Cheyenne-January 30, 2016

We decided this morning to go to Cheyenne for a few hours of shopping at Menard's. It takes at least two hours to walk through that shore which we are happy to do. It has been so wintery and today looked nice so we took off. We are only about an hour from Cheyenne, Wyoming. That gives you an idea of how far north we are in Colorado.

It was 52 degrees when we left here. We had put on lighter clothes since it was so warm. We got close to Cheyenne and the skies grew very dark. In a matter of less than 10 minutes the temperature dropped from 52 to 30 degrees. I checked the weather forecast and we felt it was safe to go ahead and shop.

The sky really did get dark.

 

We completed our shopping in the normal time frame. With nothing particular in mind we still filled our shopping cart. They have so many unique items and such fabulous prices. Plus their sales tax on non food items is only 6%. And today they had an 11% rebate on everything even clearance items. Such good bargains make shopping so much fun.

 

When we came out, the graupel falling from the sky was shocking. It was bigger than we have ever seen and it was so hard it hurt when it hit our faces. We ran very fast and unloaded the cart. Yet we were covered with the hard white stuff. It stuck to us like Styrofoam beads. And it did not melt quickly. That was quite a unique experience.

 

This house is just south of the Colorado/Wyoming border.

 

Early in our marriage when we were young we wanted to live out in the boonies like this house. We wanted to be away from the noise of city living. Now we see this as dangerous to "old" folks. We think we need to be near doctors, emergency care, food and medicine. Funny how age changes your perspective. Living this far away from civilization takes lots of planning and forethought.

 

We are waiting to see which weather forecast is correct for us. The snow should start tomorrow and last until Tuesday. Snow totals vary from 6 inches to over a foot. Who knows what we will get? I'll let you know after it arrives! We went grocery shopping yesterday so we are ready. I feel sorry for anybody who has to go grocery shopping tonight or tomorrow morning. Grocery stores get crazy as big storms move in. It goes the same for hurricanes on the Gulf coast. People want food and water. We can hunker down for quite a while so we will relax and let the snow fly.

 

Clean cars-January 26, 2016

We were successful in getting two cars and a truck clean on Saturday. There were three adults and Hannah who all worked very hard. It was about 45 degrees, the sun was shining and there was no wind. However, the water was very, very cold so we had to work fast.

What surprised us was that the Cute Red Vehicle is still red.

Hannah worked hard for several minutes. Then she found the snow

you see in the background, laid down in it and rolled over and over.

She didn't think she was cold. I knew better.

 

By this time she was tired of washing cars so she played in the puddles

of very cold water. Thank goodness for boots.

 

It did not take to terribly long for Hannah to figure out her hands were cold enough they bothered her. So, she was rushed indoors and changed into warm clothes. She is one tough little girl. She's fine. In fact she and Zoey came over to play today. It was our usual wild and crazy day. We had lots of fun and we all were tired when it was time to take them home.

We have the only clean car in the entire complex. Therefore we can only go where the roads are clear so the car can stay clean. That's crimping my style! Predicted snow on Sunday will change that.

Lost track of time-January 23, 2016

I am actually surprised to find out how long it has been since I posted on this blog. Where does the time go?

We kept the girls on Tuesday of this week.

We had a busy day of coloring (Zoey calls it painting)

and putting stickers in a book. That's Hannah's favorite thing to do

in the world of "art".

 

Hannah asked me to take a picture of her. In my haste I

did not allow the camera time to focus and I failed

to pay attention to the background, but I'm getting past that

because I think this is a decent picture of Hannah and for a change, she is smiling.

 

We had both girls on Thursday again. We played kick ball down our long hallway. We don't mind the noise because no one else is at home during the work day. We also made blueberry muffins.

 

Yesterday we were out and about and happy to be outside. We got to see the sun almost all day and it nearly made it to 40 degrees. We have hopes of being able to wash the Cute Red Vehicle today. It has not been washed since the first of December. It is no longer red because of all the magnesium chloride and road salt that is dried on the sides. We will go to Derrick's to do that since the car washes will have such long lines. No doubt we will have little ones helping us.

 

As we were headed home yesterday I was so excited to finally see a sunset. It has been a long time since we saw one. This one was so extremely bright it was difficult to get a picture. But I tried.

 

Sorry about the car in the picture. No way to avoid it while driving.

 

Tomorrow is Sunday so I wish you a very restful Sabbath. Also enjoy the games. I hope your team wins.

 

 



 

Busy week-January 15, 2016

I'm still struggling to write 2016 instead of 2015.

