03.30.2011

Though the winter may be long, the snow deep, and people short fused...days like today rejuvenate a person.  It was 37 degrees out, but people were excited and happy for the first time in a long time.  We were without coats and driving with windows down.  The sun was out for the first time in days.  Days like today give us hope that spring will eventually arrive.

03.29.2011

Macy asked me to read one of her postcards from Grandma Robyn and Papa Jeff on the way home from daycare yesterday.  It said, "Florida is great, but I miss you.  Dear Macy, We love and miss you and can't wait to see you.  Love, Grandma Robyn and Papa Jeff." 

Jeffrey was right on top of things and replied, "You know what I want to do?  I want to send Grandma Robyn and Papa Jeff a card that says, 'Then why don't you come to see us?'" 

(I know you are thinking that I probably had something to do with this..which I often do...but not this time.  I swear.)

03.28.2011

Somewhere, buried until this pile of snow, is our propane tank.

Hopefully we don't run out.  :)

03.27.2011

Macy has been practicing writing her name for several months now.  She's getting pretty good, just look at how nicely she wrote it on my dining room table.  I should have taken a picture of her sitting at the table working on scrubbing it off also.

03.26.2011

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child.  There are seven million.  ~Walt Streightiff

03.25.2011

A few nights ago, I was cleaning out cupboards and found a big, nearly empty box of wheat thins.  I emptied the wheat thins into a plastic container and was going to throw the box away when Jeffrey stopped me.  He said, "Hey!  Don't throw that away!  I can make a dinosaur out of it."  Sounded good to me, so I kept the box.  It sat around for a few days when I finally had time in the evening to let Jeff make a dinosaur.  It was all his work...with a little help from Macy, I'm sure.  Jeffrey asked me if I wanted to take a picture of it so it could be my picture of the day.  Another great idea.

03.24.2011

Today, the UPS man finally delivered my Nutrisystem frozen food.  I'm super excited!  What may have been even more exciting than the food was the dry ice it was packaged in.  The kids had fun watching the dry ice flow out of the pot.

03.23.2011

Edited:  I decided that I didn't want a blank spot in my list, so...I could have taken this picture that day.  nothing about it had changed and really, it was only 7 hours passed the 23rd...so close enough for me for now. 

--See this picture?  Do you like it?  What's that, you can't see it?  Oh, that's because I didn't take one yesterday.  Want to hear my excuses?  Well, I was up for almost two hours the night before so I was more than exhausted after a full day's work.  I rode with Tyler to check on a calf and then to pick up the kids.  While we were down checking on the calf, I realized that I had forgotten my camera...which I always have with me.  He told me it didn't matter anyway because I would forget to take a picture.  I guess he was right.  I didn't make it a full year.  This SUCKS!--

03.22.2011

It's March and I've lived in North Dakota long enough to know that you don't put your snow boots and winter coat away until at least the middle of April.  That doesn't mean that I wasn't disappointed in the snow from today, especially because it has been in the 40's and nearly all the snow off the streets was gone.

03.21.2011

"Two of a Kind" by Kim Anderson

This is my graduation present from my best friend from high school, Emily.  It's another one of those special items that I will keep forever.  No matter how old I get. 

03.20.2011

So far, the ice is jammed south of where the flood will affect my in laws.  A lot of precautionary steps were taken this weekend for the worst case scenario.  I guess the only thing to do now is wait it out and see what happens. 

Just in case you wanted a more scientific explanation of what an ice jam is and why it occurs (like I did), I included one that I found online.

"Ice jams occur when warm temperatures and heavy rain cause snow to melt rapidly. Snow melt combined with heavy rains can cause frozen rivers to swell, which breaks the ice layer on top of the river. The ice layer often breaks into large chunks, which float downstream and often pile up near narrow passages other obstructions, such as bridges and dams."

"During thaws, runoff from snow melt increases the flow of water in rivers. This increased flow raises the water level, which pushes up on ice sheets covering the top of the river. If the ice sheets break apart, it moves downstream in a surge large ice chunks. In places of restricted water flow (such as shallow bends in a river, an intact ice sheet, or around bridges), the ice can pile up and an ice jam will form. The jam may then buildup great great enough to dam the river and cause flooding."

from Northeast States Emergency Consortium  http://www.nesec.org/hazards/ice_jams.cfm

03.19.2011

Ice: 

a : frozen water

b : a sheet or stretch of ice

Jam: 

a : to become blocked or wedged

b : to become unworkable through the jamming of a movable part

Ice Jam: 

a:  May cause flooding. 

b:  The cause of spending the weekend moving calves, bales, tractors, trucks, and pickups to higher ground. 

c:  See picture above.

