Cheese and Chocolate

Hark! Who's that handsome stranger at our door?

Why, could it be the handsome suitor my little girl has been pining for?

Is he the reason she has such rosy lips and a plait in her hair?

Her chariot was awaiting her, and her suitor received my approval.

Their destination?  An exquisite establishment serving cheese and chocolate.  Sure to be the fanciest of evenings.

This is the face of a girl on a date with her dad.

The iCar

On Saturday, Hi-Hat's Cub Scout Pack had their Pinewood Derby.  Hi-Hat, Geof, Granddad H and I had worked for a while this winter designing and building his first Pinewood Derby Car.  To cut and sand the car body and accessory piece, Hi-Hat disappeared into the garage with Granddad H, and Geof insists that Hi-Hat did the cutting and sanding himself.  So I will believe him.  And I will just say that Kellen seems to be a very skilled woodworker!  Maybe he can do my crown molding and chair rail projects for me.  ahem.  I just went and swiped a photo from Geof's facebook page - here's a picture of Hi-Hat hard at work on his car.  again - ahem. ;)

Hi-Hat's original design was to build an iCar - a simple wedge-shaped racer with an iPod replica mounted on top and ear bud racing stripes.   I jest, but he really did design and for the most part build and decorate his car.  But who can expect a little guy like my Hi-Hat to do all that taping for precision racing stripes?  I mean, I would hire someone out to do that if I were adding racing stripes to my own car.  Reminds me of the days when I wanted to drive cross country to L.A. to have bright orange and yellow flames painted onto my black VW Beetle.  I may have been studying to be a librarian, but I felt a flamed Beetle might provide me with good cover.  Those were the days.  Right.  Back to the iCar.

We did bits and pieces of research and learned all about weights, axles, centers of gravity, and graphite powder.  After an initial weigh-in we drilled out some excess weight and we were ready for the race!  I had no idea what to expect (except for a room full of screaming, hyper elementary school boys!), but I was hoping he would get a few style points.  I thought the iCar was a pretty cool idea.

Can you find the iCar in the sea of racers?  It's top center - red with the blue iPod and white ear bud racing stripe.

 The race was very well organized and went quickly! I was pleasantly surprised!  The cars raced down a metal track in 4-car heats.  Each car got to race 4 times, each time in a different lane.  Here you see the iCar in lane 1.

The Scouts counted down 3, 2, 1... And they're off!

Obviously, I took photos of all 4 races, so this shows the iCar pulling ahead in lane 4.

And here's the iCar ahead in its lane 2 heat!

 Going for the win in lane 2!

An ecstatic Hi-Hat after his car's 4th and final race - the iCar had won all 4 of its heats!  Hi-Hat was over the moon excited!  As the cars crossed the finish line, their time was recorded electronically, and the time and heat winner was immediately posted on the Big Screen.

Geof and I were getting hopeful that his car would place, but I'm not a numbers person and I wasn't keeping track of Hi-Hat's cumulative times along with the other top racers times.  Because I was taking pictures and keeping an eye out for our 2 girls and all.  I suspect that Geof was tallying numbers constantly in his head.  Because he didn't bring a camera.  Because he doesn't have one.  He thought Hi-Hat had an outside chance at one of these:

Cue the ooohs and aaaahs.  They built up the drama - making the boys clean trash off the floor and watch a few exhibition races while waiting for the awards to be handed out.  I thought the following scene was pretty cute - hanging around waiting for results.  They look like tiny little men together.   Future lodge brothers?  Love it!

OK, the awards ceremony is starting.  Commence the nail biting!

I should note that Fancy was exceedingly nervous and excited because she had kept track of the fact that Hi-Hat had won all 4 races and had a shot at something shiny.  Brought back the days leading up to Hi-Hat's spelling bee this fall, when Fancy was sick with nerves for him.  She is quite the competitor and reacts very emotionally to the prospect of winning anything.  So, if you can't tell from her face, she was excited.

And Hi-Hat was pretty excited, too.  OK, the awards.  We got a little suspicious when we noticed a certain familiar Apple-themed car resting on the table with the trophies and certificates.

 Hi name wasn't called for any of the style or craftsmanship certificates and trophies.  I should note that as an impartial judge, his was definitely the most stylish and creative.  Hands down.

And then the announcement: "the third place trophy for speed goes to [Hi-Hat] Hill-a-man!" Bright boy that he is, he deciphered the name and jumped up on stage to claim his trophy, by far the biggest trophy he has ever received.

He was so cute - so surprised and happy and proud of his little car.  He just carried this look of joyous disbelief on his face as all his family and Scout photogs snapped away.

The three big speed winners.  

Fancy was awash with relief and was more excited than Hi-Hat was!  She could not keep her hands off of him.

