Monday, January 19, 2009
Cats in the house!
I have a fish bowl in my bathroom. I didn't buy it. Long story. However, when the cats are in the house we have to remember to shut the bathroom door. They love to gaze at my fish. Sometimes I catch them with their paws in the bowl. I think they want to pet my fish.
This is Tornado. I'm sure he doesn't want to eat my fish.
I don't know why he sits in the sink. It must be comfy.Kitty Pictures
The cold weather has been hard on our kitties. Kind of. They spent a lot of time in the heated shop when temps were -20 with windchills -45. With so much time off of school last week and the kids home they also spent a lot of time in the house. We love our kitties. Thank goodness the temps have warmed up nad hopefully winter will be gentler from now until spring.
These pictures were taken by Macy through the frosty door as they pleaded with us to be let in.
Sledding
With all the snow we've gotten we don't have to go far to find a sledding spot. Daniel blazed a trail down this one by the house and it looked so fun I even tried it. Or I'm that bored and eager to get out of the house.
More Winter Baking
The girls made "Nana's Apple Cake" which is a very easy box mix from Tastefully Simple. If you've never tried their products you're missing out. They sell everything from drink mixes to dip mixes to cake and bar mixes to the best beer bread mix ever! And they live up to their name - the list of ingredients for anything you make from them is very short. For the apple cake for instance, you need an apple and two eggs. Simple. And tasty!! Macy did the mixing and Emily did the dicing and it was ready to bake in about 15 minutes and the kitchen smelled great with very little effort!
I made date crackers while they made the cake. These are a holiday favorite but I didn't have time to get them done so I decided to do them this weekend. I'll add the recipe if you're interested. They are a tasty little tidbit of salty and sweet.Date Crackers
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
8 oz. package of chopped dates
1/2 cup of finely chopped walnuts
Heat above until thick. Spread on Ritz crackers. (it will take most of a pound box) Bake on cookie sheets at 350 for 8 minutes. Cool. Frost and store in a cool place.
Frosting
3 oz. cream cheese (use a 4 oz. package)
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups of powered sugar
Stir above together and add enough milk to make a gooey frosting. (I love the undetermined amount of milk but it really doesn't take much. I used too much milk this time and the frosting was a little runny.)
Enjoy!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
And now for something completely different....
Anyone remember that famous line from "Monty Python's Flying Circus"??? My brothers and I used to watch that show all the time and I learned at an early age to appreciate British humor. Not that I always understood it.... or understood what the heck they were saying... but this is a line that I remember with clarity. The "Flying Circus" episodes were a series of unrelated skits quite often with men dressed as women and talking in ridiculously high voices. Randomly they would announce "and now for something completely different" and of course the skit that followed that announcement wasn't different at all. It was just as sensless and random as the previous skit. That's how I feel about this winter. It's pretty much the same forecast day after day. We're getting tired of staying home because of extremely cold temps, snow, wind, blowing snow, poor visibility, ice, sleet, freezing rain... did I miss anything??
Here is John in the Bobcat clearing the end of the driveway. You may think the snowplow just passed by and he has to clear what the plow threw at the end of our drive, but no. He's simply clearing the snow that's blowing around, closing off the end of our driveway. As I woke up Saturday morning, I slowly realized that the wind was howling. Did the weatherman predict wind?? I don't think so. Then my sleepy brain thought it was the middle of the night because it was so dark. But no, as I got up and looked out, I realized that our yard light was out as was the lights inside the house that we normally leave on during the night. Great, no electricity. Here's a "living in the country with no electricity" lesson for you. No electricity, no water, no heat, no nothing. My water comes from my well which is deep in the ground. Luckily, we have a pump that runs on electricity to get the water from deep in the ground into the house so we can shower, brush our teeth, wash our dishes and yes, flush our toilets. So... no electricity.... no nothing!! Major bummer. And it was my turn to work on Saturday. I called my parents hoping they had electricity in town so I could at least shower there and get ready for work. But no, they were out too. Then I text a friend (lucky for me I charge my cell phone every night) and they were out too. I waited as long as I could then started packing a bag. My parents would at least have water coming into their house even though I couldn't dry my hair. I wouldn't look very good when I got to work but at least I could be clean! Just as I was ready to call my parents and tell them I was on my way to use up what little hot water they had, our lights came on. And stayed on. I debated on whether I should wait another 20 minutes and see if the electricity staed on or quick get into the shower and chance standing there with shampoo on my head and the electricity goes out again. I decided to chance it. I told John that if the electricity goes out and I'm not done yet to rescue me with bottles of water. Better than standing in the shower all soapy and cold. Ah, the advenures of living in the country. The following pictures are of around the yard late in the afternoon with our multiple drifts and blowing snow. We're all getting a little tired of the broken record that seems to be the weather forecast.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
These young men in red were the wrestlers from last night's triangular meet. They are from BOLD (Bird Island, Olivia, Lake Lillian District - took awhile to find that out!) and they had just finished their match as the girls took center stage (or gym floor). They weren't leaving until they had checked out all of our pretty girls doing their thang...... It's the most captive audience I've ever seen at danceline. 
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