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.....

All I can say about this is, "Yes, this is a cat. A very spoiled, little baby cat!"

Sierra sent me this photo today of one of her students and the creation of the day. They had a nice time reading the book and the making some art to match. I love the big smiling frog and his friends along with the tissue paper lily pads and flowers. Definitely Home Sweet Home! In case you were wondering, I'm waiting for permission to show the student's face.

Sierra sent me this photo today. It is her first day as a "real" teacher at her very own desk in her very own room! Needless to say, she is very happy and we are very proud! She's been given a wonderful opportunity to show her expertise, something we didn't think was going to be possible so soon after her graduating in December. I am very confident that Sierra will become one of those special teachers that children remember forever!

Tristan sent me this photo today. It looks like he got a lot of work done since I was there yesterday. He said the bike was FAST! Here are his notes on the work he did to the bike: New chain and chain wheels, had to rebuild the front forks, re-shim the engine valves, replace the cam shaft cover gasket, new fork guards, replace hot start assembly, adjust and re-oil throttle cables and throttle tube assembly, remove and clean carburetor, wash the intake air box, new air filter, new oil filter, replace oil, replace engine coolant, replace rear sub-frame(exhaust mount was torn out of it, as well as a sheared off mount bolt), replace gas petcock valve, replace exhaust mount, clean exhaust header, replace any missing bolts and other little parts of which I have lost track of, clean the grime off of my motorcycle to keep the dirt out of the engine while I was working on it, and clean up ALL the oil that I spilled on the floor with about 5 pounds of cat litter.  I assume I am missing something, but that is about it.

Today, I'm taking Mother to Wayne's house to stay for a month or so. We stopped at Warren's for a short visit and delivery of Christmas gifts. Tristan showed me the motocycle he is working on. He expects to have it in working order very soon.

Piper and little Andy posed for a photo for me. It looks like Piper has started wearing contacts and has braces. The teenage world is wonderful! Andy is so cute, he loves to run and play. He gladly went on a walk with Chase, Charlie, Ginger, and me.

This is Sophie, the beautiful cat that Dacia faithfully raised after it was abandoned by it's mother. She looks very distressed that Chase is in HER house.

After we left Warren's, we decided to drive through Burlington. This is the house that Mother grew up in on 209 Miami Street.

After leaving Wayne's house in Kansas City, I headed for home. The new bridge on I-35 over the Mighty 'Mo is open. You can see the old bridge next to it, I'm wondering if they are going to tear it down.

2011 has arrived! Today, I drove to Kansas to take Mother her Christmas gifts. Before dinner, we decided to make some fake margaritas. By fake I mean, we took Bartels & James bottled margaritas and placed them in our salt rimmed wine glasses. Not quite the real thing but tasty!

I took Chase and Charlie for a 2 hour walk around the lake. They had to break through the ice on the creek to get a drink. I fell once on the slick rocks near the water fall and again down a slick hill. My rear will probably have some nice bruises. The dogs didn't seem to be concerned either time I went down!

Chase, Charlie and I came walking around the falls for a view from above. The icicles were nice to see and I was surprised when a great blue heron flew out from the pool at the bottom.

After I was back from my walk, I took Mother back around the lake to see the ducks, geese, bald eagles, and the ice. She took this photo looking west from the dam.