Snow much more...

When Roger finally got settled and had caught up on some sleep, we headed down to Mom and Dads for a few days. We took a drive up to Heber City, a town up Provo Canyon to see the snowfall up there. We stopped at a gallery that is for my favorite artist, Robert Duncan. The gallery looks like a log home... (my dream home).... inside, Mom and I had a fun time wishing and dreaming of all the artwork that we would love to hang on our own walls, while Dad and Roger were outside exploring the street. The town itself was settled by germans and the dutch, and there are alot of homes that have "gingerbread" deco on them. There are many homes that were built pre-1900. I really need to get up there in the spring to take pics of just homes..


If you would like to see his artwork, go to www.robertduncanstudios.com


I took some snow shots for fun. I am really into fences... I don't know why...
this one has thistle... it grows like mad out here...it looks great in the winter with the snow as a backdrop, but it is also really pretty in the summer, because the heads of the flowers are lavender... they don't like to be picked, they have thorns all up the stems, but cows really love to eat them !


I just liked this fence.


I snapped this pic of Roger after coming out of the gallery to show the amount of snow up in the canyons.... (the snow had melted down at Mom and Dads) It was a good 25degrees colder in Heber, but you really don't feel the cold like you do in Atlanta...it must be because of the low humidity.



This is a close-up pic of Mount Nebo...the mountain you can see from my parents back door. The wind was blowing really hard that day, and you can see the snow flying off the peak which happens to be 11,900+ ft. I can't imagine how cold it must be up there and with the windchill..... BRRRRR!

What'll you have?

Katie and I went to the "Bodies" exhibit in downtown Atlanta for something to do.. the temperatures where chilly, and it was cloudy and dreary, so we had to get out of packing up the house for a time. I found it quite interesting and the only word that kept coming out of my mouth was "WICKED!" Unbelievable... we were both so fasinated by what we saw... I have a whole new perspective on the human body now!

So we were hungry and decided to go eat........




The Varsity.
For anyone in the know, you only have to mention the words "the Varsity" and "what'll ya have" will pop out of their mouths. Crazy thing. The menu is very simple, but with the cashiers shouting this out nonstop, it is a little intimidating. I remember the first time I went to the Varsity. I had just moved to Atlanta and was out with the young adult group after playing "Marta tag" (another story) when they decided to go get a bite. The counter was above my head and the guy was slapping the stainless steel counter with his hand shouting "what'll ya have?" over and over ... I was so intimidated, I just stepped back and said I wasn't hungry. That was 22 years ago.
This time I was bound and determined to do it and without hesitation.... of course, I had Katie with me, which makes me a little more brave. So, up to the counter I went, and ordered myself a hamburger and fries! Yay!

The menu is pretty easy to read. It is HUGE ! I don't remember having pictures to look at the last time I went there, but I guess that is the way they roll in the A-T-L....




This is a pic of Katie with her meal... the hamburgers are tiny! I didn't realize that went we ordered... Katie said she could easily eat two more... (I wonder if the owners are related to the Jimmies Hotdogs in Albany????)
No matter.... we enjoyed them just the same.
Katie is great to have around in intimidating places... I think I need to learn a thing or two from her. Here she is ordering a second helping... I didn't dare...I still have to worry about my Crohn's disease and the bad things that can happen after a meal like that! LOL


Then my body says: "What'd you have??? ! "

This week

Hooray! Katie helped me get my photos uploaded onto the computer, so I am officially in business now! And here we go !



This is a good example of what happens when Johnny feeds himself some ravioli...it is hard to sit back and watch when you have the urge to get over to him and clean him up after each bite, but I guess he needs to learn to do it himself, huh?


Johnny is so much fun to be around. I get to take care of him in the mornings when Katie and JD go to work. We play and eat breakfast and do laundry and fold clothes together... well, I fold and Johnny unfolds...lol. He likes to help, though!
We play tractors... he has a whole fleet of them! We like to run over the fisher price barn animals and laugh and giggle! JD has taught him how to do the hand gestures from the Subway commercial you know, 5 dollar, 5 dollar footlong ? It is soooo funny to watch him ! Katie HATES the commercial and wishes JD wouldn't teach him that kind of stuff, but that only makes him do it more!


I found a dog park down the street the other day and took the boys in. All sorts of dogs came running up to them and it was funny, because they weren't quite sure what to do... Tink just growled and tried to sniff behinds, but the dang doggies wouldn't hold still.... Bandit, on the other hand, was very confused at all the different smells all around him... you could tell he was interested in playing, but afraid to go too far from me... he whined alot, so I had to keep telling him it was okay.. he did manage to find a pup who let him sniff her... I think he liked that. LOL !
Hey, dogs will be dogs.... right?

Finally !

So I am finally getting around to posting a couple of pics. There are so many on my camera's card that I think it'll be an effort to get them all organized. I wanted to show off my little nephew, Johnny, so I think I'll start with that.

He is finally beginning to take a few of those first steps now, which I am sure make his Mommy and Daddy happy. He is also cutting teeth like a madman, which makes him a little bit fussy, but nothing a good hard cookie and some teething tablets won't take care of !





