Another Unofficial Chatterbox Thread- Everyone is Welcome!

[Alex2kMommy]

I was out of sunflower seeds for the birds so I made them a "treat" today. They got a mixture of oatmeal, museli, shredded wheat, honey graham crunch, rice cakes and peanuts...and anything else stale that we needed to get rid of. They seemed to enjoy eating it.

i called my mom this morning, and she was 'cooking some soup' for the hummingbirds. i can't believe they're still around! she was basically making some sugar water for them. she says she puts out the 'soup' and an hour or two she'll see a few birds out; she swaps out the feeder every morning, since the darn thing freezes up and has to be thawed out. poor birds!

My brother and SIL braved Costco today. They said it was crazy busy. I had them take DD with them. She really didn't want to go, but I know she's getting a little cabin fever. It did wonders for her attitude. Her and all of her friends are going a bit crazy. They all live out of town and nobody is able to drive. She has one friend that lives on a hill about 10 miles from us and they already had 2 feet of snow yesterday, one that lives 10 miles up the river, another that lives about 5 miles up a hill on the other side of the river. I think they had lots of plans for Christmas break and now the weather doesn't seem to be cooperating for them at all.

honestly, that's why we're going sledding. the boys need to get out of the house before they drive us nuts! ds4 has just been wild, and really obnoxious in his attitude. a couple times i just wanted to paddle his behind, grrrrr! so we go to the park and meet up with my neighbor friend and her little girls. the girls are great about sharing their sleds with the boys, and both girls lavish attention on ds4. he eats it up, of course.

and i get a bit of girl time with my friend. though she injured her foot yesterday and saw the doc today; turns out she tore some soft tissue and is now in a boot and on crutches for a few weeks!

so i told her to send the girls to the park, i'd meet them there and the kids could play, and we'd walk the girls home afterward. turns out her brother is visiting, so after a bit he wandered to the park and later saw the girls home. it was nice to get out of the house, but i still feel like i'm trying to warm up!

 

[sameyeyam]

I didn't know cedar trees have deep roots. sounds like you guys had a lot of logic in your yard layout.

i also cringe when they take down a ton of trees but leave a few all by themselves. i wonder, too, about the trees in our neighborhood. some folks have thinned out the iffy ones, or taken ones down that were blocking a view or some such thing. what does that do for the remaining ones?

Actually we did very little with our yard layout. Mother Nature did most of the work. We always get people telling us how nice our yard looks and wanting to know how we did it. Well we just cut out the stuff that was overgrown and left the wild stuff that looked nice. We left all of the ferns, Oregon grape, snow berries, skunk cabbage, bear grass, fox glove, daisies, huckleberry bushes, etc. and got rid of the brush and blackberry vines. Mother Nature knows what works where, so we go with her advice. Of course we had to take out trees that were leaning towards the house. We have lots of trees that lean and look like they are about to fall down, but as long as it's not towards the house we let it be.

i called my mom this morning, and she was 'cooking some soup' for the hummingbirds. i can't believe they're still around! she was basically making some sugar water for them. she says she puts out the 'soup' and an hour or two she'll see a few birds out; she swaps out the feeder every morning, since the darn thing freezes up and has to be thawed out. poor birds!


honestly, that's why we're going sledding. the boys need to get out of the house before they drive us nuts! ds4 has just been wild, and really obnoxious in his attitude. a couple times i just wanted to paddle his behind, grrrrr! so we go to the park and meet up with my neighbor friend and her little girls. the girls are great about sharing their sleds with the boys, and both girls lavish attention on ds4. he eats it up, of course.

and i get a bit of girl time with my friend. though she injured her foot yesterday and saw the doc today; turns out she tore some soft tissue and is now in a boot and on crutches for a few weeks!

so i told her to send the girls to the park, i'd meet them there and the kids could play, and we'd walk the girls home afterward. turns out her brother is visiting, so after a bit he wandered to the park and later saw the girls home. it was nice to get out of the house, but i still feel like i'm trying to warm up!

DS is actually starting to get a little bit tired of the snow. The first few days he was excited and sledding all over the place. But now he and my nephews are not nearly as thrilled with all this snow.

 

[sameyeyam]

Glad to know your mom's feeding the hummingbirds, or Honey Birds as DD used to call them. We get some in the summer, but they don't tend to hang out up here on the hill in the winter. Guess it's a little too cold for them. But we sure do get a lot of birds. I had lots of sparrows and juncos today. Then I moved the bowl of dog water over for them to get a drink. I don't usually worry about giving them water because we have a creek and 2 of the neighbors have big ponds. But I was worried that most of them could be frozen over. They didn't really drink much water, so they must still be getting it from the creek.

