Winter Is Finally Here

Oooooh, what's a girl to do today? It's snowing like crazy out there. I took these photos of our street just a few minutes ago.


I'm just sitting here answering the phone for my mission and being the comic relief for these people calling in. I'm so glad they seem to like it when I chuckle along with them. This Mormon girl ain't dull for sure!

Anyway, I thought I'd do a blog since it seems to be a slow day for callers seeking help with FamilySearch. Just a few days ago I was complaining about the lack of "winter" around here. The first snow is natures assertiveness training and she's really dishing it out today, chicks. Love it!

So now I'm waiting to see these again in the spring.

Later on today I'll sit and do a little bit of this: reading.

I've already done some of this this morning.

And if the weather keeps up like this, then I'll be doing some more of these coffee filter roses to put in little pots around the house.

And I'm eating these at this very moment! Yum.

But if I go out today I'll definitely need one of these.

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Getting Back to Work

I've gotten the bug lately to "clean out" and "get rid of." You all know what I mean, and, of course, I've said it before, but this time I actually mean it. As you can see from the photos below I've given up watching streaming videos on my laptop and decided to get myself in gear. This has not been easy. I mentioned to Love Bunny the other night that I've GOT to stop watching videos on my laptop because my neck is starting to hurt and if there's one thing I don't need, it's another body part hurting. But a few words before I get into that.



Being a slug can be addictive, especially when access to streaming movies is so easy. But there are few things worth watching. Truly. It's mostly trash and I was succumbing to it. Why do we do it? For me it was simply not wanting to deal with reality at the time. Being in a slump can be very debilitating mentally, which then spirals down into physically. I am now cleaning out so much that hubs had made 4 trips to the thrift store so far and more are definitely on his horizon.



Take a look below.



This étagère is now sitting on the front porch. I've put it on craigslist but no takers so far. I do have a place I can use it in the house if need be but I think I can use it on the front porch also. So it quite possibly will remain out there with pots on it. We've had it for 38 years at least.



This is all the stuff that was on it.

The "stuff" will now go on this bookshelf that I moved in here from the family room.

That space was then empty, affording us much more room for a much needed side table and a lamp.

The stuff on the sofa will stay, but the stuff on the floor goes to the thrift store. Plus there's a plethora of items in the other corner of this sofa just waiting to be dealt with soon. Probably the thrift store will benefit here again. This room needs much attention.

Then while all this is going on recently I decided also I wanted a different dish drainer. I went to several stores locally and couldn't find anything I wanted. Even Williams and Sonoma didn't have anything I wanted and their's started at $85! So I surfed Amazon and eBay until I found this one for $25.99 and free shipping. Even hubs loves it.

Then I was needing 2 containers to put our sweeteners in. We use very little sugar but sweeten our drinks with packets of artificial sweeteners. I was putting both of our choices on the same plate but that just didn't work well so I shopped the house and found a couple of things I thought would work. However, in the end my choice was sitting on my coffee table with little shells in it. Below you now see it holding my Equal and the original dish on a pedestal holding hubs' Sweet and Low. This bowl holds the soaps, and the pedestal dish is now sitting on our coffee table in the living room.

Much more efficient this way.

And this little bouquet of flowers is sitting on our dining table. Hubs picked them a few days ago. Aren't they gorgeous? Most of the photos are horrid because of the lighting in this house, but the one below turned out well. Maybe I need a new lens. I think I'll take a trip to the local photography store and ask.

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What We Woke Up To This Morning

It's a beautiful snowy day here. Snowed about 8", hubs went out to shovel at 8 am and at noon we had the sidewalk and driveway packed with another 2". It was grand. Of course, I'm not going out in it. I think I need to buy hubs a snow blower, but not today.

I call this photo "Roses in the Snow." It's just your eye candy for the day. I'll have more soon but I'm so caught up in reading I haven't been doing much crafting lately, which is weird but I'm just being lazy. :-)

This little sachet was a gift several years ago. It kept its rose fragrance for a very, very long time. I've kept it and scented it again with rose fragrance and just can't throw something so gorgeous away.

