Look Out 2012!

I totally plan to rawk this joint! 

In the coming weeks I'll be:
A - Getting a new laptop
B - Starting a new school where I'll be majoring in Criminal Justice, with a concentration in Social Services
C - Adding a new tab at the top to showcase my BooMonkey Creations so that I can better serve you with your painted glass desires
D - Getting more tools & equipment - YAY ME! - to attempt to expand on my abilities.

And that's just the tip of my iceberg. 

I can't wait to get it all rolling!

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Summer

...is ending.

By this time next week my dear Mikeal will be back in school. He's going to be in FOURTH grade. HOW IN THE WORLD DO I HAVE A FOURTH GRADER!?!?!

In no time at all he's going to be in middle school and then high school. Then off to college and married and is going to start having babies and I'm too young to be a Grammie!

/insert inconsolable weeping/


At the end of his 3rd grade year they had him take a slew of tests to determine if he qualifies for the gifted & talented program. I don't recall getting word about it yet, so maybe I'll find out at the Open House on Sunday, then doubly hope that he doesn't need $100 worth of additional school supplies immediately.

Side Note Content:

I was in the G&T program when I was in elementary school and would have continued in the accelerated programs on through high school had we not moved to a backwoods hick town that looks at you like you have two heads when you know and understand what inertia is in 7th grade. ((Isn't that a 3rd grade science lesson?)) The same backwoods town when you correct the English teacher, in 8th grade on the proper usage of "they're, there, & their" you suddenly grow a 4th head and the teacher has a complete mental breakdown & quits. ((Okay, she didn't quit because of me, I was the good kid, she was just having a rough time in her personal life, but still - how hard is it to hold a Master's Degree in English, teach 14 kids, and not know the difference between the three?)) Yes, that's right - there was 14 kids in my 8th grade class - and it was a BIG class. The 8th grade class of the year before only had 8....there were 50 6th graders, but by the time they'd made it to 8th grade there was only about two dozen, the rest had dropped out already.

Then Tuesday of next week Mikaila starts school again. She's still in the 3 year old program, so only goes 3 days a week for 3 hours. In January she'll be bumped up to the 4 year old program, and will be in school for 4 afternoons a week.

I'm hoping my transition this year goes better than it did last year. I swear I spent most my free afternoons just sitting here lamenting over how quiet it was and how I wasn't fighting the mess makers while I cleaned house. It was weird being able to sit in a quiet, clean house, for an hour or three even.

Mikaila being in school hasn't yet reduced me to a sobbing mess. Mikeal being in school didn't reduce me to a sobbing mess until after I dropped him off for the first day of 1st grade. It wasn't even a build up of anticipation or fretting about it beforehand, like I hear so many others lamenting about - their babies are getting ready to start school, reduce to tears a month before - nope. Mine hit me clear out of the blue, almost immediately upon walking him to class..one of the only 1st grade moms to be crying, the rest of the moms had cried the year before at the beginning of kindergarten.

Yea, I've never been one to follow the crowd...

I know the kids are looking forward to going back to school and it makes me happy! They both LOVE going to school to the point Mikaila has thrown quite a few tantrums in regards to wanting to go to school RIGHT.NOW! I've resisted going up to the school to find out who Mikeal's teacher is going to be simply because I know Mikaila is going to throw a fit over not getting to go to class and hang out with her friends.

I am thankful though that this year's supply list wasn't all that bad - each kid only has one bag to take to class with them as opposed to 50. Of course I'm sure this will change in the next year or two as Mikaila advances into actual elementary school and Mikeal advances into middle school...and then my heart attacks will begin again when I see the lists. Lets just hope one or both of them cool it on the end of summer growth spurts!

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PAINFUL

So...I'm in English class this time around...as well as Health Info Management Tech...but anyways...as part of this week's English assignment we have to pick something that concerns us in regards to our local area and post it as a class discussion...write 3 paragraphs over it, and over the next 4 weeks we're to expand on this subject until the assignment resembles a true to form APA style paper...

