It's been so quiet around here lately that we're loosing touch with everybody. So to get the ball rolling again I thought a thread to see what's been going on with everybody would be cool.

There hasn't been a whole lot going on with me. I had a really good Christmas.

I'm loving my little parakeet, Harry, more every day. He's like a little feathered dose of cheer, except when I'm trying to take a nap and his cheer is a little too loud. Today as soon as I snuggled in my blankey on the couch he decided it would be a terrific time to chirp, screech, whistle, and bleat like a dying sheep as loud as he could. Silly critter. Today he discovered that he could fling the whicker ring at the end of his toy hard enough that he could hook it over the end of his millet spray stem. He was very proud of himself and proceeded to hook it and unhook it for a couple of hours. He looked like a basketball player shooting hoops. Even Oliver has been nicer and more affectionate since we brought Harry home.

For the past couple of months Hubby and I have made some major changes in terms of exercise and diet. Hubby needs to loose weight and I need to loose cholesterol. 5-6 days a week hubby goes out for his walk in the morning and I get up on the treadmill. I tied a towel around the arm of the treadmill for Harry so that he can sit there while I walk, he even has a corn husk bunch tied to the towel so that he can play with it if he wants. It make it much nicer for me to have him out with me while I walk, he chirps and chatters the whole time and seems to enjoy himself. We're doing much better on diet too, more fruit and veggies and much less fast food. We've both been feeling better for it. I tell you what, you get a bird and you tend to eat better because of it. Harry gets fresh fruit and veggies every day to stay healthy and it sort of spilled out into our own diet. You can't buy small enough portions for a little tiny bird like that so somebody has to eat the rest of it or it'll go bad and be wasted.

I picked up an origami book last week and I've been having fun with that. Some of the things have come out quite good and other's not so good but it helps fill my need for creativity and I enjoy doing it.

Last weekend I picked up some cone incense, Jasmine. It smell's so pretty, I love to burn it in the bedroom before bedtime, it helps me sleep better. I also bought some blank cones and Orange blossom concentrated oil so that I could make my own, but I've been having trouble with that. They told me to mix 15 drops of oil (it's highly concentrated) with 1 ounce of rubbing alcohol and then drop the mixture on the cones several times over several hours and let them dry. But I did that and there isn't much scent when I burn the cone. Does anybody have any ideas? I think that the oil is evaporating with the alcohol. Is there something else that I can mix the oil with?

Well, that's what's up with me. Let us know what your up too. =)

PS. I've been completely addicted to that game "Mummy Maze". It's a blast to figure out the mazes and trap the mummy so that you can get out.

[ January 27, 2006, 08:01 PM: Message edited by: Renee ]

Great idea Renee! =)

I know life can get real busy and before ya know it a load of time has flown by. Hope everyone is doing well. Looking forward to hearing how everyone is doing and catching up with you all again. Miss you peeps. To our newbies: hope to hear what you've been up to lately as well, great way to get to know you better. =)

Renee, sounds like Harry is doing great and spoiled rotten. Orgami is really neat, take some pics of your creations, would love to see them. How cool Harry inspired you to change the diet, and you've both got a groove on with the excercising. Now if I could get my butt moving more I'd be a happy camper. Before we know it spring will be here and I'll be crying cause my shorts won't fit. Though I'm still limited to what I can do. The back continues to heal, but I still haven't been given the ok from the doc to bend or lift and have to be careful with what exercises I can do.

I have to say this has been an awesome winter, weather wise. Can't recall the last time we had a January where a good part of it had temps that caused melting (Dec as well). I've even had my window while on the puter open many days (during the day), which is really strange as normally we have plastic on them to guard against the cold and condensation build up. The only bummer is not being able to get out there and romp in the snow, go sledding etc as I would have.

Pulled out the paints and canvas again, though I haven't gotten full into it yet. I usually use acrylics but thought I'd give oils a try. It's taking a bit to get use to as they take so long to dry and I find them quite different to work with. So I don't think I'll be giving picasso a run for his money, just yet. LOL

Have had some activity over the past few months here at home, but as it has been in the past it goes in spurts. We'll have a few days in a row where odds things occur and then it goes quiet. Though the feeling of not being alone and seeing things out of the corner of the eye, are fairly common. Maybe I'll post more in G&S about it.

Our kittie cats continue to drive me crazy, little entertainers. Cats definitely rule. The youngest loves to play fetch everyday. lol It's so cute. The two older ones like to chase as well but they don't bring it back as he does. He'll do it over and over till he tires (or I do lol).

Still a nighthawk. Have been joining the birds for a morning tweet far too often lately (like right now lol). But hey it's a busy household, the wee hours is the only quiet time I get. So I milk it. Though the minimal sleep does catch up to me now and then.

Other than all the other usual life stuff, I've been doing lots of researching, still collecting/watching movies, and spending time when schedules jive with family/friends. Have some other things on the go as well, and these past months have brought some challenging and very sad days, but will leave it at that.

To be a parrot of Renee: So what have you all been up too? =)

[ January 28, 2006, 03:41 AM: Message edited by: Cat ]

This was a great idea for a thread, Renee! It has been awful quiet lately.

