It could not have gone better...

Monday, as many of you know was a blizzard in the part of the land.

It was nice to have Jim home for the afternoon too, he braved the conditions in the AM but it took him 40 min. to go 10 miles.

For me it was just another day at the Waa residents and I was cleaning, being a mom to CMW & checked on my chickens for eggs and they actually produced 4 eggs, I was quite surprised.

But during this blizzard I also decided to take out the garbage's since no one else had done this job & it needed to be done. The first load went fine, the second load lets say did not.

Here's how it went...

Me to Jim: I hope the bottom doesn't fall out -As I'm pulling out the paper bag.

Jim: yeah, me too

Me: 'oh no' - As the bottom fell out 1/2 way to the can.

Jim: ' oh no' & laughter (like I can't believe this just happened kind of laughter...)

Me: Ah... - with the action of trying to cover the garbage so it doesn't blow away.

Jim brought out the garbage can and helped put the trash back in and we attempted to catch the floating pieces in the 30 mph winds that were blowing away.

Let's just say, it was a good laugh & next time I'll bring the garbage can to the outdoor can for safety precautions & not do this during a blizzard. The garage would of worked just find.

Chinese Gibber ...

I had a great time with this little lady today folding laundry and I just need to share. CMW would hand a t-shirt to me, i'd fold the t-shirt, then i'd give it to her, she would place it on the pile and say 'thank you'. And for some of you, you may know that C has this Chinese gibber she does when she is super excited and likes what she is doing.

Well today while she was participating, she was standing like this and gibbering away to me! It was like we were gossiping or in some important but funny conversation. She would gibber, giggle, throw up her arms and then back to the folded arms and leaning on the chair.

It was just so cute to listen to that I needed to record it.

Thanks for reading the smile of my day, Lexie

Fun for CMW

Our church offers every now and then a night at TNT Fitness. This place mainly offers gymnastics but there is a rock wall, many other obstacle areas & a large area that they used for ball tag, using those large foam blocks you see to your left in the picture.

I decided I'd take CMW to see what she'd think of this. I also went with my friend Val and her kids, so we were not alone.

Well, she was 'right in there' with the

rest of the group even though she was most likely the smallest and youngest, she had fun. She was running on the long trampolines, swinging on the bars, walking on the balance beam, crawling up and over objects, jumping into the foam pit, she even tried the rock wall. I would have to say, I will be taking her again. It's was a fun night for her and good social interaction. And lets just say, i'm pretty sure I was more tired then she was at the end of the 1.5 hrs we were there. I even called in Jim for back-up!

Feed Bag = Tote Bag

I know, I know, y'all are jealous of my new chicken bag.

But you may have some luck of getting your own made personally by me.

This bag is made 100% out of a feed bag and I used about 90% of the actual bag. I even have a pocket for that lip gloss or spare change that you can't ever find because it's at the bottom of the bag.

The material isn't ideal to sew on but if I take a little more time, the stitches will come out better. Slippery/stiff material just isn't good on the metal face plate of my machine.

I'm thinking I want to follow up with making a smaller purse or even a wallet/coin purse. And I have little chicks for pictures as well that I will be able to work with for these new projects.

I think it's pretty cool and i'm going to use it maybe for a reusable grocery bag, tote, wet bag for at the beach or maybe CMW will get a hold of it and claim it as 'mine'.

She know's that word quite well these days.

I love be original and this is one way I can do it, what are your ways to make you original?

Booties

I just had to post this picture (mainly to let my sister) see how cute these booties are. I made them for a new baby in the family and I just think they are so darn cute. I really like how bold the blue is and the other colors pop out. Even though I've made many a pairs of booties, I managed to make two left feet and then one shoe the cars where facing up and one down. So, guess what, I cut two right feet and started up again. It sure didn't take me long the second time, which was nice!

If you need a pair for a gift let me know, it's fun to make somewhat personalized items. :-)

We Got Eggs

Ladies & Gentlemen, We got farm fresh eggs!

Even though I am 'head of domestic affairs & poultry', i'm not doing a very good job. While I was filling water and food, Jim and CMW found 4 eggs but 3 were frozen. So this means they were laid on Saturday or possibly Friday since I didn't check Saturday. Now I know, I need to start my regular check-ups, twice a day, maybe 3 times. I better get into a regular routine or i'm not going to have my farm fresh eggs that I've been longing for, for the last 5 months.

I'll let y'all know if we really have an explosion around here of eggs or if the cold winter months are getting the best of our chickens. Until then, wish me luck pick'n my eggs.

Lori Line

This is just something that needs to be shared, I was invited to a Lori Line Concert! Yes, Lori Line and if you don't know who she is, well then you just need to get acquainted with her. She moved to MN from Utah and at some point started playing piano for Dayton's during the holiday season. And I was even privileged to see her play one year at the South Dale Mall. It's crazy, to think that I've been 3 ft. from this amazing lady. And then Lori got this idea to record a Christmas album and Dayton's put this album in their stores. And from that, she started composing her own pieces of traditional Christmas music and it elaborated into the Pop Chamber Orchestra and started to travel for 6 weeks or more before Christmas & waa-bam she's a huge hit with sell outs ever where. She is just so cool! But I think I'm bias since she is MN based and I love playing her music.

Well, this concert all happened about 3 weeks ago and I am still in awe of her wonderful talent and show. So, how did I get invited? Well, my girlfriend Gail asked if I was available because she had 2 tickets; and boy was I available, I pushed everything to the side to go with Gail and listen to some quality, edge of your seat piano playing. I was overly excited because Jim and I always talk about going and then talk ourselves out of it since it's about $40 bucks a person. We even got to sit in the balcony which Gail and I much prefer over main floor.

The host was the NDSU Concert Hall and it's small compared the usual host of the Fargo Dome or Concordia's Field House. But this year is special because it's Lori Line's 20th year of being on the road for her Christmas tour. She had 5 other musicians with her, an acoustic/electric/mandolin player, base/string base player, trombone/tuba player, violin/fiddler player (which was only 18 and still in high school, he was amazing; WOW is all you can say about his talent and abilities), the drums player & Lori Line's husband is the host of the show. Usually it's Lori Line and her Pop Chamber Orchestra but since this was her 20th year, she decided to make it more special "Lori Line and her Fab Five' and that's one reason her shows are smaller too. It was a great show of interaction, they performed the 12 Days of Christmas and children from the audience went on stage to help with each 'day', costumes and all. Lori Line also took favorite songs from the audience and right there put the songs into one large performance. It was totally amazing and I know that most musicians can do this but do it on the spot and 1/2 of the songs I'm pretty sure weren't even hers like 'smoke on the water' or a 'Bon Jovi' hit song but that is what I call talented and it was great.

Gail and I had a great time and we got to enjoy a whole 3 hours of her lovely concert. I say a big thank you to Gail for the invitation and if you get a chance to see one of her concerts, GO!! You won't regret and I now believe it's totally worth the money, even though we went for free.