{just so you know...}

I'm missing my girlfriends. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever. Between sick kiddos, work, crazy schedules.......

I just miss you. And, wanted you to know!

{cough, cough, cough}

Last night about 9:30 evan's cheeks were a blazin'. I was hoping maybe from being outside today? No....this morning I awoke to a barking little seal. Croup. A definite inside snow day today.

:(

{i survived}

I braved the elements. TH, look at my zebra print rain boots. You'll see what is under them at the end of this post ;)

total winter wonderland. who could blame them? all of a sudden, it didn't seem quite as cold. they loved it!

as of now, they have not finished mr. frosty. they were too distracted with snowballs! we have no snowman with perfect snowman-building snow!
mr. aspen. poor guy could not see a thing without his glasses. way too bright for his blue eyes.

evan did not expect that much snow to come out of the tree when he shook it.

noah decided to join in. evan cleared the area! e hated getting snow in his face....

see below, more snow in the face. not a happy camper. he didn't mind rolling in it, laying in it, falling in it....but, not the face.

snow.in.the.face......

noah now wants to go mountain climbing in the snow in colorado....ha!

evan was mesmerized by the icicles and actually tried to sneak some in. that would have been fun!
e

joy anyone? it was pure bliss for the boys! wow, it is soooo about the little things.

ahhh...for some reason i just LOVE this picture of E....

I used my pocket camera as I had to wear Noah's gloves {hands could not move} and I was very fearful of flying snowballs {how easily the boys forget the rules, like don't throw a snowball when they are finally in snowball heaven. that would be total cruelty. thus, i did not place that pressure on them :) let the snowballs fly! and, they did!} and i went down once. only once. my little blue camera has been through it in its short little life with us. so quality is terrible, but, there were no worries - so, we had fun. ;)

noah busted it just after this was snapped. as did evan. they get my grace!

the blue eyes and bright whether by snow or sun = squints. he could barely hold his eyes open poor thing.

Homemade ice cream and hot chocolate! What a combination. Noah said at least 10 times, this was THE best day of his life. Evan was calculating how much money we could make if we gathered up all the snow and sold the ice cream at Wally World.

And, it's the above socks that kept all right within the snowball fight! at least they kept my toes warm!

it actually wasn't too terribly bad afterall, I must say! i "froze" many moments in my heart while out there in {my} less than ideal circumstances. we are warming up for now. the pile of clothes is growing. we will be heading back out again soon.....

{i hope}

that someday when my boys read this (from the blog books I AM going to print someday) they will realize how deeply and intensely I loved them. The selfless kind. The kind that words cannot explain and that defies all logic.

i am about to brave the elements.

not the sandy, sunny, wiggle-your-toes in the sand type.

but, the cold, wet, shivery kind.

i'm off to layer up!

if i survive (highly questionable) i will post pictures. but, for now i am off to give my boys some of the absolute best memories of my childhood.

i am just not certain when that synapse in the brain occurred and the appreciation to be in the snow turned to appreciation to watch the snow from the inside of a warm house and be perfectly content.

i love you boys!

ps {remember that when you are deciding who gets to take care of me!}

{yikes}

i just got a glimpse of myself in the mirror. ouch!

after i took a nap. which by the way, is a very, very rare thing for me. but, considering my naps only last 10 minutes - give or take a minute or two - i figured i could fit one in today. it was either that, or go down. and possibly NEVER, EVER get up. i was that tired.

ha! i have been snowed under. sorry, i couldn't resist. work - oh, my goodness. i think the office is truly concerned at this point. clients, ugh! i have orders out, orders in but not delivered here, orders to order, consults to take care of, dates in the midst juggling because so many brides are drawn to the same day.....

it will all get done.

but, i have neglected self in a big, big way. hair needs colored. it's been in a pony tail for days now - so fixing it would be nice too. eyebrows - oh.my. skin - it has dulled in a big way. sleeping in the makeup does that. don't try it. i think i did wear make-up today, but, you would never know. no time for the nails - it's needed in a bad way. all 20 digits.

maybe i should have a spa night tomorrow morning. too much to do tonight! :)

{i'm on the beach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!}

South Beach, that is! ;)

Have not fainted yet. Am still coherent and did lose 1.4 pounds since yesterday.....although I know it's just water.

Will keep you posted.

Trying to get ready for the 'real' beach. :)

{spinning my wheels}

addendum: oops! obviously did not finish this post!

have moved on, will forget about it for now.

see what i mean??

