Just for Fun! No Real Reason!

I'm just posting for fun. Joy, Erin, Vinson, my Mom and Dad are going to the IO Winter Retreat today at about 5:00. Sarah and I are going to the Millens around 5:00, too. Sarah is babysitting them, and I am just going to play with the girls. It's going to be Sarah, Melanie, Elisabeth, Anna, and me. We will spend the night. Tomorrow I have a soccer game at about 3:30, so I will only be at the Millens till about 3:00, Sarah will stay till, I think, about 5:00. I didn't have school today because of the snow, and wind. I'm in the middle of writing a book called Linzzy Morgan. I have just finished the first chapter, and I'm on the second page of the 2nd chapter. Each chapter is going to be about 8 pages, and there will be at least 12 chapters. Hopefully more. It's going good. I like it so far. Maybe I will post it on our blog when it's done.

Here are how many post each person in our family have posted.

A day at the office…or half a day.

Well I’ve been playing with my Time Lapse Photography and having some fun. A couple days ago I set up my tripod in my office and set the shutter to shoot every 2 minutes. Then I put it into a slide show. Kind of fun. I also merged the images into one image, a little busy but kind of interesting. So today is a snow day and I went to the chiropractor because I’m a little sore. I can’t do “real” work today so I spent a little time on this. Now I’ve got to get back to something that pays! Enjoy!
Geoff
p.s. if you want to see it in large format go here, http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow?fl=3167376&alb=0 Does not work with Mac’s, sorry.

breakfast

I have recently enjoyed a new concoction I've been eating for breakfast. It's not really that original, but it is for me. Up until this past fall (when I had a no sugar diet to cure my hypoglycemia), I pretty much always ate cereal for breakfast, and even dinner on some Sundays! We don't get the purely sugar type of cereal, but any cereal actually is higher in sugar. I loved it so much that when I was little (9 and younger, because I remember this at our old house) my family would call me their "cereal girl" from a song off of Sesame Street that was a kid rendition of "Material Girl."

So, this creation came about by combining two of the best breakfast foods, eggs and oatmeal. I basically make a small amount of oatmeal on the stove, leaving it fairly watery, then add an egg, vanilla, and cinnamon. Then I cook it like pancakes on a skillet on medium heat. I just dump quantities, and it turns out a little different each time. It takes a little while to cook, since it's pretty thick/hearty. I'm not always crazy about eggs in the morning, but I know I should have more protein rather than sugar, so I came up with this. The low sugar idea kinda goes out the window when you add syrup to the "pancakes" though. At least it has no flour and is fairly low on the glycemic index. You can make it with more egg or more oatmeal. I try to keep the oatmeal level lower, but still enough to make it pancake-like. This morning I made some for Joy, Mom, and Erin as well. They liked it!

I like to cook and experiment, but it's usually safest to do this when not cooking for others. :-) So it's great when they like it too!

Where in the world…are you?

This is a post motivated by curiosity. If you haven’t noticed the little map of the world to the right… it shows from where people are following our blog. Now I understand the large number from around Lancaster and can guess that we may have followers on the west coast because of an E-Team or two some of us have been on. The Beirut follower is obvious too! But there are a lot of red dots on the map that I just can’t figure out… So I was hoping that all you followers that are incognito (unknown) could post a short comment telling us who you are and what city you are from. That would help my curiosity and would be kind of fun too! Thanks in advance! Geoff

Moving shadows on the snow

Ok I’ve been wanting to make time lapse photography for a long time. One day I was browsing the web and found a “cheaters” way of making a controller for my camera for free if I had the things around the house. So I started to gather the needed peripherals; a graphing calculator from my kids and the right cable from a “friend” (boy did that one cost me!). So I ran a test and have posted it here. The results are less than amazing, but none the less worthwhile. Enjoy!
Geoff

Guess Who?

Our church organized a Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? event this past Saturday evening. My parents found out around 1:00pm on Saturday that they were going to Keith and Christine Lewis' home for dinner. Holly and I hosted a dinner at my house and discovered the identities of our mystery guests as they tried to discreetly dodge our view on their way from their car to our door: Tim and Kim Cranmer!

We all had a wonderful time. I love being able to sit down with people from church who I normally would not get a chance to know. It increases the family relationship of our church and grows my faith in God to see how He has and is working in others' lives. It's also a great way to practice hospitality. I definitely have lots to learn, and I'm thankful that my mom and sisters helped me out during the day. Timing is the most difficult for me, which is no surprise.

Here is a photo from the evening.

Valentines Day!

Today for Valentines Day, we went to church, and I handed out all my cards to my friends. After church I went to the Privtera's house with other girls from church. Melanie, Elisabeth, Anna Millen, Erin Devitry, Julia Pritchard, and I (Margaret) went to their house till 3:30. At 5:00 our family went to my Grandma, and Grandpa Landis's house. There we celebrated Valentines Day, and my Uncle Tim's Birthday. We ate a wonderful meal made by my Grandma. Then we watched some old pictures slides that my Uncle got for his Birthday. After that we watched some of the Olympics. Alex gave me some pictures she painted with watercolor for me. We all had a wonderful Valentines Day!

SNOW FUN!

The Millen girls, Ruth Anne, Melanie and Elisabeth (a.k.a. Dolly) and I (Margaret) went down to Fritz, (my school that is really close to our house) to go sledding. When we got there, the snow was up to our knees. As we got farther down the hill, it began to get higher on us. It was up to about our waists. It was hard to sled in the snow because it was so fluffy and high. So we just made a fort. As we ventured out into the snow, Elisabeth always had to be second to last. If she was first, she would have been swallowed up by the snow. And if she was last, she might have fallen and we might not notice she was gone. It was so fun that we decided that we should play there again later. So yesterday, (2/10/2010) we got the whole gang to go with us. When Joy and I got to the Millen's house, they couldn't find their sleds! We thought they were hidden somewhere under the snow. So we were digging for them for about 20 minutes. Then Ruth Anne found them leaning against the garage. Finally we could go to Fritz. Joy, Vinson, Zachary, Ruth Anne, Melanie, Elisabeth, and I all struggled through the snow. As we walked down to the hill, snow blew into our faces and made it hard to see. I had my glasses on, so the snow stuck to them like magnets and all I could see was the person in front of me. When we finally got there I had snow in my boots and up my pant legs. I personally only sled down the hill three times. The first time I got snow all in me. The other two were better. Vinson and Elisabeth were trying to make a fort most of the time. Zachary made a tunnel, Joy and Ruth Anne talked together for most of the time. Melanie and I sled, talked and I sort of made a fort. After about a hour and a half we all returned home. Later that evening, the Millens joined us for a movie, "Akeelah and the Bee." After we watched that we decided to watch the movie, "Enchanted." We stayed up till 12:00! I fell asleep for some of that movie.

Here are some pictures that the Millens took of us having fun in the snow! Enjoy:

Finished Product!

Today the church office was closed, and so I was able to finish putting together my room.

More Snow, Snow, Snow!

Here is some footage of the cold snow that is still falling. Have fun in the white fluffy, really deep snow!

Here it is, have fun: