Picture of the Week - 12/14/2017

The countdown is definitely ON for Christmas!!!  I can't wait!

Let's see....  what's new....

I finally got home LATE last Friday to half a FOOT of snow!  Craziness!!  The forecasters knew it would be cold enough to snow, but totally missed on the moisture content in the air.  They predicted no more than a dusting.  They were really wrong!  It was unbelievably beautiful!  I had plenty of time to admire the sites during my drive home from the airport in the dark on Friday.  LOL  Bright side - the only other vehicle out that night was a salt truck so traffic was a breeze!

We had a blessedly quiet weekend due to basically everything being cancelled because of the snow.  It was kind of awesome!  I baked and cuddled and cooked and relaxed and hugged and did a mountain of laundry.  

This week has be awesome!  Bob and I took a couple of days off work to celebrate Bob's birthday and to prep for Christmas and hang out together.  Nothing says love like a mid-week Chinese food lunch date.  :) 

Tonight I'm going out with some friends.  Tomorrow I'm having a wee bit of surgery done on my eye again.  Hoping it heals up quickly because we have a weekend full of wrestling (which I'm skipping, I think, even though Spence is finally getting an opportunity to wrestle in his own weight class (195) instead of wrestling up) and lacrosse on Sunday.  Then Sunday evening we are going to a Christmas music concert.  I can't wait!

It's going to be Christmas and Smiles and more Cuddles in NO TIME!

Here are a couple of holiday pictures to enjoy.  The first is from Friday night in the snow.  Definitely not something you see every year here!  There's our traditional Santa Hat picture - which I am probably going to make them redo because Quinn, who was dressed for a band concert, looks a little too morbid for a Christmas picture.  And finally a picture of Spencer and his girlfriend Ava on "ugly sweater day" at church.  Too funny!

Have a great week everyone! 

Picture of the Week - 2/13/2014

Well...  you don't see that every day!

 

As you are all (probably) aware, Atlanta is snowed in.  Again.  We have only had a couple of decent snows since we moved down here in 1998.  Two in one year...  one MONTH - kind of unthinkable!  And yet, here we are!

 

The boys (all of them) have been home since Tuesday.  We haven't left the house since about 6 on Monday evening.  To say we're a little stir crazy is a bit of an understatement. 

 

I've really enjoyed some extra time with the boys.  The cuddles alone are worth the extra stress of trying to work and entertain and feed and take care of, but I have learned something pretty valuable over the last couple of weeks.  We are MUCH more effective when highly scheduled (aka busy) and following a plan (aka in a routine).  The school bus provides valuable motivation to get everyone dressed every day.  Evening activities provide a necessary reason to get everyone fed a pre-planned meal.  Having to cram all the "stuff" into a week shortened by 40+ hours out of the house working provides a backdrop that just doesn't tolerate being lazy. 

 

I'm hoping we can get back into some kind of NORMAL tomorrow, but in reality we won't really be able to get back into a groove until after Bob and I get back from our CRUISE!  Have I mentioned that we're going on the Buckeye Cruise for Cancer again this year?  We leave next Wednesday.  After a good week of togetherness even the 7 hour car ride is looking pretty attractive.  Not to mention the sun and flip flops and a cold beverage or two.  And if you are willing - send up a little prayer that my awesome parents get through their time with the boys with smiles on their faces!  I'm not sure if I'll get a potw out next week or not.  I'm not convinced I'm even taking a computer on the trip!  :)  If you don't hear from me, assume we are having a fantabulous time with around 2400 of our closest Buckeye friends - including the BIGS!  :)

 

Here are some pictures from this morning.  Not something you see every day down here in "hot"lanta.

 

 

Picture of the Week - 1/30/2014

So...  how's the weather where you are?

 

For anyone who might have missed the 8 billion facebook posts AND the national news, Atlanta got some snow this week.  And the results, as expected, were pretty crazy!  Around 12:30 or so on Tuesday every school bus, soccer mom, working adult, government employee, and semi truck hit the streets of Atlanta, which are congested on a good day.  At exactly the same time a winter storm started dropping 2-4 inches of snow on the area which happened to be about 50 miles north of what was predicted.  The results...  total gridlock on every street in the entire metro area.  Some of the stories I've heard are crazy!  It took me over 4 hours to get home (a normally 35 minute drive in traffic), and I consider myself very very lucky.  Some of my coworkers were out through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. 

 

This is probably hard for all my northern friends and family to even believe.  Believe it!  And this time around I can't even blame our lack of snow clearing equipment.  The very infrastructure meant to maintain traffic and transportation in this big city failed.  And the terrain also played a very big part.  Atlanta is more hilly than you might expect and a little bit of ice on an incline meant to be used by a bunch of people without snow tires or chains or much experience driving in snow lead to many many issues.  There just weren't enough roads to get every single Atlantan home at exactly the same time.  Good times...

 

Speaking of good times...  the boys have had a BLAST on their snow days.  They were all sent home early on Tuesday, were home yesterday and again today.  I think they will go back tomorrow - at least the little boys will go back for sure.  They have thoroughly enjoyed playing in the snow.  It's a rare treat down here and we've sent them outside as much as possible.  It's supposed to get to almost 40 today and will be over 60 by the weekend, so this is a short-lived opportunity.

 

I had planned to send out Quinn's Happy 10th Birthday collage this week, but the snow pictures were an unexpected diversion.  Quinn's birthday is this Sunday.  Hard to believe that he's going to be 10!  More on that next week. 

 

In the meantime, I'm sure you are all hoping for some good news from the groundhog this weekend!  Now that we've gotten some snow time and lacrosse starts next week (yes...  next week), we are really hoping for SPRING now!

 

Have a great week everyone - and stay warm!