In Snow Time

It's cold and windy outside this Friday of this week.  Most of the snow we received on Tuesday is still here.  While it sounds sort of yuck to those of us in this part of the country, it is nothing on the weather of those north and west of here.  We are weenies.  

One of problems living here is that our weather is not consistent.  We are just as likely to have a day of 80 degrees in every month of the year, except January. I know if you live in Minnesota, for example, when it starts to snow everyone gets out their boots, scarves, gloves and long coats and doesn't put them away until April.  Here, we may need get out those very warm outdoor one day only to find we won't want them for the rest of the week, so we don't bother to get them out at all.  Therefore, when it is cold, so are we.  

Strangely enough, we had ice and snow again on Tuesday.  I went as usually to my daughter's to look after her boys, get them started for the day and the two oldest to school, expecting the less than one inch of snow to start in the afternoon.  She lives 15 miles north of us and it started to snow about 10:00.  By 11:00, when it was time to pick up Barry, there was an inch on the ground and it was snowing like crazy.  I was beginning to worry a bit about Lorene getting home by 12:30 since I had an appointment at 1:30 and I left the needed phone number at home.  There was 2" of snow by this time and it was still snowing. 

She didn't get there in time.  The main highways were clear enough to navigate, but the county road was not and slowed her down considerably.  

So, she was late.  

I left promptly at 1:20 and drove more slowly than usual because of the slush that was outside the driving tracks.

I was late.  

I slewed up the driveway, wondering at the very end, if I would have to ignominiously slide back down and part somewhere else, but I made it into the garage and noticed that the man I was to meet had been there and gone.

That's when I realized I left my phone at Lorene's.  

The reason I still have a land line, is for situations like this.  

I called and he came back. 

We never did get more than that inch of predicted snow and I easily drove back up to Lorene's the next day.  They had a late start which meant I took Zane in to school mid-morning.  It was nice to have a little more time with him.  

Barry and Christian play so well together.  We built two enormous forts and when they were tired of that, they wanted to play in the snow.  So, Barry went out and brought a big bowl in and they played with that for a long time.   

Snow soon turns into water and they played longer with that.

It was helped by the glasses of water they poured into their bowls to make chili (Barry) and mac-n-cheese (Christian).

After they tired of that and we mopped the floor, it was Christian's turn to wear the kitty costume and for the second time that day they were on the floor with bowls of milk and the tablet.  I'm not sure why kitties need to watch nursery rhymes on the tablet with their milk, but they did it both times. 

Paislee was here to visit one morning and at 5 1/2 months is getting herself onto all fours and lunging forward to get her toys. She has very good control over herself, rolling this way and that, grabbing and playing with her toys, and can sit with a little support.  She loves to chew on fingers especially, but if one isn't available she goes for her toys, or her shirt.  

Her dad was crawling about 6 months, before he could sit alone. 

As for the rest of the week.  I quilted a couple of blocks, and started a new afghan.  

And, did all the other things that keep us fed, in clean clothes, and one jump ahead of the federal government and bill collectors. 

A Week (Almost) In Pictures

To load photos onto this blog I need to upload them first into a special window and from that window attach them to the blog.  I thought I would be clever and upload them while supper was going on, and then I forgot all about them and closed down the internet and lost them.  I went through the whole process again just now and accidentally loaded another site on top of it and had to upload them a THIRD time. Grrrr

Sunday--

Lynette, Anthony, Nathan, Lily and Paislee were over for Sunday dinner.  

We had deer burgers. 

We entertain our babies with very sophisticated toys.  Paislee doesn't seem interested in the Pharmacology book. 

Maybe she is.

Monday

The continuing ice storm kept everything closed down until Tuesday noon.

Jim is taking the easy way to figure a bid.

Tuesday--

Aftermath of the storm. 

 Wednesday--

I had Tuesday off because schools were still closed, including Lorene's.

Christian and his princess/pony castle. 

Making cookies with playdough.

Obviously the fork trick is what makes them cookies. 

Put a little soap in the bath and let them play!

