Spring is on hold again.

We were lucky enough to avoid a foot of snow, but we still got wintry weather. It started to sleet on Friday and we had a couple inches of snow on the ground on Saturday. It was really windy and it snowed on and of all day. We just stayed home. There was very little traffic on the four lane so we took that to mean that the roads weren't so hot.

Today the sun is out and the wind went down. this last batch of snow should melt quickly. Normally I love spring, but this one has been the worst one that I can remember. I thought I'd be using my clothesline regularly, watching Carly play at the park, and running on the trail a few times a week. This had better be the last of the snow. I can't believe I'm saying that the last weekend of April.

I'm finally feeling better. I was sick all last week. It started on Monday morning and by Tuesday I was feeling awful - stuffed up head, ears popping, sore throat, constant nose blowing. I finally had the opportunity to use the neti pot I bought last year. It certainly does a good job clearing out your nasal passages, but I did not enjoy the process of actually using it very much. I stayed home from school on Wednesday. Friday was probably the only day at school that I wasn't miserable.

On Tuesday I had a scheduled appointment with my doctor to check out a mole on my neck that had taken on a life of it's own in the past couple of weeks. If you were to go to the picture of Al Franken and me (and really everyone should take a second look at that one, just for good times) you'd see a red spot on my neck. I've had this for a couple of years and really should have had a dermatologist take a look at it a while back. About 3 weeks ago I casually scratched my neck and made it bleed - a lot. This red bump became very swollen and I continued to have problems with it bleeding when I'd towel off after a shower or somehow rub it against something. There is only one dermatologist on the Iron Range and I couldn't get in with him until August. My final straw came when I took off the lanyard with my school ID in the car and made it bleed like crazy - thankfully I have a stash of Dairy Queen napkins in the glove box. I went straight home and made an appointment with my regular doctor. I also started wearing a bandage on my neck.

I went in Tuesday and Dr. Rudberg said he it looked like blood vessels had pooled around the cut and he scheduled me to see one of the clinic surgeons the next day - the day that I had already decided to call in sick - so that worked out well. The surgeon gave me a prescription for an antibiotic since the site of the wound was infected. He was pretty quick to cut out the offending spot and I have four stitches that will come out on Monday. I don't think the scarring will be too bad. It looks like it is healing up well.

This is the 4th time I've had a spot removed and then stitched up. They'll test it at the lab as well. It won't be the last I do this either. I hate this. I regret using tanning beds during the 90s and I really regret laying out in the sun all of those years. On Friday the "Today's Special Value" at QVC was a self tanner kit from Bare Minerals that should last the entire summer. I bought it. I like having a tan in the summer, but it's going to be a fake one from now on. I hope my girls do not inherit my skin issues and I'm glad that I have always been good about using sunscreen on them. As long as they live in my house, they will never use tanning beds. I don't care if it's prom time. I will pay to have them get a good spray tan.

No big plans for today - laundry, maybe buy groceries. I have the movie "She's the Man" from Netflix, so I'll watch that - I've been told it's funny. I hope to see very little snow on the ground at the end of the day.

Signs of Spring

Paul dug out Ellen's old bike Saturday and even managed to find the training wheels for it. Carly took a 3+ hour nap yesterday afternoon, so she didn't get to try it out then. We took it out today and she did well. She was used to her smaller bike, so she had to get the feel for the bigger bike. I think I'm going to do it like we did with Ellen - put the bike in the back of the car and drive over to the bike path, so she can just ride without having to worry about traffic. I'm pretty sure Ellen did not master riding without training wheels until after kindergarten, so I don't expect we'll be taking the training wheels off this summer.

Paul is upstairs watching the Twins game. Ellen went to this game with her class as part of the DARE program. She was really excited to go. About 400 k ids from our area were going and sitting together. They left around 6:45 this morning. We now know that Ellen can get ready in less than 15 minutes when she really wants to go someplace. That doesn't happen on school mornings. They were grilling hot dogs before the game outside of the Metrodome. Then they were going to go onto the field to watch batting practice and to take part in a "parade" on the field. We've seen the cameras zoom into the Dare section - all of the kids were wearing their red shirts. We haven't seen any of the N-K kids. I regret not making a sign for her that said, "I DARE you to circle me, Bert!" I know she would have gotten on camera. I could have made one that rolled up and wouldn't have been a big deal to take with them. Oh well.

Paul was feeling rather nervous about sending her to downtown Mpls, but when the main chaperon is the chief of police you feel better about it. We sent her with a cell phone and she called us a couple of times - once while on the bus and another time when they were about to go onto the field - she was really excited about that part. We're really looking forward to hearing about her day. They just went into extra innings.

