Nor'easter AGAIN!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

We are in the middle of another big snowstorm. The first was on Thursday, now we are in number two today. This one began with snow, then it started to sleet, now it is freezing rain. We had 12 inches on Thursday and 8 inches today. So, you can see the piles are HUGE.

Carrie was outside and we completed the driveway just in time for the plow to refill the driveway! That is a wonderful thing...but I sure don't like the 're-shoveling' chores.

The dogs have loved playing in the snow. They DO NOT like the sleet or the freezing rain. I think the freezing rain ends up freezing on their backs and heads. Guess that they should wear those hats I gave them earlier!!! The only smart one is Cheyenne who curled up on the futon and took a long winter's nap!

Visit From the NORTH

Sunday, December 9, 2007

We had the joy of having two wonderful friends visit us for the weekend. Carol and Dean traveled from the North and the far Northwest in Canada to come for their annual Christmas visit. We love having them here and miss them when they leave. Last night we had our annual gift swap, giving a bit of fun and love to one another. These are always funny times, as Carol and I have been great friends for over 20 years. Dean suffers through our antics and Carrie just tries to avoid all of it!!! :-)As we sat around the tree, Carol was the first to open her gifts. She really LOVED the one from 'her best pal'...me. Carol and I have called each other "DORK" since grad school. It is an endearing name and it has always made us feel that at least someone understood that we both are true dorks at times. So, I found her the perfect present...a DORK shirt. It will let her know she is!!!

Dean has become Carrie's pal. I think he needs someone to help him manage how Carol and I interact when we are together! Seriously, he loves Carrie and UMASS. He WAS an MSU and UCONN fan for a while, BUT... Clearly, his loyalty has changed and he is now decked out in more Minutemen gear for the year!!

They got a bit spooked by the weather and headed out last night to beat the storm back to Toronto. We are waiting to hear on their trip. It was a rather brief, but wonderful time. They brought me fantastic gifts to help me ride my bike indoors during my sabbatical. Some really scary shorts -- that won't be SEEN in PUBLIC. And other fun things for my bike to encourage my working out. The best part of all was their company. It is always a wonderful time of the year to have them visit. Having loving friends is truly a gift from God at the holidays and throughout the year. I wish each of you wonderful times with friends this season. Now, it is quickly approaching the time to visit my FAMILY. My greatest gift!!

Decorations on the Tree

The tree trimming was a wonderful event. Although it happened a week ago, the tree still smells of pine.

The white lights make the tree shimmer in the night. It is a beautiful sight and the dogs enjoy sitting on their bed watching the tree and relaxing by the fireplace. It takes on a wonderful feeling of the Christmas season.

The stockings are hung by the fireplace. Along with the "Irish" Santas (Carrie's an annual gift from her mom) and the doggie snow globe, the stockings wait for the Santa (hopefully the DUTCH ONE) to slip down the chimney with goodness for two good girls.

Mom and Dad's little characters now make my home filled with the spirit of Christmas. They all gather around to be a part of the wonderful story. It truly makes my home a special place to have so many wonderful memories of my 'growing up' years.

May you have a special time while making your homes ready for the holidays. God bless to each of you and be safe. I pray that your homes are filled with the sights, smell, and LOVE of Christmas. Hugs to each of you.

Calling for new ARMS!!!

Sunday, November 25, 2007

The events began at 7am yesterday...a trip to Big Y and Home Depot for yard bags. You see, the day of the 'big snowstorm', the town leaf picker upper guys came by. Yup, they were using the big leaf vac to take up the leave piles that people were frantically making - along with snow and ice and yuck. Clearly, they were doing it on our street very unexpectedly. So, I rushed outside to try and make a few piles -- much to no avail. Left the leaves and pickers from the pine trees to rake when the snow melted. Which it DID!!! That takes us to the big leaf pick up day. CB had to work all weekend on a 2 hour lectures for Tuesday, so I did most of this myself. She helped with the packing into the bags. You can see - we made A DOZEN bags!!! NICE HUH?!!!CB hates my leaf blower - it is not a big one, but it sure does help somewhat. Makes it easer a bit for me. Although my arms were pretty much rubber. I am confident that my shoulder issues should make raising my arm pretty much IMPOSSIBLE. Oh well...guess aging is not a nice thing sometimes. I am very proud of my job... BUT... The neighbor's tree are the leaf culprit... and one of the trees does not seem to like to dump all of its leaves. You can now see my driveway - see them...see them... they are all over the place.

I have watched them collect all day today. With much saddness and a bit of frustration. But, I decided to hang up a little holiday decoration to make me smile. With that I will end my painful arm saga... I hope that everyone had a special time at Thanksgiving with family and friends. Eager to see everyone in a MONTH.

1st SNOW of Winter 07-08

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Today was the FIRST SNOW of the Winter of 07-08. You can see that it actually STUCK on the ground. We did not expect the snow today, as it began around 6am and just got more and more and more. The roads were very icy and slippery.

