The Flat Stanley Project

Over Christmas break, Kylie and I participated in The Flat Stanley Project.

Do you remember the book Flat Stanley? It's about a boy whose bulletin board fell on him during the night, and flattened him like a pancake. He discovered he could visit his friends by mailing himself in an envelope.

I had never heard of the Flat Stanley Project. My friend Pam in Florida emailed me and said that her son Braden, who is in second grade, was doing a Flat Stanley project for his class, and she asked if she could mail him to us. I said it sounded like fun.

Basically, we got to take Flat Stanley along with us on our adventures during Christmas and take pictures. Today we will fill out his travelogue, which includes the date he arrived at our house, our location, the weather, and a brief list of his adventures with us. I thought I'd share what we did with Flat Stanley while he was here.

The day he arrived, he wanted to go out and stand in the snow. Then he decided his feet were cold.

Here he is with Kylie next to our Christmas tree (which is going to get taken down this weekend, I SWEAR, even if I have to chuck it out the window).

Since Kylie had never read Flat Stanley and didn't know the story, we went to the library, found the book, and read it together.

Flat Stanley went with us to Denver Zoo Lights. The problem was though, if I used a flash, you couldn't see the lights...and if I didn't use a flash, you couldn't see Stanley. I opted for seeing the lights.

The day we went to the lake on walked on the ice? Flat Stanley went with us. He walked on the ice too.

He especially liked tubing in the snow.

Hopefully, Flat Stanley will be mailed back to Tampa today. When he gets there, Braden will take him back to school and mark our location on a map. He also gets to write a story about Flat Stanley's adventures in Colorado. I printed out all the above pictures and will be mailing them back with Stanley.

I think this is a really neat reading project for lower elementary kids. Have any of your kids every done this?

An Early Morning Visitor

One of the things I love about living here is the amount of wildlife in our neighborhood. We have lots of cottontail rabbits and squirrels, and also a lot of deer. I've been told that elk stroll through occasionally too, but I've never seen one.

This little lady stopped by my backyard for a snack this morning. She didn't seem to mind me standing on the patio, snapping her picture. She was much more interested in my pine tree. I imagine it gets difficult for them to find food this time of year. I locked the dogs inside the house so she could stay as long as she wanted.

The "Professional" Photographer

I've decided that on occasion, I may cheat and use a picture that I already have for my picture of the day. Then I decided this totally counts and is not cheating. Hey, my project, my rules.

My entire family was here for Christmas. This means my parents, my oldest daughter, my brother, his wife, and their daughter Makenzie who is four, plus the husband, the two children that still live with us, and me. Total of 10 people in my house for a week. Actually, my parents and daughter arrived on Dec. 21st, and my brother and his family on the 23rd. They all left on the 30th. I was very happy to have them here. I was also happy when they left. That's a lot of people to have in your house.

We did a lot of fun things while they were here. Two days after Christmas, we took a family ski trip to Echo Mountain. When I say a family trip, I mean all four kids and my brother and sister-in-law went skiing and I took pictures. My husband, who has had a knee replacement, is not an eligible skier. Neither is my mother, who is 73. My father stayed at the house...to keep the dogs company, I suppose.

We also took Kylie and Makenzie to a place called Jump Street, which is a whole place full of trampolines and bouncy things. We went sledding at Sledding Hill Park. We went to Denver's Zoo Lights. And when my sister-in-law, who will hereafter be referred to as "Susan", because that's her name, discovered we had a Chipotle at the bottom of the hill? Lunch was in order. A few times.

We also wanted to get a family portrait taken. And when I say "we", I mean Susan. Don't get me wrong, I like her a lot. We have fun, she likes to drink, 'nuff said. But I wasn't so much up for a family portrait, but it's just one of those things you do.

About a week before their arrival, Susan called me and asked if I would mind if she hired a photographer to come to my house and do pictures, instead of all of us going to Sears. That way, the kids could change clothes, take pictures with the dogs, or out in the snow, or whatever. I said sure, whatever you want to do is fine.

