Spring, Oh Glorious Spring!

It has been quite of week up here in ther right hand corner of the USA.
More snow (it's snowing while I type this) and more cold weather means out pellet stove is working 24/7 to keep me warm and I am very tired of wearing layers of clothing.  So Spring had better be getting here soon and it will be Glorious!!

I know that you are waiting for the report from the transplant doctor.  We had a beautiful day to drive up north to the Hospital.  The 1 1/2 hour drive was just lovely.  A nurse took several tubes of blood and then we hung around to see the doctor.

He told us that my proteins were climbing and that was not good.  It looked like the ratio of cancer drugs to normal cells was 340/1.  My heart sunk.  He was going to do a test where each protein was counted by hand  to see which protein was off.  If it was only 1 protein, then we perhaps could change drugs and hit that one protein with a different chemo protocol and force it back to where it belongs.

If several proteins were out of wack, then he would want a bone marrow biopsy to see how much of my blood was cancerous.  If that was between 40-50% then I get moved up the transplant list and start preparinging for that procedure.  All I could think of was that my calendar was too full and that I didn't have time for this.  The transplant requires me to stay up in the hospital for several weeks in isolation while my body heals.  I don't want to do that!!

We agreed that we surely needed more tests to see what was going on.  We left the hosptial discouraged and depressed. One thing we both agreed on was to let our prayer warriors know what was going on and to ask them to pray.  So once we got home and told our daughter the news, we got our prayers warriors praying.

One told me that I was a miracle waiting to happen.  Another told us that the test done down here would be wrong.  As it turned out, they were both right.

Six days went by before we got the results of the latest test.  Sure enough, he felt that since the test down here was calulated by a machine, the machine was wrong and the ratio is NOT 340/1 by in fact is 27/1.  The bone marrow biopsy is off, and the stem cell transplant is off, well for at least 2 months.  We head up there again at the end of April and retest.

So for now, we change nothing, we continue with our lives and love each other and those around us.  We laugh and smile and work and live.  We are grateful to all who have prayed for us, and held us up before God.  We are even more greatful that God granted the desire of my heart to stay outside of the hospital for a bit longer.

So after a few short wild weeks, we are relaxing while it snows outside again.

Old Man Winter Wroke Up!

Our front yard in there someplace.

In November, we had snow for Thanksgiving. only enough to kill our power and make the weekend long and interesting.  In December, nothing!  We had a green Christmas and a green New Years.  I was OK with both of those.

And then came January.

Old man winter woke up and must have said "OOPS, I forgot the snow" so he opened the door to the snow storage unit and let it fall.

A lot.

And often.

In the past month we have had snow falling every few days for 3-5 inches, or a dusting to 3 inches, or  6-10 inches.  Until we have 5 feet of the stuff!  Snow banks are well over 8 feet high and trucks are on the corners knocking down the snow and trucking it away.  Where do they take the snow when they truck it out of the city?

We have icicles, or had icicles I should say.  Hubby hired someone to shovel our roof.  The man did a very nice job.  He came when he said he would, the price was fair, he got the roof clean off.

He even left a reminder for us that he was there.  Can you see it?  Look close.  There is a Dunkin Donuts Ice Coffee on top of the chimney.
Yes, we drink Ice Coffee up here in negative degree weather.  It made me laugh very hard.  I think it's still frozen up there.

So we continue to dig out.  Continue to drive slow and continue to be thankful for all we have because as Hubby put it, there are children in China without any snow at all.

Stay warm everyone,  more snow on the way.

SNOWMAGEDON HODGEPODGE!

With all the snow coming down, Joyce came up with great questions, now for our answers.

1. When did someone last suggest you 'chill out'? Or, when did you last tell someone (or want to tell someone) to 'chill out'? Or, when did you last tell yourself to 'chill out'?
I can't remember the last time I told someone to chill out or the last time someone told me to chill out.  But when I get upset, I tell myself to chill out a lot.  I take a deep breath, count to 100 (or more) and try to chill out before I make a final decision or say something I shouldn't.  Most of the time it works, but once in a while, I should have kept counting....

2. What most recently caused your heart to melt? 
I love holding my Hubby's hand while we watch TV.  We do it a lot.  I love that but what really makes my heart melt is while we are sleeping, we reach for each other.  We are just old romantics at heart.

3.  "An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered." G.K. Chesterton  

Your thoughts? When did you last experience either an adventure or an inconvenience? How did you see it at first, as an adventure or an inconvenience?  Does it feel the same in hindsight?

