We Have...

Heat, we have internet, we have power. We also can't get out of the house. Both doors are frozen at the bottom from the rain and sleet that came before the snow. I'm going to work on the back door so at least I can let the girls out to tend to business but I may have to try to call someone to at least come get the door unfrozen.

The wind is strong enough to be blowing the snow horizontally and I know there are pictures just waiting to be taken out there of drifts and snow caught in wonderful designs in tree bark and shrubs and such. While I don't care for the cold blowing up my drawers I do want to explore the beauty of this winter storm. We don't usually get anything resembling a 'blizzard' nor do we often get any more than 4 - 6 inches of snow at one time in a winter. We may have several snows but they generally are not very heavy at all. I always say I like ONE good snow a year, I don't like ice storms that break up the trees and I don't like the temperature or the chill factor headed towards zero.

What I do love is the pristine beauty of the new fallen snow, the clarity of the blanket of quiet on the earth, the quiet that is a music to my ears from the cacophony of every day life. There is such a gentle melody to the quiet that soothes my seasonally affected soul and sings to me of the life that will be pushing it's way out of the ground, the flowers on the trees that only now need a little sun to break free of the tight, hard husks that protect them from the frigid temperatures.

Snow is that event, to me, that portends the coming of spring. Snow gives me hope that I've made it through another dark season and before long my heart will be singing as I get my hands in the dirt and start tending to a garden, planting things I want to eat fresh that I have tended, and flowers that delight me with their beauty.

Snow is hope for the new year to be better than the one I'm really glad to be leaving behind.

Ready Or Not...

Here it comes... or so the weathermen are saying. These photos are from the snowstorm Christmas Eve of 2009. I was in Ft. Worth and it was so incredibly beautiful. My baby brother and I were out in the driveway and yard taking pictures at one in the morning...

Diane, my s.i.l., was so excited and pointing out different things to Ben and I and we were snapping away like crazy. What fun we were having! In Oklahoma they were having what for us Okies was a blizzard. Sixty mile an hour plus winds, heavy snowfall, temperatures that dropped like a rock. In Ft. Worth there were record snowfalls for Christmas time but we didn't have the winds like up north.

Now we have a front coming in like a freight train tonight. The temperatures dropped about 15 degrees this afternoon, the winds have turned around and are coming in from the north and we should start getting thunder rain, thunder sleet and thunder snow with blizzard like winds.

They are already warning folks that the Interstates, both north/south and east/west bound will most likely be shut down for some period of time in the next 24 hours.

Carol and her sister went to WallyWorld after Carol's doctor appointment and Carol said the place was packed. There was not even any onions! Carol is one of the really good planners when it comes to getting things ready for a storm of any kind. I mean we live in Oklahoma. We know the things to do when we are expecting most anything except for maybe hurricanes. I hope we don't
have to plan for one of those. Anyhow she had the larder pretty well stocked but wanted to get milk, bread, onions and a few last minute things that she wanted to have in the house. There were no onions and no bread on the shelves. She did get milk and some fruit cups and odds and ends but she said it was way crazier than usual in the store when folks are getting ready for a storm of any kind.

Anyhow we are all in and buttoned up, had a bowl of beans for supper and messing on the computer and watching 'The Batchelor' and dreading having to walk the girls tonite... It will make my electric blankie even better, though. I've got my camera plugged up and charging in case there are wonderful pictures to take tomorrow.

The only thing that would make it better would be if we still had our Christmas lights up.

Stay warm, y'all, and let's hope nobody loses --- a. internet; b. power; c. heat.

I Want To Go Eat Here…

The next time I go back to Ft. Worth for a visit.  This is a new restaurant about 4 blocks from Ben and Diane’s home. 

I’m posting the picture of the restaurant because you know my weird since of humor… and there has been no photo shopping done to this photo.  As Ree would say it is SOOC.   Enjoy this little snippet and feel free to copy and share if you so desire.

 

 

 

I love odd signs and names of business.  Makes me smile and even occasionally laugh out loud.

Both Sides Now...

I know there are those of you out there that remember Joni Mitchell singing her song, "Both Sides Now", and ever since I first heard it there are things and ideas that have visited the little world in my head and the song pops up to remind me to look at both sides of whatever caught my thoughts and made me think of Joni and her song.

Today it was my flannel sheets. It has been colder than usual here in central Oklahoma, as it has in a lot of the U.S., and I had put my flannel sheets on the bed. Not only are they so warm and wonderful to sleep on, despite the little flannel pills, they are so cozy warm that I don't even want to get out of bed. Which is no big deal because I don't usually want to get out of bed anyway but the sheets have made it even more difficult.

