Merry Christmas!

Love, Willow doll.

It Snowed Again.

We decided to try and escape today. Dad and I went out at about 10 and started shoveling. And shoveling... and shoveling. I finished a bit from the garage to the front door only to turn around and see two fresh inches of snow covering up everything I'd just done. I cleared out part of the driveway before Dad got the tractor out. The tractor, unfortunately, had water in the bucket before the snow and now it had a block of concrete from somewhere, some rocks AND ice all piled up.After hacking at it for a while everything came out and some of the snow could be pushed around.

Enough to let us get some chains on the subaru and make it out to Sandy for more food. The crazy part is that when we went to get into the subaru we had to push almost two feet of snow off of everything and then up to two inches of ice off of all the important bits, like doors. Dad and I went to the store and after a crazy bit we got back in one piece.

(I found this wine at the store and I thought it was pretty funny. Funny enough to take a picture and then spend some time posting it. So there.)Sandy was a mess, there was about 8 inches of packed snow on the plowed roads and for a while we had to snow plow our way out of our road. Jessie spent some time sleeping, and playing tetris, and watching tv. Mom shoveled snow off of the back deck TWICE today (there was about a foot of snow on it the first time and about four or five the second time). Now, after spending a good chunk of the day shoveling things here and there I'm making some of this pretty bread and Jessie's making some sugar cookies. I've been baking and baking and baking some more!

Walkies

We all went for a walk this afternoon to see how the road looked. Turns out it's pretty icy/snowy. Just in our yard the snow is almost up to our knees in places.

Willow keeps darting through the deep snow (it's up to her chest) and then coming back all bleedy. She's fine, it just looks terrible. I think she's hitting some sticks at supersonic dog speed and getting a little banged up. It's not stopping her at all.

Snow Does Funny Things

It's snowing here... again. It all melted yesterday so I thought I was safe when I told Star and Ben I could come meet them downtown for some shoppin' today. WRONG. I woke up this morning and it was snowing and had been snowing for a while. "Awww... I'm still good!" I thought. DOUBLE wrong. I got in the shower and by the time I got out it had gone to full scale blizzard. Still thinking I could manage, I got all bundled up and headed out the front door. It wasn't until I listened to my tires spinning uselessly in the snow that I realized I was trapped. I tried to back out three different ways, Dad tried to back it out, and all we were left with was my car blocking the Subaru, the only useful car in snow. I called Star and Ben to tell them I couldn't come and then waited while Dad tried to rearrange my car so that it wasn't such a problem. While I waited, this happened:

Ohhhh Jessie, in your shorts, in the snow. Of course I'm going to throw snowballs at your naked legs. Duh! Sucka...

Even the tree is wearing more clothes than Jessie. Sheesh.

All snowed in!

After it stopped snowing I decided to clear off the driveway to see if that helped with the cars. Who would use a shovel to clear a driveway when you can make a perfectly AWESOME snowman? Mr. Snowman can watch you all of the time, he has eyes on both sides of his head. Creepy thing.
If you were of a mind, you could probably find more pictures of snow and housy things here, at Dad's blog.

Buns in the Snow

I had a sneaking suspicion that Monty would love snow. I don't think we really had any last year so I didn't get to test my theory out. This year is a different story. I took Monty out this morning and away he went!

When he hops around his ears fly up, he's just coming down from an especially good hop in this picture. I wish he could yell "Huzzah!" when he does that, instead all he does is a little "montmontmontmont" motoring sound.

Monty rumpling through the snow.

The frozen bits didn't stop him from digging around in his usual spots either.

Apparently the snow turns him into survival bunny. Usually he won't eat anything outside but today he was eating every dried up bit of leaf he could find, some of them he carried to a corner of the house and stashed, probably for later. Silly guy.

And, video evidence of his eatery abilities.

Huzzah!

And then Willow decided to stand at the door waiting for Mom and Jessie to let her back in. Soooo pitiful.

Oh, And...

I've been sick. Throw-ie-uppie don't feel good sick. I don't know why, and I'm feeling better now but I'm still a little wonky. I crashed on the couch yesterday morning after getting about 2 hours of sleep (not consecutive either!) and Willow decided to get in on some of that sweet sleep action.

