Unwanted visitor

Not sure if you can see him, but we had a racoon visit yesterday. Would have been okay, if he would have stayed off the back porch and in the compost pile at the end of our property. But he didn't. He came up on the porch to see what was in the garbage pail. When he came close, we noticed he was NASTY! He had huge patches of fur missing, he looked gross. He was fat, though, so I'm guess the little sucker isn't missing any meals. He's in between the trees, I think this is the picture of his back.

Clay Nation

For Christmas the girls each got a tub of air dry clay. They love it and have to make something, just about every time they are here. So now they have quite the collection of clay people. See the clay person towards the right, that is pink and with big black eyes? It was painted normal, but for some reason, while painting the others, they attacked this one. Now she looks like that:)
Here they are playing with the clay people. Today they made even more people out of play doh and are waiting to for them to dry. We're being overrun:)

Winter fun

Sean is going to be gone for the next week and a half for a bike rally in Florida. So we had the girls over this weekend so he could spend time with them before he left. First, we went sledding down at the school. Down the same hill that Abby crashed on last time. We took innertubes this time. Crappy part, the tubes popped. Now we have to get new ones for the summer. bummer. Then I took the girls ice skating. They have gotten pretty good. Abby especially, she only fell a few times, and it's only her 3rd time on the ice. Sabrina is pretty good too, she stayed up the entire time.
Once they got home, they wanted to make a snowman. Too bad there wasn't enough snow. There was a layer of ice under the 1" of snow. And that inch wasn't sticky enough to build anything. Sean tried to use a bucket to get the snowman started, but the snow wouldn't come out after it got packed in. So everyone tried to bang it out of the bucket.
Since it was too hard to make a snowman, the girls moved on to other stuff and Sean came in the house. bummer:)

Sled Riding, a day late

Sean got home form work last night and said "you guys want to go sled riding?" The girls thought he meant out in the back yard. Uh, no. First stop was Target to try and find another cheap sled. We only have one, and we thought life would be easier if we had 2. Did ya know Target puts everything on sale/clearance WAY early? No sleds left, but they have quite a selection of pool gear. Oy! We get to the best hill in the neighborhood and this is what we find. Big tracts of dirt and grass. Kids had been sledding on it all day and the sun was out, so a lot of the snow was gone. But did that stop us? I think not! We tried to stay on the little bit of snow that was left. What a blast.
The girls were so excited that the first couple of times they ran back up the hill. Didn't take long for them to start walking up, once they got down:)
Sean and I even went down once. No proof of me, I had the camera safely in my pocket. We had a lot of fun. The girls stayed away from the goalposts that are at the bottom of the hill, for the most part. Sabrina came close once, and scared her dad half to death. Only Abby fell off the sled, she bit it pretty hard. Her face is now scratched up a little, which probably wouldn't have if there would have been a little more snow. O well, life goes on!

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

This last week was the crappiest week when it comes to weather. Today, however, was a change of pace. Still cold, but the sun was shining and there isn't a cloud in the sky. Beautiful. Had to take a picture of the icicles on the back deck. They looked so cool with the sun shining through them. I didn't even notice them until the really large ones fell off the roof and crashed really loudly:) Then I took a picture of the little ones that were left.

Creative Kiddos

Sabrina and Abby decided they wanted to make puppets. And I wouldn't let them use socks. All they had available for their project was a bag full material scraps, from projects that I have worked on in the past. They made the best of it.
Here they are, hard at work. Here is the finished product:) 2 crows. They have wings and everything. These girls are too funny.

Happy Valentine's Day

Sean isn't a big cookie person, except when it comes to chocolate chip cookies. So I made him a huge heart choco-chip cookie for V-Day. It would have looked better, but I had a little trouble with the can of frosting I got from the store. Usually I make my own, but I was really lazy, so I had to buy it. I think I'll make my own from now on:)

Be careful what you wish for!!

