December 31

Wow, 2015 has flown by!  Seems like just a week or two ago I was having a hard time remembering to write 2015 and not 2014!  Here we go again! 

December 30

Cold, clear day.  We picked up all John's flat art at the chamber this am and hung it in the studio.  The sculptures are going to be the hard ones to get, we'll need the help of the city guys to get them, not sure they'll be as willing to help us take them as they were to put them down there.

We rode up to Greer and to the Green's Peak turnoff this afternoon.  Not as much snow as I expected.

Mom called, she is scheduled for a stress test on Tuesday.  Turns out there was some problem that showed up on her EKG that Reece ordered last time she came up.  She only saw him once, Travis was gone, and he did the EKG, said it was fine and changed her blood pressure meds.  She had more problems with the new meds and stopped them and went back to see Travis this week.  He looked at the EKG, saw a problem and changed something on the stress test Reece ordered. 

December 29

Cold!  We blew the water out of the lines in the travel trailer.  Hope we got it all so it doesn't freeze and break the lines!  It was frozen where the water goes into the trailer, so it may already be frozen!

I have been having bad cravings for sugar, this is a bad time of year for me! 

Picked up the lights for the old dodge from Justin, he was supposed to come by and help John work on them, but I guess he forgot, he's never called.  Went to the library on the way home.

Snowed a bit this afternoon and it's cold!!

John made green chili beans for supper, yumm! 

December 28

The guys found that a tire they thought was just low had a nail in it!  We went looking for a repair kit to fix it, but no one was open that had one (Sunday)  Charles found a can of stuff you spray in the tire that's supposed to help keep it full.  They decided to put the spare on it, which wasn't in very good shape.  We ate lunch here (tamales) then followed Charles to Andy's house to visit.   Good thing Andy happened to notice that the spare was low so he was going to fill it up.  The valve was leaking and Andy thought the tire would have a blow out on the way home, so he put a plug in the tire with the nail.  I worried about them, but they made it home okay!  Josh came to their house for Christmas and they ended up having a fight with him and told him to leave.  He has such anger issues!  He spent the night at one of Susan's friends house and offended one of her daughters, so she told him he had to leave.  Susan says he is on drugs all the time now and couldn't get a job if they did a drug test.  Not much future for him, sad.  Michael spent Christmas in a homeless shelter.  He was supposed to stay with one on Hailey's step moms, but she said she doesn't know him and didn't want him there.  Looks like Hailey doesn't want him around.  Susan said he got a job so they are going to let him stay in the shelter for, I think it was 4 months. 

John helped Andy put his car back together after Charles and family left, they got er done!  It was almost dark when we left.  We saw a herd of deer right next to the road!  Glad it wasn't dark yet and glad they didn't jump out in front of us!  Made it home safely, it's cold out!  We left the heat on in the travel trailer, the water line froze up yesterday and there is a plug of ice in the trailer so we can't blow it out until it thaws!   (all this was yesterday)

Tired today, guess all the holiday visiting caught up with me!  Finished up the laundry this am and read.   John filled the propane tank that was empty and returned his library book this am.  We took the truck up to the car wash, but by the time we got home it was dirty again.  John wanted to get the chemical they put on the roads off the vehicle, and we came home on the back roads, so at least it's just mud on it now.  That stuff they put on the roads eats cars!

John went to the dentist this afternoon, he said it felt like a crown was loose yesterday and he wants to get it checked out. 

December 27

Got more snow during the night.  It's cold here!  The hose to the travel trailer froze, hope it didn't break any internal water lines!  Charles discovered his tire was low and they filled it up yesterday.  It was low again this am and Charles found a nail in the tire!  No one open on Sunday to fix it, so we went to the drug and the dollar stores to see if they had any patch kits.  No one did but they did find some stuff to squirt in the tire to keep it full.  They changed to the spare and we followed them to Andy's house.  When they went to leave there, Andy noticed the spare was low, so he got his tire guage to fill it.  Just touching that to the filler tube made that leak and then they noticed cracks in the spare, so Andy fixed the tire with the nail in it by putting a plug in it.  Slowed their departure down a bit, but they got about around 3ish.  We stayed so John could help Andy work on his car.  They were able to get the belts installed the got it back together.  On the way home we saw a bunch of deer close to the road, glad it wasn't dark yet and that they didn't jump into the road in front of us!  Natalie Mann brought us some cookies this evening and visited for a while.  Tired!


The guys found that a tire they thought was just low had a nail in it!  We went looking for a repair kit to fix it, but no one was open that had one (Sunday)  Charles found a can of stuff you spray in the tire that's supposed to help keep it full.  They decided to put the spare on it, which wasn't in very good shape.  We ate lunch here (tamales) then followed Charles to Andy's house to visit.   Good thing Andy happened to notice that the spare was low so he was going to fill it up.  The valve was leaking and Andy thought the tire would have a blow out on the way home, so he put a plug in the tire with the nail.  I worried about them, but they made it home okay!  Josh came to their house for Christmas and they ended up having a fight with him and told him to leave.  He has such anger issues!  He spent the night at one of Susan's friends house and offended one of her daughters, so she told him he had to leave.  Susan says he is on drugs all the time now and couldn't get a job if they did a drug test.  Not much future for him, sad.  Michael spent Christmas in a homeless shelter.  He was supposed to stay with one on Hailey's step moms, but she said she doesn't know him and didn't want him there.  Looks like Hailey doesn't want him around.  Susan said he got a job so they are going to let him stay in the shelter for, I think it was 4 months. 

John helped Andy put his car back together after Charles and family left, they got er done!  It was almost dark when we left.  We saw a herd of deer right next to the road!  Glad it wasn't dark yet and glad they didn't jump out in front of us!  Made it home safely, it's cold out!  We left the heat on in the travel trailer, the water line froze up yesterday and there is a plug of ice in the trailer so we can't blow it out until it thaws!

December 26

Went down to visit Mom after lunch today.  It was snowing pretty hard here when we left, but no snow at her house!  We had a good visit.  Charles was able to fix Mom's car radio.  She had a battery replaced and the radio wouldn't work. 
We got about 4 or 5 inches of snow at our house. 

December 25

We had a very quiet Christmas.  Charles and family got here about 5 and we had a good visit and dinner.  Watched Christmas Vacation, I mostly napped while it was on.  I think I'm getting tireder and tireder, find myself napping a lot during the day and I still get 7 or 8 hours at night. 

December 24

It was snowing lightly when we got up!  I made rolls and red chili this morning, then we went shopping for Christmas dinner stuff, a ham, mashed potatoes, peas, corn and salad makings.  Also got some eggnog for tonight. Can't believe it's Christmas again!  It came so fast this year.  I hope next year isn't faster!

Saw Mel and Ruth at Safeway and visited.

John sold his drafting table.  He is really getting into the closing of his artist stuff.  For the second time we got a letter from the state saying we owe taxes.  And Sherwood doesn't stand behind their work!  Last time they said we'd have to pay them to fight it, so we just paid it.  John sent it to Debbie this time, but we've not heard anything from her.  When we started selling art we didn't figure we could do our taxes and trusted them to know how to do it right to keep us out of trouble!  I'm so disappointed in them and their I don't care attitude!!  They did it to us, we didn't know they were getting us into trouble!!  I would be embarrassed if I was them, to not stand behind my work!  No more, I didn't want to have them do our return last year, but it was just easier to go back to them, this year I refuse to have them do it!!

December 23

Slept pretty good last night, no more throwing up!  Woke up with my heart still pounding and not feeling good.  Don't know what's going on with me, I just don't feel good!

Haven't felt good today, John cleaned the bathroom and mopped floors for me.  Hope I feel good enough to make rolls tomorrow!

Read and slept today.

December 22

Gorgeous sunrise.  Lots of colorful clouds.  The actual sunrise was pretty plain, the sun was hidden by clouds.  Windy!!  Weather says snow today after 11. 

We went to St. Johns today to visit Sam and Trish and take gifts down.  Had a good visit.
I got sick this evening and threw up several times.  I guess something I ate didn't agree with me!  Carleen and I ate the same thing, a sandwich with turkey. Have to check with her and see if she got sick.   I ate a banana after I got home, maybe that?  My heart was bad this evening too.

December 21

Shortest day eve day, LOL!  I thought today was the shortest day but the calendar says tomorrow is the first day of winter so I guess it's the shortest?  But wait, I googled it and they say it was today in the US.

Woke up about 2 and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up.  Second night in a row I've not slept well.  Tired most of the time now.

Made bread and tortillas this morning.  Cleaned house.

December 20

My stomach didn't feel well yesterday and I woke up in pain about 1 this morning.  I was sick for a while, then went to sleep in my recliner.  Woke up still feeling yucky.

The wind was bad last night.  We discovered it had tipped over the tetanus tree!  It doesn't have much surface to blow against, I was surprised.  Bad wind!

Spent most of the day washing clothes.  Last laundry day before Christmas!

December 19

Pretty sunrise this am.  John took some boxes over to the weeds across the street and burned them.  We keep trying to burn all the weeds in the ditch, but they just don't want to burn!

John went over to Hendos this am and they got the steering box put together and the one brake drum lathed.  So many things to do on the old Dodge! 

Mel and Ruth's party was really nice.  We ate, then they had a program then dessert.  Ladd put together a slide show of the last 50 years, Mel sang a song he wrote about Ruth and one about his granddaughters. 

Lots of snow in Vernon!  They got a lot more than we did.

Went to Andy's to visit and leave Christmas cards with money in them.  So much easier for me to do that than try and figure out what to get people!

December 18

Cold morning! 

John worked on the old Dodge  and ran around town picking up parts for it.  Hendo is going to rebuild the steering for us and John picked up the part they needed and took it over to Hendo.  He's going to go help him work on it tomorrow morning at 5 am!  He also stopped by Justin Taylor's to see if he knew anywhere we can get headlights that will fit. 

I didn't feel good today and spent a lot of time sleeping.  I wake up tired from naps so they aren't doing me any good!  So tired of not feeling good

Called Mom today, she picked up the tamales!  Yea.  I was thinking about having them for Christmas dinner not sure now with Charles and fam coming up.  Also called Mary Tilletson, she left some presents here yesterday while we were gone for us and her brother Carroll Spence and his family.  She didn't sound good, she said the doc says Charles has dementia.  She thinks he'll deny it and it's going to be hard on her.  They need to move to a bigger place closer to hospitals and he refuses to even think about it.  Sad for her.

Went with John to town this afternoon, it helped to get out of the house for a bit. 

We rode around looking at the Christmas light displays this evening.  We didn't find many this year.  Went by houses where some of our favs were in the past and they weren't lighted up at all.  Maybe Scrooge syndrome is catching this year! 

December 17

I'm having a hard time with this dec daily.  Not much going on and I have days with not many photos.  Not sure it's worth doing this.  Plus, my heart is being bad again, lots of days it pounds and other days it just hurts.  So tired all the time and I've been depressed.  Depression is one of the side effects of the heart meds I was taking, I stopped them and went back on the first ones he gave me.  My heart seemed worse on the new stronger prescription so why take one that makes the side effects worse!

Cold last night, it was 6 degrees when I got up! 

Didn't do much today, got stuff wrapped and ready to go to St. Johns.  When the tamale order is done we'll deliver gifts and pick up tamales.  I'm thinking tamales for Christmas day dinner as well as Christmas Eve!

Got a call from Charles this evening, they are planning on coming up on Christmas Day.

December 16

Woke up early, about 3 ish.  It's cold outside, about 9 degrees!

Went shopping to pick up some gift bags, the ones I got yesterday were too large.  Also got some tinsel, I've been wanting some on my tree for a couple years now.  The dollar store had some!

We took a ride around town and came across over 60 geese in a field right by the road!  Pretty cool!

I've been transferring photos from my cards to the external drives.  I'm stuck now, the card I put my phone pix on won't bring up the import program.  Maybe I need to reboot! 

December 15

Cold, cold day!  The breeze really cooled it off! 

Went with John on some of his errands.  We picked up some seals for the old Dodge and he tried several times to get the thingies off the rear wheels.  None of the pullers he made worked.  Hope he can get them off.  We need to put new brake shoes on. 

We got the stuff we needed to get a package off to Charles' family for Christmas.  Got it mailed off and got one of Mom's gifts wrapped.

Put the 3 strings of lights on the Tetanus tree, it looks much better.

Finished up the last of the green chili beans for lunch.  We made taco salad out of the leftovers.

I got more decorations on the tree.  Found a box that had some old ornaments.  I'd forgotten about some of them. Some from Trish, Sandy, Nikki and Mom.  I planned to bring down the wood things I've made, but I just can't seem to get up the energy to go get them.

december 14

Windy again!  I went outside to shoot the sun and got hit in the face by blowing snow!  The sky was mostly clear at the time, so it was blowing off the roof and ground!

Got my A1C test today.  It was 6!  When they took it last it was 7.something, can't remember for sure.  Depending of where you look 6 is normal or prediabetic. 

Visited the library and stopped to look for some parts for the old Dodge.  Had to order the parts, no one had them in stock.  At least they are available!  I think they are parts for the wheel hubs, brake shoes, etc. 

I updated my mail program yesterday thinking I would still be able to use windows live mail.  But one of the accounts isn't getting new mail.  I'm bummed!  I made new folders and moved a lot of the old mail to the and deleted a lot on the account that won't work.  The folders showed up on the web mail page, but they are empty!  I think all the mail is still there in the inbox, so all that work for nothing! 

My phone said we were going to get snow at 11 am.  It's a bit late, 12:30 and it's snowing.

We got snow off and on all afternoon but it didn't stick on the ground much.  Maybe tonight it will. 

John made green chili beans for lunch.  We discovered by accident that the meat was tenderer and it tasted better if cooked in a crockpot!  Yumm!

December 13

Today would have been Dad's 90th birthday!  I got out the history I did and I have been reading a bit in it.

Made bread using the new wheat grinder this morning.  I can grind enough at one time for a batch!  The old grinder I have to do 2 batches to get enough.  It came out good! 

Laundry day.  Takes me most of the day to get it all done.  It's also clean the cpap mask day. 

We watched Polar Express tonight, love that movie!

December12

It snowed last night!  We got just over 2 inches here.  Cold and cloudy all day with a bit of sun. 

I installed a new email program.  I got an email saying that the email program I was using was going to stop working, so I've been wondering what to do.  I asked Charles and he mentioned several choices and one was to update windows live 2012.  I had win 2009 so decided to see if I could download 2012.  I think I kind of looked for it when I first tried to update mine and couldn't find it.  Today I did and got it installed!  So I'm okay for now.  I can't decide if I should update to win 10 or not.  I moved stuff off my c drive to make room so I could do it, but I'm scared it wouldn't work and would ruin my computer.

Went shopping this afternoon, it started snowing again as we left. 

December 11

How I love sunrise and we were treated to some gorgeous color this morning!  And to the left a huge cloud that looked like a bear head to me. 

It's cold and breezy out, a storm is supposed to be on the way here.

The wind is horrible today!  I stepped outside to pick up stuff that was blowing away and it sounded like a freight train or a jet was going by right by me!  It's a strong wind!  Whew, wish it would hurry and bring the storm in and stop!!

Our grainmill came today.  Got one that's made by the same people that made my mixer.  Ran a couple cups of grain through it to clean the manufacturing gunk off (they said to do that)  then washed the flour bin.  All ready for next time I make bread. 

December 10

Andy sent us a link to an article in the paper saying there is going to be a missile launch this am.  John is sitting in the bay window to keep watch.  It's supposed to launch between 6:30 and 7:30.  Hope we can see it from here!

