Another Snow Day

We got snow during the night, not much on the ground this morning, but it's cold out! I think this little pig is trying to fly away from winter! I want to fly away with him!

I feel like I'm getting sick, achy and I woke up with a sore throat and ear ache. No fun!

Visitors

Jessie and Andy came over today, Andy is working on the attic for us and Jessie had a snow day. Jessie and I had fun playing and drawing. She drew the cutest picture of me, makes me smile when I see it!

We also played Avon lady, I had a little computer that I got back when I was selling Avon and I discovered it the other day and thought she might like to play with it. She loved it! Here's my Avon lady at my door asking if I want to buy something from her.

She also read me a story she is writing about her new Guinea Pig Lolla. It's called "The Highly Trained Guinea Pig" It's a cute story, she said she is going to type it into her computer and will print out copies for people. I hope she does!

The Weather Outside is Frightful!

Well, it's March for sure, the month that comes in like a lion and goes out like a banshee and we're having wind again! A storm is supposed to be brewing with more snow.

I was wishing on Sunday when the wind was blowing that I could take a picture of the wind, I've been trying to get one today, but I can't get the shutter speed on my camera slow enough to make the waving branches blur, which is the only way I can think of to show the wind. So, instead here's a picture of a bunch of leaves that the wind piled up.

We got snow this afternoon. For a bit it was blizzard conditions! On the way home from the library we could hardly see where we were going!

More Snow, Breakfast Out and Shopping

We didn't get much snow last night, it looks about like it did when I went to bed last night.

It's becoming a tradition for John and I to go out to breakfast when he gets up after his last night shift. We went to Booga Reds instead of Sunny Side this time. I have been craving their Orange Chicken Salad and they let me order it even though it wasn't on the breakfast menu. Love that salad! John had the Booga Reds special, a sausage burrito with red chili and eggs on top. He said it was yummy. After breakfast we went grocery shopping. They are redoing the entry to Bashas, a new restaurant is being built and I guess to make more room for parking they are moving the entry. I've always hated the one they had, they put a big sign in the middle of it, making the entry small and hard to turn in to. They moved the entry to the north and it's much wider and will be nice. It looks like they are about ready to pave it, the old entry was closed off today. The new restaurant is the building to the far right.

Happy Birthday Carleen, hope you're having a wonderful day!

Windy and Cold

I was reminded today that spring is right around the corner when we had high winds all day. Unfortunately this wind brought cold and a bit of snow with it.

Goodbye Pete!

We sold the Suburban today. It was kind of sad to see it drive off, but it's not going far, Andy bought it, so it's going to a good home.

Music Boxes

When I was a kid my cousin had the coolest music box. I loved to play it. I can't remember now exactly how it worked, it had round metal plates, (like a record) and I think you could change the plate and play a different tune. The plate had little spikes sticking out in a random pattern and there was something that would hit those spikes and that made the music. I think we must have turned a crank to make it work. A few years back, my sister gave me a little hand crank music box built on the same principle, only the metal plate is round and it plays only one tune. It's a fun reminder of my childhood and my cousin's music box!

The Camper is Almost Finished!

The jack stands for the camper got here yesterday afternoon and John started installing them this morning. This one still needs the motor installed, but when they're done it will be so much easier to get the camper on and off trailers and the pickup!

The inside right side is all finished and loaded up with our pro panels, tables and canopy. We are still figuring out how we are going to arrange the left side and fasten the artwork in.

My Tomatoes Are Up

Home again! It's fun to be places, but always good to be home again. I think I'm just a homebody. I worried about my tomato seeds drying out while I was gone, but they were okay. I turned off the heat tape and put plastic over the soil and they were still damp and best of all, they were starting to sprout!! Not a very good picture of them, I got a bit too close.

Busy Day

We were ready for our appointment this morning early so we checked out of the motel and found the place where it was and walked around a nearby shopping center and of course I took a few pictures.

I took this one just so I could say "He went to Jared!" (We didn't go in, nothing opened until 10 am, and that's when our appointment was.)

We met with our planner, then went to lunch at On The Border, our first time there. What we had was okay, not as good as our hometown Mexican food though. John didn't care much for the food because it had the hated "C" stuff in it. (Cilantro).

Here's what we had, I can't remember what they are called, the pastry was great, the filling was chicken and cheese and a few other things, not sure what. They were served with a little bowl of cheese dip and lettuce and tomatoes with I think green onions sprinkled on. I thought they were pretty good, John said he could taste Cilantro in everything, which he hates. So he gave the restaurant a thumbs down and my thumb was kind of in the middle.


We had an okay trip home, it was just too long! I like being places, I just don't like getting there. We stopped in Globe for snacks and I got what I thought was going to be a delicious bottled drink, an A&W float. Supposedly Root Beer with the taste of an ice cream float. I took one sip and that was enough for me. John wanted to try it, so without telling him I didn't like it, I gave it to him and he took a sip and I wish I'd gotten a picture of the face he made! He hated it too. It had a bitter taste and tasted nothing like root beer and ice cream, don't waste your money on it! Yuck!

We didn't see water running down the rocks like yesterday on our way down, the rocks were still wet, but nothing running down them. Guess we lucked out to get to see all the water yesterday. I was missing the drive through the historical district in Globe, they rerouted the highway some time back, so John drove down into the old town, just for me! I love the old buildings there! Thanks John for a trip down memory lane.

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!