The Price of Weekly Transportation.

Baby Pic

Isn't she adorable? So is my younger brother who I adore! (I actually adore all my siblings, just so ya know) Doesn't it look like she's smiling? I'm totally homesick right now. I haven't been able to be around any of my siblings children much and having grown up in a tight night family I really regret that. At least pictures are easy to zip across the continent these days!

It's a Girl

Well, Spiderman's little girl was born at 1:52 am today. She weighed in at 7lbs 1oz. Mom and baby are doing great! In keeping with my philosophy of not posting real names I won't post it here but some of my readers should be able to figure it out from this clue:
First Name: Same as Uncle Ds Middle Child
Middle Name: The Town Grandma and Grandpa lived in for the majority of my life.
I really like the name. Spiderman and Daisy have already nicknamed her throughout the pregnancy as Lollipop so I will use that for her as well. I hope to have a picture of her sometime today. The rest of my family is not as tech-y as I am. Lil' Sis isn't too bad though. She does post photos at least. Mom has not updated her blog since the first day of school!
In other news, the snow has kept falling but has slackened. Sometime today I'll go out and take another measurement. Even for Alaska this is an unusually late and excessive snow fall.

Flurries

Today has been an exciting day. I started off to work as normal but then it started to snow. "No biggie" I thought, "it'll pass soon." But lo and behold and hour later is was really snowing. Then Spiderman (my brother) texted me to say he was on the way to hospital to have his baby. Yeah! I'm excited. (As I write this the baby has not yet arrived but mom has an epidural and is able to rest.) Well, the snow never stopped all day long and is STILL snowing now. This is the biggest single snowfall for us of the season. Check out these pictures!

Lack of Thoughts

Well, I had something I wanted to blog about but it has flown from my head. Things at work have been very hectic lately and I just haven't really had time to decompress. As you know, I've been at the gym everynight and that added to the normal stuff that has to get done around the house has left me with very little time to contemplate life. I am happy to be back at the gym. I really did forget how good it feels to be active. I enjoy the gym once I get there but that's the point. I have a hard time getting myself there.
Well, my reflection time is up- time to pick up Tater from a Church activity and take Strummer to his guitar lesson.
I'm tired but I'm not wishing this part of my life to be over. They grow up and leave all too soon and they I'll have plenty of time on my hands.
By the way- Ranger leaves in less than a month for Boot Camp. Sigh. See what I mean- doesn't it seem he was just a cute little boy hanging from my hip?
Never wish the time away, it goes fast enough on it's own.

About 9 pm Friday

A beautiful almost sunset!

Signs of Spring

Despite the late season snow fall, we do have signs of spring
emerging. Here are some willow buds I spied on the way out of the gym.

A Little Bit of Nothing

So, as you may have noticed, nothing is going on. I have been going to the gym and I feel like I've got no chill time. I DO feel better though. It's good to take control of yourself. I'm back on Atkins after a brief and unsucessful attempt at Glycemic Impact. I just have to go with what works for me. Today I used a new excerbike. It was AWESOME! It has moving handles and a video screen that simulates a variety of rides. It has a pacer too. You can create an account and ride with (or against) your own ghost. For a competitive person like me this can be really motivating. I LOVED it! I told Sgt. Dad that a pair of those at home would be awesome- as competitive as the two of us are we could really get ourselves into shape (or possibly kill ourselves trying to one up the other).
Ranger recently won an endurance competition with a friend. The challenge was to be the last person to go to sleep. I'm not sure how long he lasted but he was up a really log time!
Tater has also started going to the gym. He goes with his friends after work. It's kind of late for him but I've been letting him go. As long as he gets up for school and keeps up with homework I feel it can't hurt.
Strummer has been campaigning for a "skip day". I guess I should be grateful that he's asking for permission and not scheming for ways to get away with skipping school. Of course, Sgt Dad comes home everyday for lunch so it would be really hard for him to get away with skipping.
I made yet another ill-fated attempt at cutting Lexi's hair. I have her ears trimmed unevenly along with most of the rest of her body. I don't know how a licensed hairdresser can't manage to trim a dog properly!
At least I can see her eyes again.
Now, I'm off to bed- it's past my bedtime and the sky is just about dark!

