'Tis the Season

You should really check out Krysta's contest......pure brilliance.

INGs....

Finishing....reading Divisidero hoping that the end is not lame.
Thinking....about the holidays and what food I want to make.
Wishing....I could make these cute mouse cookies right now.....but it is still too early. Oh, and the ones I saw actually were on a ginger cookie, which I think would be yummy.

Aspiring....to keep it simple this Christmas. 
Loving...my new bracelet from Karin Jacobson. It is leather....unlike her other stuff...but boy is her other stuff fabulous.
Appreciating...my children and how often they make me laugh.
Dreaming....of some trips to come for myself and the family.
Appreciating....people that are crafty.
Laughing....at myself for the expensive mistakes I made this month.
Freaking...out about the dead squirrel remains that were found on our porch...courtesy of our resident fox.
Wanting....some more jersey wrap dresses...they are super comfy.
Learning...to slowly use my knee again....but slowly is not good enough.  I want to be running.....right now.  But yoga is in my future.
Loving...my group of friends on Facebook that keep me laughing daily.
Appreciating...my fantastic family.
Anticipating....a fun next few weeks.



Fleet Foxes "White Winter Hymnal"

Pictures seem to express the words I want to say lately.....

Playing with my new camera....and loving it a lot.

New York, Night Time, Fall 2010

Off to the Big Apple

But to hold you over......more cutie patootie pictures....and oh for your extra special viewing treat....a VIDEO.....the future Donnie and Marie.....

The above is the engineering team that recently designed the largest train track in the world.

Pumpking carving with the cousins.

Daddy and Mason...the happy pumpkin

Beautiful girl

I Got Poladroid to Work!!

If I had one ounce of the talent....

Okay, so I like to cuss once and awhile, but anyways, in a dream world I would love to hang this in my kids' rooms.

That print and many other equally fantastic prints can be found on ETSY under The Big Harumph's page (thanks to Heather...I am stealing your idea and reposting here.)

Which brings me to another cool thing that I wish I could get to work on my computer but I think that my computer is so old that it won't work with it.....Poladroid.....a program that turns digital pictures into pictures that look like Polaroids......YEAH HOW COOL IS THAT??  I would love to show you an example but thanks to Microsoft that is not going to happen....(just kidding Bill).....but you can see examples over here at.)  Again, I stole this idea from Amy Tangerine......

Causes

The dead honest truth is that the only show that I religiously watch, or for that matter even know what channel or time it is on, is 60 Minutes.  One of the segments in yesterdays episode was about how many homeless vets there are that are coming back from recent wars.....the whole thing made me ill. It made me cry.  It made me angry.  It made me proud for the volunteers that try to help them.  These people have gone through severe trauma and often times turn to drugs and alcohol to deal with the PTSD or the anxiety  and what does our country do...NOTHING.  The system is crowded/bogdowned/full......"Hey Buddy, Thanks for your service, now go rot in an alleyway."

So then I started thinking, I wonder how I could volunteer or what cause could I donate to and I just stopped......it is overwhelming....not the same overwhelming feeling those vets are having, but the everyday feeling of "I have very little time, but I want to do something...so what should I do?  What causes should I support?.  Who should I not support?  Who should I give my money to?  Where should I spend my money? Local business/Large corporation?  Organic food/corn syrup/aspartame?  What gas station can I go to?"

Things have gotten so complicated and tiresome.  There are so many issues and so many issues you have to take sides on.  In Minnesota alone, there was the debacle over Target and others giving large sums to an anti-gay rights candidate for governor......I am for equal rights and gay marriage....but I am also for freedom of speech...but I am anti-corporation(big money) in politics ...oh but wait, Target gives a lot of money to local Minnesota schools and to the arts.  SO WHAT THE HELL DO YOU DO?

Then there is the Tea Party, ya love to hate'em, but the reality is that it least they are showing the world that the two party system doesn't work.

Then you have your charities...there are so many good ones...but who do you support financially?  Everyone is hurting, but who is hurting more?  I love the old teen clinic I used to work for, but then I like to support the NRDC because they support land preservation....but I also like to support some medical charities because they have touched my family.  Which brings me to a few weeks ago, Melinda Gates (wife of Bill) was on (60 Minutes) talking about their foundation.  Scott Pelley naively asked her why she had chosen malaria over something like cancer that touches more people and basically she said in a very classy way that they like to support the illnesses that are underserved. 

And sooooo as I sit here and contemplate this all,  I think I will work to support one really small, but very mighty and very important cause, and that is my children.  I will get off this computer and go work with Mason on colors and Dilly on her letters and words.  I will work with my school district and make sure they are getting the support they need and if I have any time leftover, then I will worry about the million causes that are out there. 

So thank you Melinda Gates and 60 Minutes for bringing me back down to Earth. And home.

Harvest Time & Again, Long Lost Pictures, Sort of

Knee with graffiti (new pretty ACL)-4 sets of stiches, two bioabsorble screws, one day on nerve block, one day on vicodin and VOILA...new knee for stepping on low lying train tracks.

Pears that our neighbor gave us

Child Labor-Apple Sauce making

Disgruntled workers on the applesauce assembly line.

My delicious tomatillos with garlic--ready for roasting

Colorful peppers

Jordan's clone

Hunky apple picker

Boy in hat

Destroyers of koy pond ecosystem

First day of school

LAMMMMMMEEEEE----OOOOOOO

Apparently all of my creative influence was somehow located in my ACL and so when it was removed and replaced with cadaever ACL....it was as if I got the ACL from some boring sap of a person--BECAUSE MAN I can barely pull a blog post out of my patootie.  I also think it made me go from a night person to a morning person. Last night I went to bed at 10:00....that is unheard of in these parts. 

It also seems that in my long absence that I can no longer upload pictures to my blog (AGH!)...