Wind Storm 2013

It happened again...a giant windstorm last week causing power outages and damaged trees.  Last time this happened in December of 2011 we lost a good chunk of our roof.  This time the storm wasn't nearly as bad, but still wind gusts were between 70 and 80 mph (Dec. 2011 was 100 mph). 

We buckled down the hatches (whatever that means) and took care of all of the things in the yard that could possibly get blown away.  We lost our power for about an hour that night, but other than that, thought we had fared fairly well.

That is until Alicia and her friend playing in the backyard the next afternoon noticed this...

...and were slightly alarmed when they noticed the bike/wood shed at an odd angle...

Little did she realize, it was actually the tree next to it that was the problem. 

 

John spent Saturday chopping it down, well technically, chain-sawing it down. 

And the girls and I spent several hours putting all of the branches in this lovely pile and transporting the wood into our ever-growing wood pile (not pictured).

 

In the process of hauling branches, I noticed this cross next to the apple tree.  I wonder if the previous owners had a pet that died and lovingly placed here.  Got me thinking...hope Athena, John's very first Red-Tail Hawk is still resting in peace back at the last house in the backyard. 

Oh, and John has repaired the fence.  Thankfully, we were planning on redoing it anyway because it was in sad shape when we moved in.  We even had the pieces already purchased and John was in the process of working on it when the wind storm hit...the wind just helped us tear the old fence down faster :)

While we're at it, speaking of home improvement projects, work has begun on Alicia's bedroom down in the basement. 

 

It has been determined that the basement finishing, as is the case with most projects, is taking a tad longer than we expected.  In finishing the fireplace downstairs, it was determined that we need to repair the upstairs fireplace at the same time, therefore pushing the basement completion out a little further.  We have also come to the firm conclusion that Kimberly and Alicia absolutely do not share a room very well together.  Alicia was volunteering to sleep in the recliner down in her basement bedroom, a sure sign that things were getting desperate, so Alicia and I will be working on painting the room during Thanksgiving Break while John is working on his myriad of other projects. 

 

We had planned to finish her bedroom and the adjoining bathroom after the family room work was done so we could carpet the entire basement, then put Alicia in the bedroom, but Alicia has happily agreed to some rugs on the concrete floor in her bedroom until we get to the carpet stage. 

 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! 

My pie baking commences this evening. 

Bring on the pumpkin!

 

Let it Snow

 

 

It snowed, if you can't tell.

We're discovering we get a lot of snow up here in bench-land. 

I'm okay with that, because it keeps these kiddos occupied for hours...OUTSIDE!!!

 

Sadly, underneath all of that white stuff are still a bunch of leaves we still need to get taken care of. 

With new snow, comes the usual snow/ice-cream-making. 

This time, Alicia did the honors.  

 

It works well when it is snowing, because the girls stuck this bowl out Saturday morning and within an hour, it was full (you can't tell in the picture because it is has been sufficiently smooshed down via the beater).

 

I also just happened to find this picture on my camera while hunting down the snow pictures, and since it was a good hair and makeup day, thought I'd include it.  I found a mascara I just love.  All these years, I have been using mascara that is either clumpy, hard to put on, messy, gets in my eyes and messes up my contacts, or all of the above, so I basically gave up wearing it.

I happened to try Cover Girl - it's either Stiletto or Luminous Volume mascara, and it is none of those things, so I find myself putting it on everyday along with my foundation and blush (both Bare Minerals, also something I LOVE and have been using since I turned 30). 

Total time drying and styling hair: 5-7 minutes
Total time applying makeup:  2 minutes
Don't you wish you had short hair about now? 

 

More Power Tools...

 

 Our new place had this fabulous 1970s mammoth rock wall down in the family room.

We decided it had to go.

The far left corner shows the beginning of demolition.

 

John spent many, many hours working on it by hand with his chisel and crowbar, getting nearly half of it done.

 

Today, he rented an electric drill and now it looks like this: 

All those rocks are now in a neat pile in the backyard (thanks to the girls' help), ready to be turned into lovely rock terracing.

Totally off-topic, but John and I spent our Friday night date checking out Norman Rockwell's original Boy Scout paintings down at the LDS Church Museum.  They were incredible.  I had no idea the man got his start working for the Boy's Life magazine before his career skyrocketed in other arenas. 

A Lesson in Power Tools

 

Pumpkin Carving Lesson #1:

Knives are SO old school.

 

 

Lesson #2:

No need to deal with scraping pumpkin guts with your hands when you have a pumpkin corer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 Now that's how it's done. 

 

 

 On to carving now. 

Knives come back into play.

 

 

 

The final products:

 

 

 

 And now that Halloween is over, time to celebrate Christmas:

 

Sorry, I got absolutely no pictures of the girls in their Halloween Costumes.  We were having too much fun at the neighborhood soup and dessert potluck, off trucking around the hilly neighborhood trick-or-treating, Halloween parties, and scone-making.  Good times indeed.