Life's Little Lessons - Winter Edition

Lesson 1: The snow moved when a plow comes through is dirty and kinda gross. (We learned this yesterday actually.)
Lesson 2: After a big snow if it doesn't warm up above freezing, it doesn't start to melt.
Lesson 3: It's a good idea to shovel the driveway after a snow - see Lesson 2.
Lesson 4: It's hard to drive on ice. (We knew this from Texas.)
Lesson 5: If it rains after it snows and then stays below freezing, the snow becomes really, really hard.
Lesson 6: Really, really hard snow covered by ice is very tough to drive on.
Lesson 6: It's really a good idea to shovel the driveway after a snow - see above.

It took me 10 minutes to get out of the driveway this morning. We did make it out, thanks in part to Tom, some patience, and a decent set of tires on the van, but we certainly have learned our lesson. Some guys came by a bit ago and we told them to come back later on and they could clear the driveway out. Man, now we know. It's beautiful, but now slippery, hard, and slightly dangerous. Us Texans and Floridians are learning our way around this whole winter thing slowly...but it still is beautiful.

All things cold.

Ever since we moved our freezer - the big huge chest freezer that holds all of our extra frozen foods and all of my pre-made stuff - hasn't been keeping things frozen. I guess I should say not quite completely frozen as some things were definitely frozen, just not as much as they normally are. So last week I started smelling food when I opened the freezer, which meant that things were defrosting. I called GE and they came out to fix the thing. Ninety five dollars later I was told that the temp in the mudroom was too cold for the freezer and that if I kept it above about 50 or so degrees that it would work. This means that we run the heater all the time and keep the temp up, which drives Tom absolutely nuts. So, we've kept the temp between 53 and 58 degrees (as best we can tell). The repair guys said that this would do the trick and it should freeze right up. Well, five days later and the food is now is completely defrosted. We grabbed what we could and plopped it into the freezer and fridge that was working and have called them back again. Apparently the refrigerator repair guy had no idea what was wrong and chalked it up to a dumb customer. They are coming back on Friday to "fix" the problem again free of charge.

It's so cool when the trucks go by with the big plows on the front. The totally uncool part, and that which we never would have thought about, is that the snow that they plow has to go somewhere, and it's dirty and slightly nasty when it lands where it is plowed. So, we have a bunch of brownish snow on the end of the driveway that is piled up about a foot and half high. This means that even though we can get up the driveway (sort of - it does take a bit of work) and that we can drive out on the streets (they are clear) that we can't get to the street without shoveling.

This brings me to the next "cold thing." When we dragged out of bed this morning, we heard the sound of snow blowers everywhere. We have a shovel (thank goodness we go that at least!) All these folks have snow blower to use ONCE per year when it snows like this. As Tom pointed out (after I stopped laughing at him for attempting to shovel the driveway - the LOOOONG driveway) this really isn't necessary tool. It really does only snow like this once or twice per year. And we don't really need that Taco Bell (yes, craving Taco Bell drove me to shovel the drive out a tiny bit so that he could get out!). Well, Tom never did shovel the drive to get his car out and go to work. I told him that it would take him at least two hours to get the part behind his car shoveled and after taking about 30 minutes to shovel a path out there he realized that it just wasn't worth it. So, he hung out with us all day and in between working, he helped to build a snowman, make snowballs, and have lunch with his kiddos.

Yes, we did build a snowman. His name is Sparky - thanks to Tom. to the name, so Sparky it is. Sam instantly took a liking to the name, so Sparky it is. The kids even made him a GameBoy out of snow and some food. Cute, huh? I love playing in the snow, but we still don't have the appropriate clothes to stay warm and dry. One of these days we'll get them, but it seems silly to have them when it really does only snow once per year (big enough to play in) and the kids are growing so much each year. So, until they slow down some we'll play in the snow and our fingers will freeze after the gloves that surround them get wet, our knees will freeze when our pants are soaked through, and we will fuss and complain, enjoying every minute that we are outside playing in the snow.

Goofin' with Sparky

I'm a snowball making machine!
Sam got in on the snowball action too!

What do you do when it snows? Max plays FOOTBALL!

Ian skipped right over the snowballs and went for the blocks of ice!

