got out!

looking for nuts... too bad he's got to get through nearly 2 feet of snow before he reaches the ground that the nuts are under.

It was such the exciting day... I dug my car out yesterday and today my neighbor helped me put chains on my car and I drove 10 blocks to the store to get a few things... it was like one of the best days of my life! ha ha

I feel so lame - but really, after 3 days of not being able to get anywhere - it was huge to go 10 blocks... it was pretty interesting driving even with chains. Everyone out of the roads is being super nice and SLOW which is nice.

I decide last night that I wasn't even going to try to drive 60 plus miles to spend Christmas with my family. We are suppose to get 6in. more tomorrow and there just no way that I want to try and drive out there going like 10mph and hoping I don't end up in a ditch.

I got myself a fun TV dinner at the store today and that will be my Christmas dinner - lame I know, but it's the smart thing to do.

Merry Christmas!

Holy SNOW Batman!

P-town got dumped with a LOT of snow yesterday... 8-12in all around the city!

This morning I ventured out to take some pictures after I put on 10 layers of clothes.

Blogger is driving me crazy with the order of pictures, sorry!

anyone interested in a little frozen tomato?

(yes, that's my frozen snow covered tomato plant)

I thought this was a cool picture!

AFTER! I raked my front porch... yes, that's right I raked the snow.

Two year's ago when I moved into this house I wanted to buy a snow shovel and everyone told me I would NEVER need it... well weeks after I moved here I needed it and then again this weekend I needed one - should have let me just buy one.

Those trash cans are pretty much half way under snow...


Anyone want to sit and stay awhile?

Me breaking through the ice to get to the SNOW. We have about 8-12in of snow and then on top of that is a layer of ice.

See the layer of ice?!?!?!?!?

BEFORE! My front porch before I raked it clear, it's a covered porch mind you.

My car playing in the snow... silly car!

Snow piled up on the window ledge - OUTSIDE!

A view of the snow pile up on the window ledge - INSIDE!

I am trying to stay warm inside... most of the week we have had snow days, this is the worst. We are in a winter weather warning, whatever that means. Chains are required all over the city, which I have no desire to dig my car out of piles of snow, just to be chains on to look like all the other crazy people out there trying to get stuff done - just take a snow day people!

This is a bit TOO MUCH SNOW for me! It's super cold out and because of that there's lots of ice, so the cabin fever is really setting in... they are not sure when this snow will melt away because, it's suppose to stay super cold AND to make matters worse my house pretty much NEVER gets sun because I have the big red wood tree, so most people get their snow to melt away days before I do, urg!

Looks like it will be a white Christmas!

Great!

My Grown up Christmas List

Do you remember me?
I sat upon your knee
I wrote to you
With childhood fantasies
Well, I'm all grown up now
And still need help somehow
I'm not a child
But my heart still can dream
So here's my lifelong wish
My grown up christmas list
Not for myself
But for a world in need
No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown up christmas list
As children we believed
The grandest sight to see
Was something lovely
Wrapped beneath our tree
Well heaven only knows
That packages and bows
Can never heal
A hurting human soul
No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown up christmas list
What is this illusion called the innocence of youth
Maybe only in our blind belief can we ever find the truth(there'd be)
No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end, oh
This is my grown up christmas list
This is my grown up christmas list

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxtluFgCRW8

Here we go again!

It seems like just yesterday that it was Christmas...

Last year, my mom and I headed up the community holiday project to ensure that 1500 children had a Christmas! We spent from Thanksgiving weekend until the first weekend in Jan. working on this amazing project. It's really the best way to spend the holidays. We weren't even half way through the project last year when we were already talking about the next year.

So, here we go again. We started even earlier this year - we made nearly 4000 tags in Oct and Nov. Starting writing letters to get someone to donate space for us to work and MONEY to buy toys. The tress with tags went up all around town over that thanksgiving weekend.

We have been a little worried about how the current economy situation is going to effect us this year. We already have requests in for over 2000 children and a huge donor ($5000) from last year, isn't able to come close to that donation this year, bummer.

While my mom and I were hanging tags on trees - we got a little hope for the season of giving. One lady came up and said - "tags, I am so excited - this is my most favorite part of Christmas, getting the toys on the tags" then the one that killed us both - another lady come up to get a tag and told us that her daughter has cancer and she doesn't want any toys this year, she just wants to get toys for other kids. My mom started crying on the spot.

When I am not packing up my house to move, you can find me at the "toy box" filling requests for the little ones. It really is the best way to spend the season!

On Black Friday, 6 of us got to Wal-Mart at 5am to get the best deals $500 could buy. We had a donor give us $500 and we wanted to make sure we could get the most for the money. As we were standing in line our 3 carts full of toys caused a few comments, when people found out we weren't shopping for ourselves, they were touched.

I think the most fun I have ever had in my life is filling cart after cart full of toys, spending other people's money to give children simple toys to ensure there is still magic at Christmas. Last year, I went into Target one day - 5 carts later the bill was close to $2,000 bucks and barely fit in the car.

Here we are with our three carts of goodies from Wal-Mart!

some days are just like this, even in australia

Thanksgiving 2008, can pretty much be explained by this picture!


It was a weekend of things just not really going as planned. Oh, well - it gives us something to talk about and remember. Thanksgiving morning we had our traditional breakfast at my sister's. She (having just recently had knee surgery) wasn't really able to get around as much as she thought she would be able to and so things just didn't get done as she would have liked. For example she had promised us all home made apple fritters and her dough didn't work out, so we had to live without them fritters, darn.

We had our turkey day dinner on Sunday night, to allow everyone to be able to spend the day with all the other families who had needs to have them there. Our stuffing was pretty much mush, it tasted good - but it was like baby food (no we didn't give any to Elliott). My mom couldn't find the gravy spoon, so a measuring cup works just fine.

It's more about spending time with family and friends then things going perfect, right. RIGHT! As always baby Elliott is the hit of all family functions now, we do a pretty good job of sharing him - Nate and Dana are the most laid back, first time parents I have ever met.