So I got to thinking about both sides of this situation... On the one hand I am so thankful to have my wonderful flannel sheets to snuggle into but on the other there are bound to be things I could be doing to make myself feel useful other than holding down the bed. Then I decide that it is a very important job to hold that bed down and I've done an excellent job of not only doing that but also of training my beloved schnauzer babies to help me with this most important job.

Now if I could only train my bladder as well as they have trained theirs we'd have it made... at least until the guilt factor kicked in for mom not getting up and taking them out for a walk.

In the 9 degree F. temperature.

When I put on all the things I can find to put on before I walk them and feel like the little kids all bundled up until they can hardly waddle or bend over and, invariably, decide that maybe I should have gone to the bathroom before I put on the cap, muffler and heavy bright orange coat that I got so people could see me at night when we are out walking.

And wishing that it was easier to pick up poop with gloves so that I could wear gloves for the walk.

And finally to give thanks for living in Oklahoma where I don't have to deal with this kind of cold very often.

Amen.

The Rest Of The Day After Story...

Not long after I got to Ben and Diane's we found out that there was a plumbing problem with all three stools in the house... Only one would flush, sort of, and the other two would just fill up and slowly drain back down. One of Ben's sons has a good friend that does plumbing and he made arrangements with him to come out Sunday morning. Diane was scheduled to sing at the church that she and Ben belong to so Ben asked if I would mind staying to be there when the plumber got there... Since getting up early is not my forte I assured him it would be no problem.

The plumber arrived before they left and as it turned out I didn't even see him. He went about his business and got the thrones all up and flushing. The point to all this? I got to sleep in... B. and D. had to get up early to get ready and go to church... when they got back home we snacked on left overs and started watching a football game, then decided we'd rather watch a movie. About thirty minutes into the movie the following is what I saw when I looked around the living room:

Bennett had crashed on the couch... He rarely takes a nap unless he is sick or just exhausted. He was the latter. He's been fighting back problems for about two months now plus working extra shifts at the hospital as he always does during the holidays so docs with young children can be off to enjoy a little extra time with their families.

He slept for about two hours.

Then I looked over to where Diane was sitting to make a comment about the movie we were watching... This is what I saw"


Yep... That's Molly curled up on her lap snoozin'. She's a five month old black lab that weighs a bit over 40 pounds... and on the footrest at Diane's feet is Samson, the kitty from Hell. He's 12 or 13 now I think and is getting more cantankerous than he was when he was younger.

I'm going to drop in another couple of photos of Diane and critters for you to enjoy but I decided to write this post so you all can see that it's not all run and gun in our lives... we all know how to relax pretty darn good.




Diane crashed out for about an hour and a half. All of that time except for the last 15 minutes or so Molly and Sam slept right up there with her. The breeder they got Molly from raises their babies around cats so she is very cat friendly... not like my two tiny terrors. They see a cat and they are off to the races trying to catch it.

Molly tries to play with the three kitties but Sam is pretty much the only one that will play with her some and B. and D. try to watch out for Sam

because Molly could hurt him with her big old puppy feet and they are BIG puppy feet.

That's all for now, folks!

The Day After...

I got up Christmas Day, got around and drove to Ft. Worth for family Christmas. There was very little traffic and it was a pleasant two and a half hour drive. Our dinner was set for folks to be over about 5 or 5:30 so I had visiting time with my brother Ben and sweet s.i.l. Diane. It's was nice to have a little quiet time to play catch up and just yak a bit before everyone started pouring in the door.

Christmas is pretty much a repeat of Thanksgiving as far as who all shows up. My niece, Launa, and her husband Jeff were the first to arrive and came carrying the dressing in. Jeff is an excellent cook and his dressing is just about the only dressing that I eat. The only thing that I can figure is that he doesn't use as much sage and celery as most people do. I was walking by the kitchen door and Ben was hustling around with a mixing bowl... I had to get the camera out.
This is what I saw when I looked in:
Ben was fixing the mashed potatoes. He had peeled and cooked probably five pounds of potatoes for supper for all the folks that were expected and just dumped them into the big mixer and commenced to whipping them up... They grew.

And grew...








He got another mixing bowl and a measuring cup and split up the amount of potatoes in each bowl to finish whipping them up. I just had to rat him out because I rarely get a chance to gig him about anything. I will have to say he has no qualms about getting in the kitchen in the first place, which is way better than me, and he can smoke meats beautifully.

