I'm an old lady...

My cutey pie

at the mall after dinner

I had a wonderful birthday. I took the day off and spent most of the day with Ashley getting a pedicure and lunch and then dinner with my boys. It was JUST right. A day off, beautiful weather, relaxing pedicure, time spent with my fav people. Sunday (the day before) we had dinner and cake at the Terry's house which was also lovely. I'm an old lady... a whole 32 years I've been on this earth!

isn't my husband so sweet?

Me and Ashley at the nail place (I have super bad hair)

Ah.... hot leg wrap after a sugar rub. Luvs!

Ben's 3rd Birthday

Phew! What a fun few days it's been. Let me just start off by writing a conversation Ben and Ryan just had, because I'm still laughing about it. I told Ben to go get his jammies from his room (not really meaning it because I knew I'd have to get them). Ben was too busy playing with the totally awesome tractor Uncle Clint gave him tonight for his birthday, so Ryan said again "Benny, go get your jammies!" (but in a nice encouraging voice) to which Ben replied "I can't..." and then continued to play. Then he said "my leg is broken" hahahahaha! Where does this kid come up with this stuff? He's so hilarious, and getting funnier and funnier everyday. The other day we were out in the yard and out of the blue he yelled "OH MY GOSH!" and has been telling us "oh! good job [Mommy] or [Daddy]" when we do something either for him or really any time. He also really needs to know where he has gotten everything he has. Like where did his shoes come from, meaning did someone give them to him or did we just get them at the store... "who gaved this to me mommy?" is what he usually says. Yesterday I took the day off and we had A LOT to do, starting with his 3 year check up. Well folks... He grew a whole 2 inches in 6 months! This is BIG! He had only grown 1/2 an inch from his 2 year check up to his 2 1/2 year check up. So I guess he made up for it the last 6 months. However, he's only gained 2lbs in one year... but... he's proportionate. And the doc doesn't seem to think there's a problem. And well, he doesn't have tall genes... that's all there is to it. His parents and grandparents are not what we call "tall" people. :) Anyway, he's healthy and doing everything the way he supposed to. Except for maybe eating veggies, but at least he'll still let me give him baby food veggies. Better than none at all... right?

Okay, so anyway- back to the birthday festivities. I swore I wouldn't do a huge party until he was like 5... but it kind of turned into one unintentionally- but I'm not saying this was a bad thing. We have lots of people we love and who love our dude and we're SO grateful for that. Thursday was his actual birthday so I took a half day and took cupcakes to he and his classmates at the daycare. He was pretty excited about that. I think so excited that he didn't sleep very well the night before. When I got there he was pretty darn excited to see me, not sure if it was the cupcakes he was excited to eat or if it was me. :) Here he is in his cute hat they made him with his buddies at the daycare eating cupcakes.

And here we are with his friend Cooper who jumped in on the picture. I thought it was pretty cute. Ben doesn't look too thrilled, but he also looks like Coop's got a good handle on his throat, so maybe it was just that!After we left we went to the store to pick some things up. My brother and his girls sent a card with some money in it, so I told him he could buy something with it. We also decided he could pick one thing out for mommy to buy also. Ryan was buying him a tricycle on the way home from work, so we wanted to get him something else small. My brother Greg and his family send Ben a birthday card with some $$ in it, so I put half in his piggy bank and let him have the other half to buy something with. We found a fun puzzle for him to buy and a fire truck that lights up and makes lots of noise. (yay...) And then headed home. Ryan came home the tri-cycle or "bike" and then we headed to Chick-fil-a for dinner because that's where he wanted to eat. And wouldn't ya know it, he FELL ASLEEP in the car! We ate then spent some time together and went to bed.

Saturday was the party, we got ready for it during the day, including the executing of the Pirate Cake for Ben since that was our "theme". We asked him what kind of cake he wanted and that was the answer we got! We got the recipe, or idea from Betty Crocker and it was pretty easy! Ryan did most of the work! (He's cute huh?) I also I tried to pick up all things pirate related. And this was the first year that "goodie bags" were required... I guess not required but I thought it would be fun. (We had the bucket left over from Halloween so I served chips in that, Ryan had that random treasure chest I put the "booty bags" in, and I got 5 free invitations from Shutterfly.com! Before the party started we went to grab a couple of things from Home Depot. We realized that they were doing their free kids workshops so we stopped for Ben and he and Ryan made a Home Depot race car! I love those little workshops, and so does Ben! I don't want to bore you with party details, other than Ben had 3 girlfriends come; Aubrey, Ella, and Zoe! He was the only boy, again! Lucky guy. He had fun and I think he thought it was awesome to have friends over to sit at his table with him and to be crazy! In fact, at one point he came to me while the girls were playing and screaming and laughing and he said "mommy... those girls are screaming..." then later when I was holding Savannah he came up to her and said "her cute". I just can't believe my guy is a big boy 3 year old! Look at him! So handsome! Geoff gave him the pirate shirt for his birthday present, it was PERFECT!
We sang, opened presents and ate cake. It was a lot of fun, and we were grateful for the friends that came and presents and for making his birthday special! BEN! YOU ARE LOVED!

Happy Ben-turning-3- Eve! I can't believe my little punkin head is turning into such a big boy! We have a busy few days ahead of us! Tomorrow, I will leave work early and take cupcakes to Ben's school for snack time. We will take him to wherever he wants to eat (most likely Wendy's or Zaxby's) and then get some ice cream.We got a free Ice Cream Cone from Baskin Robbins for their birthday club. Then the cleaning begins and cake making and all that stuff for his birthday party Saturday. Ryan and I are going to make a Pirate cake for him, which he will probably LOVE. Shiver me timbers! I need to go make the cupcakes!

Thundering Waters Visit 1 for 2011

Gosh! There are so many things I need/want to write about that I just have either forgotten or just haven't had time to do! One of those things is our trip to the cabin. I mostly just like to post pictures, because I know that sometimes those kinds of posts get boring. And I'm trying to be less boring. Sometimes I give too much detail, and it's unnecessary.
The highlights of the cabin trip were this though:

• Ben went on an adventure with the guys (Jacob, Geoff and Clint) while us girls did a workout thing on the Wii. Ryan stayed to tend to Savannah, and plus he wasn't feeling good. On this adventure, Ben learned to pee standing up! He had to go, so they told him how to do it (apparently while holding him at a 45 degree angle) and he caught on REALLY quick! He also got clobbered by Bowser (The Terry's dog) which was sort of sad/hilarious. Clint has video of it... Ben playing with sticks and throwing them in the water, then all of a sudden Bowser running through and knocking him over. The phone is dropped as he's screaming! It's kind of horrifying in a funny way. He was fine. A little skittish of Bowser after, and Bowser just thought Ben was playing. It was Ben's fault, he was throwing sticks in to the river and Bowser just thought they were for him! Ha-ha! Don’t worry, they've made up and are friends again!

• Ben peed a lot outside (we let him because we felt it was good practice and we just thought it was so funny). There were several times he was out playing and I came out only to find him peeing in the bushes! Don’t worry, he also started peeing in the appropriate place, the toilet, standing up and is now a bona fide pro! (no picture for this... kinda private! But super cute from a mom's standpoint!)
  
• We played a lot of crossword puzzles and games together!
• Found a mouse in the house (as Ben called it)! He was cute and harmless- but needed to not be there anymore! Jacob and Ryan captured him and set him free. I'm sure he's back living in the house by now! They only let him out at the top of the stairs down to the house.
• Spent a glorious afternoon out on the deck in the sunshine listening to the river flow below!!
• went on our usual walk down to the water.
• Brought Ben's tent for him to sleep in this time around. We slept in the basement and didn't have a place for him to sleep anymore since he's grown out of the pack and play and there was no extra bed down there. He could've slept on the couch, but I was A. afraid he'd fall off and B. I just thought it would be more fun to have the tent! Thanks IKEA for the $10 tent!
• Jennifer taught Ben to count in Mongolian. Maybe one day it'll stick!
• There was a lot of Savannah cuteness going on, her first trip to the cabin!
• The lady bugs are BACK! It's a good thing they're lady bugs and not an ant or other kind of yucky beetle infestation. We found one (not alive) in Ben's tent when we got home. They're EVERYWHERE up there!

There is Sunshine, blessed Sunshine...

