OMH YES: MORE SNOW PICS (ugh)

I know. I'm tired of snow pics too, but what else am I to do? It just KEEPS COMING DOWN. So I keep on taking pictures.

Here are the kids sitting on their creation, The Sphinx.

This is some snow from the roof our barn that was sliding but then curled under itself in a ribbon-candy-sort-of-way. Or maybe frosting. It was pretty to be sure. I'm glad Jen told me about it so I could get a pic of it before it came crashing down.

Robee, crashing at the bottom of our hill on his new sled.

Felix taking on the hill in her own style. I don't think she made it either.

Here are the two of us after an afternoon of sledding.

Here we are again but peeking out from behind us is Robee. Always trying to get in the picture.

Now just Robee and I.

It's fun sledding. I will say that. But everything else about this major snowfall bites. I've got garbage piling up in the garage, recycling piling up in the garage, no mail being delivered, and roads that feel like you're riding on the Wild Mouse. Not okay.

What you do when you're stuck inside

Last year, around Christmas, I bought at the craft store three gingerbread house kits. I buy everything in three's now. :)

I figured we would get around to decorating them for the holidays. As it turned out, we never did. So I carefully stored them with my Christmas stuff, completely forgetting about them - as I'm inclined to do.

I was getting my lights out two weeks ago (before the blizzard) and lo and behold! there they sat, waiting like good soldiers.

Can gingerbread kits be too old to use the next year? I mean, no one eats them; they're for decoration only.

Fast forward to this week. School has been cancelled for Wed, Thu, Fri. My car (of the two, Prius and Land Cruiser, is the only four-wheel drive) has being taken by hubby because he has to drive to Bellingham and I'm left wheel-less. Jen's car is great in the snow but it's snowing like the North Pole so no one is going anywhere anyway. We had already played several times in the snow (and made a really cool sledding hill) but I wasn't ready to get wet and cold again. What to do???

And so, voila!

Felix's home. The overhang of gingerbread finally had to be hot glued. Frosting wasn't going to do it this time.

Robee's home. Great idea unwrapping a Hershey's kiss for over the door!

Owen's home. At this writing, most of the dot candy has been pulled off. Home improvements you know.

The kits came with candy - thank goodness since I was not going to be able to venture out to buy some - but luckily my kids had leftover Halloween candy (yep: not big candy eaters except chocolate and a couple of other things ... which is why they have no cavities - that and they don't drink soda pop) which they put to really good use on their houses (and I'm so glad I didn't toss it like I was going to at Thanksgiving).

Now I just have to figure out what to do for the next two weeks for their official break. Ugh.

And we just received about four more inches of snow last night. Double Ugh.

And I've barely touched my Christmas shopping because I thought I would have all last week to do it and then the great dumping of snow started. Triple Ugh.

And they say there is no Global Warming. 20 inches in the Puget Sound? Sounds wrong to me.

Enough already. Please.

The last ruler reading. Actually, there was more snowfall after I took this and it was over the top but I was too depressed to photog it. :(



Yes. Robee shoveling the snow ............ for about three seconds. Why, when I was his age ... never mind. Man o man -- do I miss my snowblower.

Robee and Porter trying to make their way down to the pond. Porter was leaping in the air trying to break through the snow. I also miss my cross-country skis BIG TIME.

The homestead, buried in snow.

What the homestead is SUPPOSED to look like; warm and green.

Only 3 more months until spring.

STILL SNOWING

I swear I'm living in Utah.

JUST LOOK AT THIS STUFF! LOOK!

Here is close-up. Almost 7 inches. 7 folks.

And it doesn't stop. It slows down but never stops. Just keeps snowing and snowing and snowing and snowing and ................

Another SNOW DAY

Better ruler.


Snow on my hummingbird feeder.

Snow on the cedars.

Snow on the pond.

We live in a snow globe. Outside of Arlington, no snow. Nada. Zip.

And of course, no school.

Happy Birthday Ben!

Sorry Ben. I'm a little late getting these pics on the blog (not like he ever reads this but I felt I should have some excuse for missing his birthday; I've written about everyone else's).

We went to PF Chang's for his dinner. It was yummy. I haven't been there in years.

Here he is, blowing out the candle.

It was a yummmmmmy cake! Enough forks for everyone to take a stab.

And this is what it looked like AFTER everyone took a stab. And it does look like it's bleeding, eh?

Robee asked me to take this one. It is a great shot of the stone horse statue outside of the restaurant.

And, true to form, Ben had TWO birthday celebration cakes - his favorite of course - yellow cake with chocolate frosting. What birthday would be complete without the yellow cake?

