THIS & THAT - Good & Bad

 This is the last picture I will be showing of our February 1st blizzard and our additional 5" of snow on February 8th.  This picture, of Mickey's truck was taken on February 12th.  As you can see much of the snow had melted.  It is now completely gone and only a memory of this event in our lives.  ALL the schools in Coweta, Tulsa and the surrounding area ended up being closed for 9 days and are having to make up time for these "snow days" which were NOT built into their calendar.

After having made 7, and currently working on #8, Prayer Shawls I made my first scarf for our granddaughter's 16th birthday.  It measures 4' by 8 1/2".  I must say it was so easy after working on the big shawls.  I started with the left over yarn from the Prayer Shawl I had made her, but had to go buy another skein of yard to complete it. 

This morning we finished this, our 3rd book so far this year.  My friend, Carmel, gave me a big box of books last year and we are gradually reading through them, in addition to new books that come up that catch our eye and attention.  This book is one from that box and was written in 1976.  It contained 14 chapters and we totally agreed with everything he wrote in 12 of them but did not agree with chapters 12 & 13 where he takes the stand that the Gifts of the Spirit passed away with the Apostles.  We knew, going into this book, that Dr. Van Gorder would take this position, as he was the associate teacher of the Radio Bible Class with Richard De Haan. 

The main reason I am commenting on this book is not because of our disagreement with him on this one point.  I was raised in that type teaching and many years ago settled that issue for myself.  What struck me the most was that all the positions he pointed out 35 years ago that needed correction within the Church are still the same issues, but of course MANY times worse as pertains to our life styles and commitments.  It was a good read and well worth the 2 weeks we spent reading it.

BAD - but, I trust with good results .  I spent yesterday afternoon in the dentist chair having a root canal on a tooth that a permanent bridge was attached to.  Not only was it a gruelling experience during the procedure but it cost me $768.  OUCH!!!!  That hurt almost as much as the root canal.

That's my "news" for today.

WHAT DOES ONE DO WHEN SNOWED IN?

At the beginning of the New Year Mickey and I had been deep cleaning, sorting out things, taking things to Good Will etc. so when the snowed in time came all that was done and accomplished except for some remaining garage straightening and reorganizing but far to COLD for that right now.  SO.........

I spent the past 2 days baking and filling our freezer up with goodies to serve guests and friends later on when I'm too busy to bake.  

I had 9 banana's frozen in the freezer so took them all out and made not one, but three batches of Banana Nut Bread on Wednesday.  As always you can see we had our hot slices out of the first loaf before the pictures :o)  The reward of the cooks!!

Yesterday I made two type cookies.  Oatmeal Crispies and Peanut Butter.  These plates full is just a sampling of the quantities.

Today I am going to make a Chocolate Chip Cheesecake that I saw on Mari's blog.  Eager to try this.  Thanks Mari for posting the recipe.

A snow update:  Yesterday we had an additional 5-6" of snow.  Here is Mickey's truck covered up even more than before :o)

Earlier this week I made another batch of Powdered Laundry Detergent.

I am posting this on my frugal blog, Hands & Hearts for Him.  Drop over there to learn about it. 

KIDS TO THE RESCUE

Our wonderful son, Marc, daughter-in-love, Deann, and grandson, Aric came all the way from Owasso and their 19" of snow (that city had the most snow for this entire area) to clear our drive and walkway for us.

 Mickey, Marc & Deann hard at work and just beginning.

Aric was assigned the job of clearing a path to our front door through the high snow drift that had piled up there.

 Aric's finished job.  Pretty good for our just turned 12 year old, with a small shovel and not use to manual labor :o)

 The finished drive-way....pavement!!!!

 An out of order picture of the 3 workers.  Where is the picture of Susan shoveling snow?????  Well......I didn't, and SOMEONE had to take the pictures!!!!!  Right?

What our center piece picture of the patio looked like Saturday.

There is a Taco Bueno just outside our addition and after clearing the drive Mickey & Marc took a test drive over there to see if we could get out of the neighborhood.......and we bought 15 taco's for the 5 of us for lunch.  They had them on sale for 75cents each with a purchase of 10 or more.  What a deal!!!  $2.25 for lunch for our workers, plus diet coke, and the banana nut bread I'd made the day before.  Pretty cheap labor for my wonderful crew!!!

YES, I am one blessed, above & beyond, lady.



