•¸¸♥¸¸•*¨*• ♪ ` ♪Happy*Birthday`•to.¸¸~ME♥~¸¸♫•*¨* ♪ Happy ♪ ♫*`Birthday*`♥¸¸ ♪ Happy ♪ Birthday ♪ ♥¸ ♪Happy ¸ ♪ Birthday ♪ ~¨♥♫*..

•¸¸♥¸¸•*¨*• ♪ ` ♪Happy*Birthday`•to.¸¸~ME♥~¸¸♫•*¨* ♪ Happy ♪ ♫*`Birthday*`♥¸¸ ♪ Happy ♪ Birthday ♪ ♥¸ ♪Happy ¸ ♪ Birthday ♪ ~¨to*•.~ME ♥♫*..



  Yes gentle readers ....today is my birthday.  The day I transition out of 60 years old and INTO my sixties. And I've been feeling like either a big baby  (my husband and son both forgot my birthday until late in the day)  or like a woman blessed, because I have gotten about 200 birthday wishes, phone calls, emails and texts from people who DO love me.  As you can imagine, I nearly have whiplash over the reeling emotions. And I'm old.  lol  AND--I have now officially outlived my father, the elder of my deceased parents, my mom having died 5 years before him.  That is a creepy relief.  Sort of.


  I made myself a pineapple/coconut/pecan Upside Down Cake this afternoon and I ate a HUGE piece of it, and it was GOOD.  I made vegetable soup and peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch. My son and husband had been out shoveling the driveway for about 2 hours and I called them in to eat after a guy on a big red tractor with a plow came by and offered to scrape the 4 foot drifts out from in front of the cars.  It took him about 6 times up and down the driveway to clear it. Thank goodness for country people ! We didn't know him, but he said his frail mother-in-law lived up the road and he always digs out her drive so the ambulance can get to her if it needs to.  lol

  Yes, the storm hit us, and it hit good.  It didn't start snowing until 6 AM Sunday morning. In 5 hours it snowed 4 inches. The conditions were blizzard-like.  It snowed all day, combined with howling winds, and we got around 13 inches of snow. The temperature was -14.  The wind chill was -35.  It was horribly beautiful. It stayed that way all night, and finally stopped snowing around 8 PM Sunday night.  Today has been a high of -6 and right now it's back to about -10, but not supposed to get any lower.  Tomorrows high of 22 will feel like Jamaica. lol

  The dogs and cats all have cabin fever and have gone out in bits and bobs but nobody can take it more than about 5 minutes.  It's been a long time since I have seen weather like this. Back when I was a kid, maybe. There's been one fatality that I've heard of so far...a man from a town north east of here died while trying to walk from his disabled vehicle (in a ditch) to his home. This kind of cold is nothing to mess with...it hurts to breathe out there.


  Other than that, not much news from Honeysuckle Hill.  I have not been outside but once to go to the garage to get chicken out of the freezer for fajitas for supper. I abdicated responsibility for the chickens to the men folk, when I saw the drifts up over the back porch and could not see where the steps were. The good news is the chickens survived the day and nights, and we hooked up one more heat lamp in the coop to help.  Our house furnace has barely been able to keep up, and has been running almost nonstop. When I got up this morning I knew it had been running all night, because I kept hearing it...the thermostat read 65. We keep it set at 68.  It was just too darn cold.

  They're saying it is a POLAR VORTEX that has swept across the midwest.  Whatever it is...it can go now.  We've had enough, thank you.


  The most amazing thing is that we have had no power outages.  Hallelujah !  And, no frozen water pipes. And lots of people have.  Double Hallelujah !


  We may still not be able to get out our road...the Irishman got up this morning and as going to try to "see if I can make it" and I immediately put the kibosh on that stupid idea.  I got up around 5:30 because he had gotten up and hadn't come back to bed. I went out and there he was. I said ...honey. there's no way you can get out. WHAT ARE YOU DOING ???  At some point he was convinced to call in and tell them he wouldn't be in to work.  Seriously ?? I saw a great pic today that says it all:

 

My son and husband were like little kids out there.  When the Irishman finally came in, his whole beard and moustache were frozen with crystals hanging off them. Good grief.  And I was laying odds that they had both written their names in the snow.  You know.  With Pee.  (It's a boy thing).  LOL

  Alright...just wanted to check in and see what's shakin' and tell anyone who cares that we made it through the Ice Age and that I survived my birthday.  anything else is old news---wait.  There is something.


  
  My birthday gift to myself, from my husband,  is a new blender.  And not just any blender, but...

Vitamix 7500 12-in-1 64 oz. Under Cabinet Variable Speed Blender 

 

  I think I died and went to heaven.  

  The only reason I could afford it was that I will be billed in 5 installments. I nearly had an anxiety attack ordering it...and stopped and restarted a couple of times...trying to ask myself again and again...do I really need this? should I really do this ? Will I use it enough to justify the expense?  And ultimately the answer was yes.  I can grind my own peanut/almond/sunflower butter with it.  I can make smoothies with it.  Soups, ice cream, etc, etc.  It's a miracle worker of a blender.

  It will be here in a few more days, hopefully.  Thanks Husband.  lol We discussed this back when he kept saying what do you want for Xmas and I kept saying nothing, I don't know...Right after Xmas I said--hey, I know what I'd like for my birthday/Xmas present this year, if I can find a way to get one and pay it off in monthly installments. He said what? And I said, either a Vitamix or a Kitchenaid Mixer. He said--do it.  When I decided on the Vitamix, I brought him in here and showed it to him (this was January 2nd) and I kinda cringed.  It's a lot of money for us to buy something like this. But I had read the reviews and it has a 7 year warranty. And all the reviews for it were 4.5-5 star.  And it has a 30 day return guarantee if you don't like it. 

  I'm still pretty giddy over it, and it's the only thing that got me through turning 61 with almost no acknowledgement from these 2 men in my life. Until the last minute when they were both all apologetic and kissy.   In all fairness, I don't think either one of them had looked at a phone or calendar, and didn't realize it was the 6th today.  This damn weather superceded EVERYTHING.

  But still.   

  Alright. I'm going to sleep and dream of outrageously priced kitchen appliances all snug in my queen sized sleigh bed.  I hope you all had a great Monday.

Namaste.