Fun In the Snow ~ now, My Photo's Won't Upload

For some reason I can't upload photo's on my blog, I've been trying now for the last several days as I have some wonderful snow pictures to share.  I've read that at a certain point blogger wants you to pay to add photo's, after they get you hooked on writing your blog.  Then, I guess they want to make you pay to keep it going.  Hmmm... well, I wonder why they didn't disclose this right up front, why don't they have a note that pops up as to why you can't upload anymore pictures.  I guess I'm going to have to figure it out tomorrow morning.

Last Wednesday night we got about 8 inches of snow and it has all stayed, we've had beautiful blue skies and it's been cold, in the low 20's at night, high 20's in the day.  In the valley there is no snow at all, but up here where we are it's still a winter wonderland.  Thursday morning we woke up to the snow and a 2 hour late start to school, we went out to the car to go to the bus stop, and what do you know I have a dead battery, so we are essentially stuck. Because on late start snow days, the bus doesn't even attempt to head up our long hill, we have to go all the way down to meet it, it's about a 10 minute drive to the bottom, so is too far for the girls to walk.  It turned into an unexpected "Snow Day"  we made snow men, had a snow ball fight, cooked, talked, and basically had a fun relaxing day.  I took some great pictures that I wanted to share.  The animals have been having fun in the snow too, and we're all happy that the mud has frozen and is now covered in clean white snow. 

I was planning to write my goals post, then I got sidetracked with the photo's.  However, I will share a few right now.  One of my goals for this year is to get involved with the Evergreen Golden Retriever club.  I've been in contact with them over the last week to find out when their next meeting and show will be.  I want to go to a few shows and join their club to work with our NW community of Golden's.  They have a breeder directory and this will put me in contact with some great people to evaluate my dogs.  My plan is to have both Summer and Josie get all their testing done this year for eyes, hips, elbows, and heart.  I also want to see how they compare with other Golden's.  I'm not sure what their programs are, but I'm open to learn. 

On a side note, to update on our male Golden, Jesu (pronounced, Jess-oo) after his accident when he was run over in our driveway on December 22nd.  He doing good, and is still recovering.  Last Monday we took him to the vet for a thorough check up, and to see what was going on.  He had to undergo surgery to his shoulder that day, the bubble of fluid kept getting bigger and we knew he wasn't healing right.  They said the muscle and skin had separated and needed to be reattached, they also put 2 drains in to allow the fluid to drain.  He's had a cone on his head and a vest to hold it close to his body.  We've had him laying by the fire attending to him several times a day with hot compresses and giving him antibiotics and pain medication.  Tomorrow morning he goes back in for the drains to be removed and hopefully the cone on his head will finally get to come off.  It's been a long recovery but he's going to be fine.  I think not being able to run around and play with the other dogs has been the hardest part for him, and the cone has been tough for him to handle too.  He sure has been a good patient and has learned the routine of his day.

My main goal for around the house is going to be working on the sheetrock; taping, texturing, sanding (the messy part, as well as my least favorite part) primering, and painting.  I want to finally get this done and be able to have nice clean freshly painted walls to look at.   I also want to work on staining the wooden beams.  None of this sounds like a lot of work, but it is actually going to take a while to accomplish it all.  Little by little it will get done.

As far as my goals written for last year, some of them I could just copy and paste and they would work for this year too.  I will actually put together a post, simply for me to go back and reference.  But, some of the biggest ones are going to be to continue to support my children with their dreams, Tessa will be going through Driver's Ed this Summer, then getting her license in the Fall.  Kaley getting braces over the Summer will be a big one for her.  Jason going fishing in Alaska for 5 months is going to be a be both an adventure and a challenge for him.  My daughter Christina will be going back to work 2 days per week, so I'll get to watch my grandson Roman at least one day per week.  Every year there are new changes and plenty of new things to learn.

A big goal for me it going to be learning all about cheese making.  I'd love to take the 4 day cheese course through WSU, I've looked into it, and it's exactly what I need to learn from the experts.  I've been wanting to take it for the last 3 years.  Now, I'm not sure how I'd get away in the Spring for several days with the goats kidding, and milking.   I know there is plenty to learn on my own, so I'm not going to let the class stop me.

There are more plans, but I'll wait to share until I have a proper post, with the picture I planned to use.