This is it folks...

My 365th post of the year. I'm kind of amazed I made it.

I hope all of my readers are having a wonderful new years eve. We will be keeping it low key (as usual) around here. I predict I'll be fast asleep as the blue moon passes over our house tonight.

Resolutions for the year? I don't have any per se, other than the usual. Joining Curves will help with getting more exercise, I want to eat even more organically and local whenever possible. I will continue to reduce my negative impact on the earth and also try to live a more intentional life.

It's unlikely that I will continue daily postings, but I do intend to stay consistent with it. My hope is to really follow my heart with my postings and give better content to the blog. And while I hope you enjoy the new content (and leave lots of comments!) I will be blogging for bliss.

I will be striving to blog about subjects that are important to my soul, some of it will be fun, some of it will be tough to write. This year is about being authentic and the growth that comes from that.

I'm ready to grow....bring it on, and Happy New Year! Hugs and kisses and love, thank you all for being with me on this journey this last year.

Did you know clementine oranges could be transformed into butterflies? Me neither, Rebekah taught me that!

Rebekah tried artichoke hearts...

Yes! I am brave and optimistic, I will like them....

They are yuhh.....uhm

Never mind, I guess I don't like them after all.

JoAnn and JoAnn.com NOT

Be forewarned, this post could take on a wee bit of a rant feel to it.



When we lived in the city, I would go to JoAnn's at least a couple of times per month. I'd pick through sale items and use my 40% off coupon, and I always ended up spending more than I had intended. Several times when I could check my receipt, I would notice the wrong price being charged on something and I'd have to go back in to get it fixed (always over charging of course).



First of all, even though they have a huge customer service desk, the customer service person just acts as a cashier and they make you go to the back of the line to get their screw up fixed. I guess they are hoping it's not worth another 15 minutes in line to get your small amount of money back. I don't blame the workers, they're just doing their job and it must get brutal with some of the snarky disgruntled customers I've seen (I am always always always polite to the workers, you know they are making minimum wage and it's probably a second job, they are tired and there because they have to be). I do blame the corporation because I'm pretty sure they've designed it this way on purpose.



Now that we live a hundred or so miles from the nearest JoAnns, I have tried shopping online to use my coupon and have some crafting essentials delivered to the house. The first time I tried this, their site was down and they sent me over to their listings on Amazon.com which was not a comprehensive inventory, I ended up getting a few things and the order was okay.



This last experience is the straw that broke the camels back. I have an order for a museum in FL to make 12 felt food Cuban sandwiches. Of course I have just run out of tan felt, and a couple of other colors I need to complete this order. Well, in perfect timing my JoAnn's flier shows up and says 72" felt by the yard will be on sale for $2.99 starting December 26th. Great, so I wait the two days until the sale starts to place my order.



Get to the website and only some of the colors of 72" felt by the yard are available, tan is not one of those colors. So I dig around the website a bit. Manage to find tan 72" felt by the yard in a 10 yard bolt for $35.69 per bolt. I'm no math genius (understatement) but that's not $2.99. I think it's also worth noting that the sale ad says nothing about "select colors". So I suck it up and order 10 yd bolts of off white and tan, and then head over to the $2.99 section to order 2 yd quantities of pink, sandstone, and grey.



This is the morning of the 26th. A couple of days go by, I figure my order is on it's way, and this is important because I NEED it for the big museum order, right? At 7:00 PM (time stamp on the e-mail) on the 29th I get 3 e-mails from JoAnn.com. Two of these e-mails are letting me know certain items are being shipped out today and will arrive in SEVEN TO TEN BUSINESS DAYS. One e-mail says this:





Not sure if you can see that better if you click on it, but it says that 2 of my items are out of stock and were cancelled. Which two items? Oh...see I don't know because it's just listed as Craft felt 72" MANY COLORS Qty 2.


Are you freaking kidding me? First of all, you are a huge company with stores scattered ALL OVER the United States. HUGE. You advertise the snot out of your website, yet it's not developed enough to say out of stock on basic merchandise like felt? I JUST BET. Secondly, you ran out of 2 separate colors of felt on the first day they were on sale? I JUST BET. Thirdly, it took you THREE DAYS to let me know about this issue? Man, if I was a betting woman...



So after I placed my order, they offered me a survey. I took the survey, explaining my dissatisfaction and this was BEFORE the above cancelled order issue. They asked if you would like to be contacted regarding your responses and I said yes, however if I get a canned response, it will be the LAST order I make with JoAnn's. Well, they still haven't responded. Unless my canceled order was a response?


So that's it. I'm done with JoAnn.


Future purchases will be made through Fabric.com who was a little more expensive but who offers me free shipping on orders over $35 (JoAnn charged me over $11 shipping for this fiasco) AND 37" yard cuts, and so far, superb customer service.

Bekah: Okay Dad, I have a job for you.

