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Happy Monday to you all! And here it is, the first fire in the new woodstove. It burned for a grand total of about 3 minutes and the life was snuffed out of it. We have tried all weekend to keep a fire burning in it to no avail. Hubby thinks maybe the air return wasn't installed properly or something, because it's as if the fire is getting no oxygen and we have the damper opened all the way. So, when the shop opens in an hour or so I shall call them for advice. So frustrating when we woke up to snow this morning as the next two pictures show. Wouldn't a lovely fire be nice this morning? I certainly think so. Oh well, it will all be figured out in time. It's not as if we have never lit a fire. After all, we are avid campers and have fireplaces in previous homes. It was pretty the few seconds it lasted wasn't it. Hee! Hee!

Yes we have more snow this morning. It was a surprise! When hubby left for work there wasn't a flake afalling! I went back to bed for an hour and when I next looked out the window, what a surprise greeted me. This was what happened in that hour I was asleep! It's still falling, but the temperature is supposed to reach the mid 40'sF today so I don't think it will last too long.

Next are my two latest projects. The rainbow blankets are done! I'm going to make two more soon, but I think I'll make a baby sweater or something first for a small break. I don't put the last row of color on until I know if the baby is a boy or girl or if they would like it to match the nursery. I can do that in a short time and it's easier than ripping out a row of blue on the last blanket in the closet and the baby is a girl! This is the first time I made two at one time and it worked very well.

The last picture is of the bookshelves in our cozy basement room. We have a gas firestove there. It's just the right size for the two of us to spend our evenings. We have our two reclining chairs, Chloes bed, my spinning wheel and the T.V. This is where we will be found in the winter. Hibernating with our books. As you can see, hubby and I are avid readers. So are all three of our children. Mandy has bookshelves all over the house, chock full. Jamie has a room in their basement and the office full of shelves of books. Alex would have, but he has limited space in his apartment in Tokyo. When we Skype with him, you can see piles of books all around the walls on the perimeter of the room! Plus, we still have several boxes full of his books that we're storing until he settles in one place. Yes, we most definitely love our books.

We spent the dreaded few hours with our accountant on Saturday getting the taxes done for last year. So glad that's over. Hubby always has everything done on a spreadsheet for them. It's just a matter of signing papers for the most part, but it's good to have a second set of eyes look at things.

I'm planing to make the drive to Portland, OR on Thursday and hubby will follow on Friday after work. We're delivering the Expedition to it's new owners. Then we'll come home Sunday and I'll drive back down on the next Friday to spend a week with Brad, Mandy & Piper. I'm babysitting little Miss Piper next weekend while Mom works at the youth rally at church. Dad has a flight class for his pilot license renewal. It's a great excuse to go back and for the "icing on the cake", Taci, Gracie and Teresa and I are having lunch together! Too bad I didn't know it time that I would be coming this weekend too, we could have met twice! The trip is almost 400 miles each way, so in the next two weeks I'll have 1600 miles logged on my little car driving to and from Portland. Please pray for good weather and NO SNOW!

And now, I have lots of Monday things to get accomplished, not the least is the laundry and some phone calls for hubby.

Have a wonderful day and remember, to have a friend is to have everything!
Posted by Betsy at 9:22:00 AM