Friday, February 28, 2014

Just Another Day

The last day of February. The last day of a short month. The last day of a very cold and snowy month. A month of record breaking.  Today is sunny with a crystal blue sky.  The temps are -1de with a wind chill of 15 below zero.  A might chilly I guess.  When I was young I loved this day, this last day of February.  I learned how to spell this month's name early.   I looked forward to it all year...well all January and February!    I think the weather has played a part in how everyone is feeling lately. Work has been filled with drama and snipping at each other and frankly I decided at the last minute I would take today off and just let go for a bit. Take a breather.  I've looked back at my blog to the posts I put on over the past 6yrs on this day to see how things were going and how I felt, what I did, and what I actually posted about.  I realized that my sour attitude this week might jade my post of 2014, last day of February.  I don't want that to happen.  I know that it was a day that made my Mom smile. I know she'll call and ask me how I feel today.  I wouldn't want her to think I'm having trouble saying all is well.  It is actually well...I'm well...my family is too. Life is short.  Shorter for some than others. We should celebrate all the moments...good and bad. We should be grateful for them..and I am.  I think I need to make some changes and get my rear in gear and move on to bigger and better things. Well, maybe the same things, only with a brighter outlook! Last year on this day it was a milestone.  Now I feel like I'm on a staircase and not really sure if I'm taking the first step up or down.  Decades...10yrs....encompass many changes. Years 1-10 have significant changes...moves that go quickly....walking, talking...learning.  Years 10-20 are usually filled with emotion, growth, vast change in locations and milestones....on and on as the decades come we, and gajillions of others,  go through the steps of those decades.  I'm on the step of starting my 60's....61 today.  These next 10 years hold all kinds of possibilities and all kinds of challenges.  Growing older hasn't bothered me all that much in the past...well, except for that nano second when I turned 30 and panicked!  But getting toward those "golden" years makes me a bit dry mouthed.  I can say, "Well, 61 is the next 41"..blah, blah, blah.  It isn't...won't ever be. But I'm going to hope it's a good next 10yrs.  I've worked in health care since I was 18.  I get it..I understand what can be ahead.  The caution signs are out and I'm feeling like this first step of this next decade will be made with orthopedic shoes instead of stilettos.   I'm not the only one getting older.  It does happen if we're lucky.  But I can go forward and smile and realize that maybe it is "just another day"....sort of.  How about we all celebrate these "another days" with joy, hope and love.  With patience, understanding, faith, and humor.  And perhaps a giant piece of cake with some icecream on the side....Let's get moving!

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Help Me..I'm Melting!

We've had a strange thing happen here at the Pines..and all over Ohio I'm assuming.  The weather has warmed up a bit.  It's been in the 40's and 50's the past few days. Of course just warming up would be too easy. It had to start out with torrential rains, thunder and lightning and let's not forget flooding.  With all the snow that fell last week and, let's face it, all Winter, it's not surprising things would flood.  The sun even came out.  I can't account for Friday since I didn't get out of work until it was almost dark, but today was marvelous! I took a walk around the Pines to see how it was doing. The yard is saturated..squishy..muddy...not pretty.  I found this along the way:
The fire ring almost visible!
The amazing, shrinking, Grandkiddo snowman...or woman....or something!
Snowman wantabe.
Yes, snow still exists...but the paths are well defined!
The Creepy Woods is barren and you can see for miles.
A creek (or perhaps you pronounce it "crick") runs through it...finally melted open.  February has a habit of throwing you off. You might be fooled into thinking Spring's not far...then bam...it's cold and snowy again.  So I just try to enjoy each gift like today and shrug off the rest. One more week until the shortest month is over..then the countdown really begins! I have one more "melting" to show you.  It's the heart melting kind. Our good friends, the Crawfords, are sending their son Dakota off next week on his mission.  Today was his farewell party.
It was a well attended icecream bash.  All came out to wish him well in this next 2yrs of service as a missionary for the Church.
Take care Elder Crawford! We love you !

Monday, February 17, 2014

Cheap Shot

The word "CHEAP" was thrown around a bit this weekend.  It mostly was due to this:
Yep, that's a pot of chili. Every February we have a church social that we lovingly call our "cheap, good night out" and chili cook off.  This was my contribution. I just noticed a couple of pill bottles is the background of this pic.  No, they were not used in the making of this dish..however, maybe I should have because then I might have won.   But that's OK because it was a fun evening and winning isn't everything (sort of) and I think it was pretty tasty!  I also made this:
I didn't have any so I can't comment on how it tasted, but it looked pretty! Really, can a chocolate cake with chocolate filling and chocolate frosting and chocolate chunks on top be bad?  There were fun skits and talents shared at this cheap, good night out...
Jack was in this cute skit. Nice job guys! All the skits were fun!  So how did the weekend continue with the "cheap" theme?  Waking up Sunday morning with another snowfall happening was a cheap shot.  All day today it was nice..sunny at times.  However, the weather channel was sending us a warning about another snow storm. It was suppose to hit around 4 or 5.  When nothing happened I figured we probably missed it...HA! Silly me.  I wish I could have caught on camera the look of the mini blizzard that hit around 7pm. I tried to capture a few flakes:
I opened the door to the deck and was hit with winds and blowing snow.  My son called me to the front to check out the view from there.
Jack's car was totally clean about a half hour before this shot.    I'm just wondering how my drive into work tomorrow will be...only time will tell.  The weather is suppose to warm up by Thursday and I'm betting Mother Nature will hand us another cheap shot in the way of flooding to get rid of all this snow we've accumulated in the last 3 months.  Only a month to go until Spring.  No guarantees of nice weather even then, but just saying the word "Spring" will make it seem better!