After church Sunday a bunch of us were standing around talking about the lack of snow that we have had in Pittsburgh this winter, and that our kids really hadn't had any to play in. Uh, we shouldn't have said a word! This was what we woke up to this mornin'. Even in Pittsburgh, that means no school today, which was kind of a bummer, cause I was supposed to go to work. Oh, well. This would be what our driveway looked like after I shoveled. As you can see, since the snow is still coming down, in about an hour, my work will have been useless. O well, it was exercise. As of now, I think there is about 6 inches out there. If there weather man is for real, it'll all be gone by Thursday, cause it's supposed to warm up again. Gotta love this city:)

This is what I did today:)

Can I just say, I LOVE day to day subbing!!!!! All I have to do is babysit for 8 hours, go home and not worry about anything at the school. The down side is the fact that I may not have a job on any given day, but eh, not a big deal. Such was the case today. I got up at 5:30 to secure a job for the day. Believe it or not, no one wanted a Friday off, what are these people thinking? It was not a bad thing, however. I had lots and lots of time to get some stuff done. Stuff that I have been wanting to work on FOREVER!! And since I was up and had already done some yoga, there was no way I was going to be able to go back to sleep.
Yesterday I had the day off on purpose. Calc 2 is kicking my butt and I needed to study, so while I was working on math, I was doing laundry, but didn't have time to do much else. Today was a bonus:)
I actually got about 8 scrapbook pages done. YES! I have been collecting pictures and paper for the past year. I have quite the collection, let me tell ya. I still have pic's from when we first moved to Williamsburg, yeah, that was over a year ago, almost 2 now, that are not in the scrapbook. This blogging thing also inhibits the scrapbooking, I figure it's online, so I don't have to make a hard copy. oy. The other half of the day I spent in front of the sewing maching trying to make a baby blanket. Yeah, had to put that on pause when I had to rip out a seem and then had to go pick up Abby. Will probably pick up on it again tomorrow, maybe Monday, the baby isn't due for a while, so I have a minute to get it done. Today was a great day, I felt like I got a lot accomplished. I even got to read a few chapters in my latest mystery! I love productive days off:)

Remember when..

Playing with letter magnets on the fridge was cool?! I found a box of these today and couldn't help myself. I had to put them on the fridge...... and of course, see what I could spell:) These used to be my favorite when I was little, I think we had at least 2 sets on our fridge. By the time I was a teenager, I'm sure it was down to about 4 or 5 letters.
But, ah, the memories:) These definitely make me smile!

They'd rather be doing what?

I offered to take the girls ice skating today. More for my benefit than theirs:) I love to ice skate, and need the exercise! So when I brought it up this morning, there was a "pal in the air." They didn't want to go!!! What?!! There went my exercise for the day. But I'm not about to force them to go, I'd have to listen to them complain the entire time:) And it saved us about 10 bucks. It's still a little chilly out, and what little snow we got last night is still on the ground, as well as some ice. So the girls decided that sliding down the drive way was much better than ice skating:) One would go down on the sled while the other ran beside, "racing." They looked like they were having fun, so there are no complaints here.
At the end of one run, Abby started spinning herself in circles. Then Sabrina decided to help her with her spinning. They crack me up:)

Happy Chinese New Year

Sabrina learned how to make Chinese latterns in school on Friday, from the 6th graders, so she had to show Abby. In school, they learned about the Chinese New Year while making the latterns. But not the whole story:) Sabrina said that the Chinese like to celebrate New Years more than once, or something along those lines. Sometimes you can't help but laugh at the details that they actually pick up. I had to fill her in that the Chinese calender went back a lot farther than ours and they have been celebrating New Year's on a different day for thousands of years. I didn't want to get into the whole moon thing, mainly because I wasn't 100% sure on the details.
After making their latterns they went to their room and had a Chinese New Year Party. Gotta love their ingenuity:)

Not such a beautiful day in the neighborhood

We woke up friday to a lovely mess! I get up early to find subbing jobs. I'm thinking it's like any other Friday, and I will have my pick of jobs. Uh-uh. School was delayed for 2 hours because of the coating of ice that was on everything. Most teachers won't bother using a sick or personal day for only, what amounts to, a half day of school. Here are the trees in the back yard. I used my real camera to take much better pictures. I'm wondering if I can scan then in once I get them back from the store. The one downfall of film cameras. I can't wait to get a real digital camera!
Here's the front yard and the road. As you can see, driving was fun. The good part was that the temperature warmed up to about 40, before it got cold again at night. and snowed. I love the roller coaster that is the weather here:)