Meet Bernie

Bernie meet the Blog readers.  Blog readers, meet Bernie.   We’ve had Bernie for 2 months now, there have been a few rocky patches, but I still love him!  We usually keep the house at 64 in the winter (except when I just can’t stand it and bump it up a tiny bit), last year our heating bill got up to $400 a month!  Now I might be ok with it if I was toasty warm, but I was FREEZING every day!  I knew we had to do Something!  We’ve talked about getting a wood furnace add on before, but we never went anywhere with it.  This year I brought it up, kinda just joking around, and Deric was all on board.  And after a bunch of research and deal hunting we found the one we wanted.  We were told that it would be a week to order it, but I asked them to see if they had any in stock and they did!   We brought it home the next day (we didn’t bring the trailer with us since we were supposed to order it), and installed it the next day (I think).  You are supposed to season it by having tiny fires and building up to small ones, and keep getting them bigger and letting it cool in between.  Granted there was the incident the first day I used the stove on my own…  but I don’t want to talk about it.  (FYI I still don’t add wood before getting in the shower!  Ha!  I must be scarred!)

Look, it’s hot in here! *grin*  Actually that’s nothing, it was 76 (on accident) yesterday!

Ok, so these pictures are a bit scary…  It’s the scary basement!  I’ve called the basement that since we moved in.  I guess it isn’t that bad, but the paint on the walls and floors are chipping and the ceiling is really low (and full of cobwebs).  I just don’t like it down here, yuck!

After a few other issues we had last week I put the table cloth over the window… there’s nothing like standing in the basement in sight of the neighbors in the middle of the night! 

Our wood pile.  The pile we have now (we stacked it Sunday) was all the way up to the ceiling!  The pile in the picture only lasted about 2 weeks, hopefully this stack will last a bit longer.

One really great thing is it makes a great place to dry all the kids snow clothes, and daddy’s too!

Although, Daddy’s clothes hanging there scare the crap out of me at night.  They totally look like someone is standing there! 

The one good thing about not having the stove upstairs is that we can keep this stuff just as it is.  There is no way I’d have a cardboard box full of newspaper, and a Rubbermaid of kindling sitting in my family room!

…or a stack of wood either!  Don’t you love the laundry basket for toting the wood!

This is our old wood stove… ha!  The two are so different!!  (It was so cozy though!)

 

It’s been awhile

…and I didn’t get a new laptop for Christmas (Not that I was expecting or even asking for one), so it is still going to be a while! I keep being hounded by VERY low disk space warnings, and NOT RESPONDING messages. Ugh drive me crazy! Seriously it took 30 minutes to just get this page open and responding (and as I was typing the word ‘responding’ it quit responding! Gurr!) A few times now I have even gotten the Blue Screens of Death! Double Ugh! (And I ‘not responded’ 9 times in the last 3 (yes, 3) sentences!!) I’m going to try to add a few picts… we’ll see if it happens!

Shew, I did it!

(FYI this post took WELL over an hour (that's not counting the 30 minutes it took to open), pathetic I know!)

Deck the halls…

I’m pretty sure the house is a Christmasified as it is going to get this year.  It’s been cloudy the last few days and I’ve had a cold and don’t feel that great, so the pictures aren’t that great.  I knew I just better snap a few and post them or they will never get posted (like the fall decorations oops!)

I LOVE my tree this year!!  Every year I keep trying to get my tree to look like the one in my head, and every year I get it wrong.  I finally figured out it’s the type of tree, not the shape of it!  It makes me happy!

This pillow also makes me happy.  Isn’t it wonderful?!

I just got this cabinet and I haven’t exactly figured out what I am going to do with it, but this works for now.

I thought it would be a safe place for my ‘unassembled snowman’ he’s never really had a home before but I really like him on this platter from my fall decorations.

I also think this picture (?) is yummy.  I love penny snowmen!

I didn’t know what to put in the bottom, so I stuck my nativity set in there.  The angels wings got broken off last year so it might be a good idea to keep it behind glass this year!  Plus the kids have their own set to play with, so they really don’t need to mess with mine.

I did a ‘pretty tree’ this year, but I put some of my favorite ornaments up still including the kids first Christmas ones.

I’m not a huge fan of this, but it will have to do for now. 

**Update: This drove me crazy so I returned the ‘Merry Christmas’ and the snowflake and came up with this instead.

Ahh, MUCH better!  :0)

My stocking holder looks a little lost here, but it doesn’t really look this lonely in person.  (At least I don’t think it does.)  It needs something though… maybe I’ll tuck some greenery on there or something, humm…

I got this wall hanging years ago and got it for a steal!   I used to LOVE it, but now I’m not sure.  I still like it, but its too something… cutsey?  Oh, I don’t know.

This is the table in the foyer right by the front door, I think I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.  I put a few packs of battery lights in the garland, I really wish I had an outlet here.  It really would have made this easier!

This is just ehh, anyone have any suggestions??

 

I love this garland on my stairs! I just wish I had a newel post on the bottom so I could really show it off!  …next year.  (It better be in by next year!)

This year I put my little trees out by the front door, I rigged them with lights and they look so cute!

My wreath is the same as last year, I did add battery lights so I can light it up when people come over though.

I also Christmased this up a bit too.  I think it would look sharp with lights in it too… but I didn’t think about that till later and I don’t feel like messing with it anymore!

Books of the Bible

I recorded Kylie saying the books of the Bible when I had her say the 23rd Psalm, but I forgot to post them! Oops! Better late than never, right??





Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pickin’!

Now that I am getting ready to throw out the pumpkins and put up the Christmas stuff I thought I’d post the pictures of the kids at the pumpkin patch, before I am completely out of season!

The rule when you go to the pumpkin patch with school is ‘if you can carry it, you can keep it’. I think that sounds like a good idea! We usually steer the kids towards the pie pumpkins, they are so much cheaper that way! I think they are getting on to us… I wonder how much longer we can keep it up?

Daddy and his babies. I can’t believe how much they have all grown, it made me so sad when I looked at these pictures (here’s last years, somehow 07’s never got posted I guess). I can’t believe how big they are now! Sniff, sniff.

These pumpkins were so neat, they were an awesome silvery greenish color. They were way cool!

These peanut pumpkins were pretty neat too… I’ve never seen anything like these before. It just might make me rethink our pumpkins for next year! :0)