One if By Land, Five if By Snow - - -

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Yesterday morning, after the snow stopped and the gray clouds rolled away,


The sun shone out of a clear blue sky, giving me this view through my classroom window.


Pristine, sparkling, Indiana farm land blanketed in white.


Quite a bit of white, as you can see if you look at the base of this trash barrel. Looks like about 8 inches to me.

Look closely, my camera lens captured a few of the diamonds sparkling on top of the snow! Frost jewels.


At home all is snow quiet too. Not a track in sight. The stillness of a snow covered vista is stillness indeed.

But wait - - - - what's that I hear? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a chain saw????


Are they monsters? Are they masked gunmen? I hope there won't be a massacre tonight!!!

Oh dear, there went my pristine snow and my undisturbed stillness.


Well, they LOOK friendly, making those thumbs up signs!


Ah ha! It's just three of my Super-Students and two of their friends swooping in on their snowmobiles to say hi.

Left to right they are Erica, Evan, Tyler, Emily and Michael.

Stay tuned - - - Emily and Evan say they're coming back today to swoop ME away on one of those machines.

I'll let you know if the "old lady" survives.

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Special Delivery For Dawn

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But you can read too!

Ten Just-for-Fun Things That Make Me Happy

(In no particular order)

1) Wisconsin

2) College Football

Especially my Badgers.
Especially when they WIN.

3) Sportin' my gear.

4) Friends
Old and new

5) Blogging
Reading YOUR comments
Building relationships

6) Snow
And the two hour delays it sometimes brings.
(photo taken yesterday afternoon in my own backyard)

7) New boots to wear in the snow.

8) Sitting before a fire in my comfy recliner
Wearing cozy jammies
And fuzzy slippers
Wrapped in my sexy leopard skin snuggie
Sipping a warm latte.


9) NOT smelling any cheap cigar smoke


10) These pictures:

Especially when I hear their little voices
Calling me "Kamma."

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To My Students:

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Here's the news you've been waiting for!!!


We are on a 2 hour delay for Friday morning, January 8, 2010.

So, go ahead and finish watching the National Championship Bowl game!!!!!!

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Because It Is - - -

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Doing so much of this outside:

(graphic from wleotv.wordpress.com)

We are closing up school and going:

(graphic from ochealthinfo.com)

An hour and forty minutes early.

(graphic from advocacyinc.org)

I'm telling you - - - it is really coming down out there.

I just have one question - - - Mr. Secretary of Education for the State of Indiana: may we still count this as a day of school???? Please????

We HATE make-up days.

(For all nonHoosier blog readers - - - we have a new Secretary of Education who has done away with half days. He says, "Read my lips, a full day of school is a full day of school." BUT, he does allow a 2 hour delay. Isn't this the same thing????? I mean, really! Later addendum: YIPEE!! the state said it would count as a full day!)

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Welcome to My Groovy Thrifty Vintage Thingies Love-In

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It's time for Vintage Thingie Thursday at Coloradolady and Thrifty Thursday at Bloggeritaville.












Be sure you click on both of the above links to check out what everyone else is posting.

A while back, somebody made a vintage thingie post about an oval pyrex baking dish with a lid. I looked at that dish, and I said to myself:

"SELF!!! Is THAT vintage???? Why, you were given one of THOSE as a wedding gift!!! Do you suppose that makes it vintage now? And if IT is vintage, what does that say about YOU???"

Well, the idea for this post was born in my mind right at that moment. Of course, I've had to do several holiday posts and other things that seemed more urgent in between that day and this, but FINALLY the Groovy Thrifty Vintage Thingie Love-In post was born!

All the items in this post were BRAND NEW to me back in the 70's.

Enjoy - - -


Here she is. The dish that inspired it all. It was a wedding gift given to us on May 24, 1975!!! Because I still USE it I never gave one THOUGHT to it being VINTAGE.


It has a pretty little lid. I used to LOVE using it because it's JUST THE RIGHT SIZE for dinner for two.

Then the kids came along - - - and it was too small.

Seems like it would be handy again now that we are empty nesters - - - but of course, that WOULD require me to cook - - - -


Another pyrex baking dish wedding gift - - - this one in the very common (in 1975 anyway) and very popular Corn Flower Blue pattern.

Hmmmmmm - - - wonder when was the last time I actually USED it???



This wedding gift is one of the original Crock-Pots.

The crock liner does NOT come out for washing and you aren't supposed to submerge the whole thing in water. Makes for a bit of a clean-up challenge. I've evidently conquered the challenge, because it still works!

If you didn't think avacodo green was "neato" you could always choose burnt orange.

I kid you not.

I DO use it from time to time when I'm making food for a football party or something.


This was the stoneware I chose before we got married. The pattern is called "Anenome." I only received 4 place settings of it. We always thought we would add more pieces - - - but you know, starting out on half a shoe string, there never seemed to be enough money to get more, and we never did.