Lets see, I'm still running after Brianna Grace. She is now taking tap dancing classes and loves it. The little bugger really surprised me. I had thought she was really to young to get anything out of the dance class, but at her request, I somewhat reluctantly signed her up with the excuse it would get her around other little girls (all our friends have boys). The other evening, another mom called me to the door of the studio and told me, "You need to watch this..." Thinking my kid had pulled some spectacular stunt or was torturing some poor little child I walked to the door and peeped around. Much to my surprise, my three year old was dancing with her instructor, following every step she made. Too cute!!! She's the youngest in the class, but she is keeping up with the five year olds.

I'm planning a crafter's open house this spring and I'm contacting some of my artsy, craftsy friends to put some of their work in as well. Here in the boondocks, I know we won't get a huge turnout, but if I can have it correspond to some event at the school one weekend, I may be able to draw a few more people. I'll also be advertising in the local paper and printing up some fliers. I've done some really pretty painted glassware and today I primed some gourds for birdhouses and garden ornaments. I've got a friend working on candles and another on plants, so we should have a good variety for our "weekend gift shop".

I also contacted my birthfather, whom I really haven't had contact with in thirty-four years. I wasn't aware of him until I reached adulthood (I was adopted by my birthmother's parents). Anyway, he is thrilled to have contact with me again and delighted to know he has a granddaughter. He will never be a father to me -- no one could ever fill the shoes of the one I had; but, I'm looking forward to having him as a friend. It has been a little emotional, really more for him than for me, but I'm glad I contacted him and gave that chapter of my life some closure. =)

The only other thing we have coming up is Chinese New Year. We'll be attending a Families With Children from China celebration in Houston, along with about 150 other families. They serve a family style Chinese dinner and then we are entertained by acrobats and Lion Dancers. They also have a great silent auction that always has something tempting in it. We're looking forward to it!

Okay, I wanna hear what everyone else has been doing!

Hi guys!! Long time no see. I haven't been up to nearly as much as you all have, however I'll fill you in. I think I've lived at work, it seems like I only come home to shower and change my clothes. This is the first time I've turned on the computer in a couple of weeks. After staring at one all day it just seems like torture to look at one at home too. Elizabeth is still doing her twirl thing and now she's joined up with the Girl Scouts. She seems to be really enjoying it and the troop leader is a really nice lady who seems to be really into getting them involved in all sorts of things. My personal life has a been a bit rocky as of late, one nasty bought of depression that just seems to be getting over with. Seems that now that everything is calming down with my insane family members it's just now hitting me what all has been going on. I'm happy to say that I've felt much better over the last few days.
The weather has been wonderful here (for Ohio in January). Temps pretty moderate and little snow. Of course I've probably just jinxed myself lol. Elizabeth isn't happy with the lack of snow, she seems to think it's her right to get a couple snow days a year. They did get canceled on day last week because of some moderate flooding. Gotta take what you can get I guess lol.
One bit of pretty exciting news, this year Elizabeth's twirl team will be heading to Savannah GA for National's!! I've always wanted to go to Savannah and I"m really looking forward to the trip. It happens to fall on the weekend of my birthday so that will be nice. My mom is going to fly back from Utah and join us. Speaking of travelling family members, my brother is currently working in Texas so he's out of my hair. I thought for a couple of months he was going to be the death of me. He seems to be doing a lot better (after one mortifying (for me) run in with local law enforcement). I think it finally got through to him that this is a small small town and i know just about everyone, so if he decides to get a DUI I'll get a call from the arresting officer before he even gets to the jail. It's funny in retrospect, at the time however I thought I was going to just die from embarrassment. Well enough of that depressing story lol. I'm glad to here everyone is doing well! I'm going to make a real effort to stop by more often. =)

Hi everyone!! I check here at least once a week but have not posted for a long long time. So this was a great post to see.

What is new?! Well only 9 months until Halloween!!
:lol:My ds is already saying that he wants to be a bat again (he just turned 4).

Everything is pretty status quo here. Next Monday we have a meeting with our ds's prospective Montessori school. It is a difficult one to get in, because it not only is for the preschool age, it goes up until the eighth grade. We have been very impressed with the Montessori way so far although I have to admit that I do NOT get the warm fuzzies about the class he is currently in. Last year he was in the 'Toddler' class and it was an entirely different animal with different teachers. Ds, though no angel, is very sensitive and has been going through some problems with classmates that I wouldn't have imagined he'd have at Four years of age. I have brought up my concerns to his teachers and the canned answer is 'not that I'm aware of'. Not that this can't happen in any school, but I Really hope that he gets in the new school where I hope the teachers are more aware of what is going on in their classrooms!

Oh, ds has also been going pretty well with the potty training - he is hooked on the 'treasure' he gets after he goes - this has been going on for two months or more (!) but it's better than me losing my mind!!

I've been having a lot of inner conflict with being a stay at home mom lately. Don't get me wrong , I love being home with Ds but I'm starting to get 'antsy'. It's not feasible for me to work at this point without putting ds in childcare and I can't bear to do that now, especially since financially I'm able to be home. Like I said, I'm just getting antsy, ds and I spend LOTS of time together and I'm definitely feeling very lonely. But the grass is always greener and I know that at this time I'm doing the right thing for our little family.

I joined a yoga class that I really love. The teacher is wonderful and since she is just getting started I often am one of only 3 or 4 people in the class. So we get a lot of individualized help. I have done yoga very off and on for the past 20 years and I'm so happy to have found a teacher that I really like, really close to home.

That's about all here! I look forward to reading all the answers. Everyone take care.