Cup of Tea

2011-10-03T10:08:00.001-06:00

We recently had the pleasure of a visit from friends from Idaho. We had a really wonderful visit with them, and took them to DC for two days of their visit. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, since Chad and I had already been and taken lots of pictures; but I did take pictures of a couple of things that we did not get to see last time. Unfortunately, the most impressive things we saw we were forbidden to take pictures of. These were the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights which are all housed in the National Archives. Each case (there were three) cost 5 million dollars and are just-about-everything-proof :-) It was really something to stand there and see these historic documents and the distinguished signatures on them--this sight alone is worth a trip to DC.

The other new thing we saw was the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. It's extremely beautiful and lavish and one might say borders a bit on the gaudy side for a library, and we were quite surprised when we walked in. Unfortunately again, we were not allowed to take pictures of the actual "working" part of the library, nor of the Gutenberg Bible and Giant Bible of Mainz (which was painstakingly and gorgeously handwritten) they had on display. Here are a few pictures of it:

The exterior

Close-up of one of the busts on the exterior

Gorgeous outdoor light

One of the front doors

The walls were covered in quotes and names of famous authors

There were also lots of mosaics on the walls and ceilings--notice the telescope running vertically through the armillary sphere--I took this one for Chad.

We are so glad these guys had the opportunity to come and visit us and had a wonderful time--come again anytime!

2011-10-03T09:13:00.001-06:00

Just a quick photo to update you on my "bump"--this is me just shy of 19 weeks:

This is my first official pair of maternity pants. I can still wear some of my regular pants, but these don't have a waistband, so they don't rub like regular pants do.

You can see my "bump" a little better in this one.

Aside from general aches and a ravenous appetite, I'm doing really well.

2011-09-05T08:43:00.002-06:00

For those of you who haven't seen this yet, you should watch this YouTube video:

Beds to benches

2011-09-05T08:02:00.004-06:00

A good while back Angela mentioned converting an old wooden bed frame into a bench, an idea she had come across somewhere in her trolling of craft/project websites, and about two months ago her parents happened to find and snatch up for us the two nearly-matching frames below at their local dump. We don't have enough pictures of the transformation for a good how-to-tutorial (and you may not have the requisite interest, for that matter), but can show an overview of what was involved. It was quite a bit of work, and even more fun.

First we stripped the layers of paint from this headboard, which we decided would form the back of the bench, using an industrial stripper. Definition: "Industrial stripper" -- the kind where the warning to avoid contact with skin should not be ignored.

Thanks to Angela for doing the majority of the tedious stripping around the decorative pieces at the top:

Since a lot of the wood was cracked or otherwise damaged I puzzled around for a long time trying to devise a solid design that would use only what we had on hand.

The board with paint still on it was damaged. And you know what they say: You don't strip paint from a bad board. Someone has probably said that.

The back is attached to each side with four manly carriage bolts. I glued and screwed the supports that run between the head- and foot- boards together to get the front beam of the bench. The sides are attached to this beam with two carriage bolts (each or total?).

One carriage bolt per side? Get real!

A piece of 3/4" plywood forms the seat. It's really looking like a bench! Believe or not, however, the majority of the work still remained to be done. The sanding/prepping for paint stage was the longest, and really the make-or-break of the project. I spent hours sanding, puttying, gluing and clamping loose decorative pieces, and sanding some more.

Almost ready to paint!

Some caulking seals holes that would otherwise likely collect dirt.

The process of choosing a color was painstaking, and had a funny twist: We had a nice color picked out, but neither of us were really crazy about it (choices were limited to Home Depot's current stock of spray paints). As I sprayed on the primer, we simultaneously realized we really liked it, so we went with it (and covered it with a matte clear coat).

Angela will cover the cushion (when we get it) with the fabric you see on the temporary cushions here and make coordinating pillows to give one cozy sitting experience! Thanks for looking!

A little cuteness to tide you over...

2011-08-20T14:33:00.002-06:00

We have been super busy around here lately, and some of that involves a couple of big projects we can't wait to share. But until then, here's some recent cuteness to tide you over...

I recently decided to have a marathon ironing day and brought everything downstairs so it would be cooler. Mia assumed that the basket of clothes I didn't get to was meant for her to play in, and she proceeded to hide and dig for her ball in them and then took a nap when she got tired. At least she was clean... :-)

These little guys and their mommas hang out in our backyard a lot, especially in the mornings. Once in a while, I am sneaky enough to get out onto the porch without spooking them so I can get some good pictures.

We have seen several young bucks around town, but not very often in our yard. This guy was way down at the edge of the neighbors yard, but I was still able to zoom in on him for a decent picture.

That's all for now. Stay tuned...

Things that make me happy...

2011-07-28T18:19:00.003-06:00

Fireworks on the Fourth of July:

Mountain Laurel in full bloom:

Beautiful views (this one happens to be in Pennsylvania):

Fresh green beans ready for the freezer:

Baby deer nursing in my backyard:

New tea and a new teapot to brew it in:

New hairstyles to help beat the heat:

Retro colored camping dishes:

New tents:

Hand made toys:

Basil ready to be dried:

Maybe this collection of pictures will give you a small glimpse into why there hasn't been much activity on here lately. Until next time--Toodle-pip! :-)

2011-06-23T06:28:00.003-06:00

Chad and I recently took our bikes up to Antietam National Battlefield Park and rode around. The park is beautifully kept and they have a nicely laid out tour that's about 8.5 miles long that you can drive, bike, or walk as you please. It was a cool, overcast day and the scenery was just gorgeous--it was hard at times to believe that the bloodiest single day of the Civil War was fought there. We hope you enjoy the slideshow; if you want to look at the pictures in more detail, just click on the slideshow and it will take you to the online album.
And if you want to know more about Antietam, here are a few links to get you started:

Antietam National Battlefield Park and for a short summary of the battle go here.

Antietam National Cemetery

Tennessee Renaissance Festival part 2

2011-06-21T11:19:00.002-06:00

One of the features of the Tennessee Renaissance Festival is Castle Gwynn which is a private residence that is opened once a year during the festival for tours. Only a small portion of the inside is open for tours, but what is open is pretty neat. This castle was started in 1980 and finally completed just last year. The guy who owns it designed it and oversaw the construction all the way through--he is a self-made man who built his own photography business and slowly accumulated the funds for this project. The castle was featured in the music video for Taylor Swift's song "Love Story" (consequently there were pictures of her on prominent display in parts of the house). It was nicely decorated on the inside and fun to look around. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy:

This is actually the back approach to the castle. They brought us here and then we exited the castle from the front.

Entrance of the left hand tower in the above pictures.

The floor and the table were tiled with this design.

Part of kitchen.

Part of kitchen. Love the plates--wonder where I can get some?

I love this teapot--isn't it neat?

They had lots of tapestries on display, including this one and the one in the two following close up pictures.

The owner of the house actually hand carved this horse and built the suit of armor on it.

I don't know what happened with this picture--I told Chad it must have been the ghost of the horse and rider ;-)

Side view of the front of the castle.

Tennessee Renaissance Festival 2011

2011-06-20T14:49:00.003-06:00

At the end of May we went to visit Chad's brother and his wife in Tennessee for a week. They had lots of fun things planned for us while we were there, most of which we unfortunately have no pictures of (such as the totally fun kayak/canoe trip--no pictures for obvious reasons: water and cameras don't mix ;-). The one day we do have lots of pictures from was the day we went to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival. It was the first time we had ever been to a Ren Fair and it was lots of fun. I've picked out a few of the pictures (ok, a lot :-) for your enjoyment:

These are from one of the shows we went to. This lady is a professional falconer and had brought several of her birds of prey to the fair; she got them out one or two at a time and talked about them and showed a little of what they can do--they were all beautiful birds and very well trained.

This is one of two owls in the show--they were named Newton and Norton. Aren't those great names?

I believe this is a peregrine falcon. He sat with his wings outstretched like this the whole time her assistant (who is also her husband) carried him around. She told us that he does this because he has some oil on his wings that turns into vitamin D in sunlight; he then cleans his feathers with his beak and ingests the vitamin D--cool, huh?

Travis

Chad

Jousting field

Jousting games hostesses and host

Sir Robin of Locksley--go Robin Hood!

This guy was quite impressive--he did this multiple times and with various tricks.

2011-06-08T13:30:00.077-06:00

We recently went camping on some land owned by the family of a member of our congregation. The land has been in their family for over a hundred years and his great grandfather built the farmhouse that they have since converted into a hunting cabin. We didn't take any pictures of the house, as a hunting cabin it has been covered all over in what looks like shingles, I'm sure for ease of maintenance reasons. We did get to meet the father of our friend, who said that the house was very pretty in its day, and if it took any inspiration from its surroundings and views, then I'm sure it was. We drove back into the woods a ways from the house and set up camp on the edge of a nice clearing. It was so peaceful and beautiful out there--we really enjoyed hiking around. There were a few drawbacks, however, namely: mosquitos and ticks. We must have been there at peak season for both of those, and they both happen to be high on my list of disgusting. But in spite of that, we still had a good time.

This antique tractor was sitting out in back of the house.

View from behind the house.

View of the clearing from our tent.

Another view from farther behind the house.

No, there was no Sheetz out in the woods. We brought these with us to hold those most essential day starters: coffee and tea (with complimentary smoke flavor ;-)

Our tent and our friend's Jeep that he let us use. If these weren't so unsafe in event of a wreck, we would totally have one.

Mia was so busy, she couldn't even hold still for a picture. (For our foreign correspondents: this is the picture we were telling you about.)

