Day 3 - No Power

Sometime before we woke up this past Sunday morning I heard the "beep" of appliances shutting down due to power loss.  We've never lost power for more than six hours, with exception of that time the whole northeast lost it in early 2000-something...we're making up for that this week.  Sunday morning we all still had a little "no power" whim to us and decided to head to McDonalds (and go in!!) for breakfast before church.   Can you even believe this...the van wouldn't start (I'm not even kidding, Sharyn!! (-:), so the six of us crammed into a five-seater Honda and hoped we didn't get pulled over.  (turns out a light was left on AGAIN in the car).

And now, here we are...three-full-days-later...hanging out at yet another family member's house for the night (finally got a generator on our furnace tonight since it's down to 37 degrees in the house...that's all we need are bursting pipes).  Thanks to all who have graciously taken in this vagabond family of six with a very loud two year old!

Here's hoping the power's up and running tomorrow...or we'll have fun picking someone to surprise as our New Year's Eve sleepover hosts. (-:

Day 2 - No Power

and a screaming two year old, gotta run...

And, whoosh...it's over

A few Christmas reflections:

I was told that the cookies should be placed under the tree so Santa could take a bite in between setting presents down.  And I liked that one of the children who insisted on looking up "Santa" in the online dictionary and showing me that the definition says "an imaginary figure", still wrote a note to go with the cookies. (-:

This year's stockings were filled with bags of shell-on mixed nuts and little, metal nutcrackers for each kid, a little chocolate and a bunch of gum balls (yep, even for the two year old...I challenge you to try and keep him out of the loop on anything).

Can you believe these are Christmas tree lights?!  I was entertaining myself LATE Christmas Eve by playing with the delay between when you press the button to take a picture and when the picture actually clicks (one setting has about two seconds delay and I accidentally discovered I could make shapes during those two seconds...I tell ya...it was LATE Christmas Eve...(-:)

Gum balls from the stockings

AND,

most importantly:

Isaiah 9:6

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The might God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Check the playlist; this verse is part of Handel's Messiah

Merry Christmas!

Courtyard tree after 12+ inches of snow

POOR GUY

Gone are his days of glory, shining brightly with a couple fluffy inches adorning his branches.

 )-:

Cold Santa/Scary Santa

"Baby it's Cold Outside" playlist

Place: Greenfield Village Holiday Nights
Time: 7:00p.m. last night
Temperature: 3 Degrees

That is one COLD Santa

Third (4th?) annual Pierce family (cousins, aunts/uncles, G-ma/Poppie) trip to the Holiday Nights festivities last night. Part of the crew didn't make it further than the hot chocolate house just through the entry gates it was so cold! Glad we gave it a try though.

Stumbled upon this guy at an event on Friday. Not the best Santa for a two year old to envision dropping by his house! Little unsettling this guy.

Look what just a few short months can do . . .

FROM THIS

TO THIS

AND . . . 

Any guesses as to how long it would take to snow scoop off a long driveway with 12 inches of snow on it?   Me thinks the snow blower may be getting fixed soon.

(-:

What do you think my chances were? (-:

I was up around 6:30a.m. for a cup of water and decided to check on the status of school (which we all pretty much knew as of last night would be a "Snow Day").  I decided to leave the sweet cherubs a note in hopes of a couple extra winks this morning.  Here's how it went:

1st kid opens bedroom door

"Hey look, no school...and don't wake mom" she calls out to the others.

others coming running (stomping?)

"Cool, no school...and don't...wake up...mom" one reads aloud.

"Yeah! No school" cheers the last one loudly.

Well, it was worth the try...

Now that's a snow day!

Around 10 inches (little more?) dropped this morning. 

 Missed the last day of school before vacation.

Eating breakfast in her snow gear.

First ones outside

He loves that snow board

(even on our five foot hill)

Catching snow on his tongue

Getting William up the hill

(My absolute favorite shot of the morning)

Have you met Fisbee? . . . AND . . . Who's Johnny? . . .

Meet Fisbee, our Elf on The Shelf

Fisbee came to us with a book last year and reappears before Christmas every year to keep an eye on the kids for Santa.  Every night (well not quite every night, sometimes he REALLY likes a particular spot and doesn't move for days (-:) he moves to a new location in the house and the kids try to find him.  Looks like he turned up gazing over the diner table this morning.  Smart elf that Fisbee.

