Valentine's

We had a busy week last week... busy for us anyway.  Sewing club, doctor appointments, valentines... 

And I've been catching up on projects and some light reading in the evenings.  Ha.  My former boss is up for promotion and review this year and he let me know that the reviewers may be contacting me about some of the projects that I worked on.  Yikes.... I remember very little of the particulars so he also sent me a bunch of the papers and patents that are relevant.  Oh man.  I love chemistry and science, but technical writing and scientific literature put me to sleep!  I despise reading research!  Even the stuff I did!  I know, I know.  They used to have me proof read their papers before they submitted them for review... ugh... one of the post-docs loved commas way too much. I have been slowly slogging through them. 

This is probably why when someone tells me they've "done their research" on a scientific/medical topic I raise my eyebrows a little bit; I'm very impressed you've actually read things like, "The diffusion coefficients of water in bio-based hydrogels were measured with a simple NMR method. This method tracked the migration of deuterium oxide through imaging data that was fit to a diffusion equation. The results show that a 5 wt % soybean-oil-based hydrogel gave an aqueous diffusion of 1.37 (60.21)  109 m2/s. The value for a 0.5 wt % saponified starch– polyacrylonitrile graft copolymer was 1.28 (60.26)  109 m2/s, which remained about the same at increased poly-mer content in the hydrogel."  Actual research is mind numbing to read, although it is rather gratifying to see, "The authors thank Jennifer R. Koch for gel preparation and experimental work presented herein," in the Journal of Applied Polymer Science.  I'm famous!  Sort of.  Ha. 

Cecily has been begging to make valentines for weeks so we did more than once.  These were some kind of paint markers- not washable.  Woot.

 They both had fun with them.  We cut hearts out of their masterpieces to send to people.

 Another time they got stickers and glitter glue.  Cecily glued everything to one piece of paper.

 Emmy had just woken up, but she wanted to do stickers too.

 It is very festive... *grin*

 We haven't been outside much, so they make messes inside.  And go fishing in their boat. 

Friday I spent the day cleaning and getting the house in some semblance of order because Bob invited his coworker and family over for supper on Saturday.  We had been invited to their boys' birthday party last summer so Cecily was super excited to play with them again.

Saturday morning the girls and I went to Meg's to make valentines and do crafts... then we delivered flowers and their creations and got McDonalds for lunch. I've been ordering an extra glass of water and diluting a little bit of "Pop! Want Pop! Hab it" into it so that little Bee can have her own glass of pop...

I was nervous about the evening.  Even though I've met them before, I don't do small talk well.  And I take after my grandmother and I'm always nervous about the food, whether I need to be or not.  I was glad I went with soup... I didn't have to come up with side dishes!  And creamy chicken and wild rice soup in bread bowls is pretty much my favorite right now.  After all my worrying, we had a really good evening.  The girls played well with Alex and Rafael, and we didn't lack for conversation with Hassan and Denisse.  They're moving to Ecuador soon and they say we should come visit.

Having people over always makes me wish I was less introverted... since Bob is too.... I/we want to be hospitable, but it's just hard! 

We didn't have any plans to go out on Valentine's day (crowded restaurants are not my thing) so we were glad to accept Dale and Meg's invite for heart pizza.   The girls thought it was the best thing ever, especially since they got to sit at their own little table.  Emmy was so proud sitting by Hanna.  Our neighbor randomly brought us a strawberry pie so we enjoyed that with them... overall it was a great Valentine's weekend! 

This week we played in the snow and built a short lived snowman and that's about it.  I love it, the girls are getting stir crazy. 

Emmy prefers to eat her sundae cones with a spoon.  Silly Bee. 

Blessings.

Chill February

And the last of the January doldrums.

One day the girls and I met Kendra ("Krenda") and William at the pool.  They loved it.  And I was glad for another set of eyes to keep an eye on them...

 I never remember pool toys, good thing they have some built in.

 Emmy and William... aww.

 Bob and I went to Rustin and Sharon's for a chuck-wagon themed potluck... smoked brisket with all the trimmings.  It was super yummy, probably rivaled all the chuck-wagon suppers Dad dragged us to out west.  It had kind of been a long time since we were with them all, so it was a good night.  And you won't believe what Greg said to me.......  just kidding Greg! 

We took the girls to Bass Pro Saturday evening just because.  They wanted to see the fish and the animals, but they spent the most time exploring the boats.  And the ATVs... 

 Emmy wanted to drive them all.

 We need one of these, right?

 My parents and Jake invited themselves over and brought pizza Sunday evening. 

We've been spending most of our time inside coloring, playing, fighting...

 Stepping on Bubble wrap...

 Putting stickers under our shirts...

 We made cornbread one night for supper.  I measure, they take turns dumping.  Then they both wanted to stir.  Somehow it all stayed in the bowl!  They like cooking a lot more than it looks like in this picture. 

 I've been cooking all sorts of things again!  Whole meals that don't come from a box or the Schwann's man!  It's amazing.  I even made a whole turkey that I bought on sale last thanksgiving.  It turned out great... nice and moist and delicious.  I even made gravy from the drippings!  And the carcass is in the freezer for making broth (once I get around to it or I'm tired of it taking up space in the freezer)!  Can't let Shelly be more domestic than me...  hehe. 

Mom needed a grandma day so she took the girls Thursday... I went shopping.  Anymore I much prefer online shopping... I'm getting old or something.  The girls had lots of fun at the farm with "Ga-maw" and "Ap-aw."

So I had great intentions of rehabbing this little table and chairs that were mine as a child in time to give it to the girls for Christmas... didn't happen.  I'm just finally getting started now.  Originally my plan was to paint/ stain them to match our kitchen table and chairs.... but.... all those spindles.  And the chairs are in decent shape.  After tightening screws and re-gluing spindles and armrests, I used Restor-a-finish on them.  It works really well- the chair on the left hasn't been done yet, the one on the right has.  They still don't look brand new, but the scratches are less obvious and the finish looks nice and shiny again. 

 Oh this poor table.  Apparently the four Wyss kids were hard on their toys.  Ha.  Tape, paint, scratches, missing edge banding... we did a number on it.  Although, I don't remember paint being allowed on it so that must be Michelle's fault.  Anyway, waffling about what to do with the top... it's thin veneer on plywood so it would be a waste of time to refinish it. My trip to Pekin Hardwood for a replacement was fruitless... so if Menards doesn't carry edge glued panels in the size I need I'm not sure what I will end up doing.  I'm painting the legs white so the table will at least sort of look like our table.

Anyway, it's been quiet, the girls are going a little stir crazy, but next week looks to be busier so they'll be happy.
Blessings.