My Scrap Corner: Mid-October update

Well, the month of October is flying by. The leaves on our trees were finally starting to get some nice color, and then we had our first real snowstorm- not just the flurries that we had earlier, but real snow that stuck to the ground along with ice.

It started snowing Thursday night (the 8th) and it was light and fluffy and not too hard to deal with. It stayed cold all weekend and kept raining and snowing. By Sunday morning everything was covered in a layer of ice and snow. The tree branches were pointing downward from the weight of the ice on the leaves. The lower branches of the honey locust tree were almost touching the ground (the maple is pictured below).
By the time it warmed up and melted off on Monday the leaves were mostly done for. A few branches on the maple tree stayed red, but the majority of them were just starting to turn and the deep-freeze pretty well stopped the process. Most of the leaves on both of our trees are brown and dry now, so we didn’t get the really pretty fall colors this year. The kids are still having fun raking and playing in the leaves as they fall, even if they aren’t as pretty.

The kids are in the middle of their two week fall break right now. Last Tuesday I took the girls over to my mom’s house and we went through some of the boxes of heirlooms in her basement. It was fun to go through them and see what sorts of pretty things were in them. There were lots of handmade doilies and other household items such as kitchen towels and quilts, clothing of all sizes and pretty embroidered handkerchiefs, and Daddy’s hats and even a few old miniature toys stashed in a tin that were probably his.

Things around the house continue to break this year. We definitely seem to have hit the magic number of years that appliances and other items are designed to last for. We were afraid to use the microwave over the stove because it made popping noises sometimes when we turned it on. The refrigerator had quit on us several years ago, but Mark was able to get it working again (though he wasn’t sure what he did exactly that fixed it). So, we just decided to bite the bullet on these two items and get new ones before they stopped working unexpectedly. Our new ones arrived Thursday afternoon.
We have a water and ice dispenser on the new fridge and it is quite a bit bigger than our previous one. The doors of the fridge are slightly rounded, and the calendar frame that I’ve been using for years doesn’t work on it since the magnet strips aren’t strong enough. It is really the only decent place I have for the calendar, so I need to find a new solution for keeping the pages up there. The microwave has quite a bit more power than our older one, and not having to worry about it setting the house on fire when you use it is definitely an advantage!

We went to the zoo Wednesday afternoon when it warmed up a bit. The animals seemed to be enjoying the cooler weather too and many that we usually see napping (like the mountain lions) were actually up and about for a change.

The grizzly bear is playing with a rutabaga. He was having fun chasing it around the pool trying to catch it- it looked a bit like he was bobbing for an apple LOL He actually caught it just as I was snapping this photo.
Sarah was enamored with the ponies in the pony yard and wanted to ride one. Thankfully they weren’t giving rides that day, so I had a very good reason to tell her no and she had to accept that answer ;)