As part of the discussion we have to:

Respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates with at least a 1-paragraph reply (at least 40 words) about their Primary Task Response regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. To help you with your discussion, please consider the following:

* What questions would you like your colleague to answer so you can better understand the problem?
* What resources do you think your colleague might be able to use to gain a better understanding of the problem?
* Have you experienced a similar problem? How did your community resolve the issue, or did they?
* In addition, go to the Writing Center, located in the Learning Centers in the Virtual Campus, and find one Writing Resource that you can recommend to your colleague to assist him or her to continue to develop the Final Project.

One of my classmates submitted this 'gem' :


Housing in Saint Paul; House in is a big problem, so many people do not have any where to live. They are staying with family are friend, witch some tine do not work out. if they have children. These are family that can not peoples living with them. And they say you are being mean, but that is the way it is.Because I am one of those family member that can not have any living with me.I do not why there are so many homless people here in Minnesota. There are plenty of housing here,then why are people sleeping in the street,at bus stop and on buses?It matter to me because it is so sad that people are being found frozen to death. It is a bad thing to happy to a family member are to anybody.

These are the questions that I would like answer.What are reason these peoples do not have a place to live? Why don county them the county are the government help? Why don they help them self? They can go to a shelter, are ask the church to help them. They have to first help them self before they get help from somebody else. Why can they get public housing? Are there record so bad, that public housing will not take them?

These are the resources that I will get information from in Minnesota. Pioneer Press.com, My TCP ads mobile search on the go, The internet classeifields@PineerPress.com, TwinCity.com/classieldsGuys, My TCP home. also the news medic give answer to a lot of people, but homeless peoples do not have ascesses to the news, most of the time. I know there are programs that help people get in to, but there are rules they have to follow Most peoples do not like to follow rules. But there are rules in your own house, if you are buying it are done paying for it.

****

SHOOT ME NOW!!!

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I'm not terribly sure how to sum up 2010. Its been a year of growth in many ways.

I started off 2010 with plans of buying a small TINY house, in Oklahoma, that was on a well that couldn't keep up with the demands of a family, even a small family like mine...Doing massive repairs to the house, building a privacy fence, adding onto the house, etc...to moving to a large house, in Tennessee, that's on county water, relatively private, and outside of a few necessary cosmetic things not really in need of great repair.

The stark difference between living here and out in Oklahoma is so night and day it's not even comparable.

I'm finding myself very happy with my life. I am surrounded by friends and their families that make life feel like it's worth living again. I'm still battling some aspects of my depression, but the things that had me angry, bitter, and in a dark hole at the beginning of last year no longer bother me. Don't think that these things aren't still present....they are, they just no longer bother me like they used to.

I still have an array of drama queens in my life who think it is becoming for them to act like petty children, but now instead of being highly irritated by them and their bitterness towards myself and my family I find them amusing....their emails and random anonymous comments to my blog actually bring a smile to my face. I figure if my public posts bring some poor soul grief because my life is actually better than theirs then I'm obviously doing something right.

I started school back in March, shortly after moving here to Tennessee. Its a bit stressful at times, but every bit worth it. Mikaila will be starting pre-school next week, so in light of having nine 'free' hours a week I've decided to bump my school schedule up from part time to full time. After getting through Anatomy & Physiology during Thanksgiving & Christmas and passing it with an A, I'm fairly confident I can breeze through a full time schedule for the next few months at least.

I also started up a small homemade items shop in November...items vary from ornaments to jewelry to knitted scarves, socks, and hats...

Aspects of my health have improved. I can once again feel my left hand, my back no longer hurts like it did, and with Mikaila FINALLY sleeping through most nights sanity is starting to creep back into my horizon. Until I find out some information 'next' year...then some insanity might creep back in, just in time for the Fall....stay tuned over the next few weeks....

Mikeal has been doing great - still adjusting to remembering to take a medication on a daily basis - but school has been great. It is actually proving to be a challenge to his this year, which is reassuring to me because it means he's actually learning something and not sitting around bored all the time!

Brian did switch employers this year, but he's still in the same line of work and still supposedly in line for a management position. I know he's considered putting in an application to work at the Nissan plant on the other side of Nashville. I suppose we'll see what comes of that. He's currently in the middle of rebuilding our new truck, so far the work has come along beautifully. you can see the progress for yourself in previous posts...

I have so much I want to say about 2010! In short it started off a bit rough, but time, patience, hastily thought out decisions, and rollercoaster adventures things have ended up spectacularly. Its amazing just how many things can change in just a year. I read back through my posts from the last year and it's just weird to think how far things have come since...

So, as I bid ado to 2010 I am looking forward to 2011! This may actually prove to be a year in which I make real resolutions and goals for the coming year, instead of just vague intentions that sound good at the time.

OH...and I absolutely canNOT wait to get started on planning my garden and expanding it this year!!!! Not really in a hurry for spring to get here as I still have a lot of prep work to get done before then, but I'm so happy to get a full planting season in this year and can't wait to see what comes back up from last year! Can you believe it - I even had some lettuce pop back up late this fall...even though the snow and ice did cut its life short, it was exciting nonetheless!

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Society Lacks Common Sense

There's not really a day I don't consider just sitting down and writing this post, or any hundred other posts. However, I have a toddler at home everyday, all day, and she requires a LOT of attention. Getting lost in a blog post for more than just a handful of minutes, while she's awake, can prove to be disastrous. By the time she goes to bed at night my mind is completely frazzled and I neglect to make the post.

Currently it's 'quiet time' and Disney's The Jungle Book has captivated her attention, hopefully for more than just five minutes.

Anyhow, onto the post of the day...

~*~*~*~*~*~

We are considered 'working poor'. Another term so graciously bestowed upon my family has been 'below poverty level'. Hey, I'm not bitching about it, just stating the facts. Facts based upon such models as this one...if you check out the portion between 81% and 100% we fall in there somewhere, BEFORE taxes are taken out.

This is the level that my family falls in because I am not currently employed and my husband works 40+ hours a week, at $2 MORE than minimum wage per hour.

Again, I'm not bitching. I'll get to why not.

Now, this number could more than double if I was to go back to work. I could earn at least minimum wage and work 40 hours a week, putting us into that 175% range. HUGE jump there, you say, so then why not?

For starters...we have two children. One in school, the other not. This would require child care. Of course we could work opposing shifts, you say. That would be WONDERFUL. Only real problem with that is my husband doesn't have a set shift, some days he's required to be at work at 7:30 in the morning, other days he's required to be there until 9:30pm. Leaving me a shift of having to work from 11pm until 7am, if I get out the door, right at 7am and can be home by 7:15am on the days that my husband has to be at work by 7:30am. It could work, if I didn't also have to sleep...see, on the days he has to be at work at 7:30am, he's often not home from work until after 6pm, leaving me roughly 4 hours to sleep, during the hours that dinner is being prepared, homework is being done, and bedtime routines are going on. I don't care who you are, sleep is a necessity.

So we're left with having to pay for child care. Average of $100 a week for the younger one, about $50 a week for the older one, but only if they're picked up by 5:30pm, it can be more than double that if they're not picked up by then. So goes $150 of my $290 paycheck, at minimum wage, before taxes are even taken out. So $140 a week is left, after child care. That would be awesome, granted the only expense to consider was child care, but it's not.

We then have to add in the cost of medical insurance, co-pays, etc. Currently both the kids are covered 100% by state (socialized) medical. This means that we don't pay a dime for co-pays and everything is covered - dental, vision, prescriptions, ALL included. If I go to work and make more than $50 a week, before taxes, we lose this 'luxury'. My husband has a lovely family plan at work, cost is $200 just for major medical, every two weeks. So $100 a week, for all four of us, that's if we go with the $5,000 deductible. This means, in order for the insurance to really start kicking in we have to spend $5000 in that year, cash out of our pocket. We're also responsible for roughly $30 per visit in co-pays, and no prescription coverage. So to meet this quota, based on our yearly averages, we would be spending, an average, of $250 a week just for 'general' medical expenses. This $250 a week would come out of my left over $140 a week, after child care expenses, of course. Now we owe $110 per week, just because I'm working.

I'm not done there. If I'm also working this means we HAVE to have two well running vehicles. We do currently have two vehicles, one is completely paid off, the other will be completely paid off in February or March. So you say no real expense there, right? Again, you would be wrong. If I was to be working I'll need to make a trip into town and home again on a daily basis, so instead of just two trips or so a week, I'm up to 5, but then I'd also have to do my shopping and other kid trips on my days off, so 6-7 round trips, a week. Right now I spend an average of $20 a week for gas, for my two trips, working puts me up to at least $50 a week just in gas. Because I make so few trips at this time, not working, I can get away with just two oil changes a year, and only because we use the 'better stuff' and my husband does the oil changing. This would increase to about 4 oil changes a year, at least. So $3 a week for the oil changes, over the course of the year. Then there's the wear and tear of the tires. As it stands, I only really have to change my tires every two years. Increasing my mileage would put me up to every year needing tires. If I go with 'cheaper' tires, this is an average of $7 a week for tires. So just basic maintenance I can add $60 a week to go back and forth to work, not adding in anything else that may go wrong. I'm now up to it COSTING us $170 a week, for me to go to work, full time, again, before any taxes are taken out of my check.

Speaking of taxes, lets get that out of the way real quick. The average person pays in about 35% of their paycheck before it's even handed to them. At minimum wage this is about $100. So add that $100 to the $170 I'm already in the hole for, I owe $270, per week, above my paycheck, just so I can work and put us out of the poverty range.

Being out of this poverty range also means we no longer qualify for the $250 a month in food assistance. We're now looking at us having to come up with another $60 a week for groceries out of my paycheck. So now we're owing $330, per week, just so I can work, above what my paycheck would be.

To put it in one clear picture, it costs my modest family of 4 $620 per week for me to go to work. In order for us to 'just break even' I would have to make $15 an hour, and not miss an hour of work, in a 40 hour week - $15 an hour being double minimum wage. This doesn't include much of anything else, at all, this only covers the bare basics of me working - child care, medical, transportation, gr0ceries.

I hate that the numbers crunch this way. Because I hate the way the numbers crunch I've gone back to school. I'm hoping by the time I go back to work, with my degree, that it actually works out to my family's advantage.

At the same time of being grateful that there are such programs as 'socialized' medicine, food stamps, WIC, etc I curse the fact that there are these programs and that the numbers do crunch this way. It makes me look like I'd rather be using the system than working or that some how my quality of life and the quality of my children's lives are so much better because we do get assistance.

It may serve one well to know that yes, we have internet and a phone. No cell phone, and the internet service is only dial-up. Okay, I say no cell phone, we do have A cell phone, its prepaid, only 200 minutes a month, no texting, no web, no bells and whistles. We do not have cable or satellite TV services. We bought a $40 digital antenna that goes to our HD enabled TV, so free TV. We don't go out to the movies more than 3 times a year, and that's only if we're lucky. We go out for food, maybe once a month. The kids get a Happy Meal type of lunch or dinner about once every other month.

We have no credit cards. Everything we buy is paid for with money we have saved for such or we have simply done with out. I can only think of two things we have financed in the last 5 years. One being my husband's very gas efficient car, that we bought about 6 months ago, it'll be paid off completely before we've had it a year. It's a 2004 Ford Taurus. He has to have a gas saving vehicle. The other item we've financed was a gas range. We went through four used/cheap/free ones in the span of about 5 months before we broke down and did a rent to own on it. We had to have a stove with a working oven and that didn't leak propane into the house. Outside of that we've financed nothing and nothing has been put on credit cards.