It's taken a little while (ha-ha), but I feel like Ryan really knows me now. He knows what I need sometimes better than I do to make me feel better. This Saturday Ben wasn't feeling good, had a cold or something and because of that he was EXTRA sensitive and moody. I was feeling a big impatient with him so Ryan would regularly direct me outside, to calm myself down because he KNOWS that the sunshine on my face and the nice breeze and fresh air in my lungs will almost always make me feel better! It was a beautiful weekend for that. And let’s just say I was outside A LOT, especially on Saturday!
Saturday morning around 5:45am I felt a little body climbing up in to our bed and Ben came and lay right ON TOP of me. He NEVER does this especially that early- so I assumed he got scared, had to pee or wasn’t feeling good. It was the last two, so I told him that mommy was still sleeping and that the sun was also still asleep and that he needed to go back to his bed until the sun came up. I took him to the potty, and got him back in bed. No later than 2 hours later, just as the sun had come up did I feel and hear the little body climbing back up on the bed! He had been coughing much of the night and had a stuffy nose, so I think he just couldn’t sleep anymore. I could’ve though… just sayin’. So he was pretty tired and ornery that day. But we had a lot to do. We had errands to run. And places to go… after lunch we got him to take a nap, not without arguing with us first, but he did thank goodness. And while he napped Ryan washed the cars and I did some yard work. It was SO nice. We planted tulip and daffodil bulbs in the Fall and they made it! We did it right, we think! Only because they’re poking through the earth and are going to make their debut soon! I love gardening, I love planting things and seeing them come alive. It’s so exciting to me. As I was planting more bulbs to bloom in the summer, I was thinking about how I didn’t understand how some people don’t like to be outdoors and how some people don’t like to get dirty or whatever. To each their own, but I love it! It’s good for my soul. Which brings me to the point that my husband has now realized about me, the winter months (after Christmas of course) are hard on me! As I’m sure they are for a lot of people. So when it starts getting warmer outside and all plant life starts turning green- I start feeling like me again and happier and more functional, and I am SO grateful for it. I am so grateful for the different seasons, (I’m about to rhyme) for different reasons… but most of all Spring! It just happens to show up when I need it the most! I know it’s not quite here yet, but it will be soon. And the weather lately has been good enough for me to start feeling somewhat better!
We’re looking forward to this weekend too, we’re going to the Thundering Waters cabin we visit often with all of our friends. It's very important for me to have something to look forward to during either Jan or Feb. Then next week we celebrate Ben’s birthday! He turns 3 on 3/3! It’s his golden. We’re doing a pirate theme, of course, he’s just so super in to pirates (I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, what with the news of the Somalia Pirates lately)… but it’s kind of cute. In the “Innocent Pirate” way (if there is such a thing)! Last night, in order to get him to eat his fish sticks I told him that a pirate’s favorite food was fish sticks. It wasn’t hard for him to eat them after that! All while saying “arg! I a pirate! I eat all my fish sticks!” I can’t believe my little guy is getting so big. It’s kind of crazy looking back at pictures and to see him all thinned out and looking like a real life little boy now. He surprises us every day with just how smart he is. He loves shapes, and puzzles and words and letters- he doesn’t quite recognize the letters yet, but he's getting close. He thought a J was an L yesterday, which was a start. He’s doing really good with his colors. I bought him some refrigerator letter magnets, and last night I left the room and came back in and he’d separated all of them in to their respective color groups. He can count really well, although I think he pretends he can’t a lot. He can count pretty high, but for some reason just pretends he doesn’t know how to when we put him on the spot. He also has learned his “lefts” and “rights” which has been fun. He pretends and talks to himself a lot, which I love to listen to. He'll repeat things we've said to him just like we say it to him to his cars or toys or whatever. It's funny. He remembers things that are so random to me too. For example, one time we went and got hamburgers from Wendy’s and then went and ate them in the car under the bridge of the freeway near the Chattahoochee River. I think it was in the summer when our air went out and we wanted to get out of the house. We pass under that bridge every time we go over to the Terry’s and every time we do, he says “mommy! We ate there!” I got him a picture book from Shutterfly of some highlights of the year last year, and some things he remembered right off the bat. Like when we went to the zoo during the summer, almost 8 months ago! And I got a shirt out of the wash for him to wear this morning that he’d worn over the weekend and spilled applesauce on, he said “you wash it mommy!?” and I said “yup! It’s all clean!” and he said “Oh good job! You get off the applesauce!?” So cute! He’s also REALLY enjoying this warm weather, I guess he’s like his mommy and NEEDS it. He’s been going outside after we get home every night and doing whatever; playing with his dump trucks, with his t-ball, whatever. It’s awesome, we love it. He comes in every few mins to get us to show us something, or like last night he came in and said “hey mommy?” and I said “yes love” and he said “I tired” and then went back outside. That was it. That’s all he wanted to tell me! Ha-ha! He also enjoys hanging out in his underwear. I think he'd prefer to be naked, but his undis are a new found freedom for him!

