Digging Out

yet again.

My arms are rubbery, Tim's gone and the task of shoveling has fallen on me. Well, I've decided it might be nice to be able to walk out our front door. ;)

Shoveling is really hard work when you have a frozen layer on top. I had to chop it away first, then I could shovel the snow away.

This is what it looks like: (warning: boring snow pictures *g*)



And this is what we had to plow through with the Highlander to get to the house. We were gone when this snow came. See the mound of snow? We made it down the whole driveway, then wondered if we'd make it through the hill in front of the garage.



We've discovered that a hybrid vehicle is nice, as far as gas consumption, but as far as torque and getting through snow... not good. We got stuck in my parents driveway this weekend. I think it's a warmer climate vehicle ;)

We did end up making it through to the garage and now we'll wait for it to melt a bit before venturing out again. Let's hope it warms up soon, it's 18 now, so guess we might have to wait a bit.

On an unrelated topic now, some news on Tim's job front. He found out Friday that his position is going to be dissolved. hmmmm...

and that they'll tell us more later. We're hoping for more info this week so we can kind of wrap our brains around it and maybe.. I don't know, try and decide what to do. It's not such a bad thing, Tim has wanted a change, but we're hoping for some type of severance package so we can make the house payment while looking for something else.

He has been contacted by a friend who works for a medical device company. They'd love to have him work for them. But then that keeps us here in MN. It would mean a move still, just not to where we thought. Brainerd or Duluth are the 2 living options that that job has brought about. Tim's kind of excited about the job, but none of us are too excited about the locations. We have lots to think about.

Here's to uncertainties in life and to taking each day as it comes.

For WoW players

We've just returned from Moorhead and our niece's confirmation, being in church and listening to lots of church talk has led to lots of conversations.

(Shift to world of warcraft thinking)...

Alec just came upstairs and said,

"OK, I've come to a conclusion. Jesus was a shaman. He could heal people, walk on water, and self resurrect. But he didn't spec (or put talent points into) improved reincarnation so the cool down won't be over any time soon..."

Dang... :)



and I have to say this... we got more snow... another 12 or so inches...

Please spring, where are you????

Happy gaming

Another view on why you might want to let your kids play video games. (If they want to, of course. :)

Relationship building does happen, even when video game playing is happening. It's much deeper than the gaming. It's valuing the interests of another individual. And how important is that when it's your child's? In my book, that is the utmost of importance.

The following article is an amazingly insightful recount of a 17 year old's experience with video game playing. He's a great writer.

http://zajosa.blogspot.com/

At the lake in northern MN



in April. I was hoping we'd have more thawing when these guys got here. But not this year. The reason I was hoping for more thawing was that to be down by the lake when the ice is cracking is amazing. You hear these huge cracking sounds... HUGE, scary sounds, it's so cool. Also really cool is that the ice pushes up to the shore, so there's these sheets of ice piling up next to each other, vertically; and the sheets can be bigger than you.

Tis OK though, they were in awe of the frozen lake. And it's fun to walk on ice any way it is, either solid or starting to thaw.





Gotta love rocks!





And guess what it's doing.... again?


I'll let you know what we get, I've heard that it could be 4 or 5 inches or 10... gotta love Spring.

Fun and Friends

We are so happy to have friends visiting.



It was hard to see more snow. Yes we got 20 some more inches. We wondered if Shelby and Wendy would be disappointed with the grayness and white of MN right now.



They're not. They're loving it! They've helped us see what fun it can be, not disappointment, but

JOY

I believe this is Shelby and Kyra's version of Talking Heads.. or "Mom! Mom! I'm just a head!"

It's wonderful having them here.

It IS So

(sorry, more weather stuff from me :)

uh huh...


Yep, just when I thought it was safe to bring out the cushions for the wicker. That's fresh snow, everything was brushed off and melted off.




And the storm warning doesn't let up until 10:00 tonight? Eek.. that's in 12 hours. I know it will probably melt pretty quickly, in a few days, but I wonder how much we'll get?

Yeah...we'll be hanging indoors today.

I promise, Shelby and Wendy, we'll have the trampoline brushed off before you get here :)

It's Out

on DVD and Abbi is just giddy. I had a hard time with this movie. Pretty intense-- for me; but not for Abbi. I had to cover my eyes, she didn't. I'd started to reach over to cover her eyes, while we were watching it in the theater and she swatted my hand away. OK, I only did it once. She reassured me that she was fine.

Neither one of us (Abbi nor I) had heard the music from this musical or seen it before seeing the movie. We kind of knew the story line, we had both read about it, so we knew there would be graphic scenes. But what we didn't know was that there would be beautiful music within it and also wit. Yes, humor behind some less than wonderful happenings... OK, dark humor.