Snow is precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes

So it's sleeting outside (so I thought) and come to find out that it really is sleet. What the heck is the difference between snow and sleet, and just WHY? So, I did what any common sensed person would do and looked it up. I thought I'd share because I'd like to think that I'm not the only one who doesn't know. If I am, feel free to have a giggle to yourself on my account. I am so taken by the whole snow thing. Who would have known? (Take a look out into our back yard and you'll see why I'm so taken - even with a tiny bit of snow it sure is beautiful!)

• Snow: Falling ice composed of crystals in complex hexagonal forms. Snow forms mainly when water vapor turns directly to ice without going through the liquid stage, a process called deposition.
• Snowflakes: Aggregations of snow crystals.
• Snow flurries: Light showers of snow that do not cover large areas and do not fall steadily for long periods of time.
• Snow grains: Very small snow crystals. The ice equivalent of drizzle.
• Snow pellets: White, opaque ice particles that form as ice crystals fall through cloud droplets that are below freezing but still liquid (supercooled). The cloud droplets freeze to the crystals forming a lumpy mass. Scientists call snow pellets "graupel." Such pellets falling from thunderstorms are often called "soft hail."
• Sleet: Drops of rain or drizzle that freeze into ice as they fall. They are usually smaller than 0.30 inch in diameter. Official weather observations list sleet as "ice pellets." In some parts of the country "sleet" refers to a mixture of ice pellets and freezing rain.
• Freezing rain or drizzle: Falling rain or drizzle that cools below 32°F, but does not turn to ice in the air. The water is "supercooled." When the drops hit anything they instantly turn into ice.
• Ice storm: A storm with large amounts of freezing rain that coats trees, power lines and roadways with ice. Often the ice is heavy enough to pull down trees and power lines.
• Hail: Falling ice in roughly round shapes at least 0.20 inch in diameter. Hail comes from thunderstorms and is larger than sleet. Hailstones form when upward moving air -- updrafts -- in a thunderstorm keep pieces of graupel from falling. Drops of supercooled water hit and freeze to the graupel, causing it to grow. When the balls of ice become too heavy for the updrafts to continue supporting them, they fall as hailstones. Sleet, in contrast, consists of raindrops that freeze on the way down.

And here I thought a deposition was a legal thing...who knew!

Oh - thanks to USA Today for these great definitions! There's more here if you want to know about rain, storms, etc.

Follow Me...

Saw this on another blog and thought I'd give it a go. Here's what I came up with - what does your music say about you?

Go to your music player of choice and put it on shuffle. Say the following questions aloud, and press play. Use the song title as the answer to the question. NO CHEATING. I posted every weird answer I got, so you do the same!

How does the world see you?
"Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves (hmmm...interesting...let's see what else this comes up with!)

Will I have a happy life?"
"Semi-Charmed Kind of Life" by Third Eye Blind (O.K. Now this is getting weird. Let's see where we go from here.)

What do my friends really think of me?
"It's a Sin" by the Pet Shop Boys (hmmmm...wonder what this means...)

How can I make myself happy?
"Shame" by Evelyn King (Let's just not go there at all)

What should I do with my life?
"Lady Marmalade" by Pink, Christina Aguilera, and Mya (O.K. This thing is being naughty...)

Will I ever have children?
"That's the Way I Remember It" by Garth Brooks (O.K. This is a bit creepy. I really am hitting the shuffle!)

What is some good advice for me?
"Everybody Knows" by Leonard Cohen (Guess no life in politics for me)

How will I be remembered?
"Two Pina Coladas" by Garth Brooks (I hope this means that I'll be remembered OVER two pina coladas, not that I have them in my hands continually!)

What is my signature dancing song?
"Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man After Midnight)" by ABBA (Hmmm...not so far off base...ABBA is cool!)

What do I think my current theme song is?
"In the Car' by the Barenaked Ladies (Well this about hits the nail on the head!)

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
"What you Gonna Do With a Cowboy?" by Chris Ledoux (Huh?)

What song will play at my funeral?
"Riders on the Storm" by Creed (This is definitely kind of creepy - good thing I didn't have the kids' music on my mp3 Player!)

What is my day going to be like?
"Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" by C+C Music Factory (Hey...who's looking in my windows...)

Should I publish this meme?
"All Alone" by Gorillaz (well, while my music isn't so sure that I should share, I'm going to!)

So, my music speaks VOLUMES about me...what does your say about you?

SNOW!

It SNOWED! It SNOWED!!! The boys were so excited (not me...I was completely calm the entire time...yeah, right...). After having 7-25 degree weather for a week straight, we finally got some snow. So, we had to take advantage of it!

Our Front Yard:
The boys playing in the snow on the deck out back (Ian is in the blue coat, Sam in the red coat, and Max in the light blue coat):




And my cool purple snow boots! You can't really tell that they are purple because I have no real idea how to take pictures inteh snow, but I am sure that I'll get a hold of it eventually!

6:56pm

6:56 pm. That's the time last night that Tom got the projector, speakers, cable box and all those dang cords plugged in and up and running. Notice I didn't say screen. He was projecting the Super Bowl onto the wall. It's actually not a bad view, but he wasn't happy with the blacks and how they looked grey. Anyway, note that the game started at 6:35, and that we've lived here for almost TWO WEEKS now. Just kidding - I've kept him busy since we moved in. Anyway, he got the whole thing plugged in so I could watch the Super Bowl full sized! So, I'm keeping him.

When we woke up today it was 11 degrees out. I sent my son to school in 11 degrees. Weird. Tomorrow, it will be between 9 and 11 degrees when he goes to school. Dang - if it's this cold it might as well snow! They say it might flurry on Wednesday morning, but I'm not holding my breath. There's also a wind, so it's not only cold out, it's really cold out. It feels like it's 0 degrees out right now, and I can tell you that's cold. I long for that mailbox slot in the door. Now it all makes sense. Never liked it at the old house - I love going out to get the mail. But right now I dread getting the mail as it's out at the street - and we have a long enough driveway that I might just leave it until tomorrow. And I've got to get the trash cans out too...sigh

The good part is that this house is keeping warm. It's got radiators and radiant heat as opposed to forced air, so there's no system going on and off loudly, no cold periods followed by warm periods, and pretty much even heating over the entire house. The basement even stays warm! Very nice as the old place couldn't keep up when it was 32. Can't imagine what temp it is now.

I did meet the mailman and the UPS man today. mailman nice - brought my oranges to the door so they wouldn't freeze (also rang the bell!). UPS guy cold and unfriendly. I assume both because there were warmer places that he'd rather be - say Hawaii or South Florida. Hopefully he'll turn the corner as it gets warmer - he's going to be here a lot.

Got the kiddos a Game Cube to replace their Nintendo 64. It died before we moved and we just hadn't replaced it yet. Tom got a PS3, but there weren't any game that were out for the kids yet, and it's also a $600 piece of electronic equipment that I wasn't too keen on letting them touch. So, they get the refurbished Nintendo Game Cube and some fun games for a whopping total of $100. They were delighted. They actually share when they play this (we forced them to because there were only two controllers before). Now there are three controllers and they are still sharing - simply amazing. They have their days but they are enjoying every minute of their new to them video game system.

So, that's all for now. The first coat of paint is up in my office - and it is purple. I'll get some pics up when I get the second coat on and when I get things put away...hopefully before too long.

Good Day Today

I held my first crop in the new house last night and it was a nice, relaxing crop. There were three ladies that came - two new folks - and they all seemed to enjoy the scrapping time. It's been tough getting a foothold on business here in VA, but that's because I'm still not plugged into the right circles. I'm getting closer though - taking steps to build a solid business. So, this first crop at the new place was free (had to change the date because of the move so I thought I'd make it a free one) but in the future I'll charge. Anyway, it was a good time and I actually semi-completed four pages. I say semi because I only had a few things out of boxes. The rest will be completed when my supplies escape those boxes.

The big news of the day is that I bought PAINT for my office. Yeah, it's a rental but Tom really liked the idea of painting my office - mostly because it's little stuff like this that makes me happy. He's such a good guy (not saying that to be mean honey) - he's always looking out for that which makes me happy. Anyway, brought home some paint chips and I was heading towards my standard blues palate and mentioned the purple. He offered his opinion and I ran with an actual purple! It is called Palace Purple and the number is 630D-6 in case you're near the paint section in a Home Depot soon. So, tomorrow I paint! I'll get some before and after pics so you can get a feel of the room. Right now it's just a bunch of boxes and some assorted stuff that has escaped and not much else. The room feels like it's packed to the gills (and it's 13x15 or so, so that's a real task!) but in reality everything will have a nice neat home to fit into. I have a cabinet for paper arriving on the 10th or so, but in the meanwhile I can get the rest of the stuff up before then. Paper is so difficult to put on a shelf as it needs to be on a shelf deeper than most bookcases. But, we found a good solution at IKEA. Originally I was going to get these Expedit shelves, but they are only 13" on the inside and that's just not big enough to hold my paper holders. So, we roamed around and found these things:













