Winter Wonderland

We have been enjoying some crazy winter weather in the Loops the past few days. It started on Sunday with a snow storm. The storm started about 1 o' clock in the morning and continued for more than 24 hours. We ended up with a lot of snow and a fierce cold wind.



This photo is of our neighbour across the street, in true Canadian style he waited until the weather was at it's worst to hang up his Christmas lights. Don't worry Paul smartened up last year and put up some lights that stay up all year around.



There was enough snow for Paul to break out the snow blower, I think he uses it once or twice a year. It pooped out on him half way through the job and he shoveled for a while as well. I was having fun playing with the kids and taking pictures while Paul did all the work.



The kids seemed to be impervious to the cold. They wanted to go out and play in the storm so I set them up with some spray bottles with food colouring and hot water in them. They went out and painted the town red, and blue, and orange and green and purple and pink...they had a great time.

Dueling snow pistols:

This next set of pictures were taken Monday morning. When it gets that cold the snow is very light and does not stick, it is like little bits of Styrofoam that float all over. The light snow and the wind storm that followed resulted in some really cool snow drifts. Here is what we saw when we opened our front door:

Paul took this photo of the front walkway. He had to shovel his way to the truck to get to work Monday morning. He was so cold after shoveling he came back in and went to bed.

It was wild to see how the snow flew around the houses. There are bare patches where the snow never landed and then there are areas where the snow is piled higher than me. Very cool. Some lucky folks had all the snow blow off their driveways and onto their lawns, or into their neighbours.

This picture is taken inside the house. The condensation on the inside of the windows freezes up when it gets that cold out. Looks cool, but pain in the arse to keep the windows dry and clean up the melt. I wipe the windows down 3X's a day to try to keep the mess down. We leave fans on in the house all the time and that helps too.

I was lucky and did not have to do to much driving yesterday. The kids had observation day at school so I just drove 10 blocks or so to the school and back. Paul had left the van on the street in front of the house for the night. I went out in the morning to see if I could get the van out of a big snow drift. I decided I would just try to drive out of it and went back inside to get the kids ready for the cold weather. I was in the house for about 5 minutes, just long enough for the snow plow to come by and bury me in even deeper. We have great winter tires on the van and I had no trouble getting out.

This morning, if you can imagine, it is even colder. I think that is somewhere around -3F. It is a beautiful bright sunshine day, the kids have been outside playing in the snow for about an hour now. I am on my way to force them into the house to warm up for bit, when they are nice and warm I will let them go out in play in the snow some more if they want to.

Where Have I Been??

Good question Mom. I have no idea. I have am having a lot of trouble with the space time continuum right now.

Okay really, this is a funky time of year for me. Truth really is stranger than fiction isn't it? This time of year I get funky. I feel homesick during the holidays, yet I love the holidays because they are such a fun and busy time. I get a little down this time of year, I think this is a combination of several things: the weather gets gray this time of year, it gets cold so we don't go outside as much, the days get way to short for me it is dark by 4:00 in the afternoon, all combined with my seasonal homesickness. Well it all makes me tired and less productive than usual.

Don't misunderstand things, I am a happy lady, this is the hardest time of year for me. Many of mother nature's creatures hibernate, go dormant this time of year. It's more like that than like slit my wrist depression. I even manage to feel guilty about being a slug this time of year. I have much to be joyous about...but I still want sunshine (with the snow) and long days and it would be great if California would just move to Canada for 2 months of the year, but we keep the cold and the snow.

Here are a few pictures of the Rotary Vacation Draw Dinner/HQC Staff Christmas Party

A lovely couple: Fillet and the Giggle Queen




Shane (rents our basement suite, also a Barking Cow) and his girlfriend Crista:



You were wondering if Phil was in every picture weren't you? This is Carolyn's new man Brian he was funny and sweet and he loves a good goldfish on the rocks.



I am sorry Taniel, this is the best picture of the dress. We never did take pictures of the full outfits, we were to busy having a blast. I had great hair, Kenny did it for me and there is not one good photo of it! The Giggle Queen is looking smoking hot is she not!?



The only photo of Paul and I for the night, and I took this one. It should be noted that I was a camera slacker for the evening. I think I took about 10 pictures the entire evening and most of those I have posted for you.



It just wouldn't be a party with Carolyn if she did not tie something around someones head and make them drink a goldfish. Thank you Wade for being such a good sport!



See, I do have fun here. In spite of the dark and the grey and the cold and the missing Californians. It would have been more fun if you all were there too!

Omen or Ovum?

A few day's ago Paul brought home some eggs that Carolyn (massage therapist at our office) gave him. She has chickens and she often brings in eggs for everyone. I usually have two poached eggs and a piece of toast for breakfast so the eggs are much appreciated.

When I picked up the first egg it felt a little bit on the large side, I thought 'poor chicken' and then I noticed that I had twins. I felt bad. Who wants to eat twins. I briefly wondered if this was a bad omen. I thought about going to back to bed and just hiding for the day.



