BIRTHDAY PARTY #1 FOR BB AND SUPERBOWL 50

Getting ready for church was an adventure this morning. As I got up I was met by hubbie who was wanting me to look on the internet at a video he saw at work this past week of cooking potatoes in the pressure cooker.
I looked and looked and couldn't find the video he was describing. Then all of a sudden he sat the peeled potatoes on the sink and said he had forgotten he had to get to church early this morning.
I just dumped the potatoes in the cooker and covered them with salted water and set the timer for 10 minutes. This is my first trial of my larger power pressure pot that I bought a couple weeks ago.
I also loaded my smaller pressure pot with carrots and turned it on.
I headed outside to hurry through the chores. It was 34 degrees but must have gotten colder earlier because there was ice on all the waterers.
I came back inside to a strange smell in the kitchen. It smelled like overheated wires . I loooked all around and decided it must be the new pressure cooker which had already finished the cooking process and was on the keep warm setting.
I thought maybe it was just the new smell burning off so I had a protein bar and running late carried my coffee around with me as I got ready for church.
Just before I left the smell was still hanging in the kitchen so I turned off and unplugged the pressure pot just to be safe.
Church was good today from Revelations 21.   A sad ending was when a friend of mine went up during invitation and announced she had been diagnosed this week with breast cancer.
After church I talked with Debbie and hopefully it is a small spot and she is seeing the surgeon Tuesday.
We had #1 son's family, Aa's family, daughter and Josh here for a lunch of Ham (which Re brought over), mashed potatoes,  green beans, corn, glazed carrots and biscuits with sweet tea to drink. Everyone had a very nice visit and then went on to other activities .
Hubbie and I went to Walgreens to pick up my picture prints I forgot to pick up yesterday and to pick up a prescription for daughter.
When we got back hubbie went to his monthly Deacon's meeting and I went over to Aa's to help him and Re get ready for BB's first birthday party. We are late with this party because of the snowstorm and sickness but he didn't know the difference.
It was a great celebration with family and BB enjoyed the attention and all the kids had a good time together.

We all enjoyed potato soup, chili, ham sandwiches , buffalo chicken dip,and chips for a really nice dinner.

The cakes Re made were so cute and delicious !!

BB looks puzzled as we sang Happy Birthday.

Fascinated by that lighted candle !!

He loved the icing and cake.

And the presents were fun for everyone as I found a couple hidden Christmas gifts for G-son and EL that I forgot to give them so I wrapped them up so they would both have something to unwrap.

BB loved this part ........

 Poppy (Aa's dad)  helps cut the tractors out of the packages.

Tissue paper was a fun thing !!!

It was a great birthday party then everyone gathered around the TV to watch Superbowl 50 which the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos played in.

Hubbie and I came home after the first quarter to do the evening chores by flashlight and watch the rest of the game here.
The air has that quiet, moisture laden feel to it tonight and I wonder if the predictions of snow for the counties north of us won't drift a bit southward and give us a snowy morning ??

Seems everyday now there is another winter storm named as today Mars formed as this clipper system grows bigger and the snow totals grow and the wind speeds increase..

Well the Denver Broncos are the super bowl champions this year as they defeated the Panthers 24-10 to the dismay of many fans in the area.
I don't watch much pro football but do pull for the Panthers as they are like a home team but I do like Peyton Manning the quarterback for  Denver so either way tonight was okay by me.
I can't imagine the money won on this game tonight to the few folks who bet on the Broncos. All the odds I saw had the Panthers winning the game.
Maybe Cam Newton should think about saluting the flag with his hand on his heart with the rest of his teammates next year !!!!  Just saying !!!!
Thanking God for a wonderful blessing filled Sunday and asking for His blessings on my friend Debbie as she goes into battle with this cancer.
God Bless and Good Night.