Once in a great while, our attempts at self portraits actually turn out decent.

The forest floor is almost as green as the canopy in places.

Turns out we weren't the only sojourners in the woods. These guys are everywhere around here. We see them every time we go for a hike, and even had to stop and rescue one trying to cross the highway a few Sundays ago.

When she wasn't sleeping, Mia spent much of her time in the tent in a futile effort to catch the bugs on the OUTSIDE of the tent. Here she is staring at one--she can do that for looooong periods of time.

Just a snapshot of some of the scenery we passed on our way out there. Incidentally, we passed a denomination called "Burnt Presbyterian Church" on our way there--I'm not making that up, that's really what they called themselves. That's the one you want to go with?

Ecdysis

2011-06-06T07:42:00.000-06:00

What is ecdysis you may ask? It's simply a fancy term for molting in arthropods of which insects are a part. In my case, it's just a catchy title to use as an excuse to show you these pictures:

This little guy was on our French doors that lead to our back porch.

These are exoskeletons of cicadas--I took these on our recent trip to Tennessee. These cicadas only come out every 13 years, but when they do you'll know it. They were everywhere, and the noise they make is deafening. If you're outside they are constantly landing on you or careening into you, and if you're amidst trees you can hardly hear what anyone is saying. Aside from how loud they are, though, the sound of them in the trees is actually nice (if you're just visiting;-). You can read more about them here or watch this BBC clip about them (or actually the 17 year cicada, but practically the same) here.

2011-06-06T07:13:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted--miss me? I normally would feel bad for not posting for so long, but I don't. The reason is that I've noticed I'm not the only one with a problem. On several of the blogs I regularly read I have recently noticed a common theme: slow, sporadic posting, and a common culprit: summer vacation from school and the weather. And, really, who would want to be inside posting when you could be enjoying this?:

(The honeysuckle is in full bloom right now--you can hardly go anywhere without being surrounded by it's wonderful fragrance. No perfumer in the world can even begin to compete with God.)

(Herons are such elegant birds, aren't they?)

So that's my excuse such as it is, and it may be feeble, but if you could resist such temptations you are a far stronger person than I am. :-)

2011-04-19T14:59:00.000-06:00

My neighbor and I caught the bus to a nearby town last week for lunch out and some shopping. We spent time strolling around the old downtown which has several cool shops and some lovely buildings. These first two pictures are examples of what we saw--I was so busy looking at everything, I forgot to take many pictures, but I did snap these two:

This is what greeted us as we walked into a second-hand/antique shop--isn't he great? Although, come to think of it--did Charlie Chaplin smile very much? There were several life size peanuts characters sitting outside the store as well, but I neglected to get a picture of those. I really need to get better about that :-)

I love the turret on this old building. I think all houses should have one (with bigger windows)--what a great place to sit and read and dream.

This past weekend Chad had a math conference to attend in Virginia near where my parents live, so we drove down and stayed with them. The scenery on the way down was gorgeous, and these pictures do not do it justice--it's hard to take nice pictures from a moving vehicle.

It's especially hard taking pictures from a moving vehicle when you have one of these vying for the view:

This is Mia's preferred position in the car whenever the weather is nice. She will push her nose up against the window until I roll it down for her, and then she will hang half her body out of the window until she gets hit with a bug or has to come in for air ;-)

We had terrible thunderstorms over the weekend that led to much flooding (and even tornadoes in some areas). Sunday afternoon, Chad and I walked down to the river to see how swollen it was; I thought this was a funny picture--don't they look stranded up there with all the muddy, rushing water around them?

Pardon my weird smile in this picture--I just wanted to show off my new coat I bought at the Goodwill with my mom on Saturday. I love the length and the color--and the $4 price tag! :-)

2011-04-12T06:20:00.001-06:00

Spring is in full swing here in WV and I thought I would share a few pictures I've taken in between all the rain we've been getting. Hope it's Spring-y wherever you are!

Mia and I came across these little guys catching some rays on our walk the other day. I managed to get a couple pictures before Mia saw them and scared them away :-)

I also wanted to share this cute print I bought on Etsy from this shop. I took advantage of their buy 3 get 1 free special and the other three prints are just as cute; I put this one in my kitchen. It's printed on a vintage dictionary page--how fun is that? If you are looking for a neat gift, I recommend you check this out; they also have lots of cute prints that would be great for a nursery or child's room.

And because it is so yummy, I wanted to share this recipe from The Pioneer Woman. She has wonderful recipes--all the ones I've tried have been delicious. This is the third time I have made this quiche, and it just gets better every time. Chad and I absolutely love it--we had it for dinner last night and ate half of it. In this one I used green onions instead of regular onions and portobello mushrooms instead of regular mushrooms; I also used a cheese blend (Parmesan, Romano, Asiago) instead of Swiss since I don't care for Swiss. I haven't tried the pie crust recipe she links to--I use one my sister gave me that beats any pie crust I've ever had (and Jessica, if you're reading this--I even tried fluting my edges on this one! :-) So if you're looking for something new and yummy to serve to family or guests--give this a try and let me know how you like it!

By the light of the silvery moon...

2011-03-14T19:50:00.000-06:00

Just thought I'd share a few pictures of the moon we have taken through Chad's telescope. This one was taken with the basic eyepiece that came with the telescope:

This is the eyepiece/filter kit we recently got:

And these are some pictures we took with the higher magnification eyepieces:

Unfortunately, these are about as good as we are going to get without investing in special astrophotography equipment. The higher magnification eyepieces have very small holes to look through and our ordinary digital camera has a hard time getting a clear image through any buy the largest. So, if you want to see quality images, you will just have to come over and look through the telescope for yourself!

Of course, we do look at things other than the moon--we have just had more success taking pictures of the moon than of anything else because the camera needs the extra light to get a good picture. :-)

2011-02-28T05:51:00.000-07:00

The weather was so nice yesterday that we got out and took our first 10-mile bike ride of the year. In honor of the occasion, Mia even got to go in her own style--she loves to feel the wind in her hair ;-)

Washington D.C.

2011-02-18T10:53:00.001-07:00

During Chad's Christmas Break, we took three days and rode the train into Washington D.C. to do some sight-seeing. For any of our friends who are thinking about coming to see us--this is a must. It is so ridiculously easy and inexpensive, and once you get to Union Station in D.C. everything is within easy walking/metro distance. We had a wonderful time and intend to go back; even with three whole days devoted to it, we felt like we had just seen the tip of the iceberg. We had a hard time picking pictures to put on the blog, so we decided to just put a teaser image:

And a small slideshow:

And for those of you really interested in seeing the larger version of these pictures with captions, you can click on the slideshow and it will take you to our Picasa Web Album for your viewing pleasure. But be forewarned: there are a lot of pictures :-)

Snow!

2011-02-03T10:32:00.000-07:00

Cloud nine and beyond!

2011-01-26T16:26:00.001-07:00

Several people have asked about my telescope so I thought I would post a picture of it all assembled and in use. There is a "sight" on the telescope used to line up with objects before trying to find them in the view finder. This is me "sighting" on the night of the lunar eclipse in December:

The two most common types of telescopes are reflectors and refractors--mine is the former. Reflectors were invented (or at least improved upon) by Newton to correct for "chromatic aberration" inherent in refracting telescopes. (If this is more than you wanted to know about telescopes, then you should probably skip the next paragraph:)

My scope is a classic Dobsonian telescope. This refers the azimuth/altitude design of the mount holding the optical tube. Altitude is the measure of the angle from the horizon and azimuth is the measure of the angle along the horizon from North. People say this mount is nice for its ease of use. The scope tube rolls up and down in the mount to adjust elevation, and the whole base rotates to adjust azimuth.

John Dobson was a 20th century monk who managed to construct his own telescope (he had no training as I understand it!) and fell in love with sharing views of the night sky with anyone and everyone who was interested. Sounds like a cool guy. He was kicked out of the monastery for spending too much time worrying about his scope-ventures, and spent the rest of his life building telescopes for his own use and assisting others in making their own. Dobson is credited with popularizing amateur astronomy through his infectious enthusiasm for stargazing as well as his telescope design which made powerful telescopes much more available and more user-friendly. Here is a nice bio of John Dobson.

With the basic eyepiece that my telescope came with we can easily see loads of detail on the moon as well as various planets and other bright space objects. The coolest thing we have seen so far are the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. They're whizzing away up there 24 - 7, even if we never give them a moment's thought. Awesome!

So, if you're ever in our neck of the woods on a clear night, give us a call!

December at a glance...

2011-01-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

December was a whirlwind, full of lots of good things. Here is a glimpse of some of them:

1) M & C came to visit us all the way from Idaho--yay! We thoroughly enjoyed their visit and wish we could have kept them longer--next time I'm praying hard for a blizzard ;-) They sure are great friends and a blessing to us.

2) As is always the case at our house at Christmas, there were lots of festive decorations (and still are :-) This is our tree.

3) There were also some presents to open--here Chad is opening his new telescope!

And here I am looking dorky while opening my new yarn swift and ball winder. Observe my excellent helper :-)

4) There was lots of scrumptious food to eat. Here is our Christmas breakfast quiche.

Mia is hoping that whole slice is for her :-)

Chad made a turkey this year all by himself. We put some of it in the freezer and are still eating on the rest--it was bigger than Mia!

We hope your holiday was filled with lots of wonderful goodness as well. Happy New Year and we hope all goes well for you and yours in 2011!

Andy Mckee live in Pittsburgh!

