Friday, January 30, 2009

these are a few of my favorite beasts

This is my favorite cat picture I've taken since being at my parents' . . . or maybe ever. Right before I snapped the picture, she rolled her eyes at me. The nerve!

a brown-headed nuthatch getting a sunflower seed

little squirrel that gradually got closer and closer the longer I sat outside

a chickadee and titmouse share a snack

a female downy at dad's suet feeder out front

mom (not a beast!) and her new laptop that I've been blogging from

crazy Enjoli

pretty Lynx in the evening sunlight

Solomon hiding from me under dad's car

Thursday, January 29, 2009

surprise birthday trek

I left Highland on Tuesday in between winter weather systems for North Carolina. I made it to the Cooks' about 5 hours later to spend the night so I didn't have to drive the whole way at once. Plus, it gave me time to visit them and the Wilsons.

For those of you who have known the Cooks for a while, maybe this will seem as weird to you as it did to me - McKennan driving himself to school!

The Cooks have a new dog, Sadie. This is her with Madison right before we all left in the morning.

I got to my dad's school right before his last class. I had my camera up to my face so he couldn't really tell it was me immediately. Anyway, this was his first reaction. We went home and ate supper after rescuing my mom from the side of the road. The Passat, it seems, is having some kind of oil issue that made it lose pressure. Mom made great blueberry pie, my dad's favorite, for dessert.

This is Skye, Mia & Weezer's kitten that was born the day after we left in July. She's really sweet and likes to follow me around. She especially likes to be on the counter and help me get ready in the morning. She's also helping me blog, sitting on the armrest beside me.

Myrrh and one of her 5 kittens

This might be Prada (or Jolie, Chantilly, or Chloe). All I know is it's not Gibbs, the only boy.

Solomon & me

Sunday, January 25, 2009

The birds were abundant Sabbath afternoon on the back porch, especially cardinals and chickadees.
They've started coming to the window feeder above the kitchen sink too. It's really fun to see the birds come and land right in front of your face.

Saturday night, the gymnasts all came together to show off their skills in a performance. Emmylou, Renee, Jacquelyne, and Amber are ready to start the show.


All of the teams from across the conference, as well as SAU's Gym-Masters lined up on the mats and turned toward the flag while Christen sang the national anthem.



I got some snacks to sell as concessions to make money for our Junior class. Josh helped me the whole time and we were able to sell almost all of our food. It looks like we made about 3x what we spent on supplies, so that's great!

Highland's Gymnix team toward the end of their routine. Each school or group got to perform a routine at the beginning of the show.

It's fun to see the Highland (& Pisgah) students perform with the Gym-Masters. Two of our students that came back as part of their team were Alex (left, top) and David (right, top).



This was the Gym-Masters' "war" routine. The green and gray "armies" tried to one-up each other and pushed each other back and forth on the mat. You can see that in this picture, the gray army was temporarily higher, and therefore stronger than the green.

Bekki, Chantel, Jared, and Kim watching the show.






The aerial silks routines are pretty cool. Leah (SAU) did a routine by herself that led into the Gym-Masters' last routine. In this picture, she had "tied" herself up by wrapping the silks around herself several times, then fell toward the floor.



I helped host a baby shower for Andy & Bekki on Sunday morning. The baby shower spread - Becky made sticky buns, Janelle made muffins, Nikie brought fruit, and I got all the paper stuff and drinks. We're becoming the unofficial shower committee on campus.

All the colored tissue and bags were pretty in the sunlight from the window.






This is Bekki and Andy reacting to the pacifiers I got them. I had called them corks, which they thought was funny. They got a lot of really nice gifts, including a high chair, pack-'n-play, carrier, and lots of other cool stuff.

Gabby and Becky toward the end of the shower. Can you tell we need a home leave?









Bekki is due on March 6 (although I secretly hope the baby's born on my birthday, three days late) and Chantel is due March 26. Their husbands are cousins and they're both having girls.









We finished up watching the fourth day of Winter X Games competition tonight with the snowboarding Superpipe competition through our 2D snow goggles. I don't think it improved the picture quality.

This is how I feel about the stupid robber. When Ryan and I play one-on-one, we play that you can hold 9 cards in your hand before the robber can take half away if a 7 is rolled. When you roll twice per turn, you accumulate cards pretty quickly. We rolled several 7s in the course of our two games and lost the cards pretty quickly too.

I can tell a couple of things from this picture. 1) It's too late to be playing a second round of Settlers. 2) Gotta stop feeding grain to my sheep!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

snow, ya'll!

We woke up Monday to snow (or what the South calls snow)! When I went over to meet Nikie to work out in the morning, Carson had woken up early, so we took him to the gym to walk with us. Afterward, he enjoyed the falling snow and cried if we even put him on the sidewalk.

Olivia was waiting for me to get home in her back yard. She said her dad and Gabby didn't believe that it snowed.

Birds in the snow!


Wes was trying to eat the snow on his way back from getting the weekend mail.

Kids attacking each other

My worker getting rolled in the snow by the boys

Carson and his life-size snowman! Two of the juniors, Josh and Colton made it.

Carson seems happy that Olivia came to play, doesn't he?

A break in the student center to warm up

More birdies!

I think this picture was hilarious. Who knew they waited so long to flap their wings?

Saturday, January 17, 2009

ice tricks, part II

I spread the word this morning that the ice was ready to play on, so after church and potluck I convinced some more people to venture out there!


Talking to dad on the phone. He got off when I told him we were about to drive the golf cart across.

Tyler

Wes & J.P.

me laying on the ice

Oops! Nikie's sliding attempt didn't go so well.

This one was better.

Here's a procrastinator if I ever saw one.

Tyler again - this was about as far over the pond as he went.

Nikie and me

Ryan and me

 Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker

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