he's such a BOY!

t.willie attended a little friend's 6th birthday party on sunday. the party was at a small community center with a small playground. luckily, the weather was pretty mild because all he wanted to do was play outside.

there were many kids there, of varying ages and sizes. t.w. didn't care much whether anyone paid any attention to him or not. he was content to dig with sticks, pick up handfuls of mulch, stomp in the mud and collect acorns.

he did enjoy the few pieces of playground equipment that were available. and soon, found a little girl about his age to play with. morgan was 4 and much less wild than the older boys who were chasing each other around.

here is the conversation as they were climbing onto a tree stump::

he- can you climb all the way up little girl?
me- t.w., her name is morgan.
she- that's ok, he can call me little girl because i am a little girl actually.

hahaha too funny! i remember when t.w. went through his "actually" phase. every sentence he said was peppered with "actually". apparently, this was where morgan was at, she must have said it ten times!

i was proud to see t.w. playing so well with another kid. he can sometimes be the bully. although, at one point, he was running after morgan with a stick-turned-gun and saying "pow pow pow"! but she was laughing so i guess that's okay!

grateful today :
1. still and again for my massage therapist, jennifer
2. for my hubby-STILL!
3. for the bread i pulled out of the freezer, which came from new jersey this past summer and was delicious with our hot, homemade soup

when the HELLhole freezes over...

...it looks something like this:

and this

and this

but also like this

 and this

and this

yes, sad but true, mr. snow's face is falling off! 

grateful today:

1. for the week-long snow

2. for birds at my feeders

3. for warm stew in a warm home

underwear acrobat

ta da!!!

look ma, no hands!
the flying dutchman!

grateful for:
1. unconventional photo ops
2. cooler weather cooler weather cooler weather
3. have i mentioned cooler weather?

oh sandy ba-aby.....

last week, we had some gorgeous weather. the temperatures were in the 80's, it was quite warm. t.willie made the most of it by spending as much time outside as i could stand! he has a great, red crabby sandbox that his great grandma (g.g.) gave him. i also gave him a tub with some water in it and he really liked that.

here is a photo story, see if you can read it....




the end

grateful:
1. for smoothies in my new blender
2. for printable coupons
3. for playing outside

march- in like a lion...

...and out like a tiger!
or some other equally wild animal...yeah, this has been no "out like a lamb" weather. what we have had is WIND- rain and wind, sun and wind, wind and wind! i am not a fan of windy weather. we are NOT buddies. (however, i have been known to break wind at times!) (just kidding!) (no i'm not!)
so, that age-old expression had gotten me thinking; why a lion and a lamb? why did they use animals? why, indeed! so i made a list of some other possibilities to describe the typical march weather.

MARCH-in like a grizzly, out like a duck
MARCH-in like a bull, out like a kitten
MARCH- in like a barracuda, out like a guppy

and why use animals? here are other ideas:
MARCH- in like a freight train, out like a volkswagen
MARCH- in like a monsoon, out like a shower
MARCH- in like a cactus, out like a dandelion
MARCH- in like a belly dance, out like a box step
MARCH- in like a jalopeno, out like a cucumber







well, there you are, some alternatives to the famous adage. i hope you like them and i encourage you to come up with a few of your own. post them to the comments, i'd love to read them!!
happy spring!

grateful for:
1. cereal and milk for supper (no dishes, no clean-up)
2. forsythia
3. blue eyed, blonde haired boys

tin roof alley

life here in the hellhole is full of surprises. today, for instance, our roof spontaneously started leaking! yeah, it was not raining, it was not snowing and had not been raining or snowing for several days. i went outside and looked at the roof. it is a fairly new red tin roof (about 5 years old, i think). there was no water on the roof at all. i even got up on a ladder and checked the gutters. i was thinking that maybe, if they were clogged and there was water stuck in there, it had somehow jumped up onto the roof! but there wasn't any water. it really had me stumped! where did the dripping water come from??
that got me thinking, we also have a bad ant problem, all the time, year round. i am constantly battling ants! so what i was thinking was, if the roof could spontaneously start leaking, then wouldn't it be cool if the ants could spontaneously combust?! like when the little suckers creep out from wherever it is that they originate, they just burst into flame and POOF! GONE!
man, the more i think about it, the more i like the idea! and ants are so tiny that it wouldn't take long and then nothing else would set fire, right?!
yeah......but then, with my luck, the roof would spontaneously start leaking and put 'em out and there they'd be, walking all over the counters again. sigh........

grateful today for:
1. very grateful the pic at the top is NOT my house!
2. my crocus's....croci? are blooming
3. it cracks me up when t.willie asks me to sing "barbara ann" as a bedtime lullaby!