Happy Blogiversary

When I have something to say I like having a place to say it so having a blog is fun for me.  The blog is an excellent place to keep track of all of life's happenings, and sharing my life with family and friends in far away places is the reason I started blogging and it's reason enough to continue. If you've been along for the ride for the last 3 years, thank you.  Stick around, I promise to keep it interesting. 

So, January Happened

Some notable January events

Finals week and the end of the first semester for Dagny and Dane
(test were taken, good grades were obtained)


Dagny sustained the first serious injury of her life by severing a nerve in her leg
(it is as serious as it sounds, but due to excellent care from her Dr. and her mother, and lots of really good painkillers, she is on the mend)


Steve got excellent news from his Oncologist, he continues to be cancer free


As for me, I'm not sure January was all that notable in my life. I have been busy doing all the things I normally do, plus driving Dagny to school and lots of Dr. appointments. I have  also been practicing new recipes and spending lots of time looking at prom dresses with Dagny.  Oh, and I discovered Downton Abbey.  (if you haven't seen it, go watch it right now, then come back and tell me how much you loved it)

This is the absolute worst picture I have ever taken of my family and one of my all-time favorites. It makes me laugh. It's amazing that I captured all three of them looking that bad.  I've never come up with a reason to put it on the blog, but it's too good not to be seen and since I don't have a picture for today's post I am sharing it.  Enjoy. 

Musical Interlude

I have a problem, apparently I am a terrible videographer.  That is a bad thing because there are so many things I would like to film and have them be artistic and high-quality.  I tried to simultaneously watch Dagny's latest performance while surreptitiously filming it, and while Dagny was high-quality and artistic the video is not.  Sigh.  

For the last few weeks the drama department has been working on a musical theater unit and the end result was a musical showcase.  Dagny did a couple of numbers, but my favorite was Everything Else from Next to Normal. 

Rugby

New season, new sport. Dane is now a rugby player.
Rugby is, quite literally, a whole new ball game for me.  My understanding of the game was quite superficial, I've had to do lots of research (meaning watched a lot of YouTube videos) so that I could understand what was going on.  I also have an entire new vocabulary, everything in rugby has a cool name.  They don't play on a field, they play on a pitch, they don't wear cleats, they were boots, they don't play with a ball, they play with a pill, and when they score it is called a try.  Some of my other new favorite words; ruck, maul, scrum, grubber, hooker, flanker, lock, blood bin, and hospital pass.  Yes, I know what they all mean, and the last two are as scary as they sound. 

poor quality phone photo's at the first game of the season

An Unexpected Journey

It's no secret that The Lord of the Rings is a big deal at our house. (anyone who has seen our movie room or Steve's sword collection knows what I'm talking about) Steve and I have always loved the books and we were excited when our kids got old enough for us to share Tolkien with them. Just as Dagny was ready to start reading The Hobbit we found out they were making The Lord of the Rings into movies. We were worried that the movies would be terrible, as book adaptations often are, and that they would somehow ruin Tolkien for the kids.  We needn't have worried, the movies were amazing (if you haven't seen them, you should) and all was well, but Dane has always been disappointed that The Hobbit wasn't made into a movie. He has read it a million times, it's his all-time favorite book. In December 2012 Dane's wish will come true when they release the first of two Hobbit movies. I found this cool blog that is chronicling the film production and has all kinds of fun details from the set.  It also has the movie trailer.  I watched it with Dane and I gotta tell you, the look on his face was priceless.  I can't wait to see the movie with him. 

Pin It

This is exactly what happened to me

You'd think that an obsession with a website would be a bad thing, but not this time.  Pinterest is kind of brilliant. As you are making your way around the interwebs finding cool/useful/crafty/inspiring/tasty/beautiful things, it gives you a way to "pin" them on a board so you can organize them and keep track of all your findings.  You can also look at other people's pins and check out all their awesome stuff.  Like I said, kind of brilliant.  If you're on Pinterest come and find me, if you're not, get an invite and come play with the rest of us. 

Twenty Twelve

A brand-new year, all bright and shiny and full of possibilities.
  I'm excited.  How about you? 

*How cute is that banner? I found the picture on someone's blog and with a little research found out that it's from an Etsy shop.  You can actually buy the cute banner here.