A few weeks ago the car broke down in traffic, I was alone.  It was an inconvenience for sure.  It was so cold and I didn't have heat in the car.  A nice police officer allowed me to sit in his cruiser while I was waiting for Hubby to get to me and then we waited for AAA.  It was an inconvenience for sure.

On the other hand, we sometimes just drive around looking at the beautiful countryside we live in.   We get lost on purpose and drive around, talking and laughing.  To me that is an adventure.  I love that.

4.  A Wendy's Frosty, root beer in a frosty mug, or a frosted chocolate cupcake...of these three, which one is your favorite 'frosty' treat?
Root Beer in a frosty mug on a hot summer day. Hands down. But since it's so cold out, I'm going with the chocolate cupcake.

5. Would you say your life so far this year has been more like a circus or a symphony? Explain why.
More of a symphony so far for sure.  Our lives are filled with joy and laughter and love and grand children.  Family, friends and I love ever minute of it.

6. Since it's a 'snow day' here, what's your favorite song containing the word 'white'?
The first one I though of was White Christmas.

7. If you had to leave the city you currently live in, what would you find the hardest to leave behind?
I love living in the country with neighbors just far away to make it so nice. I would miss the country life.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Well the state shut down. We all stayed in and waited for the snowmagedon.  And guess what?  It really didn't happen.  Yes we got lots of snow, and it blew around a lot, and it was cold.  But it was not what the snow storm of 1978 was and that was the storm this was compared to.  We didn't loose power and we are all OK.  August went out once and fell into the snow.  Since he is 10 inches tall, we knew we had at least 10 inches of show.  He jumped up and into the house in one leap and looked at me with sad scared eyes.  Me, I laughed so hard my side hurt.  

There is another snow event scheduled for the end of the week, We must be playing catch up for all the snow we didn't get in November and December.  That's OK, we're ready. 

Favorite Soup

Do you have a favorite soup?  I don't have a favorite. I just like soup on the days when it's cold, freezing rain, lot's of snow, or otherwise just way too nasty to go out.   This week, it was turkey soup.

Soup is just of of those meals that whatever is in the freezer, fridge or even in a can in the cubboard, it all goes into the crockpot and it all blends perfectly into one yummy soup. It must be the crockpot, right?  It works magic!  I like that.

We still had turkey in the freezer from Thanksgiving.  So in the crockpot it went.  To that I added some veggies that were in our freezer, corn, green beans and onions.  To that I added celery, carots, and spices.  Some chicken broth rounds out the soup recipe.  It cooks all day and fills the house with yummy aromas.  Now we had some wonderful Cranberry-Orange-Walnut-Bread that was made for us by a friend and so as the rain came down, and froze to the ground, we had a nice bowl of turkey soup and bread and stayed warm and dry.

What are you making this week?

Freezing Rain Weekend!

So how was your weekend?  Here in the upper right hand corner of the Nation it was very cold but very nice on Saturday because at least the sun was out.  It was too cold to enjoy the outside but it was nice to see the sun streaming in the windows.

Sunday it was freezing rain.  The Patriot's played in the freezing rain and that is the kind of game where those of us at home watching the game are very glad that we are not AT the game in the freezing rain but rather we are home with hot cocoa and a fire going.  WAY TO GO PATS!!

Since I'm not a football fan (can I say that and still live in the North East?) I decided to craft.

I've been really admiring the place settings I've seen on Pinterest lately and really wanting napkins.  Not the paper ones that we buy for the holidays or birthdays but real cotton, cloth napkins.  But Oh My! the prices I saw on Amazon made my Scottish  blood boil over.  So into the fabric bins I went.

I think that a really good size napkin is at least 16 x 16 inches so all I needed was material that was at least that size.  I started cutting  my material and matching it up.  I cut the material 17 x 17 inches.  I figure as long as I'm making one why not back it with a matching fabric and then have have 2.

If you're using new material, make sure to wash, dry and iron it before you cut it up but I was using what I had on hand.  So it was already washed, dried and ironed.

With right sides together, sew all the way around the material, leaving  an opening in order to turn the material right side out.  

Clip corners, cut close to the edges and turn.  

 Then you can top stitch to give it a nice finished look.  Use either a matching or contrasting thread.  Once it's all sewed, fold into thirds and fold in half and you have a great napkin.

August decided to hold down the ones that were done.  He's good like that!

In all I got 8 two sided napkins which really means I have 16 napkins.  Make them to match your kitchen, match the season or holiday.  Use the material you love.  I made some Frozen ones for the grand girls.  They are never too young to learn about napkins. If you don't have material large enough for napkins, how about using Fat Quarters?  Since they come already matched up, according to color schemes, it would be easy to get several napkins out of them.  Think I have a reason to go to the fabric store now.

Did you craft this weekend, what did you do?

How to store grooming supplies

There are lots of things a person can use to store your grooming supplies.  Some use a drawer in the bathroom, others use a basket to hold the supplies, while still others have an entire room dedicated to grooming their dogs.

Me, I have one of these to hold my supplies.

Each draw holds supplies for both dogs.  The top carries what is needed every day while the bottom holds what I use every other week.

The top has the combs and rakes and mat splitter and scissors that are needed for either dog.  The red Zoom Groom and the Blue Rake are for Beckke.  Most of the other stuff is for August.

The dryer is perfect for both dogs.  I can either place it  in its holder and aim it at August who is on the table which allows me to  blow dry him and brush him at the same time or I can hold it over Becke and blow her dry while she stands on the floor. 

This attaches to the table in the kitchen and helps hold August in place while I work on him.  It stores behind the cabinet, out of sight until I need it.  

What do you hold your grooming supplies in?

FINALLY FEELING BETTER HODGEPODGE!

Joyce likes to keep us all thinking with some hard questions,  This week is no exception.  Come think with us. 

1. What's your best piece of advice for a newly married couple? I'm asking for a friend.

Don't have any conversations with the opposite sex, that your spouse shouldn't hear.  There is nothing Innocent about flirting with a co worker, friend, or anyone.  The only person you flirt with is your spouse.

2. Before we're too far into the new year I wanted to post a question Teresa submitted during the December giveaway. Teresa blogs over at Being Refined As Silver, so everyone go say hi.

Teresa asks, "What were you doing on December 31st, 1999?"and "Did you or your family make preparations for Y2K?"

We didn't do anything different at all.  We knew that life would go on, the sun would shine, the powers that be would figure it all out.  We were not online a lot and didn't have any fear. We believe in God and we knew we were fine.
  

3. According to Global Language Monitor, the most used word of 2014 isn't a word. It's the heart emoji. Huh? How can something that's not a word be the most used word, but I digress. What do you think was your most used word in 2014?

See, a hard question!  I use lots of words so just picking one is hard, but I guess it would be "Sick."  I was sick a lot in 2014.

4. Speaking of words, it's that time again. Time for Lake Superior University to present a list of words they'd like to see banished (for over-use, mis-use, and general uselessness) in 2015. You can read more about the decision making process here, but this year's top vote getters are-

bae (before anyone else), polar vortex, hack, skill set, swag, foodie, curate/curated, friend-raising, enhanced interrogation, cra-cra (as in crazy), takeaway, and -nation (a suffering sports suffix).

Which of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word not on the list you'd like to add?

All of them sounds pretty terrible and would like to see them all go.  cra-cra is my choice for really, really needs to go.  Come on people, how hard is it to say CRAZY.  It doesn't need to be shortened.
I can't think of anything to add.  I guess I talk to people who don't use a lot a words that drive me nuts.

5.  January is National Hot Tea month? Are you a fan? Do you like flavored teas? How do you take your tea? Have a favorite cup or teapot? How many cups of tea do you consume in a given day? 

I do like tea.  I have a few favorites. Earl Gray, Scottish Breakfast tea, PG tips are among my favorites.  I drink hot tea black but like sugar and lemon in ice tea.  I don't drink tea every day so I don't have a number of cups per day that I drink.

6. Whatever happened to________________________________?

Respect, Caring for others, Please and Thank you.

7. What is one book on your must-read list this winter? 

I don't have a must read list for winter.  Sorry.

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

I love my grand girls!  They are so much fun to be around.  To watch them play or do a craft with me makes me feel so happy.  There is something about a small child telling me a story and not understanding hardly any of the words and yet the story is fascinating!  Being a Grannie is the best job EVER!

So now it's your turn.  Your answers are?????

Jammies/Rompers - Whatever you want to call them.

When it only 13 degrees and your little dog goes outside to "go" it's nice to have an extra layer on.  For August, who is very styling, that means he wears one of his rompers.  Sunday he wore his "Frozen - Olaf" romper.  Who says boys can't be up on all the newest fashion.  He sure liked to be warm.  

