Shamrock

It's a little early, but top o' the morning to ya.

Cake!

Delaney's birthday cake. It looked better than it tasted.

Bananas

This snow will drive you

Laney's Birthday

A couple of shots of the birthday girl.


I got her a Snuggie. You know you're jealous.

Happy 13th Birthday to Delaney!

Thirteen years ago today...
...my little baby girl was born.

Happy Birthday, Delaney!!
(That's Tillie's butt in the foreground. She liked to stay close to her babies!)

It was also seven years ago today that Annette and Dean's little baby boy Declan was born. Happy Birthday, Declan!!

Boo

Another wet, heavy snowstorm. We lost power for 18 hours. Not too bad, especially since we had the generator going and were able to run the furnace and water pump.

Cam went out to clean off the satellite dishes in the afternoon so we'd be up and running when the power came back on. I took this through the dining room window. I didn't venture farther than the garage doors.


That's a four foot fence. The TV satellite was almost completely buried, and the internet one was caked with snow (that happens a lot).

Dad always wants to know how much snow we got in the latest storm (I'm guessing he laughs maniacally when he gets off the phone). It's always hard to tell when there's already snow on the ground. We got this much (that's the light on my garage):

We think it was somewhere between 18 and 24 inches. Mom and Jim got over 2 feet, and George and Georgie got 3 feet!

Who needs Craig's List?

I love Uncle Henry's (it's how we found Baxter after all).


One of my favorite categories is "Free for the taking":
Take out the bit about the stray beagle, and it's like he could be selling me.

"Good for pets or soup." Heh.


I also like the "Wanted" category:
Yeah, that's not creepy at all. "Excuse me, m'am, but I'm going to need to do a strip search. I'm an officer of the law."


Family jewels and old jugs. That just appeals to the 12-year-old in me.

Sea Urchin

Macro of a sea urchin (the one on my b-day package, Mom).

Post Snowstorm Sky

A short respite from the snow late Thursday afternoon.

The new furniture

Our new furniture was delivered Thursday. Now that it's here I'm ready to look for a new window treatment. Any suggestions? I'm also not sure I like the pillows, but they were free and I can find different cheap ones somewhere like TJMaxx if I want to. (I also need to polish those Baxter nose prints off the coffee table.)
From the other doorway. I'm not sure the beige chair still works. I'll be changing the lamps too.
I'm having a hard time getting the color accurate in a photo.Now that the furniture is here I'll also start choosing what to put on the walls. I did get these:
I was thinking of putting them something like this (the black squares I Photoshopped on the wall), but the lamp is troublesome. I may put them up on either side of the window instead. I'm also planning on putting a tall plant in that corner on the left.
Baxter's bed kind of matches too.

Books

I love a new stack of books. Thanks again, Mom!

My plant again

A couple of different versions of one of yesterday's shots.


AND A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LAURIE!

My Valentine present

Chris got me this really cool plant for Valentine's Day. Its leaves are a deep purple that looks black in some light. They also look like butterflies.

And it has these pretty little light purple flowers with kind of wavy stems:
Here's a (crappy) photo of the whole thing in its pretty midnight blue ceramic pot. I don't know what kind of plant it is because Chris didn't keep the info thingie, but I asked one of my photo buddies who seems to know every plant on God's green earth. She's better than Google.

The other part of his gift to me is keeping it alive!

Breaking News...

We just got home from watching Cam compete in shotput at the state track meet. He was the only sophomore to qualify for states, and he threw a personal best of 42 feet 6 inches and came in...

Fifth! All those other kids up there are seniors.
I'd say he didn't do too shabby for a 15-year-old who had to compete against men with full beards and tattoos!

White Rose

Delaney got her first Valentine flowers from a boy. Same as the first flower her dad ever got me. (That makes me smile and want to cry all at the same time.)

Jelly Belly revisited

These Jelly Bellys were in Valentine packaging, and I gave them to Chris for Valentine's Day. When he opened them, he said, "Are these the jelly beans that were on our blog?" I said, "Yeah, I hope you don't mind that I opened them because I wanted to take some photos. And by the way I ate a few of them too. Happy Valentine's Day!"

Happy Valentine's Day

I sprinkle you with love for Valentine's Day.

Crayons

Jelly Belly

Send in the fire department

That was a lot of stinkin' candles.

Best Birthday Present Ever

Chris came in the house, handed me this, and said, "Happy Birthday."


I cackled. A lot.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANNE MARIE TODAY!

Conference Champs

Cam and his girlfriend Brittney competed in the Western Maine Conference Indoor Track competition on Saturday and came home as conference champs.

Cam won in junior shotput:


Brittney won long jump and the 400m and came in second in the 200m.
States are next week. Cam has won his junior division (freshmen and sophomores) in every meet except one this season, but at the state level they only have one division for freshman through seniors. He's hoping to place at states.

Getting treated like a dog

All our friends and family know that Baxter has a couch that has become his own and that he has totally trashed. Since we made the move to using the living room, he's been out of sorts. He loves "his" couch, but he also loves being close to us, and he's not allowed on the furniture in the living room where we hang out now. It puts him in a doggie conundrum. So I bought him another bed to keep in the living room. He doesn't look totally thrilled with it, does he? It's hard when your people start treating you like a dog instead of a human.

Another birthday girl

Happy Birthday to Jess!

Fuzzies

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday to Hannah!

Our new dishes

Our new(ish) dishes from Chez Target.

Keepin' it real

What happens when I go to bed with wet hair:

There's a reason Dad used to call me Medusa.

I can't have that be the only photo today: