Katherine Ostler aka The Fearless Defender

Yes, that is me. And yes, I promise never to dye my hair blond. But that is beside the point. The point is I'm pretty sure I am a superhero. I'll tell you my reasoning and then you can decide for yourself.

1. I keep waking up late and tired no matter how early I go to bed. Obviously I get up in the middle of the night to fight crime.

2. I have an arm gun which must be one of my superpowers. This one is hard to explain, but essentially my right arm can shoot bullets. I don't remember how I learned this, but just go with it.

3. My weaknesses are feet and google-earth/being watched. Every superhero has their kryptonite and I must be an awesome one cause I have two!

4. Using an internet site I was able to figure out my superhero name. While in spandex they call me The Fearless Defender. Very fitting is it not?

5. And finally, I even have my own theme song which you can view here: http://www.makemesuper.com/r.php?i=1_32db9-143346-f-Katherine

There you have it. I think it's pretty clear I must be a villain fighting, spandex wearing, superhero. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go protect the streets of London.

Christmas Gift

My favorite gift this year was an 1858 edition of a collection of Wordsworth's poetry. It was so perfect, especially because we spent Christmas where he lived. I mentioned in briefly in my other post and was going to post pictures of it, but I had already posted the limit. So, here it is in all its beauty:

Evolution of Dance explained

Sorry Tiff and everyone else who doesn't spend every waking moment on YouTube so they don't know what the Evolution of Dance is all about.  Let me rewind a bit... This is the original Evolution of Dance...

It's had 110+ million views which would be impressive, but around 100 million of those views are from me.  It's just a comedian showing a bunch of different eras/styles of dance.  I've basically memorized the first video so I was very excited when I found out he posted a new one.  A whole new video to watch obsessively, just what I need. 

He's Back!

The Evolution of Dance dude is back! The video was posted on the 9th and already has 1+ million views. Basically, he rocks.

Don't try this at home

Apparently, expensive blown glass pitchers don't do well in the microwave. They break and then mom gets sad. Wish someone had told me before I learned firsthand!

Christmas at the Lake District

Christmas this year was wonderful. It seems to get better and better every year. Everyone but the Votaws and Lindsays (we missed you guys!) were there. We rented a cottage in Grasmere which is in the Lake District. It was a six hour drive and we got there at night in the pouring rain. We had lost the instructions that told us where the key was so we had to search in dark and wet. Eventually we found it and got all our stuff in. We were soaked but happy to have made it. Grasmere was beautiful. I can't describe it sufficiently so you are going to have to come out here and see for yourself. Every day we went on long hikes and walks and just enjoyed nature. Then we would spent the evenings playing games and relaxing. William Wordsworth is one of my favorite poets and lived in Grasmere when he wrote most of his best known poems. I got to go to his house there and learned more about his life. His poems are even more beautiful having seen his inspiration. I came away loving his poems more, but admiring his character less. I won't go on a rant, but all he did with his life was enjoy nature. He lived with three women (sister, wife, and sister in-law) to take care of the house and he even had them write his poems for him so he wouldn't have to strain his eyes. While he certainly lived a life doing no harm, he did not go out of his way to do any good. Or do anything (other than write poetry) for that matter. But, to the rest of the trip. Christmas eve was fun, we had a murder mystery dinner. Joe turned out to be the murderer, surprised? Christmas day was great, we had our traditional cinnamon toast for breakfast and opened presents. I got a beautiful Wordsworth book from 1858. It was actually given as a Christmas gift that year, and again 150 years later! Kinda cool! I love old books and it was so fitting for our trip too. After presents we went on another walk, made bread, and had a great dinner. It was so fun to have most of our family together. Joe and Ruth have already gone home, but Sariah is staying for another week! Hooray!



Egyptian murder mystery night




















Our cottage, Little Parrock















Grasmere












John and I climbed everything we could