My morning view

After another foot of snow yesterday.





View inside

Obama

We watched the inauguration in the classroom at school today. The kids were bored out of their minds... constantly asking, "Is it almost over?". Of our 5 kids watching it, 2 of them had their heads down on their desks the majority of the time, one of them was drawing, and another one was biting his stuffed animal and shaking it around. (For those who don't know I work in a classroom of kids with emotional/behavioral disabilities, ages 11-14). I gave our rabid dog biter some silly putty to quiet him down.... it seemed to work for a while. After Obama was sworn in, there was a poem read..... one of the kids asked if it was about Fat Albert!! We couldn't figure that one out. Regardless it will make for an interesting story for me to recall about our country's history.

Funk

I am stressed out....... I can't kick this cold I have, I am worried about our finances (whats new), and frustrated with my job. I haven't been sleeping well which is very unlike me. Yesterday I slammed my finger in the door and then today I smashed it between two logs when I was carrying firewood in. I have a big blood blister now and feel like my fingertip is going to burst. Tony has been working up north a lot lately and I feel like I barely get to spend anytime with him when he is home. One of our tenants moved out without even telling us, so now we are once again cleaning up an apartment and trying to get it rented.
Ok, rant over. We got over a foot of snow this weekend. I ready to start thinking about putting together a seed order.

Blog List

I've added a list of some of the blogs I read on my sidebar. If I have posted your blog against your wishes, please let me know and I will take it down.

Cold and Cold

Its really cold outside (-5 without the windchill) and I have a cold. I stayed home from work today hoping to recuperate. Instead I got a phone call from the caregiver of the summer residence I help clean.... the alarm was going off that the water pipes were at low temperatures...could I go over and open the sink cabinets (as he thought that was all it was). I said sure seeing as it would only take about 30 minutes. Well I get there to find a freezing cold house. The indoor temps were ranging from 32-47 degrees! Long story short, they ran out of propane and I hung out for 3 hours in a really cold house waiting and working with the gas man to get the heat back on. One of the 2 furnaces wouldn't go back on and remains off overnight, but I'm done. I did my good deed.

Teachers meetings at work tomorrow. Still will be sick but not having the kids there will make it a bit easier of a day to get through.

The bunnies are living indoors in our sunroom for the duration of this cold spell. They can withstand cold, but I would leave them out there in these temps, especially with the wind.

Hagrid has dirty feet.

Sunoom/sewing room/library/bunny and cat romper room
See the bunny?

They do seem to love their outdoor living quarters though. I blocked the underside of their hutch in with straw and laid down a deep bed of it on the ground. They have a nice little burrow going under there.
The chickens seem to be fairing well even with these temps. We have a light up in the coop which keeps it a bit warmer. They have also been getting lots of extra table scraps to help fatten them up and keep them warm. Red, our rooster also gets special vaseline treatments to his comb and waddle to help ward off frostbite (been there and done that with our first rooster, Buffy).

4th picture from 4th folder

Lots of the blogs I read are doing this 'challenge' where they post the 4th picture they have in their 4th picture folder. Nobody 'challenged' me to do it, but I thought it might be interesting and I couldn't think of anything else to post about.
I have lots and lots of folders, so I decided to post one from 2006, one from 2007, and one from 2008.

Here's 2006. This was in October, when I got sick with mono and developed an infection in my lymph node which to this day we still don't know what caused it. The closest guess was that it may have been cat scratch fever (from my dear Nora who was a kitten at the time). Thinking back on it, they tested me for a bunch of odd maladies, but never thought to check for Lyme Disease. It is something I may ask to be tested for at my next doctors appointment due to constantly achey joints........
April 2007. Nora had her babies. This is her with Monkey and Ty.
2008, Stargazer Lily. I miss my gardens...... it is snowing outside as I type. Need to order a catalog from Johnny's Seeds and get an order put together for this years gardens.

2009 New Years Goals

1. Reduce credit card debt by at least 50% by the end of 2009.

2. Pay off our wedding bands.

3. Build savings up to cover 3 months worth of expenses (mortgage, utilities, and other bills).

4. Get a REAL job, hopefully teaching science. ( This needs to happen if I am going to meet goals 1, 2 & 3).

5. Start taking classes for nursing.

6. Get healthy. Start exercising, at the very least 10 sit-ups every single day.

7. Take advantage of our gardens by learning how to put food by (ie, canning, freezing...).

2008 New Years Goals Revisited

.............we made it another year. First let's see how I did on the goals I had set for 2008, here they are:
Anyways, my goals for 2008 are:

1. Get my butt in gear planning the wedding and make it happen no later then October 2008.X
Goal met, thank God. We were married September 21st. 2. Reduce my current credit card debt by 50% (I'm not giving an actual figure because it is embarrassing) by the end of 2008.
Didn't exactly meet this goal. I paid down about15% of my credit card debt, paid off all of my medical bills, and my car loan. I would have liked to pay more, but we had lots of extra expenses in 2008 due to the wedding.

3. Refinance our house.
I thought that we had to refinance in 2008 because we have an adjustable rate mortgage, but came to find out that it does not adjust until next year......this one makes me nervous.

