I just caught up my Project 363 blog for February. I added a full three weeks of photos! Yes, I have been sitting at the computer too long. I love Fridays!

I added a live traffic feed on the sidebar under my family's avatars. Go see if it recorded your visit!

Leave a comment someplace! I hate to think I'm spending so much time on this and no one else even is here.

Friday's Feast, February 29

The Leap Day Edition

Appetizer
Who was the last person you hugged?
I think it was hubby Larry this morning.

Soup
Share a beauty or grooming trick or tip with us.
Hmmm . . . I'm not the one people usually ask!

Salad
What does the color yellow make you think of?
Sunshine and daffodils and baby chicks---I guess Easter!

Main Course
If you were to make your living as a photographer, what subject would your pictures revolve around?
Probably kids. I enjoy working with them.

Dessert
What was the longest book you ever read?
It was probably a James Mitchner book---I read Hawaii a long time ago. More recently, it would be the last Harry Potter book.

Join the feast, or look in on others' feasts at Friday's Feast.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt, February 23rd

This week's theme is wooden. I had two ideas, so I'm sharing both.

This wooden ceiling is in the St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Houston. For any of you who saw last week's entry, you'd probably guess I took this on the same trip as that one. This picture is not the greatest to display such a wonderful ceiling, but it was the best I could do that day. The church building is patterned after the neo-Gothic style, which means it is in the shape of a cross and has the ornamentation you'd expect. It was built in the 1930s. The ceiling is supposed to look like a wooden boat, overturned. Since many of the first Christians and apostles were fishermen, and they had to meet in secret, they often met under a boat. The ceiling is supposed to have that feel, as a reminder of those brave souls who literally risked their lives so the Gospel could be spread.
This wooden structure is not really tilted---it was me. I took this in the summer of 2005 in Holland Michigan. That is Larry and B standing in front.

Die Swann windmill was a Dutch windmill, taken apart and re-built in Michigan. The bottom part is brick, but the top is wooden, and the inside has wooden stairs and wooden floors and such. It still grinds flour for sale in their gift shop. Definitely worth a visit!

Want to see more wooden photos? Go to TN Chick, the one who started it all. She has a picture of a wooden game on her site today.

Next week's theme is Party. Ya-hoo!

Friday's Feast, February 22nd

Here's an ingredient I tried this week in a recipe for Shrimp Pad Thai. I love being able to buy something new and interesting for us! I wasn't excited about how it came out, however. The rice stick was fine, though.

Appetizer
Have you ever played a practical joke on anyone? If so, what did you do and who was your victim?
I haven't done anything really big in a long time. We used to play White Rabbit on the first of every month---you had to leave a not that said "white rabbit" somewhere the other person would find it---but it had to be anonymous, and once you got white rabbited, you couldn't get them back. So it was important to get in early in the day. And April 1st---April Fool's Day----was the ultimate in White Rabbit Days. Not really a practical joke, exactly. I'll probably think of something better as I read other blogs today.

Soup
What do your salt and pepper shakers look like?

I have red Fiesta ware ones---like little red globes.

Salad
Where is the next place you plan to visit (on vacation or business)?

Sounds like I'll go to Galveston Beach on spring break with some friends---just for the day. Maybe.

Main Course
What kind of lotion or cream do you use to keep your hands from getting too dry?

I ought to use it more, but I sometimes put on some Bath and Body Works Body Butter before I go to bed.

Dessert
Make up a dessert, tell us its ingredients, and give it a name.

This is not so hard---

ingredients:

cream cheese

nuts (pecans)

chocolate

caramel

Toffee bits

I don't know what this would be, exactly, but I'll call it Jenny's Jumble.

Check out other feasters at Friday's Feast!

Monday

Just a note---a slice of today for you.

I made Shrimp Pad Thai, and it was okay. Just okay. It was a recipe from Cooking Light, which I know has a Southern Living tie somehow, but it's American, so maybe that's why it was just okay.

My finger is hurting today. In the first joint. This is my very important finger---I point at everything with it! ;-) Mom says it's my arthritis growing my bones big on the ends of the bones. I don't think I said that right. But anyway, I am going to have twisted fingers just like Mom and Grandmother J.

J is still busy every day. So busy I can't ask him to do his chores! Today it was Science Bowl and Seniors at TROUPE.

B had no extra-curricular stuff today, but she tried out a cool online house-building/planning site. I wanted to be familiar with it before we do it at Girl Scouts on Wednesday. Here's the link:
http://www.architectstudio3d.org/AS3d/index.html

Lar is off to a Little League Parnets Meeting. He has said he will probably not be the manager this year. Whew! That might be a good break. He's been B's coach every year, and to not be THE one in charge, it'll be a break. But he'll still be out there at practices and games all the time.