He loves the new babies too, like “Baby Hunter” and “Baby Savannah”. He loves to hold Savannah too. I took some pictures of the kids this Sunday. I loved watching Ben sit with the babies, he was so patient with them. He kept looking at them and checking on them. It was pretty cute. And he loves to talk to them and try and make them laugh. He’ll be a really good big brother one day.

We’re hoping to get out to UT this summer, we’ll see how Ben does on the plane now that he’s a little older. He hasn’t been on a plane since he was a year and a half. Hopefully, the experience will be better than the last one. I'm sure he can be entertained with a movie or two… and he’ll have his own seat too which will help. I can’t wait though, I’m super homesick!
Well, that is all for now. TTYL.

I sure do love my boys... I love how they just have a special bond that I don't even come close to understanding. I'm not even jealous! I think it's wonderful, and I really hope that their special bond NEVER, EVER breaks. Ben's best friend is his daddy- and I think that's pretty special.

Benny made us laugh this morning. I was in our bathroom when I heard Ryan say to Ben "you need to go potty? Okay, well come on!" then I heard shuffling and low talking and then "Put your pee pee in the toilet Ben! You have to push your wiener in the toilet!" then, "Heather! Come here quick!" all while he's cracking up. Ben in his sleepy head manner forgot to push his little "member" in to the toilet and well, at FULL stream peed on the wall. From the toilet. In the trash can, on the floor, EVERYWHERE between him, the toilet and the wall! Ryan said he was shell shocked at first and couldn't stop watching the impressive arch the pee trail was making (Ben was apparently enamored by it too), then finally Ben pushed "it" in and finished peeing IN the potty! Then started crying because either it scared him, he thought he was in trouble- who knows. Anyway, we made a joke of it, I tried to get him to laugh while I was cleaning up. But we thought it was hilarious. It was EVERYWHERE of course... but a good story none-the-less.
He's really had a struggle lately... not sure why. He does fine at home, but has been having lots of "accidents" at school. I don't consider them accidents though because he knows where to go and what to do when he needs to go potty. At first we were very upset and stressed out and took away toys and got mad at him... and now we're just kind of ignoring the "accidents" and reminding him about how to use the potty correctly. We figure at this point, stressing out is not worth it... and we have every bit of faith that he'll eventually have it done pat! We will not be sending our child to kindergarten in diapers!

I Wanna Write You a Letter...

