Sunday, February 23, 2014

Sunday AM coffee

Boy yesterday was a long day.

From 8a till after 6p we hung out at the school watching basketball, working the concessions and then cleaning up. 

A decent end to the season for the boys as they won 2 and lost 2.
I've managed to misplace my score sheet so I don't have the exact totals, but the games they won were by 15 points or more and the games they lost were by about 10 points. 

One of the teams that beat them were just shitty in their sportsmanship.
For example when Caden or one of the other boys would bring the ball down as soon as they got to half court all the other teams boys would start chanting BALLBALLBALLBALLBALLBALL very loudly. 
Sounded like they were saying BAAABAABAABAA like bunch of damn sheep. Then when our boys would take a shot they'd freaking scream AAAAAAAAHHH!
Really pissed me and the other parents off.
Why would their coach think that was acceptable behavior?

Anyhow. 
The team had a great season and learned a lot. 


Once again I was proud to have my big kids looking on and rooting for Caden and his team.
I know it meant the world to Caden having them there.




We've got double digits below zero coming for this next week.
No chance of the snow melting anytime soon apparently. 
Bummer.
Stay warm :)

Friday, February 21, 2014

DRAT!

That little mild spell was over way too quick.

We are back to crappy weather...

Only got about 10" of heavy wet snow last night that knocked the power out for about seven hours and broke a lot of branches from my precious trees. School was cancelled AGAIN and brought winds in excess of 50 mph. Thought I was going to get a PTO day when I got up at 515a and still didn't have power. Texted the boss to let him know, went out to feed the animals and was just getting back into bed at 555a when the power came on. Of course then I had to rush and scurry around to get started for work on time. lol Oh well, I didn't really want to use a day off for snow anyhow.

Where exactly do I live again? You'd think it was Antarctica or that we weren't used to this type of shit weather in WI. I think for me I'm just tired of this winter. It's been too long for me already.
sigh.
Soon grasshopper spring will arrive.


Last basketball tourney tomorrow. Can't wait :)




Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Melting?

Oh yes!
It's was near 40* today! 
Felt like about 60* though - it was just that NICE! I'll take it!

Yesterday's storm was a bit of a dud. Sure we got a few inches of snow to add to the approximately 50" that has already fallen this winter and the wind blew crazily creating more drifts in the driveway BUT we can handle it because SPRING is going to come! 

We spent the afternoon hauling and unloading hay for the hay-burners.
Gypsy is coming through this winter looking good - a little round but healthy for a gal her age. 


It's light until almost 6p now, gaining a few minutes a day.
In less than a month and we'll be turning the clocks ahead an hour - can't wait.


Have a nice evening :)

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Sunday AM coffee - OSD


Aah Sunday.

My Kenai dip last night didn't meet my expectations, however it was the best of my recent attempts.
3 cups shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup mayo or miracle whip - I've tried both and either will do depending on your taste
1tsp garlic powder or more to taste
4 chopped fresh jalapenos with most of the seeds left in
1tsp cayenne pepper
1/4t liquid smoke
Eat on/with crackers, crusty bread or corn chips.

Seems the kind I had in AK maybe had cream cheese in it tho.
Still on the hunt for a good recipe.


So...
Ever heard of Osgood-Schlatter disease otherwise known as OSD?
Well I'm pretty sure Caden has it in his left knee.
It's a similar condition to the Severs disease he has been coping with in both feet only it's in the knee area.
Growth plates, growth spurts, bones are longer than tendons/ligaments/muscles, self limiting - be active till it hurts too bad to participate, will take years - until he stops growing - to resolve.

GASP!
FRACKADACKALOUS 
to say the least.

Poor kid is beside himself.
All he wants to do is play sports.
Football, basketball, baseball and had recently been thinking about wrestling because there isn't any running and jumping involved, thinking that would be a good sport to spare his feet course now with the plumb sized knot on his left knee this sport is absolutely out of the question as he'd never be able to kneel on the mat.

