From Winter to Spring in 4 hours!

We awoke to more snow this morning. This evening we are in Chandler where we sat outside with our feet in a Jacuzzi, no coats on, soaking in some sun! The ground on the way down was wetter than I remember ever seeing it, little streams of water were running down the rock bluffs most of the way down. We even saw a couple of little waterfalls! There had been lots of rockfalls, we saw some pretty big ones that came right to the edge of the road. The highway department was clearing them, looks like that job will keep them busy for a while!

They were working on the road in the middle of Miami and we got stopped for a few minutes wait so I snapped a few shots of the nearby old buildings. Loved the sign on the top of this one! It was sad to see such a cool building in bad shape, there was mesh over the windows, but the birds had found a way in and it looked like it's doing service as a bird hotel now.

I have always loved going through the Queen Creek Tunnel. When we were little, we'd beg Dad to honk the horn, it always sounded cool, then when our kids were small we'd honk for them to hear. I heard someone honking as we went through today, guess kids are still loving some of the same things we did as kids! There was a cool looking little waterfall in the rocks to the right of the tunnel. Made me wonder if they ever have leaking problems inside.

The grass was green and there were flowers blooming along the road as we got closer to the valley. It was wonderful to see signs of spring!

Here's the motel we stayed in, it was a pretty nice one and we even got a pretty good Continental Breakfast.

Here we are soaking in some sun and relaxing our feet in the Jacuzzi.

Snow, Snow, Snow

Cloudy and a bit of snow off and on today. It melted about as fast as it fell, but started up again this evening and we had a bit on the ground and cars at bedtime.

Onions

As I went out to my stash and got an onion today, I realized that we've been eating the onions I grew last summer all winter long!

Lyman Lake Park Closed

As we drove to St. Johns today, we saw that there is a barricade up and a sign saying Lyman Lake is closed. I was hoping they would come up with a solution to keep it open. Guess not. After years of the government wasting our tax $$, the shortage is catching up with them and we're paying the price. Sad to see all our parks closing!

We went to St. Johns so John could pick up an antique hay rake he's going to incorporate into sculptures. He enticed me to go along with him by offering to take me to El Camino for some red chili. I couldn't pass that up! Their red chili is the best I've ever eaten and today's was super good! Here's a picture of my Navajo Taco, yummmy!


It took John and Eric over 3 hours to get the heavy machine loaded, first they had to cut down a tree that had grown up in the middle of the machine, then winch the heavy thing up onto a trailer. I was so glad when they finally got it up on the trailer! It was cold and breezy and my face feels wind burned tonight, but no one said being the official photographer was going to be an easy job, LOL.

View of the snow covered mountains taken on the way home.

Just Another Day in Winterville

We had a weird thing happen last night. We'd just gone to bed and suddenly the wind started blowing hard, it blew for about 5 minutes then stopped just as suddenly as it started. John thought he heard something in the front of the house and went to check it out. He found the back door standing open! After a cautious check of the area looking for an intruder, he decided the air pressure from the sudden wind had sucked it open. I guess we hadn't closed it tight. Lucky that didn't happen after we were asleep or we'd have had a freezing house this morning!

It's cold and breezy today and it keeps spitting little tiny balls of snow at us! I needed a good dose of spring today and Carleen supplied it by calling me this afternoon to let me know their Alco has Burpee seeds! (I was wanting to get some more of the 4th of July tomato seeds I planted last summer) I ran down to check at our Alco and they had them, yea!! The ones I planted last summer had oodles of tomatoes and they were pretty early too. While I was there I saw a cute little greenhouse with a plastic cover that was pretty cheap, and I picked one up. It should be great for starting seeds! I just need to find some lights to go in it. I planted some of the seeds today.

Henry Gets Center Stage

I finally made it back to exercise this morning. Between not feeling good and the icy roads, I've been slacking! John took off the short day shifts this week and so was home to go with me. We rearranged the furniture in the dining room and put his desk where the organ was and the organ where his desk was. I cleaned off the top of the China Cabinet and put Henry up there, it was looking pretty cluttered, I hadn't even noticed it until we got the new table, funny how you get used to things and don't even see them anymore until something changes.

