Blizzard Allison, 2009

Like just about everyone else in Wisconsin, Ray and I woke up to about a foot of snow on the ground this morning. I hopped in the shower and Ray hopped into some snow boots to shovel out our driveway.

When Ray comes in, he lets me know that we won't be going anywhere until the snow plow comes through (what with our little cars and lack of 4-wheel drive and all that). "No problem," I think, "they'll be coming along any minute now."

At 7:30am, my boss texts me and tells me to not bother coming in until about noon. I let him know that sounds good since we haven't been plowed out yet.

11:30am and no plow. I call my boss and tell him if we're plowed by 1:30, I'll be in. If it's later than that, it just wouldn't be worth the hassle. Boss agrees.

After lunch, Ray and I (Ray worked from home all day) go out to brush the snow off our poor arborvitae and shovel again. The neighbor across the street tries unsuccessfully to get his little car out of his driveway. Ray and another neighbor end up just pushing the car right back into the driveway again. None of us are going anywhere!

While outside, I had Ray take a picture of us to send to the children we sponsor through Compassion International. They live in South America and Africa, so I'm sure they'll love the picture!!!


We go back inside and I give up on making it into work today. Ray thinks the plow crew has forgotten our road exists.

At about 3pm, I see a broken-down plow go past our house being pulled by a large front-end loader (wish I had gotten a pic!). Not a good sign.

Then, at 4:10pm, it happens!

And that, my friends, is the story of Blizzard Allison.

Orthodontic Update, November 2009

I really should have posted an update after my last trip to the orthodontist, since that's when the interesting things happened. So, I will recap both trips.

I went into my October ortho visit hoping that Dr. Olsen would finally tell me I was ready for oral surgery. So, imagine my surprise when, after looking at my teeth and chart for awhile, he instead tells me he wants to try something that could keep me from needing surgery at all!

Of course, I said, "Let's go for it!"

So, Dr. Olsen gave me some rubber bands that go from my back upper teeth to my front lower teeth to try to convince my top teeth to "hop" over my lowers.

Last week, my uppers did in fact start "hopping". I was cautiously excited going into today's appointment. I had no idea what my teeth would need to look like in order for Dr. Olsen to think that this could work.

When Dr. Olsen saw me today, he was really happy with how my teeth are looking. Whew! He's still not ready to say that the surgery is off, but he did say, "If your teeth keeping moving like this, we shouldn't need to do the surgery." I'm going to keep praying!

Being An Aunt is Fun!

My little niece, Malia, is now over a year old and she's been walking for a few months now. She is getting to be so much fun!

Yesterday, Ray taught Malia a new game that made her squeal with excitement:


The dog, Phoebe, does not like this game nearly as much as Malia does. Lol!

On another exciting note, my second niece/nephew is on his/her way. We found out a couple of weeks ago that Ray's brother, Steve, and his wife, Keri, are expecting their first child! Yay!

New Shoe Shelf

I keep Ray's project list pretty full, so I think he was glad to cross this one off!

There was a shelf in the closet before, but the shelves were narrower and at a steeper angle, so all of my shoes were always sliding right off of it. The new shelves are still at an angle for easier viewing/grabbing, but it's just a slight angle. Nothing has fallen off, so I'm happy :)

Yay for handy husbands!

The Fruits of My (Lack of) Labor

Our raspberry bushes are ever-bearing, meaning that they give us berries twice a year. Our first crop of berries came pretty late this year, so I figured that our second crop would be really small. Boy was I wrong! This second crop of berries is bigger and more plentiful than the first crop. I'm guessing that some of it is the huge number of bees we've had buzzing around the bushes. For once, I'm glad to have bees around!


My cucumber plants never got very happy this year. I'm not sure exactly what the trouble is, but I've only gotten 4 or 5 cucumbers so far. There are a few more growing now, so they will definitely be worth the (small amount of) time invested, but I'm hoping for a better outcome next year.

The tomatoes, on the other hand, seem to be pretty content. I snapped a quick picture of what I picked this afternoon. They are now in my belly!


Delicious!

Work and Play

What I did Saturday morning:


What I did Saturday afternoon:


A good balance of work and play, I think!

My House is a Very Fine House

... with two cats in the sunroom ... sing it with me!

Sorry.

