Thank You Sweet Baby Jesus We've Got Power!

  

This afternoon as we grilled ribs outside on the patio and the outdoor thermometer read 77 degrees, it was really hard for me to fathom that just a week ago, I woke up at 5am, took a shower and then as I was drying my hair, the power went out. I'd been expecting the ice storm so I'd prepared, so I thought. 

The first DAY in the sticks without power wasn't too bad. We have a gas cooktop so I cooked a big pot of chili. We have a fireplace that will heat half the county so we were snug as a bug in a rug in the living room. Pete pulled the king size mattress off our bed and we slept on the floor in front of the fire. Ali and Addie slept on the sofa and loveseat but eventually ended up in the bed with us along with a chihuahua that probably kept wondering why the heck we didn't just turn the lights on. The first night everyone slept but me. The trees were popping outside so loudly it literally sounded like gunfire.. sometimes rapid gunfire. I could not sleep and my phone was dying so I went out to the garage at 2am, got in my car, turned on my heated seats, plugged up my phone and found out that half the county was also up at 2am completely wigged out over the sound of trees snapping around them. I just prayed Lord please don't let that big huge tree in Mama's back yard fall on the Big House. Lord please don't let these spindly pines snap and land on my roof. I could not see what it looked like because it was dark but I heard it and I knew it was going to be ugly when the sun came up.

This is the girls' swing set in the backyard:

I've seen places tornadoes tore through that didn't look this bad. Structurally, most everything around here was fine, but I never imagined how devastating ICE on those gorgeous Georgia pines could be to a power grid. OH. MY. WORD. You would just have to see it to believe it. The devastation was just surreal. Power lines were laying on the ground everywhere, tangled in trees that were snapped in half, wrapped around fences, and laying across highways.

The next day was Valentine's Day. Addie was so bummed about not having school. EBA does Valentine's Day in an EPIC fashion and Addie wanted to wear her new Valentine's Day shirt for the occasion. I let her wear it even though there was no school. The weather got a little warmer and the ice started to thaw, but still no power.

Stir craziness was starting to set in, so Ali Grace and I started cleaning up the limbs in the yard. We worked for a couple hours and made two piles taller than we were and you could hardly tell we'd done anything. We got a good laugh or two out of Ali Grace's "pine tree power clean". She insisted on honing her weight lifting technique while we worked. It was good to get outside and burn off some energy but still no power..

The next afternoon we decided to "bug out".  Even though I'd filled the entire jacuzzi tub with water in preparation for the storm, it was starting to run low. I can live with just about anything but I CANNOT abide by an unflushed toilet. Note to the city folks: if you're on well water, your pump won't work during a power outage so you've got no running water. We were all getting on each other's nerves at this point anyhow so we decided to go to Gran and Papa's house in Jesup for a couple nights. We took the girls for an ice cream at Dairy Queen, since with all the madness, we hadn't been able to get them anything for Valentine's Day. STILL no power.

On Sunday, we heard David and Jess had power in Harlem! Finally! Yay Georgia Power! Since they were so much closer to home, we started operation bugout 2.0  and set out to Harlem. I think at this point Pete had had about enough. He really felt like we'd have power by then. Tempers were starting to flare around town and everyone and their brother was either complaining  about the power company or complaining about the complainers.. It was a good decision to go stay with David and Jess for awhile. This is a pic of Addie with her bug out bag!

I got to babysit Sarah Rose, who introduced me to her "crazy pills" (Reese's cups)! I know I let her eat too many crazy pills but she's just so precious when she asks and she squints her little eyes and puts her hand over her mouth and giggles. You just can't tell her no! Plus, at that point I needed crazy pills too so we shared.

Mama called me on Monday morning in Harlem and yelled "Carmen!!HART EMC just pulled into the yard!!!"  Honey I felt like I'd won the dang lottery and that ain't a lie! What was completely unbelievable is that HART County is where I grew up, my old stomping grounds.. born and raised! I thought to myself, if anybody can fix this mangled mess of power lines and get us back on the grid, it'll be those fellas!!

As soon as Jess got home from work, we took off back to Vidette.