The pellet stove is going to keep the house warm, but sometimes a little extra is always good.

Are all of you staying warm this winter.  What tips do you for you and your pets to stay warm.

Baby It's Cold Outside!!

Like most of us in the Northeast, it's cold, down right bloody cold!  Temps are in the single numbers with wind chills well below zero. This morning (Sunday) it's 5 degrees.  5!  Luckily there is no wind chill at the moment.  Yippee!!

That makes it too cold for snow to land and pile up so there is not much on the ground and nothing to shovel but boy is it cold!

Still, the dogs need to be cared for.  August needs a bath at least every other week so this weekend, he got one from me.  I didn't go to into the office on Friday so his regular groomer didn't get a chance to get to him. But she is so generous with her time, she showed me how to shave him and since I have the shampoo here at home, he got a full bath.  He was not happy!

In good weather, he can run around outside to zoom dry, but not when it's -7 with a wind chill of -24. So he runs around the house trying to zoom dry.  Then he hides.  Funny thing is, he hides on top of me between 2 blankets.  Silly boy.

But once he's all dried and brushed out, he looks so handsome.  Don't you agree?

My tools for every day are these.  A slicker brush, letter opener (that woks perfectly as a mat splitter), Greyhound comb and Detangle spray.  Since August has a soft coat, and it's hair not fur, I never comb him with dry hair.  A light spray is all I need to keep his hair in place.

For those of you with pets who need grooming, what are your "go to tools?"

What to do when you're home sick.

Well, Craft of course.

When I wasn't coughing up both lungs and all 10 toes, I was crafting.  After all it was Christmas time.

I made some body pillows for the grand girls.  You've seen them I'm sure on Pinterest.  Basically you take 5 pillowcases and sew them together, stuff them with pillows and you have a body pillow.  Since I couldn't find 10 "Frozen" pillowcases, I made the pillow cases for both grand girls, then Hubby went shopping for 10 pillows to stuff them with.  Here is what the finished product looked liked.

It touched my heart that both girls used them to sleep on the floor for a few nights and loved them.

The other thing I did was create a better way to hold on to August's rompers.
What's a romper?  It's play clothes for a small dog to wear either as jammies or to play outside in the winter and stay warm.

August goes to day care every day with me and while I work (with Becke in my office as my office buddy) he plays.  If the weather is really terrible the small dogs will play inside with the door to the outside open  so that they can go outside to "go".  So the inside room is just as cold as the outside.  If it's not too terrible, the small dogs play outside even in the winter.  Either way, August is cold so he has play clothes to wear out there.

I've bought a few outfits but made most of them.  There is a child consignment shop in the big city and I get either 6 month or 9 month size outfits and adjust them to fit his "boy parts". T-shirts are often onezeeze with the snaps cut off and then hemmed.  Easy!  His one pants and tops are often just that, a top and pants sewed together, then the middle is cut out for his "boy parts".  It really is easy.

As for storage, I found this doll clothes rack and hung his clothes on it.  It was $6.99.  The hangers, were either hangers from baby outfits I bought for a gift and kept the hanger or one of these hangers from the Dry Cleaners.  Pull off the cardboard, bend to fit the new smaller outfit and hang your dogs clothes.

From this 

To this

2 pieces sewed together

All hung up and ready to find what I want.

Did you do any crafting this season?  What did you do?  How did it work out?

Where the heck have I been??

I have been away for a long time and I'm sorry for those who kept checking this blog and at the same time, I'm so grateful that you did.  Where have I been? Here at home.

Sick

Really sick

Tired

Really, really tired.

I came down with a cold that wore me out and then the cold turned into pneumonia.  I was on home quarantine and could not leave the house and no one could come to visit me.  Living with Cancer is a whole new lifestyle that I am not use to yet.

See, I'm in remission but I still have Cancer and I have to be extra careful when I get sick.  I can't handle others who are ill or even have germs on their clothing.  No one wants me in the hospital and so I am grounded at home.  It stinks.

Hubby ends up doing all the cooking, cleaning, washing, dog care, dog clean up, shopping, everything!!! The worst part was it was at Christmas time.   Good thing I do most of the Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving, and this year, I sent everything out to the "west coasters" right from Amazon and my wonderful Daughter In Law (DIL) wrapped all the gifts for me to put under the tree.  The gifts for the east coasters were wrapped by us before I got really sick.  But still, the house needed to be decorated, and food needed to be prepared.  We ended up not sending very many Christmas cards at all and didn't make 1 Christmas cookie.  Hubby bought Christmas cookies for the first time in 42 years.  That made me sad.

