Home On Leave

My oldest daughter Lauren is in the US Armed Forces training to be a combat medic. I haven't seen her in about 6 months and she wasn't sure if she'd get leave for Christmas as she's been waiting on orders, but she finally found out a week ago and she came home last night.

Seeing her is great, she's sleeping in right now and I figure I'll let her get the rest as she's used to getting up at such early hours and we had a long night at the airport. Just as they always do when my son comes over from the UK, the airline lost her luggage and we spent from 10pm till midnight trying to locate and finally found it on the wrong side of the airport.

She looked fabulous in her uniform and she carries herself so differently now, when she walks it's almost like she's marching and when she stands her hands automatically are behind her back, she was getting so mad at me teasing her about it, but it's just so cute! Random people would keep talking to her and thanking her for her service and she was so outgoing and refering to everyone as Sir and Ma'am, it just about blew my mind the positive change in her. She's definately not the teenage handful that left home in the summer and I'm so proud of her. Her nickname is "tornado girl" courtesy of dad, thanks to her ability to come home and make it look like a tornado hit within just a few hours!

Wii injuries on the rise

I'm not sure whether to laugh or just plain shake my head at this one. Apparently if you own and use a Wii you are very likely to end up in an emergency room, they are dangerous beasts after all!

In all seriousness, if you're playing the wii to the extent that you're injuring yourself, then it's more likely you need therapy for your gaming addiction. What do you think?

WII PUTS PEOPLE IN HOSPITAL

Catchup Part Deux!

It feels like an absolute age since I blogged ... but it's definately been an eventful few weeks. New Hampshire was hit with the worst ice storm in 30 years and then this past weekend we've been hit with two big winter snow storms dropping between 1 - 2 feet of snow!

I will never again take for granted flushing a toilet - nor will I take for granted using a cell phone - definately the two things that stick in my mind from the recent power outages.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was non stop catchup time, but I got everyones orders out in time for Christmas and I'm feeling quite proud of myself! Saturday was clean up the house time and Sunday was a little clean and a little relax ... ok so more relax.

I was going to Christmas shop but wasn't driving through a blizzard to do it, so am going this evening hopefully before I pick up my daughter from the airport, she's on leave from the army so it'll be nice to have her home for Christmas.

More Icy Pictures

Beauty at it's most destructive best ... A look at the view from our house and yard

In The Dark

Last Thursday the state of NH was hit with what they now say is the worst ice storm in 30 years, taking down thousands of trees and knocking out power to more than half of the homes in the state, over 400,000! We were affected for 5 days and honestly we were and are one of the lucky ones, we had heat in a 3rd of the house thanks to a propane stove which meant I could keep the children warm on make shift beds in the breezeway and office and prevent the pipes from freezing when the temperatures dropped to 10 degrees outside.

The birds were also relocated to the breezeway and thanks to a wonderful neighbor with a generator we were able to fill up a few gallon jugs and 2 liter bottles with water every day so we could occasionally flush the toilets and make pasta nightly on our little camp stove.

Saturday night a friend found a store not too far away that had just got in some generators and we were able to buy a small one that gave us the ability to run the pellet stove and a couple of lights and a laptop with 'very' limited internet capability thanks to my husbands cell phone, so I was able to let customers know what was happening and warm more of the house up so the girls could sleep back in their beds, albeit bundled up as the upstairs heat was still out. It also meant I didn't have to stay up each night lighting candles for extra heat in the parts of the house that were getting really cold.

Power came back late last night and apart from 2 freezers and a fridge full of rotting and stinky food, we're in pretty good shape. Called the local shelter tonight to see if I could make some hot food for any families stuck there for the evening but they said they are ok for today so I'll check back in with them tomorrow.
Like I said, we're lucky, there are still about 100,000 people without power, including my daughters best friend on the next street whose road isn't even passable due to a huge fallen tree across the whole road which took down all the streets power lines and another two streets only just around the corner from us where the trees and utility poles snapped and they just haven't been able to get it fixed yet.
I really hope the estimates of 2-5 weeks to restore power is wrong and everyone can be back in their homes for Christmas safe and warm.

Mattel Win - Little Girls Lose

A judge today ordered that MGA stop making their popular line of Bratz dolls and after Christmas they are to remove all current products in stores at their expense.

This is in response to a lawsuit filed by Mattel that has been ongoing since the launch of the Bratz dolls alleging it seems that the creator of the dolls had previously worked for Mattel and the concept of the Bratz doll was initially designed when he was an employee with Mattel.

Personally I think it's a sad state of affairs, my youngest Caity loves these dolls and had asked for one for Christmas. She prefers them over her Barbie collection, and plays with them over Barbies in her doll house. Big corporation wins and little girls lose I guess.

It'll be interesting to see if Mattel reinvent the concept under their own brand.

What do you think?

Find the related story here :
Barbie Wins! Judge orders MGA to immediately stop manufacturing Bratz Dolls

December Already?

Time is passing by so quickly this year, it barely seems like we've just finished with Halloween and it's almost Christmas already. A little behind on listing but just to make my husband smile I did get the Santa moose soap listed yesterday, he's such a cutie - the soap too ;)

I have decided there needs to be a cure to teenagerdom. Why do their brains operate on such a uncontrollable and illogical plain of existance that seems so far beyond reality or reason?

Time to find some food, some real food this time as I don't believe a diet of galaxy chocolate and cheesy wotsits really count as a balanced diet!