MARKET CHANGES BEGIN

Up on a 23 degree morning breaking ice on the water buckets and getting things all fed before heading off to market.
Typically on this before super bowl Saturday I would be expecting a pretty good  day but with only a couple orders, 1 for 3 1/2 cakes and one for 1 cake I'm not expecting today to be much different from any other February Saturday.
After hubbie helped me get set up and we had our breakfast he went to g-son's basketball game at 11:00 this morning. Unfortunately they lost badly again and hubbie said they look worse now than they did earlier in the season.
While he was gone I started cleaning and re-arranging my tables. I have decided to give up two of the tables I have been renting from another market vendor who never comes to market. This will drop my monthly expenses $50 per month which will help the bottom line. I really don't need the tables and have rented them in the past just to have the extra space but I put all the craft items that were on those two tables on the one table that I had just supplies on.
I switched everything around to move my baked goods closer to daughter's tables so I could spread out on those as well. Daughter and I still have the use of 5 tables.
I worked all day at this change between the few customers that came by but didn't get the job finished. Pictures will come later once everything has a new place !!
Hubbie came back to market after the game and helped haul out the trash and move some heavier things around. He ran out and got us some lunch at Wendy's while I continued to work.
I had a decent sales day with the 2 orders I had thankfully.
Hubbie left to go to Sam's Club and I stopped by Aldi for some ingredients for a dip hubbie wants me to make for tomorrow evening.
We got home about the same time and hubbie helped get things unloaded and put away.
My legs were aching after standing on them all day working so I took a much needed break until choretime.
After a chilly choretime the fire in the woodstove felt really good but I resisted the urge to take a nap.
I am going to try to work into a new schedule this week with an earlier bedtime and then staying up after g-daughter gets here in the mornings to get back into my walking and exercise routines.
The weather for the coming days looks a little iffy at best !!
Tomorrow the mid and eastern parts of the state are expecting snowfall and then Monday there is predictions for snow fall here. This is a "flake-o-meter" that our local TV station uses.

Some of the coldest temps of the year are also predicted for the coming week.
Hubbie and I watched UNC loose a basketball game to Notre Dame tonight by playing lousy defense.
A day hemmed in prayer is a lot less likely to unravel !!! Always keep God in your thoughts and actions.
God Bless and Good Night.

GAME DAY

I felt very very fortunate this morning to wake up with power still on at our house. The wind blew terribly hard all last night knocking trees down on power lines all around. #2 son who lives just up the road lost his power about 11:00 last night and said they were supposed to have it back on around 11:00 this morning. Lucky for him the temps didn't get much below freezing, 27 degrees, but he said it was really cool in his house this morning getting ready for work.
This was one of the victims of the wind as this huge tree fell on this house ,luckily no one was injured.

As g-daughter got settled back down for a morning nap I headed outside to do the chores. Back to ice breaking duty this morning to get all the animals a drink.
After my breakfast I baked 3 caramel, 1 chocolate, 3 pound and an applesauce cake for market tomorrow. I don't have any super bowl party orders this year which is kind of strange.
After lunch with g-daughter having her cereal and a bottle before she went back down for another nap I worked more on shredding.
Hubbie came home at lunch today as he is super tired this week , he and I both have been fighting off colds and that is sapping a lot of energy.
He ate lunch then went to check all the bottom fences after the flooding.
It is a cold day only getting to just about 32 for the high of the day but the wind has died down thankfully and the sun is shining.
Daughter has a basketball game this afternoon so everyone is going since we haven't been able to attend many of her games this year.
They  were playing Brevard and as always daughter was walking the sidelines giving instructions the entire game.

Little EL enjoys the game and a cake pop from the concession stand at the same time.

This is baby BB's first basketball game and he looks like he is seriously following the action !!!

The gang !! AD (Josh's niece) in green, EL and G-son.

Josh's brother and his wife getting a baby fix with g-daughter.

 BB was more interested in my camera than the game at this point.

It was a good game and a good win for the home team !!

We all waited for daughter to come out of the dressing room to see the kids and then everyone slowly left after a really nice visit.
Hubbie and I came home at 5:30 to get the chores done.
As we watched the news tonight the "L" winter storm was named today as a low off the coast backed up and is dropping lots of snow along the northeast states.

 Unfortunately the varsity girls team didn't do as well as the JV and lost their game. Daughter is the first coach sitting on the bench. A photographer friend took this picture.

I iced the cakes tonight and got things ready for market then blogged. I need an early bedtime tonight to catch up on my rest.
Thankful for a very supportive family and for all the blessings that this day was blessed by God with.
God Bless and Good Night.

BEAUTIFUL DAY

What a difference a day makes !!! Today is all sunshine .

Compared to yesterday's rainy  water water everywhere !!!