Dad: Uhm okay?

Bekah: I'm going to exter-size (exercise), and your job is to sit there. And when I am done, your job is to clap.

Christmas eve dinner 2009

I had taken pictures of our Christmas dinner table for Martha , but I keep forgetting to post them.






The table cloth is one my Mom has had since I was a child, she sent it to me this year, it fits my table perfectly!




Sparkling cider makes any occasion feel more special. Also note the new (old) blue plate in the center? A gift from my Mom and Step-Dad, LOVE IT!







White plates, $1 each from the thrift store.






Everyone gets an ornament. Painted on driftwood collected at LaPush beach earlier this year (Ashley, I have one for you too!).


We were supposed to have company but Bekah ended up being sick so it was just the three of us. We had lasagna, it may be a new Christmas eve tradition because I very much enjoyed it and who doesn't like lasagna?

Christmas gifts in action

What are you, kid? Four going on twenty?

More scenes from Olympic National Park

Today we took a drive, less than an hour from our house. We went into the Olympic National Forrest and Park near Quinault Lake. Beautiful! One attraction we had to see (because I have priorities and it was a virtual geocache!), was the worlds largest Sitka Spruce tree. Ah-Ma-Zing!

Merry Christmas everyone! I'll try to catch up on posts tomorrow.

I hope you all had a blessed holiday!

I recently went to a craft show where a little girl was selling these adorable "gingerbread" house kits as a fundraiser. I think I paid $3.00 for the small milk carton, some graham crackers, and a baggie of candy. We had left over frosting in the fridge so we were all set!

First you get your graham crackers all gluey, and slap them on the sides of the milk carton.

Liberal finger licking is allowed since you won't actually be eating these.

The milk carton makes a great base so little ones don't get frustrated trying to build the house.

Let that all set up while you go do some geocaching on the beach.

Once you come back, everything should be pretty firm and you can commence with the decorating and finish off your masterpiece!

...and be pretty darn proud of it too!

Rebekah's first theater movie

The same day that we took Bekah to see Santa, we also took her to the movie, "The Princess and the Frog". In the theater.

We don't go to the theater much because I tend to feel $29.00 can go so much further in other avenues of entertainment (hello...that's 29 Red Box movie rentals!). But it's a treat in our house, so this seemed like the perfect movie to introduce Rebekah to the BIG screen.

She loved it, and didn't even need a potty break. She promptly spilled half of her $4 bag of Skittles though, I'll be thinking that one thru a little better next time.

I have no idea what the first movie I saw in a theater was. I do remember seeing Swiss Family Robinson with my Grandparents in the theater (oh am I dating myself?), but a quick google search doesn't show me what year that would have been. Mom?

So do you remember the first movie you saw in a theater?

I really wanted to have pictures of the second dance performance for you...unfortunately, I didn't see it.

The amount of time we were running late was amplified by the fact that I didn't get street by street driving directions for the place and so I had to drive around a few blocks before we got there. I drove up to the entrance and had Grant take her in while I went to find a parking spot. By the time I got in the building she was done performing.

Oh well...she had a good time and that's what really matters!

We got a great big box of love from Minnesota today, the pile beneath our tree floweth over.

Back to caching!

It's been quite a while! But yesterday we did a little geocaching on the beach...well technically in the dunes but we had to drive the beach to get there so whatever :) Up to 84 finds!

You'll notice a new link to FlickR over in the margin, something I am testing out for the new year.

I've done a lot of thinking lately about where I want to go with this blog. Once the year ends, do I want to continue my daily blogging? It's been a looooong year. I think I will be glad to have the daily recordings to look back on but I miss just writing at whim. A lot of times the blogging feels forced, since I know it's supposed to be done everyday.

But I really don't want our friends and family to miss out on our daily adventures either. So my thought is, to keep the flicker account fresh with photos as they are taken, and take the blog in new (hopefully more interesting) directions.

Any feedback on these ideas and/or on the FlickR application are most appreciated!

A fossil on the beach?

Here are pictures of the front and back (with my hand included for size reference)

of my super cool beach combing find from yesterday.

Happy Birthday Hon!

My dear sweet husband turned 41 today.

He wished for brownies and time on the beach...he got both.

I love you more every day, Grant. Here's to many many more!

Another first

Rebekah has never been interested in talking to Santa. We have never pressed the issue, because really? Who can blame a kid. But this year she said she was ready, she wanted to go see *Santa. She marched right up the steps, hopped onto his lap, grinned a mile wide for the camera and proceeded to tell him she wanted a blue unicorn.

*I do have to wonder what "Santa" qualifications this guy has, other than the suit, but whatever...we have the first Santa picture of Rebekah's life.

First ever performance in front of an audience

Today was the dance performance at the assisted living facility. It was adorable if not a little chaotic. The teacher stood behind them doing the movements and Rebekah seemed to forget everything we practiced. But she wasn't shy and she loved being out there.

