Friday, February 27, 2015

Birds in the Snow

The ladies decided they'd had enough of being cooped up in the greenhouse and needed to soak up some real sunshine.


The ducks left the greenhouse a few days ago and have been holding up in their house for the most part.
We are so hoping the ridiculously cold temps are about to be behind us. 

Culture Night

The kids school hosted a Culture Night last evening.  Our elementary school has over 80 different cultures represented and they ask anyone who was interested to come set up a table to share about their culture. Essie decided she wanted to participate and asked me to help her.  We decided to make some Ethiopian dishes so share with the crowd.  They were a big hit!

Essie cooking up some onions for Mesir Wot, a dish made with onions, lentils and lots of spices.

Cutting up some injera to share. (No, I did not make this as it is very difficult to make correctly.)
Ethiopians do not use utensils to eat but break off pieces of injera and use it to scoop up the food.

 All ready at our booth

Dad was a big help all night!


Our friend Sarah shared about her daughters' birth country - Liberia




All in all the night was a great success, capped off by a local Irish dance troupe.  The kids had fun, and I have loads of Ethiopian food left over, which also makes them VERY happy.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Snowmageddon 2015

In case you missed it, Kentucky got dumped on with week with snow and record breaking low temperatures. It snowed all day Monday, and we ended up getting about 12 inches of snow.


A special thank-you to Jessamine County EMS for transporting Dan to dialysis on Monday and Wednesday when his normal transportation bus couldn't get through all the snow.  Poor AJ was shoveling for all his worth to make a path for the stretcher on Monday afternoon, even after he shoveled a path on Monday morning. 


The kids have not had school all week, which has meant lots of time to play in the snow. 



AJ & his buddy Jamin decided their was enough snow on the deck steps to make a slide on it.



The next morning the girls had to try it out.








This is the most snow AJ has ever seen and I think he is quite ready to be done shoveling sidewalks.

AJ & Essie helped clean off our van.


Chloe helped Dad clean Grandpa & Grandma's driveway next door.


Mom & Dad's turn

Essie sitting on her ice throne

AJ working on his tunnel through the piled up snow.

Some neighborhood kids came and helped get the tunnel dug from one end to the other.
Unfortunately, the town came again on Wednesday and piled more snow on top, causing the tunnel to collapse.




The kids decided the slide needed to be amped up so added a jump

This is what the bread shelf at Wally World looked like on Tuesday.

Only in the South is there a run on tea bags during a blizzard.  Can't live without our sweet tea!


Wednesday morning we woke up to this lovely site (lovely, yet discouraging since we spend all Tuesday morning clearing off the sidewalks and driveways only to have them covered in 4-5 more inches of snow)
I did call Wilmore City Hall on Wednesday morning and asked them to clear a path to Dan & Melanie's driveway so EMS could have an easier time of getting Dan to dialysis (since no plows had been on our street since Monday night and then they only made 1 path around the cul-de-sac).  The front end loader arrived just before EMS and cleared the way.  (Wilmore doesn't actually own a real snowplow, just bucket loaders and pick-up trucks with plows on the front.  That's how UNPREPARED we are for major snowstorms.)  




Chloe insisted on trying the toboggan, which I told her would work but you know how kids are...


Temperatures became dangerously low on Thursday and Friday so the girls busted out some craft projects.


We're bracing for another 4-8 inches of snow/ice tonight into tomorrow.  Maybe the kids will get back to school in March!!!

Valentine's Basketball Game

We started Valentine's Day with the girls' basketball game.  I didn't get many videos because I got so into the game.  It was a tight game all the way to the end, with Chloe hitting a bucket to tie the game, but then the other team made a shot with just seconds left.  It was the first loss for Essie & Chloe's team but the girls continue to improve. 




Friday, February 13, 2015

More Basketball Videos

I uploaded these videos on Sunday but somehow it's taken me 5 days to actually post them.  I'll blame it on the never-ending head cold that I've had for almost 2 full weeks now.  Just when I start feeling better, we have a 20 degree temperature shift and my head plugs up again.  Ok, probably more details than you want to know so here are the videos.


The girls b-ball skill are greatly improving and they are getting more confident, which is fun to watch.