For Today...and other thoughts!

outside my window... 20℉, a dark snowy wonderland.

i am thinking... about everything I need to do tomorrow.

i am thankful for...encouraging friends!

i am wearing... my jammies and slippers.

i am remembering... advice given to me today...let it go, they didn't know any better!

i am going... to recommit to my exercise program...again.

i am currently reading... Lunch at the Piccadilly by Clyde Edgerton (great so far!)

i am hoping... to steadily get this house in order!

on my mind...what do start working on first!

noticing that... no matter how much I dread starting a chore, I always feel so accomplished after it's completed!

pondering these words... Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. -Robert Heinlein

from the kitchen... well, in the morning...AppleJacks!

around the house... a rotten snoring dog, cat, AND husband.

one of my favorite things... daisies.
i'm creating... a new desktop to share.

a few plans for the rest of the week... scrapping, cleaning, exercising...not necessarily in that order!

one picture to share...

To participate in For Today, head over to The Simple Woman's Daybook every Monday!

Isn't that a fun thing? I love that The Simple Woman does that every Monday. You can go there and read hundreds of others' thoughts for the day!

Ok, I finally got enough of my boxes unpacked and put away, and now...you can see the floor in the living room! I must say, I feel like I have put this blog on the back burner because of moving and I did not want to do that. On the other hand, the clutter has been driving me absolutely mad. And, when I am that crazy, I can't think, let alone design or write!

SO...no more excuses! The living room is more than a hall of boxes now, I can resume my exercise routine, and maybe I can think clearly enough to write! First things first...a new desktop for March has to be made! In the next day or two, I'll get back to posting recipes freebies, and maybe even a few digi scrapping goodies I made myself! Thanks to everyone for hanging in there with me through the moving roller coaster! Hopefully I can start having life adventures instead of constant unpacking!

Niagara Falls!

Though yesterday was my Rob's birthday, I am a little slow getting the pictures edited! I'm also a little late sharing the rest of my Valentine's Day...but better late than never right?!

Rob and I made an impulse decision and drove up to Niagara Falls, NY for the evening for Valentine's Day. It was beautiful, of course! We had been years before, but in August, and we couldn't wait to see the Falls in their winter glory. They didn't disappoint! I know I keep saying it, but every time I see an undisturbed blanket of snow beneath a canopy of trees, I think Narnia. The spray from the falls made everything that much more beautiful! It was magical, even though we got there a little late and only had about thirty minutes of daylight left.

The funny part of our trip was dinner. We didn't really make plans, so we decided to look up places on our GPS. We settled on The Cheesecake Factory. My logic was that everyone else would be going to Italian or steak house type restaurants, so we wouldn't have to wait too long. Boy was I wrong! We parked and headed into the huge Galleria Mall in Buffalo, NY and saw literally hundreds of people milling around outside the restaurant. They told Rob it was a three hour wait! No wonder there were people sitting on the floor...even in their dress clothes! After we had a good laugh that all those people were actually OK with waiting three hours, we headed to P.F. Chang, because there wasn't a line. Again, three hours. Across the street at Olive Garden? Three hours. We were amazed. In the car outside of the third restaurant that told us we wouldn't even be seated until 11 pm, we were about to give up and go home for sandwiches! We noticed there was also a Smokey Bones in the same parking lot, so Rob called them. Their wait was only 40 minutes! So, of course we headed for Smokey Bones and waited for a table. It turned out to be one of the best meals we have had lately! Our night was saved!

The best part? We waited 40 minutes, ordered, ate our meal, and drove the hour home in the snow before we ever would have been seated at any of the other restaurants! We felt pretty darn good about that! In fact, the entire ride home, we kept talking about how we'd still be waiting to eat! We turned in around 11:30 that night...we wouldn't have even ordered by that point if we had decided to wait at the Galleria restaurants! So, thank goodness for Smokey Bones!

(On a side note, I am making a very late resolution to do better about being late with posting events!!!)

Our Ice Castle Adventure!

I had quite an eventful Valentine's Day weekend! So eventful, I'm going to break it up into two posts!
Saturday, Rob and I drove up to Mayville, NY for the Ice Fest on Lake Chautaqua. Rob has fond childhood memories of seeing their annual Ice Castle, and he couldn't wait to take me for the first time. We had a lot of fun, even though the high was twenty-two degrees, and it was snowing and windy. I always dream really big, so the ice castle was a bit smaller than I though it'd be...but it was still really neat! Just think...they carve all that ice out of the lake and build with it. It was really something. I'm going to call it a fort though, because that's more what it looked like to me!

The ice fort wasn't the only thing to see...I was amazed at the number of people out on the lake. It was completely frozen, and there must have been at least fifty, probably more like one hundred people on the water at once. Not only were they ice fishing, they were snow mobiling! We walked about 5 or 6 yards out on the ice, and I couldn't believe I was on ice. It felt like concrete! It was a little unnerving to think there wasn't a support system underneath us though, so we only stayed out for a minute or two. Further down the way, we made it to what is usually the beach. Looking out, it just looked like a huge field, but the signs were so ironic, I had to catch it! I think that was one of my favorite sightings at the festival!

Of course, the best part of any festival is the food! I had saved all of my calories for having a funnel cake, but Rob was looking forward to other goodies. There was a plethera of choices and we would have liked to try each one, but I stuck with my old favorite, and Rob landed at the German Food vendor. He loves spicy things, so his spicy sausage dog hit the spot! I enjoyed the customer ahead of us immensely. Bless his heart, he asked the German woman, serving German food, if she had any Italian sausage. She just looked at him for a second, then said,"No! I'm German!"

After eating, we browsed the retail vendors and found loads of fun stuff. We really enjoyed the handmand clothing. The hats alone were worth the trip! I wasn't brave enough to buy a quirky one, but I wish I had gone for my favorite now. I LOVE the beach, and the crab hat was calling my name. I thought it'd be a good hat to wear when feeling crabby too, that way everyone would know not to mess with me!

All in all, my first Ice Fest was great! I lasted about three hours before telling Rob I thought I needed to head for a building to warm up...that's pretty good for a Southern girl! We took the long way back, for more snow pictures, and made a huge pot of coffe to warm up when we made it home. Maybe next year I won't be too chicken to try to snow mobile rides!