There is a lot of extra soil covering our pasture grass today but as time goes on the grass will grow through it and all will be fine.
After g-daughter got here this morning and we both got a little morning nap waiting on daylight I had a regular morning with chores and breakfast before she woke up.
Since she woke up earlier today I decided to go into town and run my errands this morning. We left at about 10:45 after she had her bottle.
She was really good at all the stops and had everyone laughing in Aldi when I ran into an old freind, Flora , who spoke fast spanish to her and caused her to laugh out loud.
We made stops at the bank, PO and CVS along with Aldi to get all the errands done for the week.
The temperature is low 50's and with the sunshine I only have a sweater vest on today.
We got home right on time for lunch. She ate her cereal and squash again today and loved it.
After lunch she watched from my bed as I moved some things around in the bedroom. She was so happy she was kicking and squeeling and have such a good time until she wore herself out and was ready for a nap at about 2:00. She went right to sleep in her swing and didn't wake up until her mom got here at almost 4:30.
I spent the afternoon switching between shredding old records and downloading more blog post to my latest book.
After she left I went out to do the chores and got a rude welcome as the wind had gotten up making it a lot colder than it was earlier.
After supper I worked some more on my blog book until the blurb site kept crashing again, grrrr !!!
Grateful for the blessings of this day and for the strength He gives me each day.
God Bless and Good Night.

FLOODING

Just as d-in-love left after dropping g-daughter this morning the rain started to pour down. A line of heavy rain stalled in our area for about 1 1/2 hours and dropped record breaking amounts of rain in some areas.

As the rains started I layed on the couch after getting g-daughter settled and dozed off for about an hour. I was awakened by my phone sounding warning signals as the warning of "get to higher ground now"  flooding had started quickly.

I looked out the window and our yard was a total pool of rushing water everywhere I looked.

 The creek was licking the bank tops already and the bottom pastures were quickly filling with flood waters. This picture was taken about 8:30 this morning.

I waited inside for the rain and wind to slack off before going out to do the morning chores. I figured the animals wouldn't mind staying in their warm dry houses a little longer this morning !!
Finally the rain slacked about 9:30 and I headed outside. The bottom pasture now looked like this.

When I looked at the rain gauge there was already 3" in there since last evening when I emptied it.
I spent the morning while g-daughter was napping starting my shredding of a years tax receipts making room for last years in my files.
After lunch the rain had slowed to a mist so we walked out to make some pictures of the now really high flood waters that appear to still be rising.

This is the worst flooding we have had since the new bridge and it does appear to be damming the flood waters.
We had our faithful companions to watch over us as we walked.

Back inside as I looked out the door there was water, water as far as you could see !!!

G-daughter has been eating cereal in the evenings for a couple weeks and today I tried giving her some at lunchtime and she loved it. Cereal mixed with squash taste so good !!!!

She took a really good afternoon nap after her big cereal lunch and a bottle giving me more shredding time.
I had to wake her up to get in the car seat to go pick up her brother at school. D-in-love has a class today from 2:30-4:30.
It was still raining lightly as I sat in the car rider line.

As we came back home I made this picture which is a very different scenario than usual when flooding occurs here. The new road keeps traffic high and dry after years of rescuing drivers from the flood waters that crossed the old road here.

These two watched Spongebob cartoons together for a while this afternoon.

We went outside in the 62 degree temps for a little while as g-son was amazed at all the water .

This guy is getting sooooo BIG !!!!!!

Yesterday when I was cleaning out closets I found this hip carrier and it works great for g-daughter and is so easy to get her in.

After d-in-love picked them up after her class hubbie and I did chores and watched the beautiful sunset to bring a really serene calm end to this hectic day.

After the sun went down the color reflecting in the clouds and in the remaining flood waters was so pretty.

The totals showed why the fire departments and rescue people stayed busy this morning as in the city of Hendersonville over 4 inches fell.  In our gauge a total of 3.2 inches fell since last evening. We are a little north east of the city.

Several roads washed out and the police stayed busy keeping motorist off  flood streets.

I closed the day out in my office doing weekly and month ending paperwork. Unfortunately for my business figures I am in the red to start out the year which is never a good way to start a new year .
It is only a couple dollars and I guess with the one missed snow Saturday I should be thankful it isn't much worse. It is always disappointing when I work hard and then actually loose money !!
Hoping February will be a better month. Looking back at last year I made money in January and lost money in February so maybe they will switch this year .
I am thankful to God that the flooding wasn't any worse than it was and I am very thankful that I am blessed with these grand kids.
God Bless and Good Night

NO SHADOW ON THIS GROUND HOG DAY

I tried a new morning routine with g-daughter today. Since she hadn't eaten since 4:30 when her mom brought her at 7:00 I fixed her a bottle and we went back to my bed for a change.
She drank her bottle then went straight to sleep ,giving me hope of a new routine. Not so fast as just as I dozed off she woke up fussing and had to be moved back to her regular morning sleeping spot, the swing in the living room. Oh well at least the view out the bay window in here is great this time of morning.
I went out after daylight and did the chores. The morning is warm but the rain is still misting after some pretty hard overnight showers left 3/10ths inch in the gauge.
I spent a cloudy cool morning doing housework while g-daughter slept.
We both had lunch and then she watched from the middle of our bed, happily playing with her feet while I cleaned out closets.
January is usually my "deep cleaning" month but with full time baby sitting duties this year I decided to skip around and just do some "have to" things this year. Today finished that list for upstairs. There is sill some things I wanted to get done downstairs but that can wait.
February is "tax" month for me and I plan to get started with the shredding part of this tomorrow.
The day has been foggy and the sky is filled with thick dark clouds so the ground hog did not see his shadow today anywhere . Which means we could be in for an Early Spring !!! Thanks Grady !!!
Grady is the ground hog at Chimney Rock which is the closest predictor to our area.

