Morghan Grace, almost 12

Morghan has many passions.  She will have more.  They will change.  They will ebb and wane.  Right now she loves design and fashion!  She found a new fashion website and had a little time this weekend to get in there and figure it out . . . http://www.polyvore.com/

She's pretty capable in the computer anymore.  She can type 55 words a minute, I bet.  Maybe 60 for a short time.  She got in this website and figured it out, lickety split.  This collection on the computer screen, above, was her first attempt and her first introduction to a "template" but Nana knows full well, it won't be her last template.  Or her last fashion.   Or her last "favorite" website.

Later Morghan got the camera and had a little photography session. 

I love this one. 

This is good.

Then she got silly . . . but I like this one too! 

But I'm not putting in the one with her tongue stuck out. 

That is way over done, in Facebook and everywhere.

In Nana's opinion. lol

This "vintage"collection was Morghan's favorite creation today, her first day in the website.  I'm sure she'll have lots more "favorites" before she's done. 

Then she moved on to modeling a clay likeness of PaPa. 

She got him half done. 

We saved him "under glass" so she can finish him next time! 

Isn't this a sweet likeness of PaPa? 

Love you Morghan Grace --

and love having a 12-year old granddaughter! 



MacGyver, Part 2

I guess I had two themes going in MacGyver, Part 1 -- being frugal and being inventative.  I like frugal, recycling, making do. I do like those qualities but what I really like is inventiveness, creativity and ingenuity.  Himself and I have had some great "ah ha" moments when having to come up with a solution to a problem.  Just like him dinging the satellite with the pellets to get rid of the snow.  We knew there was no way either one of us was going to climb the ladder to the roof after 8 or 9" of snow but we both knew we wanted that TV reception so he brainstormed and solved the problem. 

Another time, we were pulling a trailer to Missouri.  Somehow, the pin to hold the trailer to the hitch popped out and the first we knew of it, we were going down a hill and the trailer was careening towards us at a higher rate of speed than what the Jeep was doing.  It was going to ram us!  Well, Himself pumped the breaks and held the wheel and slowed that runaway trailer down by letting it bounce against the spare tire mounted on the back.  He slowed it down without sending it flying one direction or the other.  He held it steady and brought that run away to a stand still.  Whew, it is a wonder the trailer didn't flip which would have flipped the Jeep.

So then, how best to get the trailer on to Missouri.  We are short a pin to hold the trailer to the hitch.  Do we take the trailer off and leave it sit by the side of the road?  Would someone come along, load it up and run off with it?

Do we leave the trailer sit by the side of the road with Himself standing guard, while I go to town and buy a pin of some kind to use to hold the hitch so we can limp on to town.

So we sit and ponder.  We brood and mumble.  We look here.  Check there.  Can't find the lost pin and no extra pin anywhere!  We are just about to unhitch and leave Himself and the trailer when we discover that the trailer's ramp hinge pin is just about the right size!  Himself finds a screw driver and knocks that pin out, sticks the pin in the trailer hitch to hold things together and we are off!  We are rocking and a rolling!  We pull the trailer safely on to Missouri without anyone have to go to town and back or anyone having to sit by the side of the road.

That was fun!  to find the solution to the problem by using our noggins.

We watched a documentary tonight about a man trying to reproduce some of the trip of Lewis and Clarke, great White Explorers.  This guy tried floating down the Mississippi River in a "Bull Boat".  He and his cronies built a dugout canoe.  They fished, without much luck, for their supper.  They hunted deer and antelope with old fashioned guns.  His message at the end was "the rewarding part is trying and adjusting.  Using ingenuity to solve a problem.  Being creative." 

There's no instruction book to tell how to build a "bull" boat out of a buffalo hide or what to do if the dugout canoe is "tippy" . . . you just have to sit and ponder and brain storm and find a solution.

I think that was the best thing my father brought out of the Great Depression -- an ability to make do, to find a solution, to create what he needed from junk or spare parts.  To use his noggin and his imagination.  To invent! 
This was one of the things I really enjoyed about III.  Seeing what I could do, what I could do without.  Being creative, imaginative and inventive. 

Himself and I will be doing that again, at Too, as we finish off the inside of the big cabin, hook the two cabins together and refurbish the little one.  We are looking foward to trying our wings!  To a rockin and a rolling!

