UGH, the snow is still here and cold 

Rokon check out the snow 

Blogs that I Read

Last week, I mention one of the
blogs that I read. Your Choice.
That she had made me blog
of the week on her blog. And
told you how great of a blog
she has and how helpful she
is. She has all the bells and
whistles. And she is funny.

So I thought maybe from time
to time, I might mention others
that I read and why.

The blog I read from time to
time is called Doing it Again
http://parentingagain.blogspot.com/
I don't know how to do it so
you can click on it. So if that
doesn't do it...go to the right
side and find my list of links
to other blogs. I say I read it
from time to time, because she
posts about once a week.

The reason why I read this blog
is a couple of reasons. One, I
have known this writer for about
30 years. For about 4 or 5 years
we were neighbors. Her kids
are the same age as some of
my kids. And now she is raising
her two grandson's.

Which is the second reason,and
why I talked her into writing the
blog, and I read it. I think it serves a
purpose. One, it helps her, get her
thoughts about how it is going.

The other which is most important,
is if anyone who is raising their
grandchildren, they can see they
aren't alone.

There are many, many grandparents
raising their grandchildren. Some
are due to an accident that takes
the lives of the parents. Some
parents die of overdose or are in
prison. Some because the parent's
can't be good parents.

A lot of them are due to drugs, and
sadly due to child abuse. And when
some one reads her blog, they will
see that is just the case here.

This is a rough life. These two
grandparents should be enjoying
life. Traveling, and doing all the
things that people their age do,
when retired. But instead they
both put their lives on hold to
take care of these boys. They
have had them for 12 years
since they were 2 and 3.

This has been a very rough
road to travel for them. I don't
know if I could do it. Especially
with all the problems that come
with kids in these shoes.

I admire this family. I have the
greatest respect for the grand
parents. Not because they are
my friends. But because I know
I could never have done what they
have done or will have to go thru
yet. The boys are in their teens
now.

This is not for the lighthearted.
There is more bumps than there
are joys. But there is joy, and
there is love. That and the
Lord are what gets this family
thru each day.....
Day by day, by day.

A family that lives....
One day at a time, Dear Jesus.

No Fool like an Old Fool....

Yesterday I was getting my
mail. I saw that a new modular
home was up for sale.

They had just put it in last Spring.
So being I am asked from time
to time about different houses
for sale or rent in Kootenai,
I decided to go to the box
where they had the pictures
and information.

Getting there wasn't easy.
You had two choices. Go up to
the door and circle around to the yard
as the driveway is sloped deeply.
Or go down into the ditch and up
on the other side, which was low.

Well, I consider myself pretty
agile, so I start to step down
the ditch. It is pretty steep,
so decided to just jump the
rest of the way.

Not a good decision. As
I landed, my boots
planted into the mud, which
threw me forward, and down
on my knees and hands.

Not a pretty picture. As I
am a very round old broad.
So here I am ..stuck feet.
Mud on my knee's of my
jeans, and hands.

I get straighten up, but
my feet are still stuck. Well,
my boots are anyway. I
tried to pull them out for
several seconds, then
decided to throw caution
to the wind.. and stepped
out of the boots.

I have muddy, knees,
hands, and now socks. I
grabbed ahold of the boots
and pulled them out. It took
all I could do to pull them
out, almost falling backwards.

I looked around, luckily did
not see anyone. Hoping no
one saw me... put my boots
on with my muddy socks.
Take the paper, and then
headed to the road.

Which was down the ditch
and another upward climb
up the ditch. By this time
dignity has left the premises
and I crawled the rest of the
way.

All this for a piece of paper.
But if you want to buy a
modular home in Kootenai.
It is across the street from
the post office and they are
asking $168,000 for it.

Update:
today I walked to the Post
Office. Amazing what you
see when you walk instead
of driving. See on the side of
the yard there was just a small
slope about 7", that I could have
walked down with ease.

So to answer the question,
in my comment area.
"Can I laugh now?" The
answer is yes, of course.
I firmly believe....
If you can't laugh at
yourself, then you should
not laugh at others. So
let it rip.

Dragon Slayed, Dragons Tamed

First off is the Dragon slayed.
The community of 2/3 of
Bonner county who voted
yesterday, said NO, HELL NO.

I was one of the 5,814 who voted
NO...only 769 said yes.