Basketball is about over thankfully - this coming Sat is the last tournament and he'll have a solid two month break until baseball starts. 
Do some healing and growing in that time period so hopefully he wont be so sore/miserable when the season begins.

just before he hit his first home run last season

sigh


Big storm coming tonight.
Guess we are in for 7 - 10 inches of snow and more rotten wind last I heard.
Supposed to go in the office tomorrow for my yearly review, think I'll see if I can't get that rescheduled because I bet the driveway will be plugged.



later alligator 


Saturday, February 15, 2014

This and that

Happy Saturday! 

We busted our buns uncovering the last of next years wood supply, loaded it in the truck to and put in the basement this last week. The snow drifts around the wood pile were as hard as cement which of course made the whole process take even longer. Whatever tho, just glad we had the wood there.

We've had sickness here too - strep and bronchitis for Caden and some funky 24 hour stomach bug for Chyann. Lot's of fun. I'm  hoping I can avoid both illnesses - fingers crossed. However somehow I did  wake up yesterday AM with freaking pink eye. No idea where that shit came from.

The boss at work sent out an email request yesterday to put in for any vacation time we wanted off from now through Labor Day. All I could think was - are you kidding me? Plan a vacation or time off that far in the future? Yeah, not us. So I guess I'll have to take what I can get when the time comes.

My gal pal Krissy gifted me with all her glorious plants when she went back to AK last July and I've been slowly killing them all. 
Sorry Kris - hope you didn't want them back when you return because there probably wont be much left of them. I am trying to revive them though. Even went and got some miracle grow plant food, hoping that with give them some spunk back. Caden even asked me why I couldn't grow a house plant when I could grow a huge garden of food - the answer to that is a mystery to me as well.  


Thursday Chyann and I had to do some doctoring to Jennifer.
She managed to acquire a nasty gash on her left hind lower leg. 
It was tricky trying to thaw the frozen blood off her and get the wound cleaned up, but we managed.


The ponies seemed thrilled we were hanging around outside for longer than it took to throw feed and do a basic once over.  


Casper raced all over! 
Some of the snow was up to chest, but he jack-rabbited right through it. 


When I was in AK my SIL came home from the store with some fantastic locally made dip called Kenai dip.
I've been totally jonsing for more of that dip ever since!
There are quite a few recipes online that I've found and tried, but nothing quite as delicious as what she had.
Today I'm going to attempt to perfect my own version of the dip.

have a good day  :)



Sunday, February 9, 2014

Sunday morning coffee

This morning when I went out to feed the animals I figured it was probably 15* maybe as warm as 20* since it sure felt warmer than it had been in some time outside.
Did my thing throwing hay and checking waters; went back to the house and looked at the thermometer on the back porch and see it's really only zero! That's when I realized there was no wind and that's why it felt so warm. 

Everyday I remind myself that spring will be here soon.

Deep breath now.



Anywho. 

Colton has joined a club at school and has a few very promising leads for internships over the coming summer. He's already applied for one that he is waiting to hear about. Hopefully he'll find out soon so he/we can start planning. Exciting times ahead for him. Like everything is on the cusp of happening and coming together. 

Caden's ipod broke recently and we sent it in to get either repaired or replaced. It sure has been nice him not having it. Not that he does much with it other than plug his headphones in and jam to music or play silly games - it's been a good break not having it factor in to daily life. Know what I mean?


I never got the skype thing going yesterday, took a nap instead after cleaning the house.

Alright...
I'm off to make some cinnamon rolls. 
later alligator 

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Yadda yadda and more

Another week done and I actually slept in a smidge this morning. 

The days are getting longer and I have been flipping through the seed catalogs that have begun arriving.
My current quest is to find some trees that are fast growing for a privacy type screen that we can plant at the top of the pasture, inside the fence line to shield us from the road because the county folks cut all the ones North of our fence down last fall in what they call a measure to allow the sun to melt the snow/ice that may develop on the road. What a crock of shit. Cut the trees down in front of my house, but not the neighbors 50 yards to the East? We'll see how they like my trees after I get them planted and growing.

