February '16

I wish this better showed the purple mountains' majesty that was visible to the naked eye. This sunset was awe inspiring enough that I detoured off my route to go pick up sushi (which is saying something) and drove down a farm road just so I could see it and stare.

With Oma's lesson under her belt, in her free time Naomi's doing things like sewing burp cloths all by herself. In my free time, I am clearly not organizing the pantry. And, yes, I *do* need that many bottles of vegetable oil.

From burp cloths to skirts. She made this for her friend for her birthday.

Remember this? You forgot all about it, didn't you? Well, I almost had too. It is just a slow smolder in the back corner of my mind, occasionally flaming up when given some airflow. But the appeal on my lawsuit was reviewed and rejected now at the local level and the superior court level. It could still go to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, but if it does, I'm feeling pretty good about my chances of winning that one. And then, ten years after it all began, this may be finally over.

Clifton took the girls to a Father Daughter Dance with some friends from church.

Some moms might think ahead for such things and not just throw their kids back into their Christmas dress. Others? Yeah, not so much.

But I tell you what--that red dress hid the pizza sauce way better than this pale lavender one.

At the dance. When I saw this pic I felt better because I wasn't the only Christmas-recycle mom.

Sometimes you've just got to take a couple minutes to get a feel for your surroundings...

...and then go nuts like every other Taylor Swift loving girl out there.

Naomi had found her zone. Annika, I'm told, mostly just found the refreshment table.

Eventually they did the inevitable: bunch of girls dancing in a circle--good practice for middle school. (I hope...)

Out for pizza afterwards. Because dancing works up an appetite. Unless you're Annika. In which case eating refreshments work up an appetite.

Guys. There was this little football game recently. The Broncos won. And it was so much more fun than two years ago. This picture also pretty perfectly illustrates how much Annika adores and simultaneously annoys Naomi. (As if on cue, Naomi just looked over at this photo and said, "I hate it when she looks at me like that.")

Romantic Valentines fondue dinner with the four loves of my life. 

Why? Why would she use a fondue fork when she's got these perfectly good fingers?

So this project is also ten years in the making. For the entire time we were dating Clifton and I never lived in the same city. So there were lots of emails and phone calls and red eye flights into BWI. Lots. Before I left my last job, I cut and paste all of our emails from my hospital account into chronological order in a word document. And this month I finally got around to uploading it and getting it published into a 225 page book. I think it will be fun for our girls to read someday, getting to know us as we got to know each other.

Day off of school so Clifton took the day off and dropped the girls off skiing while he snowshoed with our friend Mark. Annika's stretching at the end of her hard day's work.

The first thing they always tell us at the end of their lessons is a complete run down of the snacks and lunch. The hot chocolate doesn't hurt either...