Thank you, Nate and Dawn for calling me to let me know my site was down - I had no idea!  Also, thank you to those who emailed me. 

Turns out there was an issue with my debit card expiring and *cough, cough* I neglected to update it on my billing info for my SquareSpace account.  Gee whiz, definitely a *duh* on my part. I was in bed most the weekend with a cough/cold, so I wasn't online all that much and wasn't very good at checking all my email.   I thought the warning went to my junk mail and missed it, but upon further investigation, I found it hidden between two other messages I was waiting to answer.

I'm feeling mucho better today that I went to work and felt so good that I went out with my sexy man *grin*  Gee whiz... what a guy. 

Last weekend, my friend Linda and I went to the movie, P.S. I Love You, and while I was waiting for her in the lobby, I noticed this display and couldn't help but giggle about the phallic sillouette.  *snicker*  I snapped a photo (click to EMBIGGEN *snortle*) while getting weird looks from the movie theatre staff... then Linda came out of the restroom and I showed her and we both giggled as we walked to the theatre where our movie was playing.  We are so easily entertained and it's clear what is on our minds. 

We also had some laughs over my new scarf that my aunt got me for Christmas; it is a polyester fluffy scarf that is SO wonderful and silky.  Linda had to feel it (the scarf) and when she did, she said, "Ohhh my... that IS sexy."  Then she went on about moisture... I didn't really follow that.  *snicker* 

P.S.  the movie was wonderful; quite a tear jerker but I loved it.   

Now, there is actually something else the title of this post represents, besides the above two paragraphs.  North Ogden, where I live, got well over 21 inches of snow yesterday.  We got the brunt of the all day storm when Ogden, a short distance away) only got 6 inches.  However, I don't believe that because I had to drive through a good ten inches to run an errand for my parents and a doctor appointment.  No one was going over 25mph... well, that is, no one who stayed on the road!  

This morning was a mess getting to work - the photo to the left is right after I got to work and trudged through the snow to the front door.   There was about six inches but the condition of the road, I thought there was a lot more.  There was an inch+ sheet of ice under the snow.  The drivers that stayed on the road didn't go over 40 mph and at times, no more than 20mph on the freeway.  I was thankful to get to work! 

I left work an hour before my Remicade treatment was scheduled, which is usually a 15 minute drive from work.  Most the traffic lights were covered in snow.  I had to go to one doc's office to get some meds for Dad, which was fun, I almost got stuck in the parking lot.  I did good though, Dad taught me well; I rocked back and forth and got out.  After that, I had 20 minutes to get to my Remicade appointment... I pulled into the hospital parking lot five minutes late but I got a really good parking place.  I tell you - Someone was watching out for me today.  As dangerous as it was out today, it was so beautiful.  See why I love the snow? 

The roads were decent after my doctor appointment - except when I got to North Ogden then it was fun, fun, fun.  I was chatting with Vickie on my phone (using my hands-free!) when I said, "Holy shit.  I gotta gun it because I'm going through two feet of snow," when I turned on the road before my street.  I couldn't go more than 5mph through the twists and turns and she got all the commentary!  I waved to a guy who I thought was a family friend but it wasn't him... but he was cute.  LOL  He must have thought he knew me because he had a big grin on his face. I'm such a dork.

I turned on my street and it was a lot better than the last and I backed in my driveway with no issues... unless you count scraping the pile of snow with my car.  It looked just like someone cut the snow with a knife.  Ah well.  I took my things into the house and went back out with my camera to get some shots of the huge piles of snow around the house.  It was amazing - it's been years since I've seen that much snow at one time.  Now this is a Utah winter.   

The little black thing in the photo on the left is my across-street neighbor's mail box.  The pile of snow in the front is my mailbox. The puffs surrounding the gray siding is a bit of my house's roof. 

After I finished having fun taking photos in the front of the house, I went to the back yard.  I noticed Mom's flowering plums were bent all the way down to the snow level; they're at least 7 feet tall.  Since I still had my boots and coat on, I went out back to rescue the flowering plums.  That sounds simple, huh?  You should know by now that with me, nothing is simple.  More about that in a minute.  On my way out to rescue the plums, I took more photos.  There are descriptions under the photos. 

