It’s hard to believe after seeing mountains of snow for weeks now, but I’m actually seeing the grass in some areas!  It’s been getting up in the upper 40’s around here during the day the last few days, plus it rained yesterday, so alot of the snow has melted.  It’s actually good that it’s melting slowly so we don’t have too much flooding, but it’s so tiring to look at.  I mean imagine it, 4 feet of snow, plus the piles you threw up on top of that when you were digging out your sidewalks and driveways, plus the piles the plow trucks pushed into your yard when they plowed the street.  I swear that some of the piles in the front yard were close to 8 feet tall.  Dave even got the final area approaching the hot tub dug out on Sunday, so we actually got to get in for the first time in weeks that night.  It was heavenly!!

Jasper has a cold. :(  He’s just so sad looking.  His little kitty nose is so stuffed up and he just looks at me with his sad brown eyes.  I feel bad for him.  He’s prone to get a cold or an allergy attack here and there, and I guess it was just time for him to get one.  He started sneezing alot and had a watery eye which is always the first sign … then on Friday he came downstairs and I noticed he was breathing weird because his nose was stuffed up.  He’s still sneezing around alot and having the stuffy nose.  I’m making sure he gets lots of snuggles.  Not much more you can do for a cold in a cat I don’t think. *sigh*  Here he is curled up beside me on a towel earlier today napping.  Isn’t he just the sweetest thing?  He will soon be 17 years old.  We adopted him from a rescue place having adoptions at Pet Smart in April of 1999 and he was almost 6 years old when we got him.  Greatest choice of our lives.

Back later to chat more.  Dave is on his way home from work now, so I better get my butt in gear and do something.  I either have to cook or get out the soup or cereal. *grin*

I think I’ve mentioned before that there is a neighborhood cat that comes to visit me alot … I call him George or Georgie.  He’s been wandering around here for probably 8 years or so and evidently belongs to a girl in the neighborhood.  He is just the sweetest cat.  If I’m out front and he sees me, he will come running to see me.  If I’m not outside and he’s making his rounds through the neighborhood, he will climb the fence around our back yard and climb up the side of my deck and just sit and look adorable at my deck door until I realize he’s there and come visit him.  If it’s warm, I will go out and spend time with him on the deck until he decides it’s time to move on to the next house.  If it’s cold, I let him come in the house and have some kitty food.  He’s usually ready to go right back out after he eats a little snack.  Which is good, because my cats don’t like me letting in a “strange” cat.  LOL  You’d think since he has been coming to visit for so many years, that they wouldn’t consider him a stranger anymore, but it doesn’t seem to work that way in their minds.

So anyway, I’m irritated this morning because he is outside!  My deck is still buried from the 4 FEET of snow that we got over the last two weeks, but I heard noises up there while I was watching Good Morning America and drinking coffee.  I went to check, and it was Georgie scratching on the screen door to let me know that he was there.  I don’t even know how he climbed all that snow!  He is just the sweetest thing, but I really wish they hadn’t let him outside to roam yet.  The sidewalks are NOT clean anywhere in the neighborhood.  The plows made the 4 foot pils about 8 feet high when they plowed the streets, so there’s no way anyone is unburying them.  I just worry that people won’t see him when he’s wandering in the streets.  He’s my little buddy and I don’t want him to get hit.  I wish his owners had just kept him in the house for awhile longer.  I realize he’s probably driving them crazy wanting to go out, because Jasper is doing the same thing to me because he wants to go play in the backyard, but safety is more important to me than getting rid of the nuissance of them meowing and fussing at the door.  Know what I mean?  I was very happy to see him, but I was also irritated because it’s not safe. :(  I let him in and he ate and then I brought him downstairs for a little while to pet him, then I let him out the front door where there isn’t as much snow as there was on the deck.  I wish I could have kept him in, but my cats would have been fighting with him.  Stay safe Georgie, I love you!

Isn’t he just the cutest?  He reminds me alot of my Bubba.

**  drumbroll please!  **

SHERRY WESCOTT from If I Could Set My Soul Free

Thanks to everyone that visited my blog and entered my drawing.  It was great to meet you all and I will definately be visiting blogs again now that there isn’t a time constraint and I can make my way around more leisurely to chat.

