Who are you like?

This test is going around Facebook and Blogspot so I thought I would give it a try... here are my results.

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are an Ingrid!

You are an Ingrid -- "I am unique"

Ingrids have sensitive feelings and are warm and perceptive.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Give me plenty of compliments. They mean a lot to me.
• * Be a supportive friend or partner. Help me to learn to love and value myself.
• * Respect me for my special gifts of intuition and vision.
• * Though I don't always want to be cheered up when I'm feeling melancholy, I sometimes like to have someone lighten me up a little.
• * Don't tell me I'm too sensitive or that I'm overreacting!

What I Like About Being an Ingrid

• * my ability to find meaning in life and to experience feeling at a deep level
• * my ability to establish warm connections with people
• * admiring what is noble, truthful, and beautiful in life
• * my creativity, intuition, and sense of humor
• * being unique and being seen as unique by others
• * having aesthetic sensibilities
• * being able to easily pick up the feelings of people around me

What's Hard About Being an Ingrid

• * experiencing dark moods of emptiness and despair
• * feelings of self-hatred and shame; believing I don't deserve to be loved
• * feeling guilty when I disappoint people
• * feeling hurt or attacked when someone misundertands me
• * expecting too much from myself and life
• * fearing being abandoned
• * obsessing over resentments
• * longing for what I don't have

Ingrids as Children Often

• * have active imaginations: play creatively alone or organize playmates in original games
• * are very sensitive
• * feel that they don't fit in
• * believe they are missing something that other people have
• * attach themselves to idealized teachers, heroes, artists, etc.
• * become antiauthoritarian or rebellious when criticized or not understood
• * feel lonely or abandoned (perhaps as a result of a death or their parents' divorce)

Ingrids as Parents

• * help their children become who they really are
• * support their children's creativity and originality
• * are good at helping their children get in touch with their feelings
• * are sometimes overly critical or overly protective
• * are usually very good with children if not too self-absorbed

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz

You should take the quiz ... there are only two questions (each has 3 choices) and it's quick! Have fun!

The weatherman says....

Looking out my bedroom window...

Snow one day, melted and in the mid 60's the next. Tornado warnings with thunder and lightning and a hail storm like none other that night and then ice the next day... what a week for weather it has been! The hail/ice storm was impressive and Lydia and I watched it (it was very early in the morning and it woke us up and neither could go back to sleep!) until if moved east. Our house sounded like a tin can being attacked by marbles in a car wash... it was loud and long! The weather report was telling people in mobile homes or other less secure environments to seek better shelter (tornado warnings and severe weather reports were being issued)... I knew what our house sounded like in this storm but I couldn't imagine what it sounded or felt like in a less 'secure shelter'... the wind was crazy too and it was spooky to see the clouds fly by so quickly! Believe it or not we crazy Hormann's ventured out that next night (icy roads still but we were fine) and as we passed a car lot I noticed the American flag had frozen in a part wave... I wish I had my camera. Anyhow this morning we woke up to a dusting of snow and a beautiful view outside of iced laced trees... with a blue sky and the sun shining it was a pretty site. My camera only caught a glimpse but I wanted to share it! I am really going to miss this next year when we're in Texas!

The view out my kitchen window!

It looked like spun sugar!

Our quiet snow dusted neighborhood!

Christmas 2008!

Christmas was nice this year... we went to church for the candle light service on Christmas Eve... which Lydia became miss bah humbug during (really hard to smile when you're gritting your teeth and ringing your hands). We still haven't figured out why she was so angry... (she even ripped her new dress and kept saying loudly 'this isn't a Christmas song!' (guess if its not sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks then it doesn't count) and then held her hands over her ears when people read or were speaking) As soon as we lit the candles she became quiet... and then when the service was done it was as if the demon left and we had sweet Lydia back. That was a long hour! Needless to say, only the boys got to open a Christmas gift early when we returned home. It was a good lesson for Lydia to learn... you cant turn on the charm to erase bad behavior... even on Dad! Maybe next year we'll have the chance to take a nice picture with everyone dressed up!

Christmas brought lots of gifts for the kids and they are still playing with them today... it's going to take a few days for them to open everything and play with them.

Lydia was very happy that Santa did show! Lydia now has a doll house (as big as her) with furniture and a couple of dolls and horses. She is starting to collect the 'Only hearts doll's' from Target.

Ty now has a train table with tracks, trains, and a whole city worth of characters as well as Lego's and playmobile Roman warriors. He is also a fan of 'Cars' and seems to always have one in a pocket for play.

Cal also has some Roman warriors and has become quite the warrior himself with the Nerf Long Shot (look it up... it's as big as him!). He also has Lego's but his are of some model cars and aircraft which he has become very skilled at building with the help of the big directions booklet. He also has a huge track to race marbles on (which he is impatiently waiting for Chris to complete building on... apparently we should have gotten Chris his own!). Cal is also armed with a camera so now we all have to watch what we're doing as he can be very stealthy!

