Tuesday, December 30, 2008

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!

mm.ingrid_.jpg

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!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

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!

Friday, December 26, 2008

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!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

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!

Friday, December 5, 2008

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~