A Big Snow Event

During the first half of February, we had almost spring like temperatures. The snow was almost all melted and we had beautiful sunny days. Over the last two weeks, we have returned to winter with two to three little (1-5 inches) snowstorms a week. One morning when I came home from my walk, I noticed some little footprints in the dusting of snow we had received the night before. I had Dennis come identify them. We had a racoon. It was the first time I had seen evidence of a racoon in the area although others have said that they were around.

Friday night we had a really good storm. When I went to bed, it was still snowing and we had already had about 9 inches. When we got up early Saturday morning, it had stopped snowing and we had about 12 new inches of snow. It was beautiful. I love it when everything is white a perfect. It's like being bundled in a big, white, fluffy cacoon - at least if I can stay in my nice warm house.

I hurried and got a few pictures taken before Dennis and all the other great guys in the neighborhood got to work with the snowblowers and shovels. By 10:00 most of the sidewalks and driveways on our street were cleared and the roads were driveable. (I'd say cleared but there are areas where they are just well packed and sanded.)

They Were Here

Last week, Mindy and Jeran came for a much anticipated visit. Alyna and I went to pick them up at the airport so we were able to visit with them on the way to Providence. They stayed with Mom and Dad Briscoe while they were here. They split their time between Mindy's work, both sets of parents and siblings, grandparents, friends and the ski slopes.

Even though a 10 day visit seemed like it would be long enough, it flew by sooooooooo quickly and before we knew it, we were on our way back to the airport again. It was so nice to have them come.

The Newest Izzy

Addison Rose Israelsen

This is something I should have posted a while ago but haven't gotten around to. Last month, Nate and Kristie had a beautiful baby girl that they named Addison Rose. Alyna and I went over to see her shortly after she arrived home from the hospital. There is nothing like a new baby to bring and lot of smiles and love to a family.

She is just perfect.

If you don't believe me, you can ask her grandparents. She is the first grandchild of both Nate and Kristie's families so she is much photographed (700+ in just two days)and very loved. Since all of them live in Providence, everyone is getting a lot of practice in sharing.

Her aunts and uncles think she is pretty great also.

We had a Briscoe family dinner this last Sunday and were able to get a nice 4 generation photo.

Michelle, Dave, Addy, Lola, Ralph, Kristie and Nate

Goals

As part of my 30 Day Blog effort, I listed 6 goals for the month. I learned some things about myself and about setting goals. I just reviewed the goals I had made and realized that I should have printed them out and put them where I could see them because I remembered a couple but not all of them. I also was glad that I set them so that they would be accomplished during that calendar month. It seems like a much more managable period of time to work on something than setting goals for a year. So here is the report on how I did:

1. Bedroom cleaned and organized. While I made significant headway in this project (there are now only the most used two suitcases in our bedroom) it is a project that takes continual effort and is never "done."

2. Clean the basement. I worked on this quite a bit throughout the month but I had to push pretty hard at the end to get it to the point that was acceptable to me. Last Saturday, I finally got the last of the Christmas garlands and such put away so Christmas is officially put away and that storage room is organized. The food storage room is so much better and while it is not perfect and I still can't get everything to fit on shelves, I think we can probably find and/or get to everything we need.

3.Clean up the sewing room. Much like the bedroom - I made progress but I have a gazillion projects waiting to be done so while it is much better, it is not perfect.

4. Choose a blogger publisher - forgot all about this one.

5. Start an exercise program. I worked on this one and have increased my flexibility a bit but haven't done anything consistently. Alyna and I got weighted hola hoops and have had fun working with them. I have also been working on my back exercises and did a little beginning Yoga.

6. No caffeinated soft drinks. Okay, so this was a lot harder than I expected it to be. The first 15 days were the worst. I ended up drinking Dr. Pepper three times this month. While that is not perfect, it is a huge improvement over what I would have done if I hadn't set the goal so it was good goal. I think I will try to be careful in the future but I am in no hurry to set that as a goal again any time soon.

So, even though I may not have achieved all my goals for the month, at least I got some things done and did better at some things (like the no caffeine) than I would have had I not set the goals. I think 4 or 5 good goals in a month would be an appropriate number to manage and I might could even remember that many. So what goals to work on in February??????