Wordless Wednesday - Favorite picture

I'm participating in Wordless Wednesday. Be sure to head over there for some more great pictures!

Bbrrrr!

I know there are others that are colder.  I'm just saying I'M COLD!!!!

Waiting for the news to start calling this "Artic Blast 2009". 

Maybe I should actually watch the news to see if they are...

Thankfully/unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) there has been no moisture so:

1. No ice/snow/freezing rain
2. Closed roads
3. Making driving hazardous - or more hazardous
4. Closing schools (another one that depends on how you look at it & who you're talking to)
5. Screwing with my Christmas shopping cause I'm a wuss that doesn't drive in snow (little scared, little nervous, little 'if I don't gotta, why should I').

All by myself

I'm canning all by myself tonight.

I'm canning some homemade chicken stock.

Thank you again Gramma for teaching me to can!!!!

The tale of two ovens. . .

My old, worn out, possessed oven.

The oven that jumps 300 degrees in 30 seconds.  That had uneven burners and one that didn't work at all.

The one that boiled the pumpkin pie, cook brownies in 15 minutes, and burn anything you don't watch like a hawk.

The one that is a bit of a fire hazard...

The landlord told us to find a new Whirlpool oven and he would get it for us.

So we did.  We looked around and compared prices and found a nice cheap one and gave him a call.

He went down to the appliance store and found a cheaper one.  We had done our research on the internet and apparently the cheapest online is not the absolute cheapest they have. 

The new oven. (Before install)

The delivery guys weren't able to install the oven because it is hardwired to the wall (no plug).  So it had to wait until Robert got home.

When he did get home and pulled out the old to put in the new he found that the old oven wasn't grounded properly.  So basically we could have been shocking the crap out of ourselves for the past 5 years. . . NICE!

Not happy about that one, my kids have used it.

The new oven is in and is grounded properly. YAY Robert!

There is 1 big burner and 3 small ones, and no window in the oven door - two cons for me.  And it's white.  Do you know how hard it is to keep white clean! I don't like white...it sucks!

I've been trying to hold judgement until extensive testing on it has been done and seeing how it performs - or doesn't perform.

I've made a few dinners and made some brownies - the jury is still out.  The night I made the brownies, about 20 minutes after I started them everyone started crowding the kitchen.  Where's the brownies?  I smell them so they must be done.  They took 40 minutes to cook.  People weren't happy about that.  That is just too long to wait for brownies.

In-laws

Last week when visiting the in-laws I raided their picture folder.  And by visiting I mean dropping the kids off for a weekend with the grandparents and date night for Robert and I.
 That date night was going shooting.  I like shooting.  It is such a great stress reliever.
 Unfortunately I didn't get to shoot the fun gun (MAC-90 aka AK-47). But I got to shoot Robert's new pistol for the first time.  And David's pistol. 

Anyhoo, back to the story.

I was raiding their picture folder stash and I found some great pictures that I don't have.  And I don't have them because I don't make it a regular habit to raid their picture stash.

That is going to change because it was a nice little trip down memory lane.

There was this one from not that long ago - Beginning of September in fact.


Gramma and Grampa came to watch Adam's practice.

Oh and this one from Easter this year . . .

Then a few years ago.

June 2007

I think that is the Columbia River - might be Willamette...

But the bestest that I found was this one.

Adam in a tux as ring bearer in Gramma Barbara and Grandpa Alan's wedding.  September 2002.

Just barely 4 years old.

Isn't he FREAKING ADORABLE!!!

And this one.

This guy is cute too.

And look at the little baby he is holding, isn't she a cute little chunky butt?!

Carus and daddy at Gramma and Grandpa's wedding.  Carus was about 8 months old and daddy's little princess.

She still is daddy's little princess.

If you want to see more pictures from Gramma and Grampa's stash, click HERE.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Just a little slide show of our day. Hope everyone had a great day.

BUSTED!

I just totally busted Adam!

I walked up the street a bit to meet the kids walking home so that I could let one of the neighbor kids know that his mom texted me and to say she was running late today so he was going to stay at our house until she gets home.  It is nice having neighbors you can trust and that can help out when something comes up.  I've texted her a few times before too (in fact just last week for a work meeting that ran long) because I was going to be late getting home. 

So I'm walking up the street, while tugging on the dog because he has to smell every single piece of grass and 'mark' every bush 20 times, and I have timed it perfect since Adam and Carus have just turned onto our street.  Carus is in the lead, like usual, and a few yards behind her is Adam.  With his nose buried in a book. 

He isn't supposed to be reading while walking home.  We don't want him to trip or walk out into traffic, or have a stranger walk up to him or something, and it would be nice if he could watch out for Carus with traffic and strangers. But he is repeatedly offending this rule.

I was able to walk up to about a foot in front of him without him noticing.  He wouldn't have noticed me and probably walked right into me if Carus didn't then say something to him. 

BUSTED!!!

In other news - Have a picture. 

Carus will pose...Adam will not...