Our life is just a rollercoaster, hold on tight because falling off is not an option.
Back in December we cleaned up the house for a Christmas Tea.
I’ve been wanting to balance the pictures that I took then with the ‘normal’ look of our livingroom. I wanted to show how buried the piano gets, but Girl has been asking to open up the back and we finally did it, before I got a picture of the piles.
So we have the fireplace
Illusion - Normal
The top of the TV cabinet
Illusion - Normal
And the end tables
Illusion - Normal
I’ve only been once. Back in college, Greek Peak had a special Friday evening deal for SU students $4 lift tickets and $4 rentals. The guy I was dating and his friends wanted to go and said they’d teach me - yeah?!
They get me out there and one of them (I don’t think it was my date, but it’s been years) gives me the basics on stopping and turning. Then they take me up the hill, and take off.
Seems fair, I didn’t expect them to baby me for the entire evening.
BUT THEY DIDN’T TAKE ME TO THE BUNNY SLOPES!! They put me on the hill they were skiing, complete with moguls and everything!
It was a fun evening, but something I’ve never felt the need to try again.
Jump to last Monday.
One of the families in our group decided that we all needed to take advantage of Paoli Peak’s special homeschool package ($15 for lift pass, rentals, lesson, and a small lunch). I wasn’t planning on us going. I didn’t think Girl would last 5 mins. and I wasn’t sure Boy had the endurance yet for a day on the slopes.
They talked me into it. So we went.
Now skiing in Southern Indiana is not what you’d envision. Outside of the slops, we have frozen bare ground. (The highs were in the teens and it was windy - it was COLD) The slopes themselves had a 3′ to 7′ base (according to their website the day before. ) And the surface was ICY!
So the place said to get there by 10 AM (2 hour drive, so another freaking early morning). What a waste. It turns out that last Monday’s homeschool ski day didn’t happen because of weather and they bumped everyone from that week, to our week - it was PACKED.
It took our group nearly an hour to get our passes and orientation. 
Then we had to go up and spend another 45 mins. for the kids to get their rentals signed out. At which point we missed the morning lesson.
So the kids that didn’t know how to ski got to poke around for a couple of hours without any instruction and lost most of their ’skiing time’ until the next lesson at 1:30. (A large impact on us because we needed to be home by 5 to make it to the post office before it closed. - remember that 2 hour drive?)
So, I had fun hanging out in the ski lodge (no fireplace or comfy couches to curl up in) with the other moms for the day.
The kids?
I had Girl pegged. She got on her gear, went out on the snow and clicked on her skiis - started sliding backwards. I tried to show her how to walk sideways - she slided backwards. She tried to use her poles to pull herself forward - she slided backwards. She fell down.
“That’s it, I’m done. This is a waste and I’m turning everything in. ” -
“Why don’t you put it aside but keep the stuff in order to try to lesson later.”
“Nope, I’m done. I’m getting my book and reading until it’s time to go.”
Boy on the other hand had a great time on the bunny slope and in the lesson until we had to leave. He was totally wiped when we left, but he’s ready to go back and try it again.
The local college has decided that I’m the contact for local homeschoolers. It’s kind of fun.
Back in the fall I offered to spread information about the Explore Engineering program that they run and they were quite happy with the response.
So yesterday I’m contacted by their box office director. They are bringing in Beakman Live to do a show in March. In addition to the evening performance, there’s going to be 2 daytime school shows.
They were booked by the local public schools, but one of the schools canceled. The director wondered if I might pass the word to local homeschoolers. In about 5 hours I’ve gotten 66 reservations for the 70 empty seats.
The director is floored and is now wondering what other opportunities she’s missed.
I stole this from here, it looks like fun. I have changed/dropped some of the questions.
1. What is his name? Hubby - no, not really, but I’m not changing my rules just for some meme. How’s this: His name is !@#%*&%$, but he goes by: &*(%
2. How long have you been together? A lifetime? Let’s see, we started dating on June 21, 1986 - so that would make it nearly 22 years. (We were good friends first, so I’ve known him since 1982.)
3. How long did you date? From June 21, 1986 to August 26, 1989 - we’ve lived together since August 1988, but were only engaged for 4 months before our wedding.