Sherry, I will e-mail you shortly to get your address for mailing your goodie box.  Congratulations!

Comments for my OWOH Drawing closed at midnight ET last night.  I will be getting my hubby off on his business trip this afternoon, then later in the afternoon/evening, I will be doing the drawing for a winner.  Stay tuned to see if you get to receive my box of goodies! :)  Thanks to all that visited and participated.  I have had a blast entering drawings myself and am going to take more time to visit the blogs again now that the big event is over.

Well, the last couple of weeks have been … interesting!  :)  I’ve mentioned before that we generally don’t have too much of a winter her in Maryland right?  Several winters will go by and we will hardly get any snow at all.  Maybe 5 or 6 inches a pop a couple of times or something if even that.  We do have a history of getting a big 1 or 2 footer about every 5 or 10 years though.  Well, this year it decided to give us some excitment.  About a week before Christmas, we had a snowstorm that gave us about 18 inches of snow.  That was big for us.  Then we had several more smaller ones.  One was 4 or 5 inches, another was 8 inches, a couple more were a 2 or 3 inches.  Then we heard we were going to get a big storm the weekend before this past one.  At first they weren’t telling us any accumulationg, then we started hearing the 8 to 12 inch range … then it went up to 10 to 15 … then it was up to 12 to 24 … then it was up to 15 to 30.  By the time the storm got here, it was massive.  We got more than 30 inches of snow here in the town where I live.  Some towns got a foot less and some got a bit more.  Then to top it all off, about 3 or 4 days later, another storm came in and we got another 18 inches.  Yes, within’ a weeks time, we had 4 FEET of snow.  Here are a few pics taken during the 30″ storm … these don’t even show the next foot and a half that we got a few days later.  LOL

A crazy amount of snow, don’tcha think?  They are calling for an inch or two today, but after practically 50″, a couple of inches is going to feel like rain.  LOL

Dave is going on a business trip to Fort Bragg, NC today.  He will be back Wednesday.  The kitties and I will have to entertain ourselves for a couple fo days.  We will miss him!

Hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day yesterday.  We did.  We went to Brunch at a nice restaurant down the street to start the day off and then we went out to dinner in the evening and topped the night off with a nice quiet Starbucks visit to read a little, then coming home to watch Cold Case.  It was a great day.  Quiet and low key.

I’ll be back to talk again soon.  I have to go make sure Dave has everything he needs for his trip, then we are going to go grab some lunch before he has to head to the airport this afternoon.

Wow … we are really getting slammed with snow this year.  In normal years here in Maryland, we don’t get a great amount of snow in the part that I live in.  Sometimes hardly a storm at all and other times a few inches here or there.  Every 5 or 10 years though, we get hit with a 1 to 3 foot snowfall.  This year, we are about to get it a second time!  The week before Christmas, we had close to 2 FEET of snow one Friday/Saturday.  We’ve had a few smaller storms since then.  I think there were a couple of 4 inch ones and then we had an 8 inch one last weekend.  Now tomorrow into Saturday we are supposed to get 1 to 2 FEET again.  This just might be the most snow we have ever gotten around here … at least as far back as I was living here and remember.

The grocery store was super fun today.  *eyeroll*  Do you guys get the “panic” around you when it snows too?  It seems anytime snow is mentioned, even if it’s only flurries or a dusting, EVERYONE has to run to the grocery store.  The bread isle was 50% empty today when I was there … the chip aisle was super hard hit and probably only had about 25% left although there was a guy stocking when I was there.  At least Safeway planned ahead this time and had every register open.  Last time we had the 2 footer, it was not as smooth and you had long waits to check out.

Time for bed.  Just had to come vent about the snow.

go to the grocery store for me? LOL I tell ya, for some reason, I just hate to make that journey anymore. I didn’t used to mind it, but lately it just seems like more and more of a chore. I HAVE to do it today though because we need some things, so I guess I will make my way over after while. I think I’ll procrastinate until late afternoon though.