Question of the day from Harrison:

"Mom, who's Johnny?"

"I'm not sure, Johnny who?"

"You know, (singing now), 'Johnny ol' St. Nicholas, lean your ear this way..."

"No, no...that's JOLLY, not Johnny."

"That's wierd, who would name their son Jolly?!"

(-:

Christmas joke of the day:

What is a mom's favorite Christmas carol? . . . 

Silent Night!

(-:

Courtyard tree at midnight after a fluffy snow

Not the most beautifully decorated tree around but with the lights and a nice fluffy snow I just can't believe how pretty that is (even at midnight while working on Christmas cards).  And...the "reflection" in the window is really our indoor tree, which has been decorated completely by the children and resembles the leaning tower of Piza...no pics. (-:

"Boy, we have a loud house." - Dad

The courtyard's decked out . . .

Nice work, boys! (-;

Now to try and "deck the halls" inside house!

Did you know . . .

...last night was the closest we've been to the moon in 15 years?

Moon shadow of tree

I took these last night around 1a.m. after winding down from my second Carmina performance and dessert with Grandma Kat and her friend Jane at the Whitney.

Sometimes iTunes is not all it's cracked up to be . . .

So here's the story:

On my return trip from Detroit last night I heard a cool singer giving a live concert on CBC Radio.  Today, I decided to look up a song I liked and buy it on iTunes.  I didn't catch the name of the song but remembered the line "down by the river".  After searching a while and not finding it (turns out the iTunes version is a LOT more "technoed" out than his live, concert version and I didn't recognize it), I decided this other song of his "Willow Tree" sounded like my speed.  After hearing the 30 second promo clip I decided to take a gamble with my .99 cents and click "Buy Song".

O.K., so I'm in the kitchen preparing lunch, little boys underfoot with legos and I press play on my newly purchased song.  Ahhh, a gentle, lilting banjo, some nice harmonies...what a pleasant sound...oh, o.k...huh??....What!!!???....KEROSINE!!!!???...and he follows that up with, "wooo,ooo,ooo, yeah, yeah, yeah."  Go press play now (Willow Tree), you will NOT believe it.  I won't have this on my playlist for long but it was so bizarre for some reason I thought it warranted a little share here.

To wrap it up here, the song TMNT Mask was the song I heard in the first place, but it really isn't anything like I heard last night (way too much 80's tech in, especially the end, yikes!), but I think his voice is kinda cool.

Did she really even need to ask?

I have a friend from my college days that I'm thrilled to still be in touch with.  She's a composer currently living in L.A. and I really need to share this request she sent me today:

"Any chance you can record dear William sharing his blood curdling screams? Any other interesting sounds your cherubs make?"

Is she kidding??!!  William has been practicing for this recording his entire life...I'm - NOT - kidding!  And the others..."interesting sounds"...she doesn't know what she's in for.

(-:

FYI, I just noticed that over on her website she posted a recording she made which uses Lara's voice.  It's called "Susie's Theme".

It's Carmina Week

Because we all have a lot of free time this time of year my choir (the UMS Choral Union) thought it would be a great idea to schedule a week of Messiah performances last week (from which I got excused...there was no way with Lara's Boar's Head performances and SP's concert weekend) followed by a week of Carmina Burana performances this week.  Good thing it's fun music to do (though not Christmas/holiday music by any stretch of the means).  Check out more about Carmina here and I heard our Thursday night performance will be broadcast live on some Detroit radio station, not sure which.

Postscript:  Thursday, 12/11 @ 8:00p.m. on FM 90.9

Live performance of DSO's Carmina

(if anything catch the beginning!)

My self-control is in the grocery store . . .

I (most often) exhibit great amounts of self-control in the grocery store because I (usually) don't buy the vast assortment of deliciousness out there that I'd love to snack on after the little dears are tucked soundly in their beds.  However, Friday night the little boys and I were out late at Trader Joe's while SP, Lara and Ben were all off having fun and we (I) decided we needed a treat.  Look what we came home with!

It is taking every ounce of strength I have not to sit down with a tall glass of milk and polish off an entire row of these sweet tastes of heaven.

Postscript:  The self control evidently doesn't work past 11:10p.m. when one is working on a project!  We're down five cookies!! (-:

Boar's Head Festival

Lara's second year as a Wait in the Boar's Head Festival at Concordia University.

