You Know…

It is time to move south when your sweet, homebound, stir-crazy, cabin-fevered baby boy puts a plow on his remote control truck.

I can’t decide whether to laugh or cry.

Either way, how’s that for ingenuity?

I love you all!

Frosty the Snowpile

Much to my surprise the kids had a snow day today. I didn’t even know we had snow coming. Between working this week and taking care of the kids my news-watchin time has suffered severely. For that matter, so has my laundry-doin time and my house-cleanin time. I had planned to work today as well, and can’t say I was entirely devastated to get the dreaded call from the school. Last night, I was so tired I told Sam to put himself to bed at 9:30pm and at 8:30pm I WENT TO BED!! And let me tell you, I was out. Post haste. The 2-hr delay call was just my opportunity to reset the alarm clock for later…the cancellation call, my excuse to slap that sucker off altogether! I slept around the clock. Literally, did not get up until 8:30am this morning. And MAN did I feel better. So today I’ve been buzzing around the house getting things done. Things ya let slip when you work all day and take care of kids all evening. Well, ok, so I don’t actually work all day. Well, maybe not even close to all day…5 hours, but in my defense…the only time I’m not at work the kids are here. And who can get anything productive done with them around???? Not me! Not usually.

Today, in the interest of getting some things accomplished around here, I totally bought into the bribery card. I told them if they would clean the basement and their bedrooms I’d let them each get a $5 toy at Walmart tomorrow. Ya know what? I’m thinkin right now that it was worth EVERY penny. I got the house clean, they did a great job cleaning the basement and their rooms and I have most of my laundry done. It’s been a very productive day. Which brings me to Frosty. Frosty, the flaccid, Frosty, the pathetic, Frosty, who made Maggie cry.

With the house clean and smelling like fabric softener and the chicken and dumplings I was simmering on the stove, Maggie and Liam decided to go outside and make a snowman.

One problem…or 3 problems.

1.it’s SUPER cold out there today.And Liam is no help at all. There he goes eating the snow again.

2. The snow is NOT packing. Not unless you get it wet…hmmm? Is that what Liam was doing?

3. The snow is blowing and drifting all over the place.

These things combined, would not allow Maggie to get a snowman together. Not even with Liam licking the snow to make it pack. No, I don’t really know that he was attempting to make it pack, but I’d like to convince myself that he had some perfectly reasonable, rational, GOOD reason, for whatever it was he was doing.

Undaunted, Maggie worked on. Her result? Frosty, the snowpile.

That’s my girl, she’s no quitter!!

I love you all!!

A Ghostly Morn

This morning I woke up to snow. No big surprise there, eh? But, as the morning progressed and things began to lighten up an eerie fog glided in from the south.

It was the strangest thing…like a ghost moving north. There’s a house and garage in clear view behind this tree normally…only about 150 yards past it actually.

It was kind of pretty, as a matter of fact.

I was pleased that the picture I took effectively captured the strangeness of the fog. It was striped…laying in layers. This is what photography is all about. Capturing a moment in all it’s mystery.

Love you all.

Somebody REALLY Loves Me!

I got super spoiled for Valentines Day this year. One of the advantages of having a husband who works in another state and misses you desperately I guess. And there SHOULD be advantages, darnit. Lord knows there are plenty of DISadvantages. But, I won’t get into all that now! Cause this post is a thank you of sorts. And a brag session of sorts.

My honey, he knows the way to my heart. Fortunately, for him and the kids the way to my heart is through my kitchen. The way to their hearts is through their stomachs. See how we foil each other perfectly?

Chefs Catalog, they are starting to love me…

So is Penzey’s Spices…and that addiction is ALL your fault Anne Schley!! I bought kosher salt from Penzeys recently and it’s one of my new passions.

The only problem with my new passion is that  flake salt will NOT sprinkle out of a standard salt shaker. And I’ve wanted a good peppermill for YEARS. Ever since I threw my old one out as a matter fact. It was one of those items I registered for when we got married then never used because I just didn’t really GET IT. I registered for it because it was pretty…not because I understood that there is no comparison between store bought ground pepper and fresh ground peppercorns. I am now a complete pepper snob. I will never buy the store stuff again! Consequently, I needed, yes NEEDED, a peppermill. So my honey bought me these beauties.

Not to mention the 14” calphalon saute pan.

There may also have been a 6-pack of Reese’s Hearts (not pictured). I can’t recall what happened to them. I couldn’t possibly have eaten all 6 of them in 2 days though.

Thanks honey! For all my Valentine Goodies…You’re the most indulgent husband I’ve ever had!

I love you all!

You Gotta Problem?

Who me?? No problem here. The sun is shining. When the sun shines in Ohio in February all is right with the world. Well, as right as it can be in Ohio.
It’s great lighting to work a puzzle by. If you can get to it.

