Mother sent me this photo today. WOW, the hosta is very happy and I can't believe how fast it is growing in the sunny, warm, south window.

Just found this article on line today of Sierra's state championship win from December 19. She gave me credit for being her mechanic and pit crew!

I can't believe I still had this, a favorite t-shirt from the late 1970's. I googled this bike shop and found a blog written by a guy that posted the very same shirt about 2 years ago!

A beautiful end to the day!

The temperature in Kansas today, lucky!

Mother sent me this photo of a sunset from last week. She takes photos of sunsets regularly and this is one of the most beautiful that I've seen!

I found these 2 twenty dollar bills at the bottom of a bag containing an unfinished crocheting project. My guess is that it has been there for at least 7 years!

Here's my new favorite salad: spinach, dried cranberries, almonds, red onion with raspberry vinaigrette dressing.

The plants are very happy at Mother's house. We took down the curtain, cleaned the window and now the hosta has appeared, the ivy is growing new leaves and the vinca vine is flowering.

Mother sent me these very interesting ice photos from the cove at the lake.

Frosty morning is all to be said.........

Sierra raced with the Elite Women at Cyclocross Nationals today in Verona, WI. She was very excited to be able to race with such a large field of women!

Here's Sierra getting ready to pre-ride the cyclocross course for tomorrow's race. It was about 36 degrees with the wind out of the west at about 20 mph. Since the sun was out, the frozen ruts were thawing out making for a slippery mud fest.

As a Christmas gift, I got Kristin 2 tickets to the Black Keys concert on March 16 in Indianapolis. When the new Rolling Stone arrived, I sent her a photo of it.

WOW, the high temperature for today was 65! And, I had the day off from work. It was a record breaker, the previous record high on this day was 59 in 1956. I had to ride Rich's bike since I left mine in Indianapolis.

Salad time!

I love these boots, they are so comfortable. But, the sole has come loose on one of them. The rubber is sort of disintegrating so I don't think it help to try and reattach it so I guess I'll have to through them away.

I love the way the sun is shining on the mallards. Their green iridescent heads just make this photo pop!

I thought this was a perfect photo for January 1, 2012. A new flower on the vinca vine in a ceramic pot that I had taken to Mother's house for the winter.

I drove down to Mother's today and we had lunch at Applebee's and then went grocery shopping. This VW bug was in the parking lot, it looked about the same year as the one I drove in high school. It had a special "antique" license plate! What does that make me?

While going through belongings, I found this 20,000 words book. I've had it since I took office occupations class in high school. I decided to keep it awhile longer since I've been playing words with friends with Kristin and Sierra. I thought it might come in handy.

I have no photos today. It is Sierra's 25th birthday and she didn't take any photos for me,  soooo sad.

Here's what happens when you don't pay attention to the microwave oven while heating up your chocolate kiss cookie! Luckily, Tena's little fire didn't cause the smoke detectors to go off while at work today.

The time finally came to get rid of this old chest. Sierra had been using it in Indianapolis. It has been around since I was a little girl. I am pretty sure that Daddy built it for us from a kit.

Charlie loves laying outside in his soft bed of pine needles. We got home from Indianapolis this afternoon and the weather was nice enough for him to want to stay outside for awhile.

Kristin gave me this ornament as a Christmas gift. She did her part in the shop local movement and found this in a boutique in Broad Ripple.

We had our Christmas celebration today. The big hit was Kristin's gift to Sierra - a Kindle Fire. I don't think Sierra put it down until bedtime!

I managed to save Wayne's world famous chex mix until today! It didn't last long with all of us diving in.

Here's more memorabilia from the old clothes storage. Grandma Joyce hand painted these sweatshirts for Kristin when she was around 13 years old.

This was our last week together in credentialed training at work. We went to each site to check out the training classrooms and then went for lunch at Zombie Burger in the East Village.

Kristin sent me this photo today. She and a coworker were getting ready to go into surgery to perform patient neuro monitoring.

Tyler sent me this photo today of a Rudge bicycle. He said it was vintage campy record, 4 speed hub with flip flop fixed. He said a guy brought it into the shop and was fixing it up for a man who bought it in England and brought it to the USA. It had a generator front hub, Brooks saddle and all the bells and whistles. I googled Rudge and thought it probably was a 1960 or 70's bicycle.

Here's another find from the old clothes storage. If I remember correctly, our friend Tony had this t-shirt airbrushed for Rich. It is dated 1992 and must have been given to us shortly after we got our custom painted tandem.

Sierra won the Indiana State Cyclocross race today!

I brought this vest for Sierra to wear to school today. She said the kids really enjoyed it! It would also be great for one of those tacky sweater holiday parties!

Wayne's famous chex mix arrived in the mail today. I am going to hide it in order for it to be around for Christmas and for the rest of the family's enjoyment!

I found this little sweatshirt in some of the girls' old clothes. I used cross stitch waste canvas for the cute little bunny. The shirt is so small and soft; I am going to keep it to remind me of when the girls were just toddlers.

Mother sent me this photo today to show me how she's been able to enjoy the mallards and other ducks in the cove. Since the weather has been warmer so far this year, the cove hasn't frozen over yet.

While going through old Christmas decorations, I found this Santa troll. I am going to wrap it up and give to Kristin as a Christmas gift!

Here's Sierra racing in the PAX Gray Goat in the Backyard Cross race. It looks like she is having a great time and got 5th place today!

After enjoying food from the West Coast Tacos food truck in Indy, I decided to try making a similar treat. They ended up being pretty tasty!

Years ago, Mother saw this jewelry organizer in a magazine. She showed it to Daddy and he quickly made one for each of girls. Cross stitch fabric is between the wooden pieces and we each decorated our own. Earrings are attached in the fabric and necklaces are hung from the knobs at the bottom.

Today, I found this pair of miniature wooden shoes that we got when we were in Holland in July of 2004.

We are trying to increase the amount of my favorite new plant from the summer. At this rate, we should have several new pots of plants to enjoy next year!

I found this drawing in a small spiral notebook. It looks like something that Kristin drew while in high school.

I took a sample of oatmeal that I got at a cyclocross race down to Mother's house. We had some and she liked it so much that she made it part of her next Amazon order.

Even when it is cold out, Chase still wants to have the ball thrown into the lake so he can get in!

Sierra raced today at the Nuvo CX race at MTV. She got 5th place, it looks like the course was a little muddy, she should have been happy!

This mouse gave Mother quite a fit. He was trapped by his jaw and carried the trap around the house in places she could hear him banging around but couldn't reach him. He finally died in a spot that she could reach him. I guess that is one reason traps aren't the best way to get rid of the pest.

I'm going straight to the store with this holiday gift of $25 thanks to my employer!