Instead I thought I would finish making breakfast:



Now I wondered if I should go back to bed or go buy a lottery ticket. I questioned Carolyn about the eggs, apparently one of her chickens lays quite a few of these double yolk eggs. I bought a lottery ticket anyway, I will let you know how it works out.

Family and Fiber

We went visiting over the weekend. We got to see lots of family and have lots of fun. Every time we go to Kelowna for a visit I come back a little bit homesick. Family is important to me and I always come back wishing we all lived closer.

I did not take many pictures put I do have a couple for you. Here's Papa Harvey and Sebass. Harvey is doing really well, he has been battleing lung cancer for two years now and is winning the fight, he is an amazing man and one of the best storey tellers I have ever known. I could sit and listen to him talk about the things he has done and seen for hours.



Granny with the boys. Gran is doing well, she seems at her best when she is 'doing' she is not good at being idle. Gran and Harv are moving at the end the of the month. They are moving to be closer to Gran's youngest daughter, Colleen, who is having some health problems of her own. Gran wants to be able to help her out, so they are moving within walking distance of Colleen's house.

Miss mouse wearing a silly wig that Granny gave her to play with.

I have never seen this little girl before, but she's pretty cute.

We have now come to the fiber portion of the show. Here is some yummy yarn that nom dyed for me. I say yummy because the colours all remind of food, Blueberries, limes, cantelope and honey dew mellon, Bubble gum icecream.

A little spinning:

On the way to Kelowna, I talked Paul into taking a little detour. There is a little fiber shop in Armstrong, which was only about 2o minutes out of our way. It is the same lady I bought the wheel from. I brought her some of my first spinning, I wanted to show it to her and ask her what I could be doing differently and find out if there was anything I was supposed to do to the fiber after spinning and before knitting.

I was looking to pick up several different types of fibers so I could try different things and see how they spin. I have not tried Merino yet, but I did want to try a silk blend. This picture does not do the colour justice. Hard to capture color when it overcast.

Here is a merino/tencel blend. There are 3x 200g bunches of it there. That is supposed to be enough for a sweater if I keep spinning at my current WPI. This is for my first sweater from my own spinning. Pretty isn't it? Should be done in a few years, I am in no hurry. I am surprised that roving is is cheeper than yarn, $14 per 200 grams for this one, if it is indeed enough for a sweater, that is only $42. Don't even talk about the cost of labour or time to spin it. Don't go there, I am happy in my own little world.

Here is some nice creamy Merino. This is destined for mom's hands after I spin it I plan on sending it to her dye pot.

The splurge, oh yes, Merino and CASHMERE, yum. I have never had the pleasure of knitting with cashmere, but I plan to. Mom notice what color it is, also destined for your dye pot.

It seems clear what I will doing to stay out of trouble this winter. What will you be up to?

Slow Down

Life is going way to fast for me right now. I know that everyone out there juggles the same things I do and more. A job, taking care of kids, extended family, pets, hobbies, hubbies, taking care of house and home and so much more; sometimes I get kind of overwhelmed by it all.

I imagine that we all feel this way from time to time. It is not that every moment of my time is busy, but my days are full and I am pooped out at the end of them. They are full of good things, lots of smiles and giggles and some things I could do without. I could do with out fits and tears, I could do with out lists. To Do lists, Not done lists, Want to lists, Have Too lists, Honey Do lists. Bleh.

Sebastian lost his tooth on Monday, he is thrilled about it. He even wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy, asking her to leave the tooth for him to take to show and tell. (She not only left the tooth but she left him a note and some $$) It is a rite of passage, your first tooth, it also makes me want to slow down time for yet another reason. Part of me is not ready for my babies to grow up, part of me can't wait to see them grow.



Not a day on the calendar this month goes unplanned. It's not all my stuff, in fact I bet Shannon's calendar looks just like this. I like it better when there are some empty squares!



Shannon sent a gift of love. Kids clothes and xmas. Thank you Shannon.



Your birthday gift sure did make Q smile:

Firsts

This Fall I did something I have never done before. About two weeks ago SeaBass went outside to go play in the back yard. He came running back into the house very excited, "Mom, come Quick!!!! I have something to show you!"

Me: "Hang on a minute I am making lunch."

Bass: "No mom, you have to come see right now!"

So I dried my hands and went out to see what all the exciteement was about. He takes out to the middle of the lawn and points down, "Look." he says. Down at my feet is an enormous pile of bear poop. I could not really believe it. I never thought in a million years I would be cleaning bear poop off my lawn.

We had left the side gate open for the night and the bear came up the side of the house. He went through the hole in the fence to the neighbor's yard, walked right onto their balcony and helped himself to their garbage and then wandered back over to our yard to relieve himself and off he went. A little weird to think that while I was sleeping, with my window open there was a bear in the backyard not 20 feet from me.

By the way, bear poop is big and not to stinky.

The other first? First snow of the season. Seems a little early to me but the timing is good. I asked Paul to have the snow tires put on the van yesterday and he did, what a man.