That's about all I can think of now!

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt, February 16th

Free

This week's theme is free, and with the Hike I did with my Girl Scout troop last Saturday, this came to mind immediately. In this country, we are free to worship in whatever way we choose. The girls and I and 4 other adults took the girls to Houston for the Boy Scout-sponsored Ten Commandments Hike. On our 5 and a half mile hike in downtown, we saw 9 Christian churches and one Jewish temple.

If you want to see all my pictures of the hike, go one post below. (If you're clicking on my Photo Hunters link, click on my title bar above,a dn you'll see my whole blog.) Please comment!

If you'd like to see more free photos, check in with TNchick and visit other photo hunters.

The Ten Commandments Hike

We went on the Ten Commandments Hike in downtown Houston last Saturday. This was a Boy Scout event, but was open to everyone, so we were using it to help earn our Architechture badge.
These are our girls, of course. We got to downtown Houston about 8:00, which I thought was our starting time, but as it turned out, we didn't start the presentation part until 8:50. But it gave us time to get registered and look around the church where we started. This fountain was in the courtyard.
Here's the front of the First Christian Church, built in 1958. It was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, who we'd talked about in our GS meeting the week before. Here we heard about eht first commandment---You shall have no other gods before Me. Also we heard about the Disciples of Christ, which is really close to the kind of church we go to, springing out of the same movement.

Here is B and A. I told them to turn around while we were hiking to the next church (.8 miles). A is holding her water bottle that each hiker got. We refilled them at water fountains all along our route.
We hiked along one side of Rice University. A's mom told the girls they should think about Rice as a college option---it's a good school. It was beautiful this morning. The temps were great and it was a shady walk.
The second church is Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church. it is a copy of a church in Venice.
I took a lot of pictures here!

Here we heard about the 2nd commandment: You shall not make for yourself an idol.

The front area is raised just like the one in Venice----with the water so close, they do not put basements in, so they raised up the altar area for storage.
The next hike was to Hermann park, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints gave the talk about the third commandment. They do not have a church in this area, but they wanted in on the talks. The 3rd commandment is Do not take the Lord's name in vain.
We are starting to get a little tired already. But it's not hot---not yet! It was a little warmer than February usually is in Houston, with the expected high about 70.

We got to see some interesting architecture and even some sculpture.
We arrived at the First Presbyterian Church. By this point we had hiked 1.9 miles.

We really enjoyed this lavendar church! :-) It was built in 1948. I have a sort of geneological tie to Presbyterians---I have a Scottish heritage.
This is the St. Matthew Lutheran Church. It was across the street. They had beautiful carvings up front, and beautiful stained glass, which came out blurry on my camera. And this one's crooked! I was trying to take pictures between heads and with a zoom.

We had police escort all along our routes to get our large group across the streets safely and in one group. Yes, we were stopping traffic all over Houston.The next stop was just next door, too. This church was patterned after the neo-Gothic style, built in 1930.

I had gotten notebooks for each girl, and they really were busy in each church, taking notes and drawing what they saw.
The ceiling is wood, and is supposed to look like an upside-down boat. The early Christians often had to hide to worship, and sometimes it was under and overturned boat.
The 6th commandment was here----Thou shall not kill. This window has a rendering of Charles Wesley---The brother who wrote many hymns.
This is the outside---the building is roughly in the shape of a cross.

Here is B and fellow Girl Scout , M. After this we hiked another .8 miles to the next church and our lunch stop. We're now up to 2.9 miles. This stretch was very sunny and kind of warm. Not quite as pleasant, but not bad. I didn't get any pictures of lunch, but we sat on the floor and ate the brown-bag lunches we packed.
After lunch we went to the sanctuary od the South Main Baptist Church. This building was about 104 years old. It was very fancy---fancier than any other Baptist church I'd ever been to with friends.
This was the 7th commandment: Do not commit adultery. I think this was the one that everyone tries ot not get to talk with to the scouts. But the guy who was there (not a preacher!) did a good job talking about loyalty and trust and honesty.
After that was another .9 mile hike, and we saw a really cool church---U.of St.Thomas Chapel of St. Basil. Very modern, built in 1993. Some of our girls are in this shot.
The whole place is illuminated by natural light. It has a big dome on top, but split with windows, so it lets light in that way. I love this bright cross. Here the guy talked about the 8th commandment: Do not steal.

