Hoping and praying

My sweet blogging friends.......I need a little help. My dear cousin Jo (Jodell) is very sick. She and her husband just bought a vacation home in Florida. Last week they went from Ohio to Florida the first time since the closing. Two days after arriving her husband got really sick. He recovered in a couple of days but then Jo got so sick. Her temp. was 106. She was admitted to a hospital in Punta Gorda with double pneumonia last Wednesday. She has not been responding to antibiotics and today had a surgical procedure done to extract specimens to be cultured to see what antibiotic to try next.
Now the doctor says he is confused and calling in an infectious disease specialist. Jo doesn't get sick. She takes handfuls of vitamins a day. My concern is that there was something in that house that made her sick or cleaning supplies that she used. We all wish she was home so we could help somehow.
My cousin and I are close......I have only 5 cousins, 2 girls. We look alike and our mothers looked like twins.
So I am asking you to send a little prayer upstairs for her to get better. She is such a good Christian person that is always helping others.
Now she needs help. Thanks my friends.

Some Hugs for you

This is the first snowman that I have found this year. I think the temps. have been way too cool for the little ones to build their sweet snow people. I usually see the most snowpeople in the spring snows.

Do you read http://comesitbymyfire.blogspot.com by Reyln. She had such a cute post yesterday titled "The way children teach". Hop on over and read her story. She is a teacher with a child with Down"s Syndrom. It was so touching. It reminded me of something that happened to me this week. I hadn't even thought about posting it. Here is the story......

After releasing my early morning SACC kids (School age child care), I wait for the busses to unload. My granddaughter gets off one of those busses every morning and I give her some kisses and a big hug. I was talking to her and four afternoon SACC kids walk up. Two are twins that live in my neighborhood and ones that I have watched in my home. They hug me every time I see them. Another one is a friend of my granddaughter. My younger granddaughter calls one of her dollies this little girls full name, so cute. Okay, the last one is this sweet boy. I can't say that about most of the boys in our program. He walks up and shows me that he has lost his first tooth. They are all standing around me so I say, Let's have a group hug." They all giggle and we stand there in a circle hugging each other. What a great way to start a morning.

Thanks Reyln for sparking me to write this post. (((((HUGS))))) to all of you from the bottom of my heart.

Best Friends

This is my best friend.
Actually we met at Clown Town and have been friends every since. We call each other by our clown names. I call her HB for Holly Bell and she calls me Petals.

HB loves to go to Disney World. Her husband is very ill and has been for awhile. She works so hard and so many hours all the time. Going to Disney is their only splurge. Their sons run in the Disney Marathons. They recently went to watch them and to have some Disney fun. She brought us back the cute little mugs and me the very cool Minnie sweatshirt. She shouldn't have, but that is the way she is. She also brought back treats for my two granddaughters. Remember in the fall when we went to the Mickey Live Magic Show. We had so much fun.

Best friends are hard to find. We are there for each other in the good and the bad. It is the best feeling knowing that there is someone that you can always count on.

A little side note: I wore the Minnie shirt to school this week. A third grader told me he liked my shirt.
Another third grader said, "Tell her she needs to wear a bra." I said, "What." He said, "Tell Minnie she needs to wear a bra because she doesn't."
Now where did that come from and WHY. Of course I told him he was inappropriate.

Good news......Mr. Cozy
Blanket is doing very well. Thanks again for your prayers and concerns.

Surgery went well. The tear was large but repaired. Now some therapy and hopefully he will not have to proceed with the replacement for a couple of years.
We had a hard time getting his one leg out of my car (a bug) when we got home. Ooops. Then he tried his crutches on the snow/ice. We decided that walking on his knee was better than falling backwards. He had to walk quite a little distance to the front door and up seven steps........but he did it and doing good so far.
The kids have called and Little Miss K. Bug brought him a Frosty and gave him hugges and kisses.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Back Door Guests

These deer were right outside my bathroom window. When I opened the blind they took off. I snapped this picture through the window. They sure blend in with the woods, don't they?

Tonight coming home from school, I must have seen twenty deer. It isn't unusual to see several esp. in the evenings. My husband said that he almost hit two tonight. It seems that they were out and about tonight for sure. Could it be because we had a heat wave of 30 degrees. It also was still light out (well almost) when I got home tonight. That is exciting in itself.

Well, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow my husband is having his knee surgery so we will be leaving early in the morning. It is out patient surgery. I am hoping and praying it will ease the pain he is in. He will eventually need a replacement.

