11.26.2009

Not going to take it!

have i mentioned that i love my litte brother lately?

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11.24.2009

Ďakujem

63 That I am able to learn (especially slovak!)
64 That we celebrate Thanksgiving so I know when to start decorating
for Christmas
65 That Micah bakes (really) good pretzels
66 For packages
67 candy canes
68 hot water when I have it
69 our car
70 A husband who humors me and carries rocks
71 the ability to climb a mountain
72 A husband who carried me the last 100 yards
73 That my computer survived the OJ spill of '09
74 English books at the second hand store!
75 Paperclip jewelry
76 A sister who will appreciate paperclip jewelry ;)
77 Spell check. (E before L in jewelry - that's not how I pronounce it)

11.21.2009

Dreaming of a summer day

Also just testing if i can post video via e-mail.

I'll sail a friendly course and file a friendly chart....

On a sea of love and a thankful heart

51 Friends here at the Ranch
52 iTunes and the shuffle feature
53 European style bedding (we each get our own cover)
54 Saturday mornings
55 Completed projects
56 whiteboards
57 deodorant
58 Muppet Christmas Carol soundtrack
59 Hooded sweatshirts
60 Photoshop
61 Projects that Micah and i can do together
62 12" turkey legs

11.20.2009

Ev'ry Night Will End, and Ev'ry Day Will Start....

....with a Grateful Prayer and a Thankful Heart

41 fingernails
42 e-mail
43 yarn
44 frost
45 clothespins
46 Mittens
47 Creativity
48 That I know how to knit
49 external keyboards and mice
50 That we (micah) found the car keys

a few personal letters



Dear Nick, 
Aunt Stasi's feelings will not be hurt if you ask GB to re-do the K on your stocking (or even your whole name) when she comes East for christmas. I know it looks kind of wonky. I love you, but I only have enough patience to rip out and re-sew the letter K three times
PS come visit us.we want to meet you

Dear Siblings, 
Please note that any future nieces or nephews with the letter K in their name will not be getting a stocking from Aunt Stasi. 
PS Don't even think of suggesting that I should have put "Nicholas" 

Dear Mom, 
Thank you for making us stockings when we were born. Thank you also for forgiving me when I took your knitting needles across state lines and then across international borders.
PS should the heel be that pointy? what did i do wrong?

11.19.2009

Interpret this sign 2

What do you make of these?

With a Thankful Heart with a Endless Joy

30 Roses on sale at Hypernova for 18 cents
31 Free fresh lamb meat
32 That I had an excuse to skip slaughtering the lamb
33 That I did not screw up my first try cooking lamb meat
34 borrowed sewing machines
35 That my refrigerator does not run on propane
36 Pink fuzzy socks
37 binder clips and thumbtacks
38 Vessel class of '05 nalgene bottle
39 Dino
40 Holding hands with Micah to pray

11.18.2009

Interpret this sign 1

I have not clue what this sign means. Any guesses?

Thankful

11 That Micah cooked last weekend while I was working
12 Slippers
13 Birthday cards
14 Swiss Chocolate
15 Japanese chocolate
16 Sunshine
17 Podcast Sermons
18 Audiobooks
19 that Slovakia isn't communist anymore
20 the internet
21 posting via e-mail
22 yellow vacuum cleaners
23 that I don't have to hand wash my clothes
24 Carbon paper
25 that very few knitting patterns require you to Purl 2 through the
back....
26 walks with my husband n the woods
27 making it to 27!
28 my mom and dad for the past 27 years
29 that the Campfest footage finally came!!

11.06.2009

Way behind

So i havent posted here since September 10th.
Sorry.
But i'm back at least a little and i'm thankful for:

1 Sunshine
2 A warm house
3 My sister in law who flew a suitcase full of books across the ocean with her
4 My mom for inspiring us all to give thanks
5 My sisters who share my memories (even the ones mom just made up)
6 That Micah will deal with the mouse in our house
7 Cookie dough
8 Working from home so no one else sees me eating a bowl of cookie dough for breakfast!
9 Skype
10 Asprin

C'mon Alex, jump in.

9.10.2009

just some stuff

Micah just threatened to shoot me with a hacksaw and his best arnold schwarzenegger impression.

Have you heard my Arnold Joke?

So Stephen Speilberg decided to do an action film about Classical composers.....(no that's not the joke)....and He gathered together an ensemble cast to discuss plans for the film, Arnold is there, and Harrison Ford, and Sylvester Stallone. They are all sitting around brainstorming ideas for how to do this film. Finally, Spielberg asks them which composer they think they might liek to play. Stallone says he\s always felt a connection to Wagner. Harrison mentions an interest in Mozart, Arnold says (in terminator voice) "i'll be Bach"

get it?!!


I missed 09:09:09 09/09/09 yesterday. the ladies my mom worked with in Pa would be disappointed in me. oh well there is always 10/10/10 next year.

I started a pushup program with Micah. I am on week one. Micah got to start on week 3. By the end of 6 weeks, i should be able to do at least 50 at one time. I'm shooting for 100 though. Right now i'm at 5. Our arms are sore.

