<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4629473807115035226</id><updated>2012-02-16T06:48:58.941-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Off the Wall</title><subtitle type='html'>Thoughts about life as a wife, mother, and artist</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://nanciechopp.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4629473807115035226/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://nanciechopp.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Nancie Chopp</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12171519661985313762</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jhhizz1AA50/S6fihO-xbmI/AAAAAAAAAAM/sAUGxSAMkFo/S220/Nancie%27s+Portrait+148.JPG'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>3</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4629473807115035226.post-5281321084038529016</id><published>2010-03-27T09:44:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-03-27T10:09:02.822-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Spring is Noisy</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jhhizz1AA50/S647UZiCQKI/AAAAAAAAAA4/l-BcDkFK0PY/s1600/Winter+Painting+projects+12-09+298.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jhhizz1AA50/S647UZiCQKI/AAAAAAAAAA4/l-BcDkFK0PY/s320/Winter+Painting+projects+12-09+298.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453361420429312162" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Did you ever notice how quiet Winter is? One of the most remarkable experiences I've had living in Pollock Pines is to go outside on a very snowy day and just stand there. It is &lt;strong&gt;absolutely silent&lt;/strong&gt; - even during the day. You can go several minutes before you hear a car or the sound of someone shoveling. The sky is quiet, the leaves are quiet, and even all the neighborhood dogs are quiet. It feels like you are &lt;strong&gt;on hold in the middle of life&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;Then, somewhere in March, Spring wakes up and starts to make noise. I noticed the other day that the blue jays are awake and they are intent on &lt;strong&gt;waking everyone else up&lt;/strong&gt; as well. Soon, our neighbor will start mowing his lawn every couple of weeks. Another neighbor will probably be using a chainsaw to do some trimming. People are outside planting, burning, and walking those neighborhood dogs.&lt;br /&gt;My mind also wakes up in Spring and it is starting to get noisy in there, too. Primarily, I start to wonder about the &lt;strong&gt;Home Show&lt;/strong&gt; - what do I need to do this year? New photos? New flyers? What will I wear? Will it snow (again)? &lt;br /&gt;At some point, I am sure I will long for the quiet of Winter. But for now, I am enjoying the noise - and starting to make plans for a great Spring. Now if the blue jays would just quiet down enough so &lt;strong&gt;I could think...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4629473807115035226-5281321084038529016?l=nanciechopp.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://nanciechopp.blogspot.com/feeds/5281321084038529016/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://nanciechopp.blogspot.com/2010/03/spring-is-noisy.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4629473807115035226/posts/default/5281321084038529016'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4629473807115035226/posts/default/5281321084038529016'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://nanciechopp.blogspot.com/2010/03/spring-is-noisy.html' title='Spring is Noisy'/><author><name>Nancie Chopp</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12171519661985313762</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jhhizz1AA50/S6fihO-xbmI/AAAAAAAAAAM/sAUGxSAMkFo/S220/Nancie%27s+Portrait+148.JPG'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jhhizz1AA50/S647UZiCQKI/AAAAAAAAAA4/l-BcDkFK0PY/s72-c/Winter+Painting+projects+12-09+298.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4629473807115035226.post-8470484211253987918</id><published>2010-03-22T14:37:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-03-22T14:41:03.952-07:00</updated><title type='text'>First Draft</title><content type='html'>This is the first installment of what I hope will be a very active blog.  I have another blog which I started on my website - &lt;a href="http://www.nanciechopp.com/"&gt;&lt;span style="color:#990000;"&gt;www.nanciechopp.com&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="color:#990000;"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;  But, it died a quick death when I didn't add any additional comments and quickly grew stale.  I am hoping this blog will be full of wisdom, humor, irony, and creativity.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now I just have to figure out what to write about and what pictures I need to copy.  Oh, and I need to figure out how to do all this on a computer...this may take a while.  Please check back often to see what I've discovered...&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4629473807115035226-8470484211253987918?l=nanciechopp.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://nanciechopp.blogspot.com/feeds/8470484211253987918/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://nanciechopp.blogspot.com/2010/03/first-draft.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4629473807115035226/posts/default/8470484211253987918'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4629473807115035226/posts/default/8470484211253987918'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://nanciechopp.blogspot.com/2010/03/first-draft.html' title='First Draft'/><author><name>Nancie Chopp</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12171519661985313762</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jhhizz1AA50/S6fihO-xbmI/AAAAAAAAAAM/sAUGxSAMkFo/S220/Nancie%27s+Portrait+148.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4629473807115035226.post-930692287236481939</id><published>2010-03-22T14:32:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-03-22T14:33:00.813-07:00</updated><title type='text'></title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4629473807115035226-930692287236481939?l=nanciechopp.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://nanciechopp.blogspot.com/feeds/930692287236481939/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://nanciechopp.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4629473807115035226/posts/default/930692287236481939'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4629473807115035226/posts/default/930692287236481939'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://nanciechopp.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post.html' title=''/><author><name>Nancie Chopp</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12171519661985313762</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jhhizz1AA50/S6fihO-xbmI/AAAAAAAAAAM/sAUGxSAMkFo/S220/Nancie%27s+Portrait+148.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>