As Hi-Hat moved around the room, taking pictures and sharing his trophy with his friends, he was dragging his biggest supporter around behind him, because she just wouldn't let go!   That was probably the best part for me - seeing them have such different reactions (quiet, sweet, joyous surprise vs.  all out crazy ecstasy!) and yet be literally stuck together.  Who could ask for a better, more supportive little sister?  

And that ends this year's Pinewood Derby.  Third place race finish with a shiny new trophy and boosted love for Scouting.  Over dinner he talked about entering the next competition - the Rocket Derby.  Oh, dear me.

Happiest Templates on Earth

Remember how I have way over 3000 images to process from our last visit to Disney World (because remember how I was going to just take snapshots with my little point and shoot and ended up triple fisting the photography with my phone, point and shoot, and big-mama camera)?  I still have over 3000 images to process, but I'm making progress on my 2010 Disney book.  I decided to make my own templates this time.  I saw several items in Disney gift shops that are serving as inspiration pieces.  I bought one of the items (a print), but I did not buy the Disney Dooney and Bourke suitcase that truly inspired me.  I don't know, do you think $300 for a piece of luggage that would serve as a scrapbook page model is too much?  I just don't know... ahem.  Anyway, I discovered that the Disney store here at the mall is currently using plastic bags with a Disney cartoon strip design that suggests the D&B pieces I really liked, and for the price of one small plastic fairy figurine, I (well actually, Geof) got a stack of plastic bags with the graphics I needed.  So armed with two sets of scanned graphics and folders and folders and folders of digital scrapbooking files, I headed into PSE and got to work.  It should be said that while I "designed" these pages, I did occasionally swipe things like frames and borders from other designers' pages, to save myself the time and energy of reinventing the wheel.  Or sometimes I worked off of existing templates and changed things all around.  So with that in mind (and with my Masters Degree in Library Science that gives me a healthy appreciation for copyright laws), these templates shall never be offered as freebies or anything like that. :)  I should offer heartfelt thanks to Manda Girl and Simply Yin for their helpful bits and pieces.

So far I am pretty happy with my results.  My goal is to make about 2 dozen coordinating templates, and once that is done I can just slap all those photos into place and print my book.  Probably next year, but I'll get there!  Here are a few examples of the direction I'm heading in.  And now I need to get back to making more comic strip themed pages.  Happy scrapping!

Know what else is beautiful?

I  may be her aunt, but I'm not partial.  Really, I'm not.

Beautiful lips, beautiful lashes, beautiful cheeks.  Sigh.

I need to get my spoon, 'cause I could just eat. her. up.

One fine evening

One fine evening I went for a walk with some people I love.  A sweet little sleeping "Wish-Well" snuggled in the the arms of her mom with her daddy by her side.

The sky was an amazing display of color and light. This day was not slipping away unnoticed.

The tranquil evening was interrupted by unsettling, anguished cries from across a field.

We were greeted back at the farm with new life in the barn.  The evening felt lovely and peaceful.

But this little one was too early, too small.  His eyes were sealed shut and would never open to see that most beautiful sky - a sky that made me stop and wonder of the glory of Heaven.  The gorgeous sky that was here for just those few moments that this life came and went.

This creature was here for those few fleeting moments of beauty, but he never saw it.  He was in a darkened barn filled with agitated hens raining hen droppings around him, and the beauty of the night was slipping away from me.

I was reminded that my God is a gracious God.  That there is ugliness and sadness in this world, but God is loving and offers hope.  He offers moments of beauty that only He can create in a world that offers much much less.  He offers hope and peace and everlasting beauty.  He offers glimpses of what is to come for those who believe. 

On that one evening He offered a brilliant red and purple sky.  He offered witness of a newly formed life.  He offered an evening that made me stop and wonder at the majesty and grace of my awesome God,

and the evening was beautiful again.

Rambling

So I have about 7 minutes before I need to head out tot be bus stop and get the big kids.  Then we have a busy evening.  Just thought I'd jot down a few things we did today or that I wanted to remember from this week.

- Today Rella had to see the pediatrician as she is "backed up" again and the doses of Miralax I have given her have had zero effect.  I was giving her 2-3 tsp/day.  Dr. B wrote on paper that I should give her 32 (THIRTY TWO!!!) tsp of Miralax on Friday and be on standby for a major clean-out.  Seeing as I have been on solo kid duty all week, I suggest that Friday will be a superb day for me to spend the day out, doing a little shopping or maybe playtime with my new camera lens.  I'll leave her daddy with a giant supply of cleaning products, a poncho and a pair of boots.