Each of the dogs loves the snow in their own way. Cheyenne, the oldest brown little dog bits at the snowflakes and flips the snow in the air. Koda, the black one, digs his nose deep into the snow. As you can see, Carli (the yellow lab) LOVES to EAT THE SNOW. That can be a risk, but she does it anyhow.

THAT Time of Year AGAIN??!!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Today was THE DAY! We had the 'bugs' outside in the nice sunshine to 'sit' for their annual holiday card pictures. As you can see, Cheyenne and Koda were doing a pretty good job of listening to the photographer. However, they had a few thoughts about their youngest sister...


Once Cheyenne and Koda were able to get Carli to come and be a part of the group, she decided that sitting down on the job was her idea of a nice pose. Notice how she is also unwilling to look toward the photographer. Clearly, she did not understand the instructions!!


All in all, the three finally decided to cooperate and gave us a few good shots. Look at how cute they are together after a long day of snow shoeing in the...well, in the... LAWN!!!


They decided to be good little angels, ONLY AFTER they were placed in a much more humiliating pose. Koda really hates the hat and Cheyenne could not seem to keep her ears inside the headband. Carli hated it SO MUCH that she left.

Everyone had a great time and we are ALL ready for the holidays to be here.

We (the dogs and I) wish each of you a very special Thanksgiving and give THANKS that God has placed each of you in my life.

SPOOKY HALLOWEEN

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Today was the PawPALS Party. We all dressed to be spooky and it worked...the children were not sure who each of us was!!!

Tonight is the waiting for darkness to set in and the children to arrive. Shouts of 'trick or treat' are beginning to come faintly over the wind... Candles lit, pumpkins set...treats are ready... only the waiting is left.

First Frost of the Seaason

Monday, October 29, 2007

IT IS COLD HERE... finally!! We have had the first frost of the season last night. The temperature was 31 degrees when I got up this AM. The field that I took the dogs to was pretty yucky yesterday. It seems like the dry weather with the now rapidly cold and the major rains for three days with big time winds made the leaves fall. I guess we need to break out the sweaters. The dogs are now sleeping with me to make sure that they stay warm during the night. That is fine by me...I stay warm that way too!!

Apple Picking in Vermont

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Today was a bright and sunny Sunday. So, this afternoon Carrie and I set out to see the colors (or as the locals say it 'FOLIAGE'... whatever!). We headed North through Massachusetts and found our way to the southern edge of Vermont. The colors were ok, not as great as they are near school (I guess it has been colder up there and the trees are further along). Anyhow, we found our way to an apple orchard. You can see that we picked apples! FUN, Fun, fun!!!

We had a great time. The orchard has a draft horse wagon that you can ride through the hills of the orchard. It was a cheap $2 a person, cheaper than a movie for sure!! It was so much fun and the trees were pretty loaded in the areas where the 'YOU PICK' signs said NO YOU PICK HERE!!! You can see how the younger trees are full of apples.

So, we finished some picking in the 75-80 degree weather and made it back to the barn for some hot apple cidar, cidar donuts (which I DiD NOT LIKE), and a chance to relax before the drive home. It was a pretty and special day. Nice to see how God's hand is in everything, even the apples and the pretty 'foliage'!! After a relaxing afternoon, it is time to return to the reality of the fall -- school work!!!

TV Crews

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Today was a major event. We had a national NBC news crew at PawPALS. Oh yeah...now that is a good time. The children were psyched. As for me, not as psyched!! They filmed the whole PawPALS and then we did individual interviews with two students, the principal and me. Should be interesting. But the best part was the NEW LOGO'ed clothes. I got some things from Lands' End for the staff and made iron on shirts for the students. We all looked pretty classy for sure!! I will keep everyone up to date with the show, the dates and the DVD.

Steppin up the Steps

Saturday, October 6, 2007

For the past year, we have struggled with the 'lovely' steps coming off the back porch. Finally, we have been able to get help making this area look better.


CB's brother works making decks and other construction jobs. He came on his time off and transformed the back entry into the porch. It looks SO much different. You can see from the before and after pictures that things are NOT the same.

If you look really hard and imagine... there was a really nice 1940's-like indoor-outdoor carpet covering the cement stairs going onto the porch. Oh yeah, really nice!!!

We LOVE our new look. Plus, there is space to put flowers or a little lawn chair to read outside and catch some of this early fall sunshine. The dogs LOVE the wooden steps and find it a great place to take a little doggie nap in the sun whenever I am home from the office.

This might be the last job of the 2007 year. BUT, we still have the steps off the front of this porch to finish. The wood is sitting in the back yard...now it is finding the time to make the small deck porch and stairs. Whew..almost ready for snow to get here!!! Naw... just kidding!

What's my name...

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Gidget Rav
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) ChocoChip Grandma VH
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) J'Van
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Green dog
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, hospital where you were born) Lynn Jane Lamb
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Van Ja
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) The Blue Tea
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Willem Cornealius
9.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Hmmm...this is really a Witness Protection name... (no middle name, no middle name)!!!
10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Boston Borchers
11. SPY NAME: (favorite season, fav. flower) Fall Tulip
12. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Blueberry Sweat Panty
13. HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Coffee Birch
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) The Garden Rainbow Tour

I am not bored...just trying to waste time and NOT WORK!!!

