Maybe it's not so cold here...

Wow, I just checked the VM Alaska blog and in Nenana it was -50 on the 3rd. 24 degrees seems like a heat wave now. I am thankful we are here and not there, whew!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Just another day really, but it was my day, so I did what I wanted to do instead of what I had to do. That's the best kind of day! Chicken Fajitas for dinner and Chocolate Cake for dessert. Yum!



And, we finally got a break from the cold. Yesterday we barely got up to 24 degrees, and the wind chill made it feel like about 10 degrees. Today we made it up to 51 degrees, warmer than Las Vegas (that doesn't happen very often.) So it was a beautiful spring like day for me. Wahoo!

We're Home!

Well, it has been an interesting vacation but we finally made it home today. I say interesting because first we got a flat on the Yukon last Sunday. We are praising God that it happened in Butch's mom's driveway and not in the middle of an intersection. We needed new tires anyway but were hoping to hold off until February. Not happening! We put new tires on the Yukon on Monday.

Tuesday I had lunch with a couple of friends from high school and borrowed my mom's car. Butch took the kids out to spend their Christmas money. When he pulled into the mall parking lot there was a horrible screeching noise. Turns out the berrings were bad, and had been going out for a few months. So a friend helped him replace those. Again we are praising God that this happened at my mom's where he could do the work himself and not somewhere in between.

Needless to say, it was an expensive vacation!

We didn't have any really bad weather, either going to or returning from Washington. Thank the Lord for that. With all the car troubles we did leave later than planned and didn't make it back in time for church this morning. But it was a refreshing visit, for that we are truly thankful.

Keep praying for us.

Almost Done!

WooHoo! I'm almost finished with my list. It's a good thing too. We decided to leave a day earlier to try and dodge the snow forecasted through the Gorge. I'm sure glad we have the Yukon!

I have just a couple of things to do first thing in the morning and then it'll be time to pack up the car and have it ready to go. As soon as church is over Sunday we hope to be on the road.

The kids are a little bummed about going to Washington. Weatherbug has forecasted a White Christmas here, and a rainy one in Washington. I am not the least bit surprised. They are packing boots and snow clothes anyway, just in case.

Brrrr! it's COLD Outside!

You know it's cold when you are sitting right next to the woodstove and you are still freezing:)

This morning it was -2 when we took the kids to school just before 8. It was still only 6 degrees at 11 AM. But it did warm up to 25, of course with the wind chill it was -5. Now we are back down to 18 and cooling fast.

Las Vegas is getting hammered with snow right now. We are far enough north that we are getting zip, zilch, nada! We got about an inch Monday.

It looks like we will be driving in snow most of the way to Washington. Bummer. It will be pretty but not fun.

Here's a picture of what little snow we did get. Nothing spectacular!

12 Days!

That's how many days until we leave for Washington for Christmas. That means I have 12 days to finish my baking, (that I am taking with me!), 12 days to finish those homemade gifts, 12 days to get my Christmas cards mailed (and they aren't here yet even though I upgraded shipping), and 12 days to get everything together that we need to take with us!

I am doing a CTMH party for a friend while we are there so I need to get my samples made and pack only what I need for the party. That will be soooo hard, LOL!

So tomorrow I will get started on that list that isn't really growing, just the time to get it done is shrinking!

Have a blessed day!!!!!!!

Baking Bread

Every time I go buy a loaf of bread and see the nearly $3.00 a loaf price tag I think "I should just make my own bread."

So today I did. Most homemade bread I have had has a really hard crust on it so I think I was a little leary, but I found a great recipe here. With my kitchenaid mixer doing all the work, it was really cinch to do. And when you figure out how many loaves of bread you can get from a 10 pound bag of flour, wow, the money I will save.

My plan is to bake 4 loaves at a time, that should get us through half the week (once the novelty of fresh bread wears off:) I figure if I just plan for it then I can get it done on my laundry days since I usually stick around the house on those days anyway.

Here are my first 2 loaves of bread! They could have cooked just a tad longer but we had some with dinner and it was oh so yummy!

Here are a couple of recent projects. The first I copied from the Close to My Heart web site main page in November. The second is the new Acrylic Album from Close to My Heart, with Notebook Paper and rub-ons.

I didn't take pictures of the inside pages because of the glare of the flash on the acrylic pages. I keep forgetting to take it outside and get the pictures in natural light, but you get the idea.