Hiking again---.8 miles again. We crossed over the expressway (Hwy 59?), and B took this artsy shot.

I didn't get a picture of the 9th church---the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist. I think I was getting a little weary by then. It was Hot, and we were getitng tired. I was having to get a couple of girls to catch up all the time. We were really slowing down. This church offered us bottles of water, a nice gesture. We heard about the Christian Scientists and the 9th commandment---You shall not bear false witness.

We couldn't really stop to take pictures---wehad to keep moving and try to stay on schedule. I also didn't want the Boy Scouts to think we were slow poke girls.
After our last .8 mile leg, we finally arrived at our last stop, the Congregation Emanu El, a Jewish synagogue. This is also a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired building, built in 1949.
Here is a real Torah scroll, being unfurled for us to see. No touching the ink----it's specially formulated and can be damaged by human hands.
After the talk about the Jewish faith and the 10th commandment, I asked more about the church itself and the scout leaders there were very nice and helpful. They were built in 1949, and up until 5 years ago, they had the largest hangin movable doors in the world. The back of their sanctuary (I think that was his word?) can be opened up because of those doors to double their seating capacity. This lady, Lisa, is not only a Boy Scout leader, but leads a Girl Scout group, too. She was talking to the girls about the Torah scrolls displayed up there.
Here's the front of the building. In the FLWright style, it was a building tying in with nature, meant to look like mountains rising up out of the earth, and with arms outstretched to welcome all. This building was noted as the best 50-year old building in Houston.

Well that was our adventure. I really thought it was a great trip. The girls---despite being weary and tired at the end---they all seemed to have a good time and learn things. Our girls were very well behaved, so that made the trip more pleasant for the grown-ups, too. I learned a lot about thedifferent denominations represented. I'd recommend it to anyone. :-)

Sticky Chins Day, 2008

This year we celebrated Sticky Chins Day (February 8th) at Coldstone and Double Dave's Pizza.

What is Sticky Chins Day, you may ask? It's our own holiday where we have ice cream for dinner. It commemorates the first date Larry and I had at a place called Sticky Chins. Last year, I wrote a post about it, so you can go there to read it.






Here are the kids and Larry eating their creations. I was th only one who got a chocolate ice cream base.











After Coldstone, we walked across the parking lot to the pizza place and got the pizza rolls which we love. Larry won the 6 pizza rolls by calling into a radio station.



Jamie had to be goofy in the only picture of me that night! serves him right---I told him it was going on the internet!


Here was my experimental shot of the evening. Darkness has fallen, and I am looking out the windows of the pizza place back over to the ice cream place.

Larry and I have been "together" now for 17 years. And I was only 18 when we went on the first date! Larry would have been 19. We were very young when we got together! ;-)

Appetizer
Name one thing that is unique about you.
uh . . . what can I say? I know I'm the only one like me! I am a good preschool teacher---but a lot of people are. I have fair skin, but a lot of people do. I can do many crafty things---calligraphy, knitting, crocheting, drawing, scrapbooking----but many people can do these things. But I'm the only one like me, with my special gifts and abilities.

Soup
Fill in the blank:

My favorite _________ is __________ but I like _________ too.
My favorite is Caramel Delights, but I like Lemonades, too.

(I'm helping B sell cookies at the Wal-Mart again tonight!)

Salad
What type of wood do you have for your home’s furnishings?

I'm a total hodge-podge. I have several pieces I bought myself in light Pine wood. I have a bedroom dresser and chest-of-drawers in dark cherry? I don't know. Lar has an antique chest-of-drawers in a medium wood. We inherited a dining table and china cabinet in a dark wood, with chairs to match. I have a barrister's bookcase with a medium wood tone, and a couple of tables also inherited from my great-aunt (through my parents!) that are dark wood with marble on top.

Main Course
Who do you talk to most often on the phone?

Has to be Larry, but maybe my Mom a close second? Mom definitely the most minutes! ;-) Larry is just quick calls, but more often.

Dessert
What level of responsibility do you have in your job?

I am on the front lines! I guess I am almost as low as it can go in our organization. Well, I take that back. I do have lots of seniority, and therefore, mentoring responsibilities.

I work at a church preschool, so it's not that deep an organization! ;-)

On the other hand, I have GREAT responsibility---I am the caregiver of 12 families' most precious gifts----their 4-year-olds. I am responsible for making sure they get what they need to start Kindergarten right. I have the responsibility to make sure these kids are in a healthy, safe atmosphere. Lots of responsibilities!