Friday, February 14, 2014

Sparkly Things

A day set aside for showing love is a day meant for sparks to fly!  Did you get any sparks flying or perhaps some sparkly things? We had a few of both at the Pines today.  Sparkly things showed up here and there..like these:
A sparkly wreath to greet visitors..or cupid perhaps!
Sparkly snow that glistens in the sunlight.  We have had a few days of sun this week and today the temps were in the 30's! It felt like 80 compared to the frigid temps of January and the first half of February. (February is officially half over today!)
Sparkly gems on a beautiful vase and sparkly gems on the beautiful roses too! Thanks Jack for this lovely flower arrangement...sure brightens up the day! The pic doesn't do justice to how lovely this is! I don't know how anyone else spent this day, but we celebrated over pizza, pop, and sparks galore!
These sparks came in the form of a fire in the kitchen fireplace and some marshmellows roasted to perfection and turned into s'mores!
Addy and her sister were here to share in the sparks of yumminess! (I was out of graham crackers but Ritz crackers worked just fine!)
Ooey, gooey, delish mess! After the s'mores were done, the girls sat on a blanket in front of the fireplace to enjoy the flames and listen to some stories before they went to bed.   All in all it was a great way to show love and send sparks and enjoy sparkle...Happy Valentines Day!

Monday, February 10, 2014

Same Old, Same Old

I sure was hoping to have a ton of new things to write about.  Surely the weekend would deliver some fun and excitement.  We did have a lovely day on Saturday going to Columbus to attend the Temple with friends who are getting ready to send their son on a mission.  A fun lunch was had afterward.  Did I get any pics of the food? Nope.  Of the people we were with? Nope. The scenery on the drive there and back? Nope. Ok, so if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there does it make a sound? If you have a fun day and take no photos to document it on your blog did it really happen? All I can say is "Yep"...it did happen and I'm glad I went, but Saturday evening into most of  Sunday it was back to the same old, same old....Hold on, I'm going to use the "S" word....SNOW.
Frosting on the Pines.
Eddy up to his knees in white stuff.
Eddy looking for a place to do his "duty"...what's a Boxer to do?
All I can say is I'm glad I get to use the same old, same old, indoor plumbing! (Pretty lame blogging if this is all one has to show for a weekend!)

Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Most Amazing Mother Son Wedding Dance EVER!!!!!!

I don't usually do the video share thing, but this just made me smile! I stole it from my blog buddy Deb at Poetesswug.  A smile is a good thing to share! Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

The Calm Before....

Yep, today we have the calm before the "STORM".  It's been predicted for days and you could almost hear the drum roll.  Many are being touched by this one.  It was suppose to hit around 5...then it changed to 8....then it changed to after midnight. 6-12 inches of snow is predicted.  We have had a little bit but I'm going to assume more will come before dawn.  We're ready here at the Pines.  Wood has been delivered the last 2 days.  It was actually ordered back months ago but sure came at the right time!  Our son Phil helped load and split and get it ready. However, his little sweeties, Lexi and Addy....or Sprite and Squirt as I call them...wanted to help.  So a lesson in splitting was in order.
First it's split...
Then you throw it in the special place we keep it...good helping girls! We are toasty warm here. I took a quick pic this afternoon to document the "before".
The previous snow was melting and grass was visible...but not for long I'm afraid.  After work I stopped at the store to get a few necessary items and the place was packed.  People getting supplies.  I tried to be nonchalant and pretend I wasn't  here to stock up because I hadn't prepared for this.  A lady in front of me at the check-out was trying to do the same thing. HER:" I always do my shopping on Tuesdays...maybe I should change to a different day.,..look at all these people"..ME:" Yep.  You'd think they never heard of a snow storm for crying out loud".  At the same time I was trying to hide my cart because it's obvious I was shopping because of a snow storm.
Just essentials...Milk, cereal, taco Tuesday supplies and of course M&M's and Twizzlers....the very survival food you need when a snow storm is coming.  There you go..if this storm is coming you now know what you need to stock up on.  Hurry, they're going fast!  Good luck and I know this post will be continued!  Oh, P.S....Squeak our cat is doing just fine now...all better.  Meow!

Sunday, February 2, 2014

It's A Shoe In

I was happy to kick January to the curb, as I'm sure most of the country who had the horrible weather would agree.  I'll welcome February because it's the shortest month! I don't need a rodent to tell me whether or not we have 6 more weeks of Winter. I just looked out the window.  I snapped this pic from my computer room window not more than 10 seconds ago~ (grainy because of the screen)
You probably can't tell it's actively snowing, but you can see the frosting on the pine trees. It's still beautiful and I'm not really complaining. Really! But I'm ready for a little sparkle so I'll show you my new work shoes.
The red sparkly ones on the left are compared to the well worn ones on the right. What you can't see on the old ones is the blood, sweat, and miles of standing that went into them. (Well, maybe you can..they do look pretty nasty!) They served me well. I wasn't thrilled about wearing shoes that had ties because of what falls on them in a day to day work situation...then coming in and having to tie them up the next morning...eewww! But they were comfortable and that's most important. But it was time for a change.
Can you see the hole in the top? So sad. Anyway, I'm all spiffy now and ready to rock the rest of this year. Red goes good with February as we celebrate national heart month along with Valentines day.  So kiss a groundhog and grab a snow shovel...we've got 6 more weeks of winter...I'm betting that's a "shoe in"!