Holy Cats. Is that boy really 27? I remember meeting him when he was 13. He had spiky bleached hair, wore zany socks, never got up for school until it was absolutely necessary (he would sit on his bed until the bus pulled up the street and then make a run for it ... in his multicoloured socks), listened to The Beatles all day long (and I'm totally serious .. all day), would never eat breakfast but would have an Artic Circle combo everyday (we miss those here in Washington ... mmmmmm!), and would sleep until 2 pm every weekend. How time flies.

Happy Birthday Buh. May the next 27 years be a wonderful experience!

Snow Day and Night Lights in December

The kids are THRILLED!! First snow day of the season. I know we live in the Northwest but every once in awhile, we do get a snow fall.

PEEEEETY!!!

That's a shot outside the sliding door. It's such a great view. Unfortunately, you can kind of see the new atrocity that's been built next door. I plan on planting trees this spring to hide it. =)

This place is so weird about snow weather. I do think that they have one snow truck for the entire Northwest. They don't know how to drive in even a skiff of snow. And every school district started two hours late the next day. The NEXT DAY ... after the roads were dry. Seriously. Very wimpy when it comes to inclement weather.


This WAS supposed to be a great pic of a ruler showing you that there is four inches on the railing, but I'm using my phone and the light ain't s'great.

But there is four inches and that's quite a bit for up here.

This is how Jen dresses for the weather! Kidding. Actually she was rescuing Owen from the snow. He wore one of Robee's boots over his foam cast and then his own boot on the other foot. But he was getting cold and really didn't want to walk anymore, to the rescue went mom in shorts.



Last night, we all bundled up and went to Warm Beach "Lights of Christmas." Warm Beach is an area right on the sound, owned by a church and it hosts camps in the summer for kids and conferences and such. There is also a senior community and care facility. It's very beautiful.


Anyway, during December they decorate the entire area with thousands of lights and open it up for tours. They have musical groups, food, all sorts of entertainment; very festive. It's kind of like "Temple Square" without the Temple. (for those of you in Utah)


The Talking Christmas Tree. Felix and Robee talking to the the Talking Tree. I'm not sure, but there is some guy somewhere talking a microphone watching us the whole time and cracking lame jokes ... which is a little spooky when you think about it.


But you can have your pic taken with the tree! The line was almost as long as the line for mini donuts.



Robee inside a tree light.


Getting warm and eating and drinking.

Owen in the stroller. With his foot still healing, he rode most of the time. =( Poor Little Foot.


This was my favorite. This was an entire mountain scene made from little lights. I cannot imagine the time and sweat it took in putting this together. But it's beautiful.

Another one that I loved. I call this one "Falling Lights." There were strings of lights coming off the tree branches and then bundled at the bottom for a firework-effect.

Another fav of mine: Lighthouse of Lights.

Thomas looking at the Lights. He was very taken with the whole thing as you can see.

This is Leah, a friend of Felix's. She came along for the ride and stayed the night. She had the unfortunate luck of sitting next to Felix while we ate and then experienced Felix's hot chocolate being flung all over her during dinner. My child.


We had a GREAT time and I'm so glad Jen suggested we go. I've always wanted to go but never made it in time. I sent the kids to the day camp the first summer we were here and have always love Kayak Point too (the park on the beach near-by). It was even snowing a little which made it even better.

My funny child

Usually Robee hates going into Claire's. "It's a girls' shop! There is nothing for me to do! Nothing for me to look at! I'll sit outside."

However this day, he found something to look at and something to do:
The clerks were in hysterics. They didn't realize at first that he was a boy.


And this is when he was trying out his new shoes. Most people walk around, move their feet .. you know ... make sure the shoe feels good on their foot. Not Robee. This is how he tests out a potential shoe:

Peaceful Life of a Spider

I was moving pictures around late last night and found this video I took with my phone one day. It is of a spider, spinning it's web.

I came across it when I was walking into the office one day. I was late but I saw it spinning around and around and I had to stop and watch.

Mind you, I'm not a huge fan of spiders. I am not paralyzed with fear as I used to be, but it's not like we're best friends either.

However, when I saw it outside the door, I had to watch and then video it for next five minutes. I was so enraptured watching it do what nature had intended it to do.

I remember talking to a friend of mine and we were discussing our daily schedules of shuttling kids here and there and we're in martial arts so we're at class quite a bit and Thomas is working crazy hours with the economy ..........

And here was this spider, silently, peacefully, instinctively spinning it's web. True, it probably will be destroyed in a day when a fly or some destructive person comes along. And true, the spider has a precarious life span; each day is spent only to survive.

But still, it did seem to me as I watched it go around and around, that maybe G-d didn't mean for us to have such chaotic lives.

You decide.