Diane had to tease him this morning about she may have to bar him from the kitchen when she found potatoes even on the front of the fridge.




Here are a few of the photos I took...

This is my niece Laura showing her nephew (my great nephew), Max, how to play a game on her smart phone. Max is so smart and he was taking all her instruction in and he got to play and help Aunt Loli win her game.













Diane, holding Sadie, her youngest great niece. Sadie is a delicate flower and just the sweetest little girl. We all have to get our hands on Sadie because: 1. She is just so cute; 2. She is just such a little girlie girl. She was born in August and is 14 pounds. She is from the Norris side of the family, Diane's side...





Meet Karson. He is Max's baby brother. He was also born in August. He's 19 pounds now. He is a chunk. He and Sadie like to look and drool at each other and his big brother Max was also enamored with Sadie. When his momma brought him in in his reindeer suit I had to grab a photo to share with you all. Karson is from the Gardner side of the family. I don't think there have been too many delicate flowers born in our side of the family. Even I was a 9 pounder when I was born.





This is a picture of me and my two older sisters... I would have been about two... and you can see we all had the chipmunk cheeks but as we grew older we did start to get skinny. We all kept the chipmunk cheeks, though. My sister Lou Ann was standing beside me and my sister Sue was standing in front.



















Karson in Papa Ben's lap. I just wanted to show that the boy came by his jowl rightfully...

I love this photo because of how he has hold of Papa Ben's finger and is so contentedly chewing on his own.

I didn't take many pictures. I was busy eating and talking but I thought I'd put this quickie post to give you all a glimpse into some of the fun and foibles at our family get togethers.



I hope each and every one of you have some fun memories, some joyous moments and even some poignant moment filled with love for those who were with us and those who are no longer with us except in the spirit of family and songs in our hearts.

How Enterprising!

As I was driving home from WalMart after one final run this morning as I neared an intersection there were half a dozen people standing out with signs...

Mistletoe for Sale!

When we were growing up my family would go to Coalgate, OK, for Thanksgiving with family friends. Each family, there were three to four families that would go each year, would bring something and my momma and the other mommas would be in the kitchen cooking up Thanksgiving dinner and us kids were outside playing and the men would be talking and catching up. We'd all get to the table and stuff ourselves and then visit more until bedtime.

On Friday, daddy and Mr. Whitley, the friend who hosted us each year, and myself and any sibs that wanted to go, usually Bennett and me, would get the single shot .22 and Mr. Whitley's coon dogs and head out into the fields to exercise the dogs and go for a walk. It wasn't coon hunting season but the dogs needed to be exercised and if we saw squirrels we could shoot them. We'd take them home with us and Mr. Whitley would skin them and momma and Mrs. Whitley would fry them up. What a wonderful break from turkey and we felt like even though we were little we contributed to a meal for our families.

But I digress... mistletoe. When we would be out on our big game hunt if there were no squirrels about or we'd already gotten three or four we would try to shoot mistletoe out of the trees to take back with us for Christmas. To GIVE to friends and family...

Why didn't I think about selling it? How enterprising that would have been. I guess none of us thought about it because it is the state flower of Oklahoma and there is an abundance of mistletoe all over and even more so back then. Notwithstanding the fact that it was a lot of fun to make up little bundles of the mistletoe and give to folks to get them into the spirit of Christmas.

Well things are building to a fever pitch around here. Carol and our friend Datha have been in the kitchen since 10 or 11 whipping up food for our Christmas Eve. Traditionally we have snack things like Rotel Cheese dip, cheeses and crackers, chips and other dips like Knoors spinach dip and a spanish dip made with black olives, green onions, tomatoes and oil and vinegar, little smokies in bar-b-que sauce and whatever other snacking stuff that Carol has been making all week, Texas trash, oyster crackers with dry ranch dressing mixed cooked in the oven like the Texas trash, fudge with and without pecans, peanut brittle and on and on. About four o'clock we are doing puppy Christmas. Everyone is bringing their dogs over for dog toys and treats then they will go back home while the big folks get back together for our Christmas. This sounds like we need to get a life, doesn't it... Out of our friends that are coming over, Carol is the only one that had a child and he's now 37 and doesn't yet have a wife or a child, so our pupsters are our little ones.

Anyway I have NORAD Santa Tracker on my computer. He's already been through New Zealand
and Australia, is currently in Finland and headed next to Estonia. So I'm heading to the kitchen to get me some snacks and plan to be back with one more post before Santa makes it to Oklahoma.