We had a pretty good weekend. We started it off by dropping the Benster off for a night of fun with Nana and Poppy. They were supposed to go to a Basketball game for the high school they attended 40-something years ago, because one of the jersey's of a friend was being retired at half time or something. Poppy made it, but Ben and Nana did not. The weather was RAINY and Nana has some feet problems that prevent her from walking long distances with out an extreme amount of pain, and toting along a 2 year old is just not an option. So instead, they got McDonald's and waited until Poppy got home and had fun anyway! WE met up with the Kranendonk's and ate some dinner at Chick-fil-a, which seemed to take WAY too long. Then ventured downtown to the Tabernacle to see GUSTER! YAY! We first stood in the back, but then good ol' Jared talked us in to walking to the front of the crowd and jamming our way in with the rest of the people. (He's got that young spirit about him still, which I'm grateful for!) I've always had anxieties about this because I'm so small... but, we were super close and it wasn't all that bad!Until that is, a giant 20-something year old BEAST of a guy stood beside me. I swear he was like 7'12". His bent elbow was basically in my face. I made him acknowledge this fact, as I didn't want it in my eye and for his beer to be somehow spilled on me nor my husband and friends. He gave me a dirty look when I did this, but I didn't care. What I DID care about though, and the rest of the people in the general vicinity, was the RANCID smell he produced from his, ahem, backside. Someone ate a little too much Mexican food! Or something... but good golly miss molly... like, so bad my nose hairs all fell out! Besides that not so enjoyable ambiance, Guster ROCKED. Literally. They put on an amazing show. And I've never been so close to a band at a concert before! I could see the lead singers spit spray while was he singing! Eeek! One of my favorite things about concerts, is to FEEL the music in my body. To actually feel the bass vibrating through the floor and in to my toes and up to my heart is one of the greatest things ever about live music! These guys are super talented too. Just about every song someone played a different instrument. And the Bongo guy? THE BONGO GUY... WAS... AMAZING. Wowza. I can't even really describe just how amazing he was except for "he was so amazing, when he whooped those bongo's butts- he did it with his tongue out".... guess you had to be there. Anyway we had a ton of fun with the K-donks. A great grown up time!
I need to make a list of all the bands I've seen live... I used to have one written in a journal somewhere. Wonder where that went....
Saturday I took some pictures of the new arrival of a baby girl of some friends, the Hutchison's. It was a lot of fun to see them, and their little girls are just gorgeous. Both of them! Well, I mean they're all really pretty people! Even Eric! Haha Then we kind of did nothing much the rest of the day. We were all pretty tired, and have been all sick with this dang cold that just WON'T go away... so we all napped. And it was pretty nice. Then we ate dinner and I think FINALLY put the Christmas boxes up in the garage and did some laundry, blah blah blah... boring. The End. Sunday... we played hookie from church. Still feeling icky and didn't want to get the Nursery kiddos sick. Went to pick up a couple things from Nana's we left behind and then came home and made some items for the Superbowl party at the Terry's. Ryan usually is jinxed when it comes to red lights (this story has a point I promise), but on the way home from the Smith's house we hit EVERY green light! It was something short of a miracle. SO, we decided to cheer for the GREENbay Packers! hahaha! I know, we're pathetic. But we're funny huh? Anyway, they won. Yup... we're good luck charms. And apparently all those green lights we hit were too! The party was fun, SO much food. Martha made these awesomely radical cookies, she did it last year too! She's tre talented.We stayed over too late, and poor Ben had a rough day today. He's still either struggling with the potty thing, or he's just flat out being lazy... which seems to be a reoccurring theme with him (ugh... not looking forward to that combined with the teenage years... I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit). It was our fault for keeping him up so late... BAD PARENTS. BUT we got him in bed early tonight. We sure love that little booger face. He keeps us laughing all the time. And he's growing and talking and getting smarter and smarter every day! Okay... I think I'm done with you. Are you done with me? Great. Cya next time.

PICTURES!

Hunter and SavannahBen and Hunter! So cute! Hunter's really starting to interact and it's really fun!Someone got in to Ben's jammies! Ally????

Nursery!

doing puzzles at his table he LOVES. ($6.99 side table at IKEA!) We have no chairs yet, the motorcycle will have to do!
crazy finger lines huh? in the light of the computer... they look like an 80 year old woman's.
triangle head, triangle head...
the birthday buddies!

Don't Mess With Doctor Dream

Why... why is it necessary for things on my body to twitch? You know that one time I mentioned my right pointer finger wouldn't stop twitching like 3 years ago? Actually, to be exact... Monday, December 31, 2007!!!! It still quite frequently does it! And now, this past week my eyes have taken turns having twitches in the eye lids. Anyone know why these particular areas are frequent twitchers? IT'S.SO.BLASTED.ANNOYING.

We've had kind of a busy and eventful week. So far not really in a good way. Ryan was rear ended on Tuesday night... luckily because he drives a beastly truck with a big trailer hitch on the back, it did NO damage to his vehicle and really, probably saved the car that hit him from having more damage than it did. It was a young kid who was driving his mom who had a broken foot. Ryan said he was pretty shaken up about it- but because no one was hurt, and the only damage was done to their car and it was their fault... they didn't call the cops. We were glad no one was hurt, it was just a little unnerving since it was POURING down rain that night and quite frankly traffic in Atlanta STINKS. (For lack of a better word...) We're hoping to get Ryan another car soon, one that doesn't suck money in to the gas tank, almost literally. We might have to sell his motorcycle and maybe the truck to get him something more reliable and sensible. I think he's ready for it, maybe a little bummed to get rid of the bike but we'll have plenty of time for toys later in life.

