Castle Guards

If, as the saying goes, AD's home is his castle - then these are the castle guards.

With the local temperatures being so cold and continuing to drop the field mice and rats are really scrambling to find warmer digs.

Much to my dismay the little varmints have been coming closer and closer to the house.

Much to our fur kids delight the little varmints have been coming closer and closer to the house.

And the fur kids have been standing guard almost constantly. Even the slightest movement outside catches their eye and they go into a frenzy wanting out the door.

I've been knocking on the glass to give any wildlife fair warning the guards are going to be let loose.

Heaven forbid that one of my sweet darlings would actually catch one of those creatures!

Oh, and please overlook the Christmas tree and stocking post that are still in the living room. I really am going to take them down this week . . .

Another One of Those Days

It's still snowy out our way and according to the local forecast we may see some more snow late Wednesday and into Thursday with extremely cold temperatures throughout the area.



I never really learned to drink coffee or tea. Well, I do like one of those specialty coffee drinks once in awhile but when the weather turns cold and I'm looking for a quick way to warm up I turn to




instant hot chocolate. Of course it's not nearly as tasty as the real thing made with cocoa and sugar and half-and-half but it's quick and it's easy and it does warm me up.

Not too long ago I bought a regular size box of Swiss Miss No Sugar Added (8 packets to the box) at Wallyworld for $2 (down from $2.23 according to the sign). That's still twice as much as regular Swiss Miss but I need the No Sugar Added part so that's what I bought.

Then when we were in Tulsa the other day Sam's had this box of 60 packets for a little less than $7! Considering the savings I bought not 1 but 2 boxes. Glad I did! This may be one of the coldest winters we've had in awhile.



Hot chocolate, hot coffee, hot tea - whatever helps keep you warm - you may want to check your supply.

Stay warm!

How I Spent 01-01-10

January 1, 2010 started out like most of my days. I fixed a cup of hot chocolate and sat down in front of my computer to catch up with all my blogger friends.


AD turned on the Rose Parade in the other room. I listened for awhile and when I heard them talking about this float I had to go check it out.

This particular float set a new Guinness World Record for being the longest float on a single chassis. The screen shows 113+ feet, the commentator said the actual length was 113 ft 8 inches.


The float had these adorable snowboarding dogs on it.


How cute is that!


This was the only little girl in the bunch.


I mentioned some upcoming projects in an earlier post this week. This is our old wine rack - the one that holds bottles of wine that AD's mother gives us. AD doesn't care for wine so we don't actually drink the wine, we just display it.


Here's the old rack with the tray removed. The glass rack on the top was part of the project. It needed to be removed so that


AD could install it in our new wine rack that his mother gave him. The new one didn't have a glass rack and the rack from the old one was perfect.

The new wine rack also has some storage underneath that is perfect for me to store tablecloths in. I'm thinking I want to add a spring curtain rod with a pretty little curtain to hide the tablecloths so I'll be on the lookout for the perfect curtain.

We recycled the rest of the old wine rack making it a stand for our second computer that is in the bedroom. The racks for the wine bottles will be used to hold telephone books, papers, magazines, etc.


Part of the day was spent gathering Christmas decorations to be packed away. It will take me a few days to finish that.


And there's always laundry to do. I don't know how two people can go through so many towels!


AD's sister gave me a small poinsettia at Thanksgiving. She doesn't know I am notorious for killing these beautiful plants. It's amazing that this little one has lasted as long as it has. It must be strong-willed. I hope so because I really do love poinsettias. Maybe that's my problem. I love them too much!

Anyway, I watered this one today and let the excess water drain in the sink before I put it back in the decorative pot. Someone told me one of my problems might be watering my previous plants too much. Do you think that's possible?

I really am going to try and keep this one alive. I'll let you know how it goes.

How did you spend your first day of the new decade?

The New Toy

AD got his new wildlife camera set up on Wednesday afternoon.


These are a few of the pictures the camera captured that night.



AD saw the flashes going off and could hardly wait until Thursday morning to go retrieve the memory card.



I think this is THE best Christmas gift I've given AD in a long, long time!



Looks like the deer came back for breakfast.



What fun!