I sent this photo to Maggie today. I got Max and her to pose for a rare photo together during a break at the race on Saturday. I think it is perfect!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I love these 3 so much!

Spittie doesn't sit around for photos very often, so you have to get what you can!

We all had a great time at Indy Indoor BMX this weekend! There were 7 of us in a combined age group class of 45-49, 50-54, and 55 and over Ladies Cruiser. The five of us in this photo are Carm, Angie, Tammi, me, and Maggie. This was Carm's first National race. We made sure she had fun! This photo doesn't look very nice due to the dark, dust filled staging area but it is all I have.

This morning, we got up and went for breakfast with Kristin. Then G'ma and I went to see Sierra teach at her new job. She is a wonderful teacher! We enjoyed playing multiplication bingo with her student, watching her give a reading quiz, and sharing the pure joy of her student while he watched "Horton Hears a Who."

Here we are at Indy Indoor BMX for practice day!

The new graffiti on the walls at the track is great. I love this one - ears of corn - perfect!

We left for Indy about 9:00 this morning after picking up Sam in Grimes. The weather forecast was clear but we ran into about an hour of snowfall near the Iowa/Illinois border. It was slow going for a while but after that it was clear the rest of the way. We called the girls as we were getting close and they picked out our dinner spot - Broad Ripple Brew Pub. As we were leaving after dinner, the snow started falling and we were all hoping that it didn't last too long!

I'm packing my bags and Camo decided she needed to help, or did she want to go along? G'ma and I are headed to Indianapolis tomorrow morning. We are going to see the girls and I'm going to race at the Indy Indoor National BMX race on the weekend.

Rich and I play this little game nearly every evening. What do you want for dinner? I don't know, what do you want? I don't care. No, what do you want? So today, I told him that I wanted 6 bags of potato chips - so that is what I got!

Looks nice, doesn't it?

I took Mother down to the river to eagle watch this afternoon. It was only about 10 degrees but a beautiful sunny day! We watched 6 eagles in the trees and soaring about. 2 of the eagles were young, just as big as the adults but without the white head and tail. I felt lucky to get this photo, not quite in focus but still wonderful I think!

After watching eagles, we headed to warm up at the botanical center. In addition to the regular fare, they had an exhibit of flower photography and a band playing inside and the temperature was wonderful inside!

Mother wanted to go with me to Indianapolis next weekend so I went down to Kansas City to pick her up at Wayne's house.

Today, I cleaned my display of Lena Liu Hummingbird plates. I really enjoy looking at them; they are beautiful works of art.

It's been below zero for the past few days so I let Smokey in the basement to keep warmer than he would be outside.

Carla Swart was killed today while cycling in South Africa. This is a photo I have of her from Collegiate Track Nationals in Colorado Springs in 2008. She was an extremely talented young athlete that we enjoyed watching compete during both Kristin and Sierra's college years. She will be missed.

The report from USA Cycling:


USA Cycling would like to extend its deepest condolences to the friends and family of collegiate cycling champion, Carla Swart, who was killed during a training ride on Wednesday.

According to reports, the 23-year-old Swart was hit by a truck while riding in the central Free State province of her native South Africa.

Swart moved with her family to the United States as a teenager and earned both cycling and running scholarships to North Carolina’s Lees-McRae College.

From there, she earned a total of 19 national titles to become the most decorated rider in U.S. collegiate cycling history. She was also the first athlete to win national titles across all four disciplines of collegiate cycling in one year.

Last year saw the talented, young rider win the “Best Young Rider” award at the Tour de L’Aude stage race in France. She planned to continue her career in the pro ranks in 2011, having just signed a full-time pro contract with HTC-Highroad.

I took this photo today to document that our wood pile has gone from 3 rows down to 1 1/2 rows. We hope that it will last through the winter and it is forecast to be below zero later this week. Rich saw this on my computer screen and said, "Is that our woodpile?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Those are our trees behind it? Your photo looks like a post card" I was just thinking the same thing!

The spinner bike and I are becoming great friends again! It's been awhile and I missed it.....

Believe it or not, she is just yawning, see below:

Camo loves to cuddle with Charlie and he doesn't seem to mind.

I got this surprise in the mail today from Maggie. It is a solar powered garden light. Maggie knows how much I love kitties so it is perfect! Now, I just need to wait for spring to arrive to put it out in the garden. She also sent a Christmas bead for my Pandora bracelet.

I realized that Shelby's snowman photo would be perfect in a layout that I had made 2 years ago with a photo of Sierra and Charlie. So, here they are together. Sierra's photo was taken on December 14, 2008 at the National Cyclocross Championships in Kansas City, MO while Shelby's was taken on January 10, 2011 at her home in Northern Mississippi. They both look perfect!

Rich and I got up at 6AM this morning and headed to Minneapolis for the Log & Timber Home Show. We've always been interested in log homes so decided it would be worth a little day trip.

Here is some beautiful cedar furniture. We really liked the drawer chests and armoires. They also had chain saw carvings of various woodland animals and the bear looked very similar to the one we got in 1998.

Here is one nice display of how the logs fit together and are weather sealed. Most of the companies used the same basic system with their own variations.

This cabinetry really caught our eyes. These corner drawers were really neat. The large drawers to the left were set up for plate storage intended for homes with no cabinets on the walls because of the desire to not cover up windows for those preferring the view outside the home.

Here's another nice vendor. He made all kinds of railing items, shelving, and various carving and display material.

Another beautiful cabinetry manufacturer; this vendor had every type of wood on display. This display would look wonderful in a log cabin! Another we liked used rough hewn cedar for the main material.

We decided we had visited every vendor and decided to go have lunch, think about any more questions, and then go back if we needed anything else. We walked outside and found it was snowing so we decided we better get out of Minneapolis before rush hour. That turned out to be a good decision. When we were out of the city, we heard on the radio that I-94 was closed in the area we had come from due to many accidents.

Here's January 2 page, still not sure about this new style!

Icicles outside taken from the warmth inside the house.....

OK, so here's my trial style for the 2011's 365 project. Tell me what you think!

I never have to worry about having assistance while I work at my computer. Today, Miss Kittie was glad to "help"!

Some people don't visit with snow people very often. So, when Mississippi gets snow, snow people get nice straw hats, scarfs, coal for eyes, a carrot for a nose and little sticks for arms. They are treasured friends for a few days!

For Christmas, Rich gave me a photography class via community education. The class started today. I took this quick photo of the instructor. The class meets four times for a total of eight hours of instruction. We'll see how much I learn!

I wanted to go to the river today in search of bald eagles. It was cold and dreary so I didn't go until Rich came home. It was getting too dark to take photos but there were about 6 eagles in the trees when we got there. There are 3 barely visible in the trees at the top of this photo. I'll go back on a better day.

I put the finishing touches on my December 2010 pages last night so I thought I would post them so they could be seen in large size. Now, if I could just make a decision on how I want to do 2011 I'd be happy!

In the winter around here, if you want to feel warm and tropical you make the trip to the Botanical Center for the day. You can also visit Lowe's greenhouse where they might have just gotten a load of orchids out in full bloom! It is a cheap alternative to travel to the Caribbean! I'd still rather go traveling................maybe later this winter!

What do you think about these 2?  Both of them were adopted from a shelter. I'd guess that adoption day was the best day of their life! But then, I guess almost everyday since then has been pretty darn good.....