After literally being in the dark for 5 days, the girls had a blast with their cousins Emma and Sarah. 

And when I got home, I found out the Teacher of the Gifted had brought over her mama's pimento cheese. It is the best pimento cheese since people started cultivating pimentos. OUT. OF. THIS. WORLD. Mama hadn't left me much, but what was left was sooooo good. But still, no power. The Hart EMC guys had promised my Mama they'd do their best to get her power on though. 

We cooked supper over at the Big House in the summer kitchen and as the sun started to set, so did my hopes for getting power that night. I was eating a piece of chicken and standing out on the patio of  the Big House looking at my house across the road when all of a sudden I noticed a flood light come on. I started screaming like a nut! THERE ARE LIGHTS ON AT MY HOUSE THERE ARE LIGHTS ON AT MY HOUSE! I dropped my piece of chicken and took off running across the road and rang the bell outside my house!! WE HAD SURVIVED!!

Top 5 things I learned from this 6 day Amish Experience:

5.  Never underestimate how much water it takes to flush a toilet or water a horse.

 4. I don't care if we only have a catastrophic ice storm every ten years, we still need a generator. People have criticized the power company for not being prepared. Maybe they weren't, but I wasn't prepared either. I'm going to start watching more episodes of Dual Survival too. Next thing you know I'm going to know how to make a slingshot out of a granola bar wrapper and use it to kill a rabbit. 

3. My husband needs a battery powered CPAP machine. His snoring was much more likely to make me lose my ever loving mind than was the power outage. That CPAP will be the first thing plugged into the generator the next time this happens! Before the freezers, before the lamps, before some old person's oxygen. The CPAP machine will be first..

2. Dr. Klaus Steinbeck, one of my UGA Forestry professors once said "Mother Nature is not a sweet blonde with bunnies and butterflies. She's a mean redheaded bitch." I was somewhat offended by that comment back then, but you know what? Mother Nature is indeed a mean redheaded bitch.

1. Friends can get through just about anything together. Whether it's offering a hot shower, helping clear your neighbor's driveway or hand delivering the best pimento cheese in the South, friends helped friends survive this mess of a week and if there's nothing else positive about this disaster, I've become a little more appreciative of my friends and a little more proud to be both a Burke County woman and a Hart County girl. 

Why The Snowpocalypse Could Never Happen to Me.... and other rambling thoughts..

 

We don't get snow much here in middle Georgia, so when we do, we make a big deal out of it. I don't care how many Yankees laugh about it either. I don't laugh when folks die of heat strokes in New England, so I think it's indicative of bad raising when Northerners laugh at Southerners stuck on the ice covered freeway. That's all I'm going to say about that.  

On Monday before the snow came in, I was at a DOE meeting with a friend of mine in Macon. We didn't get out until 4 and after considering the ramifications of driving back to Louisville only to find the 2 grocery stores in town both out of toilet paper and milk, we decided to hit the Kroger in the big city of Macon. Once I got my hands on a 12 pack of Cottonelle and two gallons of whole milk, I was good to go. I knew I was a survivor!   :)

Which brings me to this... Survival.  Reading the horror stories on the SnowedOutAtlanta  facebook page, I thought to myself. Damn! I'm a prepper and didn't even know it. Honestly y'all!  Most of the comments on facebook went something like this:

1. I'm stuck in traffic, out of gas and I'm cold. I thought to myself.. well right now I have a sleeping bag from Ali's last overnight trip, at least 3  pairs of socks belonging to Addie.( She takes her socks off in the car whether it's 15 degrees or 95 degrees.), 2 hoodies belonging to Ali Grace, and 1 huge sweatshirt I've been meaning to drop off at the thrift store for 5 months now. 

2.  I'm stuck in traffic, out of gas and I'm hungry.  Hmmm... I'm thinking.. I have a box of granola bars in the floor board of my car (they fell out of the grocery bag a couple weeks ago and have yet to make it into the house.) I have several packs of fruit snacks with only the cherry fruit snacks left in them because Addie doesn't like the cherry ones. I have at least 3 or 4 diet coke bottles half full and I'm quite certain if I slammed on the brakes one time a 6 pack of chicken nuggets would come flying out from under the seat. 

