Valentine's Day...and the big Dance!

Happy Valentine's Day! Love is in the air. So were the Olympic Ski Jumpers. My mom's dad used to ski jump back in the day. I didn't inherit that dare devil gene! Wheee!

Enough of the Olympics, there is a dance to talk about! Brian's friend David had stayed over night, so he got ready for the dance at our house. Eric helped him with his tie.

Brian is getting the hang of tying his own, he needed just a little help, but after a couple of tries got it just right....

....Eric was ready to help if necessary.

The boys were looking good...a couple of handsome lads if I say so myself.

They were feeling sort of gangster like and had to show us their moves. Look out world, here they come. They were going to different places for dinner so they parted ways before the dance.

The dance was a Sadie Hawkins type dance where the girls ask the boys. They call the dance the Selgae Dance...which is the school mascot Eagles spelled backwards. Brian picked up his date and they went to her friends house for pictures. We were invited to come and take pictures too! So fun. Sarah is a sweet girl. Here they were getting the corsage and the boutonniere ready.

Sarah's friend had set up a back drop for photos. There were so many cameras and flashes the poor kids didn't know which way to look.

They sure looked cute together. Where did my little boy go? We got to chat with the other parents for a while, and took pictures for a while....

....and then it was time for the kids to order pizza and the parents to make themselves scarce. It sure was special that they let us be a little part of their big dance.

It reminded me of a dance many moons ago....my Junior Prom in 1979....does that young boy look familiar? So many memories.

Billy on the other hand is staying away from all of that romance stuff. He and his buddy avoided the dance....

....and spent the evening playing video games. That works for me. I'm not sure I could take having both of them all grown up and going to dances!

February 13th - This and That

It's sort of a busy weekend around here, so today's post will kind of bounce here and there and no where...kind of like the day.

I'll start with the Olympics...cool opening ceremony! Creativity + Technology = Incredible. On a sad note, hearing of the Georgian Luge racers death in a training run was heart wrenching. A young man with his whole future in front of him with his life cut short. Tragic. Was it because the track is too fast? Was it because the athletes are pushing themselves to their limits and beyond? Does any of that matter? So many of the Winter Olympic sports are dangerous...the skiing, the ski jumping, the sledding events....even the figure skating. I just know that I wouldn't put my backside on a rocket sled and fly down an icy shoot! I think curling would be more my speed if I were to try one. Anyway, in honor of the lost life on the luge, I'll start with the luge symbol that I did in school way back when. All of the symbols are black and white illustrator drawings using snow flakes to show movement. Whoosh.

On to other things. Did you get outside this morning? It was a winter wonderland with all of the hoar frost coating every stick and twig. Love it! I took a few pictures. I'll intersperse my other stuff in with the frost pictures....because the frost speaks for itself and I don't have pictures of the other stuff. And my day and my head are bouncing around that way today. I think I need more coffee.

Yesterday was our friend Bob's birthday. Happy Birthday Bob! We took him out to Applebee's. I like Applebee's....and amazingly everyone in the family does....Bob too. Sometimes it's hard to find a restaurant that makes everyone equally happy. Applebee's is one of them. After dinner Bob came over and we watched the opening ceremonies. Then Brian had some friends over....some overnight friends over. My house has 4 teenage boys in it this morning. I think I need some more coffee.

There is a big dance at the High School tonight. A Sadie Hawkin's type where the girls ask the boys. It's the first dance Brian has been excited about going to. Funny how having a girl friend changes how teenage boys see everything.

Side note: The picture below is a close up of the one above. I love the frozen snowflake / frost on the left side of the frosty berry.

Brian decided he wanted to wear a suit to the dance, so we went shopping. Thank heavens for Kohl's and their 60% off rack...and for slender teenage boys that can fit into the clothes that are on the 60% off rack. Yikes. Then I had the honor of ordering the corsage for him to give to her...the corsage cost more than the on-sale suit pants. Seriously?!?

Having a sweet heart dance on Valentine's weekend might not be the best of ideas....as far as buying corsages goes anyway! But it's so romantic and fun for the kids. He and his date are going with a few other couples, we were invited to one of the girl's homes to take pre-dance photos. Gussied up boys and girls in dresses with fancy hair and make-up. So much excitement! Where the heck is my coffee.

On another note, there was a health scare in my mom's family this last week. The family didn't want details spread all about, but I can say that someone very dear to me had what was thought to be a stroke and was hospitalized with some very scary symptoms. After further examination they found out that it was a brain tumor. The tumor has been removed, the symptoms are abating, and things are looking so much better than they had originally. Still some struggles ahead for them. I'm only mentioning it to ask for prayers for their family...and as a reminder that our lives are so fragile. Embrace every day.

Back to the boys. Last night Brian had two friends over night. Tonight Billy will have two friends overnight. There seems to be plans forming for Monday since they don't have school. One of the few weekends that I'm home all weekend and my house is continually filled with teenage boys. Ack! Coffee...lots of coffee.