Is anyone else tired of all the reruns on TV? We had about 4 to 6 weeks of them while all of the holiday shows were on, then finally we got some new shows a couple of weeks ago and ALREADY we are back in reruns? What is up with that??? I’ll be happy when some of the late seasons start … like Survivor which is next month and Army Wives which is in April.

I got a new laptop last week. I’m still trying to get everything set up properly on it. It’s amazing how many little things you don’t think about until you go to use it.

Gotta go have some lunch. Have a great day everyone!

I ran across this awesome little to-do last year and had a blast entering all of the giveaways and chatting with lots of new people.  This year’s Giveaway has started as of today, so I decided to enter this year and give away a few goodies of my own! :)  I gathered up a few of my favorite things to share with the lucky winner as you will see below:

For my favorite color, there is a Purple Key Fob.  For my favorite craft, there is a Counted Cross Stitch carousel sampler.  For my favorite past time of reading, there are some magnetic bookmarks.  And for a few other favorites, there is a Pink Avon Breast Cancer Awareness water bottle, a box of Yankee Candle Gel car fresheners, a box of Glade Dewberry scented oil refills, and a mint sachet.  I might think of a few more goodies to add in by the time I ship it next month. :)  ** Nothing is handmade, just things I love! **

If you would like to enter my giveaway, simply leave me a comment including a link to your blog if you have one, or an email address to contact you at if you don’t.  I will be accepting entries until midnight on February 14th EST, and then will randomly choose a winner who will be announced on February 15th.

If you would like to participate in the Giveaway yourself, just click on the tag at the top of my post and it will lead you directly to Lisa’s site.  She started this event up 4 years ago and puts in a ton of work every year for all of our enjoyment.  Thanks Lisa!

And for all for all of my new blog friends visiting me for the first time, here is a little about me:

I’m Lynn and I’m 36.  I live in Crofton, Maryland (US) now … grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia.  I’m married to my wonderful husband Dave who I met on AOL 12 years ago.  We’ve been married for almost 5 1/2 years now.  We are the proud parents of 5 cats.  Jasper, Lucy, Ginger, Bubba and Missy.  I love to read (mostly Harlequin/Silhouette romances, Danielle Steel and the occassional celebrity bio.)  I also love to cross stitch and I occasionally get out the yarn to crochet a little.  I’m a big fan of pogo.com games and have also become addicted to a bunch of the farm and cafe games on Facebook.  If you play, feel free to friend me to be your neighbor! (RLR888@aol.com)  I’m a big Starbucks Cafe Mocha addict … although I’m restricting myself to one a week now because I’m trying to lose some weight.  I’m having withdrawal, but I’ll live! *grin*  Tell me about you!

I am vowing to blog much more in 2010 … I know I’m getting off to a late start, but bear with me.  LOL  I will do better and will get my blog built up to be the something special like I want this year!!

Can you believe we are almost a full month into the year already?  Wasn’t it just Christmas a couple of days ago?  In all honesty, I don’t even have my Christmas tree taken down yet.  LOL  I really need to do that this week.  I hope you all had great holidays and are off to a wonderful new year so far.  I am doing pretty well.

Dave and I are on a mission to eat healthier and get in better shape this year.  We decided instead of buying each other presents for Christmas this year, we were going to combine and buy one big present for both of us.  A treadmill!  It was delivered and installed just after the first of the year, so we are off to a start on our diet/fitness plan.  It is going well so far.  It’s alot of hard work, but we are determined to lose some weight and be healthier.  Our plan came at an opportune time I guess … just after Christmas I was called by my Dr’s office after they received my routine bloodwork results and told that my Dr would like to see me to go over it.  I received a shocker that day … Diabetes.  I really should not have been shocked because it runs rampant in my family, but I just was not expecting to hear it, so it really threw me for a loop.  Luckily it is relatively mild so far, so I am just starting to take 1/2 a pill twice a day.  I hope to avoid the daily insulin injections if at all possible by really taking my health seriously.  I am down 7 lbs so far and am looking forward to getting alot more off.  I’m reading up around the net trying to find good eating habits for a diabetic and hope to learn alot that will help me regulate the spikes alot.  If anyone is familiar with any useful sites, please pass it on and I’ll add it to my list to research.