They are stackable up to four high, so I got four of them. The best part is that they are very deep. They are 17" deep, so nothing will hang off the front, and nothing will slip so far back that I can't see it. They are about 16" tall and 33.5" wide, so they four of them stacked up will make a nice bookshelf for all my paper. Also, Tom saw these wheels and in his phase of "everything is better on wheels," we got the base that has big casters on it. Still honestly not sure why he wants to wheel around this big heavy bookshelf of paper, but he insists it's so I can change my mind and he can move it more easily. Think we've done this before in my office? No, not me...

Anyway, I'll get the room painted, get the shelves in and put together and then I'll get the "after" picture. Give me a few weeks to get settled in there. I simply must make use of those wheels on the cabinet after it's completely loaded down with paper to watch Tom squirm...

Whew!

O.K. In a nutshell, here's what's happened over the past few weeks (and after reading this you'll understand completely why I've been MIA...):

We pack a bajillion boxes (really almost 200)
Tom and I take the boys to see the Monster Jam in DC
Patti and Henry come to help us move
Max plays several indoor soccer games ona team that has some female ringers (they win their games by a huge margin)
The old cranky diabetic cat runs out the door the night before the move and is not immediately found
Winter finally comes to VA, the day of our move
The movers load us into our new house
We start the tedious process of unpacking
We hit IKEA several times for that sort of nice but not expensive furniture
The cat is found under the neighbors' deck five days after escaping with an attitude adjustment
It snows on the way back from IKEA and as we're picking up the escapee cat it takes us almost an hour and a half to drive four miles
I was a vendor at a Crop for a Cure Event, which raises about $2700 (I sold about $500 worth of products)
Sam decides he wants to pee and poop in the potty for real - still working on this one
Tom gets a PS3
Max attends a birthday party (and discovers that they have Chuck E Cheese in VA too...sigh...)
I narrowly avoids going insane. Oh wait - that's still under discussion. There's no place for me to run and hide here yet. My office is still in boxes and we have no TV's on the first floor. That needs to be remedied quickly...

Anyway, we're in the new place, done with the old place, and are looking forward to the fight with the old landlord about the deposit. There's just something about a good legal battle that gets one's blood pumping. Fortunately for us the new landlord has a clue as to how to be a landlord. He even called to check in after a week or so and has been very responsive to us thus far. What a difference a clue can make...

So, I'll have lots of pics here in a few more days, I promise. Here's one from the old house right before we moved. A picture really is worth a thousand words, especially with these three. I need to get through a crop here at the house tomorrow night (yeah, poor planning on my part) then dig out my office a bit. Hopefully I can get a bit more settled before I need my scrapping stuff (in about two weeks) so I don't go tearing open random boxes and creating an even bigger mess.

Coming Down to the Wire

So the boxes are starting to fill up the open spaces in the old house as I start to fill up the boxes. The cabinets and closets are slowly starting to be free of stuff, as are the drawers and hampers (yes, I'm finally catching up on some laundry that I've been putting off...) . It is a quick move, but the stuff int he boxes will be inaccessible for a week or so, so every box begs the question -What can I put in here that I won't need for the next two weeks or so? Fortunately we have lots of stuff that falls into that category (which them begs the questions of whether we need it at all, but that's Tom's questions and that's why I pack while he's at work!). So, the boxes are slowly filling up the empty spaces and things are progressing.

Found out something exciting today. Well, exciting for me isn't like I won the lottery or found a long lost friend or anything. We have trash pick up at the new place TWO times per week! At both of our houses in Texas and our current house we have one day a week trash pick up. Growing up we had two day a week, so I assumed that was the norm, but guess not. I signed up for a company that does two day a week, plus recycling on a third day (and in the Spring and Summer yard waste on yet another day). So, basically any day of the week you can drive by our house and see trash out front. Hmmm...that doesn't sound so appealing now. Anyway, imagine a family of five plus two cats trying to fit into one of those big garbage cans each week. Tom is a creative packer, but we grew out of the single can years ago and have adopted a second can. Where we are now that's fine, irritating that trash has to sit for a whole week, but we have dealt with it. Now, we get TWO days, and so we'll be able to get rid of all of our trash each week! Very exciting for me!