My kids get regular new shoes, clothes, etc, same for myself and my husband. At the same time I refuse to pay $100 for a piece of clothing that has the same function as an article of clothing that only costs $10. Now, shoes are a bit of a different story, at least where my husband is concerned. He works standing on his ski-size feet for 8-12 hours a day, I can stomach spending $100 on a pair of work shoes for him. Unfortunately we've found out that a $150 pair of Nike shoes doesn't last a third as long as a $20 pair of WalMart shoes. But since finding this out we've been able to pair the $20 Wal-Mart shoes with some $30 or $50 insoles and wouldn't ya know, he's worn the same pair of shoes for almost a year now, instead of just a month. Its doubly awesome that we live in an area now that has a Wal-Mart that carries shoes bigger than an 11 for my husband's size 14 feet.

But the bottom line is this. I don't bitch about being 'working poor' or below poverty level because I know when all the numbers are done being crunched that I don't have far to fall. If my husband was to lose his job there's nothing that says I can't go to work and make enough to keep a roof over our heads. If he was to lose his job there's nothing that says he can't find a new one that pays just as much and we maintain our current standard of living. If we were to lose the benefits we get now things would definitely be a bit tighter, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. We still have room to cut things out of our budget and save ourselves another $2-500 a month.

I don't worry about my rent not being paid or my utilities being cut off - those things are paid first. If we don't have the money for some sort of extra along the way we do without the extra. If the money isn't there or something comes up we find a way around it and are able to come up with the money.

My beef is with persons who make more in a single child support payment than my husband makes in a month, while their spouse brings home an additional paycheck that makes the child support payment look like pocket change, and then they bitch that they don't have the money for groceries or worry how they're going to pay their bills or some other bullshit. And not but a few hours later they're telling you all about that $75 pair of shoes they've been eying for a while, and go ahead and buy them because there's something coming up that they want to wear them to, and then not likely wear them again.

Yes, common sense has died in this society. Common sense says that you live within your means. Common sense says that if you don't have the money for necessities you sure as hell don't have the money for something you want. Society says keep up with the guy that makes twice as much because you can always put it in credit now and file bankruptcy later if the money stops being there.

And people really wonder why the economy has gone to shit!? Its not something that has to be evaluated by overpaid idiots with a piece of paper that says they're smarter than someone else. I'm only a backwoods educated high school graduate, from parents who were C average students and not college educated and I can figure this shit out.

In about 18 months I'll be finished with my associates degree, from there I plan on pursuing a Bachelor's, Master's, and then a Doctorate, as I'm working to help support my family, I pray that its not at the cost of my common sense.

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Living with Arthritis

SUCKS!

I am 28 years old. For the past 20 or so years I have dealt with pain in my joints and it's done nothing but get worse. Changing my diet hasn't helped. Losing weight hasn't helped. I've felt myself sink into deep depressions over just not being able to physically do what I want to do. It really SUCKS!

I LOVE to cook. Thankfully I recently acquired some cookbooks that line up a whole month of meals that one can cook in a day. So my family does end up with a home cooked meal on a daily basis, without a ton of work from me every day. But it still sucks that I don't have the actual ability to keep up with it on a regular basis.

I LOVE to sew. Thankfully I did recently acquire, for free, a sewing machine, I fixed a few things wrong with it, and can get much done. Trying to do the bits that I have to do by hand, though, can take weeks. I started a blanket for my nephew, Ryan, a few years ago, he'll be 4 in February. Because of the pain in my hands and shoulders I had to put it away before I even finished the embroidery work on it. Even now, on the new medications that allow me more movement in my hands & body, doesn't change the fact that it was a few weeks of working on it before I was able to actually complete the trim work. I did most of it with the sewing machine, but had to finish the back by hand. Its now a gift to my newest nephew, Vincent.

