Off The Grid

G2 with his new car

I'll be 'off the grid' so to speak this week. We'll be traveling to Texas Motor Speedway later in the week to root for G2 as he competes in his first Southern Sport Mod race. The whole family is so excited for him. This is a new class for him but we know from past experience he'll do a great job.

I have LOTS of things I need to get accomplished before we leave. See you soon!

Spring Is In The Air

                                    

Well, at least these robins think so. This afternoon is a chilly one but AD hollered for me to come look out the back door. The yard was filled with robins! I ran to get my camera (naturally it was in the bedroom instead of in my hand where it should have been) but by the time I got back they'd flown away.

A few minutes later they were back. This time I had the camera.

I snapped away as fast as I could in case the robins took flight again.

Now I ask you - with that many robins around, don't you think Spring is just around the corner?

My Wednesdays

On Wednesdays you can generally find me at my local (35 miles away) scrapbook store cropping with a good friend.

The store has started having layout contests again since Spring is coming. The store decides on a sketch to be used (kind of an outline for lack of a better word), then those who want to participate use that sketch to create a page. The store's customers then vote for their favorite throughout the month. When the voting time has expired, all the votes are tallied, the winner is announced and receives a small prize.

Prize or no prize, I just like entering the contests. It's fun to take a sketch and see what I can come up with. I used to sew a lot and, for me, going from a sketch to a scrapbook page is like taking a pattern (the sketch), selecting just the right fabric (photos and papers), buttons, etc (embellishments) and ending up with a new dress (page).

I created the page above last week from this month's sketch. Although I really liked how it came out, something just seemed off. According to the sketch there were only supposed to be 4 photos used but my page just wasn't coming together the way it should so I added a 5th photo. Now the store isn't really that picky about following the sketches exactly but I like to be as on target as possible. So that 5th photo really, really bothered me.

I just couldn't see where I went wrong. Finally it hit me. I had placed the top photo at the very top of the page and that threw everything else off. The photo was actually supposed to be placed down the page just a bit.

I could have let it go and entered my page in the contest but since entries weren't due until today I thought I'd give it another go when I was at the store yesterday.



The title of the page is "Lions and Rhinos and a Bear - Oh My!"

 This is the page I put together yesterday and it followed the sketch exactly. I like both pages equally well and had a very hard time choosing which one to enter.

In the end I left my zoo page to be entered. I can't wait to see everyone else's entries! After the votes are cast and a winner is declared I'll let you know how my page fared among the others.

On another note and because it does relate to this post - a week or so ago I visited Emmie's Ramblings and just enjoyed Emily's blog so much I became a follower. Little did I know that I would be her 50th follower.

Because of that she sent me a wonderful little package of goodies! On Tuesday there was a card in our post office box telling us that we had a package for pick up (our box is very small). Emily lives in Florida and I live here in Oklahoma so it never occurred to me that the package might be from her. I didn't get to the post office until after it had closed on Tuesday so I had to wait until yesterday to pick it up on my way to the scrapbook store. The package held a sweet plaque, a lovely scented sachet, a little butterfly wind chime and some scrapbooking goodies (brads, eyelets, embellishments and ribbon). Thank you Emily!

NOTE to Emily: The package arrived at the PERFECT time! I'm glad it was Wednesday before I was able to pick it up because it was in my bag when I got to the scrapbook store. The little black brads that were included were exactly what I needed to complete my Zoo layout. How great is that!!!!! I've had another page in mind to do for awhile now. I'm just waiting to get the photos I need for it. The orange ribbon is going to be perfect on the page. It's almost as if you knew what I was thinking. Thanks again!

A Trip to the Tulsa Zoo

L-R (back row) Son, G4, G3 (front row) Girlie and G5

Saturday was a beautiful day in Oklahoma. AD's mother has one big birthday party for all of her kids every February. AD's youngest sister's birthday is the end of January, his and his brother's birthdays are one day apart in mid-February and his sister that is just younger than him has a birthday the first part of March. Now that there are not only grand kids, but great grands too, it's kind of a zoo when the party rolls around.

But this post isn't about that "zoo", it's about the Tulsa Zoo. Son and his kids came up for the party and when it started breaking up, he, his kiddos and I went to the Tulsa zoo for a few hours.

The kids were on the lookout for flamingos and they thought they found some. But these are spoonbills. I tried researching it but couldn't find anything that said flamingos and spoonbills are related. These were pink though and they stood on their legs like flamingos. That pelican (I assume it's a pelican!) in the back on the left was pretty fascinating to watch too.

This alligator was another of their favorites.

That lump of hair is a sloth and his parents were high above him in the trees. I tried taking their picture but they were just too far away to get a good one.

The rhinos are what really caught my eye. They reminded me of another trip to another zoo years ago when Son and Daughter were small. That zoo was a drive-through and a rhino came right up to our car to take a peek inside. It scared the bejeebers out of Daughter!

The lions were sunning themselves on Saturday.

The chimps seemed to be posing for pictures

just like the black bear.

I think everyone had a good time. Next time though, we need to go earlier in the day so we can spend more time. We pretty much closed down the zoo on Saturday.