Also, I found out yesterday that Max's bus to his current school won't take an hour to get there. Max is in a very cool school - he's in a Spanish partial immersion program and loves it. We are moving outside the boundaries of the school but because he's in this special magnet program he can stay at the school as long as he's in the county. Don't know if you realize this, but Fairfax County is huge. It encompasses 395 square miles, which is about 253,000 acres of land. We are at the far eastern side of this, so getting across the county takes a long, long time. So, while it's not tough tot stay within the boundaries of the county to keep Max at the school, we were worried that the bus would take forever to get to the school. Yes, they bus the magnet kids to school as well as the neighborhood kids. They bus them from Vienna, McLean, and Fairfax. They come from 10, 15, 20 miles away (around here it takes a long time to get anywhere, so it's more like driving in Houston's rush hour for most of the day!). Tom and I assumed that the bus would either run out there in the morning, and Max would have to get on at like 7am, or that it would go out in the afternoon, and he'd get home after 4:30 or so. Well, the new bus picks him up at the local elementary five minutes after the bus picks him up now. In the afternoon, the bus will drop him off at 3:45, which is well after the bus should arrive, but for some reason never does (His current bus gets him home - generally late - between 3:45 and 4 almost every day). So, we were thrilled to hear this. He can ride the bus to and from school and not spend hours on it, and we don't need to drive him all the way in to school either! Another good piece of news about the new place.

So, the time ticks away and there are still boxes to pack. We have movers coming on Wednesday to move all the boxes and furniture, so I need to continue on my quest to find things to put into boxes. The kitchen, the boys rooms, my clothes and assorted stuff, and the media room are mostly packed. After today's rounds of laundry I'll get the kids clothes all packed up as well as Tom's clothes. Then, my office is about half done, so that needs to be finished up as well. On Tuesday we hope to disassemble furniture so that the movers don't have to do it on Wednesday. We are right on schedule to do this, and so we are in great shape.

Newspaper Delivery

Yes, I ask my little man go out in his daddy's slippers to get the morning paper...thanks Max...

Isn't He Cute?

Isn't it sweet that Tom curls up and falls asleep with his Acoustics book? Say it with me - Awwwwwwww....

Boxes

And so it begins. We are planning on moving in the next two weeks or so (weather permitting) and the boxes are slowly taking over the house. It's a very different thing to prepare for a move a few miles away than across the country - it is a whole lot easier. The packing and unpacking is going quickly and we will end up with a bunch of boxes that are the same size and shape that all stack neatly on top of each other. We are already piling these boxes up in corners, against the railing, and in the garage. We are going to hire folks to load and unload boxes as well as move the big pieces of furniture. Hopefully we can be moved over in a day. For now we just have packing on the list.

There's some sort of emotional high for me when I pop open that nice new box and fill it with my stuff. It that first time I use a box, the first time I write on it that for some unknown reason makes me smile. Who knows why...I dig these new boxes.

We're calling movers tomorrow to arrange the rest of the move as well as getting all of our utilities set up. Shouldn't be too hard, but it's amazing how many of these utilities don't have online connections and disconnections available. That would make life so much easier. Anyway, we're slowly but surely making progress. It's a low stress move for us thus far and we want it to stay that way. I'll keep you posted on how it goes, but we are in great shape - about 1/2 packed up so far and are making rapid progress!

Balance

Balance. That is what 2007 is all about for me. Balance in life, in play, in work, in everything. Ali Edwards (a scrapbooking inspiration for me - if you aren't familiar wither her work you should really check it out here) wrote on her blog that we need to choose a word that represents what we want for ourselves in 2007. So, I chose balance. 2006 was such a wacky year from start to finish, and in all aspects of my life. It seemed at points as if it was all or nothing, extreme highs and lows. I am choosing to create more balance in my life in 2007 in any are that I can affect directly.

I will play more
I will go out on more dates with my hubby
I will watch less TV
I will scrapbook at least a bit every day
I will play more board games with the kids
I will take better care of my aging body
I will spend more afternoons and weekends outside
I will watch my business take off
I will not let the laundry get the best of me
I will skateboard often
I will continue to exercise three times a week
I will see more current movies in the theater
I will enjoy my family

My balance will come naturally and without and stress or fussing. My balance will be evident throughout my life. You will see me smiling more, more comfortable in my own body, and more relaxed. 2007 will be a banner year for me.