2010-12-23T16:24:00.001-07:00

As a graduation present, Angela treated me to an Andy Mckee concert in Pittsburgh, PA in mid-July. Chances are that unless a new set of fingerstyle guitar picks is at the top of your wish list, the name Andy Mckee is unfamiliar to you. Andy is a young acoustic guitarist from Kansas who dropped out of high school to pursue a career as a performer. A colleague of Andy's posted some videos of Andy on YouTube that became instant hits. Here is a sample:

After seeing him on YouTube, I was really impressed, and tried unsuccessfully for about two and a half years to see him live. Imagine, if you can, my delight when his Summer 2010 tour schedule listed a July Pittsburgh date---a few weeks after our planned move back to the east!

The concert was, in a word, phenomenal. When he came out and started with "Art of Motion," it was just...wow! Maybe you have to like fingerstyle guitar, though I cannot imagine not digging that tune! My grin, I was later told, did not fade until the next morning. He really is a tremendous performer and guitar player.

Note the "fanned" frets on the leftmost guitar. Very cool!

The man, the myth!

A harp guitar.

One of these guys is a really awesome guitar player... the other one is taller.

Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens

2010-12-16T15:25:00.000-07:00

Over the Thanksgiving holiday Chad and I managed to visit both of our parents in a span of four days. I haven't gotten any of the pictures from Chad's family (I only took a couple), but here are some from our time with my parents. On the day after Thanksgiving we went to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Richmond to attend their Gardenfest of Lights which is sponsored by my dad's company, Dominion. The following pictures are all from that and are just a small part of all we saw there:

This is me with my parents for those of you who have never met them. :-)

2010-11-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

The colors came in waves this year instead of around the same time, so one batch would turn and then fall off before the next one came, but it was still pretty. The last of the leaves are now falling so I thought I'd post just a few final shots of the beautiful fall as we are hurrying to be off to visit family for Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours! Let's all remember how much we have to be thankful for not only on this day but every day throughout the year.

P.S. Like my crazy hair in the picture? This was the best one we got out of that shoot so I decided to post it. I'm so glad Chad and Mia love me just the way I am--crazy hair and all! :-)

2010-10-30T12:27:00.000-06:00

It's pumpkin carving time again! This year we decided to go with a design I found on the Better Homes and Gardens website. Here's Chad getting started:

The only thing about carving a pumpkin with a design instead of just a face is that it takes a lot of time and patience. This year, however, the design was really worth it, as it pays tribute to our resident celebrity:

Mia's always wanted to see herself in lights. ;-)

2010-10-27T07:39:00.000-06:00

Just a couple things I've made lately:

I've been really inspired by all the crafts made from books that have been popping up lately, so I thought I'd try my hand at it. Yes, I did destroy a book to make this, but never fear--it wasn't a book worth being saved. For those books it's either the trash can or art--if I were them, I would choose art too. ;-) This is just book pages hot glued onto a square picture frame--so simple, but very elegant. Pictures I take in my living room never turn out true to form for some reason, so you'll just have to take my word for it that this is very pretty and elegant hanging over the piano.

Next on the list is this hat that I knit for Chad using the "Habitat" pattern by Jared Flood. I am super proud of how it turned out:

and it doesn't hurt that I have a handsome husband who plays the guitar, either. ;-)

It's beginning to look a lot like....Autumn

2010-10-18T07:18:00.000-06:00

These were taken at Chad's parents' place last weekend. The color change is a bit late this year (or so we've been told), but it's beautiful all the same. I can't wait for the trees here to change.

Some good news and some bad news...

2010-10-18T07:09:00.000-06:00

The good news is: we have the cutest little bundle of fur on four legs.

The bad news is: Mia and I did this last Tuesday...

The super good news is: God brought us both out unharmed to live and fight with sticks another day:

God has surely been good to us.

Just a cross-section of the last week or so...

2010-10-04T05:57:00.000-06:00

Just some of the things we've been enjoying...

Stately trees (can't you see the elves living here?)...

Four legged friends--even of the metal variety...

Freaky cows at Spanish restaurants...

Autumn wildflowers...

Amazing grapevines (picture of Chad swinging from same not included)...

...and turtles sunning themselves on logs in the canal.

P.S. for Jessica--the water in the canal is totally covered by algae in places and it reminded me of the shivering sands--creepy, huh?

Crafts can be traitorous things...

2010-09-09T10:16:00.005-06:00

Several years ago my mom made me a purse for Christmas that I loved. Over the ensuing few years I absolutely wore that purse out until even I had to admit it was time for a new one. I had the pattern she used and so decided to make myself another one. There was just one small problem: I could not find the "perfect" fabric. So I just decided to make myself a purse out of some fabric I had lying around; I did this and it turned out fine, but I found I could not bring myself to carry it because I wasn't really crazy about the fabric. So I tried again with other fabric and with the same result. I finally gave up and waited to find the right fabric. However, I now had two purses on my hands that I knew I would never use. So I decided to try selling them, but the traitorous little things would not be sold. They seemed to cry out to everyone: "I'm not loved. She didn't really like me but made me anyway. Look at me--you can tell there was no passion put into the making of me. Please just put me out of my misery." And that's exactly what I did--I threw them away. I have now firmly resolved not to make anything that I don't like or am not passionate about--they are sure to cry out against me. Now I know that the Bible talks about the thing made not saying to it's creator "Why have you made me this way?"; but I believe that only holds true when God is the Creator. Everything He has made shows the love and perfection that went into making it; but I, as an imperfect human do not put the same effort into everything I make, and those poor neglected things are fully entitled to proclaim me a traitor for making them when I didn't even like them myself.

All this being said, if you haven't given me up as a nut and moved on, I did finally find fabric that I loved and the picture at the top of this post is the result. Now I understand that not everyone will like it or think it's beautiful, but at the very least it can say: "Now that's more like it." :-) Anyone who knows me knows that it is at least a true reflection of me. Ah me, who knew that crafts could be so fickle?

Before top dead center...

2010-08-17T19:56:00.004-06:00

You may recall from a post last January 2009 that I drove my car into my garage and boldly removed the hood, determined to rebuild/replace the engine underneath it. It became clear as our move-out date approached that my engine was not going to replace itself, and so I finally reconciled myself to the cost of buying a new (technically, remanufactured) engine.

Between then and now, I got the old one out and the new one installed (thanks to everyone who helped by loaning tools and/or time!). BTW, it's probably obvious, but: Replacing an engine is a tedious process, even if you consider yourself accomplished at changing oil and know how to use an adjustable wrench. Tedious, and involved. Fun, educating, and rewarding, but tedious and involved. To give a sense of the nature of this undertaking I offer the following pictures. Enjoy!!!

Angela wasn't home to help take off the hood. So I patiently didn't wait for her and rigged up the pictured "rope trick" :)

A ton of work was exerted between the first picture and the next. Nonetheless, it was a thrilling, if cold, Sunday morning that I lifted the engine from the engine bay.

My lovely assistant!

The old engine, nearly stripped of its bolted-on parts. The four large sprockets on the top are connected to the cams, the little one at the bottom to the crank, and the one in the middle to the water pump. The transmission bolts on the opposite side of the engine.

I've just bolted the new engine (isn't it shiny?) to the engine stand and am installing spark plugs. Open holes heading toward the combustion chambers made me very nervous, and so I plugged them immediately, either with the appropriate part (note the spark plug in my hand) or with a piece of cloth.

LOTS of work later, I (with help from my dad) am ready to install...

After hooking everything back up, I rolled it out of the garage (just because I could--a wiser soul might put the hood back on first). Pure pleasure! And all the neighbors were watching.

Unfortunately, a misunderstanding of the fuel delivery system delayed my "startup date" by a couple days. In the end, it started first try, registered oil pressure, and purred like a kitten!

We made it!

2010-08-07T06:57:00.005-06:00

There comes a time in every graduate student's life when he must...well...graduate and get a job. Saying goodbye to graduate school is often difficult, and is typically postponed several years beyond the time family has grown weary of waiting.

That time came for me June 25th 2010 when I defended my dissertation. No longer could I hide behind the banner of furthering my education, which by this time boasted the frightening fact that in each of the past twenty-two autumns, I enrolled for yet another academic year. In May of this year I accepted a job at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD with the understanding that I would complete a doctoral degree in mathematics before August.

But this post isn't about any of that--this short post is simply dedicated to the necessary cross-country move we made to get us into the Rockville, MD area. We actually landed at my parents' house in PA for about two weeks, both to visit with them and to have a place to call home while we looked for an apartment (we found one; watch this blog for more info:-)

So with that, we offer the following imminent-departure shot of our truck pulling our car (it's now purring like a kitten; watch this blog), along with our gratitude to our families who have, for the most part, patiently endured our long time long away from home. Thanks for looking!

To see more pictures of our trip, see our web album.

2010-06-08T20:30:00.003-06:00

My apologies on the lack of posting lately. Things have been a little crazy chez Chad and Angela. Chad is busy finishing up his dissertation and has just accepted a job teaching at a college in Maryland; so that means we'll be moving. Right now the plan is to pull out of Pocatello around the 1st of July, Lord willing. There are very busy days in our immediate future, and I'm sure some stress and frustration as I hate moving. Let me rephrase that--I love to move to new places and see new things, but I hate the process of moving--packing and cleaning and unpacking, etc. Ugh. And since our magic elves are currently on strike, looks like we'll be doing this one ourselves. Oh well, at least there's the fun part to look forward to. We're not terribly thrilled about moving to the DC area (the college is just outside the beltway), but we are thankful for a job, especially in the current economy, and we are excited for the opportunities it presents. Chad has never visited DC and it's been about 10+ years since I've been there, so we'll have lots of fun exploring. I'll try to keep you updated on our progress.