Next up is the school building
levee. And as much as we all
hate taxes. There is hardly any
of us who can vote truly against
this one. We know we are getting
a great deal of children in this
area in the next 5 years. It takes
time to build another school. It takes
time to find an area to build on, as the
high school doesn't have the area.
Our own little town needs addition to it.
We are now running out of the school
and 3 modular buildings.
What we will be looking for is, will
they asked for what they need, or will
they try to hit us up for 20 years of
need. But that is to come yet.
One Dragon slayed. The people
have spoken.

The next two Dragons were done
with kindness and agreements.
We got consideration out of
both companies. And they
are making changes to keep
in mind the community as well.

One of them I went to a meeting
yesterday, and for a while the
only woman there. I spoke my
mind, I backed up with pictures.
I even had a sample to show.
While they were understanding
of the pictures. It was the sample
that hit home. So they are changing
one area, and the equipment they
want to put in will hopefully take
care of the other area.

All in all two good days. And my
kneecaps didn't shake once.

Good Day to Slay Dragons

Today is going to be a busy
day away from the computer.

First of all, Tuesday is my
only honest day of work.

Second, this day is the
day for me to slay the dragons.

First on the agenda is to
vote against the Rec. Center.
Already stated my reasons on
a former blog of mine. Still don't
understand why my town does
not have a voting place, yet the
City of Sandpoint has two!!.
And it is going to be in our town.
Sounds like a stack deck to me.

Third is the air. Another stack deck.
We have a local business which fouls
our air with sawdust and saw pieces
from their product. The pieces come
when they have a wind storm and the
piles are above the net. Which they
have been good about that since
about November. First time in years.

Second we get the sawdust from
from the stack itself. Some, reason
that is where breathing problems come
from.This stack blowing the real fine
dust. We call it the Kootenai cough.

So this Tuesday they have a quiet
meeting going on with the DEQ at
the Elks Hall. My words of a stack
deck come to mind, because if it
wasn't for someone spotting the
announcement in the public section
of the paper in fine print, the rest of
us wouldn't have know.

I am going with my pictures and
samples. They want a wood burning
equipment to replace the steam one
they use. We don't want it. We know
that this company has not been a
good neighbor to all of us. Those of us
who have had to wash our cars many
times. Those who have shoveled the
sawdust out of their business. And
yards. So we don't believe that this is
going to improve things. So we are
going down to voice our opinion.

Will they get it anyway..probably.
As nothing has come from our other
protest, except the net, that they tower
over most of the time. But we want to
be heard.

We shall be the squeaky wheel.

The Super Bowl

Well, the Steelers won..
But the Seahawks have
nothing to be ashamed of.
They worked hard at it.

Their defense was great.
If the rest of the team had
been as great as the defense
was, they may have won.
The quarterback got the ball
down the field...but then it
would unravel.

And they probably would have
had a better chance if the
referees had been a little more
fair.

Everyone who saw the film
knew the Steeler young man
had his arm between the white
line and the ball.

To penalize the quarterback
for a bad block that wasn't.
To penalize (to me) for a
push off when the Steeler
had just grabbed him
seconds ago, and take
the touchdown away. Seem
to me to be unfair.

To say that one of the players
grabbed and hung on the Steeler
when the camera's showed that
not to be true.

But like in life and war...Sports
too, it's all is fair in love and war.
And it was a good game, not one
of those lopsided ones..

The main thing is that the
Seahawks got to The Super
Bowl. That in itself is a great
thing. So like the old saying
goes....

WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!!

T.G.I.F.

Well, it is TGIF and I lost
a day. After I hit publish
yesterday, it dawn on me
it was only Thurs. I guess
I am trying to push up the
date so I can watch
Super Bowl...

I am suppose to be cleaning
up the house as we are
having guest tonight for
the weekend. It is my
in--laws. The guys are
going to be working on
the car. And my sister
in-law and I hang out.

We do yard sales in the
summer time.Don't know
what we will have on the
agenda but what ever we
do, we have fun doing it.
She is the greatest. And so
much fun to be around.

So I suppose I should go
start making this house
look like it is lived in and
not just walked thru... You
know, take off your coat,
throw it on the back of the
couch. Kick off the boots
where ever you came in at.
We aren't slobs, we are
just comfortable.

