A Girl and Her Puppy

Brrrrr -- hello Winter! OH MY WORD!!!

We had an Arctic blast over the weekend and it's wasn't a fun one!

It was so incredibly cold and windy. The high temps were around 10 with wind chills at -20, and it was incredibly windy with blowing snow all over the place.

It was a day to stay inside on Saturday!

Our pup, Miss Muffy, wore her puffy vest outside whenever she ventured out.

Unfortunately, she moves so fast, we never got a photo of her in her little vesty. But, rest assured, it did its job and kept her warm! We tried to call her to come in right away on Sunday, but no, she had her own plans. There she was . . . out in the backyard --

throwing her ball around and playing in the snow, all on her own.

Yes, Scotties are one of the smartest dogs ever!!

Maddy and I are trying to train a little bit. She loves treats and will sit and stay.

We actually haven't gotten much beyond "come, sit, stay and crash (lie down)."

Someday we hope to teach her to speak and maybe shake, but for now,

we're going with the easy tasks. She and Maddy just love each other so much!

They are already "besties"!

Even though, I complain (what, me complain???) about Muffy sometimes,

she is a good little dog,

and I know that she will be a trusted companion and confidante

for Maddy in the years to come!

Gray, Gray Go Away!

Even though I'm thinking that about my hair (I do have a scheduled color on Saturday . . . finally!), but what I'm really wishing is for the chilly and dreary gray days to go away! And I mean soon!!! We have not seen the sun around here in weeks! After putting up with the arctic temp days, its warmed up a little, but we've had damp, chilly fog that lasts all. day. long!

Isn't fog supposed to burn off about mid-morning? Well, I'm no weather-person, but evidently the sun has gone into hiding as the fog isn't burning off. My fair city is enveloped in a sense of grayness . . . well, gray and/or dirty snow and slush! So, if you could all make a little wish for me, please join in and shout out loud: GRAY, GRAY, GO AWAY!!

Dear Mother Nature:

Dear Mother Nature:

Okay, that's enough now . . . let's go back to our regularly scheduled winter! In case you haven't noticed, it's only the first week in January! You've dumped over 30 inches of snow since November, maybe October actually. I haven't forgotten that surprise snowstorm you sent us the first weekend in October!! I should have known then to stock up on the Fuggs (fake Uggs), mittens and gloves. And, what's with the Arctic cold temps and wind chills? This is Nebraska, not North Dakota! Are you kidding me -- the low temp predicted to be -22 -- that's minus 22 degrees -- I don't even want to guess what the wind chill will be!!! Can you say BRRRRRR!!!! Kids can't even go out and play when it's this cold! Yes, we are starting to go a little stir-crazy!

Okay, I'll admit that the newly fallen snow is pretty, but it's really not pretty for long. Please don't tell me these photos are blurry -- it's because your snow was coming down so fast and furious!

Guess what -- your snow and cold is not all fun and games, snowmen and snow angels! It also means frozen gutters, incredibly messy floors, wet boots, worries about water pipes bursting due to the extremely cold temps, not to mention high heating bills. Add to that the few days of melting a few weeks ago and how that led to water dripping through the master bedroom ceiling! Yeah, that was fun! With all the new snow, I can hardly wait for melting again!

Even the kids want to get back to school, especially since they've had so many snow days already that they'll have to make them up if we have any more. So, Mother Nature, let's be thinking early spring! I'm talking really early -- like February! What happened to global warming anyway??? It's the first month of the new decade . . . come on Mama Nature, can't we be friends??

Love, jboo