~~ODNEAL FAMILY BLOG~~Port of Readlyn, Iowa

Last Saturday we had the Odneal Christmas at Bart & Sharon's house. Here is just a sneak peak of a few pics of the awesome food that we had to eat. As we all know Christmas is 3 days away so I will not have time to sit at the computer and come up with blog posts, or organize all the fun pictures that I took that day. So, for now this will have to do. Lets just say that there was so much food I didn't even sample any of the crockpot stuff that day, but have had plenty of Bart's potatoes since! Yum! Bruce and I ran to town and finished up everything this afternoon along with getting groceries in case we get all this ice and sleet overnight. I guess if that happens then I won't go to work and will have maybe lots of time to get some pictures and blog posts ready. Oh wait. Forget that. I have quite a bit left to wrap, and my house needs a good cleaning before we have Christmas Eve with our kids. Guess when EVERYTHING is done for Christmas I will take some time to post ...

This is a picture from the weekend before the blizzard.  Ty went in the living room to mess with Gizmo and when I looked out to see what they were doing this is what I saw.  So of course I had to snap a picture.  The sun shining in the bathroom window looks kind of cool on the tile behind them.  And yes, I believe Ty was really “out”.  At least he was warm beside Gizmo and her favorite place in front of the heat vent!  Everyone stay warm!

  So I really have no clue why I took a picture of my rings sitting on the windowsill where I always take them off and leave them, but it got me thinking.  Some people wear costume jewelry for no reason at all and I am NOT one of those people for sure.  So here are the rings that I always pretty much have on (well I just got my Mom’s heart diamond ring back from our daughter in law Ashley recently), but anyway.  My engagement ring was just a plain “perfect” diamond according to Mr. Roth.  Then I wanted a wide band but didn’t like the thick ones with it.  So he suggested 2 thin ones.  But he also told me not to have it soldered since at that time I took my rings off to water ski all the time (and just handed them to random relatives on the beach!), and he was afraid my finger would get ripped off from the ski rope.  Well of course I didn’t listen.  But, happy to report I have lost no fingers like others in the family have over the years no...

Here are a few pictures I took at my work the morning after our lovely Iowa blizzard last week. The snow was 27 inches in front of our office door and the snow was unbelievable all around the building. It was so tall it almost completely covered up the gas pumps. Maybe that will be the last big snow storm of the year. Think we could get that lucky?????? We can hope but I think we are doomed since this is Iowa and that was our first of the year! Everyone stay warm!

Everyone calls my tree the "charlie brown tree" because when I purchased it and took it out of the box it seriously looked like crap. But with a little loving care and awesome ornaments I think that every year it ends up looking perfect for us and that is all that matters. For years our tradition was to go cut one down as a family. Well, then it turned into Bruce having to hurry and cut one down before he left for the weekend to deer hunt, and then that turned into Mom taking the kids to cut one down because we had to have one and Dad was out of town. So you get the drift. It is so much easier and less stressful to just bring down the tree from the attic and put the ornaments and such that I want for the year on. It looks much better than these pictures give it justice, and I for one really don't care about the tree. I enjoy the spending time with my family and having a great time much more than if my tree looks awesome! But I seriously do think that our tree looks AWESOM...

So here are a few pictures that I snapped this morning while Bruce was out on T's Toy pushing snow and our friend Kent was blowing snow with his tractor to try and get us un-buried from all of this snow. It didn't help that the wind was freaking unreal at times, but we were able to get the truck out of the driveway and Bruce of course had to go check things out in town. Apparently noone was getting very far very fast! These pictures were taken early before the winds actually started whipping around so I have no idea what tomorrow will be like to get out of here. I think Bruce may be taking me to work or I will just happen to have another day here at home! My car sucks on snow. I think I miss having a truck and 4 wheel drive. Next time I will think a little harder before falling for a car! Got that Bruce?

At least it is a healthy one! I absolutely LOVE Jazzercise and cannot believe how great all of the people in Denver have been to me since joining last Wednesday. Let's just say that in 6 days I made 4 classes so I guess that I truly love it. Everyone is great and what a great way to get in shape and have fun. Since we are currently having a blizzard I'm not sure when I will make it back, but let's just say that I didn't join to lose weight but I am certainly already feeling the "getting in shape" part of it. Hopefully I will start noticing a difference in the next few weeks on inches, but if not I still will go 3-4 times per week because I enjoy it so much. For everyone that truly knows me it was HUGE of me to do something like this on my own. So, many pictures and posts to do yet so will just say that I hope everyone survived this terrible weather favorably and if you are looking for something exciting and fun...........think JAZZERCISE! It is awesome...

I snapped this picture of a deer in a yard across from the marina late last summer one weekend when we were leaving. Someone told us that deer are always in that yard. Right along the river and busy street and we'd never seen them before. Crazy! Anyways, tomorrow deer season opens and Bruce, Kyle, Louie, and Kevin will all be hunting and hopefully each get one of these. Or bigger of course. This year at least my kitchen isn't full of totes and bags of crap to haul north to Lansing because they are staying home and hunting. It will be nice to have them not be gone for 3 days and get updates each night. And of course I will have a nice big pot of chili ready for them Saturday when they are done. And if they are lucky some very yummy Christmas goodies that I plan on baking Saturday. Good luck deer hunters! And Kyle and Bruce, there will be NO DEER pretty enough to go on the living room wall again, okay? Everyone have a great weekend and stay warm.