We had both girls here on Tuesday. Did we ever play hard, all of us. The weather is just too cold to try to take them anywhere so we play here. Luckily none of our neighbors are home during the work day so we can be noisy if we want to.

We gave Hannah a lab coat for Christmas. It is

for an animal doctor. I guess the word "veterinarian" is

too complicated for little ones. We had to take care of all

of her mew-mews who were sneezing all day on Tuesday. It's

a sight to see when she helps them all get well.

 

Aunt Judy gave the girls more fun little animals. Hannah got a hospital with various animals in it. Zoey got a house with 5 puppies just like Hannah's house with 5 kittens in it. Combining all of those little creatures made for quite a big litter of tiny animals.

 

If this "herd" keeps growing it is going to take a suitcase on wheels to move

them from one house to another. There are three that were left behind by accident so the

bunch is bigger than shown here.

 

On Wednesday Jerry, Judy and I went to the mountains. We all agree we should do this at least once a month for as long as we can. We have found a wonderful buffet that we all enjoy very much. They have a fabulous salad bar and delicious desserts. This week was a chance to breath fresh clean air and enjoy warmer temperatures. There was no snow there either. It was a great day to get away.

 

We had both girls again yesterday and will have them again tonight while their parents go out to eat. That means it will take us Saturday and Sunday to recover!

 

We are due to get another 3 inches of snow tonight so we definitely won't go anywhere tomorrow.

 

This has been a really busy week but that's not a complaint. We love the time we spend with Hannah and Zoey. It's a challenge both mentally and physically and that's a good thing at our age.

 

 

 

 

 

Warm?-January 10, 2016

To all my friends on the warm and balmy Gulf coast, please take a moment to cool down. I have pictures to share taken a few minutes ago. It was zero degrees when these were taken. Yes, zero.

Ah, the sun is coming up. That always makes us feel better.

Even if we only get to the mid 20s we feel warmer with the sun shining.

 

That's not snow on the evergreens. It's fog. You may call it frost

if you like. It is actually fog that has condensed on the trees.

 

 

We were under a dense fog warning all night. It was so dense we could not see beyond our sidewalk. Thankfully, people were not out on the roads. That fog turned the streets to sheets of ice.

 

I love this picture. The condensed fog on the tree outside our

bedroom window just as the sun rises. The tree looked like it had

been sprinkled with pink glitter.

 

 

This picture was taken on Friday. The snow plow pushed some of

the snow into a pile by our garage door. That's an H3 so you can

judge the height of the snow pile. I promise you that pile

will still be there on May 1st.

 

So, friends, if you are too warm, please know that some of us are questioning our sanity for being in this extreme cold and piles of snow. Perhaps we will appreciate Spring more when it finally arrives.

But then we remember we are here for Hannah and Zoey and we know we can make it through the bitter cold.

 

 

Have a very blessed and restful Sunday!

 

 

 

 

Great day-January 5, 2016

I still can't believe we are starting on another year.

Today was probably the best day we have had for a long time. First of all, we were above freezing during the daytime for the first time in 3 weeks. The sun came out and we had more people working on clearing snow. They worked all day on the school parking lot across the street and got a great deal of it cleaned down to the asphalt. It was nice to see asphalt. Can you imagine? Tonight will be in the single digits but above zero. This is such a welcomed change for us. Denver and many parts of Colorado have had much nicer weather. But we have been suffering. Greeley sits in a bowl by a big river, the South Platte so it has its own mini climate. It is supposed to snow again before the end of the week and be back in the 20s for daytime highs. But we will enjoy the few days of decent weather we have for now. To answer the question asked by dear friends on the warm and balmy Gulf coast, yes, we are freezing our..........ears off!!

We even ended the day with a really pretty sunset over a snow covered field.

 

We had both girls today and for the first time in quite a while we did not have to pull the two apart before they killed each other. They even played together for a short time. It was delightful.

 

Our first project was to get the toys organized. It is our goal this year to really fix up the girls' bedroom.

 

All of the toys are now in these fabric bins. We let the girls fill the bins

so they would know where things are. This made a huge difference in the room.

 

 

While Zoey was napping Hannah grabbed the caterpillar and pulled it over her head. She played for over an hour inside that crazy thing.

 

She was giggling like crazy when she told us she

was a periscope! Where would a three year old

learn about a periscope?

 

Look at the static electricity in Hannah's hair.

 

 

While she was playing she told Granddaddy to hide. Then she hid him herself.

Can you spot him?

I was laughing so hard I could hardly take the picture.

 

So as we wind down for the day we realize today was a really special day. It made suffering through the bitter cold very well worth it.