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!

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 !

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!

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!

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!)

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!

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!

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"!

Just "Squeaked" By

I don't do too many posts about our cat Squeak..wait, Jack would say: "She's YOUR cat"! Yes, I'm the one who found her on a rainy, cold November night begging for food at our church.  I'm not a huge cat fan, but I hated seeing her looking so bad and I thought, since we lived in the country, that a good "mouser" would be a good thing.  So I brought her home and took her to the vet to get checked out and also get fixed..you know, took her Saturday night privileges away.  The funny thing about that was the fact that after she was put to sleep and shaved...they discovered she had already been "fixed"...oops.  Oh well, she came home and turned out to be a good mouser and a good chipmunk destroyer.  She was never a very friendly cat. She liked to be petted only if it was her idea and then she would bite you after she'd had enough. The Grandkiddos learned to stay away and admire her from afar! Well, this Winter she has been doing a lot of this:

And this:

I also noticed that she had not been eating or drinking in the past few days.  She hasn't been sleeping in her usual spot either.  She's been hiding out under beds and desks in various parts of the house. All strange behavior.  This morning she was stumbling around and acting like she had had a stroke.  I felt that this was the end. I called the vet and made an appointment to get her checked out and I told them we would probably be having her put to sleep.  When I got home I found her in  the computer room sleeping.  I bundled her up and Jack and I took her to the vet.  They checked her out, did blood tests. She was acting better actually and the vet found out about her "not so nice" side. Sorry Doc about that nasty scratch! Anyway, after looking her and her tests over he said she was dehydrated, had an upper respiratory infection, but was otherwise in good health.  So she got an IV, some antibiotics, and a pain shot. (Not sure she needed that, now we have a cat that's sort of on the "high" side) We brought her home and although she's still not eating, she seems a bit better.  The Vet said give it about a week and we should see her back to her old self. Like this:

And this:

I guess she cashed in on one of her nine lives. We'll see how it goes this week. I'm thinking I'll see this face saying:" Yep YaYa, I got the last laugh!"

Yes, she just "squeaked" by!

House Hermit

I'm sure everyone is tired of us northerners whining about the freezing cold and snow. Actually, I'm tired of us northerners whining about it!  I notice that the south is getting hit too.  I won't say I smiled or smirked or even felt a bit redeemed..you know.."Well, now they understand how it is" feeling.  Seriously, I won't say it..out loud.  Frankly, this is just the way it is and it is Winter and if we don't like it, then move! (not south because we all know it's cold down there too..hehehe..oh, sorry)  I welcomed the weekend with open arms.  Last week was busy at work and I was beat by Friday night.  Saturday the weather was nasty.  You can't tell by this photo, but it was almost white out conditions off and on all day.

I was nervous about it because Jack had a seminar in Columbus all day and he left around 6:30am.  I was happy when he called to say he arrived but I knew it would be worse coming home.  And it was!  Thankfully all went well and his little Jeep got him there and back...thank goodness for 4 wheel drive!  I, on the other hand, never  left the house Saturday!  I did the usual stay at home things...like make breakfast for these 2 little monkeys!

Notice the candlelight? It looks lighter in the kitchen then it really was. Lexi wanted all the lights out so we could really enjoy the ambiance! The menu request was pancakes, waffles, bacon and smoothies....and they were pretty tasty!  Later in the morning the girls headed out to visit their other Grandma and I cleaned and read and looked outdoors to see if a swim in the pool would be nice....kidding!

It's just one big icecube! Brrrr...

Grabbing a chair and sitting on the deck was out too! Yes, those are my herbs still in the pots from Summer....please don't judge!  I did make the house smell really yummy with an apple crisp baking in the oven.

Jack appreciated it when he came home! 

I took this pic, not because the sky is blue..which is rare around here, but because it was this light out at 5:30pm! Yes folks, the days are getting brighter, later! I notice in the morning it's a teensy bit lighter too.  Hope springs eternal!  January only has a few days left....whew.  Today I'm home for a low census day and it makes my weekend a little longer.  I'm not complaining about that.  The temps will rise to 10de. but even with that heat wave, school was closed.  I may actually leave the house...perhaps take Eddy to the Creepy Woods....but he seems content to stay close to home and play with is toys.

Yes, YaYa, these are mine and I have them lined up the way I like 'em!  So back off!

