The Thinker


You are analytical and logical - and on a quest to learn everything you can.
Smart and complex, you always love a new intellectual challenge.

Your biggest pet peeve is people who slow you down with trivial chit chat.
A quiet maverick, you tend to ignore rules and authority whenever you feel like it.

In love, you are an easy person to fall for. But you're not an easy person to stay in love with. Although you are quite flexible, you often come off as aloof or argumentative.

At work, you are both a logical and creative thinker. You are great at solving problems. You would make an excellent mathematician, programmer, or professor.

How you see yourself: Creative, fair, and tough-minded

When other people don't get you, they see you as: arrogant, cold, and robotic

You Are An INTP

What's Your Personality Type?

In other news...

Sarah and I want to go camping again when we visit my parents this summer. Here's the place.

Just Messin'

First, a fun personality test. Dead-on accurate as usual.

View Full MyPersonality.org Profile

0 50 100	%
Openness	84%
Conscientiousness	16%
Extraversion	5.5%
Agreeableness	64%
Neuroticism	21%

(click to read but don't go by their graph, the numbers aren't right on that one for some reason. they are right here on this one.)

And now collages of pictures scanned on my trip to mom and dad's, click to enlarge and see the lovely details!

These are my dad's parents. His mom is the one in the light colored overalls and on the right in front of the car downtown(bottom pic).



My great-grandfather(the young man) and his parents and siblings(bottom pic) with great-grandpa being the little boy front and center. I'm not sure who the babies are in the first pic.


I'm feeling a bit better today. Enough to make a trip to Hobby Lobby for yarn and crochet hooks! Now we just need to get Mark well and I think we'll be out of the woods. We're expecting nasty ice stormy stuff tonight, bluck.

I really should post...

But it feels so good to be lazy!!! I haven't been lazy all the time though, mostly I've been busy! We got in late Monday night, mom and dad left Wednesday morning and we hit the ground running, picking up where we left off but with more laundry. The kids had church Wednesday night, I had a doctor's appt Thursday, kids had to be carted to various and sundry places Friday and Saturday... In between the driving we got some things done. I spent my birthday money, we got a paper shredder for Mark's business, bbq for my birthday, kids went to church and spent the night with friends, etc, etc. Anyway, I am TIRED now and Ryan has apparently contracted the flu, yuck, so we may all be sick next week. He was fine Saturday afternoon when we took him to a friends' house but came down with high fever and chills late that night and has been that way all day today. He tried to watch football but ended up going to bed early.

My camera decided to die while we were on vacation but my brother just happened to be giving me his old one(again). My computer won't upload from it so I have to use the girls' which means no pics for a few days. I'll try to get to that in the next day or so.*G*

It is 8:15 and I'm headed to bed. Whew.

Musical Trip

My dad and I are the singers in the family. Not that we're good, just that we can't help but do it. I sing all day, every day and I'm pretty sure my dad does too. Here's a tiny bit of what we sang along to on our trip from North Carolina to Texas.

I'm HOME!!!

We drove straight through yesterday, leaving a very cold Micaville around 7am and arriving in Longview around 10:30ish(honestly I didn't look at a clock). There was fresh snow on the far end of Yancey county but not too slick on the roads. It was beautiful on the mountains but I don't have a picture, the cameras were packed.

The trip went by really fast, dad and I took turns driving. We saw dozens and dozens of deer all through Mississippi, probably over 100. The girls and I had fun watching for them, until we hit one. Dang things leapt in front of us, the first one made it across to the median, the second one crashed into the rear wheel well. I have no idea if it could have survived its wounds, we found a dent and where it wiped off the road dirt along the back of the SUV. After that it was a nervous trip, there were deer EVERYWHERE!! Thankfully the Louisiana deer weren't as plentiful.

Mark took me to lunch today for my birthday. Then mom and I went and enlarged patterns from several books and magazines for our thrifted wool projects.

We're having homemade chili for dinner with cornbread. Mark's coming home early because we didn't sleep well last night. He's VERY busy with his new company, getting everything in compliance takes a long time!

Anyway, I've got pictures on 3 different cameras so it's gonna be a few days. I'm sure it will take a week to get back to normal!!!


(the girl in the hat is my mom's mom's mom, Ollie Skaggs)

Killing Time...

Here's what my mom and I have been up to today, ignoring housework and laundry, scanning old pictures!! Click to see them better!


(the top middle is us with my great-grandfather who lived 99 years)


(I'm in the budweiser shirt, by the way. AND, my dad still wears that maroon and white tobaggan!)

Conversations with Sarah...

Last night I went on the back porch to observe the weather. Sarah wanted to come too so I had her bundle up. We turned off the porch light so we could see the stars and moon better. I pointed out how we could see snow in the boxwood patch so we were ooohing and ahhing over that. Then...

She told me about how she and Amy had been up there yesterday and seen all sorts of tracks. Some looked just like dog tracks, they were Puppy-girl sized, some were Daisy sized and one was people sized. But it didn't really look like a people foot but more like a cross between a people foot and a dog foot. It was shaped like a sweet potato or cashew and had toes and claws. Hmmmm, my neck hairs stood on end. Like these?



Or the ones found Here.

I casually quizzed her on shape and size and we went inside. Amy described the same thing and I handed them each a pen and paper to draw what they saw, in separate rooms. They came up with the same exact thing, a bear track! Later Ryan verified by looking online at all kinds of tracks. He said it was definitely not canine, the toes didn't go around the pad but were across the top in a line. I let the girls look and they picked out several bear tracks that fit the bill.