Buzz off! Can’t you see I’m tryin to sleep here??

Guess I’ll work on it later. By lamplight…

Love you all!

Conquering Mt Garrett

God Bless Aaron Smith and his brother. Brother Smith we’ll call him. Cause I don’t know his name. What I do know is that I am indebted. All this snow was in my driveway.

And so was all this snow.

And all of this snow.

I would have been here til June waiting for it all to melt. Who am I kidding. I’m only here til June regardless!

At least someone is enjoying the snow.

The kids are lovin’ it! No school. And a winter wonderland to play in.

Just be glad that wherever you are…it’s not HERE!!

Love you all!

It Ain’t ALL Pretty…

I know ya’ll are tired of hearing it…but believe you me…I’d rather not have any complaints right now!!! It is STILL snowing. Like it will never stop. So, Jon and I decided this morning to start getting the house ready to sell. That is IT! I am DONE!! We are SELLING!!!

I have a lovely stone bench under this apple tree. I do, really. Promise.

 

There are actually 5 steps that come down from the sliding glass door. Really, I promise.

Sure hope this little shed is built for that much snow. Well, for the sake of whoever buys this house in God forsaken Ohio…if it collapses it makes no matter to me. I’m selling!!

I can’t take much more…but I’ll have to. It is currently still snowing and we have another storm bearing down on us. We are only 4 inches short of the snowiest February on record in Ohio. We’re going to hit it. No problem. Or BIG problem depending on whether you’re stuck in it or not!!!

Break out the spring flowers North/South Carolina…I’m packin’!

Love you all!

Hate the snow!!

God Forsaken Ohio

That is where I live.

I really have had enough of the snow. Really, truly.

Early this afternoon, we took Jon to the airport and dropped him off. We had approximately 8 inches of snow bearing down on us and he thought he’d rather wait at the airport than have us out on the roads during the heaviest part of the snowfall. That plan backfired on us in a number of ways. The most quickly obvious was that we did NOT beat the snow.

It started in heavily as we were on our way to Columbus and  did not stop or slow down in the least all the way there or back. I have the luxury of being a housewife. So, I rarely venture out of the house when we have big snowfalls. No need to. Honestly, therefore, I cannot remember the last time I had to go out and drive on snow. Well, I mean snow like that. The kind where 4 inches falls in 2 hours. The kind of snowfall in which the road is completely covered 5 minutes after the road warriors have plowed. Add to the snow on the roads quarter mile visibility. The snow was falling that hard and fast. AND my windshield wipers kept freezing up. For a good 30 miles on the way back I had to slouch to peer through a 2 inch strip of clean windshield. It got so bad that I had to navigate to the berm (which had not been plowed AT ALL) to clean off my wipers. I pulled over on I-71 near 36…and let me tell you…God was with me. Less than an hour after I stopped there there was a HUGE accident near there. According to CBS news (local) there are dozens of cars involved. I believe the accident is on southbound and I was on northbound ~ so my point is the roads…they are BAD.

But, that is not enough. It’s not that easy. About 40 minutes into our nearly 2 hour trip home, the text messages started coming from Jon. His flight was delayed…the runways were temporarily closed…talk of shutting down the airport…and finally, his flight was cancelled. What is a good wife to do???

I’ll never know if I made the right call or not…but I continued home with my precious cargo. I was close to home and scared and stressed out and I’d been driving for 25 miles an hour for, well, for an hour. I debated dropping the kids off somewhere and going after him…briefly. In the end, I decided I’m of more use to all of them alive than dead and dead is a distinct possibility on those roads. Then, I told him to get a hotel room near the airport if he could find transportation. They did have something running snowbound passengers to local hotels. So, that is where my honey is right now. At some seedy hotel near Port Columbus. He’s been rescheduled to a flight tomorrow at 11:20 am. Frankly, I have serious doubts about that flight making it out too. And I’ve already given up ANY hope the kids will have school tomorrow.

If it doesn’t stop snowing soon, like really soon, I am going to cry. Cry and blubber and flip my finger over my lips like a babbling crazy person. You would think God is trying to chase me out of Ohio or something.

For every pretty picture, there’s a road that can’t be traversed.

Or even seen for that matter.

And I’m not feelin’ the love right now!

Except for you all, of course.

My Honey Is Home (and other stuff)

After a 150 minute delay, due to inclement weather, USAir finally saw fit to deliver my man into my arms last night. Well, into my van anyway. I cannot remember the last time I was so happy to see my husband. It had been 3 weeks!!! That is a long time! The first thing we did when we got home was celebrate his birthday. His birthday was actually Thursday, but we didn’t get to see him then…so we waited…and made up for it on Friday!

I got him an MP3 player. Which I loaded our song on. Which I thought was a nice little “Valentine’s Day” touch. The kids got him Halo, for the computer…a greatest hits Lynard Skynard cd and a wall charger. He seemed to really like all his gifts and of course, all the fuss. My honey is ALL about the fuss on his birthday!

And THIS…

This is a dadgum shame and I know it. You can’t see me, but I’m hanging my head in shame.

Today, was Liam’s first basketball game. I have one word for you, well more than one…the one is B-O-R-I-N-G!!! The other words would be…is it almost baseball season yet???

You can’t tell it by looking outside right now, but it is! I signed Liam up today!!! The light around the court-ner.

I have some misgivings about signing the boys up this year. I’m afraid we won’t be here…or worse we will be stuck here because they are playing baseball. But, both boys LOVE playing and I cannot with hold that fun from them or ask them to put their lives on hold. So, we’re going ahead.

Liam signed up with Highland again, hopefully sticking with the same coaching team he had last year. Sam wants to play for Marengo this year.

My best news today is this…

Motivated by my embarrassment to be seen with him at Liam’s game this morning, we took Sam for a haircut!

I love you all!!      

Sam Vs. The World

Sam shared his world with me this afternoon. And I was struck with how small it really is. After school today he asked if he could play Wii in the living room. I begrudgingly told him he had 30 minutes. And that whatever he played had better entertain me. He did not disappoint! Of course, I also told him he needs to get his arse off my table. That apparently went unheard.

He has renewed his love affair with his Wii since we got wireless internet. And I can certainly see why. I told him 30 minutes about an hour ago and I have yet to put my foot down. I am endlessly entertained. Cheering him on as he faces players from all over the world. Literally all over the world. That is just amazing to me. I grew up watching my brothers play mario. Let me tell you something…it’s a whole new world on the game scene. Most of you probably already KNEW this! But, I live in a bubble.

  So, I am somewhat in awe of the genius involved behind the scenes of my son sitting in our living room racing against mimi. Mimi showed on the map somewhere in northern Europe. It didn’t show us where fabian bon was…but my imagination puts them near the Eiffel Tower. Bonjour Fabian, shall we race??

I mean really. How cool is that? And poor cook, God bless her soul. I don’t know where or who she is, but Sam didn’t like her a bit this afternoon. How funny is it when Sam yells, “COOK ~ I just recently hate her” when she beats him for the second time in a row.

Yes, his 30 minutes is up. I most likely should make him go do his homework. Instead, I think I will cheer him on to victory in this small, small, very small world he lives in!

I love you all! 

Colder Than a Witch’s Teat

That is how cold it is outside this morning. Being my brilliant self, I decided I had to go out and get some pictures of it. In my pj’s and crocs.

Yes, I am wearing no socks. Hey, I’m an Ohio girl. We Ohio girls have really thick blood. And hides. And hineys.

I was actually quite disappointed with the pictures. They do not adequately capture the beauty of this bitterly cold morn. And when I say bitterly cold, I ain’t jokin’. –2 degrees. That was the temperature when I headed out. In my pjs and crocs.

Pi, our “barn” cat didn’t have the sense to head to said barn. When we emerged, he was covered in frost. Inbreeding.

There was a thick hoar frost on all the trees. I’m going to have to do some research…cause I just didn’t get it. I think maybe there wasn’t enough light yet.

So, sadly, I cannot truly share with you how gorgeous really cold can be.

And gorgeous it was. Gorgeous enough to entice me out in my pjs and crocs. With no socks.

You can see the frost on the trees in the background on this pic. Still, disappointing though.

Oh well. I will keep working on it. I may have to put some clothes on first. And socks.

Love you all!        

My Bad Night

Did you ever see the movie The Little Rascals? I love that movie. I thought of it last night…one line in particular. The line where Alfalfa says, “and the clouds opened up and God said, “I hate you Alfalfa”.” That is how I felt last night.

We had a doozy of a snow storm hit yesterday afternoon and evening. The kids got out of school early. Liam already had plans to spend the night with a friend, and we didn’t cancel it. I had some serious doubts but spoke with the other mother and relented. They have a 4wheel drive truck and she had no concerns about getting him home. Plus, I knew if I cancelled it he would be totally ticked off at me!! So, Mags and Sam were home early and I thought it would be a really cozy weekend.

It had started so well you see…I was baking cookies, I got flowers from my husband.

