Granny Clampett, that's me!

Two hour delay today.  So it's less than zero for a temp, but the boy is now OFF to school! 

He was getting too used to this "no school" thing.

Ryan and Jen took him instead of having him get on the bus.  A rare treat to not ride the bus.

Robb and I took Meri out for supper last night.  Yes, when it was -20 degrees.  We tried to take her to the chinese buffet at HyVee, but they closed 5 minutes before we got there due to inclement weather!! really...?... So we took her to our 2nd favorite place for chinese food.  They were open and we were the only ones there until well into the egg roll course.  I LOVE that place!

My cold continues.  As we were picking up Meri last night, I had to text her to bring some kleenex out to the car as I'd been through all the extra fast food napkins in the car and was about to use my gloves.  She brought out a roll of toilet paper.  She's suffering from a cold now too.

Remember Granny from Beverly Hillbillies?  Her cure for the common cold was a classic.

The toilet paper is as good as anything else, but my nose was raw by the time we got out of the restaurant.

I'm sure I'll feel better soon.  The meds are kicking in.

The cold suck of winter

The night before last was freezing.  And I mean, -5 with a windchill of -25 or more...  It was bad.  The kids boiled some water and tried the steam thing.  I'm thinking she should have tossed it a little higher, because there were some droplets that hit the snow.

 And yes, those are still Christmas lights outside.  

Don't judge me.

But what cool droplets!

As I was getting done with work, my sister, Tammy, organized a Skype call with whomever could make it so we could see Dad & Mom.  Three sisters, a brother and myself joined the call besides my parents.  Dad is so much more alert now and doing much better.  We're working on plans for a nursing home/assisted living type arrangement for the next few months for them both.  He's supposed to stay off his leg for 3 months...  YUCK.

We had to make two calls and the second one made my voice sound like Darth Vader.  I didn't know this until I wondered why everyone was talking over me and no one even chuckled at any of my witty remarks.  How rude.

Most of the time, it was Dad, so I figured he couldn't hear me.  He's forgiven.  

 

So I spoke louder and then got mocked by the others.

I'll get even...

 Check out this bouquet my brouther made for my Dad!

What's the saying?  Fall from a train, climb right back on??

Last night was a blizzard.  Blowing snow creating white outs that prevented me from even seeing the house across the street for LONG periods of time.  And we found mail from a neighbor in our driveway when Robb got home last night.  It makes me wonder what we'll find when the snow melts...

I was planning on cutting out a sample Sweetheart dress for Meri last night, but Leon was being a stinker.  The only way to get him to stay off the computer was to get more involved, so we all took ornaments off the tree, mantle and piano, packing them away.  Leon pitched a fit halfway through because I wouldn't let him jump at the tree from the ottoman to grab a snowman ornament that was up higher.  I'm so mean!  It proved he was tired and ready for bed, so Ryan wisked him upstairs to get ready. 

I took down all the breakables and left one little section of ornaments for him to finish today.  If he doesn't by the time I take lunch, tough noogies to him.

Have a wonderful weekend!  I can't believe it's Friday already, but I'll TAKE it!  

Planning to go see Dad tomorrow!

and of course, read Sonya's book in the car.

H.O.L.Y. C.A.T.S.!!!!

On Saturday morning, Meri, Leon and myself went to a parade that Maddy and her high school band were marching in.  We left the house just before 9 and I'm so glad I grabbed a couple jackets and a stadium blanket that I made!!!  The car's outside thermometer said it was 42 degrees outside... 

HOLY CATS!!!  It was 80 just a couple days ago!!! 

I was wearing capris and shoes that covered my toes and heels.  Meri wore long jeans, but slip on sandals that showed off her toes.  Leon was dressed warmly from head to toe.  He even wore tennis shoes! 

I would have gone back in the house for a coat or three, but figured it was supposed to get up to 65 degrees for a high and I was sure it would warm up by the time we got to the town, an hour away. 

It got up to 45 degrees... HEAT wave.

The side of the street with sun was jam packed with people, while the shady side was almost bare.  hmmm.. You'd think that was a clue.  But nope.   We fell for it and sat in on a refrigerated curb for about 10 minutes, until I decided we needed kettle corn.  So when I went to find that, I found that the town square, tho a little windy, had tons of sun, was 10 degrees warmer and no one was sitting back in the square area.  Everyone was on the curb.