I LOVE to knit. In the last year I have been able to complete a few hat and scarf sets, one pair of socks, and half a pair of socks. When I am having a few good days I can complete a hat in just a couple of hours, a scarf in just a day or two. I can complete a pair of socks in three days. I have a pair of socks in the works...I started it about 5 weeks ago and haven't been able to finish it since.

I LOVE to write. I haven't been able to even fill out a medical form without feeling like I wanted to cut my hand off because it hurt so badly, much less a short story or poem. The last time I was able to actually write out something I was drunk out of my gourd I've been completely sober for the last 4 or 5 years, outside of the occasional glass of wine...I think I average a bottle of wine every 3 months. I didn't notice the pain so much when I was drunk or stoned. Being sober only sucks in that regard.

I LOVE to dance. It doesn't help the fact that my loving husband doesn't like to dance, but it doubly sucks that it physically hurts me to even try to dance.

I LOVE to wear high heels. I may be 6ft tall already but there's just something about wearing heels that makes me feel great, like a fairy tale princess or something. But again, it causes me so much pain that within no time I have to trade them off for something more supporting, and flat.

I LOVE to work with wood and work on cars. Between operating a screwdriver or using some sandpaper I just want to die.

I LOVE to be outside and play with my kids - running, dancing, swimming, all of it. Now I know if I do so one day I won't be able to for a week. It sucks, BAD. I grin and bear it and try to fake my way through enjoying every minute I am playing with the kids by biting my lip or whatever I have to do to make sure I am very actively involved with them, but most of the time I just want to hide in a corner and cry until the pain goes away. Its quite unbearable most days, but I manage. I refuse to just give-in to it.

I recently had decent enough insurance to be able to see doctors and specialists and the like. I prayed for it to just be a pinched nerve or something else similar in nature that could be repaired or fixed with surgery even. Instead everything came back clean and clear. The allergies I've suffered with all my life - turns out I don't have allergies, I just have a super sensitive nose - was given two different nasal sprays and since I haven't had an instance where I felt like I was dying because my head was so congested. Its been great. I was also put on some medication for the pain and inflammation -neurontin and ibuprofen. It gives me some relief from the stiffness, but not the pain. The pain is often EXCRUCIATING. The sporadic numbness and tingling is often unbearable.

But I continue on. I have children who need me, a house that needs to be cleaned, laundry to be done, food to be cooked, a yard to keep maintained, a husband that counts on me to take care of such things, as his partner in all of this. I'm going to school to attempt to improve my financial gain for when I go back to work. If I can't find a way to get around this pain I fear I will screw up my opportunities.

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You Might Get Lucky

I have cut down on some of my other online activities...okay, I'll admit to it. I behaved in an not as childish of a manner, but still a childish manner in reaction to others' childish ways and now I have some 30 less people to have to "deal with" on Facebook and am no longer a part of some forums. I'm also getting ready to finish my last day of class until next week, so who knows, you may get pretty lucky this month as I let go of all this word diarrhea.

I also no longer really care if my stalkers wish to stalk me, that's on them. They no longer know where my husband works or our current phone number, so the tension at home over their bullshit is just gone in that aspect, so I feel a bit liberated. Plus, I love my current blog domain name and have no desire to create a new one. Call me lazy, too, if you want but I also wish not to pack up this blog and move it. Then there is the small point I made some time ago where I said I wasn't going to let others' influence my blog and well I broke my promise to myself on that note for a while, but I'm "back" now.

I have real friends and family members that do enjoy reading what I have to post and it's not fair to them for me to withhold on the account of immature people who claim to be adults. So from the abyss of trying to appease people I am reviving my blog. Just as a refresher read this post.

Have a Happy Reading! I must now go finish getting laundry done, the house cleaned, and some floors scrubbed so that I may go out for dinner and swimming later with friends! <3

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A Post a Day

HA! Who am I kidding?! If you're an avid reader of my blog you know that's me doing more of that crazy talk I do once in a while. I can count you lucky though if you catch more than five new posts from me a month, much less anything more than that, especially lately.