Snuggly snuggle.

Eco Friendly all OVER the Place

Smock is a print shop that sells their paper goods in shops like Portland's Oblation (one of my favorites) and Ecru. Their products are made from bamboo and they donate a 1% of sales to the Pesticide Action Network and the Amazon Conservation Association.
Willow Fold: "sustainably letterpressed on bamboo paperpackaged in a clear sleeve that is petroleum-free, tree-free, and certified biodegradable by the Biodegradable Products Institute."

You May Ask Yourself...

WHAT exactly has Hannah been doing? I mean, if there's no school or job and only a few hours of crafting in evidence, what else is there?!

Well, the short answer is that the new house we were supposed to have moved into by October 1st is still not done. And, in case you haven't noticed the 1st is a quickly fading memory. I know I've spent a lot of time at the new house doing odd jobs, but my parents have spent and obscene number of hours there. Today was no exception (or yesterday, really). It might as well be a part time job. Today we laid flooring. We've finished the entire downstairs which will, soon enough, be Hannah + Monty land. You can see all the things we've done (and have yet to do) at the blog my Dad's been updating as they've been going.

Willow "helping" with the floors. She really just gets in the way with her worrying and winds up wrapped in a blankie out in the car while we work. Here, in a desperate attempt to keep her off the floors and out from under our feet, we've donated all our jackets and wrapped her in them on her blankie on a section of floor that's already been finished. Sadly it didn't work. She was up and following us around and bumping into our shins ten seconds later

The Good Stuff

My parent's friends the Schommers have three collies. Busy busy dogs. When it's hot out, or just any old time, one of them has been working on this lounge-crater in the dirt/gravel/rubble spot near the picnic table. She digs a round, shallow hole to get to the cooler dirt underneath and then sprawls in it. Willow has been visiting them with my parents while they talk about building processes, jerry-rigged t.v. antenna's and school. At some point, the whole idea of cool dirt = sweet chilaxin' grounds must have clicked because tonight we watched her (pretty feebly) paw at the dirt and then gingerly lower herself onto the dirt gravel. Two hours later she was still there, sound asleep.

We all thought she looked a bit like an archaeological dig.
Chilaxin' in 90 degree shade.

Wee Willy Winky

Jessie was also taking pictures of Willow basking on the driveway ontop of a rug we'd pulled out of the house to clean. She's helping.... really she is.

sleep sleep sleep

Guess Who's a Graduatory Lady!

This one!

Ka-CHING! Jessie graduated today from Hockinson High School (and I think we'll all be happy to never have to set foot back in that building again).
Monty... pooped from an entirely stressful day of napping.
Jessie, Dad and Willow in a last minute attempt at photos before we had to hustle the hour commute back to the high school.
All we, standing in the drive.
Poppi, Mom, Nea Nea and Jessie.

Janet and Poppi
Nea Nea
Emma surprised that the five millionth time she asked when Jessie was going to get up was actually the right time.

Jessie, doing the walk.

Kyle, Jessie and Chris afterwards.
It was hot and sweaty crammed into that gym but nice outside. Yuck.
Dad, taking a picture of me taking a picture. But his version includes the sweet iPhone. This ridiculousness is only enhanced by the iPhone's myserious powers (the same powers that keep Evan alive and RULER OF THE UNIVERSE... and all things Mac-ish).

Poppi!
Mummy.
Jessie and Chris.

Awwww.....

Joyce and Dad. Nea Nea claims that Joyce, Dad and I all have the same nose but I guess we come by it honestly.
Jessie, leaving the Hockinson parkinglot for the last time. SWEET!

More to come tomorrow after the graduation paaarrrtay!

Bed Time Deary

Willow sleeps with Jessie in the new house. Here, she's put herself to bed at 9:30. I walked by and there she was, staring at me like I was invading her boudoir at an indecent hour.

Nightie Night, pup.

Willow

Wee Willy Winky

Ps. She really does that with her tail.. I didn't even touch her. It was PERFECT!