Putting on the Dog

I must've been tired, because David woke me up at 9:47 this morning!! We had a large thunderstorm come through around 5:00 AM, and that hindered some quality sleep, but I got a pretty good night's rest nonetheless.

I went to my parent's today and had lunch with my mom.  I always enjoy getting to visit with her and catch up.  She's the best! 

They've lived in their huge house without central heat and air for about 30 years now and are in the process of having it installed.  I remember when we first moved in to the house there was a barrel wood stove in our basement that was responsible for heating all three stories... that's all we had.  It looked something like this (the stove, not the surroundings):

The "kids" all slept on the top floor and in the winter it was FREEZING and in the summer it was SWELTERING.   My BFF, Jodi, would occasionally spend the night (I spent more nights at her house - she had older siblings that were pretty much moved out - so she was like an only child.  Plus, her Dad would have a fire in their wood stove in the winter that would run you outta there!!  They'd have to open windows.).  Anyway, I remember my Dad waking us up on school mornings and we'd get out of bed and put our jackets on.  He'd say, "What's wrong with you girls?" And when we told him we were freezing, he'd laugh and tell us that it was 56 degrees in the house and that we were wimps.  Fifty-six degrees was tropical compared to the temperatures in the tent in the winter... more on that in coming days.

I got a fun email from my sister, Kristin, this week and I loved this newspaper clipping:

Yep, us country folk put on the dog when we go to "town".