Random Paislee Photos

I don't have any photos for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  

I dug out the quilt I wanted to quilt this winter and as of Saturday afternoon I have three blocks quilted.  I started a new knitted afghan.  I did two loads of laundry.  I think one is still in the dryer,  

I got my tax forms all ready to mail, after printing two out onto pre-printed forms and having to run to the accountant and get new ones.  I went grocery shopping with $115 dollars and came back with $18.  I forgot to buy any vegetables. I ate the rest of the cookies. 

Friday, I went to an arm knitting gathering and discovered I can't do it properly.  

Then I drove all the way home in some of the worst fog I have ever driven through in my life.  It was easier to drive when it is still light than after dark.  I was never so glad to be home in my life! In the light, even though I could hardly see beyond the hood of the car, I could see the white line.  After dark, the lights blinded me so much I couldn't see anything.  I was glad the way home was a mostly straight road. 

Saturday, Jim and I drove to Grand Island to drop off a pickup that needs major repair.  The sad thing is that it needs this major repair (like the whole rear part of the engine) done every once in a while.  This is the third time.  He drove the pickup, I drove the car.  Then he looked at all the pickups in the lot and went to Harbor Freight to pick up some valves for the ... well, something, in the shop.

This is where I started the afghan. 

Occtupied

I forgot all about blogging this week until Saturday evening.  

Evening is not a good time for me to blog because my brains go to sleep about 8:00 and I cannot write inspired prose or even remember what I did that day, let alone last week.

On the weekend we went up to my folks, partly because there was a baby shower going on there and partly because I need to go and see my folks.  

We ate our Sunday dinner with some friends and played a few games of Rook before going home.  It must be about 30 years since I've played a game of Rook!!  I was never very good at it.  I always hoped I'd get a bad hand and not have to do much more than play out.  One time, a bunch of us kids were playing and I got the ultimate hand, like 11 cards in one color.  I HAD to bid high, and I won it.  If I ever led a hand again, I don't remember.  

ANYWAY, we left for home mid-afternoon and we were just a few miles out of Norfolk, when flupperty, flup, flup, the serpentine belt broke, and there we sat.  On Sunday afternoon.  

Thankfully towing services exist for stranding motorists, and one took us to a motel and the car to the dealer.  So, there we were, in a cheap motel (it was close and we weren't thinking clearly), at 5 pm.  It's freezing cold outside, we hadn't had supper and I had lost a glove.  

While we were at our friends, they were invited to a snack and game evening, so we called them, they picked us up, so we got some supper and activities to fill our evening. 

So--the motel.  We were the only ones staying in the motel.  The room we were given was the one directly under the rooms the manager and his family lived.  I was glad I can't hear very well.

We were thankful there would be breakfast served.  I didn't know yet we were the only ones in the motel and when I peeked out at 7, there was no breakfast, 7:30, no breakfast.  So,I called the help number and politely asked when breakfast would be served and he answered, "I'll come down and open the pantry."  And he did.  He pretty much just showed us where everything was in the cereal department, found us some milk, and we helped ourselves.  !!!

At 8 Jim called the service department and explained the problem with the car and our predicament.

"Not a problem, easy to do, won't take long." 

At 10:00, Jim called again.  They acted like they've been waiting for the go ahead to get started!!!

Either they didn't pay attention, or there was some miscommunication going on.  

The courtesy guy came and got us and we waited there until the car was done at noon, paid our dues, got some lunch and we off down the road to home.  

We were 2 minutes gone, when I couldn't find my water bottle.  So, back we go, no water bottle.  While I'm asking in Culver's Jim is looking around and there it was !! in my purse. !!

That thing is long, and heavy, and I put it in my purse so I could carry out my ice cream....

I.have.no.brains.

This was the first week that I had two days of looking after the boys while Lorene goes to class.  Tuesdays the boys get themselves up, Zane does breakfast detail and a little too late I am encouraging the boys in their coats and out the door we go to drop Zane and Barry off at school.

Wednesdays I get there a little later, Lorene takes the boys to school, but she has a late day so Aaron comes home early so I can get home before 4.  

