To Grandmothers House We Go

Today we went to see my husbands grandmother. She's 98 years old and just went to a nursing home this year. Along with other family members, we all went to the home to take presents and spend some quality time with her. She is a very sprite person. She enjoys writing letters, playing cards, crocheting (which is getting difficult for her to do now) and doing word searches. I don't ever think this lady ever used a calculator in her life. You can give her a math problem and she can whip out the answer in no time. She's been in a wheelchair for the past several months but gets around all by herself real good.

We had a great time today and hope we can do this again next year.

As John Edwards says, "We should always communicate, validate and appreciate." Maybe that should be a New Years resolution instead of the usuall lose weight and save money because if you don't have family and friends all the other stuff doesn't matter.

Peace To All

Cindy (tinta)

All Wrapped Up

I finally got all my Christmas shopping done today. Yes, I'm one those last minute shoppers. Everybody is getting so hard to buy for that I can't come up with any good ideas anymore. Well, that's not exactly true! It's getting hard to find things that aren't so expensive to buy. The things kids want nowadays are way out there in prices. This year has been a bad year for finances so I went cheap this year. My kids are adults now, so they should understand. The granddaughters on the other hand......It's so fun to watch the little ones open up presents!!! :-) Isn't that what Christmas is all about anyway?

After I did my shopping, I came home and wrapped. This is another thing that I tend to at the last minute. It took all afternoon. Oh, yeah, I also just got the Christmas tree out today. I had to have somewhere to put the presents. (lol) After wrapping presents I went to the kitchen to try to make some divinity. Grandma made divinity every year at Christmas time. To me, it's just not Christmas without divinity. I had her show me how to make it once, years ago, so I wasn't sure if I would remember but I was going to give it a try. Well, two batches flopped and I'm out of sugar. Oh, well. I'll try again next year.

Hope your Christmas is a happy and healthy one.

Cindy (tinta)

No Power

We've been out of power since Sunday morning at about 4ish a.m. We are one of the lucky ones though. We have a generator. We were a little worried if our generator still worked. We haven't used for about 2 years. And even then my dear husband only started it out of curiosity. If we can remember right, it is about 10 or 11 years old. It got used regularly when we used to go camping but we haven't done that in about 5 years. Any way, it ran, so we plugged in our furnace and water pump into it but it didn't take long sitting in the peace and quiet with nothing to do that my husband thought about plugging an extension cord in to run the T.V. What a life saver. I called our electric company off and on all day to get the updates on how soon we may have power but they didn't know. Several trips out to the chickens and all the feathered animals to give them fresh and thawed water. We're so glad they're not far from the house. It never got above 1 degree all day but with the windchill it hovered around 20 below zero all day. Darkness sets in and still no electricity so out came the candles and flashlights. It comes in handy when you make your own candles. I have about 8 dozen to choose from and about 40 different scents to choose from too. I sell them at craft shows.

We finally got to sleep around 1 am Monday morning but right back up at 5 am. Dear husband went out to add more gas to the generator and noticed it was leaking oil. Oh No. We decided to let it go to see what would happen. We really didn't have a choice. Turn off the generator and freeze to death or let it go till it blows. We chose heat!! My husband works at an impliment dealership and they sell generators, so he called them to get one but of course they were sold out. But wait, they have one at the other dealership. So they went to pick it up and called us at 3 pm to come and get it. Hubby got it home, we got it unloaded and running and a half and hour later power was restored. (4pm) Go figure. We used our new $2000.00 generator for half and hour. No power for 36 hours!!

Now wait, the story doesn't end there. The dear weatherman says we could get snow tonight, then tomorrow he is expecting us to get a wintery mix. That means more ice, freezing rain and a little snow mixture. Then more snow Wednesday. Combine all that with winds ranging form 10 miles an hour up to 25 miles an hour. Fun Times, huh?

Have a safe day and keep your fingers crossed we don't lose power again.

Cindy (tinta)

A Cold Winter Day

I have been contumplating on starting up a blog space and thought today would be a good day to do it. We live in Illinois and an ice storm came through last night. Not much to do but sit in the house. So glad we didn't loose power. I'd really be bored!!! I got myself all bundled up and went outside with my camera to get some pictures. The sun was glistening off the ice and it really did look pretty. I'm new to this so I hope I can get the pictures put on here for you to see.

I guess what they say about "rain, sleet or snow will not stop the mail from being delivered" didn't apply to us today.

Here are a few more pictures from around the yard. When you get to the picture of our GS, no that is not her house. She just posed for the picture. She's an inside dog and wouldn't have it any other way!!!

I think I need to learn to turn off the date stamp. (lol) I like to have the date on, so when I take pictures of the granddaughters I don't have to try to remember after they were developed. They say the mind is the first to go.(lol)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Have a safe and happy holiday to all

Cindy (tinta)