The kitties are doing well.  Jasper is still purring along.  He has good days where he is yelling for food every few minutes and he has bad days where I have to really encourage him to eat.  I need to take him to the vet again soon just for another check up.  He still takes his thyroid medication and is doing pretty good at holding his own.  He’s missing the nice sunny days where he gets to hang out ont he deck as much as he wants.  They all will be happy to see Spring come.

I need to go do some updating, but I’ll be back around to chat later.  Have a great day!

I have to catch up on all the things going on since I talked last …

Missy escaped a couple of days ago!  I’ve always told you guys that I have to watch her on the rare occasion that I let her out because she has climbed the fence before.  Well she had been behaving really well on the times that I was going out with her, so I started letting her out last week with the other cats into the fenced in back yard and was just going to check on her every 10 or 15 minutes.  She was loving it and was being so good.  I continued to do the same this week and she decided to ruin it for herself by climbing the fence.  She had come to the door checking in with me about 10 minutes earlier and then I heard a noise outside and just went to the patio door to look in on all of the cats and she was nowhere to be found.  I went down in the grass and was looking all around the shed and under the deck and calling her and she was nowhere.  I started to get nervous and went back into the house to make sure she hadn’t come back in and I just overlooked her.  She wasn’t there.  I went back into the backyard and looked out each of the two gates calling her and she wasn’t there.  By this point I’m starting to panic.  I’m very attached to her because she was Mom’s cat and when Mom got sick, she told me to take care of her baby and I would always call her and let Missy hear her talking to her while she was in the hospital and everything.  I came back in and changed shoes and went out the front door of the house and was calling for her.  I went to the one side of the house and she wasn’t there, then I went around the garage side of the house and there she was!  She was sitting under a pine tree smelling it.  By this time I had been looking for her for at least 20 minutes.  When I approached her, she started playing games with me and going deeper under the tree and laying down so I couldn’t reach her.  I’d go to the other side and she’s switch over to the other.  It took me about 10 minutes to finally get her back into the yard and then in the house.  I came back into the house and I was just so worked up and upset.  I was practically hyperventilating and just broke down sobbing.  I was so afraid I had lost Mom’s baby. :(  She will never step foot outside the house again!

Our cable went out the other day and was out for almost an hour and a half.  I was so mad because it just HAD to be right when Young and the Restless was on.  Why couldn’t it have happened during Dr. Phil???  LOL

To make matters worse, the whole Missy panic hurt my foot too.  I guess I wasn’t favoring it enough when I was running up and down stairs on the deck and to the front door and stuff.  I have a bone spur my right heel and it flares up sometimes.  It often feels very tight and stiff along the back on my heel when I get up and start to walk.  It started to feel worse throughout the day that she got out and by that night, I could barely climb the stairs to go to bed.  The next morning, I couldn’t dream of stepping down on it to go downstairs, so I just spent the day upstairs that day and iced the thing all day long.  It’s finally feeling better today.

Dave’s brother is coming tomorrow from NC.  He and Dave are going to a Classic Car Show up in Hershey, PA on Friday/Saturday.  I chose not to go because I couldn’t care less about old cars if you paid me to (LOL), so I’m going to be a single gal Friday and Friday night.  They will be leaving here probably around noon on Friday and won’t be home until probably dinnertime on Saturday.  I’m going to veg out and do absolutely NOTHING.  Well, unless I decide to go shopping.  LOL  The only downside is that I had to clean the house again.

There’s probably more I was going to blab about, but I can’t remember.  I’m awake with my insomnia problems again.  It’s now 1:30 AM and I’m finally starting to feel tired.  I’ll probably let it ride for a few more minutes and head to bed around 2 when I’ll be tired enough to fall asleep.  It’s chilly here tonight.  Dave and I went out to the hot tub a few hours ago and it was really nice.  I love when it’s nippy out.

Talk to you all soon!  Be sure to remember to Think Pink this month and encourage all your loved ones to do their monthly breast exams!