The blizzard of 2016

 It started snowing Friday evening, and it snowed and snowed and snowed. It totalled out at about 18 inches for us- that's a whole lot of snow! 

I made us eggs and pork roll for breakfast yesterday, and chicken salad sandwiches and cole slaw for lunch. Dinner was leftovers of chicken pot pie. Ralph can't eat any of the commercial pot pies, because they put peas in them, which he's allergic to. So it's a treat for him. I use diced potatoes and carrots, and a can of broccoli cheddar soup, and one of cream of chicken soup, and make a two crust pie. The chicken I precook in the crock pot. 

I had my first project finish of the year, a crocheted hooded scarf for Steph to use when she travels to cold places for work. It's made with chunky yarn, and I'm happy with it. I'm back to work on my temperature afghan now. Next I have to get Julianna's cape started, and a small afghan for the Burlington County Farm Fair raffle. 

Tomorrow is a snow day from work- the city takes a while to get dug out, and it's primarily a walking district. There's something wonderful about a snow day! 

Shelfari and Good Reads are merging. I'm not sure how I'll like that, not that I have a choice. Amazon owns both. 

Trifecta!

It's Friday, payday, and the beginning of a three day weekend! Yay!

Monday I worked. Tuesday I had a professional day, and Ralph and I went to an inservice about Gang Awareness. It was interesting to learn about the Crips and the Bloods and all the offshoots of them. It was also a little scary to hear how the gangs have a presence in south jersey.

Tuesday night I started to feel really lousy, and I was up a lot of the night. I called out sick on Wednesday, and slept all day. Thursday I went to work. After work was the memorial service for Vena, the nurse that died last week. It was at the school she worked in, and was very nicely done. The music teacher there sang "Fire and Rain." Some poems were read. 

Ralph has never been able to have chicken pot pie, because it always has peas in it. I made one tonight for dinner, and he made a huge dent in it- a success!

I just finished the new Michael Connelly book about Harry Bosch, titled The Crossing. Fantastic book, as are all of his. 

Still working on the temperature afghan, which is a long term project. 

And it's a three day weekend!

Another weekend going by too fast!

It was a strange week. Work Monday and Tuesday, off Wednesday for Three Kings Day. And Wednesday morning, one of the other nurses in the district that I work in, didn't wake up. I'd describe her as a casual friend, someone who's company I enjoyed, but I only saw her at work functions. But a healthy woman in her mid 50's just not waking up? It's just too weird. Since we're nurses, we've been speculating of whether there will be an autopsy, and possible causes of death. No one suspects foul play, we're just curious. We may never know. But it's changed my definition of a good day- now, a good day is one where we both wake up. 

Here's a picture from two years ago, right before Steph and Dan moved to Oregon. We were at Heather's house for Christmas dinner. 

This was our front yard for Christmas- yes, Ralph is somewhat deranged. He bought two deer kids, and as he puts it, "Voided the warranty on one." Consensus is that it is awesome.

I'm still working on my temperature afghan. I was wrong about the number of people in the facebook group, it's 7000 from all over the world! 

I'm reading a Sherryl Woods book in her Chesapeake Shores series. It's going fast. 

Every week or so, I send Amary a book via Amazon. Of course, she's now decided that all packages that come to the door are for her, and are books from Grammy. It's hard being a long distance Grammy, but Amazon is aiding and abetting me!

Garret is such a doll! He'll be 5 months old this week! He's got such a mohawk going- how adorable is that. 

I've joined some cross stitch groups on facebook. I have the urge to get back into that. And once I retire, and don't have to be away from home about 50 hours a week, I can indulge my hobbies more often! Six months to go!

Holly
 

 
 

2016

I'm here! I'm not sure what happened at the end of 2015, never managed to get a post written. 

In 2015 I used 18.96 pounds of yarn, and read 138 books. Fabric is a sad story- I used 2 yards or so for Garrett's quilt, and about 2 yards of felt for Amary's and Garrett's Christmas trees for on the wall.

 This is one thing that's been keeping me busy, my temperature afghan. I started it on Sept 1 to chronicle my last school year at work. I have a chart where I made a gradient by 5 degree intervals which correspond to temperatures. Red is the hottest. Gray variegated means rain, and white will mean snow. I use the temp in my town at noon every day. There's a Facebrook group for the Temp Afghan group, with about 1000 people on it. There's some interesting interpretations of the task, some of which make me cringe, but everyone to their own. 

 Amary and Garrett had a fun Christmas! We facetimed with them a few days after Xmas. I can't believe how big he's gotten! And to hear him giggle is such a joy. And to have Amary tell us Merry Christmas is just wonderful. 

We had Christmas Eve dinner at Heather and Ed's. Eddie and Julianna had such a good time opening gifts! Ed's parents came up from Fla for the holiday, so it was good to see them also. 

Christmas morning we had here, with Mom, Mike and Donna, Jake, Mikey and Sam. I made two breakfast casseroles, and they brought the meats and Donna made a wonderful cranberry cake. 

Christmas night we went to Jim and Sharon's for dinner, along with Frank and Charlotte, Charlotte's mom and brother, Kevin, and David and Juliette and Tori came along after dinner. We had such a nice visit with all. It was a busy day, but wonderful. 

And now it's 2016!