Blizzard Charlotte

This weekend we got dumped on. 34" inches of snow less than 24 hours, not including the snow drifts. Winds were sustained at 30mph, gusts of 60mph. It was crazy, but cool to watch. I think one of the craziest parts was that there was snow under the cars. Usually in snowstorms you at least have that dry spot. But the space under the car was filled to the undercarriage. Difficult to shovel, I must say.

Our cars were quite buried.

You couldn't see where the road was.  Everyone's front porch was buried in.  It was difficult to get the door open.

The top of our shed, containing our useless snow blower!

Check out the "snow shelf" on the right of the van.  The wind was blowing so hard you could barely see across the road!  I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to see that far if it hadn't been for the street lights.  I can better understand how people could get lost in blizzards.  I never understood that in "Little House on the Prairie".  But now I get it.

Our ramp and the next-door neighbor's fence.  Those two mounds are our trash cans.

Eldon working diligently. 

Clearing it out.  It took us about 12 man-hours to clear away everything.

It came up to our deck.

The snow was packed so hard against our car, that it left the impression of the license plate.

But, we never lost power, and we have strong (although be it sore!) bodies to shovel it all out.  So, as Pa Ingalls always says, "All's well that ends well!"

Rocket Scientist

For Christmas, Eldon got a rocket. He took an aeronautics class at his school, where they built and launched rockets. So he was eager to try out his rocket. He built it with his dad and even put a Lego pilot in it. We took it to the school last Saturday where he got it ready for launching.

And off it goes! (For those viewing this via email, you'll have to go to the blog to view the video)

Good job, Eldon!

My boy Eldon

Eldon received his Arrow of Light at the last pack meeting. It's the highest award you can get in cub scouts. Great job, Eldon!

As part of the ceremony, the boy crosses over the bridge from Cub Scouts into Boy Scouts.

James was on a business trip during Eldon's birthday, so we celebrated the Saturday before. Eldon wanted an R2D2 cake. As always, he likes to challenge me. But with the encouragement of friends and family, I think it turned out well.

He loved all of his presents. When he wasn't buried in a book, he was making origami shapes for his brother and sisters.

And now he's a real official boy scout!

Canning Jar Lids for Gifts

While on pinterest, I found a cute picture of canning jar tops for gifts.  I've never been able to make the cloth across the top look good.  This, I could do, and I made a tutorial of it, so I could pin it on pinterest!
So, away we go!

First, take a lid the size you need, and trace it.  Easy Peasy.

You need piece of cardstock under your paper, or the paper will rip.  You can use regular paper and cardstock or two piece of cardstock.

Sew through the paper, using whatever creative stitches you want.  I did zigzag and straight stitch on these because they are on every sewing machine, but my sewing machine does some fancy stitches too. :)

Cut out circles, and voila!  Instant canning lids for giving gifts.  Something like this would also make cute gift tags, because they look so much like ornaments.  Love it!

A Dinner to Die For

I was making a new recipe today, and I was trying some Italian sausage that was hard like a pepperoni stick instead of crumbly like ground beef. After I had cooked it, I wanted to taste it to see if it was any good. The sausage had dots of peppercorns all over it, so I was afraid it was going to be too spicy.

I've had a bit of a cough for a while, just an irritation in the back of my throat, so I cough a little bit all day long. Well, that peppercorn hit me just right, and I started coughing my lungs out. One of those horrible hacking coughs where you just can't catch your breath, you can't talk, and you can't get any water down to stop it. My eyes were watering, and I was keeled over the sink just trying to get over it.

Meanwhile, the veggies are in the pan sauteing (I don't know how to spell that!), and all I could barely get out is "Get Dad!" Not that I'm worried about me - it was awful, but I knew I'd be fine - but I was worried that dinner was going to burn. So the kids go running around the house trying to find him, and they can't. They finally find him in the bathroom and tell him to hurry, it's an emergency. Then I realize that he's gonna get all worried, when there's nothing to be worried about, I just don't want dinner to stick and burn. So I get Eldon and motion to him to stir the veggies. He looks at me incredulously and says "Stir?" "Stir!", I choked out. And James all this time isn't coming. Why? Because our kids ALWAYS scream "Emergency!" when we're in the bathroom and they want to talk to us. Zachary's jumping on the bed? Emergency! Eldon stuck his tongue out at Jessie? Emergency! Erica's coloring on someone's paper? Emergency! So, naturally, James completely ignores them and takes his sweet time.

When he does come out, he sees what's going on and asks if I'm ok. I nod my head, thrust the recipe in his hand and point to the stove. I really was worried that dinner was going to burn. Oh, and while I'm hacking up my lungs trying to breathe, Zachary is pulling on my legs screaming "Up! Up!" I told James I could just envision me choking to death while some child pulled on my legs and screamed for me to pick them up. He said he was glad I wasn't really dying, because he wasn't listening to the kids. If it had been me, I wouldn't have listened to them either.

James did have to finish dinner. It took a good 20 minutes before I finally caught my breath and cleared everything out well enough that I could talk. I think I'll go back to the regular Italian sausage. Dinner was pretty good, but definitely not good enough to die for.

Blue and Gold

Eldon's cub scout troop held their annual Blue and Gold dinner last night. It was great! Eldon has progressed to Webelos. He also earned a gold arrow point, several silver arrow points, and his disability awareness, bowling, and collecting belt loops.

Here's James giving Eldon his Bear badge.

Eldon's best friend is about a head taller than Eldon, so James lifted him up to make it a bit more equal. We're proud of our boy!

Home Renovations

Our kitchen is starting to come together. This is our old counter. It used to have laminate behind it as well.

And this is our old floor. James is currently making a new cabinet for the dishwasher. He built a quick one with 2x4s when we moved in 6 years ago.

Everything got moved out of the cabinets and into boxes, which were moved into my office.

The appliances came out of the kitchen. I didn't get a shot of all the cabinets in here as well. With all the chaos, I stayed downstairs all day and watched movie after movie with the kids. They loved it! I got a bit bored, and can't get the SuperWhy theme song out of my head.

Some friends and the boy scouts showed up to help in the morning. About 11 people were working, including James and Eldon. 11 people hammering nails makes quite a bit of noise!

They tore out the old flooring. Then they put down new plywood and the floor on top of that.

And this is the new floor. You can also see that we painted the walls brown (they used to be white) and the chair rail, which was a dark wood.

I took a lot more pictures, but the battery on my camera was close to dead, so apparently it didn't save many of the pictures I took. Baseboards still need to be put up, the cabinet finished, and the countertop put on, and then we should be done!