Snow on the railing of the deck 
Antique plow in garden, 3 feet tall

Cool ice cycles on fitzer
Snow on a garden hoseI made my way down the stairs of the deck, despite the 4 inches of snow on them since my very generous brother cleaned them earlier.  At the bottom of the deck, there was about a foot-wide strip where there was very little snow before I began trudging in the snow so high, it was above my knees.  OK, didn't plan on this, but I had cozy socks on and I figured my legs would be OK for a couple of minutes while setting the flowering plums free from their snow traps.  Uh huh. 

I got about two feet when one foot slid under my other when I hit the pocket of icey snow under the fresh stuff and I had myself a seat made from snow.  As I sat there squatting and unable to find a stable enough place to put my hands so I could get up, my ass and my legs became reallllllly cold and realllllly wet.  I sat there and giggled at my prediciment; only I could get myself into such a position.  Mom was in the kitchen fixing dinner for Dad when I decided to call for help. 

She asked if I left my camera in the house so she could take a photo.  Yeah, that would have been reallllly funny.  ;-)  Luckily, the camera was in my coat pocket, safe and dry.  She pointed out the fact that the barbeque grill was back and to my left a bit then proceeded to tell me, "Why don't you clean off the show from that with the broom in your hand and use that to push yourself up with?"  

Where I fell and trompedMighty fine idea, especially because my knees have been killing me lately and I wasn't about to do a face-first dive if I were to roll over.  Voila.  It worked.  Mom is brilliant.  After that, I made my way to the flowering plums and freed them - minus a few branches.  I only stumbled one more time but luckily the broom broke my fall.  As I made my way back to the deck and back to a warm house where I could get out of my cold and wet jeans and panties to have a nice, HOT shower, I looked back at where I'd been and could only laugh and thought, gee whiz...  now that was fun!

It's been a funky week.  The work week seemed to be longer than a normal week with one day short due to the holiday.  Most of the week was waaaaay below freezing in the single and teen digits.  Brrr.  I could hardly wait for this weekend for it to warm up and give us snow.  today's storm was beautiful and dumped a lot of snow and we're supposed to keep getting snow all week with just a short break between storms.  I'm not complaining because we need the snow and compared to Idaho's snow removal services - Utah rocks.  ;-) 

Snowy days are the best when I can stay home and curl up with a blanket and watch the snow fall.   However, when I looked out the window across the street, I saw a genuine Utah Snow Angel...  and it ruined it for me.  *snortle*  Not really... this is something I got in my email.  What a hoot. 

The tree is one of the lovely sites I saw looking out my window and I had to get dressed (it was a PJ day) in my sweats to go out and take some photos. 

One thing about the snow is that it makes my sexy man, D, busier at work.  He's been in and out of state all week so I haven't been able to talk to him much.  I swear, my patience is getting tested - not with him but with the lack of talking, etc.  No translations on the "etc"... I'll just say, uh hum, gee whiz.

Some of you may have noticed my domain was down for a few days.  Hmmm.  Thanks to Ms. Vickie calling me and telling me that she got the GoDaddy screen from her Google Reader instead of my blog but she could get to my blog via her blogroll (which was the url http://passionsofmyheart.squarespace.com/ not the http://www.passionsofmyheart.com).  Hmmm.  Then it dawned on me that my domain expired so I checked online and sure enough, it expired on Dec 29.  Ooops.  I didn't get any renewal notices but after further investigation, I discovered I used my MSN email address not my gmail.  I confess that I do not check my MSN email but once a month when I get a nasty note saying I haven't checked my email in 30 days.  Ooops. The email is now my gmail email address. 

Then I went to pay the fee for renewal and I could not log into PayPal.  I use PayPal when available since it's safer than having things automatically renew with my debit/credit card.  I ended calling customer service to get my PayPal account straightened out because I was not getting the email to reset my password... which ended up being that I had a PayPal email address blocked but also had one in the safe mail.  Go figure that Hotmail works so well with the blocked emails.  So an hour later, I finally had the renewal paid.  

