So long, farewell, and goodbye!

Each day the temperature climbs a bit higher--49, 50, 51, and the snow is going, going, and soon will be gone. Now, I'm not naive enough to think it is gone for good this spring, afterall, we've built snowmen on April First (a real April Fool joke on us) before. I can hardly believe the pile of snow once encompassed the tree. But Spring is really coming! My fingers are itching to pick up a rake and a broom to loosen that packed down grass and sweep up all the left-over sand (for which we were grateful when the streets were full of ice).
Where the snow drift melted away just a few days ago, now a hyacinth is poking its head up!
For those of you who live in warmer climates, you probably don't understand the ecstatic feeling I had as I walked through my yard and saw these first signs of life. For you, the world is green the year around.

After a long four months of just white,

new green is about the most wonderful color in the world!

To go along with the baby daffodils and tulips I saw, I heard a robin singing and the sky had little fluffy white clouds floating in the blue.

What a great feeling--Spring!

I'm dreaming of a white.... Easter?

As we looked out the window on Friday morning, a snowy blizzard greeted us. The snow and wind continued the entire day. The radio reported traffic gridlock in Milwaukee as snow plows couldn't keep the roads cleared off and many, many traffic accidents occurred. We were so glad we had made the choice to go to the museum in Milwaukee on Thursday!

Brenna walked around the house singing, "Deck the Halls".

By Saturday morning, this is what we saw as we looked out Catherine's back window... 12 inches of snow! And the Easter Bunny trying to make his way through.And this was the view from front window, as Kevin went out early to shovel the driveway and sidewalks. We had all helped shovel at various times during the day.
By Saturday afternoon, the warm sunshine enticed us outside.

With a hillside and gravity to help, it only took a short time to have a family of snowmen with a watch dog on the end, in the back yard.

I'm afraid one of the snowmen won't stay standing very long.When we left on Sunday afternoon, the snow was perfect for snowballs.

The sunshine made heavy coats unnecessary. Robins were singing.
And another visit to West Bend ended peacefully.

(Notice those flip flops on Elly's feet!)

Going, going, gone...

During our January thaw... (before the next two feet of snow fell). On March 12, the snow bridge is still holding on, despite temperatures in the 40's, and a lot of melting going on!
March 13--51 degrees! The first time we've been THAT warm since before Thanksgiving. And see, the ice is receding out of the street. About a week ago I was finally able to walk the dog all the way to the top of the street.

Of course I had to walk in the middle of the street--there was about a 3-foot wide area of concrete showing without any ice. Each day the glaciers at the roadsides have receded a few inches and our streets are getting wider! (In some places it is actually 2 lanes again).

However, the neighborhood sidewalks are still not traversible--some are cleared off, but it seems like the neighbors just gave up for the last couple of snow storms. I guess they figure that since it is March, sooner or later it will melt anyway.

And now the ice is gone...

And we couldn't be happier!

But it was only a week or so ago that we were dealing with icy "pot-holes" in the road--spots where the salt had accumulated and melted out a crater. It took several minutes to drive up our street at 5 mph, to avoid hitting the holes too hard, or hitting the bottom of the car on the high spots.

There were areas of town where you didn't have to steer your car at all--with twin parallel ruts all you had to do was apply gas or brake. In fact, it was like driving a car at an amusement park with the wheels on a track so you can't stray. The ones on our street weren't quite so kind. The worst part was that all of this could have been avoided if the snow plows would have come while the ice was soft (when it first fell), instead of waiting for it to freeze really hard.A purchase of a potted plant helped me hold on. Spring has to come sometime!

What to Do When School is Out

So, with school out 2 days last week,

and it is snowing again this afternoon (3"-6" expected),

I'm about ready to order some home-schooling materials!