Lots of books, musical instruments, puzzles and games have been added to the dear toy room... thank you Alvarado's for the monetary gifts... the kids got mp3 players (music/video/photo and voice recording/ebook features) on sale for 80% off! Charlene is so happy to have her Ipod back!

The morning was a success (esp since the kids slept in until 9:30 am!!!!) and each kid took turns picking a present for someone else to open while waiting for one to be passed to them. After 2 hours Chris started to pass them out in groups so we could get going! Now we are slowly recuperating from another long and lazy afternoon! After opening presents we headed down to the family room and took a look at what was left in our stockings! Our mini tree sat on top of my Grandma's old sewing box. The tree this year had three ornaments that the kids made at our neighbors house... small painted hand prints decorated into snowmen! Probably my favorite gift!

Here are two videos featuring Ty... he was just so impressed with all of the gift boxes... there were so many!

Snow play

Chris' class had a small party and Santa paid a visit. Cal was in school and was given his gift after the party. Lydia had no problem talking to Santa...Chris had to lead by example before Ty would sit on his lap...then it was safe for Chris to leave so Ty could get his gift!It was snowing pretty good when I picked Ty and Lydia up from Preschool... so we played on our way out to the parking lot!

Christmas Eve day brought us some new powder and we had fun in the back yard! Good thing we did as it all melted the day after Christmas!Tyler almost took out one of the posts to our deck!

Chris and Lydia missed the deck but got the house!

Cal had fun trying his hand at snowboarding using the saucers! I didn't get video of the really good runs... but he has excellent balance! Lydia got smart and started to use the path that Chris would make!

Our last video is of our back yard!

I'm in love with a little Folkbird!

Recently I was net surfing and came across a craft blog in Australia which featured another blog and craft idea from someone in the states. It had a free pattern for a very nice little folkbird. Right away I downloaded the file and proceeded to make a bunch for church friends, neighbors and teachers at school! The kids had fun choosing wing patterns and stitch colors.
The folkbird pattern belongs to a lovely lady named Bettsi McComb who is from the great state of California (my home state!). She just posted the pattern on her blog site: www.lemonadehere.blogspot.com
Thank you Bettsi for sharing! Here are a couple of pictures of just a few of our birds. All have flown away but we'll probably make more for our own tree and everyday decor!

Hormann Elves go Country

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hormann Elves do the Charleston

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hormann Elves do Disco

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Brrrr! It's cold outside!!

Two birthdays and Thanksgiving have passed and I am needing to catch up on my blogging! Cal and Lydia didnt have traditional birthday parties this year (holiday weekend and lots of friends were out of town) so we changed it up a bit! Cal celebrated at school. He gave each classmate a gift that we made in honor of his birthday, thanking them for being his friend. We took starburst jellybeans and wrapped them up in corn husks to make them look like Indian Corn... The kids sang happy birthday to him and he loved it! I cant believe he is already 7 years old! Chris kept thinking about how in another 8 or 9 years he could be driving... personally I wasnt going to go there!

Thanksgiving was a quiet one spent at home! It was nice to have everyone home... the Turkey was tasty (and a nice deal for a Jenni-o for 77 cents a pound if I do say so myself!) Cal and Lydia did the wishbone breaking... this year Cal realized that Lydia has a good grip... he won by a sliver... it was almost an even break! Next year Ty will want in on the action... I'm going to have to figure that one out!

The day after Thanksgiving this year was Cal's offical birth date... so we opened presents from Oma and Opa. Cal went first and was really excited about his puzzle and books. Lydia of course cant get enough of Tinker Belle and so a movie from us and some clothes and books from Oma and Opa were perfect for her. She is especially proud of her first offical necklace which has a momma and baby horse... or as she says, her and Oma! Ty loves it when he gets to participate and so he had several 'un' birthday presents too! Puzzles are a huge hit with him and he can even put one together while it is upside down... I have already caught him late at night working on Cal's puzzle!

On Saturday Grandpa and Grandma Hormann came to visit. We sang Happy Birthday to Cal and then to Lydia and dug into the cake. Afterwards the kids sat down with Dad and Grandma Hormann to write Santa their wish lists. Grandma took them back home with her as their town had a special mailbox for Santa's letters. Cal did a great job writing out his list with some pictures from a toy catalog. Lydia and Ty cut pictures out and Grandma helped tape them to the page

We had flurries all day Saturday but on Sunday morning we had some snow on the ground! We bundled up and headed to church. Afterwards we were treated to a birthday lunch at the T-Rex cafe! (kind of like the rainforest cafe but with a dinosaur theme) Lydia chose to spend her birthday money on build a dino... she chose the pink one and named her Pinky. Cal and Ty bought dino pens and Cal is saving his money to buy something after Christmas. Smart kid! He knows that the after Christmas sales will allow him to buy more.