The heavy rain hasn't gotten to our area yet or Grady would have gotten really wet on his romp around his pen .
Our are is in the moderate severe weather risk area so hopefully we won't have any damaging storms with the 3 inches of rain that is forecast.

Looks like a great day to stay inside and keep the woodstove fed.
With the dampness today I built a small fire downstairs at lunch time just to warm the house.
We have kept the fire going and with the 48 degree temp outside and rain at 9:00 it still feels good tonight.
Thankful for the blessings of this day. God is good all the time !!!
God Bless and Good Night.

YEARLY MAMMOGRAM AND A SHOPPING TRIP

Up early to greet g-daughter to get this new month started off.
She went back to sleep after fusing for a while, bless her heart. Hubbie layed down on the couch and went I back to bed since I had a hard time going to sleep last night because of my racing mind  ,thinking of all the things I need to get done in this new month and a stuffy nose.
The smell of hubbie cooking his eggs and bacon woke me a little later and I followed my nose to the kitchen to have my own breakfast.
I did the chores and then we woke g-daughter up, which is something I hardly ever want to do, but today is my yearly mammogram appointment in Asheville and we need to leave at 9:45 to get there.
Hubbie sat in the car with g-daughter while I went in. Today was the longest I have ever had to spend in the breast center having a mammogram. They have a new 3-D version you can opt for for extra cost that the insurance companies are not covering and it takes a little longer. I took this option with the call backs I have had I figured anything I could do to give them a better look would be beneficial.
Then when I got that done before I left I had to pay the extra money in two different places which took longer but they gave me a $9 discount for paying today.
It was almost an hour before I got back to the Honda but  hubbie and g-daughter were people watching and having a good time.
From there we headed over to the outlet mall to return a t-shirt hubbie bought before Christmas and look around a little as long as g-daughter was agreeable.
She enjoyed riding in this stroller so she could look around at things.

I was shocked at how empty of customers this place was today and all the stores had 75% off sales going on. Hubbie bought a pair of socks and I found a couple spring tops and some nice on sale leggings for our small purchases of the day.
This little girl was as good as you could ask for and was all smiles while waiting for me to get her bottle heated up for her lunch.

I have to say it has been a long time since I have fed a baby in the back of a vehicle but this beautiful warm day was too nice to sit inside.

Hubbie and I waited until we got back to Fletcher and stopped at Sub-Way to have our lunch. As we ate inside g-daughter was content to watch out the window.
Our final stop was at Southern States to pick up chicken feed then we headed home.
After another bottle g-daughter sacked out for a long afternoon nap. Hubbie went outside and washed my Honda Pilot for me. I have been running it through car washes but the hood would never come clean from the sap that covered it this past Fall.
I stayed inside with g-daughter and did 3 loads of weekly laundry.
G-son started another stint with the Flat Rock Playhouse after school today which lasted until 5:00. D-in-love stayed at school and worked since g-daughter was sleeping while she waited on him.
They came in to pick g-daughter  up and headed straight to basketball practice at 6:00.  Right after practice he had a Cub Scout meeting at 7:00 for a very busy Monday night.  I remember those days !!!
As I went out to do the chores the rain started sprinkling. The temperature still in the upper 50's doesn't even require a jacket after the highs in the mid 60's today.

I fixed some chicken tenders in the pressure pot to go with the left over mac and cheese for our supper tonight.
I worked some on my next blog book. I am having to down load my blog one month at a time and it is taking a very long time but maybe I can go back to getting 6 months in each book by doing it this way. I finished down loading September tonight before watching UNC loose their first conference game to Louisville.
February 2016 came in with a mix of weather today. After a beautiful day I have sat here listening to the pouring rain tonight. With the temperature still sitting at 55 at 10:00 tonight and this being the first night in a long time we don't have a fire in either woodstove I'm hoping we have more days like this one.
Thanking God for safe travel today and praying that  it  be in His will that my exam today will be normal.
God Bless and Good Night.