I Left On A Jet Plane....But I Came Back Again

My mom's birthday was a few weeks ago. Being the conniving person that I am, I decided to surprise her with a very special gift.

Me and the girls.

I was fortunate to have great flights on the way out. Both were early to their destinations, and not even close to full. I got in to Salt Lake early, so I was able to hop on the earlier shuttle to Idaho Falls. Major bonus. I had arranged with my dad and sisters for them to pick me up. We decided to go out to dinner that night, seeing how it was a very special birthday for my mom. Fifty years old, can you believe it??? OK, not really, but in many social circles, she could totally pass for it! My two sisters and their husbands and one of my nieces got me and the kids to the restaurant, and we waited for the birthday girl. When she walked in to the restaurant, my dad covered her eyes and walked her over to our table. He took his hands off her eyes and said "Surprise!" I think the look on her face was a mix of confusion and perhaps fear. Her response was, "What are you doing here?"
It took a while for her to recover from the shock. I wish I had taken my camera into the restaurant so I could have captured the moment.

It was a very fun trip. I think it was as much of a present to me as it was to my mom. We spent the week staying up too late, shopping, and playing Canasta....which of course my Mom not just beat me at, but walloped me. My sisters, Jenni and Erica live close by, so I was able to spend lots of time with them, too. Maryn loved the attention she got from Grandma and Grandpa...and it didn't hurt that there was a big jar of candy sitting out on the counter. We were spoiled over and over with good food, cookies, and having nothing to do but relax and forget about any schedule. I love being at my parents' house.

Maryn helping Grandma make chocolate chip cookies

A typical picture of my dad

Grandpa, Grandma, Maryn and Ailee

After six days in Idaho, the girls and I went down to Utah to spend the rest of our trip with my other two sisters, Jill and Marybeth. Maryn has a blast with her cousin, Hudson, due to a similar love for cars. They spent most of the time together, pretending to be butterflies, watching movies, putting together puzzles, and of course playing with cars. I had a great time neglecting my kids and hanging out with my sisters. I think the only downside to this whole trip is the fact that I come from a family of junkies. (That's junkies as in social junk food eaters) It's not game time unless there is food involved. I can't say for sure in pounds how much weight I gained, but boy I sure can feel it, now.

We had really nice weather while we were there, so one afternoon I took my girls and Jill's two youngest kids across the street to the park.

Hudson was super-fast on his scooter

Savannah taking Ailee down her first slide--she loved it

Just a cute picture of Ailee

Tasting the wood chips....yum, yum!

We had a great time on our trip. It was a really nice break for me, and I love being around my family. It's mentally rejuvenating for me and makes it so I can come back and face the world again. Thanks, Mom, Dad, Jenni, Jill, Erica, and Marybeth for letting us come out and take over your time for a while. We appreciate everything you did for us, and we can't wait until the time when we live a little bit closer!

Love Is In The Air

Happy Valentines Day!!

I apologize for this kinda lame picture. I ran away from home this week, to go visit my family in Idaho and Utah. I'm at the mercy of my mom's computer and whatever picture she has stored on her computer at this time. Unfortunately this is the only picture of Kade and me showing any kind of lovey-dovey affection. Pretty romantic, eh?

(And just for clarification, this picture was taken back in 2004 in my parent's backyard when they lived in Kentucky. Kade was 27 and I was 23. Our youthful looks can be such a curse.)

I Need Some Opinions

I have this console. It's a pretty cheap piece of furniture (I put it together, myself), but I like it. We bought it a long time ago, but I have never done anything to it, and it has remained unfinished. Initially I wanted to stain it because I prefer the wood grain to paint. However, I don't feel like making a trip to Lowe's, and I don't want to pay for stain and sealer, and I don't want to deal with the mess and it's clean up. Well, I do have a can of primer and black paint left over from when I painted our bedroom dresser. Should I:
A: Put the extra effort, time, and $$$ into it. It's such a shame to paint wood.

OR

B: Just paint it black and be done. I have kids and they will probably just destroy it anyway...I'm amazed it has lasted this long.

Nightmares

You know that recurring nightmare you can never stop dreaming about?? Well, mine isn't just a dream....it's real!

