Hiding the markers

To Hide..or not to hide, THAT is the question!

Yesterday an exasperated daddy came flying into the sanctuary
(my bedroom) where i was solving all the worlds problems
(learning how to play bejeweled) and he could not even speak.

Molly was sitting next to me with her books.

Larry is not the best communicator...and as much as it irritates
me sometime, I stop what I'm doing and dutifully follow him out
to the livingroom, to winess sign language at it's best.... the point and scream.

Oh yea...it's so screamable, that i forgot to grab the camera. Molly had taken it upon herself (did i mention that she was WITH ME?) take a black sharpie out of the computer desk...and draw not only all over the oak rolltop desk...but all over my flat screen monitor!

Mr Clean's Magic eraser works well on both oak and flatscreens by the way, but in retrospect...i need a little help with the question.

Do you teach her NOT to do it? Or hide the markers?

Maybe right after I teach her that is is not polite to disrobe in the
kitchen.



(blurry but you get the gist) Do you say no? Or just hide everything your child could possible get in trouble with?
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I was off last week....we joined the nation in celebrating national Flu Week. For the first time i can remember..since having molly..even the MOMMY had to make a trip for anti-bi's and cough syrup. Little Bill joined me in the celebration...ending up with a trip to the ER, Shots and Medications. Molly was off for FOUR DAYS with PINK EYE!! we could NOT get it under control!

It hurt....EVERYONE was hurting, and as if to throw salt on our winter wounds...it snowed here on Saturday morning!! Then I looked out the front window and saw this...














Those are robins eating what's left of my lawn.

HURRY SPRING!!

What do you do with your oreos?

What do you do with your Oreos?

Weird question...but just this week, i found out my boss puts them in a bowl and eats them like cereal! BLASPHEME!! Here i thought there were only 2 ways to do it....dunk or twist, and now my WHOLE WORLD is up in the air...

Are there other ways to eat oreos that i cant fathom??? Do tell.
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This week, Molly and I accompanied the Sarge...who was off to Tenneessee to study what would happen communication-wise, should the New Madrid Fault decide to bless us with a ten spot on the richter scale. Did you know that there were large groups of people, that get together on their weekends and stayed honed in response if the unthinkable should happen??



This is the big bridge across the Mississippi River, and did you know, that if we do have a big quake, it would be the first thing to go?? Yea, TMI, Sarge...some stuff i just don't NEED to know!(particularly when I'M ON THE BRIDGE!)



We stayed at a resort on Reelfoot lake, and i was pumped that we had a lake, and beautiful, warm weather to play with! NOT!





I thought that everyone had recovered from the storm, like we had...and had NO IDEA how horrible the areas south to us STILL ARE! The lake was covered in limbs, the marina trashed and our resort (should be off season) was filled to capacity with power guys shipped in to get them back online.



Oh well, it's Eagle Fest! We can go bird watching....NOT!!

The planned pontoon boating excurstion was cancelled due not only to the tree limb destruction...but to the WINDS! It was 73 degrees and I'm sure the winds were gusting up to 73 mph! All the eagles, who should have been there on a layover from migration, put on scarves and headed for cover.



We busied ourselves outside (wish i would have remembered the scooter) at the gift shops and with the laptop. It's a trick keeping her occupied...not as difficult with the rest of the crew...we pay a squirrel to keep them entertained!



I see in the near future...rescuing the squirrel from the jaws of a german shep...and replacing the big window.

Although the trip didn't turn out how i planned, I can't feel bad about it...there are too many people down there who feel bad for good reason. I hear it's worse in Kentucky, and these crews will move south as soon as they're done in Tennessee.



The ice snapped highline poles at the base.



Today, I'm fighting a virus...i will NOT be SICK! Totally believe in Zycam and G-2 water and am hitting both hard (along with traditional meds) While stumbling around to find those...i cleaned out molly's med cupboard...EEK!!



Double EEK when you figure at LEAST 5 bucks a bottle, and those aren't the amber ones! Into the trash with the out of dates!

My mantra for the upcoming week? stay safe...live healthy...pray for those less fortunate...and COUNT MY BLESSINGS!!

PS..throwing this picture is, cuz my eldest sis's name is Patty Ann...and not only did we find her diner...there was a 51-52 Law vehicle outside! Maybe someone (cuz she STILL isnt ONLINE) will print and take this to her! ha!



love ya.

The Storm of '09

That's what it will go down as....the Storm of '09. People will speak of this for decades. It was one that tested us, took us to our ultimate last straws mentally, scared the fire right out of us, and made us revert to caveman tactics for survival.







I'm sitting in a warm house now, and it's quickly fading as to that one week we lost. The above photo is of my 10 yr old tree. We've watched it grow from newly planted to the majesty that it is now. My only tree in the back yard, much valued for the shade it provides us in the brutal summers.




On day two...it started to droop....the sheer weight of the ice pulling it down. That same ice was working on the power lines.

On day 3...it snapped in 3-4 different places...I nearly snapped with it




I had worked Monday and Tuesday...but left early on that day. We had plenty of warning, and we're well stocked on "snow day" comfort foods...but oh man...if I could go back again, I would have done it all different.

This storm was different than any i had ever experienced in my 20 years down here. It started by raining little hail. It rained these little ticky tacky sounding hail balls...no bigger than bb's....and it rained them for 24 hours straight.

They covered everything like rain, and then joined together, like some horror movie objects coming to life, to coat my entire world in clear, slick, wrap-around ice. Then it started to snow, and iced the slick beauty in about 3 inches of white blanket...

THEN WE LOST POWER!!!...something that has never happened before...we were iced in, too far and dangerous to try to get to town...and we were without power. I have an all electric house.

The irony of the fact that I moved my parents down here with us, to enjoy a temperate winter did not escape any of us. Larry's antenna's for the ham radio came down...the verticals...the beams...all of them. The dollars to replace that mess are still being tallied:








We were without power for 4 days...food supplies drained, emotions raw...and when the thaw finally came it came in the form of a 55 degree day...it only made things more dangerous. The missiles of icicles that were firing down at us made it impossible to get to the vehicles...the thought of 4 inches of a solid sheet of ice on my roof, just waiting to dislodge makes us run out of the house a safe distance even now.

At the top of this pic, you can see where baby tree had split at the top.

We had a small generator, that provided space heaters to keep the chill off, but we did not use it at night. SO COLD! We had a little tv, and the laptop powered to run molly's dvds...and we had coffee or the microwave alternating...but microwave food was NOT what i had purchased!

We ended up moving the propane grill into the house, and blowing the tank on one night of warm. We got the house all the way up to 60 degrees.


Out the front door...it looked magnificent...I can only start to enjoy the beauty now that power has been restored. There are still thousands of homes without...especially our neighbors to the south in Arkansas...They caught the brunt of it...we were but on the fringe of that storm.






Little Bill and Ang made it home, and made everything better. We lost power
again for the entire day Saturday while they were home, but it was back on at the end of the day...It still blinks, and my breath stops for the duration of time until it kicks back on.



Bill made everything better...all it took was some laughs, a snowball fight, and some sledding....and all was well again.





Today I will go replenish the pantry, and then come home and shop for a whole house generator that runs on a tank of propane. We may never have the opportunity to use it again....but...just in case