I do really love my house, though. Ray did an excellent job in picking it out :)

ANYway, I think I finally have annual flowers figured out. Last year, I planted petunias in the front yard by the driveway. I watered them well at the beginning of the summer, but then I thought they were "established" and I didn't have to water them as much. And then they died. :(

I have come to the realization that annuals need to be watered frequently through the entire summer. If you do that, by August a couple of tiny plants will look like this:


And your driveway will look like this:


And every time you pull out of your garage, you will smile at the beautiful flowers :)

A New Baby: Kaylee

Congrats to my friend Julie for her firstborn child, Kaylee, born last Monday on Julie's own birthday! So exciting and very cute :)

Little Kaylee is only about nine hours old in this picture, still exhausted from her big adventure!

A Horse and a Bathroom

A Horse
After some issues with an Amazon seller, I finally got Silky's grazing muzzle last week. Ray and I went out by Mom and Dad's on Saturday and put the muzzle on Silky. She was NOT impressed! She kept shaking her head up and down, trying to get it off. We fed her some carrots through the hole, so hopefully she'll figure it out.

As you can see from the picture, it looks like a torture device! The fly mask is not part of the torture, actually. She really likes to wear it and definitely needed it on Saturday - she had about 25 flies swarming around her eyes before we put it on - yuck! You can also see in this picture exactly why she needs the muzzle! That's quite a belly she has :)


A Bathroom
Ray has been slowly working on our main bathroom for over two years now! Since it's only the two of us, and we have another bathroom, this project always seems to get shoved to the bottom of the to-do list.

Ray and I both took the week after July 4th off, and Ray took the opportunity to get a little more done on the bathroom... well, a lot more done, actually. Prior to that week, the drywall was up and the tub in. During our week off, Ray got all of the mudding done - a very time-consuming process - and he and his dad got our shower surround cut out (it's Corian).

We've been trying to put some more time into this project lately, so since the week off, Ray and I have also sealed most of the walls and primed the whole room. I want to save before pictures until the project is complete, but here is what the room looks like with it's coat of primer:


It may not look like much to you, but we're pretty excited to be this far :)

The goal is to paint the room this summer and for Ray to get the surround and the glass blocks in this fall. Then, Ray can spend the winter making the cabinetry. He's really looking forward to that part since he loves woodworking!

After we're done painting the bathroom, I'd like to spend some of my days off starting to paint other rooms in the house. We're keeping busy!

The Old Mare Just Ain't What She Used To Be

Last fall, I took my 23-year-old horse, Silky, for a ride and noticed that she was limping ever-so-slightly. I knew I couldn't take her for another ride until I had a vet take a look at my elderly old girl. Last week, I *finally* got around to booking the vet appointment for Silky, and the vet came today.

Lots of bad news. Silky has arthritis (which I had suspected) in her front knees, and it's pretty significant. There's not much that can be done, it's just going to continue to gradually get worse. No cure, no medication that's worth pursuing (too many side effects and it wouldn't "fix" it anyway). No more riding (the vet actually didn't say I couldn't ride, but it would obviously cause Silky pain).

There are some things I can do to hopefully slow down the progression of the arthritis:

• Number one is to get Silky's hooves trimmed more frequently. No problem, I'll get the farrier out as often as I need to.
• Number two is for Silky to lose some weight. Hmmmm. That's a bit tougher. My dad is a notorious animal over-feeder and he feeds Silky since she's out on my parents' farm. I've told him numerous times in the past that he's over-feeding Silky, but it never seems to do any good. Luckily, my vet had a solution. A grazing muzzle. Looks like torture, doesn't it? There's a tiny hole in the bottom that Silky will be able to get grass through. Poor girl! The trick is going to be getting my dad to put it on her every morning. *sigh*

She's been an amazing pet and friend through the years, and I want to do right for her in her senior citizen years. I sure do love this old horse!

2005

1995

2-Year Wedding Anniversary

Ray and I both worked on our anniversary this year and had agreed to go out to dinner and not get each other anything as a gift.

We went to dinner at the Red Ox (yummy!!), which is the restaurant we had our reception at two years ago. Good memories :)

While I held to our agreement and didn't get Ray anything, he came home with this:


It's a euonymus bush I've been wanting for along our fence line! I've been spending so much on plants this year that I was putting off buying the bush. I am really happy Ray got it for me. He also made another romantic card for me, like last year. My husband, the poet!

I love you, Gimpy!

What I've Been Working On

My friend Julie is having a baby in August (yay!) and her baby shower was last Saturday. I had been planning on just buying something off of her registry, but then I saw what our friend Leah had planned! Leah made Julie a really awesome baby scrapbook so that Julie can just add pictures in after the baby is born. I decided I needed to give Julie a more "personal" gift as well.

