Monday, February 15, 2010

No cabin fever yet! But there's still time!

Photobucket

Well, I'm getting a bit tired of these snow storms!

We haven't had anywhere near the snow that the East Coast has had, but I'm still getting tired of it. The only good thing is that Eler Beth has had a lot of fun sledding and playing in the snow. I guess I shouldn't begrudge the kids their snow time. After all, this winter would have been a mild one compared to the winters we had when I was a kid, and I enjoyed them as a responsibility-free child should.

Thomas has missed a LOT of work though. His company was shut down all of last week, and it looks like it will be again this week. Before that he was off one or two days each week since the holidays. In anticipation he had gone ahead and registered with the state employment office, so he can actually get unemployment for last week (and this one, if he's off all week again). So that will help.

The good news is that our IRAs and his 401k have started growing again. The good news also is that he guessed the winter might be bad and he had extra money taken out for taxes for the last half of last year, so our income tax return was very good. The bad news is that instead of going into savings, it'll probably be used to see us through this bad weather -- which I guess isn't really bad because that was the point in the first place. Oh well, I can still count our blessings.

Eler Beth has had three sledding parties so far this winter. The last one, on Saturday, was at some friends' of ours in Georgetown, Indiana. Our friend is a 90-year-old lady who has a very large hill on her property, and she loves for the kids to come out and play. Eler Beth sledded once, and the rest of the time she was there she rode on an inner-tube, being pulled by someone on a four-wheeler. Now THAT was a lot of fun. There was a bonfire too, and she met some new people (including a 17-year-old who she confessed to me was very "cute" -- lol). There will probably be another party this weekend.

We got about 5" of new snow today, and will get more by tomorrow. Areas a little North of us have about 7".

I have been enjoying Thomas' being home, and he hasn't wanted for anything to do. He's managed to do some projects around the house, and we've watched a lot of movies together (I just LOVE Netflix!). He has managed to keep busy, so I haven't been stressed having him home because he hasn't been stressed from forced inactivity. He comes in handy, too. If I need something at the store he's more than willing to drive out and get it for me, so I haven't really had to get out much at all. I do think I've gained some weight though!!! I've been very bad and have been doing a lot of cooking and baking. I guess when we get a break in the weather Eler Beth and I will have to do some serious walking.

Well, just thought I'd catch up a bit. I need to get by to visit blogs. I've mostly been keeping up with everyone on Facebook and just haven't been in a blogging mood.


(Thank you to Donna for the graphic above.)

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Did you ever wonder . . .

What the back of a smiley face looks like?

Well wonder no more!

Monday, February 1, 2010

February 1, 1947

In 1947:

a gallon of gas was 15¢
a loaf of bread was 13¢
a postage stamp was 3¢

A Ford Super Deluxe 4-passenger coupe went for $1,185.00
and an automatic washing machine was $249.00

This was the year the CIA was established, the Polaroid Land Camera demonstrated giving photographs in 60 seconds, and the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls was found in Israel.


Popular movies that year were "Miracle on 34th Street", "Road to Rio", and "The Jolson Story". The Diary of Anne Frank was published and on February
1, 1947 "The Old Lamplighter" by Sammy Kaye was on Billboard Magazine's Best Seller in Stores List for the fifth week in a row.



But the event that
means the most to me personally from that year was the marriage on February 1 of my parents.

They were married 55 years before my father died, and this year would have been their 63rd wedding anniversary.