Video image poor, I know...Lara is front row, left.

Check out a little more history on the Boar's Head Feast over at Wikipedia

It may be 20 degrees (real feel 13 degrees) outside . . .

But when you get a bit of sun shining it makes for a beautiful day!

You know, it's never too late!

Here I am, 38 years old and I just swam my FIRST swim meet ever today. Never even swam one as a kid. Now, I didn't do anything spectacular in the pool mind you (I was in the first heat for every race...meaning the slowest), but I went and did it, and every now and again it boggles my mind that you can just go and do this stuff regardless of your age (one of my heats had a 72 year old swimming in it...). AND, I kind of keep this in mind with the kids too. There is really no need to sign them up for everything under the sun and run everyone ragged with their schedules...they have MANY years to experience anything they want to.

Take note of Paula (50-54 age group) swimming the 50 Free in 36 seconds! Sweet!!
My biggest fear of this swim meet experience was keeping my goggles on when diving off the platform. I managed to keep them on for three of my four races...but not this one. First of all the 50 yard is the shortest, fastest race I swam and I got a little eager to pop off the platform when the buzzer rang...so eager that I FELL IN THE POOL BEFORE THE BELL!!! (-: After climbing out...yes...EMBARRASED...I didn't adjust my goggles and they filled with water after my entry. The great thing about that is, I think I'll be able to beat 33:84 next time when I can see.

I also swam the 500 yard with two 40ish year old guys in my heat (I discovered you don't actually place against the people in your heat, you place with people in your sex and age range, but you swim against people with similar times)...and I beat them... (-:

Then, on my snowy drive home I received a call that G-ma Pierce offered to watch the kids so I could go to SP and Poppie P's concert in Detroit. Here's a little clip of one of their lighter, rhythmic songs.

p.s. Poppie was in his 60's when he joined this group...
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE! (-:

The pendulum needs to start to swing the other way

So here's my offering

I think we should be confident enough as a country to acknowledge that many people celebrate many different holidays, that Christmas is one of them...and it's O.K. to say " MERRY CHRISTMAS" to those that celebrate it!

AND

The next time I go to the post office and ask to see the Christmas stamps, I would like to be shown the Christmas stamps and not receive the response I did this week:  "O.K., here are the holiday stamps." then I was shown, Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa stamps.

C'mon people...I truly don't believe Jewish and African-American people would be offended if I was just shown the Christmas stamps I asked for!!

THIS CONCLUDES MY POLITICAL CORRECTNESS RANT OF THE MONTH

There are some things you should never have to ask . . .

And one of them is:

"WHY IS THERE PEE ALL OVER THE WALL???!!!"

no pics, I'm sure you understand...sigh...

Spirit Week

Both at school and at home

Wacky Hair Day

Wacky Hat Day

Well, it was really supposed to be just "hat day" and it was supposed to be on Wednesday not on Tuesday, but with William you get what you get.  The child wants to wear a bowl hat to the grocery store...then he wears a bowl hat to the grocery store.  We just pretend it's part of "wacky hat day!" (-:

The Courtyard

Not sure if I've just missed this effect over the five years we've lived in this house or if it's just never struck me before (which I can't believe, because it's striking me as really cool today).  These shots are from the open-air courtyard in the middle of our house.

Are you smarter than a 4th grader?

For me, it's looking like a pretty close draw! 

 I had to stop and think a bit for a few of those on the first worksheet (and had to deduce that a ton must be 2,000lb...who remembered? (-:) and the second sheet (the results of a science test we studied for last week), still boggles my mind.   I had to sit down with the whole matter/mass/volume/properties thing by myself for a bit before I could be of any use to Lara.

So we'll end with a question of the day from Lara:

"Why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?"

(-:

It's Comin' . . .

winter, that is...

I got the big scoop out today! (Love that thing)

And put the roses to bed until spring

and, since I've gotten enough sleep lately I also:

directed my after-school choir at church,

made egg sandwiches for the fam

organized the shed

put covers on the air conditioner & BBQ

chicken wired a baby white pine (no deer allowed!)

&

shoveled 1/2 the drive with the scoop

and, since I did all that:

tomorrow I'll be in my jammies putzing around the house until 11:38a.m.,

 when I'll change and get Harrison from the bus!

(-: