It's time to snuggle up! It's going to get very cold here!

I posted a few days ago about our chimney fire.  It happened the day after New Year's Day.   We called the chimney cleaners and the man on the phone explained that when you have a chimney fire, the creosote on the chimney walls burn like one of those "snakes" that kids burn on the 4th of July.  It puffs up and expands and blocks the chimney, which is exactly what happened to us. 

That meant we had to heat the house with electricity for 5 days before they could get us on their schedule.  Poor Retired Mountain Man.  He could see the meter spinning as fast as it could go and he had $$$$$$$ signs in his head every night when he went to bed. 

Well,  we were finally rescued on Monday afternoon.  The All About Chimneys guys are very good at their work and very helpful.  I am so glad that Retired Mountain Man does not have to get on the roof.    Yes, there is snow up there.

 It's slippery. 

The final report was that there was no damage to the chimney.  No cracks and the chimney was the cleanest they had ever seen it.   We are happy.  We have our warm wood heat back. 

It's time to snuggle up.  Whoo hoo!

New Year's Resolutions. Do you have one?

Yes, I have one.   My resolution was to continue working on lowering my cholesterol and blood pressure to normal range levels. This has meant a major change in what I eat.  I have been doing more research on the subject and found that to increase my HDL I need to lose weight.  For approximately every 6 pounds lost you can increase your good cholesterol, HDL, by 1 point.  To lower the bad cholesterol I just need to continue to eliminate fat from my diet and increase the whole grains and fiber.

Yes, I know this is a very boring subject.  I promise this will be the only post about it on this blog.  I have started another blog for that purpose.  Actually, I started the other blog over a year ago and quit posting to it. 

So what's the point here?  Well, I have never been successful losing weight.  How the heck am I going to increase my HDL?  Diet?  Exercise?  Motivation? Discipline? I have failed in every attempt.  That is not to say that I haven't lost weight.  I have.  I am one of those people who can lose twenty pounds and then that's it!  I stop.  I exercise my brains out.  I do it every day.  It seems to take an immense amount of effort.  So, I stop doing it!  I gain it all back!  It is sooooooo frustrating.  Why is that?

I have been looking for that answer and I have decided that my New Year's Resolution is the wrong one.  I am going to make a different New Year's Resolution and put the first one on hold for 30 days.

My new resolution:  Develop Positive Thinking

I have decided that my negative thinking is what has been derailing me every time.  So I am preparing to meet this goal.  I am going to focus on this goal for 30 days and will post about it on my new/old blog.   I am hoping that after 30 days of totally focusing on this one goal, that I can then begin to focus on my next goal.

One more thing.  I am looking for someone else who might also be interested in working on this goal.   Anyone interested?






 

Ah, the sweet January blah days......

The past month is now a blur.  The Christmas tree is bare and moved outside to RMN's burn pile.  I have most of the decorations in their boxes in storage until next year.  The place is almost back to normal mode.

There was so much excitement and fun this holiday.  We opened many packages, some with a lot of laughter, some were homemade goodies that we are looking forward to enjoying, and some which were practical, but needed.   All of them thoughtful gifts from family and friends. 

 Retired Mountain Man and I are lucky enough to enjoy two Christmas's.  I like to call them First Christmas and Second Christmas.  Our Second Christmas is near New Year's when the Kalispell Burkharts and the Hamilton Burkharts are here.  We draw names and have a White Elephant gift exchange which is the event we look forward to all year.   I was the lucky winner of the Rick Santorum sign.    It still had the scotch tape stuck to it so there is a good chance it was stolen from the Rick Santorum headquarters somewhere in Montana.  It's probably one of the reason's he lost the election.

Thanks to my grandson, Dylan, I also became the proud owner of a Lady Gaga singing toothbrush.

which then became the door prize at the New Year's Eve Party.  It now has a new home with the Heisel family.    (How could someone with the name, "Gaga", be called a lady?)


 We are now in the middle of what I call the "blah days".  The excitement is over.  No more Euchre hands, Settlers of Catan board games, sledding, singing, getting up early in the morning with all of my grandchildren (without mom and dad), as it's grandma time, and watching the three-year-old running around the room nonstop for..... how long can he do that without stopping? 

 No Dylan (the college student grandson), you don't have to get up with the younger ones.

That is not to say that I don't like the Blah Days.  I have time to read my new books, play my guitar and piano, bake bread, play with my watercolors and plan for the next event which is not far off.

Mardi Gras will be here on Feb. 10th.  The band has a gig on Feb. 8th at the Hope Cafe which is just over a month away.  Practice, practice, practice.  Plus, there's time to enjoy the sunrise on the mountain each morning.

Old Cougar Road Fun!

Ben's first run.

The screams and push offs!

The crash.

Oreo cookie face.

We had a wonderful time with all of the kids and our grandkids. They spent one afternoon on the sled run.  Up and down and up and down.  We warmed up by the bonfire and drank hot chocolate and ate Oreo cookies. 

Ben learned to catch a ride back up the hill.  He would lay on his back and try to catch snowflakes on his tongue, and said, "I love you snow, I love you trees, I love you sky!"  I think he liked his first time on Grandpa and Grandma's sledding hill.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Brrr!  The temperature this morning is 12.6.  Unfortunately, we had a chimney fire yesterday and now the chimney is clogged with burnt creosote.  We are hoping that the chimney sweep will be here today to clean it out so that we can build a fire in our wood furnace.  In the meantime we are heating the house with electric heat.  It is just not the same.  It is not "warm" like wood heat is.

I am patiently waiting for our January thaw.