Fashion sense

My Young Women and I went to the WSU spring Fashion show tonight. We saw a wide range of styles that the students designed. They started out modeling recycled designs. No, I'm not talking about raiding your mom's clothes from 1972...they actually used recyclable materials and made clothes out of them. Most of them were pretty...well, STRANGE!

Then we moved on to the senior clothing lines. We saw some stuff that we thought we might actually wear. Each of the students had something that inspired the design of their clothing line being modeled. Some examples: Tropical scenery for a swim-wear line, old Parisian silhouettes, and our personal favorite? Madagascar Jewel beetles!!

I mean, who can honestly

tell me that they aren't getting

some fabulous clothing design

ideas from this guy right now?

Seriously though, I can see some fun colors, and flashy iridescent

fabrics being used for this.

Do you think that is what this senior designer had in mind? Oh no....she is a whole different breed of crazy! Here is what we saw (or something similar):

I told the girls I was most likely going to have nightmares tonight!

Oh and just a little p.s....go ahead and use your imaginations and add some bright, cotton wings on there. Yep, now you're getting the full TERRIFYING picture.

Happiness Party!

Cora came to me the other day and told me that she wanted to throw a surprise party for her Daddy. When I asked her why, she told me that she just thought that it would cheer him up a little!

Greg has been out of a full time job now for almost 2 years and that has been hard on him. Of course he doesn't give himself credit for the hardest full time job of all. You moms know what I am talking about!! Full time stay at home mom/dad is a big job and he has been doing a fantastic job of it. Cora and her daddy have grown so close and it has been wonderful to watch.

So back to the surprise party...Cora planned all the details.

What to eat: Hot dogs and chips.

What to drink: Apple juice.

Decorations: Party hats and balloons.

We sent Aunt Kimmie to the dollar store. They ended up not having any party hats so she settled for bunny ears!

When Kimmie got off of work later at 7, she called Greg and told him she locked herself out of her car and needed him to bring her spare key to her. As soon as he was out the door we got busy decorating! By the time he got home

the hot dogs were on the grill, the table was set, and we were hiding in the dark in our bunny ears ready to blow our noisemakers!! Greg was so surprised. Cora did a great job keeping a secret and I am so proud of her for her kindness and compassion. She often reminds me what it is to be Christ like.

What does it feel like?

I put Cora in a nice warm bath this morning before school. The only problem with nice warm baths though, is getting out into the cooler air. At this point in my life I have enough insulation to keep my teeth from chattering when I get out to dry off. But we all remember those days as kids, stepping out of the tub and as the shivering commences thinking that we will never be warm again! Well, on the days when I am feeling like an extra cool mommy, I like to put Cora's towel in the dryer while she is in the tub and get it nice and toasty warm for her. This morning I wrapped her in her cozy hooded towel and she sat on my lap to share some of the bliss with me. After a bit I asked her if she was roasting yet or if it still felt wonderful. The rest of the conversation was as follows:

Cora: I'm not roasting.

Mommy: Oh, so it feels wonderful still?

Cora: No.....it feels like LOVE.

Well, now we

all know what love feels like.

Abominable Snowman

Oh boy! It has been so long, and oh how I have missed blogging. Between working full time and not having internet at our house it has just been too much to think about. We now have a home phone and internet and I can't believe how much more connected I feel. No more phone conversations cutting in and out, no more dropped calls, no more trips to the parent's or the library just to check something out online!

So I guess the first order of business now that I am blogging again would be to tell about the AMAZING 6 foot tall snowman we built today. I wish I could find my camera so I could post a picture! The snow has been coming down all day and is perfect wet packing snow. Greg started us off with the first snow ball for the base of the snowman, and he started us off big. By the time I got outside I could see that he didn't have just any ordinary old snowman in mind!! Cora did great packing extra snow in to round it out and hold the sections together. She was also a great design director..."No dad, it's not done yet. We have more work to do!" I haven't played in the snow and had so much fun in way too long. I am so lucky to have such a great family to spend a fun day in the snow with.

Tremendous relief!

Wow! Everyone else I know has been just blogging their hearts out while I have become a recluse from the outside world. A lot has happened in a short time.

First, let's start with the fact that we have been moving in to our own house! We found a cute little rental in Palouse which is just what we wanted. When I say "moving" in I mean that it is still a work in progress. We've decided to move stuff in a little at a time to avoid the major stress of having all those boxes staring at us, just begging us to open them and get it over with. We are blessed to have a place to store our stuff free of charge, so slowly but surely is working out fine for us! Also, has anyone out there ever moved in sub-zero weather? Seriously, we've moved so much that I thought we'd done it all, but this has to be my least favorite condition for moving. *Ouch!* So cold it hurts! It has warmed up a little bit recently though and I feel another load of boxes coming soon.

Next, and actually slightly out of order, I somehow managed to skip posting about my daughter's birthday! Also, closely following that (and sort of in the middle of moving) was Thanksgiving. I think details on both of those, and pictures to correspond will have to come later.

Finally, the real reason for updating my blog today, and also the inspiration for my tremendous relief.......I passed both of the tests required to get my Washington Cosmetology license!!!!!!!!! My practical was two weeks ago. I had to drive to Fife, WA to avoid waiting until the January 25th date of the next test in Spokane. My mom went with me, and although it was slightly stressful and a minor pain in my rear-end, I survived. I got my result. An 84. Phew! Today, Greg and I drove to Spokane for the written portion of my exam. I studied for a couple of days, and continued studying on the drive up. Man was I cramming, just sure that I couldn't get enough of the facts lodged in my brain in time for my 9:30 AM appointment. They allotted me 90 minutes to answer 110 questions. I finished in 22. IT. WAS. SO. EASY. Good thing I studied eh?

I was more stressed about the whole thing than I realized. I feel like I can breathe a BIG sigh of relief!