A birthday and more snow

Hello, friends.

We've had a busy few days between snow storms and birthday celebrations.

We took Caterina out for her birthday on Saturday night. Her actual b-day was the 27th. We went to our favorite Spanish restaurant and had a fabulous meal, as usual.

The kids ordered the shell steak and I think Cat was shocked to see how big it was. She ate half and took a doggy bag home for her Mom who wasn't feeling well and didn't come with us.












Now, take a look at this. Ever see those pictures of a cat in a teacup? How about a cat in a basket? I don't know how but Bluebell managed to get his whole body inside this basket. Talk about adorable! Oh and as you can see, Raven got jealous as I was taken pics of Blue so she had to finagle her way into the shot.












This was last Thurs after we got another 19.2 inches of snow. Schools were closed and I had no choice but to stay home because we hadn't seen a plow all day. My street was impassible and when a plow did come through, it came up the wrong way and pushed the snow to the left side of the street effectively burying my car. So much for parking on the correct side to avoid having to shovel out from the plow.

Here we have Logan and Gizmo. You can't see Raven but she was out in the snow too. Giz and Raven were having such a good time playing in the snow, Logan not so much now that he has to shovel the snow as opposed to just playing in it.












Can you see the mound of snow just behind the white minivan at the end of my block? That has to be about 10 feet high now.

Logan on his way back from shoveling out the neighbors. His cheeks were all rosey.

He was really tuckered out after hours of shoveling. I'm afraid I'm going to have to tell him we have another storm coming tomorrow night with more snow projected. I can hear his complaints aready. Can't you?

Have a great day. Thanks for stopping in.

Storm #7

Here we go again...another 16 inches of snow courtesy of storm #7. Unbelievable! Just unbelievable!

It is officially the snowiest January ever with more than 36 inches of snow. That's not counting the 22 inches we got in December that never melted. Crazy! Mother Nature is off her rocker and I'd personally like to kick her back on it!

Schools are closed today, lucky Logan and the other million school students in this city. My office is open but I can't go in because I can get out of my block. There hasn't been a plow yet to come down my block and the snow is knee deep in the street. It's a heavy snow, too, full of lots of moisture. Great for snow balls but bad for shoveling.

We're all home today but the boys will be going out soon to shovel the driveway.

This is the view up the block. You can see the sunrise in the background.










Here's the view down the block.










Say hi to Kristina and Susan, my neighbors. Susan was uncovering her car while Kristina was attempting to get to work this morning. Notice the chest high pile of snow behind her. That is a collection of snow from our shoveled pathway in front of our house and it's been growing steadily higher since December.















We were up early as you can see, earlier than the sun. Jim was out there shoveling at 5 am.




















Gizmo and Raven romping in the snow. They were having a good time.

Do you see that mound of snow in the middle of the picture? There is a car under all that snow. It's been buried there since the blizzard back in December. They didn't even bother to dig out yet. Guess they are waiting til spring.

My poor car.

I'm known for loving winter but even I must admit that this has been a tough one. I can't remember a winter with this much snow. I've had enough and am looking forward to spring and the great thaw! For those of you in warm weather climates, enjoy it.

2 for 2

Logan is now 2 for 2 in high school applications and acceptances.

We received this on Friday. It's wonderful he will have a choice in schools.

Logan has not made his choice yet as to which school he will attend in the fall. He has until the end of the month to make up his mind. We have made it clear it will be his decision. We don't want him coming back to us saying, "I didn't want to go there", or "You made me go there". Nuh uh! Those are words he won't be able to say to us. We are offering him guidance and advice but in the end, it will be his decision.

Oh and we also received absolutely wonderful news regarding Logan's friend. Caterina won a full four year scholarship to St. John's. We are overjoyed and so very proud of her.

I'll let you know when Logan makes his choice.

Wishing you all a wonderful day!

Accepted!

The much anticipated and hoped for telephone call came yesterday from the academic director but these were waiting for us in the mail last night.

Logan has been accepted into Monsignor McClancy with honors. He very much wants to go to this high school which just happens to be Jim's alma mater.

Naturally, we are very pleased and proud of him. Well done, Logan!!!

Thanks for indulging my proud mommy moment!

Ta Da!!!

Drumroll please!!! Introducing.....MY NEW SCRAP CORNER!!!

I've spent the last 4 days working on it! Thanks to Melissa and Lisa suggesting I switch to these.

I'm still not done with the configuration but it's getting there.

Of course, Gizmo had to check it out!

So what do you think?

Blizzard 2010

We got hit with a monster blizzard on Sunday and we're still dealing with it. It's going to be a while before we get back to normal around here.

This is my neighbor's little convertible and you can see my white Murano on the other side of the street. I got smart this time around and remembered to park on the left side of the street so as not to be buried when the plow came through.

This is the view to the right of my house.

In the next two pictures, we are 3 hours into the storm. Already you can see a huge difference.

My tree was bending beneath the weight of the snow.

In the morning, we surveyed the damage. It took some force to even get my door opened.

Look at the drift down at the bottom of my stairs near my garbage pail. Can you also see the big drift in the middle of the street?

Here's a closer look at the drifts. We had 50 mile per hour wind gusts which created these drifts. One good thing about the wind was it blew nearly all the snow off my car. Only a little bit remained on the back of my car.

Oh my poor tree!

Raven and Gizmo checking out the scenery. I love the way their tails are curled towards each other.

Everybody wanted to investigate, from Gizmo to Raven to Shave to Dusty. Jim made the joke we shouldn't let Bluebell out because he'd blend in with the snow and we'd lose him. (Bluebell is a pure white persian kitty.)

And the total is....

This is the carnage after the storm and the plow barreling down the block. Notice the wall of snow on the left side of the yellow convertible; it's nearly as high as the car itself. I feel sorry for that poor guy. He's gonna be there forever digging out. Wasn't I smart parking on the other side? LOL Yay for me!

So now we wait until the big thaw. Thankfully, it's supposed to be near 50 degrees come the weekend. Perhaps some of this will melt.

Ice Nativity

As promised, here are the pictures of the second part of the Ice exhibit. This angel was enormous.

My boys give you some perspective as to how large this angel really was.

Here is the beginning of the Nativity.

Isn't this beautiful?

We'd just exited the cold part of the exhibit which lead us right into a room where we could purchase merchandise. Look at how red Logan's face is from the cold. I had to wait a while for my camera to unfog itself after being in that extreme cold.

Guess this nutcracker was in the mood for a snack. He seems to be taking a bit out of my kid.

So, there's a small sampling of the Ice! attraction. Hope you enjoyed it.