Saturday, January 31, 2009

Snow pics on our road...for Jeter's curiosity

This picture is looking east from the highway towards our house (on the left side of this road). It has snowed almost EVERY day this past week. Fortunately, it hasn't added too much in height/accumulation (it flurried several days, but all day long at least two of those days). But when it wasn't snowing, the wind was blowing the snow around, making some roads really nasty!

This view is from my car window--literally--to show how high the drift had gotten!

We had over a foot of snow on the ground to date (since Christmas, because it was almost gone due to 50 degree temps on 12/27). Today (Saturday) was warmer than it has been, but only got to 38 here, and this afternoon was windy. So, the pile may have gone down a little, but it didn't disappear.... too bad.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Thursday snow and Patrick chasing birds

Another view of that deluxe frost we got yesterday morning. It does make for a pretty picture!

Here's tuxie Patrick sitting in his favorite spot waiting for the birds. He caught one junco yesterday (it appeared lame from hitting a window first, however), and it didn't survive. He wanted to bring it in to play with the other orphans, but I didn't let him.

He's only caught one other wren, and it took off flying pretty quickly as he let it out of his mouth to play with.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Picture postcard?

That's the view to the west of our house this morning as it was foggy and snowy again overnight and the trees are heavy with frost this morning. It's too bad it wasn't sent to me. I'd rather be somewhere warm today. It's a balmy 2 above zero here now, after being 5 below overnight.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Tuesday without a cell phone....

(This is Alex playing ping pong in Des Moines against his dad last week during his party. I think most posts are more interesting with a picture, even if it isn't brand new. That table was built by my dad when we were little, and if you take the ping-pong board off, there's a pool table underneath.)

I've had a cell phone since April, 1996, and have NEVER gotten one wet before today. In gathering clothes for the washer, I threw my sweatshirt in to 'fill it' (and it needed the cat hair removed).

The washer had been running a couple of minutes when I discovered my phone wasn't where I thought I had placed it, and hit the stop button. But the washer is locked for two minutes before you can open the door, and it was two of the longest minutes EVER. Low and behold, there it was, at the bottom, filled with water.

I pulled off the back/battery and dried it quickly, and then put it in a container filled with rice to pull out the rest of the moisture. According to the Internet, this could take a couple of days. Oh well.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Dreary Monday after a cuddly Sunday

I took a couple of pictures of the 'older' furry children, but they're just not as cute as the orphans (Patrick and Ron) in this chair cuddling after a day of racing around the house (like it was the Daytona Speedway) and playing outside.

I spent the mostly-sunny-but-cold day tackling a little spring cleaning. Maybe I thought it would bring warmer temps??? Now, on to taxes and sewing!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Fridays with Pheasants....

Since pheasant hunting season is over, the pheasants have grazing through the yard and across in the corn field more. Patrick and Noel (cats) have both been chasing them through the yard in the past week. The pheasants really squawk when they are being chased!

Here's an interesting sun dog I saw on my way to Ames yesterday morning to get my oncology check-up. I passed with flying colors and don't have to have another CT scan for at least a year! Thank goodness. (I checked, and the last one was 3/2008.)

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Happy 23rd Birthday Alex!!!

Here's the birthday boy on Sunday with his little cousin, Izaac, helping him to open a present. His birthday has fallen on Inauguration days before, but I'm guessing this one will be even more memorable.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Pre-birthday party for (son) Alex! Almost 23...


The wind and snow was blowing for most of the day yesterday, so when John tried to come home (from driving a train) at 9pm, he could get to our road again, but not to our house (about half a mile from the highway)! So he had to spend another night in a Webster City motel due to the icy roads and drifts on our road. We took the interstate (I35) to Des Moines (Sunday) and saw about 20 vehicles in the ditch, some on their tops, from Saturday's wretched roads.

Here's the crowd getting settled in at Grandma Markey's to watch Alex open his presents! From left: Grandma M, Uncle Charlie (her brother), John, Izaac, Michelle Z, and Shirley (my sister).

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Izaac 1/17/09 (20 months old now!)


Here's Izaac looking a little less pale and tired than yesterday. He hasn't been here since the first week of December and he's changed. I think I've been through most of a roll of paper towels because he THINKS he can drink one-handed, cleaning up the spilled shampoo because he can now open the bottle, etc...

In the moments when the Tylenol and medicine are working and he almost acts like he feels normal, he's quick. How do I explain to Bogie (the patient cat) why he now has "Butt Paste" on his nose? I only walked to the trash can with a used diaper.

