Plowing the Neighborhood

After each snowfall, Pat enjoys going out and plowing the driveway and the road that runs in front of our house and the alley behind our house. It's my dad's tractor, but in the winter it comes to our house for the duration. I think it's wonderful that he loves driving the tractor and gets so much enjoyment out of what could be work. Boys and their toys!

We were surprised at the amount of snow we woke up to this morning. It sure is beautiful! Here's Pat moving snow in the alley behind our home.

What a difference a few weeks makes!

I took this photo of my home this afternoon. I love the snow. It makes everything look so clean and fresh. I don't love the frigid cold though.

I took this photo the day after Thanksgiving. My boys were trimming and cleaning up the branches from our big willow tree in the front yard. Notice the green still in the grass.

Here's a shot of them working instead of waving to me. This was only four short weeks ago. Do you remember when we didn't have a foot of snow on the ground? Raking or shoveling? I like the look of newly raked lawn, but then I love the ground below my feet visable too.

A SNOW DAY????

I awoke to a cold house this morning at 5:30 with some(?) electricity. What's up with that? About 6:00 the power went totally off. My house smelled good due to the scented candles burning. At any rate, my sweetheart of a husband went out in the -15 degree weather and started up our generator and we had enough power to plug in the blower for the wood furnace which supplied heat to our home. A camp stove supplied the heat to make breakfast. I didn't have any way to supply water for a shower or to flush the toilet. That's the worst part about living in the sticks. When the power fails, so does the water supply. Since the power outage affected all of Gresham and the outlying areas, school was cancelled. I don't mind having the children home, I don't like to waste a snow day for some stupid reason when we might need it tomorrow for the promised snow. Such is life. We keep this up and school will be getting out this year in JULY!

The First Snowmobile

Since we live in Wisconsin and we're expecting snow again tonight, I thought I would show you the first snowmobile. On our trip to Washington Island this summer we found this treasure. I actually took the picture as I thought my dad would appreciate it, but here it is for all to view. It made sense to have such a vehicle as I don't suppose there were any snowplows at the time. What other way could a person get around in their car?

Christmas Concert 2008

The Jr/Sr High Christmas Concert was last evening. I was amazed at how good both of the bands were. Apparently when you have different individuals working on the band and choir, they are able to focus and thus the musicians are better. Notice Andrew playing the tuba in the background with cheeks all puffed out!

Here is the 7th graders prior to the concert. They're really a great group of kids!

Erin and Jas talking prior to the beginning of the next piece of music. I had a great seat as I could see all of my seminary students and get a big chunk of them in one picture. Erin's LAST Christmas concert.

Erin with some of her friends and other kids before the concert. Again, a bunch of my seminary students in this shot.

Fun with Family

Thanksgiving was here and gone. We had a wonderful day with Pat and Diane's family over for the big meal. Papa and Mary came too. It's been such a long time since we've spent any time with Pat's family. Christmas is just around the corner and I've been busy decorating the house with my Christmas and winter window clings, snowmen and Nativity sets.

Andrew's basketball season has only a week left. He's been playing as a starter this year and having a great time. I'm surprised how much better he's gotten especially at defense. The offensive end of the court still needs some help. Erin's season started last week. She too is a starter and surprised me. She played great on both ends of the court. She isn't afraid to get in the fray and grab rebounds. She also had the first 4 points of their first game. I was impressed with her play. I love watching my children on the field of competition. Probably because I love competition.

Happy birthday to my sweetheart. He celebrated another birthday today. I got him yet another sweater vest from JC Penney. He wore it to work today. My girls sent his picture to channel 2 birthday club and he was quite surprised to see himself this morning. What a "Bad Oscar!"

Company and Party Time

A very sleepy day for me except I do have to accomplish some things. The past 3 days have been filled with being a hostess. Brett came back for a mission tour with his parents and I invited them to stay with us. Who wouldn't get sick of hotels day after day? We have a wonderful visit. Brett and Sammi took them around visiting people and places he knew while he served his mission here. It was great for Pat and I to get to know them better as well. Great people. They might have felt like they overstayed their welcome, but they certainly didn't.

We also got to celebrate Elder Yates' birthday on Monday night. The Fullers invited us over for a surprise party with cake. Tom loves Tina's cake! We got Elder Yates a Wisconsin footbnall T-shirt. You can't live in Wisconsin for two years and not go home with at least a T-shirt. I made some prints of pictures I took at the party as well as a few enlargements. When I went to pick them up, I had to get my SD card out to prove that I took the pictures and didn't steal someone's copyright. Is that a sign of a good photo? That's happened to me several times in the past couple of years. It's kind of a pain but a huge compliment at the same time.

Andrew has begun the basketball season and he looks really good this year. A huge improvement over what I saw last year. He's having fun and getting a lot of playing time. Just what every parents wants to see. (He didn't play much last year.) I think he's extra excited this year because he gets to play with Christian as well. You'll check out their picture at the party above.

All is well in Lyndhurst and we're staying warm and cozy except for when we're outside.

Family Pictures & More

Over the past weekend we had a house guest. His name is Brett and he wasn't really here to see anyone except Sammi. We had a great time working and playing together. With the falling of leaves and pine needles I get a lot more work in the yard. Everyone came outside and helped me rake and remove the debris and in no time we were done.
With Brett here Clint was able to practice his "arrest" skills on someone more his size. Brett has the "scars" to prove that Clint has learned a lot about taking down a criminal.We took a new family picture less than a month ago.
There's a possibility that Brett could be a part of our family at some point so I asked him if he wouldn't mind being in our picture. He agreed and below is the result. We look pretty good. The most amazing part of all is that I had half an hour to take pictures. I got pictures of our entire family, the Gourley family, Pat and I, Andrew, and Sammi and Brett.This week's Fall Wisconsin weather is predicted to be in the 60's through Thursday. For all of you who live here, enjoy! We know it won't last.

More Family Pictures

Andrew

Clint, Clare & Cami