Can anything in my life be easy?  Apparently not these past funky few days.   

That's it for me for now - I need to get my behind in bed to get some sleep so I'm ready for my long workday and fun drive into work.  I hope you all had  a great weekend and here's hoping this week will be a lot better than last week.  Remember to smile, it makes others wonder what you're up to. 

One of the many joys around Christmas is regifting those questionable gifts received last year.  My worst gift last year is this little fella here.  I'm not saying that I did not appreciate the gift because I know it is the thought that counts.  However, this year, I'm looking forward to spreading the joy this gave me.  The main feeling I had was laughter, which did warm my heart... ;-) 

I've got a special person this is going to... Barb, who has spared no thoughts to give me dusty/dirty/broken and glued gifts over the past 13 years.  The last two years, my friend Sheri and I stopped spending our hard-earned money on gifts that Barb doesn't seem to appreciate and started giving her regifted items that she loves!  Go figure... I guess we should have figured this out a long time ago. 

I'm not being petty... really.  It's so funny to see Barb's eyes light up when she gets these silly gifts.  Sheri cannot wait to see this, as I've been saving it all year long. 

Christmas is really coming.  It's hard to believe, isn't it?!  Twenty-two days and counting.  

Over the weekend, I decorated for Christmas and my living room are all cheery now.  While I was going through my boxes of decorations, I found a box full of ornaments that I used to hang in my cubicle at work.  With last week's pickle post, I found something that goes right along with that... a pickle ornament!!  

I found this pickle ornament a few years ago in a store... yes, I was a perv back then too ... and I had to buy it.  It was such a surprise to find it.  I was playing with different settings to place this prize pickle ornament for the photo.  I got a winner when I set it on top of Mr. Snowman's piano.

Hmmm... do you think Mr. Snowman is jealous since he only has a carrot nose?  

Yeah... I had to ask.    

There is a legend behind said pickle ornament in Germany - an old one, but still, a tradition.  See HERE and read about the game of hiding the pickle... sounds like a fun game to me...

Wait... I've been playing it all my life... but haven't found it yet... but perhaps... soon.  *snicker*

My family's Thanksgiving was a lot of fun - mainly thanks to my two nephews, Travis and Adam.  I don't remember much about what they were talking about, just that I was laughing.  My brother has a very nice big-screen TV and it's the gathering place for the men on Thanksgiving; it's the football den.  This is the first year in so long that they have not stayed downstairs to watch football and they admitted it was one of the most fun Thanksgivings they could remember.  Nephew Jason got squished by Travis and Adam when he came up from the football den to get some food.  Perhaps this is some of what goes on in the den... at least when I am not down there.  ;-)  (Click photos to EMBIGGEN)

They posed for me trying to be super models or something...  my sister Susie got wet-willied when she left but she didn't seem to mind, which has me a bit worried, but I digress.  

We had a lot of family there and Elyssa made a new friend who let her play with her hair.  She is my SIL Patti's niece and I tried to warn her about what she was getting into because of my past hair trauma, but she managed to escape unscathed and with all her hair. 

Then there was sweet baby Eli who has grown in the three weeks since I've seen her.  I held her for about half an hour while she slept, despite all the chaos that surrounded her.  Then mommy, Sara, came to get her and since she's the mommy, she's the boss.  When my brother J Dee came to see if my arms needed a rest, I told him no.  ;-)   

J Dee got his turn though, he got Eli and his other granddaughter, Katelyn at the same time.   He is such a good grandpa and it does my heart good to see him glow with love when he's holding any of his grandchildren. 

My niece, Nichole, was there too.  Really there - she's gone through some rough times the last couple of years or so but she's back.  She's got two adorable kids and a great husband and it's so great to have her back.  The caring, fun, and sweet person has returned and we had a good talk.

I do, indeed, have much to be thankful for and family is just the tip of it.  

Today, I head back to work!  I have to say the past three weeks has gone by quickly and I'm a little excited about going back to work.  No, I don't have a fever... but am excited to get back into my life again.

