Cabin Fever

I'm starting to get some cabin fever after being cooped up in the house for 3 days. I did venture out to get some pictures and go to the grocery store.

Our street has been plowed a couple of times, but it's still snowy.
Our front porch, take note of the mound of snow on the right.

Anyone up for a deck party?

This is Daisy's normal spot, she's as thankful as I am for snow days. The snow days have given me a chance to get acquainted with my new crockpot. Thanks John and Stacia for the crockpot and recipe book. I've all ready tried two recipes, this is "Chow-Down Corn Chowder" and "Grandma's Chili" is in the crockpot, cooking away for tonight's dinner.
I also made these yummy brownie bites with a surprise inside :) Here is the recipe from Picky Palate.
My next projects are apple something (I can't decide between apple pie and apple crisp) and sewing something (still haven't decided on that either).
Stay Warm!

Meet Mac and Millie!

Meet Mac and Millie, our Equinoxes:

As an early Christmas present, we got a new car! We said good-bye to the Grand Am, Goldie and hello to Millie the Equinox. When we started our car search we wanted something other than an Equinox, since Tim already had one, but after searching we realized we just didn't like anything as well. My Equinox is named Millie because we got it at Molle and Tim's Equinox is Mac because we got it at McCarthy's.

Thus began the tale of Mac and Millie...

There's Snow Place Like Home

After a wonderful Christmas celebration in Illinois, we arrive home on Sunday night to almost 13 inches of snow. Instead of digging our way out like most people in the area, we had to dig our way in.

This was the drift right outside our garage door
One measurement, it reads 13 inches.
Our front porch, normally out front porch stays snow free, but not this time.
Tim and Daisy hard at work shoveling. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you're Jody) we only had one shovel, so Tim did most of the shoveling, I did help some.
What do you do after 2 hours of shoveling?
Make a snow angel of course. We would have built a snowman, but after the last experience ended with a broken hand, we settled for a snow angel.

Please excuse the cheesy title, it was too fitting and I couldn't resist.

A Challenge

Over winter break, I gave my students a challenge: any student that can read more than me over winter break earns a Sonic drink. The trick is, they don't know how much I'm going to read and I don't know how much they are going to read, so I've been making my way through this:
Figured I might as well try to multitask and complete #4 as well. We'll see on Tuesday how many Sonic drinks I'm buying.

Land of Lincoln

While we were in Illinois for Christmas, we decided to cross #45 off my list and visit the Lincoln Museum in Springfield.
Before heading to the museum, we decided to stop for a visit at Lincoln's New Salem, even the pouring rain and cold temperatures couldn't keep us away. New Salem was a settlement where Lincoln spent his early adulthood. There are several log cabins that have been recreated to show what it might have looked like in the 1820s when Lincoln lived there. Tim and Robyn called ahead to make sure they were open on the 23rd, and I think they were glad to have us. The lady at the front desk told us we were the first people she had seen in two weeks, I'm guessing winter is a bad time for them.

This is what some of the cabins look like. You can't tell from the picture but it's pouring down rain.

Tim and Robyn exploring the cabins, thankfully we had umbrellas and warm coats.
After finding out they finally had visitors, this nice man lit a fire for us in the tavern/hotel and it was so nice!
After visiting New Salem we headed to Springfield for lunch and a visit at the Lincoln museum. I didn't take any pictures at the Lincoln museum, (I'm always afraid the museum people will take my camera, so it stayed in my bag). I loved the museum, I've always been a fan of Abraham Lincoln as a president, so it was nice to learn a little more about his life, maybe now I'll tackle "Team of Rivals".
Thanks Tim and Robyn for our organizing our Lincoln "field trip".