{a heavy, heavy}

heart today. so many very sick kids right now. makes me hug mine tighter, but breaks my heart for those in the midst of such pain. praying so hard...

{another prayer request}

please pray for michael mccutchen as he goes in for surgery to remove the fungal infection from his lung tomorrow morning. this will be a huge surgery and this poor little guy has been through so much. absolutely heartbreaking! please lift michael and his family up!

his prayer pager number: 877-211-2140

teresa says it has been going off all day and he smiles everytime he hears it!

{update}

just received an update that i wanted to pass along....e is being discharged now from fs. mom & dad will be able to drive her down to ach. her fever is still down.

please pray for a safe, calm trip and for them to find a very non-serious answer and treatment for sweet e! i will update here as i hear from m...

{prayers please}

for sweet emily! she has been in the hospital since friday with pneumonia and a temperature that keeps returning.



just got news that she will be going to ACH. Please keep this sweet family in your prayers - that her temperature will subside and not return and that all testing will come back okay.

{to: james carter}

You would never believe me if I told you that an 84-year-old little lady lost control of her truck and basically "landed" on my parked Honda last night, would ya? The same car I was in the process of transferring the title to my in-laws.

Nope. Surely to goodness I make all this stuff up.

I wish.

{snapshots}

this weekend has been a blur. a frenzied, fatigued blur.

i have two reports due tomorrow and a mountain of records to be organized and delivered and between friday and tomorrow at 8:30 am - a lotta' activity has been in between.

we did manage to make it to one service today and we went to the one we typically do not attend in order to see sweet lily be baptized. oh, my word - it was precious. i could not stop the tears.

since we actually had a few minutes to spare (shockingly!) - i pulled out the dreaded camera. the boys {all 3!} were less than thrilled to say the least. it looks like i am the one in pain - have not figured out how to smile with all the metal in my mouth. very awkward.











we did make it out the door, enjoyed a beautiful service, had a quick lunch together, and little down time before i had to face my office again. we are also in the middle of looking for a very used, commuter car for me to avoid all of the miles i rack up on the suv going back and forth to school. we may have found one, and will meet with the man in the morning. it is very fun to drive and the boys love it. however, there are not many things more stressful (in the scheme of not really that important category) for me than a vehicle, it literally makes me sick! just praying it works out the way it should.....

{cooking....well, kinda}

my family is starving. they think i am cooking in the kitchen when i am actually microwaving leftovers.

but, i am reading about cooking. does that count? this is the best book ever!

back to the heat of the kitchen from all that energy that the microwave is cranking out. standing over a cold stove - reading.

{to my friends}

my website and photography blog are being updated. i had to send her multiple pictures and she will pull and decide on what to use. i just wanted to give you a heads-up because there was no way I could choose and if your baby or child or family is up - it was totally a random thing. Or, maybe what would work best with whatever frame she was working in.

i just don't want to hurt any feelings. and all of your kiddos are too stinkin' cute!

but.......they will be updated...


even i don't know who is going up at this point......

{ransacked v disarray}

it's quite the long story. you know me, they always are.

to keep it brief, let's just say that last night when the two nice officers from the sheriff's department were going through our house after the alarm went off, none of us could get into the house as the garage door would not open (no, we don't seem to have keys around here)......

we finally got in and his first question....has this office been ransacked?

nope. she's just really, really busy with work. stacks and stacks of records. binders that were once standing collapsed to their sides, etc...

how pathetic is that?!? i was mortified.

i called my office! got a chuckle there as well.

note to self: make certain everything is in order before you leave your house. you never know who may come a callin'.

and, james carter: you will laugh when you find out exactly why we could not get inside the house! good grief...

{look down, please}

see that first picture of noah down a bit. the two thumbs up?

that is exactly what he looked like this morning. well, you know...without the goggles and the wonderful beach, and glorious sun. but, he did have the wet hair.

i got that expression when he ate a batch of pioneer woman pancakes. yumo! and, no, he had no clue that sour cream was the key ingredient. he just went on and on and on about how great they were.

mission accomplished! happy friday sweet boy!

{ready to go back}

so is he!




the cutest thing EVER! an ice cream boat - complete with music! not so cute...noah dropping his $3 ice cream in the sand - so he ate mine!




totally out of order....but our hotel. will very likely never get to stay in a place like that again. as tonia would say..."absolutely dreamy."

doesn't that sound like Tonia? :)



this is before we went to the boat - reverse order, as always! but, i was actually taking ice cream orders as everyone else was in the water. took me back to my days at "dixie bell". another story {or two} for another day...





cannot wait to go back! that chair is calling my name!