In other news, I have a new craft to share with you:

It's made from the Calla Lily Wreath tutorial from Positively Splendid. It was really fun and easy to make although the lilies were a little time consuming. I wasn't sure at all about the pink ribbon, but it was the only non Christmas ribbon I had on hand so I used it. What do you think? I'm still undecided. However, I do have to say that it looks great hanging on my living room wall--pink ribbon and all.

This smaller version was my "test" wreath, and is made from a styrofoam wreath I got at the Dollar Tree and wrapped in burlap. I'm thinking about making several of these as goodbye gifts for people I work with. A little ribbon and I think they would make a nice gift. If you make a wreath from this tutorial or even just make some lilies, I would love to see a picture of your creation!

Anyone hungry?...

2010-04-26T20:46:00.002-06:00

I love my crockpot. It's versatile ability to cook many different things and the sheer ease of using it are hard to beat. Recently, however, I discovered yet one more reason to love my crockpot: hand dyeing yarn.

This is 880 yards of undyed laceweight merino wool from KnitPicks.

This is my "dye"--good 'ol Kool-Aid. It actually makes a really good dye; it's acidic, so it absorbs easily into the yarn and is very colorfast. I used 4 different flavors of Kool-Aid--one blue, one purple, and then I mixed a blue with a green.

It's brewing...

Ready to dry.

The finished product! The colors don't show up terribly well in this picture. It's a nice mixture of purple, blue, and blue-green. The colors came out a little pastel for my taste, so next time I know to use more Kool-Aid. I can't wait to start knitting with it and see how it looks!

More crafting

2010-04-20T20:49:00.003-06:00

Ever have those times where things totally and unexpectedly work out in a different way than you planned, but it couldn't have worked out better? This project was one of those for me. I started this in late March sometime as a Christmas gift for my mom (trying to get an early start this year); however, just as I was finishing it up, her mother passed away after a brief illness. I was desperate for some way to show her I was thinking about her (since I couldn't be there), and this shawl was there waiting to be the perfect thing! Things really do work out for the best, even when there's no way we could have anticipated it.

Here I am blocking the shawl.

Waiting for it to dry...

...and done!

Another way to wear it. This was my first foray into lace knitting, and I absolutely loved it. The process is challenging but fun, and the results are wonderful! I'm looking forward to the next one...

And one more recent craft--my new Spring bag made out of a skirt I got for free. Yay for new bags!

ETA: I forgot (again) to mention the patterns I used. The shawl was made from this pattern (and it's free!); and the purse was from this pattern (and it's free too!). I never want to fail to give credit to these amazing designers!

2010-04-20T20:34:00.003-06:00

What do you get when you take 1 part knitting in sunshine...

+ doggie approved natural fiber?....

...a sweater vest for the man in your life that he will not take off for an entire weekend! (Handsome husband not included--you must supply your own ;-)

Look, even Mia gives it two paws up. ;-)

It even looks good in action shots--it's definitely a keeper.

ETA: I forgot to mention the pattern I used--it's the Alberta Vest from designer Jared Flood. This is the second of his designs I've knit for Chad, and we have both been very pleased with both of them.

Trip to SLC and the symphony

2010-02-21T18:56:00.003-07:00

Chad and I took a trip down to Salt Lake City this past Friday to attend a performance of the Utah Symphony. We left early and had some time to walk around the downtown area a little before the concert. I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few sights that amused us:

A smart car. Don't see too many of these around yet. Unless you're an Oompa Loompa, I don't think you would want to be in accident in one of these.

No, we did not eat here--we just thought this was a funny name for a restaurant. :-)

This is for all my acquaintances who think that eating rabbit is a primitive, backwoods phenomenom--from La Cucina Italiana magazine--proof that refined cultures also appreciate this meat in their cooking. Ahhh, now I feel better--not quite so redneck ;-)

Chad and me pre-concert. Not the best picture, but it's the only one we got of us that night.

The Utah Symphony concerts are held in Abravanel Hall in SLC; in the lobby of Abravanel stands this blown glass sculpture by Chihuly. Named The Olympic Tower, it creates quite a presence at 30 feet tall. I think it's beautiful--and the amount of talent and work it represents is astounding. I have seen similar pieces of art in chandelier form, and I would love to have one in my house someday. Alas, they are very, very pricey--guess I'd better learn how and make my own. :-)

Snow and ice

2010-02-21T17:47:00.002-07:00

Just some recent pictures of scenery (the first one) and an ice fog we had (all the rest).

New knits and a new fashion trend (for me)

2010-02-01T19:56:00.002-07:00

I have been noticing a trend in the knitting community lately--shawls are coming back in vogue. But not in the traditional, around the shoulders in lieu of a jacket way. No, the new trend is to wear them around your neck, a functional yet classy addition to an outfit that can be worn all day. I'm always up for something new; and my office is always cold, but I cannot stand to wear too many layers (I feel stiff and like I can't move), and my space heater bothers my eyes. So, with all this in view I decided to give this new style a try. I found a gorgeous, beginner level pattern from this knitter (whose designs and color choices I love).

Here's my version of this shawl:

And one of me wearing it:

I absolutely love this, and have worn it many times in the two weeks or so since I finished it. I foresee more of these in my future.

As another experiment, I also knitted myself a cowl. While I don't love this style as much as the shawls, I still think it makes a pretty accessory while also being functional. Both the cowl and the shawl keep my neck nice and toasty, which helps with the cold office.

The cowl can be a little unruly, but I found that a pin really helps with that. I bought this pin a while back on clearance, but didn't have much to wear it with as it's pretty heavy. I think it goes great with this--I definitely need more funky, unique pins in my life.

2010-02-01T16:30:00.002-07:00

Friday nights are traditionally our date night--the one night during the week we dedicate to just us. Sometimes life gets so busy we don't really see much of each other until then; when those weeks come, it's always nice to look forward to Friday night. Anyway, for a recent Friday night date Chad borrowed a friend's Game Cube and we went over to the TV room in the apartment office building and played some Mario Kart. Now, neither one of us really likes videos games, and we typically only play them when someone invites us over to play. Mario Kart, however, is an exception--we both really like this game. I couldn't really say why racing a little car around a track is so much fun, but we have a blast. We spent close to three hours racing each other and when we were tired of that we played a game where we were driving around like maniacs throwing bombs at each other and trying to be the first to get the other one's three stars. Ah, such fun. :-)

Are you ready?...

Even Mia wanted to play.

Oh, yeah--did I mention that I'm a terrible driver? I spend most of my time just trying to stay on the track, and trying (very unsuccessfully) to sit still. ;-) Just ask Chad--he gets a kick out of watching me play.

2010-01-18T17:55:00.002-07:00

2010 is starting out beautifully as far as crafting goes. So far I have completed 3 projects and have 3 more well on their way. This scarf I started and completed today in under 2 hours; and, as it was a nice day (around 40 degrees), it promptly went out for a test run. I made it from a pattern from V and Co. which was available on her site for free for a while, but alas no longer. It's made from just under 2 yards of flannel, was super easy to make, and is so fun and comfy. I'm definitely planning to make more.

This coat makes me look huge! Wow.

In addition to all this crafting (and partly responsible for the productivity), Chad and I have been reading a book together and watching various documentaries and book adaptations. We just finished the BBC adaptation of Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens--which we both loved. We're also currently reading Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors by James Reston, Jr.; it's a fascinating read so far, and we've spent lots of time with Chad reading aloud and me crafting away. We've also way expanded our vocabulary as a result--we keep wikipedia and the dictionary ready at hand :-)

Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T18:15:00.002-07:00

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I wanted to start things off with a project I finished over the holidays:

You might remember this from last year--my mom and I pieced this during our visit last Christmas, then I added the borders and had it quilted. This past week I finally got around to putting the binding on it, and now it's hanging in our living room. I love it! I think it's my favorite wall hanging I've made yet.

And here's just a close-up of the center--the colors aren't quite right in the picture; we have such bad lighting in our living room that it's hard to get accurate pictures. But you get the idea.

And finally, just some pictures we took on New Year's Eve:

Anyone who's been around us much will recognize this:

Don't you feel sorry for Mia here? Do you think she knows she's loved? ;-)

We hope everyone has a happy and productive 2010. May our gracious Lord bless us all as we strive to serve Him.

Love,

Chad and Angela

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T09:03:00.001-07:00

We wish you all love and joy this holiday season and God's blessings in the New Year!

Just a few pictures taken at City Creek with our new camera...

2009-12-24T08:33:00.002-07:00

And one of Angela on her first day of being 28--Happy Birthday, Angela!!!

Fresh snow and snow angels

2009-12-16T16:55:00.003-07:00

Just some pictures of us playing in the snow last weekend. When we took these pictures, we had about 6-8 inches. We love snow at our house!

Mia had a blast rooting around, tunneling, and rolling in the snow.

My snow angel.

And...

Mia's snow angel--she's still working on her technique. ;-)

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland...

2009-12-13T08:16:00.002-07:00

The day after Thanksgiving, while lots of people were pulling their hair out in the frenzy that is Black Friday, Chad and I opted instead to trek out into the woods away from people and do some Christmas tree hunting. We drove about an hour down to Knox Canyon where the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lets people come and cut Christmas trees off the state land.

Isn't is beautiful? I just love it when the trees are covered in snow. There were about six inches of snow there when we went.

Mia had an absolute blast running around and playing in the snow. It was really cold, though, and she had ice balls the size of golf balls stuck all over her. They didn't completely melt until we were almost home.

Chad enjoying his yearly tribute to Paul Bunyan.

