Snow Days

So we are on day three of "snow days" from school. Last Thursday we were at the park with no coats on, and then Monday I could barely make it into the garage without sliding into the yard. Everything in the city was shut down on Tuesday, so we all stayed home and watched movies and cuddled up. We even lost power for a few hours Monday night, so we lit some candles and played cards by candle-light and listened to our battery operated radio. I always feel like a giddy little kid when we have snow days; I remember how excited I used to get when we would have them.
It really amuses me what constitutes a "snow day" here. When I was growing up there had to be about 6-8 feet of snow and the inability to get out of your house in order for school to be cancelled. As you can see, this was the extent of the snow we got that shut down the whole city. However, we do have the ice storms here, so underneath that thin layer of snow is a pretty thick layer of ice. Yesterday was much better and melted all of the ice, so this morning I got Austin up and was getting ready to take him to school when I (thankfully) thought I better just double check to make sure they weren't closed again, and YEP, another day off. SWEET! We have spent our time off mostly being lazy, but did get some creativity time in. Here Austin and Aubrey are painting, and got most of the paint on the paper!

Helpful Big Brother!

100 things

I thought in honor of my 100th post and one year anniversary of blogging, (I know, can you believe I have kept up with this for a whole year?!), I would do another one of those blogging meme things. This one is 100 things about me. This may be more than you ever wanted to know about little ole' moi

1. I grew up in a small town with a population of about 200.
2. Everyone knew everyone and my parents knew if I had been naughty before I got home.
3. I wasn't naughty very often, until I got to high school.
4. By then we had moved to a bigger town, so my parents didn't know.
5. I was always on the honor roll, except my first semester at college. Does anyone really make good grades their first semester of college?
6. I loved college more than high school.
7. I have two bachelor's degrees, one in Psychology and one in Social Work.
8. I have a Master's degree in Social Work as well.
9. There was very little math in those degrees.
10. Except statistics, and I hated statistics.
11. My first job out of grad school was working with and teaching parenting skills to teenage moms.
12. My mom thought it was pretty funny that I, who had no children and who was fresh out of college, was teaching parenting skills to teens. I took offense to her laughter at the time.
13. Now I understand. Looking back, I had no business teaching teens about parenting.
14. I probably learned more from my teen moms than they did from me.
15. Now I work part time as a licensed therapist, doing intakes at a mental health agency.
16. I love the "crazies" the best. I once met the 'son of God' during an intake.
17. I am a Christian. We go to church almost every Sunday.
18. I don't believe you have to go to church to have a good relationship with God.
19. I don't know where I would be withouth Him. Probably silently rocking in a corner while my kids threw cheeze-its at me.
20. I have been with Brian for 13 years, but we have been married for 9.
21. We lived apart for 2 years while I finished up college.
22. We saw each other about 4 times per year.
23. The phone bills were outrageous.
24. That was before cell phones and unlimited minutes.
25. I call my husband "Miller" most of the time. When I moved here he was still in Law School, and all of his friends called him Miller. It just stuck.
26. Most people think that is pretty weird.
27. We had the perfect wedding.
28. I often think Brian and I argue too much.
29. He doesn't think we argue at all.
30. I wonder if we have communication problems?
31. I don't know what I would do without him.
32. He is an awesome dad.
33. Austin adores his daddy, and secretly I am a little jealous of their relationship.
34. But mostly I am thankful he has such a great dad.
35. Aubrey will be a daddy's girl too.
36. I loved being pregnant.
37. I loved eating what I wanted, whenever I wanted to.
38. I'm pretty sure I told my anesthesiologist during the deliveries that I loved him too.
39. At the time, I really did.
40. I adore my kids.
41. I, of course, think they are the most beautiful and intelligent kids that ever existed.
42. They will be smarter than me any day now.
43. I didn't like the color pink until I had a girl.
44. Pink is awesome.
45. I miss my kids when I am not with them.
46. I am the secretary of the PTA at Austin's school.
47. I love being in the PTA, it reminds me of my mom when I was little.
48. My mom is my best friend.
49. So is my sister.
50. They both know how to keep secrets, sometimes from each other.
51. My parents are awesome.
52. My friends are my second family.
53. I am technologically challenged.
54. I don't have an IPod, MP3 Player, IPhone, Blackberry, Strawberry, Raspberry or Grape.
55. I don't know what most of those are.
56. I am afraid of heights.
57. I am very competitive.
58. Especially with Brian.
59. I love to laugh.
60. More than laughing, I love to hear my children laugh. It is intoxicating.
61. I hate to cook.
62. I love to eat out.
63. Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love to buy presents for people.
64. Brian says I am never done shopping, I just run out of time.
65. I still believe in Santa Clause.
66. I am a huge procrastinator.
67. I have to have deadlines to get anything done.
68. I hate to clean house.
69. I am a bit obsessive compulsive and really like a clean house, but can't get it cleaned unless someone is coming to visit.
70. See number 67.
71. I have a hard time saying no.
72. Except to Brian.
73. I can get taken advantage of pretty easily. I hope being able to say no will come with age.
74. I am still waiting.
75. My favorite Disney Character is Winnie the Pooh.
76. I got to meet him once and my inner 5 year old little self declared it the happiest day in her life.
77. My favorite color is green.
78. I love to read.
79. I get a little sad when I am about to finish a good book.
80. My favorite books are the Harry Potter Series.
81. Or Anne of Green Gables.
82. I am pretty indecisive.
83. Maybe I'm not. No, wait, yes I am. Oh, I don't know...
84. I couldn't decide what my favorite movie is.
85. In my head I am still very athletic and love to exercise.
86. In reality I can't fit into any of my pants.
87. Brian got me hooked on the Red Sox.
88. I love going to baseball games.
89. I like to 'smell me a hot dog'.
90. I have a love/hate relationship with my house.
91. Things only go wrong when the warranty has just run out.
92. I've discovered plumbing problems only occur when company is coming or are already here.
93. Plumbing problems are not cheap.
94. Neither is car repair.
95. I love having a yard.
96. I hate doing yard work.
97. I am a big fan of TV.
98. I watch way too much of it.
99. DVR rocks, I don't know what I did before we had it.
100. I sometimes wish I can "rewind" life like I can on the DVR, so I can watch the funny stuff my kids do over and over again.