- Speaking of boots, Rella was a trooper with me today as I shopped all over the mall for boots.  I've had this one particular pair of boots on the brain ever since I fell in love with them on the Belk display over Christmas.  I did not, however, fall in love with the price tag.  Well whadaya know? Today they were on sale!  So I tried them on, but I wasn't as enamored with them as I remembered.  They were a little too tall for my general taste.  I loved the idea of wearing them, but not sure it would make sense to wear such gorgeous tall boots to, say, feed the ducks at the pond, sit in the lobby at dance class, or wait for miralax to kick in this weekend.  So that led to a wild goose chase around the mall looking for the second best pair of boots.  I didn't find them.  The promise of jelly beans waiting at home kept Rella going.  Once I got home I scoured Zappos for about an hour, finally landing on 2 (TWO!) pairs of must-have boots.  I may (may) have ordered them with the understanding that I will send one pair back since they have free shipping on returns.  Or, since I got such a fabulous photography-related Christmas gift, perhaps beasknees will treat me to a pair of boots.  Sigh.  Here's the other issue.  I wanted these brown boots to wear with this dark tealish sweater dress I saw somewhere sometime this fall that I have yet to be able to find again.  I'm thinking that if I can find it, I'll be all set.  Why do I send myself on these wild goose chases?

- Rella has been sleeping in a tent shaped like a tree all week.

- The kids each got a new betta fish this week to take the sting out of finding a new family for Alex the Poodle.  We now enjoy Ludwig (whose full name is Ludwig Von Betta for when he is in trouble, as Hi-Hat explains), Albert (whose original name was Stanley [Rella named her while the Golden Girls was on as background noise...] but whose name was changed after Rella found she could never remember Stanley), and tiny little Emma, the champion eater of the bunch.  Ludwig is a scaredy fish who retreats behind the toy soldier in his tank whenever you approach his bowl.  Albert hangs out in the top window of a Tangled-inspired fish tower.  Emma swims around and around the top of her bowl, probably waiting for food.

- Rella announced that she dreamed this week that Hi-Hat came into her room and covered her bed with butterscotch tape.

- I got infant formula in the mailbox today.  What???  Then, on the way to the bus stop (since beginning this ramble I've been to the bus stop and back), Rella threw a major, all-out tantrum about indeed being big enough to cross the street all by herself.  In front of all the neighbors.  Perhaps I do have an infant.

- Ever since we started eating more intentionally around here, which involves new grocery stores, reading labels, and eating in a lot, all I have been wanting is a hamburger.  I have yet to eat said hamburger, but it IS going to happen.

- I want to go to more craft fairs. 

- Hi-Hat and the boys next door are teaching me about Beyblades.  Reminds me of the days when I watched ALL the online Bakugon tutorials so I could learn and play with Hi-Hat.  That lasted for all of about 36 hours.  Now Hi-Hat's begging for a trip to Big Box Store to spend Christmas money on these spinning battle tops.  I see more online tutorials in my future.

- I want to have cool family portraits taken, downtown where there is metal and cement and rust and brick and paint.  I want to be wearing a tealish CK sweater dress and tall boots.  "Honk!" called the Wild Goose.

- I'm feeling the stirrings of wanting to start on my next Disney scrapbook.  They're just stirrings, mind you.  This time I may delve a bit into my own page and element design.  Yikes!  I have all these ideas, see, and nobody else seems to have had them and is willing to give them away online for free.  People.

- Seeing as how all three kids have come in and helped themselves to bowls of cereal, I should probably get going and start rounding up what we need for Scouts and drum lessons tonight. 

A Little of This and a Little of That

I just made the yummiest pasta salad sans recipe and am figuring I will never be able to reproduce it.  So I thought I would at least post a listing of my ingredients with the hopes that I can come close when I decide to try it again.  We've kind of revamped the way we eat around here, so there are lots more whole and fresh foods around for me to experiment with.  Here's what I grabbed from the fridge and pantry and tossed together:
- fresh baby spinach
- fresh parsley
- fresh basil leaves
- grape tomatoes
- 1/2 a lemon
- black olives
- crumbled feta
- orzo pasta
- olive oil
- red wine vinegar
- salt, pepper, garlic sea salt, lemon pepper
- honey

First I mixed the baby spinach with 2 giant chopped basil leaves and about 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley.  To that I added halved grape tomatoes (1 container), sliced black olives, the crumbled feta (the more you add, the less salt you'll want to add), juice from 1/2 a lemon and 1 cup tri-color orzo, cooked.  I then added some fresh ground pepper and a dash of salt.  It was great just like that, but I decided to make a little dressing to add to it.  A little olive oil, red wind vinegar, garlic salt and lemon pepper.  Added that to the salad.  The salad was just a touch salty, so I added a little honey.  Perfect!  So yummy!

And now I have lunch for the whole week! (Oh my - I just had another bite.  Did I already say this was SO yummy?)