Though we didn't see many other people in the Canyon, most of those we did had SUVs and trucks. We, on the other hand, had an opportunity to be proud of the Honda, which did quite well until we came to especially steep parts of the road. And, speaking of the Honda, after we mounted the tree on the roof of the car (unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of this), we realized we had tied all four doors shut with the rope, and the windows were only cracked enough to let the rope through. One stick and some fancy maneuvering later (there was no way we were removing the rope!), we had lowered the windows for a Dukes of Hazard entry. :-)

The finished product. I went with a bird theme this year.

Close up of some of the ornaments. If you look closely, you can see a glittery feather on the left--I was so tickled when I found those at the Dollar Store, they fit perfectly!

(Insert closing remarks here ;-)

Have a great week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-27T09:33:00.002-07:00

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Hopefully we all took time to remember and be thankful for all our blessings--praise to the One who provides us with every good thing!

Thanksgiving for us was wonderful this year. Chad and I hosted it this year for only the second time in the 7+ years we've been married. We have been so blessed in that even though we are so far from home, we have never spent a Thanksgiving without the company of wonderful people. This year we hosted our friends who are also far from home and who are also our "family". We really did have a wonderful time--so much so that we were too busy to take pictures! Anyway, here's a quick recap:

I decided to do something other than a wreath on the door this year. I'm really pleased with it.

The making of my table runner.

The finished table.

Yummy Cornish hens ready for the oven.

Let the feast begin! With three families all contributing, we really had some delicious food (not to mention a ton of it!)

After dinner we had a great game of Balderdash and some really wonderful chocolate raspberry cheesecake that Matt made. Hope you all had a great day and were able to spend it happily with people you love as well!

2009-11-15T10:53:00.001-07:00

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2009-11-14T16:44:00.002-07:00

November already! This year is just flying by. My two squirrels have been busy gathering nuts--here they are working on some black walnuts we picked up on campus:

Hiking on City Creek last weekend:

Today we woke up to snow! Here's Mia checking out the change in her world:

No post is complete without crafts. Here's a hat I made for a friend:

The color is a rich gold with brown tones--it didn't show well in any of the pictures I took.

These I made this weekend--aren't they pretty? They're part of my Christmas decorations this year:

That's all for now!

2009-10-24T08:25:00.005-06:00

As October nears it's end Fall is in full swing in Southeast Idaho. Temperatures have cooled off drastically and what few deciduous trees we have are shedding their leaves in waves of gold with the occasional burst of orange or red. Fall starts my favorite time of year, which lasts all the way through New Year's. The weather is perfect and I love the festivities and warm feelings that perpetuate the whole season. In honor of the start of that season, I thought I'd share a couple projects that have been recently completed chez Chad and Angela.

First off--I found a grapevine wreath at the Goodwill a couple weeks ago for a steal. I've been wanting one of these for a while; but, as is my custom, I never pay retail price for anything (even on sale) if I can help it. So, needless to say I was thrilled when I spotted this at the Goodwill and was able to not only save money, but also recycle and help (albeit in a small way) reduce the amount of garbage that will end up in a landfill somewhere. But before I get up on my soapbox (which is another post, another time), let me proceed.

I brought my wreath home and decorated it, and here's the result:

So, my question for you is: Does it look like Fall? or is it too Christmas-y?

On to the second project. For our Friday night date last night, Chad and I decided to carve a pumpkin and roast the seeds. This is your warning: we had so much fun and I had a hard time picking just a few pictures, so beware...

Scooping out the gunk and picking out the seeds. This stuff was so slimy and stringy--this is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Rest assured, no pumpkin guts were abused during this process--this is strictly a publicity photo ;-)

Let it be known to all posterity--Chad did his part and actually put his hands in the slime, too.

Pumpkin seeds ready for the oven. Seasonings from left to right: spicy seasoned salt, cinnamon and sugar, and garlic salt.

Roasted pumpkin seeds in all their wonderful doneness--yummy! The garlic ones were my favorite, but Mia preferred the cinnamon sugar :-)

We decided to go with a design I found on the internet this year instead of a face--talk about a lot of work! You're not supposed to actually cut all the way through the pumpkin; instead we etched the design on the surface with an exacto (sp?) knife, and then proceeded to painstakingly scrape the flesh out to whatever depth we decided on. This might not have been so hard had the design not had lots of little spaces which were hard to scrape out without damaging others, but we managed.

Me scraping out an area--yes, that is an orange peeler. It worked perfectly for all those tiny areas.

Tada! Here's the finished design.

And here it is all lit up. It's a little blurry, but it's hard to hold the camera completely still. A candle wasn't enough light to make the design really stand out so we put in a strand of Christmas lights, and then it really popped. We're so proud of our pumpkin and plan to display it all week. There's only one down side to all this--in a couple weeks all our hard work will be shriveled and gone. Sigh. Oh well. :-)

Keep that oil flowing smoothly

2009-10-07T10:17:00.009-06:00

As the Southern Hemisphere anticipates its first Olympic claim to fame in 2016, cold weather is settling in once again in the Northern. And so we ask, "Is your block heater ready to go?" Your what??

Last year (or was it earlier this year?) I installed a block heater in my car. A block heater is a device with a 120 V heating element that screws into the side of your car's block. When you plug it in at night, your car's engine wakes up on those cold winter mornings warm(er) and ready to take you to work/school/Starbucks.

The units cost about $30 - $50 at a parts store, and install in about an hour if you're prepared. Though every car is a little different, my installation consisted of 1) draining the antifreeze, 2) screwing in the heater, and 3) routing the plug to and through the front of my car. An (heavy duty) extension cord popping out from under my garage door supplies the power. I found car-specific directions on the internet.

Even better than plugging in at night is using a timer. Maximum efficiency is achieved, according to information from Manitoba Hydro in Winnipeg, by starting the heater 4 hours before you intend to drive your car (see graph on second page).

If you think this might be a good idea but don't feel comfortable with the install, a mechanic will be happy to take about $60 from you to the installation.

My heater, if memory serves, uses 400W, and the chart below converts this to dollar signs (assuming a specific cost of electricity). I don't think my monthly electric bill goes up by more than $10.

More than just getting your car's interior warmer faster, a block heater alleviates the problem of sluggish, cold oil taking longer to get lubricating your engine's internals. And this means extended engine well-being, maybe even enough to get you from here across the Panama Canal and into Rio for the 2016 Olympics. Thanks for looking!

Yummy goodness

2009-09-30T11:29:00.002-06:00

I've been trying lots of new recipes lately, and just thought I'd share two successes from this week:

On Sunday I made this lovely biscotti:

And let me tell you--a cup of flavored Winco coffee and a piece of this?--It just doesn't get much better. What's even better is that this is a much easier biscotti recipe than the one I've used previously, and way yummier. We'll definitely be seeing more of this at our house this winter!

Next, what do you get when you take this:

And add it to this?:

This! Super yummy (and super easy!) split pea soup. And to top it all off, it's low fat--woohoo! Chad and I added just a dash of cayenne pepper to it after it was done for just a little kick. Soup is a wonderful thing to make when the weather gets cooler--I made this last night, and we woke up to snow in the mountains this morning! Hope that wasn't my fault....

All this culinary yumminess makes one want to do this:

N'est pas? ;-)

Trail of the Hiawatha

2009-09-26T14:28:00.012-06:00

History buffs may have heard of the legends of Hiawatha, a famous leader of Native Americans. I, on the other hand, may never have heard the name had it not been for a trip we took recently to northern Idaho. Near the small (!) town of Wallace, ID lies the Route of the Hiawatha bike trail, originally a railroad cut through the rugged Bitterroot Mountains of northern Idaho. After some years of use, it was opened to the public as a gravel covered bike trail in early 1998.

All together, we rode ~31 miles that Saturday, September 5th. Fortunately, being built for a train, the incline was gradual, and we did the 15 mile uphill part first. The day was warm and sunny, and the scenery from the trail, as attested in the pictures below, was beautiful.

On the way up Friday night, we found ourselves really needing...a cow. Knowing how they depreciate in the first year or two, we decided to buy used.

At the Wallace, ID grocery store, there were more ATVs than cars. The sign barely visible behind my car advertised "fresh huckleberries" at the rate of $35.00 per gallon. In the words of Doc Holliday, "I'm your huckleberry."

On the trail early (10:00a) in the morning.

There were seven high (!) trestle bridges and ten tunnels carved into the mountains along the fifteen miles of ex-track. One bridge was around 250 ft high while the longest tunnel was 1.66 miles long. And pitch dark. Headlights are required.

Thinking about the construction of the tunnels and bridges forces one to realize the enormity of the engineering problem faced by those who explored the area in the early 1900s for possible routes along which to build this railway. The boss pointed out across the rugged landscape of the Bitterroots and said, "OK guys---make a train go from here to there."

A view from the trail looking down at a bridge. The percent grade of this trail is said to be 1.7%. (Aside: If you are like I was when first writing this post, it's driving you nuts not really knowing exactly what a "1.7% grade" means. I looked it up: percent grade is 100*(slope), where slope is rise per unit run. The relation between the angle above horizontal and percent grade is therefore (angle) = arctan(1/100 * percent grade). OK, that helps. A 45 degree angle is a 100% grade; a 6:12 pitch roof (slope of 6 / 12 = 0.5) has a percent grade of 50%. The interior angle formed in this case is arctan 0.5 ~ 26.6 degrees. The Hiawatha trail, then, should rise at arctan(1/100 * 1.7) ~ 0.974 degrees from the horizontal. There's a nice entry on this here.)