3. I'm stranded and I don't know anyone with a 4 wheel drive to come get me. This one is a no brainer. Every male in my family can drive a 4 wheel drive. Heck so can the females for that matter. I know my daddy, my husband or my brother would be on a 4 wheeler, a tractor, a horse or SOMETHING on their way to come get me out of that mess. But no doubt, I could survive in my car for several days if I had to!

I don't mind a little cold weather. You know, enough to beat back the mosquitoes just waiting to suck us all dry in the summer. I don't even mind a little snow. But I told Pete this morning- I am good for 2 snowdays a year. After that, my Seasonal Affective Disorder kicks in. I am counting down the days until spring. We will be hitting the beach during spring break this year one way or the other. I'm going to be grumpy, ornery and generally irritated until then. Just a warning.

Although I'm a warm weather kinda gal, I couldn't help but enjoy the last couple days off with my family. The girls had an absolute blast and that makes my heart happy.

 

Don't you think these two favor each other? They're both rotten. I can tell you that!

 

 

School should be back on a regular schedule tomorrow and we're ready for it. We're approaching the critical point of "too much togetherness".  Ali Grace leaves tomorrow for 4-H DPA at Rock Eagle.  It sure doesn't feel like tomorrow's Friday but I'll take it! Have a great weekend everyone!

 

You aren't screwing it up..

This is sort of a rant.. which is kinda odd since this whole post was meant to be about how tired I am of reading rants.. It's a rant about judgmental rants if you will..  I'm guilty of  going on a tear too, or reposting crap advice to facebook, but doggone it I'm getting better and reposting less. Let me explain.  In the last month, I've "learned" the following on facebook:

1. I'm feeding my kids too much sugar.

2. My kids aren't  getting enough sleep.

3. My kids are getting too much sleep.

4. 7 Things I'm doing wrong trying to raise Christian children

5. My kids don't have an appropriate bed time.

6. My kids don't need a bedtime.

7. 5 reasons I should not let my children eat flour.

8. 5 things I should be doing to make my husband happier

9. 7 things I should never say to my children

10. 10 things I should say to my kids at least twice a day.

11. I shouldn't be helping with the girls' homework.

12. I should be helping with the girls' homework

And the list goes on and on and on and on and nauseatingly on....

Is "nauseatingly" a word?

In a recent staff development meeting, our media specialist put up a cartoon that showed a fire hydrant blasting water towards a kid who's thirsty. I thought to myself sweet Mother Mary isn't that the truth. Getting information off the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant. I totally get how mothers think they are doing it all wrong- from what they feed their families to how they relate to their husbands, to what kind of clothes they wear. Truly someone posted on facebook the other day "What the color of your socks says about your marriage."  WTH?? Really? Hell I was afraid to read that one since I feel a great sense of accomplishment if we all walk out of the house in the morning with socks that actually match. 

Here's my suggestion:

It would help if we (me included) just stopped reposting that ridiculous mess. If people continue to post it, you don't have to click on it. I don't anymore. I don't mind 10 recipes, 5 funny pictures, etc.. But if I sense in any  way that the post may have a tone like "you SHOULD be doing it this way.." then I keep on scrolling and resist the urge to click.

I have enough stress in my life. I really don't need to add to it by reading 8 reasons why I've ruined my kids' lives because I let them stay up past 9 last night.

On a lighter note... here are some pictures of the kids from the last couple weeks.. and glaring examples of how I'm probably doing something wrong in raising them..  :)

I'm sure there's some post somewhere titled "Why you shouldn't let your 8 year old daughter chase a frog around the kitchen for an hour."

Or "3 reasons why you shouldn't let your 8 year old read books to her minion"

Here's one... "Five reasons her life will be ruined if you let your 8 year old pick our her own clothes"

"Five reasons why your family won't be as tight nit if you live in a big house and each sibling has their own room..."

"10 reasons why Dairy Queen food will make your children grow horns"

Oh and here's one of my plant nerd hubby...

"5 reasons your husband will love you more if you let him go on and on about cultivars, hybrids, and propagation techniques even though you really just want to get to the basketball game.."

