This is the question of the day. Little-sis asked this on the way back home from Williamsburg yesterday.

And I have to say we were laughing so hard it took a moment to reassure her. A scary thought no? She seemed pretty freaked out by it.

Hints of spring:

The husband got a bargain on some trees for the backyard last week. The spot where he planted them was already occupied by the daffodils. They sprung up in January’s heat wave and it seemed a shame to waste them.

So the girls and I stole some gravel from the driveway and stuck them in the jar. They just started blooming yesterday.

We moved to Florida in 2005 we left right before they bloomed, and we haven’t seen them since…I guess really since 2004.

I have a thing for hearts. Ever since my mom taught me how to do appliques on quilts, hearts have been one of my favorite designs.

So I have been trying to think of a great surprise for the girl’s room for Valentine’s Day. I love the idea of them waking up to a room all decorated for the holiday.

Last year they got their boots. Best gift ever. We usually do not do gifts for Valentines, just mail cards, but these we had to have.

This year I have been using up a lot of their old baby clothes making these, so I think I might pull out the mini Christmas Tree and have that all set up for when they wake up. I have some old potato bread in the freezer, so maybe we’ll have heart shaped French Toast also.

We’re waiting to see if it snows…wish us luck. We still haven’t had a real snow day.

Wonder why that eighties phrase never caught on?

Here’s the final shot of the leg-warmers for big-sis.

We made them to go with her first day of school skirt from September.

I mentioned my Stitch Nemesis a few days back. I am a nerdy knitter…I like all the technical aspects of knitting, but I have a terrible time with the tubular bind off. I have tried tons of different sets of directions, and I always manage to get off somehow in the sequence.

This time I got it, thanks to The Knitter’s Handbook.

I love that the bind off end and cast on end look the same. Frankly, no-one else on the planet would ever notice, including big-sis, but still, that kind of thing drives be nuts when it’s not right.

The girl’s are “vacationing” in Williamsburg for the night, so I’ll try to get an action shot int he next day or two.

A pal of mine at work just lost her home to a fire last week. She and her husband are fine, and all of the pets made it out. The frame of the house is intact, but it will take months for them to get back into their home.

She has been e-mailing us daily updates as they go through all of this. It is incredibly kind of her to share her story, and this has gotten me thinking. I just wanted to share some thoughts.

First, her batteries were dead in the fire detectors. They has a friend staying the night, and if the smoke hadn’t triggered an asthma attack they might not have woken up to get out.

I cannot remember the last time we checked ours, but you better believe we made sure they are all working now.

Second, it has made me realize I have no way to prove I own what I own. Right now she is having to itemize everything, down to the deodorant. And it is is all frozen in place. IT has been in the teens and twenties outside here all week, and all the water from the firefighters froze everything in place…that paints such an eerie picture of having to chip off all your worldly possessions to make a list.

So this weekend I am planning on going around the house and using the digital camera to snap shots of each room, closets and all. The plan is to copy all of these onto a CD and put a copy in our safety deposit box.

Any other ideas?

One of those mom-days. It all started when I got the call, little-sis has a fever. So off we go in the mini van to pick her up at school. On the way the windshield gets hit by a rock, and cracks halfway across.

Can’t stop, must get sick child.

So I pick her up (fever of 103.7…never underachieve) and we are scrambling to get to the Dr’s office where they are working her in, and she loses her lunch all over the backseat. Poor kid had an ear infection and a tummy bug.

Say what you will about the feel of a nice new car, but I can’t see paying all that money for something that is just going to be upchucked on. No new car smell can survive that.

So we’ve had a sleepy few days resting. It means I’ve had some time to knit. I am now done with these:

Big sis wanted leg warmers. They turned out pretty well, and very easy to do.

The final photos are with the husband on the digital camera. He’s driving back from Southwest Virginia as I type. He had some article he had to write, and I am rather a neglectful wife, for I haven’t the foggiest notion of what the article is about.

Anyhoo…I’ll post the final version once the photos arrive. I conquered my stitch nemesis…more to follow.

I am trying to learn a bit of conversational Japanese right now. My sister and I are planning a trip to Tokyo to visit our brother in August, so we are both trying to keep from getting totally lost.

According to a teacher pal of mine (she teaches French) as you work you get a few breakthroughs, then you plateau for a bit.

That’s me right now…I sort of get the sentence structure, but all I know how to say is:

Watashi wa kippu no doko des ka?

Which I think means “Where is my ticket”?

Useful, no? I can totally see surviving for a week with just that phrase.

Along those lines, here’s a website full of Japanese anti-smoking ads. They are hilarious…this one has a Haiku theme.

My dad, who knows about 6 languages conversationally, if not fluently, says the best thing to do is learn about 5 action verbs. The nouns you can communicate with hand gestures. I figure I can add a few please/thank you type things. Can’t hurt.

Anyone know Japanese? Any hints?

As I mentioned earlier, the tooth fairy has visited recently. She and big sis have had quite the correspondence. We’ve gotten three from the tooth fairy, and big-sis has been writing back and leaving notes in her tooth pillow.

Big sis has had loose teeth since late October, so this has been a long process. She was getting nervous about wiggling the tooth. That’s when the first letter arrived in the mail:

That did it, and she began really wiggling the tooth. She swallowed the first tooth, and there was a lot of talk that day of digging it out (if you follow my meaning). Fortunately, the tooth fairy left a letter saying she got the tooth (she is magic after all) but would prefer it if she could just pick it up next time. So, the next tooth was pulled at school during lunch. That letter is somewhere in the clutter of the girl’s room. Here’s the letter for the pulled tooth:

This has been a lot of fun. It is great to hear about every one’s traditions. I have a friend who’s contract with the tooth fairy stipulates only foreign currency. That way her son doesn’t compare amounts at school. Our contact calls for gold dollars, so she’s gotten the Sacagawea coins.

Little-sis told me this as I was tucking her in for her nap today. She is so much fun…huge imagination. Makes getting anything mundane, like putting on socks, take forever. She talks to them. Still, I can’t imagine her any other way.

Otherwise, today was a chilly-indoor kind of day. I patched pants for big sis. She’s busted out the knees in at least three pairs int he last week. We have weeks of winter left they need to make it through. I am trying out some new ideas for patching, here are the yo-yo flowers:

If you’re interested here’s a tutorial on how to make yo-yo’s…simple!

Next project? Taxes! This is the one down side of being the “math” person in our marriage. I get the taxes. This year is a bear, we have corporate taxes, taxes in two states, plus the federal. I’ll spare you the details.

Here’s the sick part…I like doing them. At one time, before I decided to teach, I was working towards accounting. There is just something about getting all those numbers to work out. I just wish there wasn’t quite so much to do this year!