BLIZZARD OF February 1 EXTENDED

The Oklahoma Blizzard, which began February 1st is still here and we got about 2 more inches yesterday, February 4th.  I know you in the north laughing at us, but this is the BIGGEST snowfall we have EVER had here in NE Oklahoma.  We are totally ill-prepared for such an event. 

Mickey & I are actually thoroughly enjoying this.......being forced to stay in and not go any where.  I think it is God's way of slowing ALL of us down and reminding us, yet again, just who is in charge ... and it is not us!!!!  Thankfully we have lost no gas, electric or water so we are warm, comfortable, well fed - don't have to go anywhere or be anywhere - and most importantly - TOGETHER!!!

 Here's my guy on Thursday the 3rd ready to try and make a path to his bee hives in the back of our yard.

 Stopping first at the bird feeders.

In the front yard making a pathway from the garage door to the mail box.

Huge snow drift in front of our front door.  Note the foot prints up next to the wall where one of our neighbors came down, shovel in hand, to check on us and shovel us out.  Mickey said, "No way", and sent her on her way.  Then last evening the daughter of our neighbor across the street had come to check on her and then made her way across to us to see if we needed anything.  It's wonderful to have such caring, thoughtful people in our lives.  We are blessed!

We hadn't even looked out the window of our guest room, to the south.  Mickey did and hollered to me to come see all the snow covering his pick-up parked on that south drive-way.  Glad we don't need that vehicle right now :o)

Yesterday, February 4th, as more snow was beginning to fall and cover up the path to the back yard.

The snow getting deeper and deeper on our patio table & chairs.

Mickey's footprints back to check on his bees and be sure their opening was opened.

No one could love and appreciate their husband more than I appreciate this wonderful man I am privileged to share all these many years of life with.

On another note, I am taking this snow fall as a foretaste of the many blessings our wonderful Father God is ready to send to His Body - The Church in this new year that is unfolding.  I see them piled up and overwhelming us!!!!!!



BLIZZARD OF FEBRUARY 1, 2011

We have had the most delightful day today, since we did not have to venture out from our home and got to stay in - warm, comfy, plenty of food, TOGETHER..... and just enjoying the beauty and blessings of our Lord. 

Snow piled up when I opened the French Door.

Patio table & chairs.

 Back yard swing.

 Looking out the front door - walk buried.

 4 p.m. after the snow had quit.  Glistening in the sun light.

 Current amount of snow piled up when the French Door was opened.

 Swing & snow drift along the back house wall.

16" deep as far as I could reach out without getting in the snow, but you can see it is a couple of inches deeper. 

You can also see the depth by looking at the marten house pole and the fact Mickey 3 square foot gardening boxes are complete covered with snow and indistinguishable. 

Egypt

I know I've made reference to Joe Robenbergs blog and books in the past but based on what we see happening in Egypt and everyone not seeming to know what is going to happen I ask you to read the above link and get Joel's view on Mohamed ElBaradei. 

As most of you probably know from the weather reports our area is getting the cold, blizzard type weather that so many of you have suffered and experienced this year.  We Okie's are VERY ill prepared to deal with this type situation.  Mickey and I are warm, happy, have plenty to eat, and are able to just hunker down in our home TOGETHER and enjoy it on the inside.  We pray for all those who are not so blessed and fortunate. 
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FIRST THE ICE - THEN THE SNOW

Picture, of our back yard, taken yesterday morning showing everything covered with ice.

Picture taken last evening showing the back yard with 4" of snow covering everything.

Picture taken this morning showing the back yard with a total of 6 1/2" of snow.

Fortunately for us Okie's the temps are suppose to begin rising by tomorrow and in our part of the country this will soon be melted and gone. My hearts go out to all my northern friends who deal with a lot more snow than this for months on end.

For us, since we don't HAVE to go out, it's really rather a fun, relaxing time. I made a big pot of Split Pea Soup yesterday and today making a big pot of Cajun Beans (except I'm leaving the turkey sausage out due to the Daniel fast). We've gotten a lot of "paper work" and files done on The King's Kitchen and Mickey made a lot of phone calls yesterday. As the "once a mother, always a mother" I had to call all my kids last night and be sure all 3 had made it home and were safe & sound!!!!! With the snow, on top of the layer of ice, the driving conditions are horrible and there have been many accidents.

Trust you will have a wonderful day today, we are planning one.

THE "GLOBAL WARMING" ICE JUST ARRIVED IN OUR AREA!!