 

[Alex2kMommy]

DS is actually starting to get a little bit tired of the snow. The first few days he was excited and sledding all over the place. But now he and my nephews are not nearly as thrilled with all this snow.

i suspect my boys would feel the same, if they were old enough to be out in it all day and running wild.

however, since they're not, i take them out in it for a few hours a day. the sledding hill (or slope, really... hill is a bit generous) in the park is a sheet of compact snow and ice now. well, before tonight's snow anyway. and the older kids build a little hump in the middle, so the kids shoot for that so they can try to catch some air on the way down.

 

[sameyeyam]

Think I'm going to head to bed. Happy Dreams and stay warm!

 

[Alex2kMommy]

Glad to know your mom's feeding the hummingbirds, or Honey Birds as DD used to call them. We get some in the summer, but they don't tend to hang out up here on the hill in the winter. Guess it's a little too cold for them. But we sure do get a lot of birds. I had lots of sparrows and juncos today. Then I moved the bowl of dog water over for them to get a drink. I don't usually worry about giving them water because we have a creek and 2 of the neighbors have big ponds. But I was worried that most of them could be frozen over. They didn't really drink much water, so they must still be getting it from the creek.

i don't know what i thought about hummingbirds... maybe that they migrate? or hibernate? you just don't see them this time of year. except at my mom's, i guess.

 

[Alex2kMommy]

Think I'm going to head to bed. Happy Dreams and stay warm!

good night, sam!

i'm watching a hallmark christmas special; gotta see how it ends.

 

[sameyeyam]

i don't know what i thought about hummingbirds... maybe that they migrate? or hibernate? you just don't see them this time of year. except at my mom's, i guess.

Most of them migrate, but in the Willamette Valley some of them do stay around all winter for some reason. So there are lots of people that keep food out for them year round. When we lived downtown I kept food out for them in the winter. During the summer I believe the recipe was 4 parts water, 1 part sugar. Recipe in the winter changes to 3 parts water, 1 part sugar...if I remember correctly.

 

[sameyeyam]

Good Morning Hyena Folk! Another beautiful winter wonderland type of day out there. We have boatloads of snow! We are supposed to get a little bit of freezing rain today. But since DH has today off I think I'm going to see if he will take us to town this morning to do a little shopping before the roads get to slickery. Think it might be a good idea to head north to Longview and try to stay away from the Gorge as much as possible.

 

[Alex2kMommy]

Good morning, hyenas!
The weather outside is very quiet, and very white! DH insisted on making a Starbucks run (we have a drive-thru, so he doesn't have to get out of the car on his crutches in the ice), and he made it back just fine, thank goodness. I'll ask him to guesstimate how much snow there is. I have no idea, but it's quite a bit more than the last snow!

 

[eatmypixiedust]

I was rudely awakened this morning by the incessant hammering of the repairmen on the roof. I had no idea they worked on Sundays. We have a small water stain on the ceiling in the living room and we have a leak in our front door (when it rains all the water gets in).

My bf and I found a new Persian kabob place to eat at yesterday. Their food was excellent and under $10/EA. I gave his mom a huge basket I had made of goodies for her and her family for Christmas. I also gave my bf's 2 cousins and his bro and his bro's gf, movie tickets.

I'm going to go get ready. I got comfy and soft arm warmers from GAP for half price. They are perfect for the chilly weather. We are planning to watch a movie, not sure which one yet. Maybe Yes Man w/ Jim Carrey. That looks funny or we will watch 7 Pounds or The Tale of Desperaux. I hope you guys have a good day.

 

[staley7580]

I believe that Al Gore has been lying to us all. The polar caps might be shrinking, but I can tell you where they have relocated!

I know, right.

Snow, snow, and more snow here. We have about 6 or 7 inches, with about a half in of ice on top. They went out to play, and Mikalah kept getting stuck in it. Crunch, crunch, crunch. We got the wintery mix a bit today.. but now??? Its snowing like CRAZY! This is my absolute favorite weather. I am loving it.

 

[tinkermell]

Burrrrrr!! You guys are making me cold with all your talk about snow. But it does sound like alot of fun!

So my big announcement for the day, is that I finished the aprons! Woo hoo!! Man that took me a long time. I will post pics tomorrow If i can.

Everyone stay cozy, safe and warm!!!