All was right with the world. Things started going bad around 4pm. I called to order pizza for supper. Kelly’s pizza, because Jon doesn’t like Kelly’s…and the kids and I DO. But, I called and there was no answer. Didn’t surprise me really. The roads were pretty bad and I felt kinda crappy about asking her to deliver anyway, so I shrugged my shoulders, decided it wasn’t meant to be and started on some crust to make homemade. I’ve been attempting to perfect homemade pizza for years and we have a pretty good thing going at this point. So, while things were not going as planned, I was not yet ruffled. That didn’t happen until we were eating and I suddenly realized the furnace was idling. Like in the warm up phase…only it just kept doing that and doing that and doing that. Never kicking on. So, me being me, I freaked the heck out. Started melting down, turned off the furnace. Having visions of the kids and I passing out from CO poisoning. Going to bed and never waking up. I know, I have issues. I called Jon and wigged out on him, poor guy. He called Alum Creek H&C. Then they called me. Long story short…i turned off the furnace, cranked up the propane heaters in the basement and went to bed. Half expecting to never wake up. I know, you think I’m joking, but I seriously do have issues. Y’all know it’s true.

This morning the guy from Alum Creek came out and got the furnace running. Snow is clogging the fresh air pipe from outside (on the roof of course), so he told me to leave the panel off so it could pull fresh air from the house. Which looks like this:

See all those little jets of fire? He figures I should leave it open like this for a week or so. Are you kidding me??? No? Please? I am consumed with paranoia I tell you. A total freak, I am.

Despite all that…today is a good day. We have heat, I have chili in the crock pot and the kids have given me 2 minutes of peace while they played in the snow twice!

And hey! Guess what? When the snow finally stopped…the sun came out!! Isn’t that how it always happens? Love you all!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Happy Birthday to my daddy!! Hope you have a great day! Love you!!

My Silly Boy

Have I ever told you I’m a firm believer in co-sleeping? Well. I was when my kids were babies anyhoo. Sam slept with me until he was almost 3. Maggie was a bit different. She never wanted to sleep with Jon and I. Too much like her mother I guess. She wants her space, spread eagle, every little bit of her space. On my part it was pure laziness. I nursed the kids, all three of them. Yes, my breasts are a sad testimony to this fact. It was just so much easier to have them right there with me when they got hungry. Breast feeding was one of the best things I ever did, or the three best. I firmly believe it births and nurtures an unbreakable bond between mother and child that is exquisitely beautiful in it’s intimacy. I also firmly believe it absolutely destroys your breasts. But, in the end it’s worth the cost. I think. Maybe. Co-sleeping, on the other hand? Well, co-sleeping, not so much.

You see, it ruined my middle child for life. To this day, he does not like to sleep alone. He begs to sleep with Sam, with Maggie, with the dog, ANYBODY. He will happily sleep with anyone aside from himself. He hates to sleep alone. Since Jon has been working in Charlotte, Liam has slept with me every night. Last night, when I went to bed, this is what I found.

Somehow, the boy fell asleep with his flashlight laying on his face. He was pretty out. He didn’t wake when I took the picture. Or when I took the flashlight. Ain’t he sweet? My little snuggle bunny.

Love you all!

10 Things That Make Me Happy :^)

Ok, so I apparently have been “tagged”. Once tagged, the tagee must post 10 things that make them happy. Now I think we all know some of them (ie Jesus, my hubby and kids, yada yada yada). Therefore, I am NOT going to name them. I am going to attempt to come up with ten things besides them. I’m a crotchety ole biddy, so this may be difficult, but here it goes:

1. Sunshine ~ sunshine always makes me happy (unless I am trying to take a nap, in which case it annoys me).

2. The mountains ~ something about the mountains brings peace and joy to my cluttered, befuddled mind.

3. My camera ~ i know, it’s just a thing, but it gives me joy. Capturing a second in time is fun, especially if you can do it with style!

4. The Beach ~ the beach usually combines family and sun, you just cannot go wrong with that. Well, ok, you can…but lets not get into all that!

5. Birdsong ~ You hear very little in the winter. In the spring, in Ohio, when I begin hearing the song birds it lifts my heart.

6. The Ohio State Fair ~ My whole life I have spent approximately 11 months of every year looking forward to the Ohio State Fair. The butter cow, the ag building, the baby pigs, the smells (some good, some not) the FOOD!!! Oooooh, I love it! And if we move to SC or NC I will have to come up every few years to go. I don’t think I could just give it up cold turkey!

7. Christmas ~ You all know I am a Christmas freak. The trees and decorations. The cookies and the gifts. I love, love, love Christmas!

8. Worship ~ Sometimes at church, sometimes in the car. Every once in awhile, you have one of those moments where you are suddenly, deeply in awe of God and the wonders of his creation. These moments always leave me happy and are usually a pleasant surprise as they tend to happen randomly.

9. Butter ~ you know it. I have an issue, a butter addiction if you will. I love butter, love cooking with it, baking with it, just slathering it on a piece of bread. It’s good stuff, what can I say. One of these days I’m going to try to drag that butter cow home with me!

10. John Denver ~ a few tunes by John lift my spirits no matter what. If there is someone out there who can listen to Grandma’s Feather Bed and not crack a smile, I’d like to see it!

Wow,  I should have stuck to the obvious. That was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but, it did make me smile roughly 10 times! \

I love you all!