I saw a quote last week that said "Behind every great kid is a Mama who is sure she's screwing it up"  I took that to heart. I'm not perfect, but I'm not doing it all wrong either. Neither are the folks that make up the "5 reasons why..." posts.   Have a great week everyone.  There's a lot you're doing right. 

Party Animals on the Ponderosa

That title is pure sarcasm. The chickens may well be partying out there.. not sure. There's not much partying going on here y'all. Pete worked on his smoker most all day yesterday and this morning he hopped out of bed before I did in order to get it done. If you know us, you know how rare that is. Pete says my daddy gets up with the chickens, but that I WAKE the chickens. This morning Pete was the one waking the chickens. He took off to the shop and finished it up. I got all the lights and ornaments off the big foyer tree and the girls toted all the wreaths upstairs to the Christmas closet.

We had lunch with Mama at the Big House and then went into town to exchange a few things and buy a boston butt for Pete to try in his cooker. Now- I've been out of the house today. I don't plan on leaving again until Sunday for church. I've got most the Christmas stuff put away. These next few days are going to include me, the sofa, bowl games, and DVR.

The Dawgs are on for the final game of the season tomorrow at noon. I will be watching. Jess and I will be texting each other furiously I'm sure. 

Go Dawgs!

Is weight loss on your New Year's Resolution list?

If it is, get a cup of coffee and sit a spell. I want to tell you a few things. Some you may not want to hear. Some you'll be glad you heard, and well... take it all for what you will. It's just my own personal experience.
Here goes..


I was skinny growing up. My grandpa called me "spider legs". It wasn't until college, that I started to put on weight. I still managed it fairly well though, even after Addie, my youngest was born. In fact, I was probably as thin as I'd ever been after she was born. I was a size 2. I've always joked that she ran it off of me. Having two children under the age of four, and teaching Ag full time really did take it off of me. It wasn't like managing my weight was effortless, but it really wasn't that difficult. I say this because most women seem to gain weight when having babies. I didn't. Mine really became a problem after I was finished having babies.

I don't know why that was the case for me but it was. I do know that one day I saw myself in a picture and I was fat. Fat. A place I never thought I'd be. But here I was. I was at the stage in my life though, where vanity wasn't really an issue anymore and I told myself I was "comfortable". Pete NEVER made comments about my weight. EVER. Looking back, I know I was lying to myself, but at the time I believed that lie. I perpetuated that lie until I had a doctor's appointment and got a call back from her telling me we needed to discuss my bloodwork. My cholesterol was borderline high and so was my blood pressure. I was really shocked. My blood pressure had always been on the very bottom of the normal range. Almost low at times. Now I'm sure there were some environmental factors like job stress that contributed to the numbers, but there really was no denying that the source of the problem was my weight. My mother had joined Weight Watchers and so I sort of followed her lead. My friend, Beth (of science lab fire fame..) also joined at that time so I gave it a whirl. Having a friend in the beginning was very helpful. This time I had a goal other than the scale though. I wanted my bloodwork numbers to be better. I wanted to chase my children and not be winded. I wanted to run, to hike, to do my job and still have energy for my family in the afternoons and evenings. Sizes and scale numbers were secondary. And I mean that. I started the last week of March in 2011. By the time school was out in May, I'd lost 12 pounds. When school started BACK in August I'd lost 20. By Christmas of 2012, I'd lost 30 and a little over a year after starting, I'd lost the 50 pounds I needed to lose. Truthfully, I was back in a healthy range after losing 30 pounds, but I felt better at 50. I've kept it off for almost a year now. I started at my heaviest weight ever. I weighed more at that time than I weighed at 9 months pregnant.
Now I weigh what I weighed my senior year of high school.  'Tis true.

Here are a few things that worked for me:

1) After losing the first 10 pounds, I took V3, an herbal supplement that helped boost my energy and curb my appetite. I didn't take it very long, but it helped rewire my brain into understanding portion control. I look back at the amount of food I used to eat and I'm honestly shocked. I don't eat fast food often but when I do, a cheeseburger will do. It does not have to be a double cheeseburger.