Angela looking great after about 20 miles on the trail.

The wildlife came right up to her--thankfully this critter was harmless..

And, speaking of wildlife..

We spent Saturday evening in Coeur d'Alene replenishing at a really good Chinese joint. Friday and Saturday nights we camped about 10 miles east of this town. We assembled at the Coeur d'Alene church Sunday, and walked along the Coeur d'Alene shoreline, pictured here, Sunday afternoon before heading home. It was our first time away from Mia, though we think it was harder for the parents than for her.

More pics here.

Thanks for looking! Have a great day.

-Chad

2009-08-31T21:26:00.002-06:00

So, it's been a while since we updated. Nothing earth shattering has been happening, just normal, fun stuff. There's been a little gardening:

A little hiking:

A little tiger-bustin':

A little shopping:

And a little down time in the park:

Stay tuned...

Seven Years Together

2009-08-09T09:30:00.007-06:00

Today is August 9th, 2009, our 7th anniversary. For your viewing pleasure, we've assembled one (sometimes two) pictures from each year since 2002. God has truly blessed us; we look forward to many more years to come.

Day one of our new life together, 2002: Virginia

2003: Pennsylvania

2003: Opryland Hotel, Tennessee

2004: Virginia

2005: Tetons, Wyoming

2006: Craters of the Moon, Idaho

2006: Michigan

2007: Knox Canyon, Idaho

2007: West Yellowstone, Idaho

2008: Knox Canyon, Idaho

2009: Iron Bog, Idaho

2009-08-08T20:07:00.001-06:00

It was one year ago today that this little face entered our life:

Life has never been the same since.

Travis and Joanna's Visit Part 3

2009-07-31T20:12:00.002-06:00

On Monday we went to Gibson Jack and did some hiking. This is one of my favorite trails to hike on--it's so beautiful.

As an added bonus--we saw a young bull moose at a fairly close distance:

Monday night the guys brought us roses and took us to dinner at Chilis--isn't that sweet?

Tuesday evening we played some put-put at a local course:

We were sad to see them go on Wednesday--we always enjoy spending time with these two. Chad and I have both been blessed with truly great families.

Travis and Joanna's Visit Part 2

2009-07-28T20:34:00.004-06:00

Here is a slideshow of our backpacking trip to Iron Bog. If you click on it, you will go to the Picasa web album and can view them larger. We all had a great time on this trip--buggy water and all. ;-)

Travis and Joanna's Visit Part 1

2009-07-26T09:42:00.004-06:00

Chad's brother and sister-in-law, Travis and Joanna, came out recently and spent a week with us. We all had a wonderful, albeit exhausting, time. As usual, we tried to fit as much in as we could. Consequently, I am going to split the visit up into 3 posts. That still won't do justice to the approx. 1700 pictures (we love you, Jana! ;-) we have, but it will give you a good idea of what we did.

They arrived on Wednesday, and on Thursday we all went to City Creek. Jana, Mia and I hiked

and took pictures while Chad and Travis biked the trail and played on 911 (a side trail carved in a 12ft. deep gulley with lots of hills and jumps).

Chad.

To be continued...

2009-07-13T21:25:00.002-06:00

Today was grocery day, which means nothing in the pantry, so to speak. Consequently, Chad and I ate at Taco Bell for lunch. Time was when I (who am not TB's biggest fan) loved to go there simply for the sauce packets. That's right--the sauce packets. For several years now (more than 6 at least) Taco Bell has been printing little sayings on the front of their sauce packets; and for the first couple years they really had some good ones. But, alas, the quality of said sayings is sadly lacking nowadays. But I digress. As I was saying, we ate lunch at Taco Bell today; and as Chad emptied his fifteenth (yes--15th) fire sauce packet, he commented to me how those little packets of hot sauce really reveal his addiction to hot foods--no, really, do you think so? Somehow, I don't think anyone needed the sauce packets as proof of that. ;-)

Anyway, we're very busy at chez Chad and Angela, getting ready for Chad's brother and his wife who are arriving Wednesday. So, as I scurry off to do more cleaning, I'll leave you with a few pictures from our trip to Bear Lake on Saturday:

My strong, handsome personal chauffeur for the day--how lucky am I?

Mia is absolutely terrified of water (she won't step in any puddles, and goes waaaay out of the way to bypass sprinklers) so of course she had some "swimming lessons"--i.e., we threw her in. She didn't like it one bit, but at least she knows it won't kill her. Poor little thing, she would swim to me and I would lift her out of the water, but her little legs would still be doing the swimming motion until I cuddled her or set her down on dry land. She did actually jump into the water on her own once, but promptly regretted the action and wanted back in the boat. Oh well, maybe she'll grow to like water some day.

Love to all,

Angela

Just a quick update:

2009-07-07T16:30:00.006-06:00

I recently finished a new wall hanging--it has taken up residence in my dining room:

just a few pictures from our playing in the park the other day:

Hope you're having a beautiful summer wherever you are!

2009-07-04T11:52:00.003-06:00

Happy 4th of July!

2009-06-18T22:19:00.003-06:00

As most of you already know, we currently have a houseguest of the four-legged variety. Yoda is staying with us for a month while Matt and Christine are in Europe. Mia absolutely loves having him here--they've been having so much fun playing and going for walks:

Then in the evenings when Chad's up late working on Math:

:-)

Keelings visit June 2009

2009-06-11T21:26:00.003-06:00

This past weekend my parents came out and stayed a few days with us. We had planned to do some sight-seeing; but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate, and it rained almost the whole time they were here. However, we still had a wonderful visit and spent our time just being together which is the most important thing.

Here's a picture of my parents snapped in one of those rare times between rain:

Photography is my dad's hobby, and he takes some beautiful pictures. Here's one he took out here:

If you want to see some more of his pictures, check out my parents blog; I can also show you some of my favorites if you're at my place sometime.

On our way to take them back to Salt Lake City, we drove through Rattlesnake Gap, pictured here as you approach it:

It's a spectacular piece of countryside. Thankfully, the rain let up just long enough to take some pictures.

And, as usual, my mom and I did some shopping and crafting (no visit is complete without both of these ;-). One of the things we did was to put the binding on this wall hanging that my mom made and graciously let me have:

Isn't it stunning? It's currently hanging in my living room while I wait for the one we made at Christmas to be quilted. I'm telling you, with two such talented parents I have a lot to live up to :-)

And one more picture--while they were here, my dad very kindly took some pictures for me of the sweater I made for my niece who is due in October:

Oh, how cute baby things are! As the first grandchild/niece, she is going to have lots of home made cute stuff!

Now that winter is totally gone...i.e. how slowly I knit

2009-05-30T19:29:00.002-06:00

Now that winter is totally over, I have finished the hat I was knitting for Chad. Part slow knitting, part busy schedule, part being distracted by other crafts--oh well, at least he's ready for next winter. :-) Here's a close-up shot:

Here's a shot of Mia helping Chad model (she's a pro):

And one last shot from our hike on City Creek on Memorial Day:

Vintage Wedding Refashioned Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-05-29T10:31:00.000-06:00

I am constantly amazed at how some people can just look at an old garmet and see so much potential, and then take that garment and give it a new, beautiful life. I think Kathleen over at Grosgrain is uber talented at this, and I just love what she comes up with. Check out the dress below for instance:

Vintage Wedding Refashioned Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Isn't that just lovely? If only I had a drop of such creativity, sigh.

Saturday excursion

2009-05-24T08:34:00.003-06:00

We went to Twin Falls, ID yesterday to explore the area a little bit. It was truly worth the hour and 45 minute drive. Here are a few pictures of our day; to view the entire album go here.

This was the sight that greeted us immediately off the Twin Falls exit--spectacular! That's the Snake River flowing under the bridge.

The area is known for it's natural springs that cascade down the hillside. They are made by an underground river system that collects water from a large part of the state and comes out here.

Malad River Gorge(ous!) :-)

Hagerman (pop. 275) Public Library.

Turkeys! These guys were just hanging out on the side of the road.

Perrine Bridge.

Malad River Gorge. 6o ft. waterfall in the background.

Ever wonder where Powerade comes from? Now you know. ;-)

Ethan's visit

2009-05-20T21:57:00.006-06:00

Greetings, All! Earlier this month, Angela and I were visited by a friend from our college days. Ethan came up from his home in New Mexico and spent 3 days with us. We really enjoyed the visit. I don't remember how I first met Ethan, but I do have plenty of good memories of our time together at Freed-Hardeman. If I told any stories on Ethan, he could get me back double, so I refrain. Suffice it to say we had lots of fun during those few fleeting years.

As I generally enjoy doing with out-of-town visitors (typically family), I took it as my personal responsibility to wear Ethan out. After picking him up at the airport, we visited the Salt Lake LDS Temple, learning some interesting things about the Temple grounds and LDS beliefs in general. Tuesday, we played over 3 hours of racquetball, worked out in the ISU weight room, and topped it off with some climbing on the rock wall. In the evenings, we played guitar and chatted. On Wednesday we climbed Kinport peak after biking in to the ISU campus from my house and doing some warm-up mountain biking. Of course, after the climb we rode 7 miles back home. This is me on the trail.

Ethan was overwhelmed by the moment and found himself suddenly in the Matrix...

"Mr. Anderson..."

Here's an old picture I ran across from college--I believe this was one of Ethan's birthday parties. He's the one in the white shirt.

Let's not wait til the next family reunion to get together!

Drip, drip, drop--little April showers...

