Dawn's Blog

Monday Madness 1-30-06

Using the letters of the alphabet in order, name as many words as you can (or want, or feel like it) that have something to do with the town (or state) you live (or work) in...

I live in Wisconsin!

A - Autumn colors
B - Badgers, bratwurst, bubblers, beer, and Birkebeiner
C - Cows, cranberries, and Canada Geese
D - Door County
E - Elroy-Sparta bike trail
F - Farms
G - Green Bay Packers
H - House on the Rock and Horicon Marsh
I - Ice Age Trail
J - John Muir
K - Kohler-Andrae State Park & Kettle Moraine State Forest
L - Lake Michigan and Lambeau Field
M - Minocqua (pretty northern WI)
N - Natural Resources (lots of lakes, hiking trails, parks, etc)
O - Ore tankers on Lake Michigan
P - Parnell Tower (in Kettle Moraine State Forest)
Q - Quail
R - Rocky Cliffs (Door County & Wisconsin Dells) and robins
S - Sandy beaches and seagulls
T - Trees (goes with autumn colors!)
U - University of Wisconsin
V - Valders, Verona, Viroqua, and Vesper
W - Wisconsin Dells and Laura Ingalls Wilder (born in Pepin!)
X - Hwy X (present in more than one county! LOL!)
Y - Yellow warblers
Z - Zebras at the Milwaukee Zoo

Monday Madness 1-23-06

This week (since I'm fresh out of new ideas), I thought I'd ask you to use the letters in your name (first, last, middle, or other) to list words that describe you!

D - Doting
A - Awesome
W - Warm
N - Nature-lover

M - Mom
A - Affectionate
R - Reliable
I - Inquisitive
E - Emotional

My first name is short, so I used my middle name, too!

Monday Madness 1-16-06

Good Monday to you all! Let's fill in the blanks! As always, I want to thank you for playing my meme! =)

1. Before I walk out the door, I always check to make sure I _the doors are locked and that I have my keys_.
2. I can't seem to catch up on my _laundry_.
3. The one surface in my house that always seems to get cluttered fast is _the kitchen table and my computer desk_.
4. If I sleep past _9 AM_, I feel that I've slept in too late.
5. No matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to _get caught up on housework_.
6. I hope to have my income taxes done by _the end of February_.
7. This year I'd like to make more time for _baking my own bread_. Here's my favorite recipe.

Sunday Night 1-15-05

Wow, January is half-gone already! We had a beautiful sunny day, today, but it was a bit windy. Kids and I went to Green Bay to go shopping at Bay Park Square, since they have Gap and Old Navy. Sheboygan isn't privileged enough to have such esteemed stores. (Trust me, I hear about it, from my 16yo dd!)

Emily had a Christmas Gap card to spend and couldn't find anything online. We thought maybe she would have better luck in an actual store, than the website. Goofy kid had clothes picked out, within minutes! Sheesh.

Then we went to Old Navy for flipflops. My kids have been begging for Old Navy flipflops, since summertime! They were on sale, too, 2 for $5! Yay. Now, they have to be put away in a safe spot, until it gets warmer out!

Then at the grocery store, we spent $87 and saved $11.18 with our store saver card! That was cool! I don't usually buy the right stuff, to save so much!

Okay, it's nice to not have snow, but our world is not that pretty right now. I could handle just a little bit of snow, since it is January after all! It is nice having dry roads, but I hate looking at all the brown grass everywhere!

Monday Madness 1-9-06

I want to thank coffeeNtoast for this week's excellent questions! Thank you so much for emailing me! (Suggestions are always welcome!) =)

1. Name 1 type of supplement that you take.
None!
2. List 2 books that you would like to read in 2006.
Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape From Amish Life
The Endurance: Shakleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
(for my book group. I need to get to the library!)
3. List 3 hobbies that you have.
Web Design
Playing the piano
Knitting
4. List 4 gifts that you have received.
Egyptian cotton bath towels
Fuzzy socks
Lands End shirt
A snowman candle holder
5. Share 5 (instant & inexpensive) ways to spruce up a room.
A new candle
A framed photograph
A pillow for the couch
Picking up the clutter
Vacuuming the carpet

Sun!

We finally had some sun and saw some blue sky today!

It was nice to see bright light outside again! I was so sick of the monochrome gray skies, we had been having! Of course, now it's snowing a bit, so we'll see if we see that sun tomorrow, or not!

No sun

No peeks of the sun. No breaks in the clouds. I saw a few flurries. It's just cold, gray and dreary outside. It's been 15 days without sun now, with not much hope in sight that the weather will change. I hate being stuck in a pattern! Argh!

2 Weeks of Clouds!

It's official. We have clouds every single day, since Christmas Eve! 12-24-05 to 1-6-06! Except for a few BRIEF views of the sun, it's been gray and dreary EVERY day! There are clouds from WI over to the Dakotas! Good grief!

Cloudy and Gray 1-4-05

Apparently, we have been sunless, for 2 weeks now! There is no break in the cloud-cover in the forseeable future. It is all anyone talks about! Today, we had some breaks in the cloud-cover and saw glimpses of blue sky, but didn't actually see the sun.

My car had to go to the doctor today. It needed a new stabilizing link. Tomorrow, it is getting a new pair of tires, for the front. That should stop the vibrating steering wheel and the horrible clunk, when I made left turns. It will be nice to have a car that runs better!

Emily got a Gap gift card today and is having trouble deciding what to get! Argh! She hates buying clothes!

Still cloudy 1-4-05

It's STILL cloudy out today. It is now the topic of conversation, no matter where you go! Yikes. I wonder when the sun will ever shine again!

My 8th grade daughter, Emily, just got her paperwork for filling out her first high school schedule. How did my baby get to this point, so fast! Seems like just yesterday, she was a toddler! My 11th grader will soon get the paperwork for her senior year of high school! My babies are growing up!

Sarah wants to be a nurse, so she might take Anatomy and Physiology next year. I suggested that to her and she had already been thinking about it!

We are debating whether Emily should take an art class or not. I just wonder if it would be too much, with an otherwise full schedule of Band, African-Asian Studies, Geometry, English, gym, and Spanish! She is a smart cookie, though! She is second in her algebra class, with a 97%!

Gray and Cloudy 1-3-05

Still gray and cloudy. We saw the sun briefly on 12-30-05, but it was just a few seconds as we crossed the street to go in a restaurant. When we come out a few minutes later, after we bought our gift card, it was gone. Looks to be gray and cloudy tomorrow, too. Ugh.

We took our family-by-the-tree picture tonight, so we can start taking the tree down, soon. It's rather interesting trying to take a picture, with the dog! LOL!

Monday Madness 1-2-06

Using the letters in the words HAPPY NEW YEAR, give yourself 2 minutes to list all the words you can make.

ear
hew
nap
new
par
pap
rap
yew
hear
pean
pear
reap
weep
when
year
happy

Here are the ones I thought of, after the 2 minutes was up!

pan
pea
pray
wean
yappy

That was fun! I love trying to figure out words! Although it was hard having a time limit!