I can hardly believe it.  I didn't have a speck of green on today and nobody noticed.  I did it on purpose, just to see if anyone would be brave enough to pinch Ritzywife, haha....
This month is flying by.  Spring is just a few days away and the weather is finally feeling like it should.  Today was beautiful, but I couldn't be outdoors due to a nasty cold that I acquired from someone.  I was also busy, busy, busy in the house today.  The daughter and future son-in-law moved into their house the night before last.  That meant that I could FINALLY get my house back in order.  I did not waste any time doing so.  It took the whole day, but "mission accomplished"....
The only thing I have left is to arrange my sewing table and craft items in the storage/sewing room.  That will be a fun job, tho.
The wedding is slipping up on us, just a few weeks away.  We are all trying to see if we have forgotten anything....I am almost sure there will be something we didn't think of but, you know....it will be just fine in the end.
The fish are starting to bite and I have not had a chance to go yet.  They are just beginning to come in to start their spawn for this season.  My brother and sister-in-law went fishing tonite and only caught some small ones.  My brother met the sister-in-law and the nephew at our house after work and they all went fishing.  I was frying chicken strips for supper  and realized it would not take much more effort to cook for 3 more........I realized brother was probably hungry after working all day.   I called my sister-in-law and told her I had a "doggie bag" to hold them over til they got home.  When they came in the house, I told them they may as well sit down and eat....we were just finishing and there were still plenty of side items left.  So, they ate and we got to visit for a little while.  I love doing things like that for my family.
Earlier  in the day,  I was talking to her on the phone and was telling her that I had a table that had some storage space in it that I wanted to give to the daughter because it was just too big for where I had it, but i needed a place to put my cookbooks and some other items.  She said she had just what I needed and she and the nephew brought it out.  It was perfect.  Now my dining table is where it is supposed to be ( not pushed against the wall) and 4 people can sit around the table.  I told you  I had been cleaning, ;-)   Before, there was that baker's table, my dining table, chairs, a file cabinet for the church and another small table in the dining room, plus some tote boxes due to the daughter's move back in November.  Not Anymore....  The only thing in the dining room now is the dining table and chairs. YIPPEE!!!! 
I should not be having any trouble falling asleep tonight, but we'll see.  Ritzy is sleeping right now and I am about ready to call it a day.   That being said....Ritzywife is out!

Only 3 weeks away, and it is playing hide and seek.  It warms up a few days then turns cold.  Hard to believe it is March 1st already.... Ritzy and I have been switching between turning off the heat and turning on the A/C - turning off the A/C turning on the heat for the last couple of weeks.  It's just that time of year in Oklahoma.
He told me that he was talking to his brother in Wisconsin last night and found out we have received a lot more snow than Wisconsin so far this season. 
Ritzy was also telling me that his parents are doing fairly well.  His mother fell and broke her hip.  She had to have hip replacement .  Ritzy's brother said the recovery is going to be very slow.  We will be going up there in a couple of  months.  His brother already invited us to stay with him and his family. Gee, I sure hope it isn't as hot as last year.  Their home does not have air conditioning.  The week we were up there was one of the hottest times during last year.  hmmm
Ritzywife is thinking about that garden and planting flowers....and let's not forget crappie fishing!  I love this time of year!!!!!!  Don't get me wrong, I love the snow, and it is beautiful......but my favorite time of year is Spring.  I love watching everything come back to "life".   My jonquils are up and getting ready to bloom.  The only thing is - this is when we usually get a heavy snow.  We will just have to wait and see. 
I hope the weather cooperates with my fishing plans this year.  We live close to a creek that runs into the Oologah lake.  The bank is rocky and the crappie come up in there (if the water temp is right) to spawn.  This goes on for about 6 weeks starting in late March-early April thru May.  But the temperature has to level off.  Has to make it in the 70's - 80's during the day and not drop below 60's at night.   The way we are going now....it's going to be interesting to see how things turn out.  If I am lucky it doesn't flood me out of my fishing hole.  That's the bad thing about where I fish.   If we start getting a lot of rain, the lake rises and floods out the creek.  Then the only way to get to where the fish are is by boat. 
The daughter and her fiance are about to get their house ready to move into.  They have spackled the walls in the bedrooms, bathrooms, painted and are getting new carpet tomorrow.  This has turned into more work than they had planned, but they are about finished.  Still have to replace the kitchen countertop.
She is getting things ready for her wedding day, also.  All this while both of them are working full time.  Oh well, they are young....they can handle it ;-)  that's why you do this stuff while you are young, haha!!
I have a Dr.'s appointment in a couple of hours.  Its's that yearly exam every woman looks forward too......not!!!  I just keep telling myself that tonight it will only be a distant memory, hehe!!
Speaking of tonite, after returning home from that appointment, I have to get supper started.  Think I will go with chicken.  Last night we had homemade chicken and noodles...and yes, the noodles were homemade too.  The daughter and fiance came home and got the noodles out of the refirgerator and headed up to "granny's with them.  She said granny (my mom) wanted some too........The future son-in-law said they were delicious.......
I also tried a new recipe out  on hubby and the son.  I saw the recipe in a magazine the night before.  It was a German pancake.  It tasted pretty good, and was so darn easy to make. 
Ritzy told me last night that he did not know how he would have survived all these almost 28 years without Ritzywife's cooking ;-)
 I thought that was sweet.  He sure can put that food away tho,  I just look in amazement at the amount he eats and stays so fit.  He ate 3 bowls of noodles last nite!!!!  plus dessert.....I did good to eat one!!
I am glad that he likes my cooking......I love to cook for my family.....even tho sometime's it can be a challenge, but, I like challenges too.....
Speaking of cooking, I am going to have a new stove delivered tomorrow.  The stove I have used all these years doesn't have a see-thru door, it is also one of the cheaper models made.  I thought I deserved a nice stove for all this cooking.  This one has 5 burners on top, a grate all across the top, the middle can be used for an oversized pot or griddle, and better temperature control, a lot of other features and the most important (to me)  a self-cleaning oven.  I will probably be giving my brother a call to come help Ritzy install it.  All it will cost is a  steak (cooked on the Weber grill) dinner and a homemade cobbler.  No problem for Ritzywife.....
Wow, when I sat down here to write, I thought I had nothing to say.....but as you can see, that was not the case.
Ritzywife out...........................

