Here, There & Everywhere

These buds are from one of our maple trees in the back yard. Looks like just a couple of warm days would have these buds really popping out. Unfortunately, the weather forecast is calling for a chance of snow showers Thursday morning. But we could be in Laramie, Wyoming where the high today is supposed to get to 2 with a 90% chance of snow.

Yesterday Tommy and I were sitting in our family room watching TV. It was a beautiful day outside and the sun was shining. All of a sudden a shadow passed over the house and then did it again. We looked at each other and as we did we heard a deep hissing noise. It was so funny–we both said at the same time, “hot air balloon!” So I grabbed my camera and we ran to the front door with Bubba following us barking the whole way. We ran outside and saw this:

Years ago, before all of the trees around here grew we used to have hot air balloons fly over quite often. So we were rather surprised when we saw this one and especially since they were flying so low. Bubba was hilarious. In the house he was barking, barking, barking. When he ran outside and looked up they executed a burn and he took off running with his tail between his legs. He ran to the back of the house and was looking around the corner. Too funny!

Tommy had surgery today to repair his rotator cuff. It had been getting increasingly painful for him to do anything with his right arm. So, after an MRI last week, the surgeon said, “Let’s operate.” Tommy was to the point he was having a hard time sleeping and anything he did with his right arm put him in pain. We got to the hospital at about 11:15 a.m., they put in an IV and then did a nerve block. The block was to deaden his shoulder all the way down to his fingers. Surgery was schedule for 1:30 p.m., but the doctor was running late with a previous surgery. Finally at 2:15 he was wheeled away–feeling no pain. :) Since the damage was not as extensive as they thought, surgery went quicker–a little less than an hour and a half. After some time in recovery, he was released–just in time for rush hour traffic in Atlanta.

The good thing is it looks like recovery will be about half what was originally thought. Thank Goodness!

It is so hard to imagine that 30 years ago Tommy and I welcomed a baby girl into our family. Amanda/Kennedy/Poopsie–whatever you call her–has brought such joy to us.

Yes, Amanda, we do feel older now that you’re 30. Does that make your birthday? :)

Love you bunches!

Last weekend we were anticipating our first snowfall of the season. The forecast was calling for 2-4″ by Monday morning. This was one of the few times that our forecast for snow was spot on. We woke up to about 4″ (at least in the front yard) on the ground. Tommy and I took Bubba for his usual morning walk. We learned while we were in Laramie that Bubba loves to run and jump in the snow so we thought he would enjoy this snow as well. He did!

This snow stayed on the ground longer than any of else can remember. There was snow still on the ground a week after it first came down. Schools here were closed for five days–unheard of! It was pretty but I’m glad I didn’t have to go out in it. And, yes, we did get to the grocery store before it came. :)

We had a wonderful visit in Wyoming and I hated to come home, but I think we’d worn out our welcome. When we got home we unpacked and started getting ready for our usual gang on New Year’s Day. Food, college football and friends–what could be better?

Hall and I have been planning on moving my blog from Blogger to my own domain name. This isn’t the final layout, but it’s a start. I wish I had a sign that says “Under Construction”. I haven’t worked with WordPress before; I just hope it’s as easy to use as Blogger was. Anyhow, this is my real first post from this site. Everything else has been copied over for me by Hall.

Bubba turned 3 this week. You can probably tell from this picture that he was mighty excited.

We had a wonderful time with the kids while we were in Wyoming, but we had to go home. The drive home is always the worst part of our road trips. No more excitement about going on vacation, seeing the kids and celebrating Christmas. Luckily we had no problem with the weather–the drive was uneventful, which I guess is a good thing. Some pictures I took along the way:

One of the things I love the most about Wyoming and, in this case, Nebraska is the beautiful sky. The above two pictures were both taken as we were driving 80 on 80!

We had stopped at this gas station on the way out to Laramie, but hadn’t taken a picture. We made sure to stop back there on the way home so we could get a picture of the sign. And, yes, they do have “CLASSY RESTROOMS”! So if you are driving through Nebraska and need a bathroom, make sure to stop at the Shell station in Ogalalla!

One of the competition topics this year for my photography club is “Gates & Fences”. This is one side of a gate to a field that runs along I80. The other side was similar, but I couldn’t get back far enough to get both sides together.

We saw this old church as we were driving to Wyoming but didn’t want to stop. So we marked in our book what the milepost was so we could stop on the way home. We got off I80 to drive up to the church, which appeared to be part of a collection of pioneer-era building. Unfortunately, the road to these buildings was roped off. I made Tommy stop on the side of the interstate so I could take some shots. This was actually taken across both sides of the highway.

Since the weather forecast called for a snow storm coming into Laramie, Hall and Sara decided they’d better get out of town earlier than planned. So for their last day we took them on a drive outside of town. We wanted to show Sara that when you drive a few minutes out of town you really are out of town! Here are a few pictures that we took after driving maybe 15-20 minutes.

 Time to go sledding!