More Bad Weather

We didn't get any more snow during the night, but it was icy out this morning. I was going to go exercise, but thought it best if I didn't venture out on the icy roads. John called me after he got to work and said the roads were very icy in town, so I was glad I stayed home!

It's Still Winter Here!

We got a few flurries of snow this morning, nothing sticking, just cold and breezy out. I'll sure be glad when spring comes, it's been such a long cold winter this year!

Giant Scorpion

John has been working on a giant scorpion for a while and finished it up today. Wow, it's huge!

Birthday Party!

Jessie's birthday party was today and we ventured over through a bit of snow to attend. I think she had a great time, several of her friends attended and we ate cake and ice cream until we were about to pop! Jessie cut the cake herself and the pieces were HUGE! I got to meet her new little guinea pig buddy, she's so cute and cuddly!

New Tires and a Speedometer Check

John got new tires on Big Jim today and we went for a ride out towards New Mexico to test our speedometer and see if the tire size change made our speedometer closer to correct. It's still off a bit but now we're going a bit under instead of over. I took some photos as we were heading back towards town. Our mountains are still showing a bit of white, no wonder they were named the White Mountains!

Horses and Old Trucks

I took a short walk today, it was cold and breezy out, so I didn't stay out long. I visited with Misty and Santana for a bit, then I ventured on down the street and couldn't resist stopping and getting a few shots of this old pickup.

Happy Birthday Jessie!

Wow. Jessie is 10 years old today! Where have the years gone! I called her this morning, but she'd already left for school. She called me back when she got home, she was so excited, she got a Guinea Pig! She's been wanting one for a long time. Her party is on Saturday and we'll go over to see her then.

Had a harder time today exercising. My joints hurt and I was slower. I did do another 30 minutes, but didn't make it as far, 3.5 miles today.

I was out looking for my photo for today and the horses saw me and came up to the fence to visit. So, I gave Santana a good head rub, he picks on Misty when we try to get close to her, he'll nip her and so she stays back a bit so I didn't get to touch her. When Jessie is here, I visit with Santana so he won't notice Jessie and Misty visiting. But, if he sees her feed Misty weeds, he's right there shoving her back. How Rude!

Here's my photo for today, cedar berries.

More Antelope

Well, it's 2 for 2 now on exercising with music! I was able to do 30 minutes and 3.7 miles on the Elliptical this morning!

John and I rode out to the dump again this morning, it was closed when we went the other day. We saw more antelope, a lot of them were laying down, I guess we'd caught them just waking up. This one jumped up and ran when another vehicle came along.

I also took some pictures of all the logs stacked up at the sawmill next to the dump, the log ends were so striking in the sun! They don't show up as brilliant in the photo as they looked in real life.

President's Day

Jessie had a holiday today, so she got to stay an extra night with us!

We all watched Andre this morning, I'd never seen it, it's a good movie! Then we had pizza and wings for lunch and packed up Jessie's things and left to take her home by way of St. Johns. We took Eric's target boxes to him, traded ladders with Mom, then took Jessie home. She gave us the Valentine card she forgot to bring and we had a good visit with everyone. Here she is listening to her mp3 player on the way home. She often sings along with the songs she's listening to so we got live music!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We had a great one, Jessie was here with us and since she had forgotten to bring her Valentine for us with her, she wanted to make some so we each made one for John. Hers was so cute, she made up her own verse for it, here's part of it.

You are the Pa
Who every grandkid wants.
I'm that lucky grandkid who gets you.
You are the best.
I love you lots, Pa-tastic.

She wrote one for me too, but I need to get her to decipher some of it, she did say I was as nice as a butterfly!

Here's our Valentine goodies.

