It's COLD here...

...Well, everywhere except my fridge and freezer!  In there it's a nice 68 degrees.

Yep.  I woke up yesterday morning to warm milk and melted ice cream.  We rushed everything (thankfully) to our extra fridge/freezer and rescued most of it.  I called on our home warranty plan (thankfully) and they'll be out to "repair" tomorrow.  Sure.  A yellow fridge from 1972.  I'm planning on the replacement.  That's why we got the warranty thing after all.  So I think I'll start shopping!

P.S.  It finally feels like Wisconsin outside.  A few inches of old snow on the ground coupled with sub-zero temperatures.  Wooo, baby!!

UPDATE:  Alas, we have a busted thermostat.  And our guy FOUND the part and is fixing it as we speak!!  I can't say I'm not disappointed about not getting a new fridge out of this.  But at least it's working and at least it's clean!  I mean, might as well wash it out while it's empty, eh?

Basketball Baby

I feel like I've kind of deprived the blog of pictures of me pregnant (with belly actually showing).  Though no one has expressed disappointment.  So maybe you will now be disappointed.  

Anyway, here I am!  And a fresh hair cut to boot.

Let's work on the lighting, shall we?  Start with a flash.

 Ahh, this only looks half-decent because I used "warmify" on Picasa's touch-up features.

 Finding good lighting for photography in our house is hard. 

 It makes me sad.

Had enough?

Good night.

:)

Help. RE: piano

I have a question for you.  How do you get your kids to practice the piano?  I've started simple: you get a gumball from the gumball machine for every 10 minutes you practice each day.  They usually get 2.

But we miss a lot of days!  I'm only so good at reminding and reminding and reminding.

So...what's next?  Some reward system where they get a prize if they practice every day that week?  Or a bigger prize for practicing every day all month?  Charts, stickers, tracking...

Or should I take privileges away for them not practicing!?  (You know that's what I want to do!)

Without ranting too long...I will ask again, what works for you?

Quoteables

A couple minutes after applying a first coat of polish on her nails,  3-year-old niece Bethany reminds her mom,
"Aunt Katie needs to do a double-jacket on my nails!"
*   *   *
Andrew:  (eyeing something new on the kitchen counter, half disgusted) Mom, what is that?
Mom:  That's deodorant, but it's for women.
Andrew:  It STINKS!
Mom:  (feeling a little defensive)  Andrew, it's unscented and it's new and closed.

(pause)

Mom:  You smell dinner!

(Ham and bean soup, which happens to be one of my favorite smells!)

Happy New Year!

Meet "Happy New Year Baby"

She hopes your new year is full of happiness and frosting.

 In lieu of having real snow, we decided to make ourselves some snowflakes!  I've wanted to do this before, but with the overwhelming amount of snow outside, never really felt moved to go through with it!  But this is the year, baby!  I love how each flake is so unique--wish you could see each one in detail.