The Birthday List

We woke up to this first full day of spring to find 4 inches of snow in our yard. Seriously! I could not believe it. Friday it was 74 degrees here and we spent almost the entire day outside. Saturday it was still quite warm but raining and then the cold front moved in for what was hopefully, one last hurrah. When I went to bed last night the weather men were forecasting less than one inch of snow, so it was surprising to find so much snow this morning.

Jake is turning 13 tomorrow, but Wayne took off of work on Friday and we did 13 of Jake's favorite things:

1. Have a smoothie for breakfast

2. Go hiking at a local park on the dirt trails

3. Went to play miniature golf

4. Got a haircut (not necessarily a favorite, but much needed)

5. Ate at Campisi's for lunch

6. Visit the S.P.C.A.

7. Play Wii together

8. Fly kites

9. Take the dogs to the dog park

10. Eat at Rock Fish Grill (Jake loves throwing peanut shells on the floor)

11. Go swimming at the community center

12. Have bubble shakes at Fat Straws

13. Make our own tie-dyed t-shirts

It was such a fun day! We all enjoyed ourselves. Jake is such a cool kid. As you can tell, he loves to be outside and with nature. It was a long day, but everyone had such a good time. I will post more pics soon.

I enjoyed my day "off" of boot camp today, but am looking forward to returning tomorrow. My bottom has not quite recovered from the strenuous week one and two, but hopefully it will not be as sore this week. My poor gluts!

I also go to the endocrinologist this week for a check up. I am interested to see how my labs will be and to ask him a couple of questions about working out, maintaining a good calcium level, and protein in my diet. Other things on my list this week are finishing an excellent book written by a dear friend of mine (who I will hopefully get to visit with, if even for a few moments) and finishing a class I have been teaching at church on the liturgy and history of Lent. Wayne's mom is also moving back to Alabama this week and that will be difficult for everyone.

I am hoping for a significant warm up over the next couple of days, and looking forward to seeing what else this week will bring.

more SNOW!

It is so cold here! Once again we are expecting snow tonight. I can't believe we are going to have snow AGAIN. If we get just 2 inches (which is expected) then there will be a new record for snowfall in north Texas. The kids are very excited, but I have to say that I am more like, "Enough already!" I am ready for some warm weather so we can ride our bikes and walk at the park. Not this week, but hopefully this will be the last of the winter weather.

This morning I had a new smoothie. It was red kale and dandelion leaves along with mangosteen and peaches. It was actually quite good! I wasn't sure -- it was more of an experiment, but I really liked it. I had a sprout salad from Whole Foods for dinner. It was also quite yummy. I also bought some Go Raw! chocolate cookies (I had never had those before) and they were very good! I think I may have to do some dehydration experiments to see if I can make some yummy snacks -- I'll keep you posted on that.

Phillip and I went to a kindergarten meet and greet at the public school today. He listened to a story and did an art project on polar bears. He seemed to really like it. Wayne and I are probably going to send Phillip to Kindergarten somewhere so that I can really work with Jake and Emma, but I don't know that it will be there. The school is very nice and I like it alright, but I want Phillip to be able to learn at his own pace and I really want him to be able to play and be a kid. I am not sure he can do that in a classroom full of kids. We will see. I am not ruling it out, we will definitely go to some of the library days before we decide what we are going to do.

snow day

Wow -- it has been snowing here for over 14 hours straight! We are at 9 and a half inches and counting. North Texas has passed a record today for snowfall in one day. It is absolutely beautiful, but is starting to get a little dangerous now. The snow is great packing snow and there have been some really awesome snowmen and snow-women. It makes great snowballs and the snow angels weren't bad either. Jake, Emma, and Phillip had so much fun playing in it today, especially Phillip. While he has seen snow, he has never seen it like this before.

Many people are without power, but we still have ours, thank goodness. Tonight it will freeze and tomorrow morning will be very nasty, but it won't stay long. It is supposed to be in the 40's tomorrow, so after about 11:00 in the morning we won't have much to deal with anymore. That is Texas weather for you. I can't even begin to imagine what all our friends and family in the Northeast are dealing with! 9 and a half inches is a lot of snow -- Wayne's family in DE has about 4 times that much.

JUICY!

I received a juicer for Christmas and I have been juicing my little heart out today. The kids and I went to Costco this morning and they each got to pick out a fruit. Phillip picked apples (sweet apples, actually -- he makes sure to clarify "sweet"). Jake picked oranges and Emma picked pears. We bought in bulk because I wanted to try lots of different concoctions. Then we came home and did some experimenting. We made carrot, apple, pear, spinach juice. It was really good! I was surprised how much juice we got out of the carrots; it was pretty impressive. The juice was such a pretty orange, too.

I poured myself a large glass and that was lunch. I was going to have a salad, too, but I was full from the juice. In fact, I wasn't hungry all afternoon. I expect smoothies to fill me up, but just juice? I did not expect to be full. Jake drank a full glass, but Emma and Phillip just had a sip. They both said they liked it, but neither wanted a full glass. I'll keep trying. I did succeed in getting Phillip to eat a small salad at dinner this evening, though. It even had yellow and red bell peppers, onions, and cucumbers on it. Wayne and I are making a little extra effort to get him to eat his veggies. He is the only one of my children who turns his nose up at vegetables. If I don't offer it to him and show him how much we value having veggies in our diet then he is sure not to ever like them. Therefore, I will keep piling them on him plate and making him eat even a few small bites.

We got a new game for Christmas called Qwirkle. We really like playing games and this one was GREAT! If you haven't heard of it, I highly recommend taking a look at it. It requires lots of strategy and planning. It is MENSA approved, and we all enjoyed playing it. Speaking of games, we got another game that we played with the kids before my parents left that was also fun. It was Funglish. It is sort of like charades (you are trying to get people to guess a word), but there are only printed words, no acting. Both games guarantee a fun family night!

Before I wrap this blog up for the night I just have to tell you about one more thing. We had more SNOW today! I cannot believe it. It was not as much as Christmas Eve, only about one inch today, but it was so pretty falling. Tomorrow it will be in the mid forties, so it is not going to last long. We are enjoying it while we can.

A WHITE CHRISTMAS!

It has been an interesting day. We found out this morning that my mother-in-law broke her foot yesterday at my daughter's performance in the Nutcracker. She went to the ER this morning when she woke up and her foot was VERY swollen. She got a temporary cast and has to see an orthopedic surgeon next week. She is feeling much better, though.

We have had family and friends stopping in all day and have really had a great time. On top of the great time we were already having. IT SNOWED HERE TODAY! The kids were so excited! Who would have thought? Yesterday it was 74 degrees here and now there is 3 inches of snow in my front yard. It is pretty cool, I must say -- a white Christmas, in Dallas, Texas. My mom said they had to come all the way to Texas to get a white Christmas.