We also adopted a new dresser from Clint since he moved out of his apt in to a condo with a new roomie and didn't need it anymore. The one we have is a piece of poo, even though we made it look cute... so, free is good and I'm glad we will have something easy for Ben to use and more space. And better looking too. Speaking of a better looking Ben's room, we bought a shelf at IKEA for him to put some toys and books on. We took the crib out and rearranged a little. We still have the changing table in his room, mostly because it has shelves that we still use for storage but also because of the two new additions to our group of friends who would occasionally need to get their diapers changed. Although, if the dresser we now have allows for the things that are on said changing table then we will take it down for now.

We have a busy weekend planned too. Ben gets to go hang out with Nana & Poppy overnight tomorrow while we go to a concert with some friends. I am so grateful for A. grandparents who enjoy spending time with their grandkid which allows us to have some fun adult time. It's a win-win. And B. that Ryan still lets me drag him to concerts, because I REALLY love going to them. Saturday we're going to do some cleaning up around the house and an infant shoot. Then Sunday is SUPER BOWL (like I care) Sunday. It's just a good excuse for us to make lots of yummy junk food and be rowdy for a minute. I'm sure there will be some cheering on of whoever the winning team is...and a few "ooooooh!"s coming out of my mouth, but... I'm not really in to football, and Ryan claims he's not- but if a good game is on, he'll get in to it with the rest of the guys, he knows what's going on. I'll be there for the company!

This whole Winter thing is dragging on. Hopefully Punxsutawney Phil was right about Spring, cuz... it's supposed to snow again next week and the temps will not be over 50 for the next 10 days. Ugh... I'm looking forward to the cabin but looking more forward to warm weather! Not the heat of the Summer though, but really I'd take that right about now. This last weekend was a teaser... so warm and beautiful and just what I needed. Have a good weekend y'all!

Wowza. This is a photo my sister Delinda just sent from Chicago. This is looking out her family room window to the street below, and she said it's STILL snowing! Crazy!

not sure where he thinks HE'S going...

From CNN.com:

A vast winter storm brought blizzard conditions and record snowfall to large sections of the upper Midwest and Ohio Valley early Wednesday, a frosty testament to winter's fury despite a famous groundhog's forecast for an early spring.
The brutal weather gobbled up travelers trying to make their way on snow-choked roadways and snarled air traffic, forcing airlines to cancel thousands of flights again on Wednesday.
Chicago is at the epicenter of the storm, receiving a record-breaking 13.6 inches of snow at O'Hare International Airport Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
Chicago officials warn that more snow is on the way. At a Wednesday morning news conference, Chicago emergency management director Jose Santiago said there will likely be 15 to 20 inches of snow on the ground -- 25 inches in some places -- by the time the storm leaves the area.
A blizzard warning remains in effect for all of metropolitan Chicago until 3 p.m., Santiago said.
The current total not only breaks the previous record of 4.0 inches for that date -- set back on February 1, 1967 -- but it also establishes a new all-time record daily snowfall for the month of February for the city.
The previous calendar day snowfall record for Chicago for February was 11.5 inches, set on February 18, 1908.
The National Weather Service in the Windy City is asking residents not to travel unless "absolutely necessary."
"Reports from media and local law enforcement officially indicate that hundreds if not thousands of vehicles have gone off the roads," the weather service said early Wednesday morning.
Chicago's iconic Lake Shore Drive is currently closed due to poor traffic conditions, multiple accidents and abandoned cars and buses. Raymond Roscoe, chief of staff for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, said it is unknown when the route will reopen.
The blizzard coincided with rush hour Tuesday night, producing three accidents between 7:15 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. One involved a Chicago Transit Authority bus, Roscoe said. The accidents stalled traffic on the northbound side of Lake Shore Drive and the rapidly falling snow completely immobilized the road.
Roscoe said many motorists remained stuck in their cars throughout the night, while others abandoned their vehicles. Police, fire department and sanitation crews spent much of the night pulling people out of their cars, he said. Roscoe said there were no reports of injuries.
"We know that hundreds of people were very inconvenienced and we apologize for that," Roscoe said. "While city personnel worked as quickly as possible, we certainly understand peoples' frustration."
"I want to make it clear that ultimately dealing with this storm is our job," said Roscoe.
Chicago officials warned residents to stay indoors unless it is absolutely necessary to go outside. They said wind chill temperatures are likely to drop to between 20 and 30 degrees below zero Wednesday night.