But we did use our time well last week. I purchased some fabric and Elizabeth cut out, sewed, and stuffed four pillows for our futon. I got to do the hand stitching after they were stuffed. I also sewed a ruffle for the futon to hide the genealogy boxes that are stored underneath.
We also did a lot of painting. I repainted all the white trim in the TV room, and painted this chest of drawers. We bought it at a garage sale several years ago, with the idea that it needed to be painted, and just had never gotten around to it. Now that room looks superb! I even had enough of the maroon floral fabric to make a slip cover for the office chair that is so comfortable to sit in, but it was BLACK.
We also touched up the paint in the room the missionaries will be moving into (on Thursday). The room is completely cleaned out and ready for them. We painted the half-wall going down the stairs. The kitchen counter has had lots of cans of paint on it this week.

The home is looking pretty good right now!

School is cancelled, again!

I think we will be getting out of school about mid-June now, as all these snow days are tacked on to the end of the school year. I know that it might be hard for our tropics-living family members to even imagine, but school wasn't cancelled for snow--it was cancelled for COLD. It is -9 this morning, with a strong north wind (wind chill of -30). But the day is sunny and bright--very deceptive!

A perfect day for Elizabeth and Alice to learn how to repaint closet doors and other trim!

Anyone tired of snow yet?

Another winter storm hit over the weekend, beginning with rain on Saturday night, then freezing rain (making all the trees look sparkly and pretty), and finally snow and wind on Sunday morning. I think church would have been cancelled, but the bishop made the mistake of calling Kevin for advice. And you know Kevin. He just looks at adverse weather conditions as a type of challenge. We went to church one time when the wind chill was -80 degrees. And the bishop is from Canada, so this doesn't faze him either.

(This is the wind-sculpted snow in the back yard.)

After Sacrament meeting, which was actually well-attended (if you count all the people who came in 10-20 minutes late), the rest of the meetings were cancelled, and the afternoon ward cancelled their meetings.

Kevin and I came home, changed into snow-shovelling clothes, and cleaned out the driveway.

We also spent quite a bit of time cleaning out the "irrigation ditches" so the slushy water could drain off the road (it was about 5 inches deep).
The snow was VERY heavy to shovel, and often would stick to the shovel. Then you have to knock it off before going for the next shovel-full. Quite a work-out for a Sunday! But it was good that we did that, because an "arctic airmass" came roaring in from the north last night and dropped the temperature down to zero.

Guess what all those slushy tracks in the road turned into!

(We hadn't realized that putting in the fence would cause a drift there.)

School was cancelled this morning, and so Alice is at one friend's house and Elizabeth at another's. Funny. I can drive the roads just fine in getting the girls to their friends, but the school district didn't think we could make it to the school (which is closer). The roads are very bumpy!

(With all the blowing snow this morning, we had sun dogs!)

I've been using the day working on all the STUFF that is contained in Deborah's bedroom, getting it ready for the missionaries to stay. She gets to go through ALL these containers when she comes home for a few weeks this summer. I don't envy her having to make all the hard decisions of what to do with it all!

we found one!!!!!

WE FOUND ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After long months of searching we finally found one. That's right, we got a Wii!

It's so much fun!

- Alice

Hydrology, Iowa-style

Ryan is studying hydrology in the islands as the emphasis for his Masters Degree. I grew up in the West where irrigating and moving water where it needs to go is an everyday part of life. Thus, when we had a nice thaw, I couldn't resist going out with a shovel and making channels so all that water could drain off into the storm sewer. It is satisfying seeing water go where you want it to go.
Kevin first dug this channel--our own version of Etretat (on the coast of Normandy).
The day after this thaw, the temperatures dropped again below zero, and any leftover water turned into ice. I was glad our area of the street didn't have that problem!

Sunrise, sunset, and in between...

...including Alice's speech as she portrayed Gerald R. Ford, in her 5th grade class.

The view from up here...

...from the top of the stairs, with Grandpa Bailey and Alice. ...from piggyback rides in Grandma Bailey's living room. (Look, we caught Connor on camera!)

...or from another piggyback ride at Uncle Kim's.Do I know these last two girls???

New blogs

Let me introduce two new blogs: Aunt Terry is now up and running with "Terry's World" at tarlady.blogspot.com (Theresa Ann Ryan).