Speaking of trees or wood rather, we are going to have to put a second additional load of wood in the basement soon. All I can say is it's a damn good thing my Hubby is a planner ahead type guy and we already have next years wood stacked outside or we'd be screwed. There is no wood to buy around here and you sure can't get out in the woods to get any at this point with all the snow on the ground. Add in the propane and natural gas shortages in our area and it's been a long ugly winter.  Not to mention electric bills! Holy shit!! Ours was literally four times what it usually is - grumble grumble grumble.

Another mile stone passed at our house recently - Chyann driving alone. oh my. I was alright with her doing it from the get go, but Daddyo not so much. When he finally let her, he came in the house after she left and said "Our baby has really grown up" - sniff sniff.


As the HS basketball season winds down towards the end every game counts and the school puts on quite the before game show with the pep band, dance team and cheerleaders performing.
Chyann has been to everyone and at last count has 12 blisters on her hands from drumming so much.



Somehow managed not to get a picture of the whole band playing as I was too focused on trying to get my camera to take a decent picture from across the gym. 


Even though Caden's season has one game left there was a recognition type presentation during last nights half time for his team which was pretty cool. 


Not a lot on tap for this weekend, which is nice for a change. 
I think I'll do some baking. 
Maybe try to figure out the sykpe thing and call some friends. 

Have a nice day :)

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Basketball fun

 Another fun filled day of basketball!


 Game 1    28 to 17  - win
Game 2   27 to 18  - win
Game 3   42 to 27  - loss
Game 4   27 to 21  - win
In all Third place in the tournament.

Caden was often double covered and had to really fight for the ball.
He did really well staying out of foul trouble today.




All the kids were there so they rotated in and out really fast.
Only being on the court about three minutes at a time, which is good and bad. 
Good because Caden had some achy feet and a sore hip flexor and bad because just as they were getting into a rhythm it was time to rotate out.


I got a jacked up at the end of the tourney though. 
They handed out the ribbons and Caden didn't get one. 
He comes over to me, looking a little teary and said that the coach told him he couldn't have one.
Course I'm like WHAT! and immediately march over to the coach and (probably too sharply) say What is going on with Caden not getting a ribbon?!?!
He as a deer in the headlight look and says we only get 12 ribbons and we have 13 players so someone at every tournament doesn't get one.
I said well I think that is something you'd better explain to all the boys so NEXT time no one has their feelings hurt for not getting one.
So he calls all the boys over and says we only get 12 ribbons and two boys didn't get them from earlier tournaments and today it was Caden who didn't get one. If any one didn't care about having one they could give it to the one who didn't get one. 
About half the team tried to then give Caden theirs, but he wouldn't take any of them. 
Freaking pissed me off I tell you.
Would have been nice to know earlier and HELLO at the other tournaments we almost always had at least one player missing so it wasn't an issue. 
Grumble grumble grumble.

Deep breath...

Only one more tournament in February then we are done with the season. 
It's a home game and apparently the parents have to work the concession stand, time clocks and score boards. Not exactly looking forward to that because I'd rather watch the game, but ok I'll pitch in.

Chyna and her buddy.
Aren't Chyann's new glasses cute?



Superbowl Sunday today.
I'm looking forward to a good game and don't really care who wins. 

Happy Sunday :)


Saturday, February 1, 2014

Saturday AM coffee


February.
One month closer to spring.

I finally went and got a haircut yesterday and was all set to get some bangs carved out of this one length crap. The gal doing my hair talked me out of it when I told her I really didn't know what style I wanted.
I told her that the only hair styles that appealed to me right now were perms - you should have seen her face when I said that. Apparently no one gets perms anymore. She told me to get a wand and curl my hair if I wanted curls similar to a perm, even showed me how to use one. So my weekend plans are to practice with Chyann's. Hopefully I can avoid burning myself or scorching my newly trimmed hair.

While unloading the dishwasher last night I reached in to get the silverware rack thing out and somehow managed to get forked right under my thumb nail!
Talk about OUCHY!!! 
That sucker bled and bled. Looks like the fork tine went in about an 1/8 of an inch.
Man is it sore today.
Who knew unloading the dishwasher could be so dangerous.

We've got another all day basketball tournament on tap for today.


A vintage picture of Colton.
 Taken when  life was a wee bit less complicated for my boy.



later alligator