Woo to the Hoo

So here is my first Woo to the Hoo shout out. I live in the middle of a huge pile of white stuff right now. We have a foot of snow on the ground and I have not left my house since late Monday night. I was off work yesterday and today we were closed because of all the snow still coming down this morning.

I don't have a picture of the current snowfall, but to show you our back yard and super long driveway I present the following...
The view from the driveway to the back deck


And the view from the deck out to the drive way


Just picture this with 10 times as much snow. Right now, you cannot see the steps at all, there is a vague shape of stairs where they should be. The snow comes up to my back bumper and you cannot see the bottom half of the tires. The entire driveway behind the house and the access alley out to the street are all this deep. no way my little car is getting out of its spot without help. Or for that matter, no way am I getting out of the house and off the deck.

Enter Phil and Louie. They are currently on their way over in Phil's truck with his snow blade to plow me out! I told Louie to call when they got close so I get some shoes on and come help. She said no! She said I didn't need to go outside and fall and break my good hip. Unfortunately she is right! (did you see that, I put it in writing for the whole world to see, LOL)

So Woo to the Hoo to Phil and Louie.


And for those of you who do not know, yes Louie is my housemate but when the weather is bad like this she stays out at Phil and Pat's house since it is just a few minutes drive to where she works. Or when she wants to sleep in a little extra. BTW Phil and Pat are a couple at church that we hang out with a lot. They are like a second set of parents to us and if I don't say enough, You guys rock!

To find out more about the Woo to the Hoo award, check out this explanation by Feather, my new twitter friend and kudos to my cousin Marchelle at Chronicles of a Working Mom
for creating the button!

Fanatic

I have a confession to make. I have a tiny little obsession. It all started so innocently. I saw a movie with my Aunt Kristy and Uncle Matt. I read the book. I saw the movie again. I was hooked. I joined a message board to talk about it, I saw the next movie, I bought a DVD player just so I could watch again when it came out in the stores. I saw the third movie the day it came out in theaters all by myself. First time I ever went to a movie by myself, I just couldn't wait. I saw it several more times in the theaters, both with friends and alone. I went to a fan gathering and a museum exhibit.

And here is the evidence...


.

Yes, I am a Ringer. Yes, I am taller than the average Hobbit. Now please excuse me while I go put Frodo away.

Shopping Trip

Today I went shopping. I didn't have time or money before Christmas to get much for the kiddos so I told Chloe that this week we would go shopping. My Dad picked her up this morning and brought her up to Anderson because he was bringing me a chair that I finally had room for anyway. They brought me the chair then we all went to lunch at the Olive Garden. I had their new Chicken and Gnoochi soup. The soup itself was good but the Gnoochi were very bland. Anyway, I digress. Our first stop was gamestop to see if they had anything good for the Wii or DS. We saw a couple things that were maybes so we decided to move on knowing we could come back if we wanted. Next was target. They didn't have so much in the game department either so we hit up toys. After some deliberation, we moved on again but on the way out we saw some crafty stuff. Chloe is all about doing crafts. We looked in that aisle for a bit and she picked out a kit with some Barbie sized dresses in it that you can decorate with glitter and what not. She'll be in heaven with that one. She also picked out a color wonder book (Cars, duh) for her little brother.

Next stop was Wally World. She had a gift card to spend as well as some cash of her own. We headed straight back for toys this time. She did good for a 7 year old. She would ask me how much things were and how much she would have left if she got this or that. She was very thoughtful about it and already knew the prices of things she wanted. She even put something back because she knew she could get it cheaper at home. I was proud of her. She ended up spending about half of her own money and was pretty happy with what she got.

My Dad drove her up here and was playing some old bluegrass/country tapes and she was complaining about it. At one point he put in a tape that was all instrumental bluegrass and he glanced back and caught her tapping her hand on her knee. She totally denied it for about two minutes before she admitted that she liked it.

She also asked if we could call home to find out when they were having dinner because she didn't want to miss it. She cracks me up. The girl has priorities.

Christmas 2008

For the first time in years and years, I traveled out of state for Christmas. A few months back, while sitting around my uncle's table with the family, we were talking about upcoming holidays. We lost my Grandma back in the spring and this would be the first holiday season without her. I was talking to my sister and cousin and mentioned the idea of going to Kansas for Christmas or Thanksgiving since our Aunt and Uncle usually come here. We were all enthused by the idea and settled on Christmas since we would all have a 4-5 day weekend. My Dad and my Uncle agreed and Aunt Kristy was excited about it when we talked to her.

When it came down to it, my Uncle and cousin were not able to go because her work schedule changed. :( The rest of us decided to go ahead with the plans. So on the 23rd, we set out in two cars (me and Dad in one and Missy, Ryan and the kiddos in the other). And promptly came to a screeching halt. Central Indiana was hit with freezing rain that afternoon. We oh so brilliantly had planned on traveling overnight so the kids would sleep in the car. After killing some time by eating dinner, we finally got on the road around 9pm. The temps were rising and regular old rain was falling. It will wash away the ice right?

Our first clue was the state trooper parked on the entrance ramp to I-70 at the Plainfield exit. He was just sitting there, not blocking it, no lights on. We thought "alright! the interstate is open and we are good to go." We started on down the road, passed the rest stop two miles on down and promptly parked it along with the tons of cars and trucks sitting in front of us. It took us 3 hours to get past Little Point. That would be 15 miles! And another two to get out of state. It should have taken a little over an hour and it took 5! Thank God for cell phones. Missy and I sent so many text messages. (as I write this my roommate is in the other room on her computer and we are IM'ing each other even though we could easily be talking outloud) At first it was kinda funny, ironic etc.. but it got old really quick. Once we got to Effiingham, Dad and Ryan decided they needed some sleep. We had been on the road for over 6 hours. You know that big white cross you can see from the interstate? We parked the cars at the base of it and slept for about two hours. It was misting and foggy when we got back underway in the very early morning, and we were still only traveling about 60mph. As we got passed St. Louis, the fog began to lift and the roads got drier. We made up some time and even saw glimpses of sunshine. I was never so happy to reach my destination as when we pulled up at Kristy and Matt's house.

Not long after we got there, my cousin Shayne who lives in Guadalajara, Mexico arrived and later that night, Trevor, Tiffany and their girls came in. We had a nice big crowd, everybody got along. Well except for Kristy's three cats and Trevor's dog Jedda. We kept them separated. We all crashed early on Christmas Eve, but the kids woke us up early the next morning and we had a fun time watching them do their presents. We had fun playing Wii and other games. There were only a few meltdowns and lots and lots food. We all pitched in to make dinner (ham and turkey) with all the fixins. It disappeared a lot faster than it took to make.

We were able to stay until last Saturday and we hit the road around noon and got home around 10pm. The return was so much better. Since then, I have been hanging out with friends, fighting a nasty cold, passing off that cold to others, sweet of me I know, and generally being lazy. And I still have 4 more days before I go back to work. When I get the pictures off my camera I will post a few. In the meantime, I am gonna hit the shower cause there is no help in the world for the bed head I got working today.

Happy New Year!