On the last post was a picture my son took while on his ride to work.  It showed the outside temperature to be -27 degrees.  Here it is exactly one week later and it is 75 degrees.  A 100 degree difference in only one week.  WOW, this is crazy.  Ritzywife is threatening to turn on the AC unit.  It seems we have jumped from the freezer to the oven.......hehe!!  All that beautiful snow is just about gone.  I had about forgotten what my yard looked like...  You want variety.....come to Oklahoma!!!!!
I am starting to get  "Crappie Fishing Fever".....  You fishermen out there know exactly what I am talking about.
I was reading on a weather site the other day about what to expect in the coming months.  They said to expect dramatic changes in the temperatures.  They won't last long, but it will turn cold, them warm etc....
With the daughter's wedding coming up in April, that is not exactly what I was wanting to hear.  I told Ritzy last night that I was going to wait until I know what the weather is going to be like before I buy my clothes for the wedding ;-)
Speaking of the daughter, she came into our room early this morning wanting a thermometer.  We found it and she proceeded to tell me she had been up half the night with fever/chills, back hurting , rapid heartbeat, and just not feeling well.  I took her blood pressure and it was normal, her heart rate was a little fast.   She was holding a cold wet cloth on her face and neck to try to "cool off"... She said that some of her co-workers had come to work sick, but she didn't know if she had "caught" anything off them.  I asked her again to show me again where the back pain was.  After that, I told her that it was possible to have either a kidney infection or kidney stones.  Told her a trip to the Dr.'s office was probably going to be needed.  That is where she and her fiance are right now.  He texted me a while ago and said they were waiting to take a ct scan, because the Dr. thinks it could be kidney stones.  It sure is hard watching your kids hurting and not be able to "just make it go away".....  I was going to take her, but he offered and I figured they are about to start a life together and they need to learn how to take care of each other.  So, here I am at home....She said she had a full day at work, but I told her that sometimes these things happen and her boss knows how hard a worker she is, so try not to worry about it.  Just an observation here--My and Ritzy's kid's  work ethic is one of their  qualities we are really proud of.  They both know their jobs and they do them well.  Sorry for the bragging ;-)
After the daughter and her fiance left, it was around 8:30 am.  I debated on whether to go back to bed, or just stay up.  Well the bed won. I didn't get up til 10.  Psst, don't tell Ritzy.   Oh well, I will probably tell on myself tonight.
This warm weather had me thinking about supper tonight.  When Ritzy gets home I am going to ask him to get the Weber charcoal grill out and fire it up.  I have some steaks thawing right now.  I am usually not a steak eater, but that sure sounds good now....Sure glad  Northeast Oklahoma is not included in that "burn ban"....
I have a feeling this is going to be one of those days where at the end of the day I am going to be scratchin' my head wondering where the time went.....
Ritzywife out.........................................

Can you believe it?!?!?  Oklahoma is in the freezer....... That was the temperature (NOT WIND CHILL) here in Winganon this morning.....We have had the most amazing weather that I have ever witnessed.  First of all we dealt with a blizzard about a week ago and a couple of days ago both  record snowfall and cold temperatures.  There is about 3 ft. of snow on the ground in our yard and drifts up to 4 & 5 ft.
The Oologah lake ( just a mile west) is frozen with about a foot of snow on top of the ice.
Even though all this is going on......it is still beautiful, so I am trying to enjoy it instead of whine about it.  Here is a picture of the latest snowfall added to the snow we recieved last week:



My patio table and chairs are almost covered up and the swing by the porch is covered.  That red thing peeping out of the snow is a lawn chair.  Ritzy sure has had his fill of shoveling snow for a while.  He was even at the roof shoveling snow  by the porch to prevent ice dams.
Speaking of the lake ...here is a picture of the snow drifts ON the lake taken from the  road crossing the lake looking to the north. 
Ritzy and I made a trip into town to get the poor little birds some seed.  We grabbed a snack and I asked if we could just go park on the road and just look at the lake for a while and eat our lunch/snack.  Just a chance to be alone and out of the house.  With all this bad weather and 5 adults in the house.......there isn't much "alone" time for anyone.
I hear it is supposed to warm up by this weekend....then we will be dealing with the slushy mess this melting snow will create.  Ritzy and I are having to put off starting our garden becuase of the snow...Usually have our potatoes in by middle of February to first of March.  That is just so hard to imagine.... seeing all this "white stuff" around.
Well, it's time for Ritzywife to get off here and fix this crew some supper.
Ritzywife out....................

