The Swicegoods
Patti and Allen - Established 1979

Allen's got the fishing bug. One of the local lakes here was stocked with trout this past week and Allen is ready to start fishing again. We rode up to Smithville Lake this afternoon to get some camping info but all the campgrounds are closed until the 15th of April so I guess we'll have to wait a bit. Sarah and Alex rode with us since Keith was at work. Alex is so excited about going camping this year. He wants to sleep in his sleeping bag and take some hot dogs and marshmallows and cook them on the campfire with Papa. Sarah got some pictures of an owl and we saw a herd of deer. It is a really nice lake and has some awesome hiking and bike trails as well as the fishing and boating. This is one of the places that makes me second guess going back to the southwest. :)

I have really developed a bad case of the blahs since the first of the year. Unfortunately, it seems like just about everyone I know has them, too. I am sure the weather has something to do with it. We haven't had very much snow (so far anyway)but we have had some bitter cold weather and lots of cold, gloomy, gray days. They haven't been constant though, which I think is the problem. We have a few days of yucky weather and then a day or even two of 50 and 60 degree weather with sunshine and then back to a few more days of cold, dismal weather. This constant see-sawing is depressing. Tired of the winter weather and ready for spring, then, a quick warm-up only to be let back down again by the cold weather. I think the bottom line is I am missing the desert southwest. Days without sunshine are rare instead of the normal. Sunshine just makes you feel better. I have been really busy with several projects around the house but it isn't enough to get rid of the blahs. Maybe I need a vacation...we didn't take one last year. I could go visit the southwest but I'm afraid if I do, I won't want to come back here. Spring, please hurry up and get here! I need some sunshine!

Happy Valentine's Day to every one!

Here I go again. I have great intentions of keeping the site updated more frequently but life just seems to get in the way. Things here were so busy during January...lots of plans and lots of surprises seemed to take up a lot of time. I think things will settle down for a bit and hopefully we can catch our breath.

We have spent a couple of weekends helping Travis and Megan get all of their stuff moved into their new place and storage and get the old place cleaned up and turned in. We have also helped them with some chores at their new old house like removing the carpet to let the hardwood floors shine through. Ok, so they didn't really do much shining as the carpet came off...lots of dust and dirt but the carpet is now gone so hopefully a lot of Travis' allergies will be, too. They still have a little bit of tweaking to do at the house but it will look great when completed.

Sarah had a huge birthday surprise for Keith that believe it or not, she was able to keep a secret for more than 6 months! We are glad that we got to meet Jon and hope he and his wife will come out and visit with Sarah and Keith more often. I helped Sarah with some new curtains/valances for their new place and it looks totally awesome! She has wonderful decorating taste! Gee, wonder where she gets that from? :)

Alex is just amazing! Amazing is one of his favorite expressions and it fits him so well. He is so dramatic and enthusiastic in everything he does and has this wonderful honesty in what he says and how he perceives things. One day recently, his dad was scolding him for something he had done and told him that he should know better than to do that. Alex just looked up at him as sincerely as can be and said, "Daddy, I am only 3 years old and I don't know everything yet." At the rate he is going it won't be long til he knows everything!

Hunting season finished up the middle of January. Allen is now looking forward to fishing for a while but is already making plans for hunting season this fall. We have 6 deer in the freezer this year so it was a pretty good season even if they didn't get 'Big Boy'. If he doesn't get hit by a car before the fall, I'm sure one of them will take him this year.

Sarah and I have a booth reserved at the Liberty Farmer's Market this summer. We busy making some new flower pots and rooting more violets to take to the market. We are working with some other plants as well and developing our votive and tealight candles which we hope to have available by the start of the market in May.

Nothing super exciting going on here but certainly enough to keep everyone really busy. I really will try to put up more frequent posts! I am also going to start working on scanning some old family photos that I will be posting. My parents have boxes and boxes of pictures of the five of us kids and our cousins and aunts and uncles. It will be a major undertaking but I'm going to just scan things one box at a time until they are all on. I'll keep you updated on my progress.