WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU BLIZZARDS....

5:09 PM Posted In Edit This 2 Comments »

GO OUT AND PLAY IN IT!!!


My kiddos were in awe of all this snow!! It may be a once in a lifetime sight for them, so we had to go out and have some fun in it! These two were giggling about being able to walk on top of the snow - higher up than the slippery slide!!


We gave up after a while on trying to shovel out the driveway. Every time I would take a step into it - I ended up knee deep over there closer to the front yard. Finally we broke out with the saucer sled and used the snow drifts as our own personal sled ramps. It was flippin awesome!! Of course all this playing in the cold meant hot chocolate when we got back inside - it was really a great day!


Rye trying to convince her Bubby to give her a tow!!


The no shoes in the house rule went into effect three days ago. Today - the no clothes past the back door also went into effect. Ya'll may be shoeless up there in the Great White North - but us Kansas folk get to run nekkid from the door to the closets!! :)

Though the storm was pretty yucky, it all seems to be melting off pretty nicely. It sure did bring one heck of a day of fun too. Next year I hope we get THIS kind of storm at Christmas!! YA!!!

EPIC BLIZZARD 2009 KANSAS

9:12 AM Posted In Edit This 4 Comments »

My truck is stuck in the middle of my driveway. I was trying to get out to go to work this morning at the liquor store.... No such luck. The photo up there is the view of my neighbors house. Check out the snow on their roof!!


I guess I don't have to worry about watering my garden this weekend - or working in it at all for that matter...


Check out the view of my back porch! We had to pry our back door open and vicariously shovel the top step while trying not to fall in the snow drift next to it. There wasn't much point to all the shoveling I guess because it's still snowing.


This my friends is NOT a snow drift! It's the fallen snow by the house. The stick says just about 24 inches there, but the snow drifts are much taller - so tall that they would bury my measuring stick! I guess I won't be going to work today at all, which really sucks because I need the money - but whaaddya do??

ARE WE IN CANADA OR KANSAS???

5:21 PM Posted In Edit This 4 Comments »

STAY INSIDE!! IF YOU GO OUT - YOU COULD DIE!! It's really flippin cold here - and the snow just keeps coming and coming and coming and coming... you get my "drift"?? It's so bad I can barely open my front door! Everything is closed - schools, banks, churches, ect.... closed. Under the snow is a nice sheet of sleet that fell first. It's pretty slippery out there. On my way home from work, I saw this dude in a truck go around and around and finally hit a telephone pole. Nasty stuff I tell ya!!
(BUT - of course - the liquor store is OPEN.) We did more business today than we did on Christmas Eve! INSANE!! It's not supposed to get any better until tomorrow around 1 pm....

THUNDERSNOW - SERIOUSLY???

4:51 PM Posted In , Edit This 5 Comments »



OH MY GAAAAAAWD!! What happened to spring?? Here is the forecast for the next few days from the NWS:

Tonight: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm. Cloudy, with a low around 31. Blustery, with a northeast wind between 17 and 24 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Friday: Snow. The snow could be heavy at times. Some thunder is also possible. High near 33. Breezy, with a north northeast wind between 26 and 29 mph, with gusts as high as 38 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.

Friday Night: Snow and areas of blowing snow. The snow could be heavy at times. Some thunder is also possible. Low around 27. Windy, with a north wind around 30 mph, with gusts as high as 39 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%.

Saturday: Areas of blowing snow and a chance of snow before 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 35. Breezy, with a north northwest wind 25 to 28 mph decreasing to between 13 and 16 mph. Winds could gust as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

Officials are urging folks to be prepared for a doozy - emergency kits ready for days without power and the likes..... I gotta go to work no matter, so wish me luck!!

FUN WITH FLAT STANLEY

6:08 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »

Dear Mommies bloggy friends,
My name is Riley, and I am in the first grade. In school, we read a book about a boy named Stanley who got flattened by a bulletin board. He wanted to go on a trip, so his family folded him up and mailed him to California.

I am sending my Flat Stanley to you, and hoping that you might take some pictures of him at your house or the town where you live. (My mom says you don't have to use a Canon camera, that's just what she loves the best.) If you could write me a little letter telling me about Flat Stanleys' adventures with you, that would be super cool! You can print my Stanley out and take him around with you even! When you are done playing with him, you can email your stories and pictures to my mom at kshippychic@hotmail.com, and she will print them all out and give them to me to take to school to share with my classmates!! It would be so awesome to share different places that Stanley has visited around the world!

Thank you for helping me with my project! I wish I could fold myself up and visit YOU!!