They are banned from the hill/boxwood patch for now, unless they have a grown-up with them(preferably not me). Good thing their uncle is coming home today, he can go along.

My mom said that she and my dad saw a bear track up there once, on the trail Sarah and I went on a few days ago(wish I could get pics on here). I plan to investigate later. Where the kids saw the track is all grass, no way a track would show up after the snow melted, but the trail has muddy ruts so there might be one there.

Deer and music....

The more I listen, the more I like them. First Aid Kit.





Now for the deer!! I wish I had been able to slip out the door to take these pictures. There was a mama, a daddy, and two babies. I only managed to get one shot of the mama, running across the yard to join the others. They were in the front yard late last night, I could see their eyes glowing blue when I stepped out before bed. This morning they were in front of the picture window for about an hour but I only found the camera at the last minute.


(mama deer sprinting across the yard)


(babies nibbling)


(babies watching mama who'd snuck around the back and come up the neighbor's driveway)


(watching and listening)


(itching)

thrifted afghan pictures...

I just LOVE this afghan!! My mom's mom had one and I have always wondered where it went. I'm sure some cousin has it but mom thinks it may have been donated. No telling, that was well over 20 years ago. Anyway, I've never seen one in a thrift store til now and this is a beauty! There are several squares in need of shoring up with some matching yarn but that can wait til we get back home, it won't unravel before then. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, it was late at night and I've got no editing software on this computer.










(Nan kicking Bert's butt on bags of our salvaged wool)

I snatched the girls' camera....

Wish I had a way to upload from mine, it makes better pictures. These will have to do for now. Hope to have some of the kitties soon. Click to enlarge, they are worth it.


(from driveway looking right)


(house for sale across from driveway)


(shed included)


(storm clouds over the mountain-driveway looking left)


(this was absolutely gorgeous)


(house- on right side of drive looking up- next pic is from same place turned to the left)


(mean ol' Buckaroo, lives up to his name by trying to bite the hand that pets him and kicking too!)


(he is pretty handsome though)

Is this cute or what?

My parents adopted two babies several months ago. This is Bert and he weighs about 5 pounds. They look like china cat figurines, very beautiful and delicate. Nan is a bit shy but I've got some pics on my camera. I'm trying to figure out how to get them onto the girls' computer, which is where I'm posting from now. Hopefully I can get it all worked out soon.

Mom and I have been going nuts at the thrift stores with the wool blazers and sweaters. So far we've deconstructed at least 15 or 20 and there are maybe 15 more to work on. We'll end up halving the goods when we're done. I have LOTS of ideas in the works, LOTS! I'm also working on my third batwing shawl. Its about halfway finished.

It was 14 degrees here this morning!! We're expecting snow on Friday but it will be followed by rain and won't stick. When we were here 2 years ago there was the pretty kind of snow that stayed for 3 days. The kids were in heaven. I wish it would do the same this time.

Anyway, that's the goings on here. I don't know what we'll do today for our New Year's celebration. I'd like to cook something, maybe a chocolate pie or something.

Just some Christmas-y stuff...

We did this a few weekends ago:


(Ryan on the roof)


(girls on the roof)


(Mark on the roof- I don't do rooftops)


(front yard holly berries)

We are going here again in a few days:






















In other news...

Ryan's winter church camp was cancelled which allows us to leave earlier than we'd planned. Actually, it also allows ME to go along! My parents will bring us back before my doctor appointment in mid-January. I am looking forward to going, its been a while since we've been there. My blogging will be sporadic at best and probably pictureless so you might want to come back after we return for a big update.

Mark is working fast and furious on several different projects at work so us being gone will help him out. He feels guilty when he brings work home.

The kids are chomping at the bit waiting for Christmas. Driving me crazy but in a good way. Ryan has had his fill of "the mall" thank goodness. We might go light-seeing tonight but I'd rather take a nap.

What we won't do this summer...

Is enjoy our swimming pool. I'm starting to wish we'd gone ahead and filled it in. Pool fixer guy is submitting a new bid because this damage is way beyond what his first estimate was. We figured that would be the case.


(wall damage, deep end wall)
The 2x4s have completely rotted away on the deep end.


(whole intake wall)


(just to the right of the intake)


(intake)

Some of the 2x4s are still intact but most are not.


(shallow end, jet corner)
See how the earth has settled? This is what's behind the rotten 4x8 plywood they removed yesterday.


(ant damage, deep end corner near jet)

Something a bit different....

Still very much in the trial phase...



The driftwood, found at Wright Patman Lake, measures about 4 feet long(5 if it was straight) and the largest needle-felted balls are about the size of golf balls. I have 4 more pieces of driftwood that I'd like to incorporate, one is about 8 feet long, and I can make as many balls as I need. My favorite so far is the multi-colored one and the blue with yellow tag-a-long.

Even this piece of wood is very heavy to work with so I need to find a kind of string strong enough to hold it once I'm finished. Also, I need a place to hang it that is low enough for me to work without having to run up and down a ladder all the time. The garage would work but its hot out there!



These pictures are terrible but I don't see them improving, the lighting is just too weird with the white ceiling and all. It looks much better in person. The coolest thing is that the ceiling fans and a/c make it spin ever so slowly, just what I was hoping!