Still Winter To Almost Spring and Back to Winter

When there's not much to report, I can always count on the weather and visiting wildlife. We've had both this week. Early in the week I looked out the kitchen window and spied these beauties!



At one point one of them came up to the bird feeder to find out what leftovers were laying around. He didn't stay long and even this little herd moved on pretty quickly. I have no idea where they migrate to and from. This area, as most of you know, is in the middle of a subdivision with subdivisions all around so I don't know where they might be living.


By Saturday morning we were having a bit of a thaw and the edges of the pond were just water with the middle on the slushy side. When I looked out the window I saw these guys making their way up from to the pond to the bird feeder. Once we start seeing ducks you start to think Spring can't be too far behind, can it?



Sadly, our hopes of Spring were soon dashed because Saturday afternoon the snow started falling and when it was all said and done we had another 3 or 4 inches on the ground again.

Friday night was bowling. We were in 6th place I think but we've probably dropped down a place or two after our sad performance. We started by having to give the other team 50 pins. The first game H and Bill had great games, both over 200. I, sadly, did not even get my average. We won the second game and were up about 30 pins. The other team really stepped it up the last game and though we had great hopes in taking that one and winning 1 and totals, it was not to be and we only ended up with 1 point.

The rest of the weekend has been fairly uneventful. We stayed home last night and watched Robin Hood (the version with Russel Crowe that tells what happened before he became the Robin Hood we all know). Lots of fighting, death and violence.

Today the sun finally came out and even though there was a fresh layer of snow on the ground it was nice enough to take the pups to the high school for a little frisbee. They were happy!!




A couple of times the wind got under the frisbee and carried it across this little stream. Thankfully both Zoe and Charlie remembered to jump it instead of falling in it. Once the frisbee actually went right in but Zoe retrieved it without even getting a paw wet!

I thought this picture looked crazy! I have no idea what happened. It was very bright out but most of the pictures were either washed out like this one or too dark. Weird.



They had so much fun and are now sleeping soundly like good little pups!



H is out tonight. He has the suite at the Palace again and is treating some people to a Piston's game. They're playing the Wizards, Andy! You should have flown in for the weekend and you and H could have made a night of it.

I'm preparing for a busy few weeks. The ESL dept. (that's me now) is preparing for our annual ELPA testing which is an annual test given to English Language Learners to see how much they've improved in English. We have to test every student in four areas, listening, speaking, reading and writing, and have until April 15 go complete it. While I haven't done any of this kind of testing myself yet, the other girls tell me it's quite intensive and a bit stressful. If you don't get everyone tested by the end date your school is penalized for each day you aren't finished. We should have enough time but there is a week of Spring break in there so we have to work around that too. I'm hoping things go well. There's already been a bit of tension in our department between two other aides. I'm staying neutral if it kills me. They are having a bit of a power struggle and I'm just waiting until they're finished so we can get started testing. If the teacher would just step in and handle it that would take care of the problem but she doesn't really like to do that. She's in her own little world, doing her own thing, and let's the rest of the stuff get sorted out between us three aides. That would be fine except the other two struggle for all the power. It's kind of interesting to sit there in the middle and watch them go at it but also I just want to get started and get the testing over with so we can get back to helping these kids learn English!!

Ok, that's it for the week. Only two more weeks until Spring officially arrives. We are ready for it here. If only Winter would cooperate and leave!

More weather reports next week.

Have a good week!

Yea, Happy Day Two

I got my camera back from Sony Repair today! It's all fixed, the broken screen replaced completely and the most amazing part to me; it was absolutely FREE! There was no bill, no charge, no questions even though I'm sure they knew it had to be an accident that caused the broken screen! They just fixed it and sent it back, good as new! All it cost me was the $6.00 to send it via UPS. Now that's how things should be.
It's still cold here, still cold and will continue to stay cold. They reported on the news the other night that we've had 42" of show so far this winter! That's already our average for winter. We've also had the coldest weather I can remember for the longest spell I can remember too. What the heck happened to Global Warming?? At least the kids at school got to go out to recess today. They really needed it and so did the teachers!

Stay warm!

7 Days and Counting...

Wow, just 7 days, one short week from today, and we'll be on our way to Hawaii! It seems impossible to imagine right now. It's 17 degrees here tonight. This morning (and last night) it was in the high 40's. I was actually hot in my flannel pajamas last night! Even when I left for work this morning I only had to wear a sweatshirt! Then when I came home at lunch I grabbed my heavy coat as the temperature had dropped more than 20 degrees! Most of the snow melted yesterday but the ground is frozen!
In other news, I've had some disturbing news about the pups. First Charlie was sick this weekend. He threw up Saturday and Sunday nights and hasn't had much of an appetite. Luckily I was taking him to the vet today for his yearly check-up anyway. Instead of that though the vet wanted to run some blood tests, check his stool and urine. He wants to rule out kidney and pancreas problems. I'm hoping and praying it's all my fault for changing his diet to try to fatten him up. The vet wanted me to put him on Prilosec (an antacid) and an anti-nausea pill. He's still running around playing and stuff so hopefully the test will all come back ok and his problems won't be serious.

Also this weekend I just happened to lift up Zoe's lip and discovered this!

How my little baby broke off two of her teeth (!) I don't know! They are pretty much broken down to the gum line. The vet suggested I get her in when we get back as they might have to be pulled or they could get infected! Of all the times to have these problems, a week before we leave for Hawaii! I will be leaving my favorite pup/house sitter permission/directions what to do if things get worse, so don't worry!

The rest of the weekend was spent baking these beauties.

I wasn't going to participate in the cookie exchange this year but then 4 of us decided we really liked each other's cookies and we would have a mini-exchange instead. I still had to bake two batches in order to get 3 dozen of these big cookies and then spend time icing them so I worked on them for about 8 hours while also making dog food and making dinner! Talk about your multi-tasking! So in exchange for these cookies I got a dozen peanut butter kisses (the ones with the Hershey kisses in them) and a dozen Buck-Eyes and some type of bar cookies that's just ok. I should have stuck with my first instinct and just passed on the exchange altogether!

Tomorrow night is our LRC party at a local sports bar. I will go for a little while but don't plan to stay long. Things will be crazy at school this week. The kids are already super hyped up, naturally. Thursday afternoon is the classroom parties and then Friday afternoon we will have our all-school sing-a-long. Then we will be out of that place for 2 weeks!! yeeeehawwwwww!!

You might have heard that Hawaii has had some terrible weather the past week or so. Something called a "Kona" has swept through there bring almost 12 inches of rain, flooding, etc. According to their weather reports it's supposed to clear up in the next couple days and be in the 80's when we are there next week! Next week!! I can't believe it's NEXT WEEK!!! That's so close!! Can you tell I'm excited? Not only is it wonderful to be going to some place like Hawaii, it's also going to be wonderful to see Tyler (who we haven't seen in almost a year) and spend time with Amber and Andy who we haven't seen (and that was only for a day) since September. Plus spending some quality time with Scott, who won't be attached to his computer 24/7 will be nice too!