2009-04-28T20:32:00.003-06:00

I always thought that was a cute song from Bambi. It has been raining today (although cold--and possible snow in the forecast), but that's beside the point. We have now come to that time of year when we start seeds for our garden. We went with something new this year; it's a tray with "pellets"--little rolls of peat that grow when you get them wet. They're pretty neat little things, and very entertaining--Chad had a blast watching them grow :-)

Once they're completely wet and "full-grown" as it were, you plant your seeds, put the lid on, and keep them misted until they sprout. We're eager to see how well they work.

Here's just a sampling of what we planted. We started: jalapenos, dill, coleus, salvia, basil, lavender, thyme, green beans, and garlic chives (yum!). We're also going to plant some tomatoes, but since we had such bad luck last year we decided to buy established plants this year. In addition, my strawberries and both sedums came back this year, AND I got a surprise peony that came up unlooked for. We're really excited to see how everything does. I'll be sure and post pictures as things progress.

As a bonus, here's a picture from a recent hike on City Creek:

Holocaust Remembrance Day--April, 21, 2009

2009-04-21T09:14:00.005-06:00

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."
--Martin Niemoller

Let this be a reminder to us that although we may not agree with a person's (or group's) politics or religious beliefs, no one deserves to be treated unjustly or inhumanely. If we don't speak out against such evil--there will be no one left to speak up on our behalf. Consider the words of Wilm Hosenfeld, a captain in the German army credited with saving several Jews:

"God allows all this to happen ... to show mankind that without him we are only animals in conflict, who believe we have to destroy each other. We will not listen to the divine commandment: "Love one another" ... and must die, guilty and innocent alike."

2009-04-19T20:15:00.013-06:00

There has been quite a blog silence here lately, and I apologize for that. Our only excuse, it seems, is that we've all been sleeping on the job ;-)

Anyway, since nothing earth shattering has happened lately, and I haven't taken many pictures either--here's a video of Mia doing her most recent trick:

Birds of a feather....

2009-03-21T22:37:00.005-06:00

YAY!!!

I am just loving these birds from this site. I have about 15 made so far, and no signs of slowing down--they're really addicting. I think I'm going to use them as my theme for Christmas this year, too. The ones pictured here, by the way, are hanging in the living room. Branch courtesy of City Creek Trail. :-)

Craft update

2009-03-17T15:49:00.004-06:00

We've been really busy lately, but haven't taken many pictures--so I took some of my current craft projects and thought I'd share them.

OK, so this is not really a craft project, but I bought these cute birds (they're actually Christmas ornaments) at Cracker Barrel when I was home. They're currently "on trial" in the window as I haven't decided if I like them there yet--what do you think?

These are some squares I bought on Ebay; I really like the colors and patterns. This is not a finished project, but rather contemplation--of how they look together and what they might want to become. I'm thinking a new wall-hanging for the dining room is in order, so once I find a few more fabrics to add in to make it bigger I'll post again.

College friends of ours are expecting their second child in April. I crocheted this blanket for their little girl when she was born (picture cropped weird to cut out the baby, as I don't have permission to post her picture):

When she found out she was expecting again, she asked me if I could make a blanket for this baby, too. As this one's a boy, I didn't think he'd want a lacy crocheted blanket; so I'm making this one:

I'll post better pictures of the fabric when I get farther; but I had to post this one because no matter what craft I'm working on, Mia loves to "help". :-) The red fabric is dogs driving cars and then a blue and white stripe between. I know you were probably hoping this was for a different little "bun"; but don't worry, there will be an update and a picture of the craft in that sector soon. (And for those of you who don't know, NO IT'S NOT ME ;-)

Here's a wall hanging I'm working on as a gift--doesn't it make you think of Tuscany?

My latest craze has been these little stuffed birds. This is just a preview--more pics to follow soon ;-)

Whew! I'm tired just looking at all these projects, and the sad thing is these aren't all the ones I currently have going! It's like potato chips--you can't have just one!

Bowling and Numchuck Skills

2009-02-28T12:31:00.008-07:00

We had a good time bowling with friends last night at the ISU Rec Center. I recorded a some video of people bowling, so this morning, I played around with iMovie (Mac program) and made the following. Enjoy!

I believe you can expect a post from Angela in the near f.

God bless you all.

Anyone can cook....

2009-02-23T17:54:00.003-07:00

Or so Gusteau says (Ratatouille, anyone? :-) When Chad and I were in college we made bread almost every weekend while we studied. Recently, we decided to revive the tradition. It really is fun and very YUMMY!

We've made two batches this past week--one regular and one jalapeno cheddar--so good!

I also made a German chocolate cake from scratch this week--it was delicious. I got the recipe from a Gooseberry Patch book--their Christmas books are wonderful.

Can you tell what this is? This was one of my Valentine's gifts from Chad; he went out to the ice skating rink right next door (which was covered in snow) and skated this in the snow for me. Isn't he sweet?

The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-02-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

For those of you who like to sew (or like fashion for that matter), you have got to go see this adorable coat. Oh, how I wish I had this kind of talent!

2009-02-16T18:04:00.005-07:00

Here's a look at my latest craft project:

There will eventually be four of each (and possible other combinations). This is a little tame for my usual taste, but I like it. More pics as I progress.

This is really hard to see, but the other day it was snowing; and as the snow landed you could see the perfect shape of the flakes. It was so beautiful!

M & C went out of town this weekend, so Mia and Yoda had a sleepover Saturday night. They seemed to have a good time. Yoda's a good sport and tolerates Mia tormenting him constantly.

This picture was just too cute not to post. Guess he didn't want to be kissed, even on Valentine's Day ;-)

Today is President's Day and we were both off, so we went for a hike on City Creek. It was great to get out and enjoy the outdoors, albeit a little cold. Chad took this picture--the creek was iced over, but something broke through here. From the looks of the tracks around the hole, we think it might have been a raccoon. Poor guy--bet that was cold!

2009-02-13T14:26:00.001-07:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-01-30T07:57:00.002-07:00

Here's an update on Chad's progress on the engine. He finally got everything disconnected and ready to pull the engine out of the car. We borrowed an engine puller from the Mitchells last Saturday, and we pulled the engine out Sunday morning. It is now sitting on a stand in the garage and ready to be rebuilt (or replaced if we decide to go that route).

That little bulge there on the lower left is the transmission. Now I know absolutely nothing about cars, but I was really surprised it was that small!

My job was to steady the engine as we moved it around--for that I got a gratuitous picture with said engine. Notice I'm doing all this in the cold in my pajamas--and I'm wondering why I'm sick this week. :-) Mia got to watch all of this from the front seat of the Honda so we didn't have to worry about her getting an engine dropped on her head or licking up antifreeze.

Another project Chad has undertaken lately is homemade beef jerky. We bought this dehydrator off of Craigslist (Chad bargained the price down, of course ;-) He used a basic recipe for the first go--it will be fun to try different things. It turned out pretty good; although I did get tired of my house smelling like liquid smoke.

This post is turning out to be all about Chad's projects, and this is no exception. He decided (not sure why) that Mia needed a major haircut in the middle of winter. She's really getting better about tolerating the clippers, but I still had to use scissors for her neck, head, and legs. Check out that pile of hair--Mia must have lost at least half her body mass! She really did look pretty funny after we were done.

This was taken after the haircut. It's hard to tell the difference from a picture, but everyone here who has seen her lately has agreed she looks really different and lots smaller!

Yet another post....

2009-01-17T10:11:00.002-07:00

The ice fog has continued throughout the week. We got up this morning and took Mia for a walk and took some pictures. Just thought we'd share a few:

People pay to buy Christmas trees that look like this, and here it is naturally occuring!

:-)

Notice the ice that formed on Mia's face while we were out (wonder if this is what she'll look like when she's old? :-) If you look closely you can also see that some formed in my hair. This is such a beautiful thing--but it's also really cold!

Crafting exploits

2009-01-17T09:48:00.003-07:00

I came back from vacation with the crafting fire lit under me; consequently, I have been fairly productive in the limited time I have for such things.

Here's the wall hanging with the borders on it:

Now it's ready for quilting. I think I'm going to find someone who has a longarm machine and pay them to quilt it for me. They can do really neat designs with those machines and are very accurate and neat--if I tried to quilt it by hand I would just make a mess of it. I'm thinking about having it done with metallic thread to add some shimmer--what do you think?

As I said in my last post, I helped my mom go through some really old fabrics when we were home. There were quite a few pieced quilt tops in the mix at various stages of damage. This is one of them that she let me have:

Isn't it great? I love the colors and the mixture of fabrics. The pattern is called Drunkard's Path (sorry, that's really what it is). It had several places where the seams (which were all hand pieced) were coming apart and a couple holes left by mice; but I have now finished fixing all of that and it is ready to finish. What a fun addition to my decor!

Part of the crafting fire I've had manifested itself in the desire to make my own cleaners. My first try at this is laundry detergent. Here are the ingredients:

Grating the soap (note to self: next time do this in a well ventilated area i.e. outside :-):

The finished project (that's an old laundry detergent box I'm using to store it in):

Chad and I did some quick math and just on the surface it looks like we're going to save around 20-30 cents a load--woohoo! I'll let you know how it works when I wash clothes today.

ice crystals and plenums

2009-01-16T19:13:00.018-07:00

For several months now, I've wanted to rebuild to one degree or another my 3000GT. With the Honda's arrival back in July (I think), this suddenly became possible, as we no longer needed to depend on the ol' 3K. After the Chubbuck PD put a warning sticker on my window (saying something very much like, "move your car and we'll burn your house to the ground"), I moved it into the garage to get it off the street. Well, long story not quite so long, I started shortly after we got back from vacation. Here are a few pictures of the progress, taken not only to keep a diary of sorts, but also to help me remember how things go back together...