Christian is all snuggled up with his tablet.

Same here, only not so snuggily.

We DO do other things than watch the tablet.

It was so cold on Wednesday that in my hurry to get to the car I knocked Christian down the stairs.  He says I didn't, but I'm pretty sure I did.  Poor kid.  

We got some new mattresses for the twin beds in our basement bedroom.  They come crammed into a box, until we let them out. 

I hope this video shows up.  I haven't put a video on this blog for years.

Besides doing a lot of work in the office on the other two work days of the week, the only other profitable thing I got done was this octopus hat.  

The profitable part is debatable. 

Not such a good photo of the hat, but a better one of me. Ha. 

I feel better now, my brain kicked in, so this wasn't so hard to do after all. 

I think I'll go have my bedtime snack.

You Can't Go Home Again--To Stay

Leaving home this morning was more difficult than normal.  This view is what I called home for the past 23 years.  I never understood what was meant by the saying, "it's hard to grow up", but I do now.

         --Anthony Troyer

When I first left home I was glad to go.  I wanted to be doing new things and getting on with my life.  It was two years before I got homesick, halfway through college.

Home, for most of us is a refuge, a safe place, a loving place.  

The place where I grew up and the people and places surrounding that time are a part of me forever.  

They are the places I will remember when everything else is forgotten. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Pass or Fail?

Here we are in 2017 already.  

It's time for the making of resolutions.  I always like making resolutions because I like the idea of change for the better in myself.  

The ones I made last year have worn pretty well.  

1. I vowed to walk.  I did well with that until spring when I quit, but I worked outside in the garden and I took up walking again in August and kept it up until this cold weather.  I walk outside unless it is below 20 degrees, or too windy, then I walk in the mall or skip a day.  

2. My business has been kept in my office.

3. I have had variable success with limiting my computer time.  Keeping off facebook is easier than not playing my daily computer games.  Thankfully they are not the kind that make me want to play and play and play, but they still take time. 

4.  I wanted to blog every Tuesday, but the point was to blog regularly, like once a week.  Since I looked after the boys on Tuesdays while Lorene was in class, later in the week proved a better day, as you can see, today is Friday.  

This year's goals:

keep walking, keep blogging, keep limiting the computer.

I want to reach out more to my friends and family, whether by letter, email, text or phone.  

This one will be a real challenge, because my favorite place to be in life is home and knitting.  

One of my resolutions was to see less of my doctors.  I failed at that one already.  

I had an MRI yesterday.

Today I feel sympathy for some authors of my favorite books.  Sometimes I find errors and I think, 'they sure goofed that one, because it says __________________ in the another book.'

I can't remember if I mentioned the circumstances that led up to this MRI and I'm not in the mood to read November and December blog posts to find out.

Anyway....

I had an eye migraine in November.  I've never had one before in my life.  It scared me nearly to death.  I sat on the couch wondering what on earth was going on in my eyes as they flashed a curious pattern on the left side.  It was crescent shaped and it grew larger until it filled my field of vision and I couldn't focus and then slowly faded away off to the left.  30 minutes.  It left me drained and foggy headed.  I saw the eye doctor and she told me it was an eye migraine and people have them, 

no big deal.  

Then I had another one in December.  20 minutes. The after effects included a little pain,
I took a pain killer. 

This time I thought it prudent to call my oncologist and he ordered the MRI, just in case.

We went to Omaha and had the MRI done, then saw my doctor and the scan shows no change from the last time.

Whew!

I went home relieved.

I had another one today, with more pain afterwards.  

I was MAD. 

I kept working at the computer.  Eventually, I had to stop and rest until the flashing stopped. 

 20 minutes.

 I don't want to have another problem in my life.  I don't want to have to worry about another thing to watch, to take medicine for, to worry about what happens if I'm driving.  

I felt yuck for quite awhile afterwards this time.  

Sigh.  Oh well...things could be worse.

I looked at last years blog posts and just as this one is going to finish out to be....it's birthday time for Zane and Lorene. 

This one is a better photo of the kids, but not of me.  

8 and 25, how time flies.