Mud Masks

Grandma and the girls reinact a Norwegian tribal rite--something Hannah saw on the Discovery Channel.

Here's another pic from the tribal tradition. I think it screams 5" x 7" for Grandma's birthday.

Backyard Burn

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Deanna and her dad burned the accumulated leaves in the "woodsie" part of our backyard, which is now about double its previous size.

Harry and Goldie II

Okay, Harry is so out of control that we've had to move Goldie--at least for the night. Here's and updated version of Harry's attack schemes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOsYoPkclwI

Harry and Goldie

Harry has become transfixed with Goldie, the fish, for the last couple of days. Watch the two of them on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGfPW6LJ0Uw

Lauren and Harry

Lauren had to have at least one picture with Harry that she could pass out to friends at school. Lauren's curls and Harry's feathers are a good combination, yes?

Lauren's Senior Pictures!

Lauren and Signey went out for a few hours on Saturday to take some pictures. They came home with nearly 300! Having a ball, they both did a good job--keeping warm, and lookin' cute. Lauren's final cuts are below--except the one with Harry. I'll have to post that separately.


Here's Lauren as a snow bunny.


This is Lauren, the girl next door.


This is Lauren, the movie star--like Audrey Hepburn.


This is Lauren, hangin' out, swinging in the cold.


Here's Lauren's favorite. This is the one that's going in the yearbook.

Friday, November 10th

Okay, so I was picking up the girls on Friday afternoon; however, this was the scene outside my classroom at about 8:00 a.m.


The snow began falling about the second I got to school that morning. We went from dry, green to sopping, white. The snow is so heavy that you can't even see me and my students standing in the five windows waving at you!


Friday was also Ms. McFaul's last day at Memorial. Although it was a somber time, we still managed to play bingo (and stick to the curriculum), eat food, drink juice and soda, and have a ton-o-fun! Ms. McFaul won't be far from us, however. She'll be returning for study parties, and I suspect that she'll show up now and again just to "crash our academic parties."

More Room Updates

Hannah now has a little Paris photo montage. Some of the pictures we really haven't used for anything before. Walgreens.com comes through again as an invaluable service for quick, inexpensive photoprocessing--just one hour for prints and enlargements at the corner pharmacy.


Here are a couple of new IKEA items--a lime green accent lamp and a heart-shaped knotted rug. Hope Han likes them.


The black shelf, which looks small in this picture, is actually 43" x 10". It's part of the LACK series, so it's kind of a cousin to the red, "w" shelf. Both shelves have ridiculously sturdy wall-mount systems. And with the new stud finder, we were able to securely attach them to studs, or as the Sweedish say, "joists."

Full Moon?

Can it be? Only three days after Halloween? No, it's not full. Not until Sunday. However, with the dense haze hanging on the moon, we wondered. I wonder what Monday will hold for high school student behavior? Hmmm.

Kitchen Aid?

Is it possible that Herenhoff is a help in the kitchen? No, but he's certainly underfoot. And in the event that something drops on the floor, he's on it like a Schnauzer on table scraps.


Is it an alien? No. It's the pasta attachment for the Kitchen Aid log-splitter. We tried extruding several different kinds of pasta tonight. Of course, some noodles worked better than others. We're still new at this one.


So far, angel hair pasta has worked the best for us, but we're willing to keep trying for consistency on macaroni, manicotti, and fetuccini. We're considering purchasing the roller and cutter in addition to the extruder.