2) I eat what everyone else eats at home. I think the kiss of death with any weight loss plan is fixing one meal for yourself and another for your family. Who lives like that? I eat what everyone eats. I just don't eat as much. That goes for everything.. Fried chicken, pizza, pork chops, steak, etc.. I eat it all. Now I eat half a steak, one slice of pizza, one piece of chicken, etc. I know some people would suggest removing the fat laden skin from chicken, using low cal cheese on pizza, etc. I don't. If I am going to eat pizza, it's going to be a real piece of pizza. I'd rather have one piece of regular pizza than 2 or 3 pieces of Lean Cuisine pizza or reduced fat whatever yuckiness. I'd rather eat one piece of fried chicken with the skin than 3 pieces without the skin. I'd rather have a salad with full fat ranch dressing once a week than a salad with low cal dressing every day. I'm not saying one's any better than the other- just my own personal preference.

3) Fat and Fiber are my best friends. For awhile I stayed away from nuts because they are very high in calories and in fat, but now I don't. I eat almonds all day long really. Seriously. All day. When I do that, I don't eat much at meal time because I'm just not hungry. So while I probably easily consume 5 or 600 calories a day in almonds, that sure isn't much when you consider I don't eat much else because well.. .I'm just not hungry. For breakfast, I eat a high fiber granola bar and an orange or some sort of fruit. I eat my almonds throughout the morning. By lunch I'm not starving and if everyone else wasn't eating lunch at that time I probably wouldn't eat at all. I usually bring a Greek yogurt and a granola bar.. maybe some fruit. But, like I said before in #2, if we're having something good in the lunchroom, I eat it. I just account for it with extra exercise or I take that into account when eating dinner at night. At dinner, I eat whatever everyone else around here is eating. I'm not starving, so I'm not tempted to over eat. I also took some pointers from a Vegan friend of mine from college. She put something on facebook once about reteaching your taste buds to like vegetables. I'd forgotten! Now I truly do love fresh veggies. If they're available, I eat them before I eat anything else on my plate.

4) Be prepared to fend off comments from others. It's going to happen. You'll lose 10 pounds and you can tell. You'll lose 20 and your family can tell. You'll lose 25 and everyone can tell. And they'll ALL have an opinion about it. Trust me. Some will congratulate you and some will make rude comments. It's just the nature of the humans we are. They will say your boobs are flat, you've lost your butt, you've become obsessed, etc. I promise you all the people saying these things will be overweight themselves. Trust me on that. I learned to take the good with the bad. Most all of my friends were quite complimentary and supported me in my efforts. It didn't matter either way. I didn't do it for them. I did it for me, my husband and my children.

5) I weighed everyday and mapped it on myFitnessPal app.  Not because I'm obsessed. LOL! But because I know the patterns of my own body now. I know if I'd weighed weekly I would have gotten frustrated. But weighing every day, I learned how my body works. I lose 2 or 3 pounds, then gain one or two back, then lose 2 or three more, etc.. if you look at myFitnessPal over the course of the entire year, it's up and down up and down but there's a gradual downward trend and that's what I paid attention to. Sometimes I'd go 3 weeks without a budge in the scale and then all of a sudden one morning I'd wake up and the scale would drop 3 pounds. It's the weirdest thing really. Now I only weigh once or twice a week, just for accountability's sake. This is a screenshot from last year: You can see ups and downs but the trend line is downward.

6) When I started losing weight, the thing that frustrated me the most was the fact that I hadn't dropped a clothing size. That's a weird little phenomenon I tell ya. I lost 20 pounds and still couldn't wear a smaller size. Strangely enough though, I lost 10 more and dropped 2 sizes. Dropped 20 more and was down from a 14 to a 4. Again, you just can't gauge your success on your clothing size or on the scale numbers. That's not to say I didn't toss out every single thing I owned in a size 12/14! Oh honey I did!  I enjoyed buying new clothes in a smaller size. I still enjoy doing that. I had a friend come by and tuck my tag back in my shirt for me. Another friend said "honey if I could fit into a size small I'd wear my shirt wrong side out so E'EER BODY could see my tag!"  I still laugh about that when I think about it. I am VERY small boned so while other women my age look thin in a size 10, I look like a balloon. A size 4/6 is good for me.

