Randomness....

• School was cancelled today....for fog! We started with a 2 hour delay and then moved to a 3 hour delay and then cancelled. This means we now have one day to make up at the end of the year. Yuck!
• I have no idea what I'm going to do today. I was completely not expecting a day off. The kids were both invited to go play for the day with friends.
• It's official ...we have all had the flu. Chris made it through his basketball game Monday night and then woke up in the middle of the night sick. Hopefully the germs are gone for a long time now!
• I was so sick of the germs in our house that I decided to splurge and buy some tulips at WalMart the other day...just to bring a little spring to our house. Of course, when I got to the checkout the woman noticed that I picked the bunch without a price on it....and insisted that tulip bunches were $1.00. I think she was absolutely wrong, but I wasn't going to argue with $1.00 for some springy tulips.

• Did anyone watch American Idol last night? They were TERRIBLE!! And what on earth is the deal with "Norman Gentle"? How on earth did he get through?
• Jenna spent a long time making a sign for her bedroom door the other day. I love her 1st grade phonetic spelling.



• It's official....ONE BASKETBALL GAME left in the season! Chris' JV team is 17-2 right now - they are having a great season!
• Only 18 days until our NYC trip with the journalism students. I can't wait!
• Happy Thursday!

Complete addiction . . . and a lot of inspiration . . .

Ask my family....I am completely addicted to the computer. Seriously, I am always at the computer editting photos, sending emails, stalking blogs, or searching the internet. I don't even want to begin to guess how many hours I have logged in at this desk. But it's not all bad. I've made some awesome friends through the internet...gotten back in touch with some friends I had lost contact with . . . learned a ton about photography and teaching. . .found some great recipes... am able to stay in constant contact with my far away family . . .and am able to constantly be inspired.

Lately I've been addicted to decorating blogs. I've always been into home decorating ideas and am constantly emailing ideas back and forth with my sister (which we just did again this weekend!) Lately I've been helping Cheryl dream up fun ideas for her house through the internet. I finally started a file on my computer of all the fun ideas I find that I'd love to try sometime...either in my house or in my dreams. ...and just thought I'd share a few of my favorite ideas here.

I love photo walls. I think I could get away with something similar to this in my house...if I had a staircase!

Another photo wall . . .I wish I had the guts to do something like this at my house....

Instead, I just helped Cheryl do something similar at her house!! Even more fun because photos of me and my kids are on this wall!

Totally loving chalkboard walls right now. I love our wall, I just wish it had come out a little smoother. Right now we use it to post our weekly schedule...or draw fun photos. This one is way too fun! Look at the bottom half!

photo from sara-mincy.blogspot.com

Another chalkboard idea - a menu board on the inside of the pantry door. Now I just need a pantry door I can paint.

Chris would NEVER let me do this in our house, but I absolutely love it. If I had seen it 4 years ago when we moved in, I would have been very tempted to replicate it in our bathroom. She let her kids draw on the bathroom walls and then painted in the drawings. How fun!!

photo from: www.megduerksen.typepad.com

Who wouldn't love this?? A whole closet (painted a very fun color) for your purses!!!

photo from: www.noragriffin.typepad.com

We already have great bookshelves at our house, but I love the RAINBOW bookshelves. I wonder how long it would take to collect books in every color?!?

An idea I might actually be able to pull off in my house - a wine rack to hold all my magazines (yet another obsession I have - magazines!!). . .

I've seen this idea several times - using wooden hangers as "frames" for the laundry room. This one holds a definition of laundry. I think I would probably have to do photos though.

I love this idea for over our bed or in a hallway....Number canvases to represent your family. Of course, our number would be 4. I really think I may look into this one for our bedroom.

I love looking for old windows and doors when we go to antique stores. Someday I might actually buy one. I'm just looking for the perfect window....and trying to figure out where I would put it and exactly how I would use it! This is definitely a fun idea though (and another chalkboard idea!)...

In the meantime, I helped Cheryl find a fun window for her bedroom this summer during one of our antique adventures . . .
Last, but certainly not least, I want to live here someday. Apparently this fun little cottage is in Texas. I wonder if Chris would go for it??

photo from: www.camillefano.typepad.com

Please pass the gatorade . . .

The good news is that Jenna started feeling better late Friday evening and is now 100% recovered. The bad news is that we are definitely passing her germs around! I woke up Saturday morning feeling awful and knew immediately that I had caught Jenna's flu, and spent most of my Saturday in bed trying to feel better. Jacob spent the night at a friend's last night and called us at 5:45 am to say he was coming home because he didn't feel good. . . so now it's his turn. It seems to be a 2 day flu - the first day you feel awful and basically think you are dying, and the second day you are achey all over and have zero energy. I'm on day two and am ready to head back to the couch. Poor Jacob is only on day one, which means I may be staying home with him again tomorrow. In the meantime, Chris is just waiting! He thinks he already had a light version of this about a week ago and is good to go. I guess we'll find out tomorrow!

Noodle soup and purple gatorade (with ice and a straw) . . .

Jenna has been home from school for the past two days. She started with a cough and cold earlier this week, but woke up late Wednesday night with the flu. Yesterday she didn't move from the couch until 8:00pm when Dad gave her some jello and then a bath. The only other thing she wanted all day was purple gatorade with ice and a straw (she's has some very specific requests when she is sick!). I'm always nervous when she has the flu after she got dehydrated two summers ago from the flu . . .so, I was happy she asked for something to drink and was actually drinking it! This morning she woke up still not feeling well and slept in until 9:00 (very unusual for her - she's an early bird). She is finally starting to get a little energy back and even requested "noodle soup" for lunch. We've been watching lots of Disney channel and also watched 3 American Girl movies (one on DVD and two we had DVRd). Hopefully this is the end of it...and no one else gets whatever she had!