Jessie and I had a busy day, after we made the cards, we took the chair boxes and built a house. We had a good time and Jessie loved our house, I think it turned out awesome! We decorated the outside, carpeted the inside, put a little chair in the "living room" and pillows in the "bedroom."

This afternoon we rode out to the dump with John and on the way we spotted some lamas, a herd of antelope and an elk!

The Annual President's Day Shootout

We had a busy day today. We shopped at WalMart and Iguana Imports this morning, and purchased this table and chair set for 40% off! I love our old table, but the chairs were getting unstable and these chairs just didn't go with our old table, so we splurged and got the whole set!

John hosted the annual Presidents Day shootout in the afternoon. Jessie even joined them and had a great time target shooting and throwing darts. There was only one near disaster, when one of the pellets went through the target and dented the furnace! They put up more barriers and all was okay. The winners of the shootout were: Chuck 1st place in the rifle division and Trent 1st place in the pistol division. John is making traveling trophies that will go to each year's winners. Carl was the winner in the dart division, hope his arm isn't too sore tomorrow!

Can Music Make Exercising Easier?

Yesterday, I finally remembered to take my mp3 player with me to listen to while exercising. I went 3 miles on the Elliptical for the first time and it seemed so easy! Today, I forgot it and had a hard time. I made myself go 2 miles, then gave up. So was it the music or just coincidence? I think this theory needs more testing!

Tax day, we have an appointment today to get ours done. Hope we get some $$ back and don't have to send them $$$!! A plus to tax day is getting to eat chili at El Camino!

More Snow

We got a bit more snow last night. Not much, less than an inch here. Vernon got more than we did, they delayed school by 2 hours, so they could clear the parking lot to get the buses out. I'll bet Jessie hated that, LOL!

Orange You Glad It's Lunch Time!

I made it to exercise this morning! I haven't gone since last Thursday, I've been having some joint pain, I think I was overdoing it. I felt better this morning so braved the cold and the frosty windshield to be there early.

John wondered what had happened to me when I served him this for lunch. Don't know why, but I felt like fancying up the plate a bit and added orange slices.

ADSR Has Started

I am participating in a digi scrapping race again this year. This is the 5th season for the NDISB ADSR and my 4th time to participate. I'm also helping out with the race behind the scenes, checking in racers. It's a lot of work, but I have a good time every year. We got our first challenge on Sunday and I have almost completed it, I'm just waiting on a photo from my partner to add to my layout. We got our second challenge this morning. I need 5 photos of things I love, one photo has to have a 5 in it. Still thinking on this one. How's this for a 5, my computer with a 5 on the screen!

During the winter we don't eat as much fruit, don't know why. We stocked up on oranges and bananas today and they look so yummy.

Quiet Day

My tummy woke me up early this morning, I think it was telling me it had too many cookies yesterday!

Jessie and Andy left me the movies she brought over for us to watch while she was visiting and I watched movies today. I usually love Nicholas Cage movies and thought I'd like this one, but I decided it wasn't one of his best.

For my birthday last year, Charles and Nikki gave me a grow your own palm tree kit. They gathered up seeds and put together a cute kit of all I'd need to grow the seeds. I never could get them to sprout, so Charles dug up some sprouts from his front yard and brought them to me. They look good and have grown a lot!

Guess What We Got This Morning?

Jessie happened to look out the window this morning after the movie we were watching ended and discovered it was snowing! Her Dad called a bit later and they were having blizzard conditions at the time! Jessie and I hoped for enough snow that she would get a snow day off school tomorrow, so she could stay an extra day, but no such luck. We braved the cold and went out in our PJ's and played in the snow for a while, then we baked cookies, ate at Subway, went shopping, held some adorable Jack Russell puppies, helped feed the horses, baked more cookies, and made necklaces. We had a busy day, we always have so much to pack into too short a time!

Misty's eye, I love horses eyes! Look at those long eyelashes!

Jessie, trying to catch a snowflake.

Humm, which one should I get Gma?

Helping Shane feed Misty and Santana.