The second video is an impromptu singing of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" along with doing whatever you'd like for dancing.

Gossiping before the show.

She loves her pink leotard! She watched the older girls perform and kept saying (loudly..oops) I want to do that! Can I do that? So, I think the desire to continue dance will be there for awhile.

I'm sorry for the lack of interesting posts. I think I am catching the crud. I've been so crabby and tired the last couple of day and I can't sleep at night until about 2 in the morning and then I am awake at 7 AM. This morning I woke up with a sore throat. I just feel funky, and not in a happy dancing way.

My Mom and her shop are on Etsy! Super cute stuff, check it out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/woodennicholsmarket

Not what it looks like...

Oh relax...it's the end of the coffee syrup :)

Funny Frugal Friday

This is not a tip so much as it's just down right funny.

My husband is handy, I mean really handy! However, neither one of us has any experience in dealing with furnaces. None. Nada.

So our furnace dies on the coldest day of the year (that is standard protocol, right?). He takes the cover off of the furnace, I take the cover off of the thermostat. We peer into the vast regions of things unknown.

I look at him and say, "what are we going to do"? In which I really mean (and he knows this), what are you going to do. I do like to pretend that being part of the peanut gallery is helpful! So, he says, "well I guess it's time to learn about furnaces". Right! Good answer sweetie!


DISCLAIMER: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME FOLKS! And if you do, we're not responsible! :)


So, he starts pulling pieces out and looking them over (after turning off the breaker...it's a big breaker, 70 amps, which seems like a lot for that blower and ignitor but whatever). He goes online and reads a few things about other people who have fixed their own furnaces. Alright... it could be the ignitor. He finds it and pulls it out...WOW, that's a BIG ignitor! No wonder the 70 amp breaker..okay, and it does seem a little corroded so lets see if we can order one online and replace it.


Online I go, because I can research the hell out of something and find good prices on stuff online! So what I discover while googling the part number of the ignitor is that the part is about $200. Well okay even if it doesn't turn out that that is the problem, we'd have a new ignitor and those do wear out so we go for it.

Meanwhile, I'm a little bit freaking out about the propane leaking into the house through a broken furnace, I mean I don't know anything about furnaces but I've seen the news stories where someones house is blown right off the foundation, right? So Grant checks over the furnace again for me, and no we can't smell any propane, and honestly we're not REAL sure where the propane comes in at on this thing (hi, never worked with furnaces, remember?) but it must come in through the bottom and be in that casing or something, no worries.

After a day, I quit worrying about the propane because if it was leaking we'd be dead by now, all is well. Space heaters are keeping us plenty warm, no big deal.

WOO HOO the part arrives.




Now if you notice anything amiss, you are one step ahead of us. Because Grant just went ahead and put in that brand new honkin' big ignitor. And guess what, it still doesn't work.


So, I go back to washing dishes while hubby scratches his head and does some more poking around in there. He comes to me and says..."uhm, I think I figured out one thing". Me, wondering what it could possibly be, did a mouse chew through the propane hose and it's not getting gas? Is it building up under the house? Will a spark send us to the moon? WHAT WHAT DID YOU FIGURE OUT? He says....



"we have an electric furnace".


Go ahead, I'll wait while you imagine the look on my face.


Yes ladies and gentlemen. We have an electric furnace, we ordered a heating element for it and called it an ignitor, we have a 70 amp breaker for our furnace because it's electric. Now since replacing the element didn't work, we have sequencer on the way.



New heating element for furnace: $200
Sequencer: $27
God protecting you by placing an ELECTRIC furnace in your home because he knew you'd try to fix it yourselves: Priceless

Of interest to Ashley, Grandma, and Grandpa

This post won't be too exciting except to the above mentioned people. A box arrived from Minnesota.






Don't worry, Ashley. I know it looks like the pom poms took the show, but a few minutes later...

The pom poms sat on the table while...

The pony and unicorns went to meet their new friends.

And who went to the zoo?

Also the two unicorns went to bed with her last night (superceeding kitty, teddy, and white unicorn).

The zoo with her best friend!

For weeks we've been planning a meet up with Bekah's best friend, A.

We live about 2.5 hours apart now, so it's a big deal when they get to see each other.

We planned to meet at the Zoo, and even though it was a cold day,

it was beautiful and fun!

When we first arrived the girls watched the free roaming peacocks, while keeping close tabs on one another.

Then off to the exhibits!

The touch tank was a big hit.

As was the carousel (Look Grandma, I'm riding a llama!).

And I don't know what's wrong with me, I forgot to take pictures of lunch, but trust me, they were super cute. How could they not be? Yes, I realize I am biased...but only just a little :)

Pouting because her towel "looks ugly".

Amazingly "all better".

Don't you wish all problems were so easy to fix?