So some quick updates:

1) I'm not pregnant at this time. I'm going to be seeing a "real" gynecologist sometime next month to get to the bottom of getting this Mirena removed.

2) Mikaila goes in on the 1st of July to have surgery done to remove her adenoids and have tubes put in her ears. I guess I haven't given y'all that news... Because of her speech and behavioral issues we've been seeing a number of different therapists and specialists. A hearing test was ordered, but before her doc would sign off on it he wanted her to be seen by an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat Specialist). The ENT noticed a lot of fluid built up, gave me a script of antibiotics to give her, followed up about 3 weeks later, there was zero change in the fluid, so the surgery was scheduled. The general consensus is that her tonsils and adenoids are larger than is necessary for a gal her size...likely have been all her life since she has snored every sleeping moment of her life. She's a big mouth breather as well, always has been, hence contributing to our problems with her being able to latch on comfortably to breastfeed, bottle feeding was slightly better, but I still had to hold the bottle just so. She's always ALWAYS had sleep issues...some months are WAY worse than others. She's always, ALWAYS, had a runny nose. There really is a long list and had she had a competent doctor to begin with most of these problems could of been taken care of a long time ago. Ironically it wasn't apparent or brought up in the traditional sense because she's only ever had two diagnosed ear infections. The fluid was always mentioned at her well-checks and other visits with her previous incompetent doctor's office, but nothing worthy of more note than that, apparently. UGH!

3) My ex has moved out of Oklahoma. He's supposedly living in Missouri now...and I just won't get into that whole can of "what the fuck" right now. There went my $200 a month child support payment...can I get a "big whoopdeedoo"/"what did you expect"?

4) Brian and I both have awesome health insurance now!

5) This week has been one positive after one negative bombshell all week long.

I'd go into more of the details, but I have an ugly stalker and care not to indulge her with everything too.

Later lovies!

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I'm not terribly happy...

School has been canceled for tomorrow.



That is all.



Mikeal has been whining to go back to school for the last few days...



This snow, it's not "normal" for us. We get roughly 3-6 snow falls a year....most of them happening in February & March...We've had 4 so far this year, one was even considered a blizzard (because of the winds, not because we ended up with 3 feet of snow)


There has been snow on the ground here since a few days before Christmas. Snow does NOT stay on the ground here, period. Two days, MAX! But NOOOOOOOO this snow just stays around. Only once has the temp been above freezing...and that day I actually thought it felt "nice" outside...it was 36*F I didn't even fuss over wearing a coat that day.


I'm very VERY much so over winter at this point.


What makes it all so much better is that 36* a few days ago is the highest temp of the forecast, since before Christmas... Tomorrow it's just supposed to be cold. By Tuesday/Wednesday another snow storm is going to be moving in. And with that our HIGH temps might be in the teens.


Yes, I'm WHINING. I realize that most of you are Yanks or Canucks....but there's a solid reason I don't live any further north than I am now...actually the only thing solid I can think of is ice, and ice is cold, and that's good enough solid reason for me to stay south.

TO put it in perspective - this time last year I was working the dirt in my garden, adding fresh dirt to it, etc so that it'd be ready when it got closer to Spring. Yes, I was out there, in my GARDEN, building it and working the dirt in JANUARY! I'd started my seedlings the 2nd of January. Right now...I can't even SEE my garden, much less try to be working the dirt. And it's just too windy & COLD to let the kids out to play, the wind just stings like a SOB!

But it makes for some pretty pictures.

Three trees that make for interesting photos...they're across the street in the landlady's field.

Up one of the trees...I think I'd attempted to take a pic of a cardinal, but they don't sit still long enough for me to get a picture.

My backyard

The "cool" neighbor's cows...here in a few months one of these will be sitting in my freezer.

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