The second blog is done by some women in our ward (myself included), to answer some of the political questions brought up by the current campaign as related to Mormonism. One of the women is a journalism major (Master's degree), and the other is an attorney. I'm the voice of the common person, I guess. I really don't know how I got included, other than having an interest in the topic. www.truthandreason.typepad.com

Check them out!

And the Christmas memories keep rolling...

Brenna and her great-grandpa looking through a seed catalog...Or Brenna enjoying Christmas oranges...
Great-grandpa holding Alastair (who is obviously teething--lots of drool at current time!)
Or catching Catherine playing with Alastair. Funny. Not too many pictures of Connor. That could be because he runs whenever a camera appears.

Or he sticks up his hand to cover his face.

And interestingly, not too many pictures of Great-grandma Bailey. Despite our efforts to order pizza or Chinese food, to make things easier, she was ALWAYS in the kitchen, just whipping up something "easy" like peach cheesecake, or apple pie, or homemade chicken noodle soup.

We've discovered that if you want to spend time with Grandma, help out in the kitchen. She appreciates the help and you get to hear some great stories from her life.

Such as:

The time on her 1st mission when the mission president had exhorted the missionaries to open their mouths in any situation--in the grocery line, on the street, etc. She was being transferred to a new area and had to ride the bus--a couple of hours. So she began talking with the man seated next to her. He wasn't really interested in her gospel message, but she "unloaded" (in her words) and gave him the whole story. When she got off, she thought he looked relieved! End of story? No.

At the next Zone Conference, another set of missionaries

asked her if she had been on the bus on such-and-such date.

Yes, she had.

Well, the woman sitting in FRONT of her had been listening. She looked up the missionaries

and was baptized!

I'm just glad I was helping peel potatoes!

Two weeks ago today...

Yes, we had plenty of snow while we were in Idaho. The normal picture here is of a lovely plum tree with green grass under it. Not so in December!I was just reflecting. Two weeks ago, right about this time of afternoon, we were trying to drive in the lane to the Bailey home. Usually, that quarter mile lane is traversed in a matter of a minute or less. Not so this time! One hour. Yes, one hour! The wind had been blowing, and all that beautiful, powdery, 12 inches of snow started moving around... drifting... filling in the lane. Justin and Darcy barely made it in with their 4-wheel drive an hour earlier. Catherine and Aaron, with 3 unhappy children, had taken 20 minutes, a few hours earlier. Here's Justin, running back to the house for another shovel. And maybe a warmer hat. It was bitterly cold with the wind!
It was a matter of shovel out under the wheels, rock the car backward and forward (with lots of yells, "don't spin the wheels!") and then move forward 10 feet before repeating the actions.

One of the major problems is that the Honda minivan has a low clearance--we were constantly high-centering on the snow drifts, and the chassis has NO place to hook on a towing cable. That would have made it all too easy--Grandpa could have just got the tractor and hauled us through all those drifts. But the owner's manual states: towing is definitely NOT recommended.

Once we made it to the house, Grandpa took the tractor out with a blade, and then later with a snow blower to clear things out. He was up at 4:30 Sunday morning to get it ready for us to go to church at 9 a.m. We were the first out. Stuck again. After 30 minutes of work, we were able to get back to the house, then go in shifts in the 4-wheel drive vehicles. We were only 20 minutes late for church, and we were providing the special musical number (Kevin-piano, Deborah, Elly and Alice on string instruments--it was beautiful!)

We'll always remember this Christmas vacation!

Images of Christmas

Whether putting together a puzzle with Grandma Beth,

gathering with the extended family at Grandma and Grandpa Bailey's,

wearing new Christmas clothing, or

waiting with anticipation for the unwrapping of gifts, Christmas brings such great memories. And Justin, sorry about making it look like you were still sleepy. I'm SURE that wasn't the case, was it?

