First off, I have to tell one more thing about the baby shower...after we were done with the shower, Sarah wanted Jeremy to come out front with her. Then they called his mom and me to stand up there with them. Since the baby will be the first grandchild for his mom and me both, they had gotten us a necklace with the birthstone of the baby! This does not do it justice...I tried to take one last night, and then this one is from today...and neither turned out very good, but you can see what it looks like. It did catch us both off guard.Now for today. We were supposed to wake up to nasty, icy roads and maybe get an inch or so of snow. Did not happen. I am fine with the no icy roads, but sure would have liked a little accumulation of snow. We have had snow flurries off and on this entire day.We took a drive over into Illinois...I was hoping by going west that we might get into some real snow, but all we did was go in and out of snow flurries.We would go for a few miles of it snowing so hard that you couldn't see much of anything in the distance, then they would give way to almost sunny skies. It was just a strange sort of day.I thought today I would post these showing how hard it was snowing. And later on I will post some with no snow.

I have always liked reading journals and diaries, fiction and non-fiction books about the pioneers that came before us. And for some reason, when I get over into Illinois, I always think about them more. I think how excited they must have been to find all that rich, fertile, flat land. And then on days such as today, when the wind cuts right through you, I think what hardships they must have endured and I really wondered how they survived. I really wonder if I would have had what it took to build something from nothing.

It gets cold and the wind howls here in Indiana, but over there the land is even flatter, so it hits even harder. I told Roger that soon as you get into Illinois, the farms are much more spread out. I really want to get my tripod back in the Rav and take some photos and stitch them together for a panoramic view of some of the land over there. I don't know if I can do it justice or not...but I do want to try.

We have been home a couple of hours, and I am still not warm through...so imagine what it would be like trying to keep a fire going and trying to stay warm in the primitive conditions of even a hundred years ago! I was just in and out of the car to take pictures...never out for more than 10 minutes at any one time.

It makes me so thankful to come home to a home that has water and warmth--just by turning a dial or handle.