Their friends are good kids, it's nice to have them around, I'm not complaining....but it's busy. And noisy. And they eat a lot. And I haven't gotten my housework done in a really long time. But that's ok, that can wait. Coffee on the other hand, can't!

When I was ordering the corsage for Brian, for his girl yesterday I bought myself a "Watch 'Em" grow pot. One of my very favorite things. Bulbs in soil, growing, growing, growing and then blooming. Big fragrant flowery blossoms. Ahhh. A hint of spring while we are buried under thigh high snowbanks.

The "Watch 'Em" grow pot gave me an idea. Here's a hint....

...but that's all I'm going to say about that for now. I think I better go and find the bottom of my laundry pile. And figure out what to feed the beasts...because I'm sure that they'll be starving again really soon. But first....coffee.

The Olympics are Starting!

The Winter Olympics start tonight with the opening ceremonies. I can't wait! I love the Winter Olympics...the skating, the skiing, the bob sleds, the hockey! It's all so fun and exciting to watch. When I was in school for graphic design I did a series of symbols for the Winter Olympics. I'll share them here over the next couple of weeks. I tossed this one together today.

I'll bet that you didn't know that Eric and I put together a skating routine in honor of the Winter games. Yep, sure enough. We didn't qualify for the games this time...maybe in four years. Anyway, here is our routine...hope you love it as much as we do.



Opening day. Let the games begin!

Workin'

I don't know much about politics or the economy or the jobless rate or official indicators of the recession turning around or not....but I do know that I've been busier designing banners this year than I was last year....and that seems like a good sign to me.

Yesterday afternoon a job came in to do a banner with rosemaling on it. Rosemaling is a painting technique that originated in Norway. That was a first! The customer had sent a picture of some rosemaling they had on signs around their town...and it was my job to re-create some of it so that it could be screen printed on Welcome banners for the town.

It was sort of fun, but it was pretty tedious. I place the image in Adobe Illustrator and bit by bit redraw all of the parts. Since it is being drawn to be screen printed, the number of colors we use is limited. Each color adds a screen which mean more $$. The one I did for the client only had three colors, black, white and red on a blue banner. I added the yellow and green for this example. I like how it turned out....hopefully the client will too!

Just Some Pictures

Some days there just isn't much to say, so I'll get back to one of the reasons that I started my blog in the first place...my pictures of the day. My pictures of the day and my blog posts aren't always the same. Here are a few that I hadn't posted here.

Hungry Cardinal in my backyard.


Grocery store flowers on my kitchen table, taken at night.


Same bouquet, different day.

Skylar, so very happy to see me....and the feed bucket.

Cute little "thank you" angel given to me by my niece Stephanie for helping with her shower. Love it!

My out of tune, lonely piano...as the afternoon light quickly left the room.

The day light is getting a little longer, but not long enough. Especially when I've forgotten to take a picture!

Snow, snow, snow....

Our weather dog says that's it's been snowing for a couple of days. You don't really need a weather forecaster when you have a weather dog. Send her outside and you know that it's raining or snowing or whatever it might be doing. It was snowing pretty hard yesterday. She was covered in no time at all!

You can see from the bird feeder that we've gotten quite a bit of snow. It snowed for 46 straight hours.

I think we got about 10 inches or so. Snow and ice, winters get long here in Minnesota.

Here is the view from my front step, I almost found the sidewalk. Actually I had, but it was still snowing so it got covered up again.

Somewhere under all of that snow is my flower garden, my flower garden where I planted some tulip bulbs. Hello bulbs...are you still there??

Sigh. Sometimes when the snow piles up all you can do is sit there and think about better days ahead.

Hello Stargazer lilies....are you still under there??

Hello Cosmos...spring will come....will you come back? Oh yeah, Cosmos are annuals, they'll only be there if I plant them. Will I? Yes I will....someday....when the piles of snow melt.

The piles of snow that have buried us....deep. I'm starting to think it will never melt. I have to think of better days.

Hello blue sky and daisies! You're still there and coming back....aren't you? Please?

Snow, snow, snow....I don't know if it will ever stop.

So I guess I'll just have to enjoy the beauty it brings...and enjoy the plants that live through these long snowy winters.

And I guess I'll have to keep on counting on my weather dog to tell me what it's doing out there. Who needs a ground hog when you have a weather dog. Hey weather dog....

....how's the weather looking out there? Not good you say....

....oh dear....I think that means we'll have at least 6 more weeks of winter! The weather dog, she's never wrong. Darn it!

Another Birthday Boy

Another February birthday...and it's a big one. My brother...my older brother...is having a birthday today. I wrote this post for him last year. The most recent picture that I have of him is this family picture from Christmas....he's the 3rd from the right.

Having a big birthday and becoming a grandpa in less than a month of each other has gotta be tough. All I can say about that one is....better him than me!! :-) Happy Birthday Buck!