Happy New Year!

So after ending 2006 with a bang (great Xmas visit from Baba, great New Year's visit from Dr. Auntie Ray, FSU AND UT winning their bowl games) it is time for the year in review. This 2006 year really took our family for a spin. We had some high highs and some very low lows. We laughed, we cried, but we always kept our heads high and looked toward the future. The kids grew some, Tom and I grew some (yeah, we need to fix that part...), the kids learned bunches, my brain leaked out of my head (you hang around with three little guys all day and see how much of your mental capacity you retain!), and I started blogging. So, it's only natural at this point that I take a look back at 2006. It is definitely a year that we won't forget.

January
Got my cool new glasses
Ian and Sam were evaluated for a speech delay
I take Ian, Sam, and Baba to see the Monster Jam in San Antonio (Max was sick so Tom stayed home)
We began preparing to move to VA
I got to go to the SPA!

February
Tom and I took the boys to see Elmo perform
Ian starts school for his speech delay - at Mason Elementary (Rode the bus and everything)
Grandma Sybil passes away
A week later Grandpa Kermit passes away (He commented to me at her funeral that he was just waiting for her to go first so he didn't leave her here alone - he died a few days later)
My first trip to NY for a funeral
Ian and Sam had a great Birthday Party at the Little Gym

March
My second trip to NY for a funeral
Continue getting the house ready to sell
We get packed up and MOVE to VA over Spring Break
We live in a hotel through the end of the month
Find a house and sign a lease and all the things that accompany that
Max starts at a new school


April
Our cats finally arrive in DC
I discover the local MOMS Club and the National Zoo
Max starts U-6 Arlington soccer
Ian and Sam start Smart Start soccer
I find a new gym
Head back to NY one more time to help Dad and Aunt Gail clear out the Grandparent's house
We unpack boxes, and more boxes, and then a few more boxes
(pretty slow month here...)

May
Ian starts speech with Shannon
Matt B.'s Car arrives as does Matt B. (old college friend)
I hit the gym hard and fast (actually quite slowly - it's been a while since I've worked out with a personal trainer and he pulled out all the stops in causing me great muscle pain)
Again, nothing much this month - oh, we keep finding more boxes


June
Mom was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor June 2 - we find out while out on a date - something we rarely do
I headed to SA immediately
The little boys see their first movie in a theater - CARS!
I work at a scrapbook convention here in Chantilly, VA
Tom heads to IL for his grandma's memorial service


July






We take the boys to SA for a last visit with Mimi - it was s wonderful time for everyone

We get to ride on Tom's boss's boat - the boys love it
Sam is evaluated for a speech delay
Both vans break down within a week of each other and cost us an arm and a leg
Another trip for me to see Mom
Mom passes away July 26
I head back to SA to be with Dad

August

Dad comes to VA to visit join us at Max's birthday party

Max has a cool 6th birthday with family and friends (Yes, we gave the three year olds golf clubs...HEY - it was putt-putt!)
I take the boys to Totally Trucks in Reston (all the big work trucks were there!)
Peapod starts bringing us food!!! (they deliver groceries)
Tom heads to Univ. of Washington for several days
Max gets stung by his first hornet and we all learn what a Giant European Hornet is (and see their very cool hives look like)

We all head to San Francisco for Moms' Memorial Luncheon
Beth and Sami arrive in DC (Matt's wife and daughter) - we hang out a bunch with them while they are here



September
I do my first demo at a scrapbook store
We all head to San Antonio for Mom's memorial luncheon
Max starts First Grade
Ian potty trains himself (with a little help from mom and dad)
Max starts Arlington U-6 soccer again
Ian and Sam start Smart Start Soccer again
Our landlord threatens to evict us (long & quite funny story will come very soon)

October
Dr. Auntie Ray comes to visit
Max cuts his head open by bouncing on the bed - gets staples
Sam starts speech with Shannon
Ian and Sam go to the dentist for the first time
Kate come to visit (Tom's friend from HS)
Ian and Sam start Turbo Tumbling at the gym
I hold my first local crop
Baba comes to DC for Halloween - dresses up with the kids
Tom, the boys and I hit the Boo at the Zoo - VERY COOL!

