This, that and the other

3/4/10
Firstly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! (And sorry I posted it so late in the day--technically it's still your birthday for another 45 minutes...)

I have been blessed to have such a beautiful, smart, kind, talented, creative mom. We are excited to go see her on Saturday to celebrate and have some raspberry mousse cheesecake. We are hoping to get some pictures of the grandkids all together then, so let's cross our fingers that the little munchkins cooperate (although who am I kidding--there's five of them and Madelyn is the oldest and their ringleader).

I am way behind on posting all the pictures that I normally would. We Yoders were rather preoccupied by the Olympics. We especially made sure to tune in to every race Apolo Ohno was in. (Click his name for links to all his racing footage. You might bite a few fingernails off.)

That kid is smokin' fast and really knows his way around a track. I still cannot believe he was disqualified in the 500m race when he should have won silver. Dang those Canadian refs!!!!! Nevertheless, he has an American record of eight Winter Olympic medals over three Games. I kick myself that we didn't make an effort to go when the Olympics were in Salt Lake in 2002.

Anyway, I also just finished rereading all seven of the Harry Potter books, which was immensely entertaining and satisfying for me, but I think my family was a little annoyed because my nose was always buried in a book while the kids ran wild and laundry and clutter multiplied around me unnoticed. I mean, who cares about real life when you can be at Hogwarts? I've already admitted to you that I'm a dork. This is just confirmation, that's all.

(Me trying to finish The Deathly Hallows last night. I eventually had to shut myself in the bathroom to get some peace and quiet for the last two chapters.)

Can I just give a shout-out to J.K. Rowling?? That woman is a genius. I find myself wanting to go back to those last few chapters because everything comes together so brilliantly. She must have had such a far reaching vision of the whole story from the beginning. Book one (Sorcerer's Stone) is my favorite as a stand alone novel but Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows are so gut-wrenching. I can't wait till Madelyn is old enough to read them herself. She already loves the movies and goes leaping around the living room brandishing an invisible wand shouting "Expelliarmus!" and "Expecto Patronum!"
Atta girl.

OK, on with my post. SNOW. We keep getting nice warm days (around 50* degrees, anyway) and then we go right back to blizzarding and winds. My brother Tyler, his wife Monica and their kids Nathan and Ava came to play in our pile a couple weeks ago.

This was a pattern I saw in my sidewalk through melted patches of snow that looks exactly like Africa and the eastern hemisphere. That's pretty darn amazing! Admit it.

Ava with her lovely black eye she had sustained earlier that day falling down some stairs

Studmuffin Nathan surveying things from the top of the heap

We don't have this much snow anymore--but this is how it looked for a verrrry long time. Sheesh. Can spring get here any faster??

Cousins are so cute. Ava thought Luke was a great big baby doll. And who doesn't love matching jammies?

More of my little niños, of course:

Apparently, being clothes-free is the way to go these days. The better to show off one's rolls (or lack thereof, in Madelyn's case...).

Ah, yes. What every mother wants to see when she comes into the garage.

Mark cut a hole in the ceiling and brought up plywood to lay on the rafters so we could store a bunch of our junk up there. It actually freed up a lot of space in the garage--there's even room for a car(!) Madelyn has always been very fond of heights.

I think we've found a lookalike--this is Luke's uncle John Yoder, who also has blue eyes and drooled copiously as a baby. Or so I'm told.

And this is auntie Kathryn (Yoder) Moster, who flew out from North Carolina to help when Frank (my father-in-law, her dad) had surgery again to reattach his colon back together. It went fine and he is recovering well. Although ending up with 30+ staples across my abdomen is not the way I'd want to spend my weekend...

Madelyn zonked out, again.

Yawn! Yes, that about covers it. Expect more in a couple days when mom's festivities are over and I know whether that cheesecake recipe is worth sharing. Toodle-oo.