I hope your weekend was a pleasant one too!



So UNFAIR!

At least Daughter and I think it's unfair. And most people we talk to think we're crazy.

This is G1. He's 18 1/2.

This is Daughter, G1's mom. She's - ummm - let's just say on the downside of her 30's.

And this is me with AD. I'm 60. He was 59 last Saturday. 

Here's what is unfair. I have always wanted to sit on a jury. Daughter has always wanted to sit on a jury. Neither of us have ever been called for jury duty.

Last week G1 received a letter in the mail telling him he needs to report for jury duty at the end of the month.

How. Does. That. Happen? Well, I know how it happens, but why haven't Daughter or I ever received one of those letters?

PS. AD has been called before and actually sat on a jury. Long story short, someone stole a Winnebago and drove it across the state line. I just didn't have another picture of myself that I wanted to use. 

Sock It To Me

Parsley is having a sock party today on her blog Seasons Of My Mind. She asked if anyone would like to join in and show a pair of their favorite socks.

Anyone who knows me knows I have an obsession for fun socks. Always have, always will. I couldn't just pick one pair to show though. Here's some from my collection.

One year Son gave me the socks shown above for Mother's Day. He'd heard about LittleMissMatched socks on the radio and knew they were right up my alley. So he did some research and ordered some for me.

LittleMissMatched socks come 3 to a pair. That way if the dryer eats one, you still have a pair.  I've seen them in Hallmark stores and even bought some at Silver Dollar City.

These are my flamingo socks.

I have LOTS of Christmas socks. These are some of the newest to be added to my collection.

Right up there in popularity are my Halloween socks. My most favorite Halloween socks of all had to be retired to the trash can this year. I literally had them for years! They were black with ghosts all over them. The were so soft and comfy. I miss them but they had totally fallen apart. Probably because I wore them from October right through December. You remember the ghosts of Christmas present, past and future, right? I loved them that much.

Other than the flamingo Valentine's socks above, here's the only other pair that I have that are currently clean. All the rest are in the laundry to be washed.

That's it. Hope on over to Parsley's blog and check out her socks.

With More To Come

Last Wednesday AD got the tractor out and cleared our drive while

Mikey played

and frolicked

in the snow.

Later AD got the 4-wheeler out to take Mikey on a run.

On the way back in he got stuck in the snow. AD was glad he wasn't far from the house and his shop.

Our little guys got out to play some too after AD cut them a path through the snow.

Smoke seemed to have the most fun of the three. At least he was the one who liked going out in the deeper snow. Elliott and Dani pretty much stayed in the area where there was a little grass.

You can see how much Smoke enjoyed himself. 

Dani somehow managed to get some snow on her face and back. Elliott never did come in with any of the cold, white stuff on his body.

After being stuck at home most of the week AD and I decided to go to Tulsa for the Boat, Sport and Travel Show on Saturday.

Before we left he wanted to take Mikey for a run. They usually make a lap or two around the front 10 acres when they go out.

AD told Mikey he was going to follow him so to be sure and not go where the snow was too deep. See the corner posts back behind the pond? Yep. Mikey led AD right out there. And. AD. Got. Stuck. REALLY good and stuck! It took using the tractor to get the 4-wheeler out. 

So much for Mikey's navigational skills!

More snow is forecast for Tuesday night and Wednesday. The prediction is 4 to 10 more inches for our area. I know I'll be thinking back to these days come summer time and the thermometer reading is on the other end of the stick.

Everyday Heroes

Early this morning, around 6:20am, a Chevy Avalanche carrying 8 people ran off a bridge near Miami, Oklahoma and plunged 80 feet into the icy river below. You can read about it here: http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=13962302

At this writing the news reports that 3 of those who were involved in the crash have died.

The news channel I generally watch was able to show live footage as the rescue team and divers worked in the frigid temperatures.

Those folks are true heroes in my book.

Oklahoma Blizzard 2011

I woke up about 2:30 Tuesday morning and looked outside. There was no snow at that point. I woke up again about 4:30 and snow had started falling. About 9:15 on Tuesday morning this was what I saw outside our backdoor.

This morning AD took the camera outside. This is the drift that is on the backside of our home.

And here is a view of the drift from the other side. 

AD got the tractor out and cleared the driveway. Hopefully the road to the highway will be cleared soon!

Mikey stayed in his house (that's in the garage) most of Tuesday. AD kept trying to coax him out but he was snuggled down and warm and he was NOT coming out! ONLY when he ABSOLUTELY had business to take care of would he even stick his nose out the opening.

Today, he's had a great time running in the snow while AD is outside working.

The news reports that the official snowfall is supposed to be 13.5 inches in our area. I wonder how / where it's measured.  Of course we have drifts - you've seen that above but at our house, at least, we can see some (dead) grass in places. In fact for some strange reason there was no snow on our driveway and no snow on parts of the sidewalk to the front door. Go figure! Anyway, is there some sort of snow gauge similar to a rain gauge? Just wondering.

For those of you that are dealing with snow right now - stay warm and stay safe!