Easter Grass

Today, on the third of April 2010, that title is an oxymoron. Seeing as how we didn't have a flake of snow left on the ground as of Thursday, I am taken back a bit. There is no visible grass. It is all buried under the 4 inches of snow from the unexpected storm blowing through. Yes, blowing through because it's still falling. I listened to the wind whip around last night and this morning in my bed. I thought that we were just getting a lot of wind (as predicted). No, what met my eyes when I looked out the window was a shock. I wouldn't have been more surprised if the Easter bunny had brought me breakfast in bed.



A white out. Complete curtain of white and piles of snow. I was thinking about driving to Idaho Falls this afternoon, but forget that! IHOP is having this wonderful promotion in April; kids eat free every day from 4 to 10 pm. Yay. Though we'll probably only do it once or twice, it will be a fun diversion. Not today. I think the cabin fever will be hitting early on today. Not that I won't have my diversions. General Conference is this weekend, so the next two days will be split into two hour segments from 10am to 4pm. To quote Wikipedia, which sums subjects up much better than I can,

"General Conference is a semiannual world conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held in April and October, where members gather for five two-hour sessions to listen to instruction from Church leaders. General Conference is broadcast via satellite from the Conference Center at church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah."

This year in the States for us is especially unique because we are able to listen in 'real time' and watch it on T.V.! We are usually able to listen to the stream on the internet and hear the morning sessions. Then we have to find time the next day to listen to the afternoon session that took place while we were sleeping. If anyone is interested, go here to --> Listen to General Conference <-- Happy Easter, everyone!



*I bought these tulips last Friday because they looked so spring-y. Little did I know I'd need a reminder of Spring in my kitchen.*

YouTube Tuesday:

You all know I loves me the YouTube Tuesday. It's the only inspiration that's been hitting me lately. I stumbled across this channel a few months ago. I love Nalts. He's great. He is one funny guy. And to get you all prepped for this coming Thursday (april fools day), here are some great pranks that hopefully don't get pulled on you.

Night Sledding

I'm improving, I'm only a week behind on posting pictures about the current activities. We took advantage of the last wheezes of winter and spent a night up near the Tetons in a cabin with our good friends, The Whoolerys. There was an awesome "official" sledding hill nearby. "Offical" meaning there was a tow rope to take you to the top of this foothill. Sledding so fast your eyes water. Though the towrope was out of order, so we hiked to the top each time we wanted to sled down. But that provided worn out kids for us adults.

The next morning, we hit the hill again. I took more pictures than sledding this time. The night before, Jacqui & I got going a little too fast and overshot the end of the sled run. Jacqui was fine, my gluteus maximus and right shoulder took the impact. Whew, haven't done that in a long time! We had a great time enjoying our last winter for a long, long time.

Music to my ears

I have been striking music gold lately. And I can't stop listening! I've gotten a few albums lately, which I never do. How often do you buy a whole album and like every song? Not very often. You buy the title track or the one that's played incessantly on the radio.

There is the honeymoon period where you listen to the song non-stop. It's on your workout mix, in the car and blasting out at home. But it's just one song and soon you're sick of it. Then you have the arduous process of finding another 'golden song'. Hunting through that artist's archives for another gem, or trying another genre to see what catches your attention.

I'm pretty eclectic when it comes to my music. I'm not a music whore that will listen to anything, but I like a lot of different styles. From Harry Connick Jr. to Beastie Boys to Weezer to Alan Jackson to Enter the Haggis (yes, they are Irish) and all others in between, I have a love in each niche. Though I'm not a big R&B or current rap fan. Hey, remember back before Alternative music & you had the choice between Country, Rock or R&B. At least those were the radio choices in Nebraska. Early 90's R&B is alright by me. Some TLC 'Don't go chasing waterfalls', Salt 'n' Pepa 'What a Man" or Cris Cross (they'll make you jump) brings back the gym dance feeling.

My current favorite album is Weezer's "Raditude". Seriously, I love every. single. song. (p.s. track 4 needs just two little words scrubbed from it, which is ridiculously easy to fix) Buy it from Amazon. And get the 'Amazon MP3 Deluxe Exclusive Album'. It has 4 extra songs that the regular album does not include. Ridiculous tag line, but very worthwhile. I've been burned before by the songs only included on the 'exclusive' albums. This one was not a mistake. The best $9.49 I've ever spent. Geez, Amazon should pay me for this plug.

YouTube Tuesday: Es ist alle gut.

Now, don't consider me any master of the German language. That title comes courtesy of Google Translate. My sisters & brother weren't available. They are all German geniuses; mini-Einsteins. I refer to them as mini because they'll always be my little brother & sisters.

Let's start at the very beginning. (a very good place to start) My Dad was in the Air Force for 20 years. We lived all over the U.S.; Alaska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Arizona, etc. Many of my school mates were 'Air Force Brats' as well and had lived in such exotic places as Japan, Hawaii and Germany. No such luck in my family. The Air Force never took us overseas. Though Alaska was technically defined as an overseas posting. Anyway, as things usually turn out, they do all the fun stuff once I've grown up and left home. Where does the job after retirement take them? Germany. My brother and two of my sisters were still home and they got to go to Germany. They speak German like natives. They basically rock. Though I'm not complaining. I did go live in Spain for my senior year of high school as a foreign exchange student.

top row, L to R: Elizabeth, 13; Hannah, 15; Elizabeth
bottom row, L to R: Matt, 20; Hannah; Matt
(also, they'll probably tell me to point out that they will be 14 & 16 next month)

I chose this vid because it is German & made me think of them. And because I would have loved to have one of these homemade speed bumps in Egypt. My sister Hannah told me what they were saying, but I don't remember it all. She also said that it's advertising a store that is the US equivalent of Home Depot; a home improvement store.




Oh, and I can't leave out another sister (i have 4) whose birthday it is today. Katelyn! Happy Birthday, sis!


p.s.
i love you too, Maggie.

Believe it or Not

Wow, I must be on the cusp of trendsetting. Guess what I just found?

We can now share the magic by displaying it on a t-shirt.

Spring has sprung

For want of a better word, I am feeling: apathetic. I think it's the after-effects of a long, long winter. The cold & isolation have wrought their havoc on me. It's been keeping me from things I usually enjoy. Blogging, for instance, hasn't held the same luster it used to. And then I would see others blogging and wonder to myself why I couldn't do something so simple. Well, I'll save you the long, drawn out apologies and not leave you with anymore empty promises. It seems like 'promises' is all I have been posting about every time I come out from under the storm clouds. I'll post. I promise. Whoops, more promises.

The weather has been b-e-a-utiful this past week. I took the kids to the park on one of these days. It was almost 50F. Whoever thought that would feel downright balmy?

I think Mairyn's expression sums it up. Hooray for winter coming to an end!

Eliza was feeling the warm weather vibes, too.

Grant deep in 'Boy Heaven'; playing in the mud.
Jacqui was running around too much for me to catch a good picture.
She didn't want to waste any of this wonderful weather.
Just in case it was teasing us with empty promises.