My Baby Love Weekend...

So last Friday I took a personal day off from work and headed to Virginia to see Quinn and family. The weather cooperated so the trip was uneventful. I always worry when travelling in February that there will be a major blizzard or something and I won't be able to go. I arrived around noon to a 70 degree day! Talk about beautiful! We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to the park. Quinn loves the park and it was a great day for it.
She loves the swings


The slide


Running away from Mommy


And hanging out watching the other kids do all the things she wishes she could do.


It won't be long Quinn.

Saturday we did a little shopping and then Saturday night Amber & Andy went into DC for a night on the town and their first night away from Quinn together. She and I had a fun evening with dinner, bath time and then off to bed. She let me sleep in until 6:30 at least. She's an early riser.
Here she is the next morning reading her books on Mimi's bed (air mattress). She loved this bed.


While she did pretty good being with just Mimi I will say that she started missing her Mama on Sunday morning. She had a couple sad moments so I had to do some major distracting. She was happy to see them when they got home but still came to me for a couple hugs and kisses. I would say their first night away went well.

Monday night, my last night there, Amber and I took a cooking class that Andy had arranged for Amber's Valentine's Day gift. We were cooking Greek. Our team of 5 made lamb kebabs with Tzatziki (which is the cucumber sauce) and Spanakopita (spinach pie) and Baklava. Between the Spanakopita and Baklava we used a ton of butter. I always thought Greek cooking was so healthy with olive oil and all but we soon found out butter is a huge part of their cooking. We spent about 3 hours there, ate what we cooked and then brought a bit home. Amber is lucky that this place is right down the street from her so she can take more classes there if she wants to.

The flight back home was uneventful too and I was home by about 8:00 Tuesday night. It was a great weekend and I loved being able to spend a few days with Quinn. She changes so much is just a few short weeks. I would hate it if I couldn't see her every couple months. And thanks to Skype there wasn't really too much of a warm up time. She knew who I was and wasn't shy or anything! Great trip!


Not much else going on around here. That snow that had melted before I went to DC was replaced with another 10 inches last Sunday. If Monday hadn't been a holiday (President's Day) we would have had another snow day. The weather has been cold and crappy all week, no sun, just yuk. Tonight we are supposed to have rain and maybe even some thunder. Crazy!

We did have one nice surprise this week. Tyler's box from South Korea arrived. It was full of goodies for the whole family. We have all been enjoying the snacks. It seems they really like things covered with chocolate which is ok by me. There was one thing kind of puffy and filled with air and it wasn't so good. Last time I chatted with Tyler on line he said he was considering signing on to teach for another year. He hasn't made up his mind yet but since his contract is up in May he's going to have go decide pretty soon.

Here was another surprise. We had this guy visiting the back yard one evening this week. He was practically in the back yard this time.

Tomorrow morning at school we have a meeting to talk about next year's budget. I've already heard that classroom aide time is being cut by at least 30% and I know there will be other cuts. My job could be on the line again but so far no news is good news? My job is paid for by Federal funds and I'm not even sure if the Principal knows what that budget is yet. Michigan is going to be one of the states that cuts it's per pupil budget, we've already heard the Governor say that. It's going to mean less teachers and larger classes and less services. And here I am still taking training classes. Friday I had a half day class for a reading program. On Tuesday afternoon I have another training class so I can learn how to do the testing we begin in March and continue through April. I'm really hoping I don't get laid off again as I really do love this job. Time will tell.

Have a good week! I hope you get a couple days at the park Quinn!! :-)

The Week in Review

It been an eclectic week. Tuesday after school we had out "holiday" get-together. Guess things were so busy around Christmas it got put off for a while. It was decided that a "Murder Mystery" would be a new and interesting idea for dinner. I don't mind these types of things as long as I don't have to play a part. And thankfully I was not chosen to do that. My team did not have the right answer for "who done it". Guess with all those teachers and brain power in the room it was anybody's guess would would get the right answer. I had the opportunity to catch up with a few people that I don't get to talk with very often so that was nice.

Thursday night was Bunco. Many of the Bunco girls are new Grandma's or just coming into the Grandma phase. Since this group has been together 20+ years you can imagine all the changes within the group. We have been through births, serious illnesses (one girl had breast cancer), death (one girl passed away from lung cancer about 12 years ago), raising kids, kid's graduations, kid's weddings and the birth of grandchildren. Sadly one of our girls just found out on Friday that her daughter, who was expecting twins later this summer, had lost the babies. At an ultrasound last week they couldn't detect any heartbeats and the babies were delivered the next day. This will be a tough one to get through. There are many happy and sad things to help each other through when you have 12 women who have been friends for so many years.

No bowling this week. I thought we might pre-bowl this weekend because I won't be able to go Friday night but our partners decided they wanted to bowl so they and H will just take 10 off my average. I hope we get some points because we really need them! We are bowling a tough team next week so it could go either way.

Saturday night we had tickets through H's work to go to a concert. His company has invested in a suite so they have certain weeks when they can take customers to certain events. However, no customers wanted to attend this weekend's concert so it was opened to the upper management. I didn't really want to go either but H asked me to so I gave in and went. This performer is someone I would never pay good (or bad) money to see, that's for sure! It was Ozzy Osbourne!