Beautiful in the snowstorm

Yesterday's temp at 8 am

Morning sidetrack- coffee!

April Showers Alaska Style

Winter Stopped for a Quick Visit

Now My Posse's Getting Laughed At

Busy Busy Busy

So, I've made a new friend at work and she's going to be my new work out partner. That is if Sgt Dad and I decide we can fit a gym membership into our budget. See, I can use the post facilities for no fee but I haven't been going. But my friend has a membership at a local club which is conveniently located near my job and she would go with me every day. So, do I refuse to pay for something I can get for free but don't use or suck it up, pay the fee and actually get back in shape??? I think I'll go for the lean wallet and lean Kakoii! Let's just hope Sgt Dad feels that same.

Fire and Brimstone Anyone?

What is this world coming to?

http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200804/tows_past_20080403.jhtml

I wish this was an April Fool prank.

Another Thought!

I just had another thought! I've meant to post this for awhile but keep forgetting! Have you noticed my annoying bad habit of using exclamation points? I use them for nearly every sentence! I sorta takes away from the effect, doesn't it? I think I need to work on my word choices to express delight and excitement and save the exclamations points. I wouldn't want to cause a shortage! It's like the LOL and ;-) and :-) that are overused and overcutesy.
While I'm on the subject, I'd like to mention my pet peeve of the misuse of "I" and "me". I hear and read it all the time. It's actually not hard to keep straight. My mother taught me many things and one of the useful things she taught me was how to keep that straight. Generally people misuse those words when they are speaking of themselves and another person. For example, "Sara went to the store with Tom and me." is correct but often I hear, "Sara went to the store with Tom and I." which is NOT correct. Mom told me to leave off, "Tom and" then see how it sounds. Clearly, "Sara went to the store with I." sounds completely weird. "I" is the subject, "me" is the object.
Which leads me to another thought. I recently found an old friends facebook page and found a glaring error in the wording on the page. I quote, "I take nothing for granite". What? Doesn't this person mean, "I take nothing for granted"?? Am I a total snob for being bothered by that? Could it be a simple slip of the mind or is this person ignorant of the correct wording? I am a snob, aren't I? I'm a grammar/spelling snob. Woe is me! So now I'm paranoid. Of what mistakes am I ignorant? On this blog I take license to knowingly make grammar errors. I've ended sentences with prepositions. I've started sentences with conjunctions. I written fragments as sentences. For heaven's sake I use an exclamation point after every other sentence! Do my readers realize I know better but choose to blog more free form? Maybe that's what my friend did. Just typed away with out concern for spelling, punctuation, or grammar. I'll let it go because I do know this person to be quite intelligent. After all I did see a person with an advanced degree write "mute point" instead of "moot point".
Now that I've got that off my chest I can sleep. Good night!

Wednesday

Well, we're over the "hump"! It's all downhill to the weekend from here! The days and weeks seems to be flying by. I read a bumper sticker or cartoon somewhere that said the days are long but the years are short. Deep, isn't it? I mean in the moment it does sometimes seems that time is just moving like sludge. Like when you're having a bad day at work, or when your baby just won't stop crying, or when your sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office. Then other times it seems like you were just spending the day chasing toddlers and suddenly you're worrying about how they will do on their high school exit exams. I got to hold a four week old baby today. She was so precious and at four weeks is still smaller than my smallest baby was at birth! I found I still have "the touch". Oh, I loved holding her and helping her find her thumb. And suddenly I realized that I'm not done having babies in my life. Don't get excited, I don't want to have another one but I now realize that I will indeed be happy to have grandchildren (please, oh please not until these boys are educated and married). I can do all the fun stuff all over again and this time it won't be my responsibility to change diapers or discipline. I get to be the good guy, the Gramma! I can color and finger paint, and use glue and glitter, make playdough, and sofa cushion forts! Best of all I can have baby hugs and hear them say my name.... someday the short years will take me to that place but for now, the days are long.

April Fool

Well, I wanted to post a clever April Fool but my mind is a blank. I could not think of a thing! Once one posts something on the internet it's out there forever and I didn't want any silly prank to take on a life of its own.
So, I hope you all had a great April Fool's Day. I have, so far, escaped becoming a fool........
or maybe I just haven't figured it out yet!