I made really good chocolate banana muffins with peanut butter filling last night. I used some of the cte cupcake liners my mom sent me. the blue gingham ones. I need to make some light things to put in them, chocolate kind of covers up the pretties. Micah barely notices the papers anyway. Since 9:00 last night we have eaten all but 2. I gave 2 away. So bwtween Micah & me that's 8 muffins in under 14 hours. and we were asleep for 7 hours of that. Heres the link to the recipe.

8.22.2009

linkky

go see the latest scandalous news from Doge City
I miss my family

also we did not die at CampFest 09. We are headed to Tatralandia (local huge waterpark) today. We have been planning this trip since last summer :)

maybe i'll blog more next week

8.12.2009

going green with Micah

2009Jun24_5520_1
can you buy body paint here?
what do you want to paint?
myself
What are you going to paint on yourself
i just need to know if you can get the paint here
WHAT are you going to do?
I'm going to paint myself green and take a picture and put it on the internet and say "I am green" it will be really funny....are you going to cook dinner?


we survived campfest. I am afraid we will never be the same....

8.04.2009

Ant farming

"If ants got a hold of pretzels they could build little houses. just imgagine it They’d have a sawmill for cutting them up... they could build barns too, a whole ant farm."

…3 full minutes pass…

"This house isn’t big enough for a full ant farm. They do stuff big you know? it’d probably be all over the whole floor all the buildings little tractors going all around you’d be walking and - crunch, there goes another tractor"

"Of course they wouldn’t be able to have internal combustion engines...they’d have to have little wagons pulled by a team of ants..."

"Good thing the darn buggers haven’t gotten a hold of pretzels..."

Micah, we just had lunch, stop eating my pretzels

7.29.2009

reccomendation

2009Jun07_4680
I read a number of blogs. One of the blogs I read had a guest post today. A photographer who has been in the business almost 40 years.
He gave a formula for not being burnt out even after a lifetime of doing the same thing, "Embrace the People, Enjoy the Places (adventures), and be captivated by our incredible craft!" It sounded a to me like my dad's rules: "Respect your teammates, Have fun, Always do your best". So I checked out his blog. I wondered what other wisdom he would share after 40 years of photography and life.
I found this entry and I wanted to share part of it with you all. I suggest you click on the link and read the whole thing. His photogrpahy is beautiful and his blog has many more great entries.
My life philosophy is pretty simple, there is a God, and I’m not Him, but He loves me and truly cares about me, and I can rest in the assurance that He is watching over me, and has a plan for my life. Now some people would say “how can you know that?” I understand their skepticism. When I come into a room in my house, and it is dark, I reach for the light switch and turn on the lights. I never doubt that they will come on, 99.99999% of the time they do. After a while you just act in faith that the lights will work. I’ve had that same faith in God for almost fifty years. In all that time He has never failed me! That’s a better percentage than the light switch!

Have I seen difficult times, sure, we all do. Have I had illness or lost loved ones, of course, we all face those things too. The important thing is that ... God has always wrapped me in His overwhelming love at every difficult moment. In every difficult time taught me important lessons.

Why am I sharing this and why do I do this...? Because if at the end of my life, one person heard these words and decided to accept that love that God offers, then I will have done something worth while. Is there risk in writing these words? Sure, nothing in life is without risk. I just happen to think the reward is worth the risk. The vastness of God’s love is not cheap, but, it’s worth the price, and that price has already been paid.


Amen. Great is Thy Faithfulness.

7.27.2009

TANK!

I figured it out...I meant to type, "Ask Lubo for help getting the gas tank refilled."

Instead I typed "tank ?"

2009Jul27_5879
(I stood against the opposite wall to take this photo)
You see, the quaint little stove in my adorably small kitchen runs on a tank of propane, the same size and type as the one on my parents gas grill. When I want to cook I have to go outside, around the building and turn the gas on. And it ran out last week.

It should have had enough gas for another month or so. We figure it was leaking somewhere and due to the strong gas smell outside when we cook, we figure it is not inside. We also realize that it is a small miracle that we have not exploded our selves before now!
We knew there was probably a leak, but our thought process was that it was leaking outside and so there would not be a gas pocket collected to explode. The flaw in our thought process is that the tank sits in a little wooden box. It has probably filled with gas every time we cook. If there had been a spark, the box would have exploded and if the box exploded, the tank would have exploded and if the tank had exploded, the whole darn cottage and everything and one in it would have probably gone up. God is good.

This is as good a time as any to note that whoever designed my stove was not big on precision. It has 3 markings... 0, full circle and half circle. 2009Jul27_5878_1
I have yet to find a recipe that says preheat your oven to a little above the half circle. All the recipes I find have those pesky numbers in them!

Wha?



I typed my to do list today.
Under the heading "home" number 2 is "Tank?"
I officially have no clue what i should do once i finish folding my laundry.

7.24.2009

thouths

I had another emergency dental procedure today. that's two in three months. ick. I have to go back in 2 weeks. my crown fell out. :(

I also have a bad case of general maliase and a slight case of enui.

the spacebar on my computer is now going on the fritz. (which is quite different from "putting on the ritz")

Micah has developed a love of baking pretzels. They are pretty good. I like to roll my half in cinnamon and sugar.He puts salt on them all.

I baked a pie. i might like baking pies.