ART WALK SAN DIEGO

7:09 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »

When I was a kid, I always dreamt of going to California. All the sights and sounds I heard coming out of the TV about that place just seemed so magical and enticing. When I was 16, I ran away from home and started out on my journey to see it, and ended up spending about a week in Long Beach. Considering the fact that I was a child, and a little bit homeless at the time, sightseeing wasn't an organized event for me - more like "Ohhhhhh look at the ocean!!" and "Holy cow that's a huge boat!" I never got to take in all of the beauty I was after.


 Now in my adult life, I do want to go back, but this time to San Diego to take part in the Art Walk. This year it is happening on April 25th and 26th. Not only do I want to be a participant, but I would love to be able to take in the plethora of work by the hundreds of other artists that will be showing their work. Of course I would just drive - a cool as hell road trip would be awesome! Everything you could ever want would surely be within walking distance once you got there - and the weather - oh I am thinking it would be warm! This is truly the stuff of my little girl dreams - but can you imagine?

ARE YOUR ONIONS IN YET??

12:30 PM Posted In , Edit This 3 Comments »

Gardening time is going to start getting exciting in the next few weeks!! Now's the time to leave the TV and the PS3 turned off - and get out into that dirt!! If you don't already have your onions in the ground, the first planting should be gotten in soon! These are so easy, you really don't even have to think about it much....


Find some dirt - give it some oxygen (till it up) - make sure there is sunshine - onion bulbs go in root down - cover em' up - voila!! I plant mine a little closer together in this particular area of my garden. I like to use the smaller onions for all kinds of cooking. If you want bigger onions, you should plant them at least 8 inches apart so that they have room to grow. Keep them watered and in no time you will have lots of onions to eat! These plants will grow long green tops that you can also use, but if you leave them they will flower. When that happens you can go along and "stomp them down", which is supposed to help give you the big boys!

On a side note: What is everyone paying for potatoes in the grocery store?? At our local Dillons - they want close to $7 for a 10 pound bag!!! INSANE! When I was in Canada - we picked up a 20 pound bag for less than $4 - red potatoes even!! Just another reason to use any available dirt to grow your own!!

DANCING WITH THE DEVIL

8:31 AM Posted In Edit This 5 Comments »
Here is something that should scare the pants right off of ya'll. Complete control of our food supply - an idea introduced in every round-a-bout way by the ginormous Monsanto Corporation. I really don't know why I haven't seen much for news about these evil people. The bill HR875 has been introduced to the House, and if it passes, would effectively outlaw folks like you and I from growing even so much as one little tomato plant in our own backyards. Don't believe me? Click the links and read about them. This is really scary stuff! Bad things happen when big government teams up with big business. Anyone noticed that yet?

SPRING IN ALL ITS GLORY!!

7:13 PM Posted In Edit This 1 Comment »

OHHHHH what a GLORIOUS day!! It really felt like spring had arrived around these parts, and all of the days' activities are now safely stored in the Mac memory thanks to remembering to take my camera along! The guys took the whole day to go for some fishing, though they didn't bring home any fishes. They caught a bass, but it was too small to keep. Us girls had a nice long stroll through the park, stopped by to see the guys, and completed the grocery shopping for the coming week. We also put in three rows of spinach, along with 2 rows of onions, and a row of zucchini seeds. It felt so good to get out into the dirt again!!

TIME TO PLANT THE POTATOES!

6:25 PM Posted In Edit This 4 Comments »
My friend over at KSBORN asked me a while back for a few gardening tips, so I have decided to write as I go along in my own garden. Right now, here in Kansas anyway, it is time to get your potatoes in the ground. When the weather was nice last week, I put in three rows, but I still have a few more to do before I am finished. The first thing you need to do is purchase your certified seed potatoes. Cut them into two or three pieces, and make sure that each piece has an eye. You should let them set for at least a day or two until they form a black skin on the cut sides. While you are waiting, you can prepare your dirt! Choose a location that has full sunshine all day long.


Potatoes should be planted in trenches. Till your garden area of course, and dig your trench out to around 6 inches deep. If you are doing more than one row, the rows should be about three feet apart from each other so that your taters have room to spread out under ground. When your potatoes are ready, place them in the dirt cut side down, and about a foot and a half apart.


Now you should cover the seed potatoes up with about 3 inches of dirt. Then, we water, and wait. Don't soak them to death right now, just water them lightly and hope mother nature sends something good to help out as well. Once the potato plants have sprouted up out of the ground and have gotten to about 6 inches tall, you will rake some more dirt about halfway up the plants. You will do this again as the plants grow bigger. Of course you need to water regularly, and keep your garden free from weeds. When the potato plants begin to flower, that is when you should have what is called "new potatoes". You can dig some up for supper, but if you do, dig at every other plant and leave the rest in the ground for later! Water them extra nicely at this point to ensure a nice crop of larger potatoes. Soon you will have the bigger variety, and it will be close to time for putting in your second planting of the season. This will need to be done sometime around the middle of June if you want to have potatoes for the winter.