Two heads are better than one...

Picked up Izaac yesterday for the weekend. He's on medication for an icky cold that won't leave his adenoids. He's still fairly cheery for feeling crummy, and now is eating again (after a week of fevers and not eating).
I'll try and get a picture today, hopefully, and get it posted. Yesterday he still looked really tired and pale.

This is Bogart and Gracie on a sunny but VERY cold day this past week looking outside for ANY entertainment in the way of birds or bunnies.
We woke up to 22 BELOW zero Thursday morning and this morning it's 18 ABOVE. It's an improvement at least!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Blizzards here and there....

There's a blizzard warning out for us today. Yesterday didn't turn out very nice, either, with the blowing snow, etc. There's a big SUV on its side in the ditch less than a mile south of here on the highway.
New Hampshire was having blizzard conditions the other day, and there's a great slideshow of pictures taken by the U-Mass women's hockey team (involved in the accident) here.


This is a picture of the little girl (Katrina) I did a "Postal Petunia" for in Paraguay. It's like a 'Flat Stanley' they do in our elementary school. The children color a picture and send it to someone so they can take pictures of places the children don't travel to themselves.
Our niece, Rachel, the Peace Corps Volunteer, started a little group for teenage girls (like a 'girl-scout' troup), and that's the project they worked on recently. I hope the pictures I took and the explanations made sense to 'Katrina'.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

No road trip today.

We had planned on driving to Des Moines (60 miles south) to eat my mom's veggie soup, see Izaac and Samantha, etc... but John decided he'd drive to town (4 miles) and see what the roads were like (mid-morning). So he did, and called the trip off before he got to town.
It snowed (again) last night, and the ice didn't get completely melted yesterday and the snowplow hadn't even been on the Highway, yet, so the safest thing to do was STAY HOME.

Above is a picture of the furry kids yesterday trying to decide if they could stand to walk in the fluffy snow.
Below is a 35-second video of Ron making a path on the patio in the snow.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

The Knight is Back! THANKS CHRIS!!!!

We had several hours of freezing drizzle yesterday afternoon, followed by about 4-5 inches of snow. So, this morning, my neighbor (the Knight in Shining Armor) came with his 'new' toy, an old Massey-Ferguson tractor.

He proceeded to make some passes and scooped out the whole driveway, and continued scraping as he drove out the driveway and down the (gravel) road.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Sun dogs (?) and sleepy kitties

Not much going on around here, so I had to dig for some pictures I don't think have been posted. This one was taken on a MUCH colder day (12/20/08). Are they sun dogs or Snow dogs? It happened several days in a row about the same time, 4pm.

This is just the kitties cuddling with each other right before Christmas, probably dreaming of what Santa Claws would bring them (organic nip!).

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Congratulations Pat & Hannah!

John's cousin, Patrick, and his wife, Hannah, are new parents today! Liliana Rose came into this world about 9:30am.

Babies are a great excuse to celebrate and be optimistic about the future. All the potential, the smiles, the cuddles and hugs, and uh, the sleep-deprived days....

It's totally worth it!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

A fan of Batman, Jason Bourne, Jesse Stone & Luke Skywalker, Sam Beckett (Quantum Leap) and Gary Hobson (Early Edition)

I'm a chicken when it comes to scary movies. A good mystery or story bigger than life is what's fun for me. Our nephew, Will, gave us the dvd's for "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight". We'd already seen (and loved) "Batman Begins", but it was Alex's dvd and he took it with him when he moved out.

We had NOT seen "The Dark Knight" yet. My kids and their cousins (including Will and his girlfriend, Rachel) went to see it opening night (at midnight) last summer during our 50th birthday party/reunion. They loved it, of course. We've watched "The Dark Knight" almost every evening since Christmas (and one night we had to have a double-feature with "Batman Begins" first).

New recipe for crunchy bread....

Fortunately, my husband likes to create in the kitchen. He makes real noodles for his chicken noodle soup (the one I request most often) and homemade bread, in several different varieties.
This is a new one, on the King Arthur Flour site so he mixed the 'starter' last night, and this evening, we had hot, fresh, crunchy, yummy bread with our supper.

He has come home from a restaurant, looked for a recipe for a 'guide' and duplicated some of the foods we have enjoyed (like Stromboli, with homemade sauce and bread) with the first attempt!
I used to cook when the kids were home, but now it doesn't seem as important as other things I want to accomplish.
Happy New Year everybody!!!

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