I've never seen any of it in an antique shop or thrift store. One day I will spy some, and then I will GRAB IT UP!


My wedding "silver" - - - which since I'm a very practical kind of gal is actually stainless. It's an Oneida pattern, but for the LIFE of me, I cannot remember the name.

We did have a full set of this, but a few pieces have gone on vacation over the years and must have enjoyed those exotic locales, because they never returned to the roost.


NOW - - - DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!

INTRODUCING THE PIECE de RESISTANCE:


My high school loose-leaf notebook!!!! Now, if that doesn't "grab" you and make you croon, "far out man," nothing will!!!

My dad still had this after all these years. I had COMPLETELY forgotten about it until he gave it back to me at Christmas time.

"Breaker, breaker good buddy!! We interrupt this post for a correction: SISTER PAM had my notebook and returned it to me at Thanksgiving. She has no idea when or why dad wrote his name in it. Ten four, over and out."

Just look on the inside cover:


That is a strip of white bandage adhesive tape that the high school girl in me put on the black backing on the inside of the front cover so I could print my name there.

Keetha Heavilin Caf. (Cafeteria) H.R. That was me - - - and I HATED that homeroom. There were like 80 of us in there with two teacher monitors who gave me a detention for asking my neighbor if I could borrow an eraser. I thought those monitors were mean because - - -

You KNOW I was quiet and shy and NEVER talked in homeroom, don't you?????

HA

Look again at my self-made name tag. My parents, and their "Great Generation", are the REAL inventors of recycling and repurposing!! Look at my name. At some point after I abandonded this notebook in his home, my dad "gently" recycled it for his own use!!!!


And look - - - it still has the yellowed loose leaf paper in it!!! I'm not sure if this was paper I put in, or some my dad added later.

The picture makes the paper look white - - - but trust me, it is yellowed.

I don't know if I want to USE this paper, or keep it as a treasured vintage piece.


And in the back - - - vintage pocket dividers.


Look closely - - - even the paper and the dividers have been repurposed!!!! Appears they were "cut" out of a spiral notebook.

I wish I could tell you a fun and witty tale of how/why these papers were recycled, but unless I MAKE IT UP OUT OF THE CLEAR BLUE, I cannot.

Hope you enjoyed your sashay down '70's memory lane with me. I know it is making visions of high school dance in MY head.

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Please Don't Leave Me, I'm Not an Alien Anymore!

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Please Don't Leave Me!!!

I found five or six comments on my blog today which were in Japanese. When I stuck them into google translator, they were pornographic.

Really???? It isn't bad enough that we get spammed with this junk in our own language??? Now we are subjected to hieroglyphic nasty????

So folks, I turned the word veri back on. I know, I know, I KNOW it's a pain, but I BEG my beloved bloggy friends to put up with the bother and STILL visit me in comment land.

I just don't want anymore bilingual porn.


I'm Not An Alien Anymore!!!

Sunday morning as I was getting ready for church, it suddenly dawned on me - - - one of those true light bulb flashing moments - - - that perhaps my driver's license had EXPIRED on my birthday.

Yep.

I was an illegal alien.

Well, at least that's how it felt when I decided that while renewing I would go ahead and get one of those new "secure ID" licenses.

Have you gotten one yet?

Well when you do, because I'm told they will one day be required, if you are a female, BESIDES the documents listed on the DMV site - - - SS card, birth certificate, and two computer printed forms that contain your name, your current address, and are dated no more than 60 days ago - - - - BE SURE IF YOU ARE MARRIED THAT YOU BRING YOUR MARRIAGE LICENSE. And if you've had multiple marriages and did NOT legally take back your maiden name in between, ALL THOSE MARRIAGE LICENSES TOO.

First time in 34 and a half years that I've needed a marriage license - - - but there you have it.

Of course I did NOT take it with me - - - I didn't even know if we still HAD a copy of it.

I phoned Fisherhubby. He KNEW where it was, and brought it to me so I didn't have to start all over again!!!

So now, I am SECURE. I'm not an ALIEN. I BELONG here - - - whether you want me or not!

:-)

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Here Bittty, Bitty, Bitty!!

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Boys and girls, it is THAT time again - - -

The time you have been waiting for on pins and needles. Who waits on pins and needles I might ask? I'd rather wait on a nice soft cushion, if you don't mind!

What time is THAT, you ask?

ECLECTIC BITS TIME!!!

EB 1

Sunday morning I left my warm house in my usual COATLESS fashion, went into my attached garage, and hopped into my relatively warm car.

As I pulled away from my house, I saw this really tall snowman in my neighbors' yard. I knew you'd like to see him, so I stopped, rolled down my window and snapped away.

While I was snapping, I thought: "Hmmmmm, it feels COLD out there."

So, I looked up at the thermometer above my dashboard.

4 degrees.