If you are serious about getting a good garden in, you should be ordering/purchasing the things you want to grow from seed right now. Get your garden area ready, and make out a plan of where you would like to put things. It is very hard to predict what mother nature will be bringing to Kansas, but you should be able to safely put in things like green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces and spinach if you are starting from seed. They don't mind the colder weather as much.

The coming weeks will surely be busy out on my little patch of land! This year we are hoping to be able to provide food for ourselves, family, and friends, as well as participating in our local farmers market. There is nothing at the supermarket that can even compare to the tastiness of home grown produce. Try it!!

I STOLED STUFF FROM MACKEY - AGAIN....

8:03 PM Posted In Edit This 2 Comments »

Ohhhhhhhhhhh well looky there. The trash schedule. Again.












Made ya look didn't I??? Haaa!!!


Mackey got all fuzzed with Bugs Bunny there at the Kronic Bubonic.....



I are such a rebel....


There are some words you just can't spell without the letter N....


Some people should never be allowed to have rum.... especially in those big ol' pitchers with straws....

DREAMING OF RENOVATION

7:08 PM Posted In Edit This 1 Comment »

Since I have been home for a day now, my mind has started to wander in the direction of buying this house and remodeling it ourselves. I came home to find my toilet leaned up against my bathroom cabinets and a big hole in the floor. Not only that, but my landlord had apparently been over on Thursday to supposedly fix the bathroom, and now is not coming back to finish it until Monday. It would be so much easier and less stressful to just do it myself I think.
When I get stressed out like this, I tend to imagine what it would be like if I could do things up around here any way I want to. I started surfing around the web for everything from tile flooring to Corbels, and I found a place I could spend a million years at dreaming!!
I am completely guilty of spending about an hour just looking at all the information at invitinghome.com. They have so much decorating and remodeling advice, there is no way a person could possibly fail at it if they just read the information given, right down to how to create a unique decor for your home. I found myself fascinated with the many different kinds of molding available for purchase at the site. I have always admired the chair-rail type in other peoples' homes, and I wish I could put some in a home of my own. I also loved the different choices of styles they have available - I tell you I could decorate my whole house there!
I know for now that I am only dreaming, but if anyone else out there is taking on a redecorating project - check these guys out!!

FROM CANADA TO KANSAS

4:25 PM Posted In Edit This 4 Comments »

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!!!
HEEEheeHEeeheeEE!!

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT CANADA

12:23 PM Posted In Edit This 2 Comments »
So I have been here in Alberta for a week now, and I have been taking in all the sights and sounds of this beautiful country. However, I have noticed some rather odd things that I just had to write down....
1. There is no ham in Alberta. No real ham. Everywhere we have gone to eat and I have ordered ham, they have brought me that spongey ham and water product stuff. Spam like kind of. No good ol' fashioned meat off the bone kinda ham like in Kansas. We figured it just must not exist here, or.... the ham spies are following us around trying to make me believe there is no ham here so I will go home.....
2. Osama Bin Laden lives in Edmonton. I saw him with my own two eyes, walking down the street with a back pack. Seriously....
3. No one in Alberta ties their shoes ever. Why would they? There is no way on gods' green earth anyone here could ever wear shoes in the house because there is too much snow and mud and ewwwww so shoes off at the door.
4. There really is no grass in this part of Canada. They only spray paint the snow green in June to make it look like they have a summer time. I shit you not....

SHOPPING A DAY LATE....

3:03 PM Posted In Edit This 2 Comments »
Hey all! Still here in Edmonton, half awake and half alive at this point. We had a night out on the town last night, and after that experience, I have decided that I should never leave my house without a video camera ever ever again! As of this morning, I have no evidence of what took place, so only those that were there will ever know - probably for the best eh? Heeheee!! Oh but it still would have been nice to have one for the Rush game. THAT was cool, and involved my first trip on the subway. Again - another thing I wish I could have video taped.....
So everyone here is getting around and preparing for the day (Or should I say recovering from yesterday) so I have just been looking around for a sale on the camcorder I want. I found a nice one online here. It even has a webcam function, so I could have used it to see my kiddos back home. Plus it has a ton of memory, which is definately something I need due to the sheer amount of filming I would really be doing. Another awesome feature is the card reader function. That would let me just pop the cards from my other cameras in and download stuff more quickly. I don't think they could ship it to Canada quick enough for me to get it here though, so it will have to be something I look at when I get home.
Hope everyone is having a good day!
April 2009
February 2009