The deer must be back, Izzy and Piper are barking like crazy.

Little heart gifts

A few little things that I have been working on. I found this little remnant of this sweet cherry fabric and made a few flower pins. So nice to have on hand for little gifts. Except, I used them all up and had to make more.

I am in a "Smalls Swap". You were to send 13 small items that would fit in a cupcake paper liner to the host (Tabitha). She in return would send you back 13 different items. I have no idea what will come back to me. It sounded like fun. I had some pink and white bottle crafting caps. I cut out these little people from a vintage sheet of Valentines. I then used a form of Diamond Glaze to coat them. As you can see in the photo, it took forever for them to dry. I wasn't super crazy about the coat but hope they make the grade. (Anyone know of another product that works better for this?) You were to send a little tag /card. (The first photo) You didn't have to make things. Suggestions were ribbons, buttons, and the like. I can't wait to see what she sends back.

Today, I got out of the house. The last two week-ends I didn't budge. The first week-end, I needed to rest. Last week-end, plans changed and I really didn't have a need to go out. But, today I had some fun. In the morning I had a Thirty One Connect meeting. The new catalog has so many really neat things. From there I went to
Archivers. I wanted to sign up for a class . The timing wouldn't work with my job BUT they said I could start late on the class that was already going on. So I did. From there I went to another city to get my hair cut. I hadn't been there since July. I had a cheap quick trim somewhere else one time. Then I went to two other scrapbook stores. One had 40% off everything and the other was closing and had 60% off. I didn't spend much money but got some needed things for upcoming projects. I should have gone to the grocery but I'll do that another day. We aren't starving yet. It was super cold here today.

Another totally unrelated note......Do you read Nie Nie. On a post yesterday she had a link that you could go to and hear where she spoke at a seminar. I clicked on the link and ended up watching the video of the entire speech. She fought back tears the entire time. She talked about the accident and how this has affected her beauty. There were several scriptures in her speech that helped her through this difficult time. Let me just say, if you have the time, listen to hear speech. I was in tears. She so amazes me. Her strength, wonderful husband, cute children, and her life. I just thought I would encourage you to listen. She certainly moved me yesterday.

With that said........I hope you find some time in your week-end for just "YOU".

Stay warm, it is freezing here.

Blueberry Facial

Have you ever had a blueberry facial. I haven't. Piper had one today. He had his first groom. I thought he was going to wiggle his bottom off when he saw the groomer. She said he was so good. He smells good and looks so fluffy. I love his long ears. It has been one year since we found him at the pound. He's the best find ever.

In my neck of the woods

Our temps hit 40 today.
A cold 40. Along with that there was ice and fog. Snow is supposed to be on its way with falling temps. It's winter for sure.

My daughter had yesterday off because of MLK's birthday. Her four year old asked if they were going somewhere to have cake. Gotta have cake if you have a birthday. She also asked what everybody in the world are called. I said people, she said that wasn't it. I said humans and that's the answer she wanted. Sometimes you have to wonder what goes on in those little brains. I just wish I had some of that little girl's energy.

For all of you gnome lovers, the Gnomio and Juliet movie comes out Feb. 11. It looks really cute.

American Idol starts tomorrow night. Maybe my life will get a bit more exciting, hah. Sorry I think I am in the winter funk. Hopefully it will pass soon.

Stay safe my friends.

Izabella safe and sound

When you are little and only weigh 10 pounds, you get a little wet and cold when you have to go out to potty in the snow and cold. Sometimes all you need is a little COZY BLANKET.

So much going on in our world right now. So many prayers are needed. You all know the things I am speaking of. Everyone deserves to feel safe and comfortable. We all need to do our best and hope that we can help in some way.

Go on a snowman hunt

Snow is starting and accumulation is predicted. School may dismiss early and that means I have to go into school early.

I love the pictures being posted of the snow in the South. Other than the ice and outages, it must be fun dor those that usually don't get snow.

This snowman was carved from wood from a local person that carves Santas and sells them all across the country. I "think" he is still doing this. The arms are sticks and should be longer. One broke so I split the one left for both arms.

Lisa.......I tried to pull your email up to answer your question about the other snowperson. I have a computer that used to be owned by a friend. When I disabled her internet server I can no longer pull up other email address from my blog. So, send me your email and I will find out if the lady still makes those puff balls.

