Mid December

I got our tree up right after Thanksgiving, and the house is all decorated up.  But I needed a new wreath for over the mantel.  I didn't want to spend a fortune, but I found most fake conifer wreaths were too expensive, or looked totally fake.  So I decided to make a ball wreath.

This is the end result:

Last year I'd redone the tree with those wild colors, so when I found mostly wild colored ornaments at Walmart, I decided to forge ahead and use them for the wreath.  One of the things I am pleased about is that it's mostly flat.  So it hugs the wall pretty well.  I actually liked it really well with just the pink, blue, and green larger balls, but some of the holes between the balls were kind of big.  In retrospect it might have been easier to wrap the wire frame in tinsel, or just cut pieces of tinsel and stuff them into the holes.

Change of topic:

Hubby is in Australia until Saturday.  He's been pingponging around between Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne and getting tired and lonely and ready to come home.  It comes down that he's a great traveler, but a lousy tourist.  He needs me for that, I'm a great tourist.

He took this with his photo stitching app

Change of topic:

On Thursday after I dropped the kids off at school, I went to the dentist, then went to TJ Maxx to do a little shopping.  I need some new jeans and until I lose some weight, I refuse to pay more than about $20.  I found a pair that will do, but as I was putting my own jeans back on, I noticed that I could see daylight - I had popped the fabric in the butt.  I have been walking around for HOW LONG, before today, with daylight showing up the butt of my jeans?

I had to go to confess to an employee that I needed to wear the new jeans out of the store.  She took me to the front cash register, where I had to go around behind the counter for them to take the electric alarm tag off the jeans.

My consolation is I was of course sitting down at the dentist's office, it was early so not a lot of people were out and about, and I'm hoping that most people look at my face, not my butt.  Unless they're behind me.  In that case I'm sure the inch of white underwear would draw the eye.  Sigh.

Change of topic:

Ever since we moved into this house I have hated how dark it is at night.  The outside lights we had were like large cans attached to the house, with light directly below them.  They light up a ten foot circle on the porch.  Everything else is in total darkness, including the stairs going up to the front door.  I was waiting for the garage remodel to be done before I dealt with it, because I knew I'd need new lights and would get ones that light up more than the circle below them... but also I put in a landscaping light system that I'd gotten at Home Depot. It was pretty easy to install and I'm really pleased with it.

Change of topic:

Thing 1 has always taken art classes, and I have struggled to find something for Thing 2 to involve herself in.

Well since we moved, the opportunity presented itself.  I got a lead on a really good horseback riding instructor.

She has taken three lessons, and absolutely loves it.  I really love the teacher.  She's this energetic young girl who is also teaching Thing 2 responsibility and independence and stick-with-it-ness more than I ever taught her.  She is so positive... I am so happy we found this teacher!  The only down side is it's a half hour drive out to the lesson, half hour back. And of course when you start riding, you can't practice at home, so she suggests we pay $60 more a month and do a partial lease, which will get us what we get now plus two more chances to ride per month, mostly unattended.  This works best if we can do it the same time as Thing 2's friend, so they can ride together and we can carpool.  Not quite there yet but I expect that's where we'll be.

Here is a little video of one of Thing 2's lesson.  This teacher doesn't need to go to the gym, she gets a great workout with each lesson.

Isn't she cute as a button?  

All right that's everything in a nutshell.