Hello, again...

I seem to be missing a lot lately.

Since my last post, I have battled are REALLY NASTY VIRUS that I contracted from my kiddos in my classroom. I am still dealing with the virus moving from a sore throat to a super-nasty head congestion to super-nasty chest congestion, to super-nasty chest congestion combined with the second round of super-nasty head congestion. YUCK!

In addition to the REALLY NASTY VIRUS, I have spent the last 10 days working on costumes and backstage at our local theater group's production of "The Secret Garden". Luckily, I couldn't pass on the crud that I have; everyone else was sick with the same crud too.

Even though I don't have the energy to burn my candle at both ends, I did anyway.

My theater people did an amazing job! From the actors to the costume people, to the make-up people, to the prop people to our amazing director, we all did an amazing job!

I got to hang out with so many of my friends! I also got to make many more new friends.

My theater family keeps growing with each show. Each new person in my life makes me so happy.

And our little ones in lead and back-up rolls; WOW! I will be one of the little old ladies who go to the matinees someday and I will be able to say I watched those actors and actresses grow up in my theater family.

This weekend was also bittersweet.

Our Hannah was not in this production, and she misses theater desperately! She did get to come see opening night with me on Thursday.

Bittersweet because one of our young ladies is moving on to Boise State, Miss Tess will be greatly missed. I can't wait until she is in her first production in Boise. I will definitely have tickets to see her debut in our capital city!

I am counting down the days until Spring Break. It starts here in with a half-day on Friday. We have been having some rather nice weather, I am hoping that Rick and I will take a few motorcycle rides!

I am so excited!

Have a great day.

Donnelly

Coyotes...

Don't know how to label this blog post...

I am listening to the coyotes howl in the fields right across the street from our house.

Contemplating whether or not it is wise to introduce chickens into our family.

Will that bring the coyotes closer?

I have 3 wimpy indoor dogs and a 3-legged pygmy goat, a super fat donkey and an elderly outside dog.

None of them capable of dealing with coyotes.

I would love to have chickens, but I think the coyotes have helped me rethink things.

Have a great day!

Donnelly

A sudden storm

We had a snow storm on Friday.

We live in Idaho, and snowstorms are supposed to happen here, especially in the winter. But we have been having Spring worthy temps lately. Even the robins started to come back.

What makes this snowstorm newsworthy?

Well, we were only supposed to get 1-3". It was supposed to be spread out over 3 days; Friday-snow, Saturday-sun, Sunday-snow.

Our Magic Valley got 5-8". We got it all on Friday and into Saturday morning.

This is the sun coming over the clouds to the East of our house.

This my antique grain drill. It was pulled behind a horse or tractor to plant seeds. I love this piece of machinery. In the spring I will plant either flowers or strawberries in it.

This is the chicken coop. I get to have chickens! I have wanted them forever, and Rick has finally said I could have them. However, I won't be using this building. It is small and I am a big gal. I also have rheumatoid arthritis, not a good combination for this little building. There is a bigger storage shed with screened in windows that I think I will be using for the chicken coop.

This is a photo of the building I want to use for chicken coop. Sorry this is so dark, I was out taking photos at 8:30. The blades for the windmill are propped against the building. The windmill tower is right next to this building. Right now the tower has an old TV antenna on it. I would love to be able to convince the landlord to take the antenna down and put the blades back up. But I think I will bring the blades out and use them for a climbing vegetable or vine in my garden.

Icicles on the barn. The barn has a metal roof and creates great icicles. You have to hurry to get photos of them though, the sun on a metal roof slides the snow off rather quickly.

This is a photo of my wheelbarrows. I have no idea how I got to have that many, but I do. In fact, there is another one behind our garage that I just saw this morning.

This is a picture of my photo taking buddy. This is Loki. He is my daughter's dog. He couldn't go to Boise with her so he lives with us. He insists on going out to take photos. He had just bulldozzed his way through the snow and was trying to like the snow off his nose.

Have a great day!

Donnelly

Thrifting finds February 2011

On Friday, I hit our local thrift stores. I picked up a vintage glass flower frog and a box of Shiny Bright christmas ornaments.

I opened the box Friday night to find that it was missing two of the ornaments. On Friday, there had been a second box that I had left there. So Saturday morning, I went back and found the second box and it had the missing two ornaments in them. So now I have a set of 12.

I love Shiny Bright ornaments, have I mentioned that?

I love glass flower frogs. My love affair with them began when my grandma gave me hers when I was in high school. I now have 5. And now that I have a garden, I plan on growing flowers to be able to use my flower frogs. I can't wait until the lilacs bloom and the fruit trees bloom.

Have a great day!

Donnelly

Happiness!

Today I got a text message from my Hannah Banana...

Happiness!

I love this girl a whole bunch! I am so proud of her.

Have a great day!

Donnelly

A catch up is in order

It has been a while since the last time I posted and I was feeling a little bit (okay, a lot) sorry for myself.

I came to the realization that I have yet to post a photo of the necklace I won on Betz White's blog. I love it! The chain was a little small, so I got extenders at Micheal's to make it more comfortable. I love that I chose the word SIMPLIFY. And I really feel that I have accomplished a lot toward my goal of simplifying my life. Since the first of the year, I have cleaned my house every weekend but one!

That weekend, we took the rest of Hannah's belongings up to her and spent the day with Brady at the thrift stores. We don't have a Goodwill in our town. Our capital city has 2. It was rather exciting. Didn't come home with a lot, but it was still fun!

I have been missing my Hannah Banana something fierce, I am not going to lie. But I love that she still texts me almost as much as she did before she moved. And there is also Facebook. She told me this weekend that she will be here on March 10th and 11th. Happiness is not a big enough word to express how I feel about this.

I had a four day weekend this past weekend, and it was a much needed break. Rick and I reclaimed our house from my mother-in-law.

When we moved in to our new house, Rick set up a small den as our t.v. room. We set up Rick's mom's t.v. in the living room.

Picture 2 large adults, 2 large dogs and a small dog all crammed into a 6 x 6 room. Not comfortable, not condusive to relaxation.
Rick has been so stressed out about being in that small room. We were desperate. Rick told his mom that she was going to have to switch places or go to a managed care facility. Needless to say, she thought that the alternative to switching rooms was not for her.

When we moved in to this house, we had set up the living room with Rick's pool table and the dining room as the living room. This weekend, we moved the pool table into the dining room and moved a loveseat, Rick's recliner and my rocker into the living room.
I bought Rick a 32" Vizio t.v. for his birthday/Valentine's day present. His birthday is the 15th of February. I thought it was only fair as he had bought me a new Blackberry for my Valentine present. Here is a collage of the new arrangement. I am already planning on making it flow better, have to wait until next payday though.

I am loving being able to look out the windows. I am enjoying the light. I love the fact that our record player is in the living room and we can listen to music. I am loving that the dogs can stretch out and not be on top of me and on top of each other.

It is really wonderful!

Have a great day!

Donnelly