Grease

Charlie under "S", center stage

Charlie was in her middle school's adaptation of Grease last week. She did a great job. Unfortunately, the lighting was terrible so the pictures I took aren't that great. Shawn took a lot of what we hope are great pics the old fashioned way, which we are now trying to decide where to develop. Charlie looked fabulous in her purple poodle skirt that her Grandma Camp made her. Her skirt was the envy of all of the girls and several of the teachers. Several of her friends asked if her grandmother could be theirs as well. Her cousin, Qatar, (it's a long story how we're related,) looked great as well and did a fabulous job. He's the boy leaning on the car in the glasses. Great job Charlie and Qatar!

Be careful What you wish for....

This morning, after Charlie and Emily had gone to school and the house was quiet, I wished that it was the end of May so that I wouldn't have to wake Lily up and we could just stay home. Since it's still only March, I woke her up and off we went to preschool. By the time I got to school, I was no longer thinking about staying home but was ready to have fun with my kids. Unfortunately, this was not to be. As I arrived, I saw Beth pulling the computer out of Dawn's room and steam pouring out into the hall. The whole room was a sauna, the windows were swollen shut and humidity was dripping from everything as steam hissed it's way out of the broken radiator. The fish were belly up the water was 92 degrees over an hour after we opened windows, got the radiator turned off and the fans blowing, the bulletin board was wet all the way through, the walls were wet and bubbling, and some of the books were puckered.
We spent the morning cancelling school, pulling out books, pulling down the bulletin board and positioning fans. It was a crazy morning. All we could do was work and laugh- at me for wearing a white T-shirt- that was pretty wet from forcing the windows open, and for my straight hair way fizzing out, and for the situation. Becasue laughing beats crying any day. so, be careful what you wish for- the days off I was wishing for were not the one I received. :)

A great day for a field trip

Charlie had a field trip yesterday. After going on numerous with Charlie, Shawn choose to go on this one. He's was very excited because it was a skiing field trip. As a kid, our field trips were required to be educational. Here in Minnesota, apparently, they can just be fun.

According to Shawn, Charlie did a fabulous job. Being short has some real perks. :)

cooking when compacting

Well our family continues to compact. We have fallen off the wagon a couple of times and heeded the call of the golden arches, but mostly we've done great. Last night however, we started a new chapter in compacting. How long can we go without an oven? After we put dinner on the table, our oven started beeping at us and flashing the message F-2 on the display . By hitting the oven cancel button, the stove would stop beeping for about 30 seconds and then it would start to beep again. We decided to google our oven (it's a Roper Nouvelle) and see what we could find. What we found out was that our heat sensor was gone. It was going to cost between $80-$160 plus S&H to replace the part. Our oven is really old- maybe 25 or more and we were trying to decide whether or not to fix it. While we both want a new oven, our current one vents underneath- a way that is no longer done on ovens, which means buying a self venting hood or microwave to go with it. This would be very expensive. We decided that we were going to buy a new oven if the part we needed was the $160 part and that we would pay for part of it with reward point gift cards from one of our credit cards. This meant waiting a month or so for the points. So, i have a month of menus using just the stove top (which still works), the crock pot, and the grilled. Then Shawn called, it's the cheapr part and it will be here later this week. Still, I have the next's week menu done all w/o an oven- and I'm sharing it because i can. Tuesday-pasta, Wednesday Tacos, Thursday roast pork (in the crock pot), Friday a huge sub sandwich, Saturday BBQ pork sandwiches (in the crock pot w/ the leftovers), Sunday Shawn's chicken noodle soup and next Monday Breakfast for dinner. So, happy eating every one- and no trips to the golden arches for this ovenless compacting family. :)

Superbowl Sunday

We had a few friends over for the super bowl. We started with a pregame dinner. Shawn made some of his fabulous chili and we did a potato bar with chili and all the fixings. Our friends brought all the best sides including fabulous nachos, buffalo chicken dip and chips and oriental salad. We finished up with Lisa's famous bars and a

football cake that Nessa made. Sadly, I was too busy talking and laughing to take many pictures. It was a great time. But here's what I've got.

The Minnesota Way

Yesterday was a very warm day- about 40 degrees. Lily wanted to spend some time playing in the back yard, so out we went. We had already been sledding and as hot as Lily felt, she decided to take her coat off. She then went down the slide and decided to play in her play house. Unfortuantely, she was unable to get in. She kept ringing the bell, but with all the snow in the yard, she couldn't open the door. As our only child born in Minnesota, Lily has really embraced her home state and shown us how real Minnesotans play in the snow!!!

A perfect Day

We had a perfect day with friends. A miracle occured and it was almost 40 degrees out on Saturday. We had already planned to go sledding with friends, so this was a massive bonus. We had a ton of fun- especially when the guys were running sled trains. I almost peed myself laughing! and Nessa and I got a great work out running up and down the hill.