So I retrieved my two little ice cubes and we thawed out on the square.  

We enjoyed some treats while waiting for Mad's band to come by.  It was still cold and we almost decided a few times just to leave... 

But then we thought that we'd walk down the street where the parade is coming from and see if we can catch our band.  We did!!!

My timing was not so perfect, trying to get a close up shot of Maddy...  Those are her knees and the little boy is sitting across the street...  

I don't know him.

Then we high tailed it back to our car.  

By the time we got there, Maddy and the band had finished the parade and were walking past our parking spot to their buses.  Maddy flagged us down and had me come sign her out so she could ride home with us.  Apparently the buses aren't very comfortable to sleep on.  Or if you do, someone writes on your face with eye liner...  It's a gamble.

While I went to sign her out, Meri got in the car with Leon.  She put the stroller in the backend and found my cell phone laying on the ground just behind the car... 

REALLY??!?!!!  

It must have fallen off my hip when I was getting the stroller out 3 hours ago!  I thought I'd just left it in the car.  I am SO glad no one picked it up or drove over it!  Then while she waited in the car, some people came up and leaned against the back of our car.  She didn't have the keys with her, so she couldn't start it.  But she hunkered down and locked the doors.  She didn't realize the horn would work without keys, or she would have done that.

When we got home, we dropped Leon off at the house with his parents and lunch.  The girls and I hit a sale in the next town.  Then I got to sew!  I'll show you my dress tomorrow.

Should Be An Interesting Day.

I'm freezing. I need to make some of these for me.

Since the hedgehog no longer resides in my office, Robb suggested that I turn the heat off when I leave for the evening and turn it on when I put the dogs out in the morning.

I forgot. Out of habit, out of mind...

So it's 55 degrees in my office. The heater is on now, but my fingers are blue.

Should be an interesting day.

I fit the dress on Maddy last night and need to redo a few seams to make it fit better. dang. I was really hoping it would fit perfectly and we'd almost be done! But nope.

Oh well. I've got 2 weeks plus a day left. We can DO this! But she would appreciate it done Saturday.

We'll see.

A friend of hers was at a neighbors last night trying on their daughters prom dresses. I think it got Maddy in the mood to get going on hers... But we can't start on that until this one is done.

And I noticed a spot, right smack in the middle of the front of the dress. How did THAT get there??!

Arggh...

Should be an interesting day.

It's So Cold! How Cold Is It?

It's so cold...

It's so cold, we had to chop up the piano for firewood -- it only gave us two cords.

It's so cold,the polar bears at the zoo are going on strike,and refusing to sit outdoors!

It's colder than a tin toilet seat in the antarctic.

It's so cold, if you suck on an ice-cube it just gets bigger.

It's so cold, my heating bill read, "Hey buddy, don't turn around."

It is so cold that your spit freezes before it hits the ground.

It's so cold that you have to chop the dogs off the fire hydrants.

It's so cold I bought sweet rolls at the train station and froze my buns before I reached my office.

It's so cold I climbed in the fridge to warm up.

It's so cold I fell out of bed and my pajamas broke.

and the number 1 It's so cold joke...

It's so cold, Chuck Norris put on a jacket.



Stay warm guys!!!

A Room With A View

The first picture here was taken on Tuesday. We'd had a bit of snow the previous night, but nothing too bad yet. You can still see the trunk of the tree in the middle of the pic.
Now in this one, taken this morning from my office window, the trunk is gone. Snow has drifted up to the base of the branches! So about 3.5 feet on my front patio...
I spent 1.5 hours in the dark last night running the snowblower. I'm SOOO glad it started! The wind had been blowing all day in the blizzard and made a lot of it rock hard. But my trusty snow blower chopped up those drifts! The pics of our cars is on a different camera, so I'll get those sometime. One huge drift covered the front hoods of all three cars as they were parked in the driveway. I plowed out behind them, had someone back them up, and then noticed that my car in particular had so much snow blown under it, that it was almost high centered on snow! Ouch!

Just to get our mind off the cold... Enjoy these!