Well, as you can see - we did get that snow.  All 18-20 inches of it. The top picture is our a/c unit outside the back door, buried in the snow. the bottom picture is my porch swing on the other side of the back porch buried in the snow also....   It was amazing to watch it snow so hard and tso long.  That wind was really blowing.
All the family was stuck at home yesterday.  They are still here today.  Ritzy shoveled snow in the driveway and sidewalk.  He had to do the sidewalk 3 or 4 times.  By the time he would get finished it would be covered again.  We could not open our back door all the way til he shoveled some of the  snow away.
The daughter's boyfriend (fiance) thought he would drive his 4-wheel drive to work and get the equipment to pull people out of the ditch.  Well, he got stuck, but he was close to the place where the equipment was so he got the loader and graded a road, did a little work and finally got his truck unstuck and headed to the house.  He was 3.5 miles away (across the lake) when he called and said he could go no further.  There was a truck stuck in front of him and an emergency vehicle behind him coming after those people in front of him.  I tried to tell the daughter to tell him to go with those people cause it was COLD outside.  But NO!!!!!   He gets out of his truck and starts walking in knee-deep snow to the house.  All this is about to get the best of me.  So I go to the  kitchen and proceed to make some potato soup.  Well the daughter comes in the kitchen and proceeds to tell me that she is going to go meet her guy.  I do not like the idea, but I really can't blame her.  I make sure she has enough warm clothes and she goes on her way to meet him.  He is at the bridge at this time, about 2.5 miles away.  I holler at Ritzy and tell him she needs a light because it is after 5 at this time.  He comes after a light and I tell him that she is not to go alone.  He goes with her and after a while I hear him come in.  I ask where they are and he said his feet were getting too cold.  He only had on rubber waders at the time.  He gets his feet warm, puts on his army boots and heads back out the door.  He meets up with them finally about a half mile away from the house.  About 30 minutes later they all walk thru the door.  I was a mess while all of this was going on.  When that soon to be son-in-law walked in I told him how glad I was that he was ok, but then I grabbed his shirt and told him that if he EVER tried anything like that again, that Ritzywife was going to "punch his lights out."
After all that.... we all grabbed a bowl of soup and had our supper.
I hope everyone stays put today......&
I hope to get outside to take some more pictures later.
Ritzywife out...................................

We are under a "Winter Storm Warning" until Wednesday.  Could see some ice and 10 + inches of snow.......YIPPEEE!!!!
I love snow, even if it means being "cooped" up with the family, haha!!!!  It's also going to get really cold.  I keep telling everyone that it is winter.....it's supposed to be cold.  The only thing wrong with the timing of this storm for us is that Ritzy and I are going to Skiatook with my brother and his wife next Saturday for a music/comedy show.  With the temps not getting above freezing and that much snow------we may NOT be going anywhere soon......
A very busy weekend around here for me.  I do my family's income taxes online and they had me going at it pretty good all weekend.  Ritzy and I already have ours back.  I did some sewing for our Pastor & Family's new baby that is expected this week.  I have some more sewing for myself  lined up for this coming week while being "snowed in".
The daughter's wedding plans are going along pretty well.  Now I just pray for pretty weather in April.  Everyone is in bed and I am about ready to be there myself.  Looking forward to a slow Monday after a very busy weekend.
At least tomorrow everyone will be out of the house early and I can get things back in order.
This bunch thinks I am the only one qualified to do this job, or the only one dumb enough to do it......not sure.....will have to get back to you on that...
I am really getting tired so.....Ritzywife out...........................






 

"Asian"  was the choice this time.  I saw an Asian cole slaw recipe that sounded and looked so good and pretty that I had to try it.  I also found a pepper steak recipe that looked delicious.  I even made home made fried rice for the first time.  It all turned out wonderful.    What can I say.... I love to cook and try new things.....The daughters fiance told me that he was "just going to have to make himself stop eating"..... cause he liked it so much ;-)

  So, I got ready, grabbed the camera and headed to the lake.  Here are a couple of pictures of this great bird.....He was on the opposite side of the road so I had to go by him and find a place to turn around.  I was driving as slow as possible without scaring him so I could get a photo.   The pictures probably could have been better,  but even after 2 years, I am still learning how to use my camera, haha!!!!  The photo of him "in flight" is when I slowed way down to take his pic but he was not gonna have it.......
All of this before breakfast..............and I am getting ready to take care of that...............
Ritzywife out.................................