I started this year, having my Stem Cells Harvested and loosing all my hair.  I ended the year with a full head of new hair and pneumonia.  Sick at both ends with lots of bumps in the road in the middle.  I sure hope 2015 is a better year.

May your 2015 be filled with joy, laughter, and especially HEALTH.

HAPPY NEW YEAR  See you Monday.

Spring is 7 days away so WHY IS THERE SNOW IN THE AIR!

Thank you Joyce for this weeks questions, I have the answers and so do all of you readers, so play along.

1. Do you have an interest in learning about your family's heritage? Why or why not? If you know a little bit about your roots, share an interesting piece of trivia or a fun fact about someone who goes way back on your family tree.

I would like to know if the stories that I heard about in my childhood, were true or just really good bedtime stories.  One story that I know is that my Grannie was born in Scotland and was born with the name Angelique but soon after loosing her husband and having a small child to raise she could not find work suitable for a woman so she changed her name and got a job working for a seed catalog company as a man.  Since she worked away from the office, the company never knew they were paying a woman.  Smart woman.

2. Branch Rickey, the baseball exec credited with signing Jackie Robinson, is quoted as saying-

"Luck is the residue of design."

Agree or disagree? Why?

Agree.  Sometimes you make your own luck.  Work hard and prepare yourself for good things to happen.  Then when others call it luck, you can smile and and know the truth.

3. In the town where you currently reside, what's your favorite green space?

Any of the green walking trails or the many small ponds.  We have a lot of country up here in the northeast.

4. Who is your favorite comedian?

Bill Cosby, he's clean and I'm not embarrassed to watch him with others in the room.

5. March is National Nutrition Month, and almost everyone needs to improve their diet in some way.  What about you? How can you improve your nutrition on a daily basis? Will you try?

After gaining a bit over 20 pounds with cancer treatments I am trying to lose it.  However, I am having trouble with my knees so tomorrow I'm going back to the doctor to see what is happening.  I hope to be up and moving soon. If only the weather would help with that a bit now. In the mean time more salads and fruits and fewer desserts.

6. Which of these green expressions have you 'experienced' in recent weeks -green with envy, green thumb, green around the gills, or give the green light? Explain.

We have more snow on the way, in all we have had over 6 1/2 feet of snow and a good amount of it is still on the ground!  I see others on FaceBook talking about taking out their flip flops so I'm Green with envy at the moment.

7. Where is one place you don't mind waiting?
Doctor's office.  For almost 2 years now when I go to the doctor's, I get taken right in and put in a room to wait for the doctor there. Always away from the general population because I'm too sick to be around sick people.   I would love to wait in the waiting room allowing someone else to get in front of me. I would not mind at all waiting so that someone else can get the gentle loving care that I have received for almost 2 years now.  

  

8.  Insert your own random thought here.
Yes, it's another snowy day.  I so need spring and not winter at our home.  Yet, we are getting more snow.  Another day stuck inside looking out at all the white stuff.  

CONCRETE FACE PLANT HODGEPODGE!

Joyce has been coming up with the questions for a very long time and I wonder just how many more questions she has for us. She really wants to know a lot about us don't you think???? Good thing it's all in fun and you too can play along.  

1. What is something you'll never forget about the age you are right now?

This is a good age.  Any time on this side of the ground, with those I love is a good age.  This is the age I found out just how strong I am and just how great my friends are.

2. What's a household chore you've never done? How have you managed that???

WOW if there is a house hold chore that I've not done by now, I'm not about to tell anyone as I've done them all I'm sure and if I haven't done them by now, I'm not going to start now!!

3. Does nature shape our personalities more than nurture? Explain? 

Both have a hand in shaping our personalities.  Nature hands us things to conquer and personalities help us conquer those things.

4. Friday (February 28th) is 'Something on a Stick Day'...funny because Zoanna over at A Penchant for Pens recently sent me an idea for a question relating to this topic. What's your favorite food eaten on a stick? 

I don't eat a lot of foods on a stick so I would have to say either corn dogs or ice cream.

         

5. Which of your five senses do you treasure most, and why?

WOW that is a hard one, I guess it would be hearing.  I love to hear my Hubby call my name and tell me that he loves me. I love to hear him preach or tell stories or just the sound of his voice in general. I absolutely love to listen to him breath - it's so relaxing and reassuring that all is right with the world.  I love to hear my grand daughters tell me I'm the best Grannie EVER!! I love to hear my dogs talk (or sing in the case of August). I love to listen to music.