So have a great time
watching the game...
And here is a Seahawks
joke...

Terry Bradshaw, after
living a full life, died. When he
got to heaven, God was showing
him around. They came to a
modest little house with a faded
Steelers flag in the window.
"This house is yours for eternity,
Terry." said God. "This is very
special; not everyone gets a house
up here." Bradshaw felt special,
indeed, and walked up to his house.

On his way up the porch, he
noticed another house just around
the corner.It was a 3 story mansion
with a blue and white sidewalk, a
50 foot flag pole with an
enormous SEAHAWKS flag,
and in every window a blue Towel.

Bradshaw looked at God and said,
"God, I'm not trying to be ungrateful,
but I have a question. I was an
all-pro quarterback, I hold many
NFL records, and I even went
to the Hall of Fame." God said,
"So what's your point
Bradshaw? "Well, why does Matt
Hasselbeck get a better house than
me?"God chuckled, and said,
"Terry, that's not Matt's house, it's
mine."GO SEAHAWKS !!!!!!

Go Seahawks

Wow, I am a headliner...
A local blog, has me as
blog of the week. This was
quite a nice surprise and an
honor.

You see this blog is one of
the nicest put together blogs.
It has all kinds of bells and
whistles. And she is a great
source to ask questions on
how to add to your blog, for
us beginners. She helped me.
And I send others to her too.
Her blog is listed in my blogs
to link to. Your Choice. So go
look and see.

Well, Sunday is the big day.
Super Bowl Sunday. Yahoo.
The King hates football. And
I enjoy the game.
Once in while I will go to
someone's house and watch.
But I have to tone it down if I do.
You see if it is a good game, I
talk to the TV. I am the one standing
there yelling loud, RUN, RUN, RUN
as they are heading down the field.
And sometimes the letters SOB come
out of my mouth. So it is best I am
alone. The King will come in to help
himself of the goodies... and torment
me, telling me he is for the other team.

This year is special, just as it was the
year the Patriots played and then about
4 years later played and won. This is the
year of the Seahawks. Their first time at
the bowl. I sure hope it is a close one.

I hate the 48 to 6 scores. But I have been
wearing a Seahawks sweatshirt before it
was cool. So............

GO SEAHAWKS..

If These Walls Could Talk

I got a stabbing feeling yesterday
morning as I read fellow local
blogger's blog.

The HAIR HUT is closing.
They are tearing down the
building.

For those who don't know,
the Hair Hut is part of the
complex of IGA block (has
movie theater, Laundromat,
Gardenia Center and etc.)
which has been the hub of the
REAL people of Sandpoint.

You met everyone at the
store. You got all the good
gossip about everyone and
everything in Sandpoint at the
Hair Hut. Anything worth knowing
about Sandpoint was talked
about there. Oh, if these walls
could talk.

My mother-in-law lived and breathe
the Hair Hut for so many years.
Her laughter surely must still be
on the walls. Every one in town
knew her and her laughter... She
was known to everyone as Mama.
I use to go there when I lived in
town.

The gals in there are and were
fantastic. Joyce with her big grin
and wonderful laugh. Who had
Center stage at the middle chair.
Marge, who to me, was the serious
one. Kept the window chair busy.
And the other chairs have had
hair dressers come and go.

I would go there in the morning
when the rest of Sandpoint would
stop by on their way to work and
drop words of wisdom and gossip.

There was a man who had a barber
shop, who came by every morning
that I was there. I would laugh so
hard at him, as he spun stories
about Sandpoint, it was all I could
do to stay in the seat. Much
to Joyce's displeasure as it
is hard to curl hair on a moving
target. He, too, has passed away.
I believe his name was Gary Springer.

The vast variety of women who sat in
those chairs, school teachers, shop
keepers, all of the Real Sandpint, that
we refer to as Old Time Sandpointers.
The husbands who came by to pick
up their wives and added to the banter.
Oh, if these walls could talk, the voices
of the past and still present, that is
soon to be destroyed.

Oh, Sandpoint, our Sandpoint,
where are you going? As you
slowly slide out into the
shadows, of the new that
is coming.

You newcomers,
you will never know the
camaraderie of these people.
The closest you might come is
at the Tervan,(Tam o"Shanter).

Good luck, Marge,Joyce, and girls
as you find your new spot.