old man winter won't let go

ugh.. it's snowing... again. Twice now our backyard has gone from being 1/3 snow free to being a winter wonderland all over again. Big fat fluffy snowflakes are falling for for the second major accumulation in two weeks. I wish I could say at least it's been warm but that doesn't seem to last either. Two days ago it was 20 degrees, which would normally be considered somewhat warm but the wind was gusting so hard that it felt like 20 below zero out. Brrrrrrr. I just want it to be spring already. We keep getting taunted with the promise of it only to have it snatched away again. blech.

kiddos

Here's a little video of the kids goofing off yesterday.

Our favorite things...

This song is hilarious. Any knitter will understand. It was performed at a gathering of Yarn Harlot fans and recorded by The Heathen Housewife

I can't believe it...

, originally uploaded by harpyr.

My wee bonnie lass is already a quarter of a year old! Sweet Meara is a dream of a babe. So easygoing and happy. I think it helps that she has the most entertaining brother ever. He can make her laugh like nobody else.. even me! Zay is getting better at eliciting some laughs from Meme but it's only because she's caught on to employing the same crazy antics as Quinn.

In other news, I'm actually trying to avoid sitting at the computer much lately because my back has been super achy. I think it's because I don't have a decent chair to sit in and I need to get more active on top of that.
It's good and bad.. Good because I'm working more on my art but bad because I really want to spend some time playing around with The Gimp since I just downloaded the latest version and found a whole slew of really awesome brushes to use. I created that new patchwork tree banner with a few of them. I'm playing around with banner ideas and that was my first finished result. I hope to have my etsy shop up soon. I have enough inventory but I need to get a different bank account set up so I don't have to worry about a paypal mistake wiping out our rent money. I've heard that's been known to happen before.. not too often but enough that I don't want to take any chances.

Well gotta run. Quinn's couch cushion fort is collapsing in on him and he's hollering for some help.

Nick Drake

I wrote a little something about the day my husband and I discovered the music of Nick Drake. Pop on over to the site I posted it on to check it out.-
http://www.fanpop.com/spots/nick-drake/soapbox/2362

Edited to add- the link wasn't working so I broke it. If you copy and paste that link it should work. By the way, after rereading this little essay a few days later I realize that it's pretty corny. Be forewarned.

the first sentence

My dad's sisters came by yesterday and I got to hear the story of my first words. Now I know why my mom and dad always had a hard time remembering what they were.. it's because they weren't there to hear them! The story went that my aunt D (and maybe aunt P but I'm not clear on that) was with my grandpa at the building site of our house. Apparently my dad was sort of detail oriented about how he wanted the house built, whereas grandpa was of the mindset "Lets just get it built" and on this particular day was doing a fair bit of griping. I was probably around age three and hadn't spoken a single word yet. It was very clear that I could understand everything that people were talking about but I was refusing to speak. So on that day, while grandpa was doing all this complaining I finally said my first words, which happened to come out in a perfectly formed sentence-

"What's YOUR problem?"

this is it

I tried calling my mom this morning but only spoke with my aunt Nik. My mother apparently can't be bothered to take any calls this morning. Cause she's getting married this afternoon. Well this is it for me. If she marries this chump.. then I am putting some serious distance between her and I. I refuse to be dragged along for the ride towards the impending train wreck that is certain to result from this course. I can't allow myself to be close to her and not be affected by her really bad decisions and since nothing I have to say seems to make any difference I need to separate from her to protect myself and my family. It really sucks that my kids beg to go see gramma but I can't let them go over there when there is a strange man that I don't know or trust. I think my mom may be having a mental breakdown.. or she's always been this crazy and I just didn't realize it. I fear it may be the latter.