This is the view out my bedroom window of the ice laden trees in our front yard.

Yes, the cold and ice that has been predicted for our area for days arrived yesterday about noon. We are "suppose" to get snow on top of this today.

We are toasty warm, plenty to eat (doesn't take much when fasting :o) ), plenty of time to do what we love the most: studying God's word, watching great Dvd's by Perry Stone and others, working on The King's Kitchen ministry items (Mickey is working on a presentation he will be making in both church services Sunday and printing out "maps" for the people who will be delivering the meals), writing a Devotion on "Love" that I have been asked to give at the Young at Heart meeting February 15th and working on a script for a drama that our church will be putting on for Easter this year. All fun, exciting stuff and now this gift of extra time to get it done.

Plus looking out our windows at the beauty of the ice coated trees in our yard and Mickey chasing the squirrels off the bird feeders so the birds can get to their seed.. We are hunkered down to enjoy it all and as long as the electricity stays on we are "as snug as two bugs in a rug!

IT ALL FELL DOWN

Back in April I posted about Mickey & our son-in-love, Dave, chopping down 2 large trees in our back yard that had been destroyed from the December, 2007 ice storm that we had. You can go here to read about that adventure!!

When spring came this year we had a Tulip Tree that the leaves looked like they were dying. We took several of them to the nursery and were told he thought they would be okay and just in shock from the ice storm. Well, the tree was not okay and was actually dead and began to lose all it's leaves. It was a huge tree that was one we had brought back as a a seedling from Alabama when we returned in 2002. They are pretty rare here and we loved it. It grew to about 30'-35' and had huge leaves.

Saturday was a really windy day here. Mickey & I were sitting in the living room and we heard this loud "Popping" sound and said "What was that?" When we looked out this is what we saw.

(pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them)
The tulip tree snapped completely off at the base. Right where Mickey would have cut it down!!!

Another shot showing more of the height of the tree as it was laid down.
Here is the stump. You can see how cleanly it snapped. Looks like it had been cut with a saw!!!

Now, how great is our God?!!!!! This was a tree that needed to come down and it was going to be some time and a huge job for Mickey to try and get done. So, it was done for us. Praise God.

Not only did it come down in the first place but it fell the perfect direction where not one bit of damage was done!!! Had it fallen the other direction it would have taken down part of the privacy fencing and might have caused damage to our neighbors property. We of course also have our 5th Wheel and David's Mustang parked in our back yard which "could" have been damaged, plus a storage building and the arbour.

Mickey thinks the tree was struck by lighting.....so we lost 2 huge trees from ice and 1 from lighting!! Glad we had other trees in our back yard.

This picture is hard to see but what also came down was my clothes line!!!! that had been tied between this maple tree and the tulip tree.

See the clothes line tied around the trunk?
SO, not only the tree came down but so did my clothes line :o( We will have to figure some way to get it back up when Mickey is able to tackle the job.

We are just praising God for a job well done!!!!!!!

A BIG JOB & FIRE

Remember the big ice storm we had back in December? Remember the two big trees that were damaged so badly Mickey & our son-in-love, Dave, cut down? All that limb debris had been thrown out into the back behind our fence and property. Mickey had been wanting to burn all of it. Seems like it was either too dry, and risk of fire, to do it or too wet, and wouldn't burn. We have had an unusual amount of rain in our area this summer.

Well, on Tuesday last week, in addition to us having the grand kids here, Mickey contacted our "adopted" son, Brody. who works for the Coweta Fire Department, to come help him.

I told them I was going to take pictures so Mickey is "primping" here by slicking down his hair for the photos!! The two chairs are in place for them to sit and talk and rest during this chore.

Beginning to move some of the debris and form a pile for the fire.

Getting it going. Mickey has just tossed another limb on.

It's going real good now.

You can barely see them in this picture but there are quite a few marigolds in bloom out here among the weeds and grasses. These came up as volunteers from the huge garden Mickey had planted back hear the summer of 2007.

Brody throwing yet another limb on the blaze.

My guys work cheap!!! All I had to provide was lunch. Here I'm carrying out their plates of sandwich, Frito's, bread & butter pickles (I made) and cantaloupe. Then I brought them each a soda to go with it.

Here are my two guys eating, resting and enjoying each other as they accomplish a huge job that Mickey had really been dreading tackling.

Thank you so much, Brody, you are always there to help us.

Brody is truly a Spiritual Son.