[High pitched "Psycho" stabbing sounds]

REE

REE

REE

REE

Remember last September here in Kentucky? If you don't, let me refresh your memory:

Crazy bad wind storm. Crashing trees. Power lines down everywhere. 9 gruelling days without power. No hot water. The stomach flu.

The darkness....oh, the darkness!

I went to bed last night, laughing about the weather forecast. In 1996 (I think) we had a big snow storm here in Louisville. It dumped about 3 feet of snow in a few hours and shut down the city for about a week. Have a good laugh. Our city is full of little pansies. So now, every time they forecast a tiny bit of snow, suddenly people become very cautious/slightly crazy. Well, on Monday, we started getting warnings about all this nasty winter weather coming through our area. For once, our meteorologists got it right! Yesterday, it snowed a few inches. Then, later that night it started to rain. Then it froze. This was my night.

11:00 pm: Look outside and see that it has been raining/freezing. Think to myself, "I should take a picture in the morning, that looks really cool!" Go to bed.

1:56 am: Loud BOOM wakes me up. Not quite sure what it going on, I get out of bed and look out our front window. Several big branches down in our yard. Power has flickered, but resumed.

1:57 am: Have flashbacks to last September.

1:58 am: Worry sets in. Try to go back to bed.

2:56 am: (No joke, it was exactly an hour) Another loud BOOM. Window. More big branches down. Power still on.

2:57 am: More worry. Turn off TV and lights in family room where Kade has fallen asleep on the couch. Back to bed.

7:00 am: Loud crash wakes me up. My clock is once again blinking "12:00" "12:00" "12:00" "12:00". Look out window to see this:

Hmmm, now where have I seen a picture similar to this before? Oh, yeah, last September, in my yard:

Two words, people: UNDERGROUND WIRES. Gees, how many times does our power line have to be ripped from our house to figure out that falling tree limbs damage power lines?

Between 7:00 and 7:30 am: Have to call the power company 4 times to get through and report the active, deadly, downed power line draped across our front yard and over the road. Then call our landlord to explain that our meter box has once again been torn from the house. He sounds tired.

7:30 am: Start some laundry and get into the shower while we still have a functioning hot water heater.

3:00 pm: Active, deadly power line still laying across our yard. No sign of the power company. (They will probably disconnect our line, anyway.) I stare out the window, wondering if all the kids walking past our house on their way to the park are smart enough to stay away from the line.

Did we make some Weather God angry? Why didn't we get our trees pruned last fall? Should I consider it a miracle that we still have power....do we have a higher power on our side? Mayhaps.

Here are a few pictures I took this morning. I'm trying to be artistic. Not sure if it worked. I was really cold.

Spring Teaser

This week has given us quite a bit of variety in the weather, here in KY. On Monday morning we woke up to a thin blanket of snow. I know, I know. I can hear all of you westerners/northerners laughing and saying, "You call that snow?!?" We take what we can get here. We don't get much here in the way of snow, but, it does get crazy cold sometimes. We even had a pipe freeze on us last Friday. As I went to bed on Thursday, I thought just maybe I should leave some water dripping. So, I turned on the bathroom sink faucet. When we got up the next morning, the hot water in the kitchen wouldn't turn on. Fortunately we have great landlords. Tom (our landlord) came over with a heater and put it under the crawl space. I was very relieved when it thawed and there were no leaks. Whew.
Three days after a snow storm (Thursday), it turned sunny and beautiful, so the kids and I walked to the park. Today was the same, if not warmer. My car said it was 60 degrees. What awesome temps for January! We walked to the park again, (can I truly express how much I LOVE the location of our home???) and played for a few minutes. So, Maryn loves the swings. It's always the first thing she goes for when we get to the park. She spends most of her time there. I stuck Ailee in a swing, just to see if she would like it....and just like her sister, she loved it!

Just chillaxin' in this fine weather!

In this next one, I could just imagine her saying, "WHASSSUUUUUUPPPP!!"

I just wuv dose chubby wittle cheeks!I think it looks like she is striking a modeling pose in this next picture. We'll call this look: Blue Steel.

Wondering why Maryn and Daddy are making funny faces at her.

I wish it would stay like this, and Spring would could. Turns out this is just a Spring teaser--it's supposed to get cold again tomorrow. sigh.