Spring Happies!

Well, some good news: Dad’s got a closing date for his house. In theory, so long as the buyers do not back out, the closing date is May 15th. Their offer was only slightly less than his asking price. So, I’m guessing he’ll be out of Alaska before the dog days of summer are really in full force. Of course it’s going to seem odd, never being able to go into my childhood home again. And I was hoping that the buyers would be folks we knew (the daughter of the guy who owned the house prior to our family was interested, but isn’t the buyer) so that I could go harvest crab-apples for more jelly-making this fall. But, that’s all ok. The most important aspect is for Dad to sell the place.

Next bit of good news (at least in MY world): My back deck is cleared off of snow. *grin* LOVING IT!!! Now, if it warms up enough that it’s not covered in frost & slick as heck, I can get out and jump-rope in the morning and get back into my morning exercise routine.

The third bit of happy news for me this morning.... I’ve already got rhubarb growing out beside my house. *grin* I LOVE seeing the green things growing this time of year!!! I’m also considering pulling some of the young fireweed shoots & steaming them. Supposedly they taste like fresh, young asparagus when done like that. YUM!

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Scott & I spent about a half-hour last night shoveling & pushing snow off the bottom of our drive and either into the road or across the road toward the empty lot. It had become nearly impossible to back my car into the drive through all the slush. We’ve gotta spend an hour or so tonight shoveling out the dog pen (between the build up of a winter’s worth of doo & the slush, they won’t even go IN the kennel). After we shoveled the drive last night, we took the dogs for a walk up the back of our neighbourhood, across the HS parking lot, and back down NPHS boulevard before turning back into our neighbourhood. It was a good long walk.

Of course, as we turned back down our road, we realized that the end of our road was completely blocked off by water. *sigh* Scott made it around without getting his feet wet. I wasn’t so lucky. I tried, but my legs just weren’t long enough so my new shoes got soaked and DANG were my feet cold!!! Good thing it was only another 2 minutes before I was back in the house. *grin* Of course, now I don’t know what I’m going to wear to work today. I’ll probably wear my winter boots, and change into my crocs when I get there.

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Tay’s first couple of spring-league hockey games have gone rather well. It’s interesting & rather confusing because they’re played cross-ice and 3 on 3 with change-ups every 2 minutes and the ref only blows the whistle when a goal is made, but the clock never stops. It greatly encourages rebound shots, but the kids don’t have a lot of room for puck handling or fast skating. The first two games were played with teeny-tiny nets, but the second set of games were played with full-size goal nets. Which is DEFINITELY preferable at this age. The small nets were being pushed out of the way and pulled back into place so often that it became a problem. The full-size nets can be kept in place with the two pegs in each side digging into the ice. Tay and her friend A. are going to switch off as goalie, A. playing goalie on Saturdays, and Tay on Tuesdays.

(Oh, and FWIW, Tay's tummy has been fine since vomiting Tuesday morning, though she DID wake up with a cough & sniffles this morning. I hope she's not coming down with another nasty cold. We didn't stay home ALL day Tuesday. We went to lunch at a local -REAL- diner, then went to the hardware store to try to have spare keys made for my car. Unsuccessfully! THEN we went to the craft store where I had Tay pick out a couple of yards of fabric in a pattern SHE liked to stash away for future potential clothes-making. Or, to make a pretty top for fun if things never get as hard as homemade clothing being a necessity.)

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I get to spend tomorrow being "stuck" at home all day. I can’t say I’m not looking forward to it. Scott’s gotta take my car in to have the surpentine belt checked as my car has let off a loud squeel whenever started since the day I drove it off the lot at Auto Service Co. back in Feb. Anyway, he finally got an appointment with Hyundai to have it checked over tomorrow, which leaves me without a vehical.

So, no volunteering at the school, no grocery shopping. Just a quiet day at home. I’ve got a movie to watch, and I’d like to get out & clear out some of the debris from my side-yard so that I can get some sugar-snaps planted as soon as the ground dries up a bit. (And, DANG IT, I’ve gotta get in my seed order or I won’t have seeds to plant this year!) I’m also gonna pull my two big planters over to the spots where I want my tomatoes, and see if the planters actually fit in those spaces. Oh, and I need to bake a couple batches of banana bread as well. So, a lot of things to do tomorrow that don’t require leaving the house.

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Last but not least, both Dads (and possibly my mother-in-law) are coming over on Saturday for barbequed chicken and german potato salad. (Well, MAYBE German Potato Salad. The hubby wants regular potato salad, I want the german style.) Should be fun! And we’ll actually get to use our deck for it’s intended get-together purpose. *grin*

Have a Blessed Day!