There, whew...done!

Adventures in Shopping

The kids hate going to the grocery store almost as much as I do. They usually maintain for the first 20 minutes, then quickly deteriorate into screaming, whining messes. Oh wait, that's me. So we were all very happy to see that the "car cart" was available the other night on our jaunt to the store. Both kids like to sit in the car and honk their horns and "drive". However, they both also like to get in and out of the car just about every time I stop to look at or put anything in the cart. So most of the trip consisted of Aubrey getting in and out every time Austin got in and out, (which sometimes was when the cart was still in motion. And she just wasn't quite as fast or skilled at it as Austin is), and me telling them to get back in the car and "sit down please!". Needless to say this quick trip to the store turned into a marathon shopping adventure.

IN

OUT

OUT

BACK IN

ON???

FINALLY...
BEEP BEEP!

New Toys

Now why didn't Santa just bring these two their own laundry basket (which is actually a really fast boat) and a container of wipes for Christmas?

He would have saved a lot of money.

Ah well, next year...

Another Rare Moment

I love these pictures. Austin was reading Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see? to Aubrey, and she was actually listening and paying attention. Until I started taking pictures...

Ultimate Bedhead

Aubrey's hair is just like her dad's; curly and frizzy. I love it, but it can be unruly at times!

Resolutions

I am not one for making New Year's Resolutions. OK, so in truth I really am not one for keeping New Year's Resolutions. I lose interest and/or forget my resolutions usually by January 3rd or 4th. Which is why I waited to post these, so at least I will last longer than last year. Even though I don't believe that you should wait until the first of the year to set goals, I like the symbolism of resolutions and the "fresh start" of a new year. That being said, I am going to post my resolutions here, for the whole world (aka my 3-4 faithful followers) to see, so that maybe I will be motivated to follow through on them. So far I am not doing so well with most. I really am going to start tomorrow...

• Lose 20 pounds, preferably by the end of March.
• Keep the 20 pounds off, preferably forever.
• Eat healthier (which may be a problem as Brian got a fry daddy for Christmas and has been frying everything in the house. As I write this I am eating the fried pickles and zucchini he just made, yummy.
• Exercise at least 4-5 times per week. This includes doing more than just getting on and off of the couch 20 times per night to get another snack.
• Watch less TV. Especially less of the food network that Brian is addicted to that just makes me hungry.
• Read more, preferably to my kids.
• Yell less.
• Stay in better touch with new and old friends.

OK, so here are my resolutions, best not to have too many. Start small I always say. Anyone else make any resolutions this year?

My Diva

Ice Skating

It was over 70 degrees here today. People were out in shorts. I had on a sweatshirt, and was hot. In January... crazy. So we took advantage of the weather again and went ice skating (and by we, I mean Austin and Brian). The city has an ice skating rink downtown through the holidays in addition to the snow tubing. Neither Austin nor Brian had ever been on ice skates before. Austin did great, and gained more confidence as the hour went by so by the end he wasn't even hanging on to the edge. However, he was pretty wet by the time they were done as the ice was melting quickly and they were mostly skating in water. Brian, who kept quoting Paulie (from Rocky-"Ice is stupid, and anyone standing on ice is more stupid"), did very well and didn't fall once. I, who have never been on ice skates either and learned my lesson from the roller skating incident did the smart thing and just watched with Aubrey; I am sure I would have bruised more than my pride had I tried on a pair of ice skates.

Happy New Year!

It has been beautiful here. We have been trying to take advantage of the weather and spend as much time outside as possible. We went to the park the other day, and both kids had fun swinging and going down the slide.

Aubrey's smile tells how much she likes to swing.

Austin is learning to pump and keep himself going, but mommy still has to give him lots of pushes.

Aubrey got going sideways on the slide.

Austin loves to throw rocks in the lake. The geese always think he is throwing out something for them to eat.

Aubrey is waving at the geese and ducks. She is really into waving at everyone and everything right now.


And today we went snow tubing. I know from this picture it doesn't look like there is any snow, and in reality there wasn't other than the manufactured snow they had at the ballpark. The city turns the baseball park into a snow tubing adventure during the Christmas holidays, this is the first year we went. Since it was so nice outside, there were tons of people there and we only got to go down about 3-4 times in an hour and a half. But it was fun. Here Austin is at the bottom. He had a ball. Aubrey fell asleep watching her big brother have all the fun.