4. Build our saving up to at least $1000 (30% there now). X
We met this goal and have continued to build our savings. While it is not huge by any means, it would cover one months mortgage if an emergency came up.

5. Get some type of flooring down in the living room (sooner than later).X
Check! Armstrong resilient vinyl flooring in American Walnut. Inexpensive, easy to put down, 100% waterproof. We are very happy with it. 6. Finish the 2 classes I need for teaching.X
Finished both classes. My first graduate level courses, a special ed course titled Exceptional Learners in the Regular Classroom and Curriculum and Constructs of Secondary Life Sciences. Received an A in both classes. All that is left is student teaching....

7. Apply to nursing school.
I sort of met this goal.... I sent my application in, but never got my college and high school transcripts to them. This wasn't so bad because I really needed to finish my education courses first. I still want to go to nursing school, but certainly cannot do it full time. I think I will be signing up for an Anatomy class this spring.


Overall, I would say I did pretty good with my goals for 2008.

It Snowed.......

ALOT

O Tree

Isn't it pretty!!

We cut our tree down from the backyard again this year; found a pretty good this time. Our ornaments are lamo cheep plastic nonbreakable balls from Walfart...... the cats knock 2 or 3 of them off the tree every day.
Tony helped decorate.....

Then there were two

We have three roosters. Three is too many.......Three was too many.......
The Silver Laced Wyandotte was the roughest with our hens.....

Rooster before:

Rooster after:
I would have preferred finding him a new home, but Tony had other ideas. I came home from work yesterday to a giant pot of boiling water, and when I asked what it was for, his reply was 'you don't want to know'. You could say I was less than excited about eating my dinner last night, but I had to try it........I will be sticking with supermarket bought organic chicken. It was not bad, the texture was different, kind of soft/mushy. The dark meat was the darkest I have ever seen (gross) and Tony said it was a little tough.There was also a little bit of furry feather things sticking out........ I have read that you should let it sit in the fridge for a day or two to make it less tough. The leftovers should be good for soup, with negative temps tonight a warm bowl of soup should be good.
We have two roosters left, Tony talks about taking one more down. I refuse to go along with this plan.....

Living Room

Here is a quick pic of our no longer concrete living room floor. The pictures make the seams look a little funky, it looks really good in person.

A very close family friend was involved in a bad accident this past Monday. We don't know much other than she is still in critical condition. I figured it could only help to ask anyone who reads this to say a prayer for her or to keep her in your thoughts.

Woman Injured In Waterford Crash

Published on 10/28/2008

Waterford - A 59-year-old woman was taken to Hartford Hospital via Life Star helicopter Monday morning following a multi-car accident on Boston Post Road. Police at 6:21 a.m. received a report of a three-car accident on Boston Post Road in the area of Mallard Lane. Police said that two vehicles traveling in opposite directions collided in a “side-to-side” manner at which time the eastbound Chevrolet Silverado driven by James , 23, , continued further into the westbound lane and struck a third vehicle, a Subaru Forester, driven by Margot, 59, of , New London. The first driver in the westbound lane, Carolyn, 66, , was not injured in the accident. She was driving a Jeep Liberty. Margot was taken by Life Star helicopter to Hartford Hospital, where she is listed in critical condition. James was taken to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital for non-life threatening injuries. Boston Post Road was closed for about two hours while police processed the scene. The accident remains under investigation.

But you can't pick your......

Today Tony, Denise and I went apple picking. The weather was perfect for it an although, I am not a big apple eater, I was excited to go. The three of us split a little over a bushel of a few different types of apple, but who the hell knows what kind they are because there were no signs or labels there. While we went a bit late in the season, there were still tons of fruit on the trees and they still tasted great. In fact I can honestly say that I ate more apples today than I have eaten total in the last 2 years.

Playing Catch Up

I will be adding more wedding pictures soon, still waiting to get them all from our photographer. Will also post a bit about the wedding when I get them as well. It was all better than I could have ever thought up.
Last weekend Tony and I did the quintessential opening of fall activity and went to the Fryeburg Fair. It was a perfect autumn morning, cold enough for 2 blankets, pjs and sweatshirts in the morning and hot coffee consumed in front of the heater.
We checked out the sheep and the goats, llamas, mini donkeys, giant cows, alpacas, chickens, and bunnies as well as the fiber barn as well as the other vendor boths. All in all I woud have to say it was a bit of a let down this year. I left the fiber barn empty handed which stunk because i was really excited to pick up some new stuff. the chickens and bunnies were less than impressive, any of our critters would have taken the blue ribbons compared what was there. My favorite livestock section, the alpaca barn, was so overcrowded with people that i had to get out after spening only a couple minutes looking around. I was impressed by the size of some of the cows there. The pygmy goats were pretty awesome and I have to say I am growing a strange fondness for donkeys thanks to a blog I have been reading, On the Way to Critter Farm....

KKK sheep below

9.21.08 Married!

Weather Stalking

Our wedding date has finally reached it's spot on the 10 day weather forecast. Yesterday it said 95% chance of rain. Today it says 5% chance of rain. Guess I am going to have to let the day get a little closer to be sure. Rain would be horrible, but I really want our pictures done outdoors.....