In the meantime, I have gotten lots of little projects done - organizing, cleaning, and putting things away. Today I decided to recover the dining room chairs I bought 2 weeks ago. I had been frequently visiting antique stores in the area hoping to find chairs to match the dining room table we got from Grandma Covey. The chairs were the finishing touch for our newly redecorated living room. Two weeks ago I stopped back at my favorite antique store in Van Wert and asked again if they had gotten anything in (they were getting to know me pretty well!). . . .and they did! The bad part was that there were four chairs (I only wanted two) and they came as a set with a table. After talking to the owner, she decided to just sell me the chairs, but I had to buy all four. The next day I went back with a leaf from my table and Chris, and decided they were a perfect match for our table. Jenna and I shopped for fabric to recover them (they were covered in a lovely shade of 70s green) and found the perfect fabric to compliment our new living chairs.

It's hard to tell in this photo, but the fabric on the "before" chair was really ugly 70s green. It was kind of a fuzzy fabric, too. Fun!

The chair we tried to match. I even carried a throw pillow around JoAnn Fabric just to be sure it was a close match!

The finished project. . . I have 2 other chairs and the table has 2 leaves. Who knows, maybe we'll actually use the table for eating instead of just holding our fabulous glass bowl?!?

Mr. London. . .

Just a few recent photos of my favorite 4 month old little boy. He is just too cute for words!!

This first one is definitely my favorite! Look at those big brown eyes!

Basketball buffet

Strange title, I know....but every year around this same time I seem to get my fill of basketball. There are times I feel like I am at an all you can watch basketball buffet . . . and I am absolutely stuffed! (Cheryl - I really am working on my writing skills! I'm trying!!) I must admit that I have skipped quite a few away games this year though. My heart just hasn't been into it and I am just as happy sitting home with Jenna and doing our own thing. Jacob goes to every single game as a ball boy, so I don't have to worry about him making me feel guilty for not taking him. Chris has had a great season this year and is currently 15-2. The end is in sight . . . only a few more games to go.


Jacob is also playing basketball again this year. He played in a 5th grade league earilier this winter and started in the Y league right after Christmas. Their team played well, but didn't have a very successful season. They lost their tournament game in overtime yesterday. And now it's on to league #3 of the season for Jacob. He started practicing for the "Hornets" (a 5th grade Van Wert league) a few weeks ago and has his first scrimmage today (which Jenna and I again chose to skip). This team will play in weekend tournaments in March and April . . . so our basketball season will continue for a while.

A few photos of Jacob in action. The grey shirt photos are from the 5th grade league in November and December. The maroon shirt photos are from the Y league.

Tumblina . . .

You will have to excuse the addition of more tumbling photos each month. Parents watch night is scheduled for once each month, and I plan to keep practicing during parents night so I can try to perfect taking photos of indoor action.

Jenna is really improving in tumbling and tumbles around the house constantly. She does a mean cartwheel and is really quite flexible. She is dying to learn how to do a back walk over and can't wait to move up a level and learn new things. She has huge dreams of being a cheerleader and also being in the Olympics. I may just have to send her to live with Aunt Brenda or Aunt Jill so she can go to one of those training gyms in Texas (isn't that where they are?).

Demonstrating her flexibility . . .

Getting some help from Monica (the owner) on the bars . . .

She has perfected the "stick and finish". . .

Showing off her cartwheel . . .

In mid air after a jump off the spring board. . . You'll be happy to know that she nailed the landing.

Get your kleenex ready . . .

I just had to share this video I saw on the Today show on Thursday. . . because I am a sap. . . and because I have a special place in my heart for students with special needs . . . and because I am a parent. . .and because I like to see the underdog succeed . . . and because I am a basketball coach's wife. But I'm warning you, you may need kleenex.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Miss Meredith

How could I have forgotten to post photos from my photo session with little Miss Meredith?? Her mom contacted me in December and wanted me to take photos of Meredith. We met at Central (gorgeous setting . . . .but not the easiest place to take photos) and took photos on the big staircase in the lobby. Meredith is absolutely adorable and was talking away to my photography assistant (Jenna)! Her mom came prepared with several changes of clothes and Meredith really did a great job. My favorites were the family photos of Meredith with her parents. It's pretty obvious that she is the love of their life.

Meredith's mommy - I'm sorry I didn't post these earlier. I got caught up in all the pre-Christmas rush and totally forgot. Thanks again for giving me the opportunity to take photos for you. It was lots of fun!

In the meadow (front yard) we can build a snowman . . .

Sunday after church we all bundled up and headed outside to play in the snow for a while. It was the first day since we've gotten all this snow that it was actually in the mid 30s - HEAT WAVE - so we decided to take advantage of the "warm" weather (it's amazing how warm mid 30s can feel after wind chills below zero) and play. Jenna and I built a snowman with a little help from Chris. Grandma C. bought a snowman kit and she was so excited to finally be able to try it out. As creative as I am, I'm a terrible snowman maker. I think I need some lessons. Our poor snowman ended up with a pretty odd shape, but Jenna still loved him. Jacob spent most of his time making forts and digging hiding places in the banks of snow along our driveway. . . .and wanted nothing to do with pictures!

Besties

I love when I have a photo idea in my head and actually get to try it out - especially when it turns out so cute! Jenna and her BFF (as she calls her) Savannah bundled up in the snow last week. They have so much fun together!