 

[staley7580]

Burrrrrr!! You guys are making me cold with all your talk about snow. But it does sound like alot of fun!

So my big announcement for the day, is that I finished the aprons! Woo hoo!! Man that took me a long time. I will post pics tomorrow If i can.

Everyone stay cozy, safe and warm!!!

Very cool!!!

 

[eatmypixiedust]

Hello Hyenas! I just got to DL. I'm here in search of a santa hat for my company christmas party. I know, I'm nuts but I had nothing else to do

 

[sameyeyam]

We have gone beyond the pretty snow stage. This stuff is getting downright scary now. Every day we are getting about 4-6 inches. Every day we are shoveling that much off the trampoline. I am running out of nearby room to stack the snow. If we measure the snow with a ruler we have only about 2 feet. But I bet it has snowed at least 3-4 feet. It is just very light fluffy snow and the weight it packing it down each day, so it's not really as deep as it would be if you added each day together. Does that make sense?

Anyway, DH and I were both commenting this evening that we've never seen anything like this here for so long. We have another 4 inches forecast for this evening and more snow off and on until next Saturday.

I'm starting to wonder how much snow our roof can hold and whether or not we should get up on the roof and start shoveling it off??? We have snowmobiles and four wheelers out on our main roads. We went to town today and I-5 has basically 1 lane each way.

I was shoveling the trampoline off again today for the second time and jumped off the deck. I ended up in a snow drift with snow up to my bum! We are having to shovel paths for the animals to walk in otherwise they sink in the snow. The poor kitties were out today trying to chase birds and kept sinking in snow over their heads.

 

[sameyeyam]

My Christmas shopping is officially done. If I forgot it, oh well, I forgot it! Tomorrow DH has to be at work at 7am, so Judy (my friend that I carpool with) and I are riding in with him around 5:30am. That will give him time to drop us off and get back to the other side of Vancouver for work. There is no way either her or I want to try to drive in this stuff.

We picked up a couple of prime ribs for our holiday dinner. We usually get 2 - 10 lb prime ribs. We figured that was better than getting a 20 lb. one. We have no idea if anybody will even be able to make it to our house.

 

[Alex2kMommy]

it's after midnight, and i was ready to head to bed over an hour ago. unfortunately dh had a nice fire going in the fireplace, and it's still going.

i poked it a bit ago, trying to break up all the stuff that's in there and burning, but that just seemed to make it burn even hotter! i see it's slowly dying down now, so maybe i can get to bed in a bit. i'm pooped!

i checked and it's still snowing. you can just barely make out the divots in the snow from our earlier activity. i'm hoping dh does not feel compelled to drive into seattle tomorrow...

 

[eatmypixiedust]

Got home from DL close to 10pm. The traffic wasn't bad at all and I was able to get home within an hour. The park was busy but I mostly stayed in the shops. I was surprised and happy to find out that all their Christmas merchandise was 50% off! I went nuts and bought a Jim Shore Tinkerbell figurine. She's sitting on top of a bell and it was only $14. They had another one of Tink holding snowflakes but I thought the one of her sitting on the bell was cuter. They also let me use my AP discount which also came in handy. I also bought 3 santa hats: one is a red one with a Minnie Mouse bow in the front and has snowflakes stitched all over it. The other is a Santa Mickey plush sticking out of a chimney with christmas lights around it that light up. The 3rd is a purple one with Tinkerbell on it. There was also a snowman pin I saw a few months ago. He has mickey ears and mickey pants and it was too expensive. I saw it today and it was half off so I bought it. That and the Cinderella ornament from their Christmas Through the Years Collection. She's holding a red dress with a tag that says: "happy holidays 2009." I took some pics of the castle which I will upload for you guys to see.

Oooh and I got my AP newsletter in the mail. They said that they redid the walkthrough for Sleeping Beauty's Castle and they will reopen it. I can't wait to see it! It was blocked off when I went They added some new scenes and special effects to it. They said that for those who are handicapped or have trouble walking up stairs, they have a special viewing room on the ground floor that allows guests to experience a virtual version of it.

 

[staley7580]

I THINK all this snow might be my fault. Sorry guys. Frelan and I were talking about how great it would be if we got snowed in during his two weeks off from work. Who would have thought it would actually happen?? We have another two inches at least here in Lakewood.. Totally crazy. I still love it.

We should be melting here this week though.... We are looking at melting.....snowing...melting....snowing....melting....snowing. Supposed to be up in the 40s by the weekend.