Spring?

Since the temperatures were in the 50s today, and our lovely snow is just a memory, I thought I'd begin my blog with some wintry pictures.

This was right out our front door and looks kind of dangerous. Actually there was lots of room to skirt around those daggers. I have to say that this winter has been a wonderful one for icicles. (I know, they aren't really a good thing - ice dams and all - but I like them!) As we'd drive to work in the afternoon, I would see fantastic groups of icicles hanging that would grow and change with each day. They remind me of my childhood when we'd break one off the lower roof and suck on it! We never gave a thought to whether it was dirty water or not - actually in those days, the icicles were probably much cleaner than they are now. Anyway, they seem so much like seasonal stalactites and I will always enjoy seeing them.

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Speaking of work, (I mentioned it in the above paragraph) the building we work in is about 100 years old and 2 1/2 stories high. It's on a dead end street with our big parking lot at the opposite end of where Steve and I work. So, we generally park on the street near the building. For many years we've seen snow slide down off the roof (it has a fairly gentle peak) on to the sidewalk below and covering cars. The company had installed special cleats to hold the snow but I guess they had come off in spots. To make a long story short, with the snow and freezing rain we'd had, conditions that were perfect for a huge buildup of frozen snow to accumulate. Then temperatures got quite a bit warmer allowing the bottom layer of ice to "let go" of the roof and huge sheets of 3" thick ice as well as a foot of snow came crashing down! Unluckily, Steve's pick-up truck was one of the 3 vehicles that was hit with this mess.

The box was completely packed with ice and snow, the antenna was bent, and most of the passengers side of the truck had many small dents in it. We were lucky - one of our workmates' truck roof was bowed in, windshield wipers broken and large dents and another fellow's windshield was cracked. Here are pictures I took at home that night.

Our company said they would pay for all the repairs and even the cost of a loaner car one man needed, so there was a fairly happy ending. It took Steve a long time to get the box cleaned out.

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I wrote a while ago about my rebounder and how I'm going to get into shape this year. I've also decided to try to use natural and organic products whenever possible. I'd read somewhere that our skin is our largest organ and absorbs the most chemicals and toxins so the bath and shower products, lotions, dish liquids, shampoos and conditioners etc. we use should be the most pure we can find. ( I know, I know, makeup has some really scary stuff in it too, but I'm just not ready to give up my Loreal eye-liner and shadow!) It's also been suggested that all the additives, preservatives, and chemicals that we ingest or absorb hinder us when it comes to losing weight. I don't know, but there is probably some truth in that.

I'm a real fanatic for bath and shower gels and soaps and love having different types and scents for whatever mood I'm in (sounds kind of shallow, doesn't it??). So when I would find something that smelled great I'd buy it, no matter the chemicals. But now I've made a real effort to get rid of my toxic things and little by little replace them with organic products. We've got a nice natural food store, Good Harvest Market, nearby so I was there this weekend to get shampoo, conditioner, soap, and dish liquid. I also picked up organic apples, tea, napa cabbage, ground beef, and carrots. Everything organic or "natural" is a lot more expensive but I'm eating much less and have to change my consumer ways. It would be extremely difficult monetarily if I had a big family and wanted to eat and live organically.

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Besides the good food and less chemicals in my diet I'm on my rebounder in the basement nearly every day. It is fun and easy on my knees. I'm on it barefoot (tried it with tennis shoes but my feet really hurt) and sometimes, especially if it's after work, my feet will hurt . I'll have to find some kind of support for my feet and ankles.

This is the DVD that I use. Notice it's for "older or inactive adults ", but you can still work up a sweat.

A view of the trainers.

My Urban rebounder with the "stabilizing bar" that is extremely comforting. A person is only supposed to jump about an inch or two above the mat but it feels like a couple of feet up in the air! It's nice to have that bar since my balance has really gone to hell as I've gotten older. This type of exercise is supposed to help regain good balance which would be great. (See that big bag of pug food in the back ground!!) And, so far, I've lost 8 pounds - I'm figuring 1 to 2 lbs a week - that way it won't seem so difficult.

Sometimes Thea will come down the steps and sit on the top of that chest of drawers and watch me. Or, other times she'll get on the rebounder while I'm using it and kind of bounce around until she realizes I won't pick her up. Then she'll visit the fish who are nearby and drink some "fish water".

Sadly, since this picture, the lovely white Comet pictured at the top left has died. You never can tell with fish, but I felt really bad since she's been with us for over 2 years. The rest of the fishies are doing fine and I'm sure they can't wait to be outdoors.

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I wish I'd come upon this web site a few years ago. It is an excellent tool for checking out different types of charities and I highly recommend it. One of the "Ten Tips for Giving" they had was not to give small amounts to a number of different charities. (I had done just that - $25 to many various groups.) The reasoning is that to most charities small sums don't cover even their mailing expenses, so they sell your name to other charities for more money than you have given them!! I can attest to that. Last year I received scores and scores of mail solicitations and couldn't figure out why.

Charity Navigator suggests that if you give larger sums, $75 - $100, to just a few special charities they will want to keep your "business" and not alienate you by selling your name. This site shows which groups agree not to sell your info, and in pie chart format (my favorite visual aid type) shows exactly where and in what percentage the money is used. There is a "star" rating that is a nice, at-a-glance way of checking out a charity. And nearly every category of need is covered. A wonderful site and I was happy to see that the organizations I've been giving to scored highly.

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Did universal charity prevail, earth would be a heaven,

and hell a fable.