What is a SNOWMAN HUNT?
After a big snowstorm, when the roads clear......I would take the "littles' in the car and drive around looking for snowmen.....snowpeople. It is so much fun. Of course, I would take pictures. We would drive up close and check them out. The kids loved doing this. The pictures make for a really cute scrapbook page as well. So, if you are bored and the roads are clear.....go for a ride. Post your pictures so we can see what you find.

Happy Hunting.......!

Baby It's Cold Outside

The temps are freezing and there has been snow off and on for a few days. This was the first of this round of snow. I have been staying in all week-end. Resting and shaking this little bug. I am fine, really.

I was thinking back when I was a little girl and going to school in the winter. We were only allowed to wear dresses. I had to wear leggings, not the cute kind, and take them off when we got to school. Of course, our boots also had to be taken off and we had to put on our saddle shoes.

So funny, the other day one of my school agers asked me "just" how old I was. I told him. He looked like he was going to pass out. I guess it really sounded ancient to him since he is 7. I wanted to say, I was your age once upon a time. He wouldn't have understood that I am sure.
Along with this sweet old age, comes alot of memories as well.

I remember driving to work on the country roads when I was just 16. There was alot of snow. I went off the road into a ditch. I actually thought I could push my car out......that wasn't happening.
A nearby framer brought his tractor to me and pulled my car out. That's the kind of things that people did then. We all helped each other. Living in a small community we all knew each other. I still live in a small community but in a different part of the state. We still help each other when we need to. I love that about a small town. I have no desire to move to a bigger city and lose that. I also remember when I was a child there was always snow on the ground. We would all take off for the day and go sledding. I remember walking quite a distance. We would be gone for hours. I never remember being cold.

I do love this season. I love the snow.....not the slippery roads but the rest of the winter. I hope that you are all warm and COZY today and just taking time to rest.

Oh what a night..............

This is how I feel. (oh, and I love this dog)
My sore throat is a cough now. This seems to be the way things go for me. I don't get colds anymore........I think because I have had so many from working with kids my entire life. Hopefully this cough will not get worse.
Last night I had to walk home from quite a distance. Our neighborhood is up a huge hill. As I walked I was breathing rather heavy and nothing seemed to be going in my lungs. I had company going up the hill.......all of my neighbors.
A couple inches of snow with a glaze of ice. Accidents were everywhere. My bug is so sweet. I was able to do a u-ie in the road. Others tried and went into the ditch. I was able to turn around and go another route that most wouldn't have tried. I got close to my home but ambulances blocked our entrance. It took me an hour to drive home from work........3 miles away. My Hubby drives 45 minutes and it took him 3 hours. We were able to go get my car when he got home.
I didn't go to work this morning. Our school had a delay but our program still was open. I will go this afternoon. I plan on restocking my pantry and staying in all week-end and RESTING.
Maybe I will get some projects started so I will be able to post something other than my doggies.
Speaking of doggies........someone lost their little dog. They posted signs everywhere. The whole town was talking about the signs. Then last week-end we got an automative (is that a word) call reporting the lost dog and the contact number. Have you ever heard of that. Well guess what......signs posted yesterday said they found their dog. I had wished I had my camera to take a picture of the sign to blog about it. See what blogging does.....sure makes you think about things differently.
Be careful out there.........yes, I still love the snow.

We all need a little of this

My doggies have the right idea. Why do any more than you have to right now.

I am feeling a little like this. I'm trying to scare away a sore throat with over doses of Vit. C. School is open and I am back to work again. My toes are okay as long as I tape those piggies together. Thank goodness I can come home and snooze between my shifts.

So, I'll be back when I feel a little better. Stay warm and COZY.

Happy

Happy
New Year. I keep trying to add a title but Google is not letting me.
But HAPPY is appropriate.

This is how we celebrated
New Year's Eve, celebrating Mabel's second birthday. They only have a few days left in Ohio before they head back to their home near the mountains.

Everyone else was either sick or out on the town so it was just this Grammy, Grampy, Mabel's Mom and Dad and her brother.

Mabel is getting into litte girl things now. She got a pink retro kitchen for Christmas
from Santa. (these two get one present from Santa) For her birthday we gave her a doll crib and a blanket I made for her babies. In these pictures she got a Melissa and Doug ice cream set and a birthday cake. (Her brother was pretending and Grammy sang with the cake set.) Her little cupcakes had these darling little princesses on the
them. They were like the doggies ones I used for Piper's birthday. It was a quiet birthday but so much fun being able to be with her. She went around all night just saying HAPPY.

So HAPPY new year my friends.