03.18.2011

"One day I was speeding along at the typewriter, and my daughter - who was a child at the time - asked me, "Daddy, why are you writing so fast?" And I replied, "Because I want to see how the story turns out!"  ~ Louis L'Amour

03.17.2011

The kids and I had big plans for tonight.  We were going to eat a snack and do at least six chores each before Tyler got home.  That way, we would be able to watch March Madness with him after supper. 

Tyler had other plans for us.  Number 1:  He beat us home.  Number two:  As we were walking in the door, he was rushing out.  He said, "There's a calf in the house.  You need to keep rubbing him to get him dried off and warmed up."  And off he went.

I went inside and did just that.  I wrapped the calf in some dry towel, rubbed and rubbed him until he was mostly dry, then got the blow dryer and tried to get his body temperature warmed up.  I even worked on getting a bottle down him.  By the time I was done, he was (barely) standing up on his own.  Now, Tyler calls me "Brandy Calf-Saver".

03.16.2011

There is no picture for today.  It's not that I didn't take two, because I did.  The first was of a picture of me in Cancun when I was 21.  I keep it on my mirror as inspiration to lose weight and a remembrance of being thin.  (Funny that I really didn't think I was thin then!)  Then, I decided against showing the world my body in a bikini and decided to take a picture of Tyler's graduation presents from Jeffrey and Macy instead.  Well, they have been deleted because I let Jeffrey use the camera yesterday and I still haven't figured out how to get all my settings back to the right place. March 17th's picture will show you why he got to use the camera, though.  :)

03.22.2011:  Updated, I retook the photo that I took on this day.

03.15.2011

I thought about using this as my picture today and saying, "Isn't it nice that even when they are old and male they are still willing to help clean up the hall after a pot luck?"  since Shelly used a picture of Macy cleaning up and mentioning that it is nice when kids are young and still want to work.  But I decided not to.

Instead...My picture of the day is a very rare photo.  I believe that there are only two other of these in existance.  It's a picture of my and my BFF!

03.14.2011

This is just two days of daytime highs in the low 40's with nighttime temperatures still below freezing.  Imagine what it is going to look like when all the snow melts and the spring rain comes.  I think it is officially time to find my mud boots.

03.13.2011

We have so much snow; it is by far the most snow fallen in a winter since I've move here.  This picture is behind the shop next to our house.  You can see how high it is piled...in places it is taller than Jeffrey!  Tyler dug out a fort with a couple tunnels today for the kids.  The love crawling in and out of the different entrances and exits and were both so excited that Daddy dug a tunnel out the top like Uncle Derek always does. 

Jeffrey remembered having a snow ball fight last year with Papa Dale and Papa Jeff.  Jeffrey is busy digging a hole to sit in with a snow wall to hide behind, just like Tyler had made him last year.  Macy is busy throwing snowballs at Tyler and then running in to hide in the fort.  Tyler and Tex are taking a break from all the digging.  It's a lot of work to dig out wet snow!

I rode the snowmobile a little while they were playing, just to see if I could get used to riding.  I just don't think I'm going to be a fan.  I wanted to drive faster, but I started to panic once I hit 15 mph.  Macy won't even ride with me because I go too slowly. 

03.12.2011

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:  when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.  ~Charles Dickens

03.11.2011

There was a horrible blizzard today in North Dakota and eastern Montana.  This is the only photo I took today.  It is of another building at school that is less than 50 yards away.  There were points in the day where I couldn't see the building.  Thankfully by the time school was over, the sun was out and the wind had died down quite a bit so both Tyler and I made it home after work.

03.10.2011

Jeffrey's cow, TuTu, had her calf yesterday.  Today, Jeffrey and Macy insisted that we all had to go and check on the calfy.  What I love about my kids is that Macy is all about petting and being a little mother hen to the calf.  "It's okay, calfy.  I'm just going to pet you now.  Oh, do you want your mama?"  While Jeffrey, on the other hand, is all about the work that goes into calfing.  He would much rather feed the cows, fill the water, and check on the calves than even think about getting close enough to pet the calf. 

03.09.2011

Merciful God, accompany our journey through these forty days.  Renew us in the gift of baptism, that we may provide for those who are poor, pray for those in need, fast from self-indulgence, and above all that we may find our treasure in the life of you Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives an reign with you and the Hold Spirit, on God, now and forever.  Amen

Evangelical Lutheran Worship.  (2006).  Ash Wednesday:  Concluding Prayer. 

03.08.2011

You'd never know by looking at them that they are brother and sister, but don't let their looks fool you.  Their bond is strong.