Good news though (and good job Phil):

Smack in the middle of the storm track is Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, home of a certain groundhog, who has been forecasting the end of winter for more than 100 years. When Phil emerged from his hideout early Wednesday, he saw no shadow -- meaning, according to tradition, that spring will come early this year!!!!!

The Blah-est Day EVER

It's strange the different ways I feel comfort when I miss my sister Shauna. The best is when I have dreams about her, which I did last night. This might not make sense to me later, or to anyone or maybe at all... but I dreamt she came back to life. Almost like God had given her a second chance of sorts. She looked good, like herself, I hugged her which was awesome. It felt very real... when she walked through the door I burst in to tears when I saw her alive. She was very serious, kind of solemn almost. I didn't understand why or HOW she was back... I was super confused and astonished. I asked her if she remembered where she went when she died and she said yes. I asked her if she saw Heavenly Father and what heaven was like and she said she didn't see Him, but that he spoke to her by way of a rock (? I don't know, this is a dream remember) and that she was given a mission for our family. We never got to what that mission was... but the part that stood out to me the most was the part where she said she didn't see God but that she was in a place where He could still speak to her. Then this morning, Randi (her partner before she died) had posted a video she made of photos of Shauna. So... guess what's on my mind today? I feel her with me... not to sound all weird and stuff, but I feel like she's around me today. And I'm grateful for that. I sure do miss her. I sent an email to my mom today telling her about this dream, and she too had an experience of feeling Shauna (and her dad) around her yesterday. I feel like she's reaching out to us to let us know she loves and misses us just as much as we do her.

It's been one of those days.... It was SO beautiful this whole weekend. The weather was perfect. Then this morning and all day it's been foggy and rainy and with all of that gloominess a lot of bad news. News of old friends whose marriages are ending, news of a loss of a friend's father, a friend's baby who was born prematurely and is a mere 1lb... I'm just so grateful for the power of prayer and how if we ask fervently the Lord will bless those who stand in need of comfort, even if it's ourselves we're praying for. I can't imagine what it must be like to go through each one of those trials, but I DO know that the Lord will bless each of His children.
There is some good in the world, not to make light of these other things- but a few months ago I bit down (pretty hard) on a rock/small pebble in my black beans at a Mexican restaurant here called Willy's. I called the manager up and told him what happened, saved the pebble and took it in as a "formal" complaint, which they logged (not sure if they kept the rock though!). But I love Willy's so much I still eat there often. Plus they gave me a free meal for the trouble. SO... fast forward a few months later, I go to the dentist for a check up and cleaning. There's a crack in my top and bottom molars in the filling... from the rock. It's going to cost around $1500 to get these fixed. Fast forward to last week... I got on to Willy's site after eating a delicious burrito and thought "meh... why not see if they'll help cover the cost of my dental work since their stupid ROCK messed my teeth up?" So I went to the comments section, typed in my email address and name and my complaint. I was nice, said I still liked their food and still visited often, etc... but that my teeth were messed up and I didn't think it was completely fair to foot the bill. I told Ryan about it... didn't think anything would come of it- but I got THIS email today:
Heather

Having to go to the dentist sure is not fun! I have had the broken tooth myself several years ago. Please send a copy of the dentist bill to (email address here) and we will start the process to get this wrapped up for you.

We will be glad to see what we can do to help.

Regards

WMG Inc.

(Some names have been changed to protect the innocent) I am pleasantly surprised by this! It doesn't hurt to try right? And thanks Willy's! You've kept my patronage! I'm not sure if they'll foot the whole bill- but any is better than none!
Anyway... I've got a nasty cough with a side of a stuffy nose and headache, so I'd better get to bed. Hopefully the weather is better soon. My poor sister is going to get PELTED in Chicago this week. First about a foot and a half of snow, then possible flash floods from Lake Michigan. I don't think she'll be particularly effected by the flood part because she's far enough away from the lake but it's not going to be pretty. I wonder what Sir Groundhog will predict tomorrow... hopefully Spring will be on its' way soon!