Christmas Giving--2007

With the theme of "Variety is the Spice of Life," the sibling gift recipients of 2007 were as follows:

Catherine gave to Justin

***

Aaron gave to Elizabeth

***

Justin gave to Ryan

***

Darcie gave to Jamie

***

Ryan gave to Darcie

***

Jamie gave to Aaron

***

Deborah gave to Alice

***

Elizabeth gave to Catherine

and

Alice gave to Deborah

***

We saw varieties of hot chocolate; a gorilla variety of tri-pod (that Elizabeth hasn't stopped playing with yet); a variety of air fresheners for Deborah's car; a variety of Pride & Prejudice Soundtrack (there are so many different ones out there?); and a variety of photos and frames. I'd like to hear what the other gifts were. Aaron, what did you get? Ryan and Jamie, what spicy variety of things did you receive?

***

And, who wants to come up with next year's theme???

Did Someone Mention Snow?

Snow, snow, snow... winter has technically just begun, but snow has been around for quite a while now. Here in Cedar Falls......and on Interstate 80 between Laramie and Rawlins in Wyoming... (and this was before it got scary and Kevin took over driving)...
...at Hoback Junction, near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This part of the journey was SO beautiful!
And the bighorn sheep didn't seem to be bothered by all the snow, though they were feeding near the roadway. It was thrilling to see them!
We were happy to make it to Idaho, safe and sound. The roads were snow-covered the last fourth of the way (about 300 miles). But the Christmas holidays were totally worth it all!

Friday, January 04, 2008

Well, it's over, and I’m looking forward to peace and quiet!

You think I’m talking about the holiday season? No. I’m talking about the Iowa Caucuses. (I’d say Hawkeye Cauckeye, but I’m not sure how to spell that.) When we returned home from vacation, the answering machine was full with political calls. The mail was full of political mailings. The airwaves had back-to-back-to-back political ads. Here in Iowa, we’ve been deluged with politics--the first ads began last January, about 30 days after the last general election. The rest of you should be grateful you don’t have to go through that!

But we do appreciate being able to see the candidates up close. Last night, our county held all our caucuses at one location (which was not nearly big enough). For an hour before the caucus starting time, candidates could speak, and they did. First came Mike Huckabee (huckster is a better term), passing himself off as a conservative, with multiple scriptural references to make sure people remember he is an evangelical Christian. Then came Ron Paul, with his fiery defense of the Constitution, followed by Ann Romney, Mitt’s wife. These were IN PERSON, and Kevin and I were in the third row. Where else could you have national presidential candidates parade by like they were local mayoral candidates??? We also heard from Dr. Hugh Cort, a presidential candidate who either is a nut-case or has a really scary scenario about suitcase-nuclear bombs being smuggled in by illegals. The other candidates had a surrogate to speak for them, except Rudy Guiliani who didn’t do anything.

We were disappointed in the preference tally, and the setback to Mitt Romney. Although not a perfect candidate, we thought he would do a good job as president. After seeing some of the campaigning Huckabee has done, if he became the Republican candidate I’d ALMOST rather vote democratic. The ugly head of religious bigotry has come forth again (I thought that was relegated to the 19th century), and Huckabee is at the front. Even more troubling is that there has been no outcry from the other candidates or the general populace. It will be interesting to see if the Huckster can delude the voters of other states.

* * * * * * * *

An Early December Sampler

Instead of chocolates, I'm sending out some photos of what our first few days of December have been.

Decorations....

Chipping away the ice from the weekend ice storm. It was good that we had afternoon church, because all four of us spent nearly two hours getting the driveway and front sidewalks free of most of the ice. I spent an hour yesterday working on the deck. Since we don't have any ice skates, it was a bit hazardous. One family on the street built a circular igloo (or in my childhood, we would have called it a fort, since it didn't have a roof) with all the chunks of ice from their driveway. School began 2 hours late yesterday morning with the leftover ice, and it is supposed to snow/rain/etc, again tomorrow. I'm getting tired of ice...

Last night, Alice took part in her school's 5th & 6th grade musical. (Alice is wearing the blue hat on the second row). She also had a small solo on one number. It was fun to watch!