Greetings from the Frigid...errrr...South.

I know I know...typical Stack...don't post for MONTHS and then post too much.

No excuses...I must bow to my nature...some call it a muse...I'm just inspired in spurts and there is nothing for it but to write when I WANNA and NOT when I don't. Movin right along.

So, I don't know if anyone else noticed but this has been a CRAZY week, climate-wise. Seriously on Saturday and Sunday, we girls were out hooping in the very warm weather...short sleeves...Monkey-Face even had to change into shorts and sandals...she, apparently, has hot feet.

Monday we went to a friend's house and it was your standard February jacket/jeans weather...but we played outside...with bunnies...and horses (more on that in the next post)...

Now we KNEW it was going to get cold and we were going to have some "Wintry Mix" precipitation...which, at least since I've lived in Texas means some mixture of water and ICE...it's always got ice in it...sometimes big ole hail...sometimes little crystally stuff...but ICE is involved. But I was not prepared for what we got.

It SOUNDED like being in a Sonic ice machine...(to those of you outside of an area that Sonic has stores...I'm sorry...and they have the best ice ever...it's teeny tiny little barrels of ice that are fabulous for chewing). When the storm rolled in it actually rattled and sounded like the house was being pummled with those itty bitty chunks...and then we could hear it sliiiiiide off the roof. Very interesting. And LOUD. I was up, pretty much the whole storm.

So I got up KNOWING that we were going to have piles of ice and frozen stuff all over...I mean, this is not my first rodeo, y'know?

Yeah.

I was wrong. What we actually had was an ice rink...a HUGE, impenetrable, thick, slippery ice rink.

AND it was CaCaCaCold...it sat at about 18 degrees most of the day and dipped to 12 degrees by my bedtime. (To those of you who live in Colorado, or Canada, or Wisconsin who are thinking, "18 Degrees is nuthin, ya big baby...it was -23 with a wind chill that made it feel like -207"...I have this to say...if you CHOSE to live in Colorado or Canada or WISCONSIN...you bought your ticket, baby! I live in the SOUTH and the south has done me wrong this week. There.)

So what did that mean? Well, Bubba stayed home...he has a laptop...easy enough.

And the girls played...



Check out the frozen rings left by the hoops...very cool...


I think the most fascinating thing was that WE made no impact on that ice...no footprints...no noticeable trace of where we went or fell (ehem)...

So that was Tuesday, right? Well Wednesday stayed REALLY cold...Bubba started getting a little stir crazy...SO...using salt and a pitch fork, he hacked his way to the concrete on his side of the driveway (tossing the extra chunks onto my side of the driveway...who says chivalry is dead?) and managed to get OUT and buy us Chinese food for lunch, for which I was thankful. And Thursday, he actually went to work.

But wait, there's more.

This morning, we woke up to this...


Yeah...easily 6 inches of snow by 8 am and prolly closer to 8 to 10 now, at 4 ish...on TOP of 2 inches of ice. Um...Bubba was grounded again.

But the girls played...


And I STEPPED in it...just for you, dear reader...I'm a giver...


But I can't say that I've had the best attitude about it. For some reason, just KNOWING that I can't go anywhere makes me REALLY want to. It's possible I need to work on contentment. I do find myself saying, "Ah...that's pretty"...but I have ZERO desire to play in it...brrrrr.

And the other irritating part...it BROKE my little green house...that I put out not expecting REALLY freezing temperatures to last for days and days...


And I can't tell through the iced over plastic if anything survived cuz I'm afraid that unzipping it will REALLY break it...and release whatever magic heat might be in there so I'm forced to take pictures through the frost...


It LOOKS kinda green in there...of course so did my aloe plant that I accidentally left outside during a frost a couple years ago...it looked really green...until it melted...and then it sorta looked like an olive colored octopus...it did not survive.

At this moment, it's warmer than it has been all week...a WHOPPING 26 degrees...I might even consider taking off my second pair of socks...it's THAT warm. And there is stuff dripping off of the roof that I can only assume is water...but I'm not really getting my hopes up.

See ya around...

Accentuate the Positive...

