Blustery

It's been damn windy lately.

After breaking or having tied the record 10 times in March for the record high or record high overnight low temps, we are seeing more seasonal weather and boy does it seem cold!

Add in this whipping wind and burrrrrrrr!

Hope this cool weather isn't going to ruin the new leaves that are trying to come out.

Happy hump day :)



Mega week

An outrageously busy week started out with Mega band in a neighboring community, that comprised 7th and 8th grade students from five schools.

The kids practiced all day and put on a concert that evening.

It was wonderful!

Baked dozens and dozens and dozens of goodies for a bake sale benefit at school.

Remember that optimist speech I helped Chyann on a few weeks ago?

She did so well on it, that she was asked to participate in a contest sponsored by the local Optimist club, at the historical Mable Tainter Center for the Arts.

If she won this level she'd get a 100bucks and then move to the district competition, then onto the state level in Appleton in May with the grand prize being a $2500 scholarship.

Behind the podium she gave her speech at, it all but dwarfed her. The kids all got a chance before the speech to go behind it and get familiar with where they'd be standing - hence the goofy shot.

Checking out the balcony of the theatre. The place was just beautiful. Old, historic and rumored to be haunted. I was going to take some pictures of the outside when we left, but it was too dark.

Alas my girl did not win, but it had to have been a few measly points that she lost.  

The winner is the gal behind Chyann to the left and the boy winner with the boy standing next to her. The gal who won spoke a mite louder than Chyann and that was probably the deciding factor. She wasn't disappointed that she lost and said that it was good experience for the future.

Old time toilet we thought was pretty cool. Pull the handle to flush and it made an extremely loud whooshing sound! It's the small things that amuse us apparently.

Had to work in office on Friday which I enjoyed.

A lot of kid hauling this weekend too.

Got a lot of yard and flower bed debris cleared out and cleaned up. Sure is beautiful outside with all the green. I am worried we'll get a big frost and kill everything since we are not out of the frost woods until early May.

Thinking about starting some seeds next week though, get a jump start on the garden.

Hope you had a great weekend!

In less than a week

Spring has arrived!

I took a quick walk up to the mailbox loved what I saw:

The willow getting ready for leaves.

Look at these little buds that give my favorite tree it's red haze.

 

Favorite maple tree.

Not sure what kind of tree this one is from, but isn't it pretty?

The rhubarb.

Strawberry plant.

And of course the weeds are back as well.

Amazing the changes that happened so fast.

TGIF!

It has ARRIVED!

Yes you heard correctly, my long awaited dishwasher is HERE!

We opened the box at the warehouse to verify everything was as it should be and I'm sure those sales folks thought we were weird, but that's ok.

Got it home and loaded it up, because as you probably guessed I had not done dishes for a day and had plenty to be done.

It is an incredibly quiet amazing machine!

 All I can really say is YAY and no more dishpan hands for me or the kids.  They all really pitched in and helped the whole time.

What else?

We've had the most fantastic spring, almost summer like weather.

 This morning when I went out to feed the animals you could smell the humidity in the air. Kind of hard to describe, but like the air was heavy and wet with the smell of vegetation. Strange right, but I like it and we could actually get up to 80* today.

The maple trees are getting some nice buds and there is a light green haze on the willow branches.

Beautiful. 

Going riding with Chyann today.

 I'm hoping the trails have dried out a bit since they were just terrible last weekend.

 

Have a great St Patrick's Day!

We went from...

A winter wonderland, riding the snow machine and freezing to

the kids having mud fights in one week.

Is that not just crazy!?!

Rain showers this morning took care of the remaining snow.

Even found this bit of gorgeous green.

With this fast melt, it is a sloppy mess outside.

 Too gunky to really get out and do anything, but soon and I can't wait!

Not even funny....

My long awaited beloved dishwasher arrived yesterday.

I was giddy with anticipation!

And since I knew it was arriving, I didn't do dishes Tuesday night or all day on Wednesday - cuz I'm lazy like that and knew the new dishwasher would make quick work of all those dirty dishes - saving me time and some serious dishpan hands.

We decided to go with a convertible portable dishwasher. The original one I wanted was on back order for six weeks, so I ordered this beauty on Feb 16th. It took almost three weeks to be delivered to the nearest Sears store.

Isn't it a beauty?!!

Until you see the damage on the back that is....

Someone must have crunched it with the forklift while moving it around on it's THREE week journey to WI.

I didn't get any pictures of the other side as I was too busy on the phone COMPLAINING AS LOUDLY AS I COULD TO ANYONE THAT WOULD LISTEN TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(the hubby re-boxed it up)

DAMN IT!!!!!!!

I was so disappointed.

After being passed around from one select your option telephone bullshit to another I finally found a nice live employee who was totally into the idea of "giving good customer service" to me.

I told him that this dishwasher was either going to be totally free or I needed a new one and NOT IN THREE DAMN WEEKS!

He was on board with that.

The tentative date for delivery is the 16th.

Meanwhile this banged up baby will sit in my kitchen until the exchange is made, all boxed up and mocking me as I do dishes by hand.

shit.

A mystery and some blither blather

Ever wonder how your silverware drawer gets soo dirty?

Why should it ever be dirty?

All you do is open it, grab a fork or whatever and close it right?

It's not like it is left open for fluff, hair and other ishy stuff to get in and settle around the compartments of your silverware holder. Or do you not use one of those handy divider things and your utensils are loose in one drawer? What do your corners look like if that is the case?

Course if it was left open I'd be the one to smack their hip on it and break the drawer. That would hurt and the drawer would never be left open again, but i digress...

Yesterday I noticed how ishy my silverware drawer was and cleaned that baby out. It got me wondering how, if it is most often closed, can it get so dirty?

Anyone have the answer to this mystery?

We got another light dusting of snow last night. Sure was beautiful out this morning. Heard a few birds singing too.

Millie and Molly this morning enjoying their breakfast.

Gypsy, Jennifer and Cowboy.

My Dad in AK announced that he is retiring on April 1st. Unbelievable. He's been employed at the same cargo airline for about 35 years.  I'm very happy for him, but am sad for some reason too. My brother feels the same and since after Dad leaves AK, which is his plan, my brother wont have any relatives in AK.

Speaking of my brother, he sent me a goofy text yesterday, that was being relayed to me by Chyann. It started out with knock, knock - then Green Bay sucks. I thought it meant that he was in Green Bay doing something with fire engines because that is where the DOT buys them from and the DOT guys come down to inspect them before they are shipped up. I got all excited thinking he could drive over and with Mom and Gerry coming up Monday we would have a FAMILY REUNION!!!!

I immediately called him only to find out he was in AK snow blowing the driveway and not in Green Bay. What a bummer, I about cried.

 I was very excited there for a few minutes.

 You don't always realize how much you miss someone until there is a possibility or glimmer of seeing them again.

I miss you Jeff xoxo

Anyhow, we are going to enjoy this day by dragging out the mouse infested snow machine and make some trails before this snow is gone - which will be soon as we are going to be in the mid 50's by Tuesday.