Wow, the missile went by fast!  If John hadn't been sitting in the window watching we'd have missed it! We could only see the trail from a bit of the going up and a bit of the going down.  There was nothing in the middle!

December 9

I slept 9 hours last night!  And my apnea scores were the lowest they've been in a long time!!

Worked on scanning the annual and copying files from my computer to the new external.  Getting there on both jobs!

Visited the DMV in St. John this morning to get the paperwork started to get a title to the Old Dodge.  Kind of dumb, we got a bill of sale, but they still want us to send a registered letter to Kenny asking him to get a title to give us or refusing to get one.  They also want us to send a letter to a dead man asking if he has the title!!  Wow, where did their brains go!!  Maybe they've had dea

December 8

I had a bad night.  Woke up at 11 and couldn't go back to sleep so I got up.  Spent a couple hours on the computer, then went to sleep in my recliner with the old cpap.  I woke up later and my nose flet like it had frostbite!  It hurt to breathe!  I put the hose under the blanket and it warmed up, but the damage was done.  Woke up sneezing and coughing and my nose and eyes are running!  Feel terrible.

Pretty sunrise!  I got some photos of it. 

Jessica's surgery is at 10, she had to be at the surgical center at 8.  Hoping her knee will feel better!  She hurt it years ago on a trampoline!

Had a bad day, sneezing and running nose all day even after taking a pill!  Dang that cpap!

December 7

When I went out to check on the color early this morning, there was a sliver moon and a star in the sky!  Wish I had a super zoom lens!  It's cloudy this morning!

Justin Taylor came by to visit and see the old Dodge this morning.  He loved it!  People are telling us to rebuild it, we can do it.  Not sure on that, but John got the wheel that was frozen working and has been trying to find rims to fit.  It came with three, but they were too wide and the tires would rub on the body. 

I made the hanging greenery basket today, yea for me to finish it.  I'm having a hard time getting motivated to do much!

Jessie is in Phoenix, today is her pre op appointment and tomorrow her surgery. 

December 6

It was cold again last night, it was 16 degrees at 6 this morning!

I ordered a couple more strings of chili lights for the Tetanus tree.  They won't be here until the 16th or so, wish I'd remembered sooner that we needed them.  Dianna at true value told us they are a summer item, I wonder what people use them for in the summer?

Laundry day. Got it all done. 

The glove box latch on the putt broke last night.  Teraputt to the rescue again.  We took the latch from it and the putt glove box is working again.

John asked Hendo for help getting the brake shoe off the old Dodge.  He came over and they finally got it off.  He thinks it's possible to get it running again.  I'm scared the old rusted axles and wheels would fail.  John also found some wheels in Sam's back yard that may work, the 3 that came with are too big and the tires were rubbing on the bed as we unloaded it.  It needs narrower rims and tires. 

John made a batch of green chili beans today.  We found out by accident that cooking it a long time in the slow cooker makes it more flavorful and tender.  Yumm, we had it for lunch and supper.

December 5

Woke up early this morning.  I must have been dreaming something that made me think of the package that was supposed to be delivered yesterday by 8 pm.  There is an external hard drive in the package and I was worried that it would be ruined by the cold temperatures outside.  Got up and checked and it wasn't here!  Maybe they saw there were no lights on when they came by and so didn't leave it?  Or they just didn't get by. 

It's only 6:30 now and it seems like I've been up half the day already!

John cleaned up the old Dodge and washed out the inside. We had planned on putting the cab and bed on the putt, but it just isn't going to work like we had planned.  And the task of rebuilding it is so daunting that I don't think we could do it ourselves. So. . . . we're thinking now that we'll put all the parts on it, repair the worst cracks and rusted out places and put it across the street for yard art. 

John moved the Tetanus tree to the front yard and we put the chili lights on it.  I'd forgotten that we didn't have enough lights last year.  We went looking in town, but no one has them.  I'll check on Amazon, that's where I got them last year.