Hearts

Jessie called me this morning, she said she was just too lonely for me and wanted to come over and visit. Her Dad brought her over and I enjoyed a visit with the two of them this afternoon. They saw a huge herd of Elk and two herds of Antelope on the way over and of course didn't have a camera with them! Jessie brought me some gifts, this heart that goes with my egg and tree was one of them. She said she's collecting me ceramic opening boxes, how cute of her!! Andy fixed the driver problem with John's laptop, when we updated to SP3, it installed a driver that wouldn't work with the hardware in the computer and it lost the sound. Dumb Microsoft! He had a hard time getting rid of the wrong driver, like a bad penny, it kept coming back, but finally he got rid of it!! Yea!

When John got home we all went out to eat, then Andy went home and Jessie stayed and spent the night with us.

Oh Nuts!

Trish and Sam gifted us with a huge bag of pistachios this Christmas. We both love them and enjoy savoring a nutty moment in our day!

We've Got Snow! Again!

We got 2 or 3 inches of snow last night. It was beautiful when we got up! I went out and snapped this picture of our evergreen bush. It looked so pretty with pink light showing up behind it.

My pond has been frozen for a long time now, I hope my fish are okay down there. I hope the ice is protecting them and not freezing them!


We glued down the flooring in the middle of the camper today. Now we just need to paint and add trim along the edges. When we start adding the things we are going to store, we'll need to add some tie downs and shelves, but the inside is mostly finished. We need to get jacks for the outside so we can raise and lower it to get it in the pickup and then I think it will be finished!

Snow Day

We watched a storm roll down off the hills and into the valley this morning as we went to the dump and returned. It's been snowing lightly for a while now, but not much on the ground.

John and I cut and glued most of the flooring in the art camper today. Only the middle floor is left, we put it in the granny's attic, as John calls it and on both benches. It's getting close to finished! The flooring on the bench needs to be trimmed and aluminum trim added and we're going to paint the wood that's beneath the shelf. This bench will be used to store our Pro Panels and we'll build a shelf above for the canopy.

Have you ever tried a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich? We had them for lunch today. The bananas kind of melt into the peanut butter, I could taste them, but not feel their texture. John really liked his sandwich but I'm not sure, it was kind of too sweet. I heard somewhere that they were one of Elvis' favorite sandwiches and John has been eating them not grilled for a while so we decided to try them the Elvis way today.

Today is my sister's birthday, hope you have a wonderful day, Trish!!

Electricity

I don't realize how used to having electricity I am until I don't have it. This morning our lights suddenly went off, leaving us with no electricity for a few hours. I found myself repeatedly switching on lights as I entered a room, even though I knew the lights were off, my hand wasn't paying any attention to my brain!

The cause was a car accident, someone ran into a power pole and it shut off the power to our area while crews repaired the damage. I hope no one was seriously injured in the accident!

A New Month

Wow, where did January go, it flew by! John and I ate lunch at the Sunny Side to celebrate the end of night shifts, then worked on cleaning up the pontoon boat. With Lyman closing and no time to drive to far away lakes, we've decided to sell it so we can put the money into finishing up our art camper. We've been accepted back in the barn for the coming summer, so we've got to get busy and get ready!

I couldn't start the truck today, the battery was dead, so after hooking it up to the charger for a while, we went for a ride to finish charging it up. We turned around at Nelson Reservoir and I took a few pictures of the frozen lake. I could see footprints out on the lake, looked pretty scary to me, I wouldn't want to walk out there!

I've always loved this view of town from on top of the hill coming back from Nelson Reservoir.

Jessie's Sculpture

Jessie gathered up the pieces for this sculpture and designed it and showed her Pa just how she wanted them to go together and got him to weld it for her. Then she gave it to us. I put it on the top of the fence just outside my door so when I look out I can see it. Makes me smile every time I see it! She also designed one for her Dad that was so cute!


LOL, I wondered if anyone would notice the lack of photos on my last few posts before I got a chance to download them off the camera, and Charles did!