So we got the DVD on Tuesday. Kyra wanted to watch it now too... I asked her if she was sure? She reassures me, that yes indeed she wants to and that Abbi will warn her of the bloody scenes. (the pause button is great :) She knows what happens in it, but still wants to watch it because her sister has loved it so much and Kyra and Abbi both love the music (we have the soundtrack).

They watched it together with me hanging out and it went fine. Kyra hasn't had any nightmares, she hasn't wished that she hadn't seen it. In fact this morning she was on the laptop with headphones on singing "The Worst Pies in Longdon". She'll sit and listen and sing with the lyrics up in front of her.

If you can watch the DVD, make sure you don't miss the extras. There's a part on the DVD where they talk about the making of it and it's wonderful. Helena Bonham Carter talks about how her 11 year old self dreamed of being Mrs. Lovett, her parents loved the musical and they had the album. Also Johnny Depp got the part even though Tim Burton and Richard Zanuck hadn't heard him sing. They just trusted him. Knowing that everything Johnny does or accepts to do, he'll do it well. Johnny said he'd never sang before and his recount of how he and a friend of his went about learning the music is great. Neither he, nor the musician friend could read music, yet they figured out a way to do it. ---- Watch the extras :)

Anyway. So Abbi loves it, all of it. I think Kyra likes the music best, and I do also. The scenes and trauma of the movie are a bit much for sensitive types (me and Alec in our household, in fact Alec dislikes Tim Burton stuff and refuses to watch it) but for others-- Tim Burton lovers, horror movie buffs, Johnny Depp lusters.. it's a dream :)

Here's a note from Tim Burton, from the inside of the CD from the soundtrack:

Of all musicals, Sweeney Todd is my favorite. The opportunity to create a film that is a combination of horror movie and musical was very exciting. It provided me with the chance to tap into the Hammer horror films as well as the old Universal films with the actors like Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney.

I believe Sweeney Todd is in the same league as characters presented in those films.

We tried to capture the essence and spirit of the Stephen Sondheim musical while at the same time creating something different for the film version. What makes these recordings so unique is that they are performed by actors who for the most part had no formal musical training. I believe this gives the songs a different dimension than any previous version.

My sincere thanks to the amazing cast and crew for helping bring this story to life.

Say It Isn't So

That we're supposed to get 6 inches of snow tonight.

shouldn't surprise me, should it? Since it is only April...

Glimpses of CA

check this out:



It's a ride at Legoland and yes that's Alec and Kyra swinging around and the rest of us trying to get them even more wet than they already are..(it rained all morning and into the early afternoon)


Abbi isn't enjoying it at all.

My kids are getting too old!

And if you see this girl...




it's Abbi! She's growing up :(

Jumpin for Spring

We are pretty much jumping for joy that the temperatures reached the mid 50s today!


I missed Alec with the pic, I was cooking up some soup while he was out there. He's inside now getting ready for a raid on WoW.

We were outside today, to town twice and also got some WoW playing in. Fun day it was, and only more warm days to come....

OH.. and

Only 4 days until this girl and her Mom come to visit! We're stoked!

Happy Spring and Friday to you all~~

"Happy?" April Fool's...

First I wake up to my son this morning:

Alec: Mom! I just read about the new patch that's coming out. (on WoW, if you're wondering)

Kelli(gullible one): *yawn* Really... hmm.. what's that?

Alec: Epic flying lessons will only cost 2,000 Gold and the mount you love, the hippogryph, will only cost an additional 200 Gold!

Kelli: What? REALLY?? Oh my gosh! That's awesome, I'm so excited! Hee hee... (hear Kelli laughing wonderously)

Alec: APRIL FOOL'S!!

Kelli: *sigh* *cry* you!


And Blizzard is doing it to me too? Tell us it's not a joke!

I do think Alec has more than one quality in him for him to fit right in with the video game industry....

And a few more for you WoW heads brought to you from the guys at Blizzard:

http://www.starcraft2.com/features/terran/taurenmarine.xml

http://www.blizzard.com/us/diablo2exp/pinata.html

Remember, these are jokes people ;)

Have you read any John Holt?

“So many people have said to me, ‘If we didn’t make children do things, they wouldn’t do anything.’ Even worse, they say, ‘If I weren’t made to do things, I wouldn’t do anything.’

It is the creed of a slave.

When people say that terrible thing about themselves, I say, ‘You may believe that, but I don’t believe it. You didn’t feel that way about yourself when you were little. Who taught you to feel that way?’ To a large degree, it was school.”