The annual Christmas Parade was tonight.  It was cool!  We could hear the Grinch song all through the parade, the music was coming from the next to last float!  I liked that one best!  I think I got some good photos, I've had a hard time in the past, the photos are blurry.  I think my year of shooting the rising sun has made me more familiar with manual mode, I set the ISO to 3200, F stop to 3.5 and speed at 1/100.  They look good in the camera.

December 4

Today we are going to "Dog Patch" to take a second look at and probably purchase an old truck.  It's a 30 something and it so cute!  We saw it on a ride in the area a few weeks ago.  LOL, gotta spend the kids inheritance, LOL! 

I started taking the lower dose Cartia XT, the higher dose he gave me seems to be causing more chest pain and my heart beating weird.  If it helps I'll call and have him give me another prescription for this one again. 

We got the truck!  It was hard loading it on the trailer, but with the help of Kenny Witt, the guy we bought it from, it got loaded.  Stopped on the way home along the road for a snack, then home to unload the truck.  It took us a while, but we finally got it off and returned the trailer.  Whew!  Did some online searching and found that the truck is a 1937 Dodge.   We haven't decided what we are going to do with the truck, we were going to take the body and put it on The Putt, but it's too narrow.  We'd have to cut off about a foot from The Putt!  I'd love it as a yard ornament!

Tired again, had to take a long nap after we got home. 

December 3

Busy morning!  I made bread and John put up the new blinds.  The bread was yummy and the blinds look so much better than the old ones!  We saw the new ones Andy and Susan put up when we went to their house for Thanksgiving and decided to get that kind.  When they came over to work on their car, Andy found the same blinds online and helped us order them.  The bay window was tricky to do, the side windows are different sizes!  We had to cut the top of one blind a bit to get it to fit. 

I went for a walk this afternoon and John joined me  I made it to "The Water" and back!  Yea for me.  We saw a deer on the way back, I wonder if it was one of the twins born last summer?

Watched TV after supper, I fell asleep, so tired from my day!  My back is killing me, I guess helping put up blinds and moving furniture to vacuum was hard on it!

December 2

Yea, I didn't miss sunrise this morning!  I have been watching and photographing the sunrise, I want to have photos of the entire path the sun takes on its yearly journey.  I'm almost there!  On December 21st it will reach the southern most point. 

I intended to put the tree up yesterday, but just didn't feel up to it.  This morning when I got up, the boxed tree was sitting in the living room waiting for me and I got it put up!  The lights are already on the tree, so I don't have to do that, saves lots of time.  I haven't decorated it yet, I love the tree and the lights most, don't care if it has any decorations.   I also got out a few of the Christmas things that are in the house.  Most of the decorations are stored in John's shop attic, it's cold up there and it tires me out to bring down box after box.  Maybe I'll just leave them up there!  I do want to get the wood things I've made. 

Today is Senior Discount day at Bashas, so we did our shopping. 

I decided I need to finish scanning the old SJHS annuals and am working on 1952 today.  It takes me a couple of days to do an annual.  Lots of work, but it will be good to have them available.  I really want the high school to put them up on their website, but so far, I haven't gotten much interest in doing it.  I am putting them on facebook as I finish, but facebook lowers the quality so I'm not sure how well they would print out. 

John has been playing with the donor vehicle for The Putt and made a convertible out of it!  Kind of cool. 

December 1

Wow, December rolled around fast this year, I'm so not ready for it to be winter.  I thought yesterday was the first and started putting up a few decorations, woops, I broke my rule of letting the Turkey have his month!  I hate that stores start putting out their Christmas stuff before Halloween, so I try not to purchase any Christmas stuff until December. 

It was cold this morning, 10.2 degrees when I went out to check on the sun.  There is still a hint of smoke in the air, there was a house fire down the street to the south of us last night.  I hate house fires and it seems we have one in town right around Christmas time!  So sad for the family. 

We finished up the display for the Apache County Historical Society Museum in St. Johns and hung it on the wall today.  It looks good! 

We ate lunch at TLC, burgers.  Mine was okay, John said his was good.

Big package of new blinds came in the mail today.  We got some wide fake wood slat ones. Now to get them put up!

It was a cold, cold day.