7)  Probably the thing I STILL struggle the most with is beating down that little inner voice that ALL women have.. Y'all know the one. She whispers "you don't have time for yourself." "You're not worth it", "You're neglecting your family if you insist on time to yourself."  We ALL hear that voice from time to time. Finding the time to exercise is tough. But it has to be part of the equation. Time for ME is okay. I have to keep saying that to myself.  :)  Don't use your family as an excuse to be sedentary. Even if you don't have time to lace up a pair of tennis shoes, there are little things you can do that add up over time. I always park in the farthest parking spot at work. Rain sleet snow or shine. I park in the same spot. When I'm at work and I need something at the pharmacy or at the grocery store I walk there. It's not a long way at all, but every little bit helps.

And that's it. I've heard people say "it's not a diet, it's a new lifestyle".  It's really neither for me. Rather, it's a renewed focus on what's really important in this life. My husband, my children... being an active part in their lives not just a sideline spectator.  It's a realization that I am worth it and that the girls need a healthy Mama. They need a good role model. They need to see me eating veggies, exercising, enjoying the outdoors, and taking care of myself. If you're just starting on this journey, good luck. Hit me up if you need a word of encouragement!

We're putting away Christmas decorations and watching a little football today.  Here's a pic I forgot to post before. Each year, the girls take turns putting the star on top of the tall foyer tree. This was Ali's year.

2013 Winds Down...

 

This has been a whirlwind year. I can't believe how much the girls have grown and how much has happened in a year's time. It's been especially busy around the Ponderosa during the Holidays.

 

Pete was finally able to get my atrium window repaired from the lightning strike almost 2 years ago. Have I mentioned how much I loathe insurance companies?  I am just ecstatic about doing away with our "wildlife access".  :)

 

Ali Grace got a new bedroom makeover thanks to both her grandmothers. She had outgrown the pink paint  and frankly I had gotten sick of the Miley Cyrus quote on her wall.  Miley isn't exactly the role model she once was, Amen?  So, her Gran came and painted her walls after my friend Tammy gave me a GREAT paint color suggestion. Then Nanny came and helped us pick out new linens and curtains. We finished it up just in time for the Christmas holidays.

 

And speaking of holidays... we decked the house out as usual..

Ali Grace was decked out for her her Social Christmas Formal...

She got dressed at Aunt Jess and Uncle David's house and Aunt Jess helped her get her duds just perfect.

 

Downtown was decked out too!.....

 

I so much enjoyed being off a couple days before the girls got out of school. I got a few things done around the house and I especially loved picking them up early and having lunch just the three of us.

 We all had a great time watching Ali Grace's dance class in the Christmas parade. I should have gotten pictures of the various parade floats that are so unique to small town Christmas parades. (And I use the term "floats" quite loosely. Ali's Dance class also had their Christmas recital. Several of her EBA classmates also dance with her and she really has enjoyed it. They were awesome in their performance!

Addie, Ali and Colten all went caroling with the Methodist Church in Louisville. Poppy drove the truck and pulled the trailer full of carolers. This is one of our favorite Christmas traditions!

 And before we knew it Christmas Eve was here...

 The elves brought the Cooper stockings on Christmas Eve and the Cooper grands were ECSTATIC!

After good food, presents and stockings, Ernie, Beth and Colten headed home and the house was quiet..

This year was the first time in a long time it was just us four here for Christmas. Of course, there are plenty folks running around the Ponderosa, but we had the house to ourselves this year and that was kinda nice.  

Around 6:30 in the morning Christmas Day, the quiet definitely ended!

 

 In all the excitement, Addie got her hair hung in the Christmas tree!

 But she loved her Barbie horse and her iPad mini!.

Ali Grace got a new TV for her room and lots of new clothes.Nanny and Poppy came over for breakfast and watched as the girls gave an official inventory of all the things Santa had brought.  It really was a wonderful Christmas on the Ponderosa.  

Tomorrow we're leaving for Old Town to celebrate Christmas with the Lyles clan. We'll be back on Sunday and I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the decorations put away and watching the DAWGS on New Year's Day. I hope your Christmas was as magically wonderful as ours!