So...hmmmm...yesterday, five days from my first hooping try, I still could not hoop around my waist. VERY irritating.

I got online at a new forum I just joined and said something along the line of "WAAAAAAAAHHH...my 7yo is so much better than me...why can't I hoop...WAAAAAAHHHH!" They took pity on me and gave me a ton of pointers...chief of which was "make the hoop bigger and heavier".

I also got some advice on how to tape the hoop to increase the friction and what type of clothing to wear...both more form fitting and natural fibers, and how to move within the hoop, how to place my feet, etc.

SO...this morning I made me a BIG 'Ole Hoop...it reaches my chin...which is about 60" across(I'm very tall, don'tcha know). Then we put 3 cups of water in it and taped up the connection (it still leaks badly, but it's hot, so we don't care). As for the other stuff, I've gotta wait until I can acquire the materials.

And guess what!!



That's right, I can hoop! And what's more, I'm STARTING to be able to catch it when it's on it's way down...



It's AWESOME! I can't tell you how great it is to have a little success after 5 days of trying. YEAH!

And what's more? Grandma is doing it MUCH better, too. She was having a hard time keeping it going like she wanted.

Check her out!!! (Can I just say how much I love this picture?)



Grandma is so much better that she has taken to taunting our reigning champ. Let's just say Bear did not take the challenge lying down...



I'd say that Bear is probably safe in her title for awhile...

See ya around...

Hoopsi-Daisy...

For the last month or so I've been caught by the "hooping" bug. What's hooping you say? Well, hmmmmm, let's see...here is an example from a blog I follow...

(From The Happy Hoop)

Sara's Hooping Practice - 6.4.10 from Sara Janssen on Vimeo.

Basically it's dancing...hmmm...well, basically it's hula hooping...well, as you can see, it's sort of a combination of the two. As you look around for "hooping" on youtube and the like, you find scores of various styles of this...and it has intrigued me.

But because I'm a pretty frugal gal...and because I know that with three daughters NO hobby of mine will be independent from them for a few years yet, I'd put off buying a grown-up hoop. As a matter of fact...my mommy was scolding me just the other week because I hadn't done anything about my fascination.

And then I found this... How to Make a Hula Hoop. It's actually SUPER easy. On the first of September we made 5 hoops of various sizes...but we don't have tape for them yet...we have to shop around a bit...there are some really sparkly tapes that I have my eye on. Still black is OK for practicing...

And practice we have.



Now let me give you a run down on the skill level of each of us...This is only day 3 of actual hooping, mind you...

Monkey Face can sometimes get it going around her waist for a few twirls...


She can perch upon her momma while her momma is laying in the grass trying to get an up-shot of her sister...


And she can annoy the snot out of any sister in the middle of concentrating on learning a new trick...I am only posting this at full length so that you too can be amused by the face Bear makes as the camera stops...cracks me up...
(:33)



As of today Beanie is beyond me. But we started ABOUT the same.

-Neither of us had our hips (she totally does now...I do not)

-We both can do our arms and can switch hands...

-We are also both tall enough to swing the hoop over our heads and at least attempt to jump through it...the little girls aren't really tall enough to swing it and then swing it down and jump.

-And both Bean and I started on our necks at the same time...alas, she is much closer to perfecting the trick than I...

But then again, someone needs to hold the camera...so I guess I'm taking one for the team.



Both of these shots were just lucky, the first SHOULD have blurred but didn't, the second she SHOULD have dropped it...but for the first time, she didn't...plus I love her expression looking over her shoulder at me...very cool.


And then there is Bear. I won't say that she is better than any of us...but I will say, she has NO fear. And by nature of that fearlessness she will try ANYTHING and so far most of the stuff has worked. She started out with a benefit...she could already hoop at her waist...I don't know where she learned it...she just can. Of course now that I think about it, so can Grandma...huh...maybe it's one of those "skip a generation" thingies.

These were the up-shots I was working on before Monkey Face perched upon me...





So there it is. Our big "project" of the week. It really is so much fun. And yes, I'm hooping right along with them...and actually hooping when they are not looking as much as I can...it's nice to practice something that's just fun.



See ya around...