C.C. Colton

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Bye for now,

Alyssa

My Wonderful Christmas Days

Well, it's all over and the new year has begun. I've taken some better pictures of my Santa figurines and the Christmas tree. (Hope you don't mind the redundancy. ) My new "Tea Time Santa" arrived well before Christmas and is very cute. Since I'm a huge tea drinker, and this figurine is the first we've found with a pig (I like pigs very much), is is doubly special. The little pig is on Santa's right looking up at him. Also, notice one of the bottle-brush evergreen trees in the background that sister Sue had given me for my birthday. It fits right in!

I like the duck and rabbit sitting at the tea table, too. Following are some more of my collection.

Hopefully, this is a better picture of the tree and one of the ornaments I particularly like.

On Christmas Day my family came over to celebrate and exchange gifts. Here's Steve keeping the pugs on a lease until things settled down. Look how you can just see Thea's eyes in the second picture. She sure takes some funny pictures!

As you can see, the "usual suspects" were there. That white mouse on the table played an annoying number of loud carols if you squeezed his hand!

Thea surveying everything from HER chair(notice how pretty the snow looks on the burning bushes outside) and my Ashley reading the card I'd given her.

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We had an exceedingly beautiful snowfall that made everything look like a fairy land.

There was no wind for days and the yard looked like this for a long time. I had to go outside with a shop broom and clean off some of the sagging pine trees.

Isn't this fantastic! Well, the deer thought so too . . . .

Now that the rut is over, they are all showing up again.

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On the Friday after Christmas, my daughter Adeena, her husband Tony, Sierra, Ashley and her boyfriend Sean came over for a great Christmas get together.

Ashley and Sierra hadn't met before our party, but, as you can see they really hit it off and spent lots of time playing games and reading.

The only good picture I could get of Adeena showing off her prized Packer jersey. Garm was really enjoying himself with all the affection she was giving him. She wants to take him home!!

Tony is a great son-in-law and always has a smile and laughs a lot.

He's a genuinely nice man who I'm happy to add to my family.

Sierra wanted to dress up in her "princess" dress and had her "diamond" heart earrings on for this special occasion. She also asked her mom to curl her hair. What a little sweetheart! ( And she is quite serious about taking pictures .)

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The next two pictures show how much fun we were having. (My dear ones!)

I had a grand ,and relaxing as well ,holiday season and I hope everyone else did too. My year has been a good one and I feel very lucky to have the life I do. My family is slowly coming together and all of them are well. I have a good husband, a good job and an active, questioning mind. And, last, but surely not least, I've gained some interesting, funny, brave, thoughtful, intelligent, caring, empathetic and talented friends during my first year of blogging. You have all added many different dimensions to my existence and I thank you.

The new year will be wonderful!

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A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.

(Latin)

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Bye for now,

Alyssa

Decking My Halls . . . .

As I write this, there are only ten more days until Christmas. My shopping is all done (nothing wrapped, though) and I hope you've got yours all finished.

Today I decorated the Christmas tree after Steve set it up and started the lights. I love color and I love sparkles so the tree is a huge mass of primary, bright, twinkling lights.

* It is very hard to take pictures of a lit Christmas tree. These are the best of about twenty I took and I think you can see how very full and festive it looks.

Garm and Thea watched (at least Thea did) me from the couch. Guess who loves to be covered by the soft orange blanket?? He was under there for quite a long time.

Isn't this cute? It's a bean filled holiday-themed conglomeration

that is to be put by a door to keep out the drafts. I can't for the life of me think of what it's called. I don't have drafty doors, but I thought it would be neat used as a decoration and it was 60% off! Garm is sure that it's a big, long dog toy and tried to carry it off.

I can just see the wheels turning in his head . . .

After I got this Santa pillow home, I saw that one of his beady eyes was missing. Kind of looks like he's winking, but that's the thread sticking up. Garm likes this guy too. I can only put these two decorations out when company comes otherwise there will be stuffing and felt all over the house.

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This was my attempt at a panoramic view of my Santa figurine collection. Every year we've been together Steve has gotten me a Santa. All the little shops he used to go to are closed now so we ordered one on line this year. I hope it arrives by Christmas time.

Love this wreath and isn't it amazing how they can make plastic ornaments look like glass!

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These two pictures are of some decorating in our bedroom. I think beaded garland is so pretty to use and gives everything a sumptuous, decadent feeling. The angel and candles are on a very tall chest of drawers and the beads and baubles spilling out are on my jewelry chest.

If you look closely, you can see that the nativity background spells the word "JOY". This is on a narrow shelf in the hallway. The LED candles give this a lovely glow. I got the silver tree (red one in the previous picture) from Crate and Barrel. Even though they are ultra modern, they fit into my traditional-hunting lodge-Victorian home.

More and more Santas.

This bowl of ornaments is in the breezeway and what looks like a little wreath hanging above is a ring to put around a candle.

The snowmen are also in the breezeway and this excellent rustic Christmas tree - made with bits of pine cones - is at the kitchen step - up.

A very glittery tree on the kitchen counter. See the violets blooming in the reflection.

And last, but not least, the fantastically huge poinsettia Steve surprised me with. (He "surprises" me with one every year.) It is actually a more creamy color than the picture shows and since I equate most things with some sort of food, the "flowers" remind me of luscious, butter cream frosting!

As I do each year, I read Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and then watch the George C. Scott movie version of it on tape. It is always a moving and inspiring story for me, so for my quote this week I will borrow from Mr. Dickens.

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' "Business!" cried the ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" '

-The Ghost of Jacob Marley

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Fine words to live by.

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Bye for now,

Alyssa