (though I may change it to an earlier date, depending.) This is something I have wanted to do for many years, and I'm finally getting my chance and I cannot wait to throw these glasses right out a window!! I look forward to being able to buy regular old sunglasses again, doing away with the semi-permanent furrows in my temples from the arms of the glasses being to tight, no longer sweating under the nose-pieces, no more scratched lenses, etc! I don't look forward to having to use reading glasses, an unfortunate side effect from this surgery, but readers are way more preferable to constant daily use of regular glasses in my opinion! Oh, and the thought of using my camera without glasses seems divine!

I have a birthday coming up in the next couple of weeks and have asked for an ipod Touch! (Basically and iphone without the phone and camera). I checked out the option of just upgrading my phone to an iphone instead of doing the ipod touch route, but I'd have to settle for an 8GB phone as opposed to the 32GB ipod I'll be getting instead...plus I really like my Blackberry, so it was a rather easy choice. Now, I haven't received definite confirmation on this as of yet, but I'm pretty sure I'll be getting my way! :-) I'm so spoiled sometimes!!

A shout out to Team USA! Though we fell short of the gold medal standings, we kicked some butt in the overal medal count! Great job to our nation's athletes as well as to the world's athletes! An excellent Olympic games this year!

Today's quote:

Change is in the air, people, and I'm hitching a ride! I've officially decided to end my pity party much to the relief of several people, I'm sure. Will I forget all the pain and heartache? Absolutely not! How could I?! But whatever has recently occurred in my brain has made me have a new outlook on life and I couldn't be happier! Change...lots of it, starting now! :-)

One of my all-time favorite bands (Muse) sings a great song called "Feeling Good", a song written back in 1965 by someone else. This is one of my most favorite songs, though I am exceedingly hard pressed to pick just one!

"....It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life....for me. And I'm feeling good!" I'm using this as my new life motto! Hope you have as great a day as I've had today!

Winter Blahs

Sadly, due to the cold, we kind of hibernate when winter comes strolling along, so there isn't much to report on. But, since it has been a while, here are a few little tidbits. Drew's brownie troop recently hosted a local dog breeder/trainer of Golden Retriever therapy dogs. Here she is showing two of her therapy dogs, a mother/daughter duo in Alexis and Moya.


The dogs were a big hit with the girls. They all clamored to pet the dogs as if they all neither owned a dog nor have ever petted one! The dogs, however, were glad of this and were happy to receive the attention!

Last month, a very good friend of mine...and also my first cousin, Heather and her family moved to South Carolina! Lucky ducks to be leaving this god-awful place, I say!!! The day before they left, we headed over to their empty house to hang out a little and say good-bye. Heather's oldest and only boy, Nick plays with one of his cousins. I recall when Heather brought him home from the hospital...his teeny little diapered bum was so small that it fit entirely in the palm of my hand! But his feet were very large for such a small baby! As a toddler, he was SOOO mischeivous!! I lived with Heather and her kids for a short time and have so many memories of him at that age! He was definitely a stinker!! Now, he is 17 and a super-smart kid taking AP college courses in 11th grade. He's mild mannered and very polite!

Dean, a veritable kid-magnet, holds a drowsy Grace, Heather's 3rd child. I remember being invited to watch while she was being born!! It was the first time I had ever watched a baby being born and it was, as anyone can imagine, amazing! Drew will miss her much as she was in Drew's multi-age classroom.

Liz (or as I like to call her, Lizzie, which she hates!) a now 16 year old beautiful girl! She has always been a beauty young and old! My favorite memory of her is when she was just around a year old or so. I came home from work and walked in the house to find that Nick had climbed a chair onto the countertop to reach a can of powdered hot chocloate mix. He then climbed back down and had dumped the entire contents on top of Lizzie's head as she toddled around in her walker! (Their father was asleep on the couch and that's all I have to say about that!!) She had licked some of it on her face and by the time I arrived home, she had dark brown streaks all over her face and a perfectly cone shaped mountain of hot chocolate mix on top of her little blonde head!

Little Hannah, her youngest...and most precocious! This little cutie-patootie has a vocabulary like you wouldn't believe!! She's a non-stop talker and my dad LOVES having conversations with her! Just the cutest little thing!! We'll miss them all so much...BUT, now we have one more reason to go visiting down south!! And believe me, come hell or high water, we'll be going!

Due to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, there has been overwhelming response to donate all over the country! Our town was no exception! Our local Catholic Charities started a penny drive and left collection bottles all over town. We stopped at our local newspaper office to donate a huge bank bag full! Thanks to Meema and Uncle's contributions, it had to be 30 pounds at least!

It was a great opportunity to teach the girls about the world around them, disaster relief, and community responsibility! They were exceedingly happy to donate and we are all exceedingly proud of them as well!

If there's one thing you CAN do in these horrendously low temps, it's ice fishing! Papa drags the girls behind the 4-wheeler out to his ice shack!

Even low temps can't put a cramp in a pleasant fishing trip when the heater keeps you toasty!

Drew checks on a tip-up.

And when the fish aren't biting, conversation with Papa keeps them from getting bored!

Luci doesn't last so long when the fish aren't biting, but she manages to find her own fun anyway!

Today's quote:

It is hard to remain angry at someone when you can only feel sorry for them. After all, not everyone can function well in society and always know what's right and wrong. Ignorance comes in many forms. Just be sure to steer clear of them lest you fall victim to their ignorance. And if you do fall victim, learn from your mistake to never allow it again!