Noteworthy

This was my lunch today.  That's tuna salad on multi-grain bread.  Now, it is not noteworthy that Nance is eating tuna.  I eat tuna pretty often. 

The sandwish is pretty but pretty food at this house isn't note worthy.

Himself makes pretty food all the the time.

Tuna Salad, tomatoes and I threw on a piece of Havarti cheese.

I think I would have used provalone had I had some on hand

but the Havarti turned out all right, especially after I sprinkled

on a dash of Mrs. Dash's Tomato, Basil and Garlic seasoning

and sat it under the broiler for a few.

The noteworthy thing about my lunch today is that the little tomato was grown in our garden.  Before the big hard freeze, I gathered up a basket full of green tomatoes.  I wrapped each individually in newspaper and cradled them in a brown paper bag.  They sat in the coolness of the garage.  I checked them at Thanksgiving.  I checked them at Christmas.  I got to eat one here and eat one there. This small red tomato was probably the last tomato of the 2010 growing year!  

 I have one more little green guy but I don't think he's going to make it to the red stage.  I'm afraid he's a gonner.  They have a way of spoiling from the inside out. 

In storing tomatoes (and the same would be true for potatoes) you keep a few and you lose a few.  But if you are losing one, you'd better sort through the good ones and get rid of the the bad ones. 

Remember that old saying? 
One bad apple will spoil the barrel.

Leftovers

After New Years, Himself and I took down the Christmas tree, de-decorated the house, removed lights and ornaments and tinsel.  We looked in every nook and cranny.  The party was over and the decorations must go!

In the next couple of week I discovered a few leftovers . . . and left them right where I found them!

This little charm looks decorative but really is an alarm . . .

it alerts me when little folk enter the SPARE room,

 the room with bits and pieces and suprises in it. 

Maybe even, next year's Christmas. 

These old onaments are so pretty and just plain Cheer me

 that I left them here intentionally.

This ol' Charlie Brown Tree with the bells and old plastic ornaments, I do leave it up too, intentionally. 

Just because I like it and it gives little ones something to think about. 

To rearrange and to fiddle with.

But then this, guy . . . that rascal way back there just hanging around. 

That scamp just plain escaped my inspection.  He's got to go! 

And, this ol' guy, he's gone home to the attic.

To The North Pole.

He's gone back to where he belongs.

Some of the children ask me,

Please cover him up.

Hide his face.

Turn him around."

Or sometimes . . . "Bring him back down"

Bur poor ol' Santa, he's put on watch

in the attic.  Bye Santa, until next year! 

love, Nana

MacGyver

This man can fix anything.  He can attach a stick to a pull rope and make that Lawn Boy last another 22 years.  He can patch tires, reseal mower tires and probably manufacture tires.  He has the interchangeable parts catalog memorized.  He knows substitutes for car oil, drywall compound, cocoa and face cream.

He cooks.  He cleans.  He repairs, fixes, restores, updates.  Sometimes he puts big ol' light switches on the side of the TV when the electronic off/on switch fails.  He knows how to save energy, which light bulbs to use, how often to change the furnace filters and to save the original electronic  boxes and the Warranty manuals in case the apperatus fails.  And it will.

He has his 1968 Army uniform in case there's ever a fabric shortage and we can't buy new clothes.  He has his dad's Army dress coat, his own combat boots and every radio and stereo he ever owned.  He is not a saver, he says.  He has the 1950s Montgomery Ward garden tiller that his dad maintained and passed on to Himself.  It should be in the Montgomery Ward Hall of Fame.

The other day after 9" of snow, the Satellite TV was out.  No signal.  Well, how well do you work laying under 9" of snow.  Usually, you'd take a broom and go knock that snow off but our satellite sits up 3 stores tall.  Uh Huh, we aren't climbing up there in this weather!  But Himself . . . oh, er, I mean MacGuyer knew just what to do. He got that ol' BB gun and dinged that dish once on the left.  The snow dropped off.  He pumped up that air gun and then he dinged that dish once on the right.  There went the rest of the snow.  Yeaaaaaaa!  the World is saved!  All's right with the world!  We have TV again! 

Now, if only Himself could figure out how to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeders, his life would be replete!