This first picture shows a well-engineered approach to... being too impatient to wait for Angela to get home and help me lift the hood off. It actually worked quite well and was a very rewarding experience, as rewarding experiences go. At the same time, it was intimidating. Taking off the hood of a car is something that... well... I've never done before (did I mention I'm planning to take the engine out?). It was also intimidating because once you've taken the hood off, there's nothing for it but to get to work.

As I said, I've been taking myriads of pictures to minimize the "where in the round world does this wire go?" effect. When this pic was taken, I had the axles out of the transmission, the exhaust disconnected from the manifolds, and various/sundry items tossed under my workbench. By the way, PB Blaster is very effective at loosening stubborn bolts. And if it doesn't work, buy a bigger ratchet. Ideally from your local Checker Auto Parts.

At this point, the engine is ready to pull out, except for the fuel lines (the plural is correct here), 3/4 engine mounts, and some wires (why are there so many wires on an engine?). Since school has started, I go out for about an hour after Angela and I eat dinner, accomplish something, take 9000 pictures of what I did, and go back in.

My long-term goal is a fairly complete restoration; short-term goal is an as-complete-as-I-can-afford restoration of the power-train. I'm taking it one s. at a t., and will do what I feel comfortable doing in the rebuild process. I've already semi-rebuilt the power window mechanisms and doors, removed the tint from the windows (see previous blog--August 08, perhaps), and begun some interior work. Angela is enjoying the project as much as could be expected--she's a good sport--and has assisted at some critical points (e.g., she headed up the tint removal--not a task for the weak of stomach!). Thanks for your help, Hon!

Since Wednesday, Pocatello has been almost constantly covered in a very dense fog, particularly in the early mornings. Consequently, some very pretty frost formations have manifested themselves, such as this one that Angela captured on her phone.

One must pause at times to take in the marvels of this physical world. On Wednesday morning at 9:41 as I was heading over to the library from my office, I saw a glistening all around me. As I looked, teeny, tiny ice crystals were falling densely all around me. They were so small that when they hit your skin they didn't even leave a visible droplet of water--they seemed to sublimate. With the sun shining brightly, the whole area was shimmering beautifully, particularly in the rays of the sun. I took this picture with my phone to try to capture it. Unfortunately, you cannot enlarge it here. Go to http://picasaweb.google.com/chalkuhns/IceFog# to see large version (still just a phone camera shot--note the sparkles toward the bottom). Amazing! I wish you could have been there! I did some looking on flickr, google, etc., but couldn't find what I saw Wednesday morning. It seems what I saw was quite rare--I'm very thankful to have seen it. When I returned from the library 5 minutes later, it was almost gone. I later learned (independently, from two reliable sources--thanks, guys!) that this is called ice fog (aka diamond dust, etc.). If anyone has any pictures of this phenom., I'd appreciate a link or a file. Marvels indeed!

Thanks for reading! May God bless you.

Quick Christmas recap

2009-01-09T06:13:00.004-07:00

As most of you know, we went home for two weeks at Christmas. Despite delays and frustrations with our flights, we had a great time. We were able to spend one week with each of our families--here's just a few pictures from each place.

This is my parents' house.

While were there we had the chance to visit the Holocaust Museum of Virginia--it was really interesting and well worth the visit. A little disturbing, but very educational. This is us with my parents (on the right); the gentleman in the middle is a Holocaust survivor named Alex Lebenstein--he gave us a personal tour and told his story of survival, very moving. I think we all came away with a more personal view of the Holocaust because of him--his goal in his last years is to increase knowledge of such events and promote tolerance so these kinds of atrocities will stop.

This is Mia with two of her new friends--Sweetie on the left and Yogi on the right. She had such a blast the whole trip. She absolutely loved my parents' three dogs and Chad's parents' two (Chad has a couple of very entertaining videos of her and her friends.) Add to this that both of her "Grandmas" ;-) absolutely spoiled her rotten with treats and attention--it's a wonder she didn't vote to secede from the family and join theirs! ;-)

My parents took us to a really good Mexican restaurant that was unique in two ways: 1) they use only organic products and free range meat and 2) look at that condiment bar! Now this is Chad's idea of eating! :-)

Every time we visit, my mom and I get involved in some kind of project (usually more than one). This time was no different--I helped her go through some really old fabric and quilt tops (and brought some home!) and we made the wall-hanging in the picture. Isn't it stunning? I can't take too much credit for it as all I did was cut it out and iron the seams (and rip some out;-) I still have to put the borders on it--I can't wait to get it done and hang it up. This is one of my favorite "traditions" with her--we always have so much fun and make really cool stuff!

While we're crafting, Chad and my dad usually tackle a project as well. Last time it was tearing out kitchen cabinets, and this time it was stocking up the woodpile. They cut down trees and then cut them into logs and split them--they did it now so they'll be dry by next winter. They got several big stacks done--it's a lot of work!

This is Chad's parents' house--they got this snow while we were there.

Bonnie (Chad's mom) bought this gingerbread house kit and Joanna and I put it together. I think we did a pretty good job--it was a lot harder than it looked!

A tradition with Chad's family is that every time we visit we play games--lots and LOTS of games morning, noon, and night. Here we're playing Cranium--we also played lots of Balderdash, Scattergories, and Gestures. I always come home feeling smarter than when I left!

Of course at both places we ate like pigs--tons of good food! This particular spread was courtesy of Chad's aunt and uncle--all the food on the table is homemade (except the Pepsi and Jana's rootbeer, of course).

Coming home we got stuck in the Detroit airport for about six hours--here Mia and I are passing the time. Mia was an absolute darling the whole trip--she didn't cause one bit of trouble.

On a side note--one of Chad's aunts sold her house recently and is building another one. She had three pianos and didn't want the trouble of moving them, so she gave two away. Chad's mom snagged one for herself (a player piano) and this one for us:

It's an Everett baby grand piano, built circa 1906-1907--isn't it beautiful? When Bonnie called to ask if we wanted it, I almost cried with happiness. It's in great shape--it needs refinished and some minor work on the mechanical components, but I am so thrilled!

An interior shot.

Whew! Now you're caught up on our holidays--hope you all had wonderful holidays as well. God was truly good to us in 2008--may He bless us and you all in 2009 as well!

2008-12-10T21:52:00.003-07:00

As most of you know, we have been busy caroling lately. The weekend after Thanksgiving we went to a fundraiser at the local dinner theater. It was a "Gingerbread cook-off" to benefit Habitat for Humanity. There were a lot of really neat gingerbread constructions there; here are just a few of them:

Texas Roadhouse

Anybody know what this one is? ;-)

This one was my favorite--everything there is made out of food of some sort, even the trees!

Look at the bark on that birdhouse--neat, huh?

Group shot. I tried to take out the red-eye, but it just gave us big black eyes instead. :-)

Just another scenery shot from our latest hike on City Creek.

All of the trails on City Creek are named--we got a kick out of this one.

Thanksgiving and Fun!

2008-11-29T14:01:00.009-07:00

Greetings! We hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving, and found as many things to be thankful for as Angela and I did.

The ice below was in City Creek a few days ago. It had been in the 40s and 50s, so we were surprised to find this ice and frost nearby (in the middle of the day). Must be a bit colder near the creek.

Thursday we went tree hunting with Matt and Christine to Knox Canyon (an hour SW of Pocatello, el. ~8500ft). There was some snow to be found at high elevations and in the shadow of the mountain, but not much at all. When we did find some, we took some pictures of me working out:

It took me until now to realize why my abs were sore:

Can you tell we're sledding down the hill? Cause we're not, but that's what we were going for:

M & C (and Y(oda))

Mia and Yoda modeling their sweaters Angela made:

Mia had a blast--this is pretty much what she did the whole time:

Air under her tires:

After returning with our tree, Angela got to work. Here's the finished p:

Garland Angela made; wall hanging Jessica made us last year:
Seed pods and pine cones designed by Angela--very nice!
Everything on the tree is handmade (by Angela) except the ribbon.

Post: Hand-designed by Chad ;-)

2008-11-17T17:38:00.003-07:00

Chad and I have been hiking on City Creek the last two weekends--enjoying the nice weather while it lasts. Here's a picture from two weeks ago:

I haven't had much time for crafting lately, but I have managed to make a few little things like these moose:

Aren't they adorable? They're going to be part of my Christmas decorations this year. I try to do a theme every year--last year was red, white, and gold and snowmen; this year is my tribute to Idaho with the moose and more of a country theme.

Also, I made Mia a Christmas sweater; here it is blocking:

Here's Mia modeling it--she looks like she's trying to see the snowflake on her back, doesn't she? Unfortunately, the sweater was way too big for her, so we gave it to cousin Yoda. I must say it looks just as cute on him.

Family traits...

2008-10-16T20:20:00.002-06:00

If Mia were our child and not our dog, she couldn't have taken after us much more than she already has. It's uncanny--we have all three had Parvo, Mia and I both have allergies and a sensitive stomach, and she inherited Chad's penchant for hot foods. When he offered her one of his flaming hots I thought she would take one lick and spit it out, but to our amazement she loved it! In fact, she begged for more. Go figure--before we know it she'll be wanting Tabasco on her dog food. ;-)

I'm really getting into the whole knitted dog sweater thing. I'm making one for both of my parents' little dogs. Here is the one for Sweetie (she's a peekapoo):

Chad, Mia, and I took a walk on a local trail tonight, and it was so quiet and lovely. Isn't this a pretty picture? I'm not sure whether to expect to see hobbits or elves come out of those trees.