He is a busy little guy... he will take off his jeans and then try to get them back on... same with his socks....he knows that his feet go in the pantleg, it's just sooo hard to get it in !




I also have a cute one of Bandit in the strange cold stuff that he was sticking his nose into...this was the morning after we arrived and the dogs hadn't had a chance to explore their new digs... of course being blind doesn't help Bandit figure out this crazy thick water, but it does taste good and it's fun to root around with your nose in it!

Oh Scrap !

I still haven't figured out a way to get my pics posted on Katie's computer, but I hope to get to Walmart and get a CD made and hopefully get something posted soon.
Today I had to go to the post office, so I thought I'd drive around a bit to get familiar with the area and I found a scrapbook store... whoo hoo!
It was like nothing I have seen in Georgia, and it was all I could do to not buy buy buy! I did manage to get out of the store with less than $10 spent. ( and for those of you who know me, also know that is a rarity ! )
The store is called Heartland Paper and I just have to say that it has everything under the sun in it.... I was in there for nearly an hour and still didn't see all they had... they also have a large area for classes and free time...I sure wish all my scrapping buds were here to see it!
I am discombobulated without my supplies close, even to just go into my scrapbook room and play with the paper and stamps and ink and scissors and embellishments, and, and, and I think I may be having some withdrawls..... OH SCRAP ! ... and without being able to post pics on my blog to curb my appetite for scrapbooking, I am going to go nuts!

What's a girl to do ?!?

Baptism-by-Fire

No pictures to post yet. I don't have my computer up and running, so I am using Katie's for now. If I did have a pic to post, it would be of the nearly impossible feat of me driving down the canyons in a snowstorm after 22 years of being in the South where we just stay indoors when we have a storm such as the one I came into Salt Lake in.

... Talk about stress! I was driving down through the Strawberry Resivour area and the driving was very treacherous. It was snowing hard and I was trying to follow JD in the truck, but I am not used to the icy conditions... I counted at least 4 cars that had spun around and/or went off the road, so I had my hazard blinkers going and was only going about 35 to 40 tops.... a jerk was behind me for at least 5 minutes flashing his lights at me and blinding me with his brights. Apparently, I wasn't going fast enough for him....so, I did just the opposite. I slowed down until I could finally stop...I guess he got the hint that he could just drive his rude little butt around me. Katie and JD tell me that Utah drivers are not the friendly type...( and I think JD calls them "Utards") lol..I secretly hoped that I would find his car spun around or off the side of the road stuck in 4ft. of snow so I could ask him if it was worth all the effort trying to get me to speed up. The roads were not only snow-packed, there was an ice layer underneath. JD told me that I needed to be extra careful because he could see people "ass-ending" it ahead of him. ( that means that the back end of the car is sliding out to meet the front end) As far as the rude drivers in Utah who have no patience for a Georgia driver such as myself, well now, I guess I'll just have to give them a little bit of that Southern Hospitality now, won't I ????

Bless all their little cotton-pickin' hearts...
...and Lord help them if I have to open a big ol' can.....

Deep South Cuisine

There are things eaten here in the South that most people haven't tasted or heard of..I myself have had a few (and dissed a few, too)... Collard Greens and Black-eyed peas for instance, are a Southern tradition that are eaten on New Year's Day to bring luck in the coming year. Okra is eaten fried...interesting texture, kinda slimy in the middle..it is great in Gumbo, though. Fried Green Tomatoes are really good. BBQ is king here.. the sweet smoked kind, not the typical BBQ I grew up eating (ie. anything you grill on the BBQ grill).. I am talkin' pulled pork or beef covered with the sweet sauce and served up messy! Oh, and don't forget all the fresh fish and shellfish.. Grouper, Shrimp boil, crawfish and catfish! ( I have only tried the Grouper sandwich covered with slaw. That is how alot of things are served up here, and it's great!) Well, apparently, there is a famous place down in Albany Georgia that is very well known. I had heard about it since Roger had been talking about it for our entire marriage, but I had never been there until over the holidays.

Jimmie's hotdogs. A long tradition of cheap red weiners, and a favorite of the Albany area. Roger says Jimmie's has been around for as long as he can remember, and the hotdogs look just the same as when he had them as a young child (I googled Jimmie's and they have been around since 1925..) If you are ever in the South, and down in Albany, check out Jimmie's !

This is Roger's great-nephew enjoying a Jimmie's.

The hotdogs are bright red.. don't ask me why or how, they just are. AND they are tiny...you can eat 2-4 without feeling full. I was worried what they would do to my sensitive digestive system, but I was fine. lol !
Most people like them with chili (loaded) with onions... not me! I think onions were put on this earth to make everyone's breath stink!

Roger and his sister Bonnie love Jimmie's... and they are a great value in these difficult times... Bonnie says that she remembers when they were only 15 cents a piece... they are 90 cents now, but you can't even get a burger for that!
I wish we could have enough time when JD and Katie come out to make a trip down to Albany, but I guess we'll just have to take them to another famous eatery.. the Varsity!

Bon Apetite!