Saturday, January 31, 2009

Hot Dog

The running joke in our house right now is:  What do you call a dog who loves to lay in front of the furnace duct?  The answer of course is a hot dog...in this case Maia.  This winter we have a simple way of telling when the furnace is on...Maia enjoys the warm air that blasts from the duct in the kitchen.  It's pretty funny to watch.  She'll lay with her back to the hot air and after a minute or so she'll turn over and roast the other side.  Last night Lydia went to a winter retreat at Skyview Ranch and tonight I caught her on the floor catching up on a days worth of lost snuggle time.  

Friday, January 30, 2009

Caleb's mouse

The children always try to get things cleaned up before Grandma Harmsen comes to visit.  Grandma has this way of seeing things that need to be cleaned up, especially children's bedrooms.  This past fall she went down to the basement and saw that there were quite a few dirty dishes scattered around on the bookshelves and tables.  She reprimanded the children, b/c dirty dishes invite unwanted guests.  Caleb is the biggest offender b/c he always eats down there and forgets to bring up the dishes.  This past week the children wanted me to play Raving Rabids on the Wii with them.  When we descended to the basement and I found lots of dirty dishes.  Let's just say that mama was not happy.  Upon further examination of things I realized that there were droppings on the some of the dishes and shelves.  Now let's just say that mama was furious.  I made Caleb clean up his dishes and told him he was in charge of mouse removal.  He set out his traps last night and this morning he found that he had successfully eliminated one mouse.  I am fairly confident that there was only one mouse, but we will leave the traps set for a while to make sure.  There will also be NO more eating in the basement. 



Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Snow and Ice Removal

When I went to bed last night it was raining.  When I woke up this morning it was still raining. I woke up to the village of Warsaw trying to get the icy slush off the streets before it froze.  This morning the rain turned to sleet and then to snow.  The snow came down as fast as a heavy down pour.  The snow brings back wonderful memories of growing up in MI.  I love it.  This afternoon the temps were supposed to drop to the mid 20's so I decided that I needed to get the ice and top layer of snow off the drive and side walk before it all froze.  It was a chore, but a great work out!!

Here I am with my snow shovel.

Here is the finished job. 

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Snow Day


This past Wednesday snow accumulated all over Coshocton County.  Of course, it wasn't anything like what my parents get in western Michigan.  The children asked to go out and try to build a snow fort. They bundled up and I grabbed my camera.  Lydia took the dogs out, but they didn't appreciate the snow as much as she did.
            
   R: Maia, L:  Tessa



                                                       Caleb

                                           Lydia

                                    JoAnna

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Flat Tire


Yesterday on the way home from ice skating the tire light on my dash board lit up.  I pulled into the next gas station and checked the tires.  The passenger side tires both looked a little low, so I made a mental note to go up to MMS and have one of the guys check on it today.  I had to be in town for a doctor's appointment at 9:40 this morning and for some reason last night I told myself to leave by 9:00.  When I started the car up I walked around the car to make sure that the tires still looked okay.  The back rear tire was completely flat.  My first thought was, "Okay I can handle this."  I walked into the house and told Caleb, "Get up. I need your help."  I told him the situation and he swung into full gear while I phoned the doctor to warn them that I might be a few minutes late.  Two summers ago, before I drove over 7,000 miles across the country and back, Dennis at MMS had me change the tire on my car.  Chris had walked me through it verbally, but I had never really done it.  Thank you, Dennis, for teaching me and giving me the confidence to take yet another step.  Caleb made me proud, also.  His work with Dave in the hangar prepared him for this and he jumped right in...it made me realize how much he can do, but I don't give him enough credit for it. We found the reason for the flat...we had run over a screw.  The tire has been repaired and is remounted underneath the car and I was only a few minutes late for my appointment.  I can see Chris grinning from ear to ear and saying, "Way to go!!  I knew you could do it!!"

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Winter Break

Christmas week this year went fast.  The weekend before Christmas my mother went into the hospital.  She woke my dad up that Friday night and told him to take her to the hospital...she could hardly breath.  After she arrived and had been put through various tests and lots of poking they determined that she had blood clots in both her lungs.While she was in the hospital she watched a snow storm outside her window dump a couple of feet...NOT inches...of snow on the ground.  (Notice the table on the deck above.)  Christmas Eve morning she was finally allowed to go home.  We drove all Christmas day to get to their house. The roads were dry until we got off the expressway, about 15 miles from my parents house...then I battled ice mixed with black ice.  It was a challenge, especially since the guy behind me thought I was driving too slow.  We arrived safe and sound.  
The snow piles at the mobile home park where my parents live were pretty impressive.  In the photo above Tessa was impressed that she had to be thrown up on the snow bank to do her business.  I told my children about when I was young and it would snow we would hear the familiar sound of my uncle's snow plow hitting the ground and being pushed up the driveway. We would get excited b/c the snow pile was always big enough to sled down.  Sometimes we would get the shovel out and dig a fort in the back of the pile...it was tall enough for us to stand up in. Now THAT is winter.  
The past two years have been hard in the way of family meal time.  Dinner time was very important to Chris and we seldom didn't eat dinner together as a family.  Sitting around our round dinner table has been too painful for me.  No matter how we arranged the chairs it always felt like Chris was missing.  A few weeks back the girls and I went to Amish country and we found a new table.  It was delivered this past week.  It is rectangular and it doesn't have the feeling of a missing person.  We really like it.  The times we are home we have eaten at the table and not in front of the TV...another step.  It feels good.
Today we started ice skating lessons.  Even I signed up to skate.  It was quite fun.  I kept having to laugh, b/c I would hear this loud thumping and falling sound echo through the ice arena.  I would turn around and Caleb was sprawled out on the ice.  He has never been what you would call graceful, but today made me realize how much like his mom he truly is.  JoAnna made it over half way around with out holding on or falling.

Lydia was so graceful out on the ice.  I think she would do well at just about anything she would try.  We have 6 more weeks of lessons and I look forward to seeing how much she progresses by then.