We are off

This is it, tomorrow morning at 6:30 am we leave for Disney.

We are packed and ready to go, you can check us out @ http://www.mimiandjiejie.tumblr.com for updates.

This is lovely

The return of Natalie

As I have told you before........ with the return of JieJie comes the return of Natalie, and scores of beautiful ladies on beautiful adventures.

The Sipes Garden

We have been trying, as a family, to eat more healthily and to reduce our burden on the land.

We have been blessed with small plots of soil.
We have been planting and reaping the benefits.
JieJie is already a vegetarian(Terry,Mimi and I are not).

I figured Mimi would eat stuff that she has grown.

Mimi eats eggs,salmon, a bit of chicken, noodles and rice at best.

Terry and I have her growing a number of things, in hopes that the garden would lead to other things.

Jie Jie is a big plus, she eats 80% veg.

Mimi attends a cowgirl party

Just for the record,Mimi is not very cow girly. She loves cows and she is a girl but the boots and hats and stuff are not her gig(could it be nurture vs nature?)
Anyway, we had this lovely dress from Aunt Julie that captured the theme but kept mimi's glamour sensiblity.

Pogo's Up

Fabulous
this clip is done in the same vain as "Alice" all of the sounds are arranged into music.
Quite amazing

Pogo's Alice in Wonderland

This is a little video that our dear friend Ali showed us. Apparently this guy's name is
Pogo and he combines sound clips entirely from movies to create these awesome tracks. Every little sound is compiled from this film (we're assuming the percussion is just highly compressed sound bits), and we think it's just beautiful.

Girls Trip to Chicago Volume 1

I have posted before that Mimi and I took an impromptu trip to Chicago to meet up with JieJie, see the city and bring Jiejie and the kitties home.

I made a reservation at a great boutique hotel called "Hotel Monaco".

This hotel is hip,centrally located and accepts almost every kind of pet.

Mimi and I drove into town checked in, pretended to raid the very expensive honor bar(then went across the street to 7eleven).
We soaked on our lovely atmosphere and anxiously awaited Jiejie's arrival by bus.

We also arranged to meet with my darling nephew Bobby, who lives in the city.

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant by Wrigley field. Mimi spent her first time in a taxi, and also a subway.

The cubs were playing that night so Bobbies neighborhood was akin to Spring Break in Cancun.... very crazy. The food was great and we made it home without any Cubs fan shenanigans(it was a little dicey).
The city was absolutely gorgeous.
We spent the next morning on Michigan Avenue and then headed off on a last minute jaunt to Madison WI.
For more on our trip check out www.mimiandjiejie.tumblr.com

Girls in Chicago

Mimi and Jie Jie were hitting the streets for dinner. I don't have these chances very often.

We are back

The girls are back in town.
oh the travels we had.

on the way home we got stuck in a 2 hour carjam.
My baby sister turned me onto ole"Laverne and Shirley" earlier in the week.

We got on our tiny internet and found "Lenny and the Squigtones" and laughed through about 2 hours

Blogs, stealing, inspiration?

The Junior Society blog picked up on a commercial that samples one of my favorite singing performances of all time.


Gene Wilder

Tumble Tumble Tumble

Mimi and I leave for Chicago and Madison and Jiejie.Back on Monday.
Sleep Warm In Your Fur.

Tumble Tumble Tumble

Due to the amount of pictures I had today's blog is at "Sleep Warm In Your Fur"

Happy Birthday Miss Annabel

Today we are celebrating Annabel's birthday.

In a matter of 2 weeks, Annabel and Mimi, Annabel's mom and I will be departing for Disney World.

After months of saving, taking back bottles, lemonade stands and garage sales we will finally be heading to the happiest place on earth.

"Patty the Legend the Saint" or "Which Way to Heaven Cause I Missed the Bus"

Back when I was in high school. I had a really great friend.
David created a musical based on my mom.

The musical had 2 titles, because one was for the average person and one was for the extra long title people.

David has gone on to bigger and better places now, but I almost named Patty's blog, this entire title(it fits).

More Patty to come and for sure more David, stay tuned. Just click on the title.

Grandma and Blogspot

My mom is an ordained minister. Aside from the fact that she is going back to college to get her masters, I am also beginning a blog for her to support her wedding business.

Patricia has married a lot of happy couples and conducts union ceremonies for all types of faiths.

I have titled the blog "One Hand, One Heart" from the musical"West Side Story". My dad loved this song and well, doesn't it say it all?

The blog will be available for view in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

On the mend with a hula hoop

This is a good sign of getting better.

R.I.P. Miss Daphne

Mimi and I woke yesterday morning to the sight of Miss Daphne, her goldfish, floating at the top of her fish bowl.

She was still gasping for air and Mimi found that she had a little pink pebble lodged in her tiny mouth.
Daphne passed away at about 9 am and we buried her in the garden with a blessing said by grandma.

All of Mimi's mortality questions resurfaced and we have been talking about life and death.

Mimi is also anxious to know if her other fish Rose misses Daphne or is happy to have more room in the fish tank?

Sick Day

Mimi and I had another sick day today and went for another walk for fresh air.
This walk had the special guest of Zelda. I have been walking Mim for about 3 miles and Miss Zelda was not used to the pace.

So, Mimi offered a seat in the rickshaw. We visited the deer, picked some daisy type weeds and listened to Disney songs on the phone.

Mimi and I painted a mural consisting of her feet and hands and my rendering of flowers.

We then watched Yo Gabba Gabba with Weezer singing about loving bugs.

House of Sickness part 35

As I have explained in past posts, my house is a house of sickness.

Mimi has come down with yet another virus. Mimi and I have now endured 2 sleepless nights(high fever, endless coughing).

To beat the blues,yesterday, I decided to take Mimi for a walk.

The day was beautiful and a wee bit cool, so I bundled her up in our Burley and headed out.

A Burley is one of those enclosed stroller things that hooks on to the back of a bike.

We also have the option to use it as sort of a rickshaw.

We took a stroll down by the zoo and photographed all of the happy people visiting the meer cats.
We also visited the camels and picked queen anne's lace.

mimi and dad

Mimi and jie Jie video style

Mimi and Jie jie love each other. They often video chat. Mimi captures it on camera.

We miss jiej and bill when they are away.

The Spring Writing and Singing Celebration

The other day at school Mimi had an end of the year performance with her class.
The morning started with refreshments, and visiting with her classmates parents.

We then adjourned to the media center for 3 songs and a reading from each student.

The class has 26 students in it. They all began to sing in perfect unison and then due to the broad expanse of children in line the right half of the room would be singing the second part of the song while the other children lingered on the first part.

The one part where they were all caught up with each other was when they sang(to the tune of fr-ere jacque)"Do you like peanut butter on your underwear? yes I like peanut butter on my underwear" Very interesting.
The first picture is of Terry trying to coax an upset little boy out from under the table.

The Musicians weigh in

We had the extreme pleasure of having yet another beautiful musician play in our house.
Makes me think, it has been a place for beautiful musicians.

I am thinking I should have a special evening of my best musicians, if available, far and wide,
An evening of music,just a jam.
Food supplied by a random hot dog guy... music by....
I can't think of the last time that I sang live, but I love the thought of it,