4 degrees! And there I was with nary a coat in sight! I think if I had KNOWN it was only 4 degrees I MAY have put on my coat.

You know who you're dealing with here - - - don't'cha?

EB 2

Remember this?

If not, you can read about it here under EB 3. You won't BELIEVE what "they" have done with it now. Well, maybe you will, check it out:

They've made it BLUE. I do not know WHAT they added to the water. I thought MAYBE it was antifreeze, but OBVIOUSLY if it is, it ain't workin'!!!!

My florist friend told me he thought it was a chemical to kill bacteria. BACTERIA???? At 4 degrees??? Anyway, I don't think any of the city Fathers have yet thought of mechanical weathering in the form of ice wedging.

Let's take a closer look.
It is pretty (if you can ignore the ugly background)
I'll give them that.



EB 3

All that picture taking out in 4 degree weather made me want to come home and put on my self-gifted slippers.

Ahhhhhhhh - - - that's BETTER.

EB 4

What was that silly cat thinkin'?

And that, my dear bloggy buds, brings this episode of EB's to an end.

Just in time for me to watch the Fiesta Bowl. Two undefeateds meet on the field of honor - - - Boise St and TCU.

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Yo Bob! Break's Over!!

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Back to school in the morning - - -

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Sunday Reruns - Shoes to Fill

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A big thank you to Chari over at Happy to Design for hosting Sunday Favorites.

"The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe"
(First posted 6/30/07)

Once upon a time there was a young woman named Barbara who was raising seven children. As sometimes happens, her sister-in-law became very ill and for a time could no longer care for her three children. Without hesitating, Barbara took her two nieces and one nephew into her brood which then consisted of ten.

While toiling to raise ten children, her father-in-law - Grandpa Mac, rather tongue-in-cheek, dubbed her "The Old Woman in the Shoe." I say tongue-in-cheek since Grandpa Mac was at the time still in the process of raising the last of his own thirteen!!!

Rather than being daunted or insulted by the title, Barbara took it as her own. In fact, she reveled in it. For the rest of her ninety years on this Earth, she built her life around the "shoe" theme. She not only cared for those ten children, but she also gave of her heart to every child whom God sent across her path.

She began to collect small ornamental shoes, tokens of her willingness and ability to extend the borders of her family. Over the years she collected hundreds of them - - - both shoes AND new children for whom to care.

Today Barbara's family gathered to mourn her passing and celebrate her life. She left behind a wonderful legacy of love, some very large shoes to fill, and a collection of tiny shoes!!! Her children asked us to take a shoe from the collection as a memento of her life.

Aunt Barbara, I chose this shoe. I will cherish it always as a reminder of the love you taught us all to share.

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Happy New Year To Us!!!

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My niece Misti and her hubby, David.
Don't you wonder what these two are grinning about????

Well, I'll tell ya!

They knew that they'd be PARENTS
By the first of the year.

And that made B-I-L Joe
GRANDPA!

Looks like Carson Mae and Grandpa Joe
Are doin' just fine.
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Bowling Tradition

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Last night during the Rose Bowl, I had my annual "Bowl Party." Not sure it quite qualifies as a PARTY - - - maybe a small gathering, a Band of Bowling Brothers.

This is about the fourth time I've had it, so I'm pretty sure that makes it a tradition.


It started with Steve, background, and me watching the Wisconsin bowl game. Steve is now in college, but I've known him since before his birth. Yep - - - I'm THAT good.

With Steve on the couch is his little surrogate brother Nick, whom I have also known since before his birth, who is still in high school. Last year was Nick's first time to join our little Band of Bowling Brothers with one Sister.


This is Adam, who has graduated from college. This was his second experience at a Keetha Bowl. It may be his last as he is moving to Texas and that might be a bit of a commute next year.


Anyway - - - they come over to watch a bowl game and let me fatten them up with pizza, pop, chips, and dip.


Fisherhubby watches the game with us until he gets bored - - - then he migrates out to the garage and his boat. Can you imagine THAT being more fun than a bowl game????

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Happy 2010

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My friend Ann sent me the recipe for Red Lobster Cheese Biscuits. I decided as my New Year gift to you, I would share it.

I've never tried this recipe - - - so you're on your own.

I believe the last instruction is the most important, be sure not to skip it.

Bon Appetit!

Red Lobster Cheese Biscuits

Dough:

1 1/4 # of Bisquick yeah, I know---pound!

3 oz. freshly shredded cheddar

11 oz. cold water

Garlic spread:

1/2 cup melted butter

1 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp onion powder

1/8 tsp. dried parsley

To cold water, add bisquik and cheddar, blending in a mixing bowl. Mix until the dough is firm.

Using a small scoop, place the dough on a baking pan lined with baking paper.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Brush baked biscuits with the garlic topping.

Call Ann and Keetha and invite them over for the biscuit-eating contest.

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