Just That Kind Of Day

Did you ever have a day where you just knew it was going to be "one of those kind" of days?  I went to a motivational speaker last year who said we should always wake up in the morning and say out loud: "Today is going to be the BEST day ever!"  Well, I didn't say that and it wasn't.  Nothing super crazy happened and frankly I'm not sure why I was not in the best mood.  Perhaps because I was going to get to work a little early today and be ready to take my CPR test at 7am sharp. I thought I had it all planned out. I had my breakfast and lunch made the night before and I was ready! But I couldn't find my phone and with the weather being beastly....another reason to have a bad day I guess...I didn't want to drive anywhere without it.  Here's how it went down: Jack:  "I 'll call your number and we'll listen for the phone to ring"....He dials the number....Jack: "Can you hear that buzzing?"  Me: "No". Jack dials again. Jack: "Can you hear that buzzing?" Me: "NO!"...Jack dials again. Me: " I hear the buzzing!" He dials again and finally I find it..under my side of the bed.  I told Jack I had no clue how it got there.  Of course he helped me figure it out...I took it there...duh. Ok, so now I'm leaving for work late.  Now I'm also mad.  I'm also hating Winter.  It's dango cold out here! Super freeze is back with some snow thrown in just to make sure our hate is complete. I park the car and make the trek...the long trek...limping all the way with my bad knee.  I did take my test and passed it so I should be a happy camper. No, not me..I had multiple things happen that just made me grumpy. I'm on call tonight and of course I had plans to go to a class at the Church tonight to learn "chair yoga"..or "choga" as I lovingly called it!  That was before 2 emergency cases kept me at work until 7pm.  So I guess that's my excuses and I'm sticking with them!  I never did see this:

That's the sun over the Pines...taken a few days ago.  I don't even know if the sun came out at all today! It was dark when I left for work..dark when I came home.  But I did find one part of the day that made me laugh.  My silly co-workers having some crazy down time before heading for home.  So even though I had to stay and work, I shot this video because it gave me a giggle.  See if you agree.  I won't be sad if you don't..because..well..it's just that kind of day!

Pink Scarf Reality

Many of you who follow my blog know I'm involved in the "Pink Scarf Project".  We collected hundreds of pink scarves to hand out to cancer patients going through chemo and radiation.  We had the privilege of doing this in our hospital in October of last year.  October is breast cancer awareness month.  The newspaper ran an article about it and featured the first patient who received one.  She was very gracious in granting an interview and really enjoyed the scarf and was so thankful to the people who took the time to make them.  Yesterday I found out that she passed away.  That's the reality of dealing with cancer.  Not every story has a happy ending.  I know our scarves won't eradicate the disease.  They don't bring miracles.  I wish they could. But my wish is those scarves will bring a moment of hope.  A moment that says somebody cares and knows that you are in the fight of your life and we're in your corner.  A moment that might bring a smile.  There are many times that we do beat the monster called cancer.  Many times there is a happy ending.  I'm wishing that for my good buddy Donna.  So far so good for her!  One day in our hospital lobby I happened to see an older gentleman walking out holding one of our scarves.  It looked like he was holding it for his wife.  It made me smile to see it and I hope it brought them some happiness.  I thought I knew about cancer...I've seen it in my work life.  I know what it looks like on the liver...on the breast...on the colon.  I've felt the tumors, I've help implant the ports that deliver the chemo.  However, until I saw the reality of it on the faces of people I love, I realized I didn't know "squat" about it. I didn't know what going through chemo was like..or how radiation makes you feel.  How expensive the drugs are to treat it and keep it at bay.  How the other members of the family have to deal with watching somebody they love go through it.  I've learned a lot about it these past few years.  That's what made me decide to help with the project. We still have lots of scarves that will be sent to other places for patients.  I won't know the final outcome of all who receive one.  I'll just hope and pray someday we won't need to hand them out...and the reality of the Pink Scarf is a cure.

Blog Book

Every year about this time I eagerly await the arrival of my blog book.  Today it came! I always blog about my blog books.  Probably because it's January and there's not much to blog about anyway!  I take all my blog posts starting January 1st and ending with December 31st and put them into book form.  I used "Blog2Print.com" but the company "sharebook" puts them together.  There's different sites that will help you do this.  Usually it's pretty easy to navigate but for some reason I had a hard time getting the posts in the right order. I had to email the company 3 times to have them fix the problems.  I wasn't a happy camper.  I let them know.  I never heard back from them about my displeasure.  However, I did get the book so I guess I'm happy now...but I'm not sure I'll use this company  next year.  Anyway, here's the finished product.

I do a different color each year.  I usually get a soft cover but I went all out this time and got a hard cover. Snazzy!

You get chapters and everything!

A whole year of my life all neat and tidy and oh so interesting...Ok, neat and tidy anyway!  I was noticing that I had the exact same amount of posts in 2013 that I had in 2012.  I wonder if I posted about the same things each year....hmmm, I guess I'll have to check.  Yep, many posts were similar.  Oh well, it's good to see some things never change!  But my book made me smile and then I remembered something else that made me smile....this little guy:

Saturday Jack and I went to watch Cameron play basketball.  This is his first year and let me tell you, it is so hilarious to watch 5&6yr olds learning the game.  He was having a great time out there and made a ton of baskets! He may be little, but he's feisty and has a good eye for the hoop!  Here's his smile after the game.  Those glasses and that cowlick on the front of his hair always makes me want to squish him!