Who Thought THIS Was a Good Idea?

These are for CHILDREN!!!!

If Olivia Was Ever Near a Navitivy Scene

This isn't Olivia, but it looks just like her. It acts just like her, too. I can totally see Olivia booting baby Jesus from the manger because she ants to lay there!

Gladys is So Confused!

A few months back I turned Gladys around so that she would grow bushy on the side away from the window. Then I bought a new table to put her on. Then I put her in my office so that the Christmas tree could have her coveted spot in the front window. So, there she sits, in my office, trying to figure out which way to tell her leaves to lean for the most light ... and in a week or so, I'll take the tree down and will be moving her back into the living room. The bad part of moving her is that she quits making flowers when she's stressed, and all this moving is causing her to have a nervous breakdown! Luckily, by summer she'll have forgotten the chaos of Christmas and will once again be covered in pretty little goldfish.

My Life Recently Has Been One Looooooong Monday Morning

BLACK FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25TH:

When I drove to Missouri to pick up the play kitchen for my grandkids (to play with once they are old enough), I noticed the heat was coming out of the vents up front, even though I had it turned off. Later I realized that I couldn't turn the heat on and off up front, but it came out when I drove. The faster I drove, the more the heat came out. The back of the van had heat, but not the front. I could live with that, even though it was pretty cold, but I didn't have a defroster in the front, and that concerned me. I was told it would be $500-$800 to fix, that the whole dashboard had to be pulled out, etc. I decided to just try and live with it a little longer.

LAST SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17TH:

Saturday morning I picked up my grandbabies for my family Christmas. When I put my grandson in the back, the blower was blowing cold air. "Great", I thought. "Now I don't have any heat at all!"

My son-in-law looked at my van. The part I needed was $18. He had to pull out the glove box, but not the entire dash. I was also very low on anti-freeze. I now have heat, front and back, and can control where the heat goes ... feet, windshield, etc. I only have one setting for how hard it blows in the front, but it's pretty high, so I can live with that.

After picking up the babies, my gas light came on. I was almost on empty, but I couldn't stop for gas because I lost my debit card last week. I called the bank as soon as I noticed it. The last charge was from me, so it hadn't been used (yet). They cancelled that card and said I would receive a new one in 7-10 business days. I haven't received my new card yet, so I hoped I had enough gas to get to work, then the bank, and then the gas station on Monday.

TODAY, DECEMBER 19TH:

During the winter, I always open my garage door and let the van warm up for a bit before I have to go anywhere. I have a spare garage door opener in my room and my van has a remote starter. I can hear the door open and close from my bedroom, but when I attempted to open the door this morning, it wouldn't budge. I called my bosses to let them know I'd be late, then I called in the cavalry. The door was frozen shut. As soon as he broke the "seal", the door opened. However, the opener in my car won't close it. The car opener opens it, it just won't close it ... another oddity I'll have to live around for a while!).  Fortunately, the button on the wall works, so ... after I drove out of the garage, I went back inside to close the door, then left through the back door. Quite handy!

My gas light was still on (the gas fairies never visit me!), and I wasn't sure how much longer I had before I ran out of gas entirely. The windchill this morning was 0°, so this in not a good morning to find out how low the gas gauge can go before I'm stranded on the side of the road. The van ran quite a bit over the weekend when they were working on the heat both Saturday and Sunday. Since I can't get any money out of my account until the bank opens, I raided my change, and bought $10 of gas on the way to work ... in quarters.

I would ask "What else could happen?" ... but I won't ... because I don't want to know what else can happen!!

My First Fireplace Fire

 

I've lived in this house for 15 months, but I've never had a fire in the fireplace. I didn't want to use the fireplace until I had it inspected and/or clean, and given the go-ahead. Unfortunately, the only time I thought about it was in the evening or on the weekends, so a chimney guy was never called.

Finally, it's been inspected. The fireplace didn't need any repairs and it didn't need cleaning ... so I got to build my first fire. The intention was to have a fire during the my family Christmas, but the weather God's gave us an unusually warm December 17th. (I'm not complaining ... I'm fine with temps close to 70° in the winter!).

The temperature began falling throughout late afternoon and early evening, and by the time everyone had left and the house was "mostly" back in order, it was cold enough for a fire. We sat on the sofa, cuddling and talking as the fire crackled until it was time to go to bed.

It's frigid outside today, so I put on a pot of coffee, then started another fire. I know fireplaces don't put out much heat, but it just feels warmer to see a fire and hear it crackle.

 

And now for the family members that couldn't come yesterday, here are some of the photo's I took. I'm guessing Facebook and Instagram will be filled with the photo's everyone else took. This house less than half the size of my old one, but we made it work!

Done ... For Now

Last night I made five more prints for the collage ...

The center image ...

and the four small prints next to the monkey print ...

The outside prints started like this ...

and ended up looking like this ... 

Mr. Whiskers

Well, this does explain why Mr. Whiskers could leap a tall buildings in a single bound! These pictures don't even come close to showing how long his tail was ... it was huge!

Breakfast

Seven-year-old Jackie 
would be soooooo jealous!

California is Now Regulating Cow Farts

Cow farts can be regulated? Does it work on humans, too? Because if it does, I want to know how to apply it to my son!

This Isn't Pee

This is the water in our building today. Needless to say, I won't be filling my water bottle at the drinking fountain! Ick!!!