Once we got home there was just enough time for the kids to go outside and play in the snow. We have some slight slopage (is that even a word?!) and the kids had fun sliding down the hill. Here are a few pictures and videos. I am sure we will have a lot more this winter~

Lydia, our Ballerina

Lydia's tumbling and ballet classes are a lot of fun for her. Parents were allowed to view one of the practices recently and so I took a few short clips of her class. Needless to say she isn't very coordinated or graceful... but in her head I am sure she is the belle of the ball executing every move with precision and fanfare! Enjoy!
This first clip (she is in pink) is of the class doing some tumbling exercises... Lydia is doing the somersault... By the way, pause the music at the end of the page so you can view the videos!



Now for a little marching .... Chris was very impressed! ha!

Lydia is learning French... phrases anyhow!

Can you tell she just ate breakfast before going to lessons?!

Balance... hmmm.... maybe not!

A repeat... sorry, couldnt delete unless I started over.... no time for that!

For this next exercise they are supposed to pretend they are all princesses going to the ball. The instructor asks them what they are supposed to do first (the answer is to put on their dress)... one girl yelled "take a shower first!"... anyhow, they are supposed to walk forward holding their hands out as if holding huge ball gowns out... then curtsy and then turn around gracefully.... enjoy this one! Chris was laughing so hard he couldn't speak... (he had to watch the videos as he stayed home with the boys)


Back to tumbling.... here they get to shake their pom poms while doing a listening exercise... Lydia is a bit of a warrior with the poms... almost takes out a few ballerinas!

Poor Chris... Tyler doesnt mind letting Lydia dress him up... later that night he had hair accesories and was singing 'i'm a ballerina' over and over while playing with his tinkertoys...

So this is our Lydia... she will be 5 on Dec 2nd and will be going with me to see the Moscow Ballet Company perform the Nutcracker.... I can only imagine what creative dancing we will have after that! Run Tyler and hide!!!

Happy Thanksgiving! We'll post more later!

Home of the Free,

Because of the Brave

Yesterday was Veteran's Day and we were able to attend the oldest Parade in our Nation (89 years)... it was also the largest one west of the Mississippi! The parade was held in downtown Leavenworth and ended 2 hours after it began. New recruits took the oath, the Governor was there and every club, band, organization, car, truck, horse, patriot guard, veteran and official participated! (over 200 organizations!) The most moving part was when the parade came to a halt and Taps was played. Every hat was removed, salute and hand over heart was placed and I was wiping tears off my face. It hit me that this was the first parade in America that my kids were attending.... There wasn't one protest sign, rainbow flag or other public personal agenda situation present to disrupt the purpose of the parade and it made me proud that my kids could experience a good 'ol mid American patriotic parade. Lydia and Cal had fun seeing all of the vehicles that the National Guard brought out... esp since they have been in each kind! Ty loved the old Chevy nova and mustangs (so did his mommy!) and loved it when the Patriot Guard roared their motorcycles by... he really loves motorcycles! The rain started 30 min after the parade ended and the day turned out to be one of the best since we've been here.

Lots of pictures!

Well, time has flown by since the last time I blogged... whoops! A lot has gone on, soccer season has ended and both of the boys earned certificates and medals. Each were able to keep their t-shirt/jersey as well! Cal will be starting basketball in January and Chris will coach his team! Earlier in October there was an Apple Festival in Missouri. It was a nice day and we wound up at the park in the center of town... so here are a few pictures that we took! Cal's new school has a fun playground so we spent an afternoon playing and taking pictures! Here are some of Calvin...
Lydia was the social butterfly and made friends with the older girls who were playing ... she would walk up to them and introduce herself and then her brothers.... parents... and then proceed to tell them everything she knew!
Ty ran everywhere and climbed anything he could! His asthma is a little better... we're starting to see it pick up due to the chill in the air. We are encouraging him to be active and hopefully he will have stronger lungs for it.
Halloween crept up on us this year! Our neighborhood had a fall cookout and gave away all the pumpkins for free! Ty and Lydia had fun carving, Cal was a little less interested this year. Cal was the ninja, Ty was a blue power ranger and Lydia wanted to be a princess and have wings... so we combined the two. It was a beautiful day (70's!) and made for a perfect night to walk around!

With the warm weather came lots of lady bugs! We were swarmed with thousands of them outside and had tons in the house. We have now gotten them out but they didn't really settle well with Tyler and Lydia learned that they can bite. It was neat for the kids to see so many different varieties! We have seen wolf spiders (lovely) and a brown recluse (already dead!) but there are two that we see all the time and have no clue what they are. They are very big and pretty interesting to watch! I will take them anytime over the formentioned spiders and cockroaches in Georgia!!

Chris is staying busy with school and is going to be brushing up with his basketball knowledge! Charlene has been doing well with the gym (lost over 20lbs and 5 weeks ago had lost 6 inches!). She has taken up yoga and ball (along with weights and cardio/running) and Tai Chi. Cal has gone with her a few times and participated.

The weather man is telling us we have a 50% chance of snow comming in on Monday so it looks like we are going to be taking an inventory of our winter gear! That should be fun! Maybe we'll have more pictures! Ok, that's it for now... until next time!