Basha

Our sweet little Basha died today... She was the best kitty we ever had. She's been failing for several months and we are surprised that she lived as long as she did. We got her as a kitten over 16 years ago, so she lived a long and full life and, as you can imagine, became like one of the family. :-) We will miss her a lot!

Praise the Lord!

After a long wait of 4 years, our old house has finally sold! There has been a lot of joyous jumping around here today. :-) Praising the Lord for His perfect timing....

Blizzard Aftermath

We've just experienced the biggest snow of the season and the worst blizzard since 1999! It's hard to tell how much snow we actually got - likely somewhere from a foot to 18 inches, but it's drifted so much that in some spots it's up to around 3 or 4 feet! We were amazed our power didn't go out.

This morning Dad got out the snowblower and spent 3 hours clearing the driveway. Tara and I clomped around in the snow just for the fun of it... it was pretty hard walking in that deep of snow!

See how deep it is along the edge of the driveway?

The branches of the trees weighed down by the snow

The Man with The Machine.

Tara attempts to embark across the front lawn, loses her balance and ends up with all limbs submerged in snow (including part of her nose).

Snowy trees... so pretty!

Another nice thing about deep snow is it makes it safe to jump out of trees.

Hard to see, but this was a huge drift

Tara in the track made by The Machine in the driveway

A nice snow cascade from the roof to the bush to the ground.

She's such a nice poser even when she's caked with snow. :-)

Needless to say, we won't be going out any time soon. Our road is down to one lane as the other lane is completely blocked by a 4 foot drift. Pretty crazy!

New Year's Eve

I'm finally getting around to updating our blog. Our most recent happening of note was our little New Year's Eve party. We had the Chids and the Riggenbachs over and had a ball! We ate munchies throughout the night and played games. The R's brought the Pride and Prejudice game, and of course Lily and Gretel won (we played teams). And we had our traditional Sjoelen tournament. Mr. Chidlow was determined to redeem his reputation.

Mrs. R takes a practice round... she's concentrating.

And Mr. C is getting worried.

A rousing card game... they sure look roused, don't they?

And... shock of shocks, EMILY won the second Sjoelen tournament!

Emily, I am still about to faint when I remember that!

(Tara won the first game, but that's not headline news)

She has no idea how it happened either.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We made as much noise as we could. 

Mr. R was prompted to remark, "Who needs boys when you have girls like this?"

Love the expressions in this photo! :-)

Tara blowing up a noisy balloon while keeping an eye on Mr. C's progress.

 I guess she didn't have anything to worry about. :-)

I'm sorry, Gretel. I couldn't resist.

Blow harder, Emily! All those breathing exercises should help!

Yes. Be afraid. Very afraid!

We drank sparkling grape juice (or champagne for the adults) while listening to various versions of Old Lang Syne on YouTube.

Hello, 2011! Thanks for coming, R's and C's - we had so much fun!

The Do-It-Yourself Messiah

One of the highlights of our year is the annual trip to downtown Chicago for the Do-It-Yourself Messiah! This year we had a smaller group than usual and it was at the Harris Theater again, so it wasn't quite the same but we still had a marvelous time!

Courtney looking very excited to be riding the train :-)

Emily and Mary Clare

Me and Kristen

(thanks Emily for taking the picture!)

Britta and Tara

3 sopranos!

(stolen from Emily's facebook :-)

The soloists and conductor during the encore of the Hallelujah Chorus

Laura, who looks amazing wherever she goes

"Smile, Joanna!"

Our fun group right before we got off. We sang all the way home on the train, to a very appreciative audience. :-)

(And yes, I did - unintentionally - cut out Mom and Dad and Amber! Sorry!)

As usual... we can't wait for next year.

4 girls....

2 days.... 1 night....equals fun!

Kristen was going to come over to spend the night with us for my birthday, so we were going to pick her up from class at around 7pm. I was just reading and enjoying the life of Robert E. Lee when I heard a car door shut - and there was Wendy! I smiled, looked confused and let her in the house, wondering why she was here. Apparently, she just "happened" to be in the neighborhood, along with her sleeping bag. :) "You want to spend the night?" Mom asked. It was quite a fun surprise for me, because I had asked Wendy if maybe we could get together sometime that week, but nothing had been settled!

We talked for a while, set up all 4 beds in the basement - it looked really nice with everyone's beds lined up in a row - and then picked Kristen up. Sleepovers can't be done without a movie, so we settled down with our pizza and watched "The Magic of Ordinary Days" and decided we all need to make '40's dresses and learn how to swing dance! :) Kristen hadn't seen The Runner from Ravenshead, and since both movies are relatively short, we watched that too. :) AND we still managed to get 7 hours of sleep - aren't you impressed??

Next day (the 7th), we had a delicious breakfast of Oatmeal Casserole, thanks to Mom, and then headed out for a photo-op! Enjoy the pictures!

Kristen and me!

We were having fun while Kathryn and Wendy got their camera settings just right.

Snowball fight!!

If you look closely, you can see a couple of the snowballs in the air.

Thanks for coming over, Wendy and Kristen! I had sooo much fun with you two!

Happy Birthday, Tara!

Happy birthday, Tara! We love you!