I'm making spaghetti tonight using a recipe from Oprah magazine from a few years ago. I used to make it often and haven't made it in a few years. I had to call Nancy to get the directions since I didn't have the original recipe or have it written down on a card. Thanks, Nancy! We also bought the ingredients to make fish tacos with mango salsa. I had fish tacos at a restaurant on Sanibel a couple years ago and they were really good. A recipe was in the Hibbing paper today, so that prompted us to finally try making them at home. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Not much else to report here. The sun finally came out!

eta - The Twins won!

My Early Earth Day Post

Earlier this year I bought a few grocery bags from my local grocery store and loved them. Unfortunately one was ruined when a handle slipped from my hand and a jar of spaghetti sauce broke in the bag. I was down to three - which is not enough when I fill up the cart. I asked at customer service if they planned to get more and they said they had placed another order and they'd be in soon.

Today we went shopping and they had new bags in stock. These are even better than the previous ones. They still have the insert at the bottom that supports the bottom - a lot of bags don't have that. But these fold up easily and snap shut so that they take up very little space. I bought 5 of them today and plan to keep a few in my car and three in Paul's truck for when he buys groceries. Before he said he wouldn't use them even though he liked using mine, but he didn't want a bunch of bags in the back seat of his truck. When he saw how they folded up he said he'd take them. I'm kind of tempted to buy some to give to people. I think people would buy them and use them when they see just how much better they are than a plastic or paper bag.

I also started using my clothesline this weekend. I hung out jeans and sheets yesterday. Today I have rest of the laundry out there. Hopefully we'll have some warm, breezy weekends this spring so that I can really take advantage of the clothesline.

The snow is melting!

The sky is sunny and there is little wind today. We're supposed to get some higher temps this week, so I do think the snow will go quickly. We didn't have school on Friday - no one in the area did. This storm didn't have large amounts of snow, but we had really high winds and white out conditions. The storm started to let up around noon on Friday.

We didn't do too much with our days off - surfed the internet, watched tv - Paul and Ellen are into the Star Wars movies on Spike tv. I did some work around the house and did a couple of Turbo Jam dvds. Yesterday we did a major grocery shopping trip and a trip to the bottle shop to get some beer - we've been out for far too long. We also put Carly's hair in hot rollers. She refused to pose for pictures. I love seeing her with a head full of curlers.

No big plans for today. I'd love to do a Target run, but I'm trying really hard not to shop for entertainment and that is all it would be. I have the movie "No Reservations" from Netflix and plan to watch it. I also started to read the book about boy soldiers in Africa that I borrowed from Nancy. I can't think of the title, but no one would ever consider it to be a light read. I'll read more from it today.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Tried a new recipe yesterday

I got this recipe from a blog done by the winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off a couple years ago. She's the one who made a chicken & stuffing dinner using frozen waffle sticks. This recipe made 22 cookies and used items that I had on hand - very easy. I didn't follow the directions to a T. I mixed all of the sugars and wet items, then mixed in all the dry ingredients before adding the chocolate. I didn't have the peanut butter cups so I cut up one of the 5000 candy bars we got from Skippy.

One Bowl Peanut Butter & Milk Chocolate Cookies

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup all purpose or white whole wheat flour (95 grams)
15 miniature peanut butter cups, frozen and chopped or 3-4 oz milk chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, beat together butter and both sugars. You can use an electric mixer, but I used a spoon. Beat in the peanut butter, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Beat vigorously and thoroughly to distribute baking soda and salt, scraping sides as you go, then add the egg and beat just until it is mixed in. Add the flour and stir, do not beat, until it is absorbed, then mix in the cups.

Using a small cookie scoop (2 tsp) or a rounded teaspoon, drop dough onto two ungreased cookie sheets, 10-12 cookies to a sheet. Flatten tops slightly. Bake on center rack, one sheet at a time for 12 minutes or until cookies appear set.

Makes 20-24 cookies

Paul really liked them and we have few left today.

Enough!

We woke up to several more inches of snow on the ground this morning. We know that nearby towns got over 20 inches of snow in this storm, so we are right in that category. All of the schools on the Iron Range are closed for the day. What's crazy is that a town about 30 miles south of us only got 2 inches - they were only 2 hours late. I really should have got out to take pictures before Paul plowed snow, because when the driveway and streets are cleared it doesn't look all that bad. When you view the above photos I think it is important to remind you that on Saturday we had no snow.

Hopefully this will melt quickly.

No school, April 7th

We just got the call for Nashwauk-Keewatin. Paul is expecting his call any time now. I went to a Duluth News site and saw that most schools in our area have cancelled for tommorow. This is my first April snow day. Crazy.