I actually had to google him to see if I knew or recognized any of his songs. It was VERY loud, the seats were vibrating, there was fireworks, loud fireworks, he took a hose to the audience!!! I really felt for those people in the front 10-15 rows but they didn't seem to care. My ears were ringing for hours. But at least no one set my hair on fire. Old story.

We are having a little bit of a thaw here in Michigan. The temps this weekend have allowed for a little snow melt. Today my car thermometer said 47!



I think we are actually supposed to have several days with above freezing temps so even more of the snow will melt. That's a good thing. I'm not saying winter is anywhere near over here but at least you can start to feel that the end is not too far off.

H spotted this beauty this morning. She was behind the pond in our back yard and had a friend with her. She layed there for a couple hours until the guy on the other side of the pond got his snow blower out to blow off the pond again so the kids could skate.



I had to take the pups up to the high school today. I should have yesterday but I went shopping instead. So today there was no getting around it. The drive there was awful. Zoe couldn't stop "talking". Loud "talking". I had to let Charlie out of the car and leave her there for a bit so she could get a hold of herself! Like I said, they really needed to get out.


That's right sister. We need to go to the park!


Where's that frisbee Mom??

I made sure I threw that frisbee time after time down the hill so they would have to make their way back up in the deep, melting snow. They were pretty tired by the time we were done.


He picked up a snowball with the frisbee and when he dropped the frisbee he look down at the snowball wondering where it had come from!





Now they are sleeping blissfully!

This coming week we have school Valentine's parties on Monday. The kids will be so excited it will be hard to get much teaching done. On Tuesday I will be going to training all day so there will be no teaching that day either. It will also be a short week for me because I am taking Friday off! I am headed off to Virginia to visit a special little someone!


Here she is at her first professional photo shoot trying to move the props around! This is an "outtake" so I can't wait to see the ones that turned out! Mostly I can't wait to see her. She has changed so much in just 6 short weeks. Having dinner with her every night via Skype has been wonderful but being there in person is the best.

Have a good week and a Happy Valentine's Day!

Mixed Signals

So we've had very cold temps, more snow and even this!



These things are huge, probably 5 or 6 inches thick and almost 5 feet long and hanging off our roof on the south side of the house. I don't think I've ever seen them get this big before!
Then on Saturday I'm looking out the window and I spy this! (Not a very good picture) I think I was so shocked I forgot to focus. It's a Robin! He's way too early for Spring. I have no idea what he's gonna eat for the next two months! There are no worms anywhere in sight! They are buried under 10 inches of snow. Crazy!


Friday night was bowling again. We are now in 5th place and only out of 1st by 5 points. We bowled the 4th place team. The first game I bowled a 198! That's the highest I've bowled in I don't know how long. Unfortunately we lost that game by 5 pins. So sad. The second game was a tough one. None of us bowled our best games (I bowled a 105, way below average) so we lost that game by a lot. The third game we rallied and managed to pull it out by only 7 pins! We only took 1 point and have probably dropped back down in the rankings again.

The rest of the weekend has been fairly uneventful and I haven't done much. Having those two lovely snow days I was able to catch up on the laundry, I cleaned the aquarium and paid all the bills. I didn't even take the pups anywhere on Saturday. I was planning to but then it started snowing in the afternoon so I decided not to go.

Today I decided I just had to take them as they hadn't been out in a whole week and they were really happy to get out even though the snow was even deeper than last weekend.



How could you say no to this happy face?





They had a great time. The snow was really deep and they spent a lot of time hopping through it. When they were finished they were loaded with snow balls that were stuck to the long fur on their legs. Zoe spent the next hour pulling them off but Charlie doesn't really care.


We are deep into winter now and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. We are expected to get more snow this week. Nothing measurable but just more snow, inch by inch it all adds up.



They had so much fun.

The Super Bowl is on. I'm not really interested in watching it. We just finished our super bowl dinner though, prepared completely by H. We had bar-b-q pork sandwiches, cole slaw and potato skins. During dinner I was telling him how nice it was and how special I felt. He said that now I know how he feels every night! I said, yea, you are really lucky! But really, it was nice to have it all prepared and served to me and it wasn't fast food either.

So another week begins. Another week of winter. Cold, gray, snow. Only 42 days until Spring begins. 42 days and counting...

Have a good week!

It's the Great Blizzard of Ground Hog Day - 2011

And we lived to tell the tale! Needless to say, we had a snow day today.

This makes it official! A real blizzard!

The winds howled all night long and this morning this is what I found when I looked out the window!

It was supposed to look like this one.

It continued to snow for another couple hours.

The boys got out there around noon to start clearing the driveway. It looks like we got about 9-10 inches maybe.




These two just relaxed around the house all morning.



When most of the shoveling and snow blowing was done I decided it was time to take the pups out for some snow fun!


And more fun.


And the really fun part? We get to do it all again tomorrow! I just got the call and due to poor road conditions there will be no school tomorrow either!


I have a feeling H will try to make it to work anyway. The main roads and interstate will probably be clear enough for him to make it in.

But I'll be here, cozy and warm. Maybe tomorrow I'll get the laundry caught up, or watch a movie, or read a book, or clean something. We'll see.

Happy Snow Day!