So on Christmas Eve day, a professional photographer came to our house, who was basically a nice lady with a nice camera. The deal was, Susan paid her for an hour of her time. I don't know how much and I didn't ask. She took a big group shot, my kids, Susan's kid, our family, my brother's family, my kids with dogs, playing in the snow, etc. What was supposed to happen is that this woman would go home, Photoshop the pictures, adjust light, blah blah, and send us CDs. That way we could use Shutterfly or Target to make our own prints. Sounded good to me.

So she came, and took pictures. When she had the kids set up, Susan and my mom were also snapping pictures with their cameras behind her. This whole story led up to the picture I wanted to show you today, which was one of my three girls:

This picture was taken either by my mom or Susan, I'm not sure which. But I know it wasn't taken by the professional lady. You know how I know that? Because we don't have these mysterious CDs yet. We had these pictures done on the 24th, which was a Thursday. She was going to "work on them over the weekend", and mail the CDs to my house on Monday. Since she lives here where I live, we were expecting to get them on Tuesday. No dice. Wednesday? Nope. That's the day everyone left, and we agreed that when they came, I would just mail them to everyone. Thursday? Nope. Friday was New Year's Day, so no mail. Yesterday, I didn't check the mail, so there is always the possibility that they are sitting in my mailbox, frozen.

There's also the possibility that this whole thing was a scam. Pay her for an hour to take pictures, and then she disappears with the money and a digital camera full of pictures that we won't ever see. I'm really hoping that's not the case, as the lady seemed very nice, and I wouldn't want Susan to have been cheated out of however much money she paid this woman.

Steve's going to the store, I think I'll have him stop at the mailbox. More later on the saga of "The Professional Photographer"...

ETA: Ok, so the CDs were sitting in my mailbox from yesterday. Surprisingly, not frozen. Dear Roberta from ****** *********** Photography...I apologize profusely. Some of the pictures turned out really great. Especially some of Danni that she took next to a tree in my backyard, with a snow background. THAT looks like a senior picture to me, so the company in AZ who wants $500 to do a senior picture package? Can suck it.

A New Experience

Today I did something I've never done before. I walked on water.

Ok, it was frozen water, but water nonetheless.

I've never walked on a frozen lake before, and I was slightly quite apprehensive. However, there were two other ladies there, with a boy and a dog. One of the ladies was trying to explain to the boy how she knew the ice was safe to walk on. She kicked some snow out of the way until you could see the ice. The ice was white, not clear, and very hard.

Still, I waited for them to walk out onto it before I let Kylie venture out.



This is Kylie standing on Johnson Lake in Clement Park. If you remember back to 1999 and the Columbine shootings, you saw tons of TV trucks and a memorial tent for each student that was killed in a park near the school. That was Clement Park. One day when it's warmer and the flowers are blooming again, I'll make the Columbine Memorial at Clement Park my picture of the day. It's really quite moving.

Anyhoo, the geese are walking rather than swimming these days. And I was indeed on the ice, albeit a bit closer to the shore than Kylie. You see, she only weighs 38 lbs. And I weigh...more than 38 lbs. So I figured she was safer out there than I was. It was strange, walking in the same spot that Kylie and her dad had cast out their fishing lines on Father's Day. I like having four seasons.

A New Decade

A couple of you may have noticed that I've stopped posting regularly. There are a lot of reasons for that, but I think the main one is that on Oct. 22nd, my husband was laid off from his job. You know, the one for which we packed up and moved to Colorado. He was working for a non-profit, and like so many other things we can blame on the economy, their funding was pulled. There were 13 people working in his office, and I believe nine of them were let go.

Since then, I just haven't really had the motivation to write anything. There's been a small post here and there, but other than that, bupkus. I think I like to try and be funny most of the time, and honestly? Not much around here has been funny recently. We're now living on two unemployment paychecks, mine and his, and a part time pizza delivery job. Don't get me wrong, we're luckier than most. Colorado's unemployment payments are, thankfully, much larger than Arizona's. We had a nice Christmas and my whole family was here. We've had to cut back, but the house payment is being made, most of the rest of the bills are being paid, and no one is going hungry. I'm well aware that it could be much worse.

I've been trying to think of ways to get myself back into writing. I thought about trying to do a project 365, but I seriously doubt that I'd take a picture and post every single day. It's a nice idea, but I just can't see it. I could try. It'd probably last four days. Or two.