~John Holt, How Children


Ronnie brought this to her blog from Unschooling.info, where Rue posted it.

It got me to thinking about why we decided to take our kids out of school.

I could see the light going out in Alec's eyes. He didn't even want to get up in the morning. It was so obvious in him.

Pretty amazing.

Concert Mania (a.k.a. Link Mania)

We're going to see her in a few weeks! We're very excited.

We'd never heard of her, until we saw the movie Juno. Now we love her...


We're also going to see these guys in May. Alec introduced us to them.

Alec, Abbi and myself are making a trip up to C-A-N-A-D-A for their concert :) I love this song by them. Abbi loves this song by them.

And I think the following video is the song that Alec really likes... this is a live recording,






and here's the song from the album. They seem to like beautiful women have a sense of humor too.. the band is not all female.. but in true Robert Palmer style , this video has some women "musicians" starring in it.

;)

OH.. Abbi just got up and corrected me and said she thinks Alec's fav song is this one.

Happy Easter!

Since Easter around here doesn't look like this...



It looks more like this...



We hold our Easter egg hunt inside.

Kyra was afraid the Easter bunny might freeze his furry feet hiding eggs outside so she wrote him a note. She told him to please stay warm and hide them inside.

He did and he wrote this back.



2 out of 3 kids wanted to hunt for eggs in the morn. The third was happy for a few to be left for him. He'll hunt in a few hours.

Pretty exciting times when Patrick lays an egg.



Even Saddi couldn't contain her excitement!





And they're OFF!



I think the Easter bunny likes books. He hid lots amongst them.


Checking out the spoils!




Happy Easter wishes to all!

A Sweet Article

I wanted to share a piece that Gillian wrote over at Victoria Home Learning Network.

It features Abbi :)

Here's the link:
http://vhln.blogspot.com/2008/03/autodidact-piano.html

Thanks Gillian.

Sometimes...

What does a Mom do when her kids are happily doing things on their own?

Clean?

Cook?

Crochet/Knit?

Make things?

Exercise?

Read?


.

.

.

.

Sometimes...

.

.

.

.

and sometimes a Mom will play World of Warcraft.

And sometimes a Mom will get her character to level 70.

And then....

she will fly :)

If you're wondering

the picture above (header 3/17 , a cliffs picture) is the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.

Some people we talked to when I was in Ireland thought our family, the Mahars, were possibly from that area, they said the name is the same. It reminds me of one of my favorite movies too, Waking Ned Devine. It's one of those movies where I want to just climb into it and live for a while.

I can't wait to go back to Ireland again some day. Loved it. Especially rural Ireland. Dublin was a bit over stimulating for me, especially in July. I want to visit there too again, but maybe try it on the off-season.

Make my Day

Well, Ronnie made my day by saying I made hers (is that clear enough for ya? hehe)

Here is a selection of blogs that do make my day.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

Kyra makes my day and makes me smile, every day.

The Abbidoo who amazes me each day with her way with words.

Of course, the shining light, aka, Diana.

Karen is busy with her boys, but when she does get a chance to blog I'm pretty psyched!

Julie is an amazing artist and Momma. I hope to meet her some day. Truly, each blog post is a work of art.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

Da rules:

The rules:
1. Write a post with links to five blogs that make your day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the “You Make My Day Award” logo.
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs or emailing them the news.

Happy St Patty's Day to ya

This weekend we were in Fargo-Moorhead. Saturday we hung out at the Hjemkomst Center for the Celtic Festival. My mother is of Irish descent so we felt at home amidst the wool, green, bag pipes and fiddles that were playing.

Right now I have the Chieftains playing, kind of quietly since 3 out of 6 kids are still sleeping. Yes, we have 3 visitors from Moorhead. 2 cousins and 1 friend are here. We love it when they come to visit.

So Kyra, Matt and Kylie are playing Chrystal Chronicles, I'm done with my level ;) Alec, Abbi and Ben are sleeping, Tim went off to work and I'm now thawing out a pork loin to throw in with some potatoes and carrots for dinner. Not quite corn beef and cabbage but something more in sync with what we all like.

At the Celtic Festival I had some corn beef and cabbage soup and it so reminded me of my Grandma Dee. I was lucky enough to grow up with my grandma living in our basement. She would cook cabbage in the basement and the smell would waft up through the vent. I didn't like the smell at the time but on Saturday when I sipped my soup I had fond wonderful memories of her.

Here's to you Grandma Dee and Grandpa Ray of the Mahars, a little kickin' and jiggin'