© KJR

Nikki-Ann tagged me... since I usually frown on being tagged, you know she must be a good friend for me to follow through ;-)  The meme rules: pick up the book you are reading, turn to page 161, and divulge the contents of the sixth sentence on that page.

I'm reading three books at the moment, 302 Advanced Techniques for Driving a Man Wild in Bed by Olivia St. Claire, The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner (for work), and The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby.  Now, the question is, which book do I choose; shall I be naughty or nice?  I think I'll be nice and naughty since it's hard for me to behave.

Let's face it - I've been reading the 302 book for along time because I can only take so much *snicker* torture at one time.  I'll flip a coin - naughty is tails *snicker* and nice is heads... or wait, should it be the other way around?  So tough to choose. 

I read the 302 book and the sentence is something about the right rear corner of a desk which sounds more interesting as is than what the actual sentence is.  The Leadership Challenge sentence is about a manager taking a group out to lunch... perhaps a nooner but I doubt it.  So, that leaves the Photography book.  "Also, if you can get either age group to pose for you, make sure you spend some time talking with them before you start shooting - it can go along way toward loosening them up, which will give you more natural looking poses and expressions (plus, they'll probably let you shot longer after you've built a little rapport).  Sounds a little kinky...

Yesterday, between the pain pills and benadryl I took, I was quite loopy... more than usual.  Until I can get my leg/incision wet, I have to use my parent's shower because Dad has a shower bench and a hand-held-shower-head.   Wednesday, the shower went very smooth but yesterday was another story. 

Call me Karen... Karen, the Dork.  I turned on the water with the water coming through the bathtub spout to warm it up.  I had everything off except my boot, which comes off last. I got the shower-head down and placed it in the tub.  OK, I thought I was ready to go but alas... not.  As soon as I pulled the knob for the water to come through the shower-head, I got a face full of water, water ran down my leg, getting my boot wet, and then the water sprayed all over the bathroom. 

I found myself taking my fist and wrapping on my forehead, *knock, knock* and asking myself if anyone was home.  I giggled and called myself a dork.  Yep, I'm a dork. I got through the rest of the shower without further issues but I could not reach the water on the ceiling and walls due to my lovely boot. 

As I stepped gingerly out of the bathroom in search for Mom to tell her the bad news, despite me still giggling.  As I broke the news, I was braced to hear her call me by my full name and ask me what I was thinking.  Clearly, she knows what a dork I am and replied, "It's OK, it's just water."  True enough but I asked her to repeat it because I thought I was hallucinating her answer.  She said it was really OK since it was her cleaning day and it gave her an excuse to clean the ceiling and walls.  All righty then! 

We'll see how today goes but I will be careful and follow the proper order of turning the shower on.  I will be able to use my shower tomorrow, which does not have a hand-held shower-head and that's probably a good thing.  But you know, I'm liking the hand-held; it's right up there with Hula's toilet for the cheap thrills. I'm thinking one is going on my wishlist *snicker*

I'm no longer itching and scratching as much and stopped taking the Benadryl, so perhaps I won't be much of a dork today.  It's not all bad, being a dork, it's a constant source of entertainment for me.  ;-)

Have a great weekend!! 

Update: the Dork lives.  I had another fun experience in the shower this morning despite turning on the hand-held in the correct order.  The shower head is slippery in soapy hands and tends to spray what it wants to... namely the shower curtain and my leg, which is supposed to be kept dry.  The shower-head had a mind of its own.  Once I got done rinsing myself off, I dried my leg and stood up.  There was a big puddle of water all around the tub on the tile.  Oops. 

Mom drove me to the doc to have my dressings changed and my incision looked at.  As soon as the doc said I could now shower normally and get the incsion wet, I commented on how happy that would make Mom since I've made some water messes in her shower.  Then she said, "Your dad will be happy too since you got his toilet seat wet this morning."  We all busted out laughing.  Mom didn't tell me about the toilet but we both thought it was sweet revenge because of all the times Dad got our toilet seats wet... but at least it was water that I left on the seat!  ;-)