03.07.2011

One of my bucket list items is to do more crafts with my kids.  In an attempt to do this, I took Jeffrey and Macy to the store and let them each pick out a wood project to paint.  They both chose bird houses.  I bought paints and glitter pens, took the kids home, and they went to work.  (This was last July.)  The kids left the glitter pens in a cup next to the bird houses and throughout the winter you will find one of them working on adding more color to their little houses.  Jeffrey just told me a few days ago that he really wants to nail the bird house to the tree so that a mama bird will build a nest and have babies in the house. 

03.06.2011

I've been playing around with picnik.com a lot since starting my POTD blog.  I love that there are so many quick options.  (So far, I haven't had the time or patience to learn how to use Photoshop.)  What is your favorite version or today's photo?

Original

Black and White

Cross Process

Cinema Scope

Lomoish

03.05.2011

Stressed out.  Nervous.  Yup, that was Tyler tonight at the basketball game.  Fairview was playing Scobey for the Divisional Championships.  The game was a nail-biter.  Fairview was down by 10 or nearly 10 at one point, was in foul trouble in the third quarter, and was constantly turning over the ball.  During the last minute, the score was tied.  Fairview had time for a last second shot, missed, but pulled out a miraculous rebound and shot (with .1 seconds remaining) to win the game.  Or so they thought.  The referee called it no good.  Though I'm sure if you google the game or have facebook, you'll find the video that shows the ball out of the hands of Fairview and in the air with time still on the clock.  In the first overtime we were down by three with under 5 seconds to go and another player made a nearly half-court shot to send the game in to double overtime.  Fairview wound up losing in the second overtime.  I can't imagine that with as stressed out and into the game Tyler was for these boys, what it will be like when Jeffrey and Macy play.

03.04.2011

It is a lot easier to get them all to make silly faces at the same time than it is to have them smile nice at the same time.

03.03.2011

We have a lot of Bald Eagles in our area in the winter and so I've always wanted to get a good picture of the, but have never been quick enough.  This is the best picture I have so far.  On my way to work this morning, this Bald Eagle was feeding on a carcass near the side of the road.  Shh, don't tell anyone, but I slowed down on the highway while grabbing my camera out of my bag and shot this photo (and several others that didn't turn out as well) while driving down the road.

Life is Good's Picture from 050:365

Just a little bit (about 1 minute) of editing can go a long way.

original

editing color and saturation

using 1960's effect

using orton-ish effect

03.02.2011

This is the reason why northwest North Dakota and eastern Montana say, "Recession, what recession."

This is the reason why people from Florida move to Williston without having a home in which to live.  They typed "best place to get a job" into Google and Williston was it.

This is the reason why my school can afford to build a new science lab, add a new gym floor, give teachers Flex Benefit Plans, buy new lockers, buy new computers, remodel floors and bathrooms, add a new crows nest to the football field, and remodel the kitchen with state of the art technology.

This is the reason why traffic has increased so much on my little country road that I am sometimes scared to run on it and the reason why the state of North Dakota needs to put millions of dollars in to western North Dakota roads.

This is the reason why the Vancouver Olympics athlete's housing has moved to rural North Dakota for roustabouts and drillers and hands to live.

This is the reason why our school can get four new first graders in one week.

This is the reason why they are building a natural gas plant just seven miles from my house...which, mind you, is in the middle of nowhere.

This is the reason why parents of my school kids don't just have jobs, but good jobs.

This is the reason why they are building so many more wind towers around the rest of North Dakota.

This is the reason why high school boys don't think they need to go to college.

This is the reason that the art teacher in Fairview must live in Williston.  There is no housing available in Fairview.  It is also the reason why the Williston mayor was on the news and asked people not to move here in the winter.  People are living in tents and freezing because they had no idea what a North Dakota winter could be like.

This is the reason why western Montana thinks that oil and gas revenue should be spread around the state.  Do you see eastern Montana asking for tourism dollars or logging money?

Can you think of anything else?  I'm sure there is more.

03.01.2011

My mom and dad came home to do taxes, pay bills, etc. and surprised the kids with a visit.  When Papa walked in the door, Jeffrey said, "Hey, you aren't here."  Papa then answered, "Nope, I'm still gone."  When Jeffrey and Macy finally realized that Papa and Grandma were really here, they both screamed, yelped, jumped up and down, and ran to give hugs.  Macy couldn't stop bouncing from excitement because she was so excited.  She didn't let go of Grandma all night long.

02.28.2011

Tyler and I got home from a week's worth of vacation on Sunday.  This morning (Monday) he left for a work trip to Fargo until Thursday.  The kids and I stayed up late reading books and playing with the self-timer on the camera.  (I really need to figure out how to use my remote with my new camera.)

02.27.2011

How to describe Macy:  basketball jersey, snowmobile goggles, pink dangle dolphin earrings, and all smile.  She is so much spunk wrapped up in one cute package.