Well, I finally did get sick, I must not have been consistent enough with putting the Oregano under my tongue. Thankfully, though, I got it and had it over with within a day. Gran and Pap came down on February the 28th to spend a couple days with us, and we, as always, thoroughly enjoyed their company!

Sunday it started snowing, and it snowed all day, and continuing snowing all night. By Monday morning it finally stopped snowing. Let me tell you, this is the biggest snow I can remember having for a long time. Though we didn't officially measure it, I'd say we got around 11 inches.

Gabriel enjoyed it and the chickens and guineas have never seen this much snow. They wouldn't set foot in the little snow skiffs we had a while back, and they certainly aren't going to step in this much snow!

We were all sitting around Sunday night having a little Bible study, and about 10 minutes after we had finished it, we lost our electricity. Apparently some limb out of a tree fell and hit the electric line and caused a fuse to blow. Then we proceeded with the normal action of trying-to-remember-where-I-stuck-my-flashlight search.

Though we didn't have any heat in the house, we did have the wood stove in the barn to get warm with! And, with 11 inches of snow sitting outside, it is nice to have someplace you can go to get warm!! At about 5 AM this morning, we finally got our power back, for which we are very thankful!

It seems to me that last time Gran & Pap came down it snowed… didn't it? Oh, that reminds me, Gran brought down a whole pack (44 cards) of "Who Am I?" cards for me so I could post them on my blog, after we are finished with the "What Am I?" cards.

Well, Monday was spent at the hospital because my cousin Tamara going to be having her 2nd baby, and, of course, we wanted to be there. So we spent 4 hours, at least, sitting in the waiting room of the hospital.

Daryl and Tamara Garr

They named their new baby boy Timothy Aaron.

You can click on the picture above or click here to go to the page we've put up on our website with the baby pictures. Baby Timothy weighed 10lbs. 1/2 oz. and was 22" inches long.

What's funny about this is that we spent 4 hours in the hospital, I only got to see Tamara and the baby once, and Levi never got to see them at all — just the pictures. So I guess it's a good thing that when Mom & I went back to see the baby, I took lots of pictures!

Unfortunately now, Dad & Levi are both sick with some type of flu (I guess that's from spending time at the hospital…) so they're not feeling very well right now. Mom made up some GOOT and is rubbing it on Dad's feet, so hopefully that'll help. I've already put Oregano under my tongue… I don't want to get sick again!!

The weeks are just flying past since I have to change my braces (they're actually called aligners, I believe) every two weeks.. it seems amazing that it is already February of 2009! How time does fly!

Mom and I went to town Tuesday to pick up my next 3 sets of braces, did some grocery shopping and came home. Well, yesterday (Wednesday) I managed to get sick, I guess I must have picked it up while I was in town. Sort of something like a miniture version of the flu, I have a slightly sore throat (which I'm fixing with my Oregano! ) and yesterday I was having some chills and a fever, but I'm doing much better today already. It's kind of odd, since I'm usually the last person to get sick rather than the first, but I hope the rest of the family doesn't catch anything from me!

The other day Levi found a squirrel at the top of the field dead. It didn't have any blood on it or anything, so we're guessing maybe it went to jump on a limb up in a tree and possibly fell? (Though after watching squirrels jump, it's almost impossible to imagine one falling) Well, Gabriel loves squirrels, so we gave it to him to play with for a while. As you can see in the first picture, he was having a blast just running around carrying it in the front yard! He treats it sort of like his stuffed animals (which, by the way, he has at least 5 stuffed animals!) and just licks it — he doesn't bite it at all.

Though the wind is howling outside today, the temperature is beautiful. As a matter a fact, if the wind weren't blowing so hard, I wouldn't even need a jacket! I am glad it's warming up for a little while though.. at least we've gotten a break from putting the guineas in at night. Last time we put them in, Adam managed to hit me in the mouth with his wing, and it wasn't any light tap either, it tore some skin off the inside of my lip and was sore for a couple of days.

Everybody's probably noticed that I haven't posted since the 25th. The reason is because we've all been sick with the flu. I still have a stuffy nose/runny nose and a tickling, irritating cough. Dad has had it since the 19th or the 20th… he is feeling better though, and that's good since he had to go to work today. Mom's the only one who has it pretty bad right now, but she's mostly just got a cold.

I have to go to the dentist tomorrow, so I hope some of my cough goes away!!

What Am I?

1. I am often considered a child's toy, but I am really dangerous.
2. By a quick twist and thrust of a young man's hand, I once launched a missile which won a battle.

Happy guessing!!

Oh, and I've added a new poll to the sidebar.. Don't forget to vote!

It's been sooo cold out today! The ground is nice and hard and there's a thin layer of ice on the pond and waterholes… and on the animal's water bowls!

Yesterday Levi invited our neighbor-friend up to the house (and he brought McKayla along, which is his little sister, the one I normally babysit) and we played Ping-Pong in the barn for a while. That was rather interesting, since we all trying to play (including McKayla.. I was attempting to teach her how!!), so there were two us of on each side of the table. McKayla & I on one side, and Tre' and Levi on the other.
Then, after a while, we all went in the house to play Hide N' Seek. And really, there's not many places to hide in the house, and you have to think really hard to find a good spot! Levi, Tre', and I went through all the past "What Am I?" cards that I've posted on my blog, and some other Bible card question game. We all enjoy doing that.

Levi and I had to put all the animals in last night again (and tonight, and every night it gets real cold), since it got down to 12 degrees! Those guineas refuse to go in the box by themselves, so we still have to put them in. It's a good thing the ground was frozen, because it gets awful slippery and really muddy in there after it rains. Only.. it's not only mud, if you get what I mean! I've almost slipped and fell in there before when it was really muddy and we went to put them in. It would have been absolutely terrible to land in that stuff!!! Ewwww.

Levi managed to escape out of the house with the camera today and got some pictures of the ice crystals, the waterholes, and the deck we put over the buried tank.

There.. that's the deck we built over top the tank, complete with a nice set of steps. Now that's where Gabriel stands and howls at the neighbors! Me, trying to lean down and get a nice looking ice crystal I found, and the next one is it. And Gabriel. I was trying to keep him away from the ice, since he has a habit of stepping on ice on the pond in the barnyard (which isn't deep, so I don't worry about that one) and I was trying to keep him from doing it on the waterhole where it was deep!!

Daddy has a touch of the flu — sore throat, cough, nose and head plugged up, etc. He did have a fever the other day, but managed to get rid of that, so he does feel a bit better. So far the rest of us haven't gotten it, and I sure hope we don't! (We have a dentist appointment next Tuesday to get my next three sets of aligners!)

Yesterday we finally got Gabriel's dog fence up and working! Mom, Levi, and I walked around with the collar and stuck in the white boundary flags for Gabe, then we took him around the entire thing on a leash. We'd pull him back away from the flags and tell him "No!"…
After that, Mom let him off the leash and was going to see if he would cross the flags, and sure enough, he did.. It zapped him, too. Levi had to run over and shut the fence off just so we could get him back across.

But today he won't even go near the flags, so I think that one zap about cured him of that! Right now when we all go inside, he won't go very far away from the porch, but that's only because for months we've been telling him to stay on the porch when we go inside!

The flu is making another visit to us — Daddy is sick with it right now. At the moment he is taking a vinegar bath! He wasn't feeling too well yesterday when he had his day off, but today he had to stay home from work. I hope he gets better soon and it doesn't last long.. I'm really hoping the rest of us don't catch it, either, we have a dentist appointment on Tuesday.