Cream of Wheat! Tasted scrumptious when lots of sweetener and butter in it.

More snow on this later photo than the earlier one below. Looks like a snow cake.

This shot does NOT show off his bum to full effect. He's got a great bum but those insulated coveralls make him look like an old man.

Do ya see those huge flakes?

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No!No!

Okay, another experiment, chicks.

Yes! Yes!
Recently, I purchased this No!No!. Have you ever heard of it? Nooooo... Well, I'm here to tell ya. It's supposed to be the best thing since nose jobs. I kid you not. Now, since we alllll know I'm an old lady with lip and chin hairs and have tried the electrolysis bit—and let me tell you right here that to get a treatment from Daisy Lee (which is what we'll call his lady) wasn't so much a treatment but an experience!

Once when daughter was visiting I asked her if she'd go with me to Daisy Lee's for the treatment. She agreed and since she was in the room and my daughter and Daisy Lee both love cats they got carried away with the conversation and nearly bar-b-qued my chin and lips! I am not joking. Daughter could tell I was in distress, which is a polite phrase for a near panic attack with my eyes bugged out. She quickly shut up and Daisy Lee looked at me and said, "Ooooops." I gave that up posthaste. Then since I'm so fair the laser treatments won't work. They're designed for dark hair and if mine isn't light it's gray—face, not head hair, which looks frosted because of so much gray. ;-)

So, lo and behold, I hear about this latest technology called thermicon, which burns the hair. Yessssss, it burns it but it truly doesn't hurt. I only smell like a singed cat for a day or so. Well worth it.

Join me in unwrapping the box.

You knew I'd pick the pink over the black one, right?

Cord and bag to keep it in.

Yes, you must buff the singed hair off.

The super duper blades. They don't call them "Hot Blades" for nothing. Oh, and pictures will follow later. Sigh...

After the self-treatment on my face, I had to go do something in the craft room to forget the experience for a while. ;-) I'll do the legs tomorrow. Can you guess what this is being froufrou-ed up?

Okay, here is the leg right after "shaving" a week earlier. Please remember the age of these legs and also that it is very drying to have them zapped and then using a buffer on them, but I wanted to show you that it takes the hair off wonderfully. And truly there was absolutely no pain in doing it. Just once in a while I'd feel a very quick "burn".

If YOU photographed your legs up this close they probably wouldn't look much better! ;-) So I'm giving it a high rating and recommending it if you want less hair and finer hair at a fraction of the cost of laser treatments.

See what I go through to show you gals so that you won't have to waste money if something doesn't work. :-)
~*~

Why I Go Back to California

Settle back because this is a long post.

But first, an update on the eyelash extensions. I got a shorter haircut yesterday and had to show it. I think I like it shorter. I know, I'm shameless! Hah.

Okay, one of my left eyelash extensions is starting to lift up from the eyelash. I don't dare pull it off. I just tucked it back up after coming home from church and seeing it. I'm betting that some of the chicks wondered what was happening to my eyelash this morning!!! LOL I just don't care what they thought actually. It's just so funny with them looking at my eyes so much. Plusssssss, I was putting on my lip liner this morning and went the wrong way on my lips and I now have splinters in my lips!! I kid you not. I got one out but my tongue can feel 2 more in there but neither hubs nor I can see them. I can see it now: going to the doctor and telling her I have splinters in my lips. *Sigh*... Good grief, I think I need to pluck my brows! On my right eye I can see hairs that shouldn't be there.

First of all, the end of April hubs went to Reno to a model RR train convention. He was going to take our pop-up camper but a friend in Reno called a couple of nights before and told us of high winds on I-80, which is mostly desert from here in Idaho to Reno. So he decided to not take it and just stay with our friends.

