Tuesday, June 28, 2011

No More Babies *sniffle*

Sometimes I look at Anja and Greta and I think "what happened to you?! You're not babies anymore!" it happened kind of suddenly, but in everything we do this summer it's being made apparent that these girls are quickly turning into little kids. Yikes!!!
Anja can go on pony rides without an adult hanging onto her shirt
And she can write
And she can throw a pingpong ball into a glass of water to win carnival goldfish.

It's amazing!!! Greta is quickly growing too... She's been out of diapers for a looong time now, and she communicates like a normal person. She has regular conversations like a regular child. she and Anja sit in their carseats and talk, talk, talk. They make up games, they pretend together, and--maybe the biggest indicator of their growing up-- they FIGHT. Ugh. That I could do without. But it's still a clue to their level of big kidness.

In other news, Martin took a long bike ride this morning (while I was still a morning zombie) and when he got home he told me he'd stopped at K. Dees to visit with Kim... And to prepay a treat for the girls and me! So if they ever wake up, we'll be walking down there this morning. Thanks, Martino! BlogBooster-The most productive way for mobile blogging. BlogBooster is a multi-service blog editor for iPhone, Android, WebOs and your desktop

Monday, June 27, 2011

Big Fiddling Weekend



We had a great weekend! The Fiddler's Gathering was full of great music, yummy foods and so many familiar faces! My big regret is that we didn't camp. It would've been the perfect year, the girls would have LOVED it, and it would've given us more of a chance to be at the saturday evening show. (as it happened, Anja and Martin went while I stayed in the car with sleeping Greta.) Well, live and learn... Next year for sure!
The girls really enjoyed their elephant ear and lemon shake-up, and on Sunday the crowds cleared enough that they were able to run wild all over the place. (Greta has no concept of personal space; she doesn't understand that you can't just plow into complete strangers and expect them to be ok with it.) I forgot to put in earrings on Sunday morning, so Martin and Greta sneaked off and bought me two pairs! But one of the best parts was when we moved up to the benches (from our blanket under a shady tree--top spot both days!) for the last show.
They were mesmerized. They just sat there and watched the band, it was amazing! And of course, they applauded too.

Anyway, so fun! So many little kids running around! So nice to see all the old musician friends I don't so often see anymore! And we got fed by our families up at the river ( and lake!) so that was an added fun bonus! The only bummer is that I COMPLETELY spaced the Corpus Christi celebration at St. Boniface. Ugh. I really need to start using a calendar. (I'm supposed to play a Farmers Market or two this summer at some point... Don't ask me when, or even which location! I don't know!!)

Today Martin has taken a vacation day, so we plan to relax and each get a little "work" done (like knitting and catching up on the crosswords) for ourselves. You know, things that don't often happen when you work seven days a week, lol. (ok, I knit all the time. It's the crosswords that don't get done!)

Oh, and to follow up on my recommendations, I watched the Time Traveler's Wife movie. BARF. I'm not one who gets SO irritated about movies not aligning perfectly with the book, and this one did an ok job of that... It was just an amazingly poorly made movie. It didn't make any sense! And it was sooooooooo dramatic (in the vomiticious sort of way) I couldn't really stand it. It took me two nights of watching it in very short intervals before I finally finished it. Too bad, because it could've been a great movie. Oh well.

And my new music recommendation would have to be the French-Canadian band from this weekend (I don't know how to spell the name and the program is in the car, but it's raining.) they were AWESOME!! I loved them.... Definitely my favorite band of the weekend.

And now, while my children are still sleeping (Anja slept until 10:30 yesterday... Um, big weekend?) it's time for some coffee and kitten snuggling. Happy day! BlogBooster-The most productive way for mobile blogging. BlogBooster is a multi-service blog editor for iPhone, Android, WebOs and your desktop

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Ride, Ride, Ride



I often have trouble when it comes time to buy Martino a gift. Part of this problem comes from not having much money of my very own to spend on him and the fact that I think it's pretty ridiculous to spend his money on a present for him. So, yeah, money is what makes it hard. Anyway, for Fathers Day I had the idea to get him something i knew he wanted, but would never get for himself: a bicycle. I think it was a perfect gift for him! He's been making up all sorts of unnecessary errands so he can ride his bike around and he tells me over and over how much he likes it. This makes me so happy!! Successful gifts are a great thing.

Here's our humble city garden. It makes me happy, even if the tomato plants are looking pretty runty.

It's raining here, but it's supposed to be perfect weather for the Fiddlers Gathering this weekend!!!!! BlogBooster-The most productive way for mobile blogging. BlogBooster is a multi-service blog editor for iPhone, Android, WebOs and your desktop

Monday, June 20, 2011

Annie Recommends

After a long time without posting, I have nothing but a few book and music recommendations to share with you.

MUSIC:
1. Ari Hest. Modern acoustic folk; favorite song "Give It Time" from his new album called Sunset Over Hope Street. Some of his songs are a little too.... Whiny folk singerish for me, but this one has me totally hooked. He's like a young John Gorka. Love him.

2. David Mallett. Um, god of the earthy folk music of the 60's-70's? I know i've posted about him before, but I just cannot believe that I've been playing his songs myself for YEARS (!!! Not kidding!! This year marks my brother's 10th wedding anniversary and his wife taught me one of his songs before they were married! Yikes!) without crediting him or realizing his incredibleness and buying all of his albums to listen to constantly forever after. The only album I have is Inches and Miles. My favorite songs on it are.... Ok, I admit it, all of them. The album is only ten dollars on iTunes and worth every single penny. David Mallett is also the person responsible for The Garden Song ("inch by inch, row by row!") a favorite of every kindergarten music class. And one of my favorites too! Don't think of him as a kids music guy though... He's not at all. And he's incredible. (and still touring!)