4. How old is he? 44
5. Who said I love you first? I have no idea anymore. Does it matter at this point?
6. Who’s taller? He is.
7. Who can sing better? ME! no questions there.
8. Who is smarter? Him.
9. Who does the laundry? Me
10. Who pays the bills? I’ve done it before, he does it now. I usually work on the taxes.
11. Who sleeps on the right side? He does. I don’t sleep well on that side of the bed.
12. Who mows the lawn? a service. We’ve got 3/4 of an acre and prior to moving here we’d only had a push mower. I don’t want to mow it and he doesn’t have the time - it’s been the best decision.
13. Who cooks dinner? Usually me, though when Hubby cooks, we eat out.
14. Who drives? Split. He dislikes driving my minivan, so if we take it - I’m driving nearly all the time. But if we take his little car - he drives.
15. Who is more stubborn? I’m going to say him, but he’d probably say me
16. Who kissed who first? Six? (family joke) I have no idea anymore.
17. Who asked who out first? I plead the fifth.
18. Who proposed? He did. He was in grad school and had just been told that his funding was cut and so instead of another year, he was going to have to finish that summer. He had gone home for spring break while I stayed in Providence working (I think my Dad and Step-mom passed through during that week). He came back that weekend to me having a crappy couple of days. I knew he had something up his sleeve, but he wouldn’t tell me what it was.
We were going to his uncle’s wedding the next weekend in DC and my car needed brakes …. He had planned on some sort of special thing, but on seeing what my week was turning into in order to be able to drive down, he purposed on that Wednesday evening. At the time, I shared an office with another woman engineer and we’d spent the last day of so trying to figure out what he was up to. We nailed it.
19. Who is more sensitive? Me, at least in the crying end of it.
20. Who has more siblings? I do. He’s got 2 alive and one that’s past away. I have 3 alive (if you count the vegetable that my brother is, as alive) and 2 step-siblings.
Any one else want to play?
This should have really been posted yesterday with the title, but I wasn’t up to posting it then.
But I liked the title, and decided to keep it.
Remember our pine tree?
Well, after Hubby and talked and looked at it again, we decided to call Duke Energy on Friday morning to have them come check out how much it was laying on the wire.
They took one look at it and decided that they needed to bring it off the wire.
Of course, my neighbor’s dogs were outside and they were not home, didn’t answer their cell phone; and when I tried L’s work, her secretary said that it was her day off. But the secretary did think she had could get a hold of R.
In the meantime the crew from Duke had to bring in 2 different supervisors to try to figure out how to take the tree down. On L and R’s side, the ground was mush and they couldn’t bring anything in. On our side they had 3 wires, the pool and the pool pump stuff to work around. But it was paved!
So they decided to use a little bucket 
that would reach up part of the way (37 ft.), but then we had to wait for it to get here.
In the meantime L and R came home and put their dogs away and opened their gate to let the crew at least walk into the yard. I did get a better picture of the tree’s base. 
The tree cutting crew said that the damage was caused by the wind pulling the roots out of the ground since it’s so wet. While the wind went through the leafless deciduous tree, the pine needles were enough to act as a sail.
It took them about 4 hours to bring the tree down beneath the wires. It was amazing watching them tie the trunk to itself, cutting off the top (causing it to fall back on itself) so they could cut branches off and cut it into manageable pieces.
And now we just have the stump left until L and R get someone out here to finish the job.
I don’t have this thing set up to show video, so you’ll have to follow the link to see this.
Stacy & Roxy’s bareback/bridleless reining. Watch Stacy’s Championship Freestyle Reining with NO SADDLE, NO BRIDLE, NO NECKROPE! No trick photography here. Just clear communication at the highest levels of competition.
It’s pretty amazing.
Our neighbor’s weather station only listed the storm on Tuesday night as having winds in the 33 mph zone (the last storm was 42 mph), but somehow this storm has produced more damage.
I’m guessing this white pine is about 50 feet tall. It’s been a beautiful, healthy tree, but something snapped.
And now it’s going to come down. The only thing holding it up at this point is our cable wire.
Wrapped around one of the trunk sections. That picture doesn’t do the stress justice.
It’s already taken out our neighbor’s phone line and at this point they say it’ll be more than a week before they can get someone out to take it the rest of the way down.
So, if I should disappear for while, it’ll be that the tree shifted/snapped that wire and we’re powerless. (for joy!)
On the flip side, I’ve been trying to get these neighbors to take down/cut back the tree for a few years. It hangs over our pool and drops pine needles, 
cones, and pollen into the pool all year round. It also totally shades the pool come August and cuts into our enjoyment of sun-warmed water.
I won’t be missing the tree.
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