Strangers Passing

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Today I noticed people walking in my side yard. The dogs were going NUTS!!! It was an elderly couple stopping by to, "take pictures of the spectacular flowers". Hmm...I guess that is just a hazard of making your yard pretty. Here are the flowers they wanted to see. The woman was from Hawaii and she said that they, " reminded her of home!!" Very sweet.

Big Dahlias and My BEE STING!!!

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Yesterday was eventful. I worked in the garden with the temperatures reaching the mid 90's and the humidity high. I read and floated in the pool for a bit and then worked again...hanging out with my yellow lab Carli. She decided to get a bit too interested in the yellow jacket nest (not that I saw the nest). Oh yeah - they decided to bite her by the nose and I jumped into action helping her get away. Yes, bright I am NOT!!!

I decided to show you the flowers I was working on (instead of my hand and wrist). My Dinner Plate Dahlias...they are starting to bloom in a deep coral, white and red. They are spectacular. As for me, I am on Benadryl and Tylenol...my thumb got the sting and my hand, wrist and forearm are pretty swollen. They say 48 hours of 'pain and swelling' - wonderful...so much for being a good mom.

Roof...roof...roof

Friday, July 13, 2007

It is finished! Whew, finally after the week's worth of banging and mess the roof is on the house and garage. It looks nice!!! Can a roof 'look nice'??!! I am just not sure. I think roof issue are mainly about FUNCTION. We had a huge storm and the house DID NOT LEAK...that is my idea of a good roof. Anyhow, here are some photos to give you an idea of the process and the finished product. I hope this means only one or two more little events/projects for the summer. Who knows!!! Not next week...that is time to relax with all of you!!!

90+90 by 11am

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

What a morning!! Today was the first day of the roof, roof, roofing. It was hot and humid to begin at 7am (about 70 degrees and 68% humidity). By 11am, the weather really took it toll on the men up on the roof. The temp was 90 degrees and the humidity was 90%!!! They worked only 4.5 hours today and looked completely overheated by the time they rolled off the roof. A total of 1/4 of the roof now has new shingles...that is of the HOUSE... Yes, our 2 day job (house and garage) is turning into a much longer ordeal...temps and humidity are making it pretty intense. Tomorrow they say more of the same, with a break on Thursday - but then some rain. As you can see, the back of the house still has all of the old shingles and the front has a blue tarp on the other half of the front! Wonderful, this is an interesting experience.

Last day under THIS ROOF!!

Monday, July 9, 2007

It is now time to say good-bye to the OLD ROOF. Tomorrow the roofers come to bring the house a new top. I am not sure what this will mean in terms of noise, dog anxiety and nails in the pool...but, I guess we will just wait and see. So, for those of you who cannot remember the house and the current roof - here you go. The garage and the house will get a new style shingle, a new 'architectural' roof vent and some other fancy roofer-ish thingy type stuff!! Can you tell that I don't know almost anything about roof tops?? Well, I will keep you all posted.

Mid-Summer Progress

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Hello and Happy 4th of July!!

I hope that the summer is going well for all of my family and friends. After many, many hours of loving labour, the back yard and gardens are coming along. I thought that it was time to show off some of the fun things that have been accomplished the first half of this summer. David...I hope that you are proud of the flowers and DAD...check out those bean and tomato plants...not bad for an old child farmer from the Midwest!!!

Here is the flower garden that was originally TEN yew bushes - all of which were dug out, the crushed rock ground cover moved away and then planted with perennials and annuals.

I thought that you might like a closer look at some of the roses (for MOM), the viola flowers and an asclepsia bush (well, it will become a bush after a few years). The flowers are just vibrant and wonderful!

There were some 'construction' things to manage as well. The wall was created to HIDE the filter and other pool things. It was a HUGE fence before that just stuck out and was a terrible eye-sore!! Now, it looks more a part of the landscape. Next summer there will be more potted annuals on the ground and on the newly painted (and built) railing.

Just a final bit of the garden. I could not forget my ROOTS and needed to build a structure that would contain my vegie garden. Since the cost of vegies is SO high in CT, I decided to plant many plants including sweet peas, tri-colored beans, squash (YES.. Sharron I did it), lettuce, radishes and many varied tomato plants. As you can see, we are already eating the beans and peas with the green tomatoes soon to be ripened. My neighbor is waiting for the garden to be in full fruit - he said that he has brown thumbs.... sorry to hear that bit of information!!! He is my friend who I only know from the neck up, as he peers over the fence to chat each day as I work in the yard!!!

So, this is the update on the progress. Only a few more things this summer to tackle and then I am floating in the pool and getting a tan. Or it will be time for school to restart!!! Not sure which. Hugs to all and Happy Independence Day!!! Miss you guys!!