Well, as luck would have it, he got into the middle of a sandstorm. It just about totaled his Toyota Tacoma—actually almost $6,000.00 worth of damage. It looked like it had been sandblasted. If he had taken the camper it would have blown him off the road into a dry lake bed. So, off to the auto repair shop, where we are on a first name basis with the owner now after having 2 accidents in the last few years. I think they're going to throw us a party for giving them so much business. Sigh... Our insurance company allowed him 22 days for a rental since the front hood, windshield, driver's window, bumper, lights, etc. had to be replaced. The only 2 cars available were a Chevy HHR or a Chrysler PT. I HATE those cars. When he drove into the garage and came in the house he was almost afraid to tell me! (Now, if you own one of those cars or like them, I don't want to hear it. You have your likes and dislikes and I have mine and I'm free to carry on about not liking the looks. Anyone who grew up with those old cars that looked like those wouldn't consider having one again!) ;-)

Anyway, our trip to California was planned and hubs suggested taking the rental car and save the mileage on our Toyota Camry. Good idea, but I ain't gonna be seen in a PT cruiser. So, I called the rental car company and requested another car. They didn't have one available but said to call back on Wednesday. We were going to leave on Thursday. So I called and they had a Hyundai Sonata. I said, "We'll take it." Nice little car and it got 44 miles to the gallon at one point when we filled up. BUT the nice part was that it had Sirius XM radio! I tell you that was great. We could listen to our favorite programs all the way through Idaho, Oregon, Nevada and California and the stations came in nice and clear. They did have commercials though, just as many as most radio stations.
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We go back to California on average of at least once a year. Why you ask? You might think it's this:
Son

The girl he married (youth photo) but she's still as gorgeous as ever and I didn't get a photo of her this time because she was so busy running around:
Grandson Bill, who is in desperate need of a shave. Since he's 1/2 Asian he can't grow a full beard which I'm thrilled about since I'm not fond of beards on my men!

Grandson Josh who is in dire need of a haircut:

But you'd be wrong if you guessed those 4 in Southern California are my reason for going to California each year.

THIS is why I make trips to California! World's Fare Donuts in northern California, where our daughter lives. As Love Bunny was in there for the 2nd time in 4 days getting us these for the trip back up to Idaho, he met a man doing the same thing. He was going to visit his son in Petaluma, just northeast of San Francisco, and the son told him to grab some of these before he started up to visit him. That's how good these are. This is a cinnamon roll and it's as big as a plate for only $1.25. The Asian couple that own it have owned it for about 30 years at least and the woman doesn't look a day older than when I first went in there about 25 years ago. She's very pretty. I cannot say the same thing about ME!

I absolutely love the drive along I-5 from the north to the south. This is inland of northern Calif.

Pistachio trees. These are a marvel to see when laden with the nuts on them just before harvest. They are so heavy with the nuts that the branches drag on the ground. Heaven forbid that Love Bunny should stop so I could get a decent photo for you gals. *Sigh*...

These are almond trees. We went though a long stretch of I-5 where hundreds and hundreds of acres of these trees were dead. Why? Because the state cut off the water from the Delta to them because of a 2" fish—the delta smelt—was endangered! I can't believe they put a fish above humans. But it was truly sad to see so many citrus and nut trees dead and blackened. I feel so sorry for those farmers. What is our world coming to when this happens?

Here we are in Southern California heading from Moreno Valley to San Diego, which is about a two hour drive. That's son in front of us with his truck. This is very light traffic in the middle of the day.

Okay, here we are at the University of California at San Diego. Spent a few hours there looking over the campus for grandson. He's been accepted as a transfer student from Riverside to SD in the health sciences department. He's studying to become a pharmacist. That's the family below: my son in red hat, 13 yr old grandson in red shirt, daughter-in-law in jeans, "adopted grandson" in green shirt (also in dire need of a haircut!).

And the famous Love Bunny below:

The 14 story building is his dormitory. New ones are being constructed as you can see. One side of the dorm is a beach where you can watch students surf during lunch or breaks, and the other side is a view of the fantastic gym for students. We lived in San Diego in the early 60s and just loved it. Warm all the time and so many beaches to visit. Grandson will love it!

Another shot of the family:

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