The title of this post is "A New Decade." Not only a new year, but a new span of 10 years. They're going fast. It's hard to believe that by the time this new decade is over, I'll be in my 50's, and getting ready for my youngest to graduate from high school. She's in first grade now. If I've done the math right, she'll be in the class of 2021. That seems far away now, but I'm going to blink my eyes and I'll be buying her cap and gown.

Life is too short to be depressed and anxious all the time. Yes, I've gone to a doctor, and gotten some meds. Actually, I did that about three weeks before the husband was laid off, because the anxiety I've lived with all my life had reached an unbearable level. Because I'd been on Lexapro for three weeks before he lost his job, I didn't completely freak out. But something is happening now, because I'm starting to feel more like I did before I started on the meds. Not completely, but ... well, maybe it was just the holidays and all.

In any case, I'm going to try carrying my camera around with me, and seeing what happens. I doubt I'll post every day, but I'm going to try and look for the good, the positive, and the beautiful things around me. I'm thinking that might help my mood.

When my sister-in-law, brother and niece left on Wednesday, they left me a nice card and $50, to help with "the toiletries they used." Which was unnecessary, but really nice of her. Let me mention here that they do not know, and neither do my parents, that my husband is out of work. I didn't tell my parents because my dad has my lifelong anxiety issues times ten, and I don't want him worrying about us. And he won't take meds because, you know, he doesn't have a problem.

Anyway, we took the $50 and went to Target today. We picked up some necessities, then we hit the 75% off Christmas clearance stuff.

Kylie found this, and she had to have it:



Did we need it? Nope. But it's cute and festive, and I'll forget all about it when I pack it away with the other Christmas stuff. Next year when I get out the Christmas stuff, I'll be pleasantly surprised by some new, cute little ornaments, a new ribbon for my wreath, and this little wire tree with glitter and bells. I know it's symbolic in some way, I'm just not quite sure how. I look at it, and I see hope. Peace. And the joy of the child that picked it out.

Ok, 2010...help me out here. I need a hand up, and I know you've got it in you.

The Science of Baking

Baking at 6000 ft. is hard, y'all. It involves science and math, and other things that make my head hurt.

I've Googled, I've read. I've tried to understand why water boils faster up here, and why the first batch of Toll House cookies I made came out like hockey pucks. I read something about the principles of high altitude baking, and how to modify recipes. But I don't understand it. And please don't try to explain it to me. I promise, I still won't get it.

Fortunately, things like cake mixes and brownie mixes and the Toll House cookie recipe have special high altitude instructions. For cakes and brownies, it involves adding dry flour to the mixes, and also adding more water. What does this have to do with high altitude? I haven't a clue. But it works.

You know what doesn't work? Using store-bought, refrigerated cookie dough to make your Christmas cookies. Because after 7 minutes at 350 degrees? They look like this:




Can you tell which ones are the trees, which are the stars and which are the gingerbread men? Yeah, me either. But I swear, they started out in those shapes. Frisbee, anyone?

Can you say frustrating? I suppose I could look up a recipe for high altitude sugar cookie dough and make it from scratch, but honestly, that's just way too much work for me.

Luckily for me, guess what they sell at the grocery store?



Plain, undecorated Christmas cookies!

Besides, this is all she really wants to do anyway. I know, good luck getting her to go to sleep tonight, right?

Whatever means we used to get here, it's all good. What else do kids really want, but to make a huge mess with frosting and sprinkles for mom to clean up?

(And try not to be too jealous of my lovely matching plates, ok?)

I'll Take "People No One In The Real World Knows About" for $800, Alex

I'm flabbergasted. Heather Armstrong, a.k.a. Dooce, was just the answer to a freaking question on Jeopardy. Jeopardy!

The category was "Urban Dictionary", and thanks to the DVR, I can tell you what the clue was word for word:

"This term was coined by blogger Heather Armstrong, meaning to lose your job because of your blog."

The answer? (Question?) You've been "Dooced."

The funniest part? None of the contestants had any clue what the answer was. But I did! And I don't even read her blog.