My gift isn't anywhere near as cool as Leah's, but I really liked how it turned out:



In case you can't tell, it's a bib on which I cross-stitched the little dog and saying. I did get Julie something off of her registry as well, but I was really excited about being able to include something I had made myself! I finished Friday night, in the nick of time :)

Backyard Gardening

Last fall, the neighbors that we share a back property line with put a fence up. Both us and the neighbors have large picture windows facing the back, and two of our arborvitae had died, so we were happy to have the fence put in. Now we don't have to look out our back window right into theirs!

Anyway, as soon as I saw the fence last fall, I knew I would want to plant a flower garden in front of it. I've already put some things in and have a few more items planned but not bought yet. Here is what the fence area looks like now:


I'm hoping to put another picture up next summer that has a lot more color in it (and a lot less fence). We'll see!

Also, we bought and planted a lilac bush in one corner of our backyard. I absolutely love lilacs and hope to enjoy this bush for many years to come!


Since I just cut back to working part time this week, I'm hoping to be able to spend a lot more time gardening this summer. It's something I really enjoy. Grow, flowers, grow!

Waddling By

Look what came waddling through our yard the other night!

He was chasing after his wife. (I didn't get the camera out fast enough to get a picture of her.)

So cute :)

Flying to Madison to Go Shopping

Last week, our friend Tony emailed Ray and I and asked if we wanted to fly to Madison with him to go shopping at REI (an outdoor gear store). We couldn't possibly say no!

We met Tony at MaxAir in Appleton on Friday afternoon. It was really neat to not have to go through security or arrive an hour before our flight or anything. Tony had already done his pre-flight safety check before we got there, so we pretty much got out of our car and hopped into the airplane!

On the flight down, I got to sit in the front with Tony and Ray sat in the back seat with Tony's gear (yep, that accounts for all of the seats in the entire plane!).


It was really neat. We flew over Lake Poygan and the Fox River. Plus, we flew a lot lower than commercial planes do, so we could see houses and cars and things during the entire trip. I even got to take the yoke ("steering wheel") and fly! Obviously, I did not kill us :)

Once we landed in Madison, we took a taxi to REI and had some dinner.


Ray took the front with Tony on the way back. I think I actually like the back seat better. It was very relaxing!


Oh, and we flew past the Capitol building! It was lit up and really looked gorgeous. Here's a picture, though it doesn't do it justice.


A very fun night!

Orthodontic Update, March 2009

It's been awhile since my last orthodontic update!

I went in today to get my last two "free" teeth banded. They are the last molars on my upper jaw. There's not much room up there, so things are pretty sore. There's also hooks sticking out on the inside of the band, so my tongue is really sore, as well. I can see why Dr. Olsen saved these bands for last :(

When I was in last month, I asked for a timeline update from Dr. Olsen. I was really happy when he took a couple of minutes to think about it before answering me. It wasn't just an off-the-cuff answer.

Anyway, he said I should be ready for surgery by November or December of this year. I was hoping for a little sooner, but afraid it would be even longer, so I'm ok with this!

Please say a little prayer that my tongue will "toughen up" soon and I can eat more than just ice cream... wait a minute, I love ice cream! I guess you should still pray for me since I don't think ice cream in and of itself is a balanced meal :)

Breaking News: Wedding Scrapbook Completed!

It finally happened! I finished my wedding scrapbook! It's about time, considering that Ray and I have been married for over a year and a half now :)

It was a really fun book to put together, actually. Many times, I found myself smiling, remembering.

Now it's time to get started on the honeymoon scrapbook. A scrapbooker's work is never done!

Five-Year-Old Cheesecake

I made a box of no-bake cheesecake for Ray today that expired in 2003. Yep, you read that right! I inherited the cheesecake when I married Ray, along with a lot of other expired foodstuffs. Most of it was tossed shortly after I moved in, but the cheesecake stayed. You see, Ray is not afraid of expired goods - not even if they've been expired for five years.

Yes, Ray got fair warning of how long the cheesecake has been expired. He happily ate it anyway. So far, he is not dead or sick.

Anyway, it was my birthday last week, and I wanted to show off my awesome birthday present:

Don't know what it is? Well, let's take a look inside:

A sewing machine! Ray's mom loves old sewing machines, so when I asked Ray for one, I knew I'd end up with a classic. It's really heavy, but it works great! Definitely quality. Isn't the carrying case awesome?!? Thanks, Gimpy :)