Two thoughts-January 31, 2015

First I want to say that I hope your team wins tomorrow!

Secondly, have a wonderful Sunday. Enjoy the Sabbath.

Banana Cupcakes-January 30, 2015

Hannah has grown so fond of our little kitchen that all I have to do is walk into it and she grabs the stepstool and climbs up to watch. I know that she has not seen some of the things I cook so she really watches very closely.

I am sure this was her first experience with sifted powdered sugar.

She'd touch it and giggle. We told her to taste it and she couldn't quit laughing.

Yes, the artwork on the refrigerator is hers. Every single piece of it.

 

 

Powdered sugar mustache and devilment in her eyes.

That's our Hannah!

 

After we were finished I washed the dishes by hand. Hannah even stood and watched every thing I did. So, I explained to her how to wash each dish. It took a long time but she was soaking up every word. (Since I have not had a dishwasher for the past 4 years it is actually easier for me to wash dishes by hand than to load and unload the dishwasher. And it's certainly faster.)

 

We had a wonderful day, perhaps the best one ever. These are such precious times. We hope we are making good memories for Hannah, too.

 

She stayed until her Daddy was on his way home from work. I believe she would have stayed overnight but we bribed her to get in the car and go home. We have to be back there tomorrow morning at 9:30 so we wanted a break.

 

For the record, the banana cupcakes are excellent. Hannah did it!

 

Farm Show-January 29, 2015

Yesterday Derrick, Hannah and Jerry went to the Greeley Farm Show. It happens every year but obviously Jerry has not been in a number of years. He really has no need to go, but it seemed like a nice family outing. Hannah just loved all the huge tractors and combines. She has farmer's blood running through her veins.

Hannah climbed into this one and sat on the jump seat and then

informed her Daddy that he could sit in the other one. She's

a bossy little thing sometimes.

 

She has absolutely no fear of heights. I think that's not good at

such a young age.

 

Jerry was glad he went because he ran into a long time friend from high school. Paul and his wife Kathy introduced Jerry and me. Note I did not say Jerry ran into an "old friend". We don't use that word in our house! Jerry and Paul are having lunch today. I hope they get caught up on all the water that's gone under the bridge since we saw them last. Kathy is working and I am catching up on laundry. We'll get together another time.

 

We have bright sunshine and blue skies today. What a beautiful treat!

 

 

Nice day-January 26, 2015

It was such a nice day today that we went for a walk without jackets on. It was in the high 60s. Tomorrow is supposed to be slightly warmer. In this part of the country during this time of the year this nice weather means only one thing-we will pay for this down the road. Little Miss Hannah was so ready for a long walk that she willingly wore her sunglasses.

She is growing so fast we can't believe it.

 

I forgot to share the picture of Hannah in the pet store last week.

She really enjoyed the fish more than anything else.

 

We will have both girls tomorrow for a short time. Zoey is trying harder to communicate and tell us what she likes or dislikes. She works very hard at getting Hannah's attention, too.

 

There are farm shows and farm sales going on this week and weekend so I am not sure where the girls will end up. Jerry will be attending those, too. But we will all be fine and we'll have fun.

 

Not much else going on now. We are just happy to have nice weather for a few days.

 

 

Still here!-January 21, 2015

I am struggling to find time to post on this blog. Where does the time go? I guess when we are babysitting 4 or 5 days a week, even for just a few hours a day, we are left with little free time. That is not a complaint. It's just a statement. We are having so much fun. The weather has been quite an adjustment especially after spending so much time in Las Vegas, but we are settling in for now. Knowing that spring is still a very long time from now in this part of the country is difficult but we are not quitters. We're hanging tough.

Please allow me to share some completely unrelated pictures.

A year ago you could not put anything on little Hannah's head. Now

she loves to play ghost. Please disregard the mess and just look at her.

We have learned to live with things a bit in disarray so we can spend

time having fun.

 

 

Hannah has this plastic toy in her house that has 50 plastic balls in it.

She uses them for lots of games including grocery shopping.

This caught my attention that all that plastic causes static electricity.

She never feels it, but we love looking at it.

 

On a different topic. The leftover snow at the high school across the

street is like a flame attracting a moth. Kids cannot stay away. Yesterday

these kids decided they wanted to look brave so they spent an hour getting

their SUVs  to the top of the snow pile and then standing on the hoods. Idiots.

We watched them only in case a vehicle turned over and we needed to call 911.

 

Again, an unrelated topic. You know me. I always look up.

This mass of clouds which have no official name caught my attention.

They are just interesting. I cannot get enough of sunrises, sunsets and clouds.

 

So as you see we are still alive and kicking. It snowed a lot early this morning but finally the sun came out and we hopped in the car and went shopping. We are slowly adjusting to the cold and snow. And most of all, we are having so much fun with Hannah. Life is good. We have no complaints. And we are thankful for each day. This is where we are supposed to be for now.

 

 

 

 

Checking in-January 16, 2015

Where is the time going? We had Hannah yesterday, both girls tonight and tomorrow I will watch both of them while Derrick and Jerry clean all the cars. They are so nasty. The cars, not the girls! This time of year no matter what color your car is, it's still brown and they are all the same shade of brown. Not a pretty sight.

I have been taking pictures of that wild and crazy Hurricane Hannah but have not had time to move them from my phone to my computer. I'll get it done soon.

We are tired but still alive and kicking. In fact we are dancing with Hannah. When she is in the mood to dance you are not allowed to sit down. She names every dance so we just go along with it and dance until we drop.

Enjoy your weekend. Hope your weather is nice with lots of sunshine and fresh air.

Unrelated topic-January 11, 2014

Please pardon me for using this "travel" blog to express my views about a McDonald's commercial. It has nothing to do with anything except it is bugging the daylights out of me.

You know they adopted a new line for their commercials. It's all about love. Hogwash. This one commercial starts out sweet with an animated postal work sharing a milk shake with a dog. Not really brilliant but that's their idea, not mine. As the commercial progresses, a tiny voice starts singing and I kid you not, she sings "Pregnant at 13, at 14 everything was different but at 15 all was fine". Pregnant at 13? What on earth? Why does that need to be in a commercial? It has nothing to do with love. And it certainly has nothing to do with McDonald's French fries.

I am disgusted. I am repulsed. I am annoyed beyond words. If I ate at McDonald's I would boycott them. But we don't eat there. Somehow I will figure out a way to let headquarters know how fed up I am with that line of thinking.

In the meantime, please listen for the commercial. And please do what you are led to do.

Now, let's all have a wonderful day!

Note: After I posted the above blog, they played another commercial (during the football game). This one had animated characters in a boxing ring. The song starts the same with "Pregnant at 13, but the words for ages 14 and 15 are slightly different though along the same lines. What do you think?

Boring repeat-January 7, 2015

We're either simple minded or bored out of our minds or perhaps we are OCD, but we stood for a very long time and watched 3 snow plow trucks as they tried to finish cleaning the high school parking lot across the street. You could tell they were having way too much fun. It certainly entertained us, too.

This driver who was the fastest of the three did not anticipate how

very deep the snow was. He hit it like a brick wall before he slid sideways

and then was stuck. I guess it helps to get out and look at the snow.

 

Second driver says "No problem. I'll push you out". The second

truck was unable to help. So driver number 3 came in and both put chains

on the first truck. They pulled him out. No doubt there was a discussion

on how to plow more effectively. Or they were laughing their heads off.

 

They all worked together and we could almost hear them making

noises like they were riding a bull in competition. We could imagine

they were waving their hats waving in the air!

 

Maybe it's more fun for us because we are not out in it. We did get out for about 20 minutes this afternoon but came back quickly. We are finally supposed to get a break in the bitter cold tomorrow. I'm really starting to feel sorry for the people who have to work outdoors in this cold. I have noticed that the construction going on in this complex has stopped. You can't pour cement in this and you can't dig foundations in frozen ground so they have to stop. I guess if you work outdoors, you have extremely warm clothing and you know how to stay warm. We have not made that adjustment yet. I still don't have snow boots! I have not had time and if there's that much snow I will just stay home until I find time to go shopping. That's one of the perks of being retired.

 

 



 

 

The white stuff isn't sand-January 4, 2015

Yesterday's snow actually only lasted a little over two hours as predicted but it really dropped a lot of the white stuff in that length of time. At 8:00 last night the snow removal people were here cleaning as best they could. This is one of the main reasons we wanted to be in a condo. There's so much snow and not many places to dump it but it's not our problem. Shoveling snow is the pits, just ask Jerry. It is law that sidewalks have to be cleared within 24 hours of the snow's ending. We don't have to worry about that. And we are thankful.

School starts tomorrow so the city had to send in the snow plows this morning to get the high school parking lot cleared. The snow plow drivers were very fast and they had a big section cleared in no time.

This driver was really fast. You can see how much of the

parking lot has been cleared. It was 9 degrees while

they were working. So the snow was not melting.

 

Just to show you how much snow is stacked up in the

parking lot, look closely. See the snow plow truck? That

pile of snow is likely to be there a very long time.

 

 

I did happen to get up early this morning so I was able to get a picture of the sunrise. I suppose some people think a sunrise is just a sunrise and once you've seen one you've seen them all. I don't agree with that. I see each as uniquely different and beautiful in its own way. I also feel that God paints these pictures for us to enjoy and appreciate, but we have to slow down a bit to see them, or get up early!

 

It was 7 below zero when I took this picture but the sun makes

you think it's warmer than that. Not.

 

We will have Hannah with us tomorrow. Then on Tuesday we have both girls for almost all day. So I probably will not be posting anything in the next few days. We so enjoy being able to spend time with them. It makes the snow and the cold more tolerable.

Repeat-January 3, 2015

I'll begin by saying that once Jerry and I left Colorado we vowed never to live here again. The weather is just awful. There are only two seasons--white and brown. However, all of that was BH. Before Hannah. We are still willing at this point to tolerate what I am about to show you just so we can be close to her. She brings sunshine to our lives even when it is snowing.

Speaking of snowing, yes, it is snowing again. We were going to Derrick's house this afternoon but then the snow started and we are staying home.

I was trying to show you the size of the snow flakes. It doesn't show.

The snow started very lightly about noon. This was taken at 2:00

this afternoon, about 20 minutes ago. It's quite a snow which they predict

will only last about 2 hours. We'll see.

Still another attempt at seeing snow flakes. I need a really nice

digital camera. I had hoped Santa would bring me one, but he

must have missed our new address.

 

This is looking across the street at the high school parking lot.

This is close to being white out conditions. There is a nice road out there but

you can barely see it. Visibility is worse than poor. So happy we are not out in it.

 

We'll see if the sun comes out tomorrow.

 

Have a very blessed Sabbath. Rest and relax.