6. What's the best music, theatre, or sporting venue you've been to? What made it great?

Anywhere with Hubby becomes the best place, event ever.  A few summers back we went to a local baseball game in Manchester and it was really fun.  The sunshine, the laughter, the game and of course Hubby to share it with.

7. It's the last week of the month...in five words or less bid adieu to your February.

I don't need 5 words!  Good Riddance.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

In order to have something to blog about, I broke my nose on Tuesday in 2 places.  My lip is split and my hand is tingly.  See, I needed something to blog about and the weather is just plain boring and cold. I'm fine and will return to work Thursday night to teach and then Friday back to the office.  I will have my cane and bubble wrap to keep me from falling again but I will not see the Nose doctor until Monday (they need to be able to touch me and right now no one can touch it). I hope he can fix it so I can breath through my nose again.

Well That Was Short Lived!

Well, in just a few day out in the sun with temps in the 40's; the house went from this

To this 

But we are back in the deep freeze with temps back in the 20's with wind chills bringing it down into the teens.  But the house inside is ready for Summer!

I went to work for 4 1/2 hours yesterday and Becke was with me, she was so happy to be back there and with the people she loves.  She wagged and wiggled all the time we were there. Right up to moment I fell down and went BANG.

Yup, after 3 hours at work I fell and my fall was stopped by the hard, poured-concrete floor of the office where I ended up looking like this. There was a fair amount of blood as well coming from my nose and mouth but we got it cleaned up before we took the photo. You're welcome.

Photo taken by Hubby at urgent care so it's blurry but you get the idea.

My boss called Hubby to come get me and take me to the hospital. He was close by and showed up right away.  Becke was trying to get close to me after the fall but co-workers were caring for me and she just couldn't get very close to me but I could see her and she was standing as close as she could.

People thought it was funny that Hubby was so close by but it didn't surprise me at all. We have been married for over 41 years. He stays close, he always has.  He was right there caring for me…again!

We went to urgent care and they took x-ray pictures.  Turned out I have a double fracture of my nose, a split lip on the inside of my upper lip, and somehow I hurt my right hand.  I can type and open and close my hand just fine but I can't put weight on it and I have a hard time holding coffee or other things.  I'm right handed.

So I'm back home for a few days, wearing ice and trying to get the swelling down.  I breath through my mouth for a while and see the ENT doctor on Monday, March 3rd.  I need time for the swelling to go down  so the doctor can touch me but not so much time that my nose heals wrong.

I guess I'm better at receiving care instead of giving care. Hubby is back on "Take Care Of SWMBO Duty".  Oh SWMBO is my nick name and it stands for "She Who Must Be Obeyed."

Oh for those of you who want to know what happened? My knee (the one with the Baker's Cyst) gave out and down I went.  No I was not walking with my cane, because I have been doing so well on flat surfaces. I was taking Becke out for a quick potty walk.

Becke is depressed when I told her she was staying home again.

Poor Baby, we will be back!! A broken nose cannot stop me from getting back into the office!! Although I might show up in bubble wrap next time...
And with a walking cane!!

Enough is Enough!!

Don't know where you live, but where we live, we have had enough of winter!! It seems that every few days we get 2-4 more inches of the white stuff and the temps are in the single numbers most of the time. We even got a few days of 6-12 inches of the stuff  

I know, 2-4 inches doesn't seem like a lot - but over a few months it will look like this.

And this

Yes, it's pretty! Yes, it's peaceful! Yes, it winter!

But it has to go someplace!  Hubby is 6'3" tall and look at the snow bank next to him!! It's hard to shovel UP! The show is heavy and we are sick of it.

We do have a company that plows our driveway but the paths for the dogs and the oil man all have to be shoveled---by Hubby!  

Becke goes out first to trample down some snow because it's so deep.

Then August follows in big sisters paw prints then runs back inside and curls up in the blankets.

The icicles are betting longer and longer every day! Many in the back over the back door, we knock down so that they will not fall on the dogs but these are out front.

Hubby shovels paths for the oil man and August will run in them but they are taller than he is at the moment.  He comes if fast when he's called as you can see.

So we say

THE FIRST ONE WHO COMPLAINS ABOUT THE HEAT IN SUMMER WILL GET SLAPPED!!