I looked out the window

and what did I see? My lilacs are out and ready to bloom. This year they may be covered in snow when they fianally decide to open up. Our weather has turned out rainy and snow is on it's way. Today was a big surprize to see all of the flowers on the tree made me smile and grab the camera.

Makin flat Stanley's

I love Scandinavian pancakes. My husband doesn't understand the joy or nostalgia of them. He likes sliced peaches and cream cheese and powdered sugar on them. In my childhood we called them Scandinavian pancakes because my dad grew up knowing them as Norwegian pancakes and mom grew up knowing them as Swedish pancakes so one of the many marriage induced compromises they became Scandinavian pancakes.

Once I was a grown up I learned a whole new vocabulary about my pancakes. Crepe's, blintz', flat Stanley's. Ok flat Stanley's are just away to make a joke on Saturday morning.


Last Saturday I woke up early and John was sleeping in. I decided to make pancakes. They were so yummy. I have a very special pancake pan.

It only makes pancakes and omelets. I love to eat them with a little butter and a sprinkle of sugar. I did make some with grape jelly and raspberry jelly and whipped cream. Those are good and ok but I do love just plain sugar. NOSTALGIA I guess.

Good Morning

So the past week John has been sleeping in the chair. I have been sleeping in the bed and kittie isn't sure where she should sleep. She really loves to sleep on my. She lays across my shoulder and puts her head on my face. This week she hasn't known what to do. She was really curious about why dad had a white thing on his face and she watned to smell it. Dad didn't think he wanted a cat sitting on his lap while he was sinus draining. Every morning when I wake up this is what I find.

Snowflake loves her DAD!!!

The nose knows

The past two days have been very long around our house. You see, today John had nose surgery. There were very technical terms that went along with everything that happened today but for the main part they scraped oooey gooey stuff out of the lower sinuses and opened up the upper sinuses that were full of snot. Don't worry, the last thing he said to me before we left for the hospital was you won't take the camera. There wasn't an option for taking photos. While you are sitting in pre op the nerves get to you and you worry that things will not be like you plan or that something really bad can happen. My mind got away from me. After a long day of waiting we are home again recovering in our own room. I think we are too young for separate beds but for a few weeks I guess that will be the way it works. Him in the chair, me in the bed. Hopefully he won't get to accustom to sleeping with out me bouncing in bed and decide he likes it better. Thanks for all of the calls to check on him. Everything is going well. He can smell and taste again. I guess I had better get busy in the kitchen.

popcorn popping on all of the trees

It is so beautiful in my back yard right now. Every tree has blossoms on it. All of the flowers in the beds are blooming and there is color sprouting out of EVERYWHERE. It is so nice since we are heading out of the bleak months of winter. They were nice for a while but it is nice to have blossoms blooming and sun shining. It is time to start putting your hands in dirt and grounding yourself with the on goings of mother nature. Happy Spring!!

Spring shoot and stuff like that

This weekend we headed to the mountains for a relaxing weekend and shoot. Friday was a great weather day despite the late start we got because some of us have to work real jobs. Friday night we set up our camp and had pot luck dinner. It was so much fun hanging out. Sleeping was great. When we went to bed the fire was very warm. Somewhere in the night it got really cold. Not cold enough to start the fire again but cold enough to snuggle into the covers. Saturday was a beautiful day. We woke up and ate and sat around doing little projects that we have not been able to do. So much fun visiting with our friends and enjoying being outside. We practiced our earthquake survival. We can do it. No house needed just a few jugs of water and then we will have to boil the hell out of the rest of our water. Sunday was a fun morning having yet another pot luck for breakfast. It is so much fun to see what everyone else brings to eat and sharing a bit of it all. Then it was time to come home. That is a sad time. Now we are gearing up for John to have sinus surgery on Wednesday. Hopefully it will make all of the infection in his body go away for ever. Updates to come on Wednesday.

Ellis Island

On April 17th it is national Ellis Island Family History Day. My Mom would love to know there was another holiday just for her. She loved doing extraction work for the church on the Ellis Island records. She and her friends did lots of work toward this project and then they took a VACATION. They went to Ellis Island and got to have a special tour of the new building and visitors center. Today search for someone in your family tree. You may be surprised about what you find.

Ellis Island - FREE Port of New York Passenger Records Search: "From 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor. Ellis Island is located in the upper bay just off the New Jersey coast, within the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. Through the years, this gateway to the new world was enlarged from its original 3.3 acres to 27.5 acres mostly by landfill obtained from ship ballast and possibly excess earth from the construction of the New York City subway system.

Before being designated as the site of the first Federal immigration station by President Benjamin Harrison in 1890, Ellis Island had a varied history. The local Indian tribes had called it 'Kioshk' or Gull Island. Due to its rich and abundant oyster beds and plentiful and profitable shad runs, it was known as Oyster Island for many generations during the Dutch and English colonial periods. By the time Samuel Ellis became the island's private owner in the 1770's, the island had been called Kioshk, Oyster, Dyre, Bucking and Anderson's Island. In this way, Ellis Island developed from a sandy island that barely rose above the high tide mark, into a hanging site for pirates, a harbor fort, ammunition and ordinance depot named Fort Gibson, and finally into an immigration station."

Family dinner

Aunt LaRue and Uncle Ron made it home after serving a mission in Texas. It was so much fun to go to their house and have lunch and get to visit with more family. I think going to her house is the closest thing to going to my mom's house. There are lots of things there that make me think "Mom". We had a great lunch and visit and then headed home. Thanks for a great Sunday.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter.

We had a great time camping. The weather was snow. We lived in the tipi or under the fly for a few days. We actually loved sleeping under the buffalo robe. It was so nice and toasty. Thank goodness for a stove that we could keep a fire in all night long. That made it at least warm to wake up to. We loved that we could catch snow and hail on our clothes. We found lots of different shapes. We learned that hail comes in the shape of diamonds. The bunny found us and brought great treats. The family came out for a nice dinner. We played guitar and banjo together on our bed with the fire roaring next to us and had a good time. It is decided that having snow instead of rain is preferred but is colder. However, not everything has a chance to get wet.

Impromptu

That's what I love about dinner tonight. I drove Gene to work tonight because we had an appointment at noon. That meant I had to pick him up after work. We were just deciding what to do for dinner when the phone rang.

Our friend Chase was in town and wondering if we wanted to do dinner. We said of course and chose the BEST Mexican place in town to eat....Javiers. I think I should own stock in the place because it is one of our favorites. (If only we would have seen Bud for church on Sunday we could have had a coupon from the bulletin)

When we got there Doug was there and Bridget was on her way. We had a great time visiting and enjoying each other. Nothing better than a bunch of friends and an impromptu dinner.

Doug gets one more star on his "dishes chart" because this was pretty close to doing my dishes.

April Showers bring...

The most snow we have seen all winter. Wouldn't you know that as soon as you put the snow blower away and the shovel off of the front porch you come home to a huge snow storm. Last weekend we went camping for Easter. While we had the tipi set up we had to keep shoveling off the tent. The snow would build up in between the liner and skin. We pretty much burned a fire all weekend. Sunday was a nice day and we made it home with only a wet liner. Monday night we thought that we would finish up the unpacking....

Who knew we would have rain so heavy you couldn't stand to be outside and then we would have snow so deep we can't open our back screen door with out being brave and breaking a path to the garage to break out all of the snow tools.

Say good bye to the beautiful flowers and bulbs that came out the past week. Now they are covered with 6 inches of snow.