November
Tom goes to Providence for the day
Aunt Sue comes to visit
I take the little boys to see Banjo Man in DC (they have more fun on the Metro and don't care about the show at all!)
I do my first Scrapbook Demo at a major craft store
Have Thanksgiving Dinner here with the Matt, Beth, and Sami
Took Max to the Dr. for a smashed hand (he caught his hand in the van door on the way to the Reston holiday Parade) - X-rays show that it is fine - squished, but fine
Go to a Tiny Tots Concert at a local HS with Beth and Sami - kids and the moms love it

December
We sneak off to Disney World on a whim (found $54 one way tickets from here to there - couldn't pass it up)
Ian gets sick at Disney
The rest of us catch it when we get home
We start looking for a new place to live and find it - signing the lease towards the end of the month
Tom, Ian, Sam and I attend Matt's graduation from the Dept of State Diplomatic Security Training - he heads off with Beth and Sami to New Jersey (working in NY)
Dad comes to visit
Dr. Auntie Ray comes to visit
Max starts U-6 Indoor Soccer (talk about a fun thing to watch!)






And here we are! So, I sit here at 12:30 am on the end of the first day of 2007 wondering what it has in store for us. (Actually I'm watching a GREAT football game - Boise State and OK - just went into overtime or I'd be in bed already!) We are ready and looking forward to the new year.

Here's what I know will happen next year:
We'll move into a new house.
Max will go from First Grade to Second Grade.
Ian and Sam will start Preschool.
Tom's commute will go from 12 minutes to about 25 minutes (yeah, not so fun).
We'll head to California to visit and celebrate.
We'll hit Disney World again (go Southwest!).
We'll enjoy watching the kids grow and learn.
I will continue blogging and sharing our adventures.
Welcome 2007!

P.S. - I finally got all the pics loaded up, so here it is for real! Enjoy 2007! -Suzie

What a GAME!

If you read my last blog entry, you know that I was up late last night. What you might not know is that I am a HUGE football fan (I'm sure you've seen the FSU/UT posts here and there) and that I was watching football with Tom. We are in the middle of bowl season with a new game every day, sometimes two or three...four...five. I digress. Last night Tom and I watched a fantastic game that kept us up late. In the end, David slew Goliath, as he always seems to do in those stories. Growing up in Texas I was bred to hate Oklahoma (although that's a strong word - I consider it more of a strong dislike) - not the state, not the people, but the school there - OU. So it's only natural to root for whomever they are playing (same thing for the Florida schools when FSU has a bad year - we're rooting for all KINDS of Florida schools this year.

So last night OU was playing in a bowl game against what everyone is calling the Cinderella team Boise State. Who knew that there was even a football player int he state, let alone a bunch that could put together a winning program, a winning season, and a winning game against the #7 team in the country. Did I mention that Boise State was ranked #9? Well, they play in the WAC conference, so one would assume that this team, after playing all those middle school girls teams out there in the west would have a good record. What you don't know (because no one thought much of them at any point along the way this year) is that they are good. Not just win the WAC and have a perfect record good, but beat OU good. They put together a solid game, stopped OU at every turn, and even pulled a trick play at the end of the first overtime to beat the Sooners. They chose to take the risk and win the game rather than force a second overtime.

Tom said with 1:42 left in the game "Oh, this is the game." He was wrong - OU scored and Boise marched right back down the field and scored as well. Then he was in knots. FSU does this to you on their so-so years - you know the feeling. It starts with a pit in your stomach then rolls into a tight ball, followed by a huge knot. The relief only comes after the loss. But last night there was no loss - a trick play and some solid football work from a bunch of guys whom no one else wants won the Fiesta Bowl for the Broncos. As it is reported, the two teams combined for 22 points in the final 86 seconds. Talk about knots in your stomach for everyone. Led by a quarterback who went to therapy to boost his confidence (and speaks about it openly), and supported by a team without an automatic bid for a BCS game, the Broncos made a statement last night. Unfortunately this is the first time they have yelled loudly and while they believe they deserve a shot at the National Championship after going 13-0 this season and then beating a team that was a strong favorite (from a "strong" conference), not sure who will hear them yell. They are no Ohio State, Florida, or even Michigan or USC, but they certainly have brought themselves into the mix. Next season folks will wonder what Boise State is up to. They will watch the games and pick their players for their Fantasy Football teams. The kids on the team have the right attitude as well - all they are saying is that they deserve a look, a chance for the National Title. They most likely won't the title itself, but they will have folks talking, and that's all they are asking for. What a game...