BOOKS:
Ok, I know my family is probably sick of hearing about this book (I might be mildly obsessed) but "The Time Traveler's Wife" is more than a novel. It's like a piece of weird, beautiful art that keeps you thinking about it long after you've left the gallery. It's a story of perfect marital friendship, true faithfulness, and, um, time traveling. Yeah, I know that part sounds a little sic-fi, but I swear it's not! It works! It's what makes the story so lovely! And oh my gosh, I am not one who cries at books or movies (I think the only movie I've cried at the end of was We Were Soldiers) but this one is a serious tear-jerker. I had to force myself to finish it. It has a little run of sadness, but the very very end is just wonderful. And PS, if you've only seen the movie, it doesn't count. From what I hear they are very different. I almost want to watch the movie, just to get mad.

Those are all my recommendations for today. I hope everyone had a happy fathers day! BlogBooster-The most productive way for mobile blogging. BlogBooster is a multi-service blog editor for iPhone, Android, WebOs and your desktop

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Summertime Funs

Our fabulous neighbor(s) Kelsey and Bri gave Greta this tent for her birthday back in March. It has been a great many things from day to day... a circus bigtop, a cat house, a dog grooming parlor... But the other day we dragged it outside to the backyard and had our lunch in it! It was a happy time.Have I mentioned how obsessed I am with the Instagram app? If anyone reading this has an iPhone and doesn't have this [FREE!] app, YOU NEED IT. It is very fun and completely addicting.


And among other fun things....................................

Ta-Da!!!!!! I stayed up late last night and finished my green sweater, TWO WEEKS before my unrealistic deadline!!!!!!!!! I can hardly believe it!!!!!! I am very, very, VERY happy with it. I'm much happier with it than I was with the brown sweater. This one didn't take any tweaking at the end--everything measured just right. The neck is funny, as all my sweater necks are, because I don't know how to do neck shaping. LOL.


My sister and I went to a fiber arts festival last weekend in Franklin, Indiana. It was a very fun time! We just took my two girls and her baby Avi, and everyone was so happy all day long! They had a few lambs and sheep, and SO MUCH FIBER. Unbelievable. Three fairground buildings full of vendors! I got a skein of hand-dyed cotton in a mix of purples and greens, and Sarah got enough grey wool to make her hubby a sweater. We also picked up a hank of un-dyed cotton and were going to attempt dyeing it here at our parents' house today. I remember one time we were doing some experimental crafting up here and the day ended with the microwave catching on fire! Hopefully the dyeing endeavor ends with less drama!


I love summertime!! Greta has recently developed a fear of the car. If it were winter, this might be a problem, but in the summer, not so much! We can walk *almost* everywhere we need to go! Today we walked up here to my parents' house. (My parents must be getting really sick of us. We've been spending A LOT of time up here lately... most especially every Saturday!) This morning we went to the Farmers Market to pick up our CSA (and they told us we have a $10 credit because they didn't give us our full share last week!) and to visit with everyone we saw. Before that, we'd been up bright and early for the library book sale!!! Nothing gets Anja out of bed, dressed and out the door faster than a library book sale! We got some good things this time, it was actually a really good sale. I wish I'd been in the market for more fiction books, because they had TONS.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Trying again



Whew, it's hot! We've been spending a lot of time in the sprinkler here at home and in the kiddie pool up at my mom's house. I love summer!

I made the most amazing brownies the other day... How can you go wrong with five eggs and a bag of melted dark chocolate chips stirred in? Boy.

My sweater will surely be finished for Fiddler's. I'm past the shoulder of the second arm! (working shoulder down.) not bad!

Let's see if these pictures can be seen this time. BlogBooster-The most productive way for mobile blogging. BlogBooster is a multi-service blog editor for iPhone, Android, WebOs and your desktop

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Animals of our Life

Clearly BlogBooster takes some getting used to... I would not call my last post a success.

But here is a little post about some of our locals, whom I've mentioned before on the blog. Ratty Squirrel is either dead or has been evicted (I've seen some robins nesting in the porch roof next door, where Ratty used to hang out), unless his fur is changing and this is him: Can you say "not right"?!

What's with the camouflage fur?! Pretty icky, and he's around ALL THE TIME. But you know, I don't think it's Ratty Squirrel.... Ratty had absolutely NO hair on his tail. None. He was a true Squirrat... and of course, one I found that the squirrat is a "mythological" animal, he packs his things and leaves the neighborhood. Of course.

While we were getting into the car today, we heard a big *thump* and found this little baby robin--he'd smacked right into the back of our car! Martin tried to pick him up to move him, but he hopped away, so he just poked him until he got safely away from the car. Cute, huh?

And for our last animal of today's post, here is a duck:




One day she came out of her room dressed like this and told me she was a duck! She wore yellow all day... Conveniently, it rained later in the afternoon, and she got to wear her yellow raincoat!


WE'RE GOING TO THE FROZEN CUSTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Blog Booster Changes Life

My sister-in-law told me about an app called Blog Booster. It makes blog posts from your iPhone a cinch! This is my first attempt.

Ok, well my picture failed to upload, but that's ok....

I now will publish this post and see what happens. I'll check back soon! BlogBooster-The most productive way for mobile blogging. BlogBooster is a multi-service blog editor for iPhone, Android, WebOs and your desktop