2 years

it has been exactly 2 years since the scariest day of my life.

just a reminder to myself...

although things may be tough at times, it could be much worse.

i'm thankful for the morning fights with olivia.
i'm thankful for rachel telling me she can't wear pants.
i'm thankful for jarrett & his constant ranting & raving about all things political.
i'm thankful for being alive.
i'm thankful for the day.

Snow Blows

oooooooh winter weather...

mother nature, do you not realize it is now march?
what i would have welcomed in december or january is not cool during march.

i know winter doesn't actually end until later this month. however, i'm officially over winter. i often accuse jarrett of having seasonal affective disorder. this year, i feel like his bad mood is rubbing off on me.

lets talk for a minute about how weather effects people's moods, shall we. i found this little gem of information on wikipedia.

* Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), also known as winter depression or winter blues, is a mood disorder in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the winter or, less frequently, in the summer, spring or autumn, repeatedly, year after year. *

the actual snow doesn't make me depressed.

it would be totally awesome if winter actually looked like this.



source



but it looks like this.



source



it looks like a white knuckle drive home. it looks like a sore back & shoulders from being so tense during the drive. it looks like cars in ditches. it looks like a huge pain in my ass.

then once it is plowed, it looks like gravel in my yard. it looks like my mailbox knocked sideways. it looks like the snow plowed into my driveway rather than away from my driveway. it's a nuisance.

treacherous is not a word i want to hear associated with my drive home.

right now, it looks so very very pretty gazing out the window. huge flakes. but before long it will get nasty.

at least we are on the tail end of winter.





whole bunch of nothin

is it even possible to have writer's block when it's a family blog? seriously. i feel like winter time is my worst blogging time. we do nothing. well, not all the time, but most of the time we do nothing. i like to sit inside where it is nice & warm. i just feel meh. but i do have some pretty cute kids. and i take pictures of them, alot. alot with my phone, not so much my camera.

here are some more pictures from every day life with a little bit of random awesomeness included.

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the girls & i went out to lunch last weekend - steak n shake. party bonus - kids eat free on the weekends at steak n shake. i didn't know that. worked out nicely. these girls are pretty cute. they are pretty funny too.

liv likes to take it easy with me. we like to kick our feet up & drink hot chocolate almost every single night. ps - my feet stink, horribly. that's why my shoes are on. olivia's feet, also stinky, she just doesn't care.

oh the snow. oh mah gah - i'm so sick of the snow. it snowed tuesday - friday. but because i'm not all piss & vinegar, i let the girls eat snowballs inside the house tuesday night. sometimes you just gotta let the kids do that.

pictures before school. rachel has quite a fashion sense & olivia has quite a chip on her shoulder. such is the life. liv is a little less than thrilled with school this week. they are doing the I-SAT tests. it's hard to explain to an 8 year old, you are taking these intimidating tests, but don't worry, you're really not graded on it. i told her just to try her best. she told me she was too sick to go to school.

the girls did parents night out at the YMCA friday night. one of them enjoyed it immensely. it was seriously, the best thing that has ever happened to her. she told me. haha. i love that she gets so excited about things. she's so funny.

one of them cried her eyes out when i dropped her off in the room for pre-school aged kids.

rachel still thinks she is a baby. thinks she needs to be held. and holds on tight with a monkey grip.

she also likes to lay on my back. we both look pretty comfortable. she looks pretty sweet & innocent. but saturday morning she asked me what "shitter" meant. now i'm not saying we cuss on the regular in front of our kids, but we do quote movies. and one of our favorites is christmas vacation. she has the sweetest little voice, so at first i was like "shedder? cheddar? what?" then she repeated it nice & slow "shit-ter" what does it mean? it means bathroom, but it's not nice & girls shouldn't say it. life's lessons -- i'm full of them.

saturday afternoon, jarrett suggested we take a little road trip to Amish country. i tell ya what, if you want to over eat to the extreme, Yoder's Buffet is the place to do it. i was miserable.

liv doesn't like to lay on me, but she still like to hang out with her ol' mama. we watched good luck charlie together. she wanted to watch a show she likes, and i can't stand any of them except good luck charlie. confession: i have watched it alone, without olivia. haha.

rachel wears this ratty old dress of olivia's all the time. every night actually. she says its her night gown. whatever keeps her from leaving the house in it.

olivia wanted to go out and play in the snow yesterday. i helped her get suited up. she went out & found that the snow wasn't the fun kind anymore. after almost a full week on the ground - it had hardened & she didn't even really put a dent in it when she walked. no snowballs. no snowman. just slipping & falling on the snow crusted over with ice. but she did go on a "nature walk" in our backyard. saw a bunny, so that made her day. PS - sorry mom, i couldn't find gloves for her.

i bought some new boots. i like them. also jeggings. i think i like them too. they are comfy.

mah friend katie & i put on these little st patricks day hats that are meant to be decorations. it reminded us of damon wayans on in living color - hated it.

and that's about it, picture-wise.

we are forecasted to get some more snow tonight into tomorrow. i've had it up to my eyeballs with winter weather. if it is going to snow now, it better snow enough for olivia to have a snow day off from school & me to get a snow day off of work. but i won't hold my breath.

maybe some day i will do a real blog post. i do have several started, but i got all meh.