The Crud

Our house has a visitor this week that I hoped I would avoid.  We call it "The Crud".  It is that nasty cold that everyone gets.  You know what I am talking about: the cough that rattles your chest and stings your throat, the nose that will require an entire box of tissues for the afternoon, and the headache that no amount of aspirin could defeat.

This visitor came into our house first with the youngest.  Matt missed two days of school this week.  He adds to the list of symptoms a fever that comes and goes and an appetite that comes and goes.  Just when I think he is better, the fever returns and I know The Crud has not left him alone quite yet.

Somehow, while nursing my little guy, The Crud decided after four days of picking on Matt, I needed a turn.  I was fine yesterday afternoon.  I even went to karate and enjoyed myself thoroughly (I got to break a board - so fun!)  I came home and fix my wonderful man his favorite dinner (homemade lasagna).  It wasn't until after dinner that The Crud change my voice to the husky one I currently have.  My nose became clogged and I woke up this morning with a headache - not the way anyone want to begin the day!

My husband immediately began downing vitamin C and started kissing my cheek instead of my lips. Don't want to pass on The Crud ya know. I headed for the medicine cabinate for my arsenal of Crud fighters.

Maybe, just maybe, I will be able to kick The Crud out of the house before it makes friends with my oldest son or my husband. I see lots of Airborn in their future.

Busy Kickin' and gettin' it done.

This has been a busy couple of weeks at our house.  My dayplanner goaned with the required information it had to hold to get me and the boys through our schedule without missing a beat.

The boys and I have (in the month of January) been to eight doctor appointments, relaxed through two snow days, attended three meetings of Awana, one session of my book club, lunch with fabulous friend, two wonderful Moms 24/7 meetings, and karate - which brings me to my next topic.


Karate has been great for Mikey and I.  I am looking forward to when (in a year and a half) Matt and Mike with join in the fun.  Mikey and I have karate two or three nights a week (depending on the week) and this month we had promotional testing for our next belts.

Mikey was ready! He knew his material cold.  He did not seem nervous and was focused, until the girl in front of him went left instead of right during the onesteps and threw him off, but only for a second.

 

On the other hand, I couldn't eat supper before testing because it would not have been pretty.  I had more butterflies in my stomach than I thought possible.  I am the one throwing the punch in the picture.  It was my first test and I was not only nervous for me but for Mikey as well (that's a mother's job, right?).

When all was said and done, Mikey got his yellow belt.  For some reason, he thought it smelled good and had to sniff it. He is not kissing it.

I also passed my test, got my orange belt and an even better reward

Matt was proud of his mom. Soon my little grasshopper it will be your turn.

Icicles

This has been the best winter I have ever seen for icicles. 

I am used to seeing a few ice formations here and there any given winter, but this year...

Everybody has some.

Some houses have bangs.

Some have a ponytails.

 

This house has had multiple layers.  They knocked down one set of icicles and the frozen decorations came back with friends!

Some people can't take down their Christmas lights yet because they are frozen to the icicles.

I wonder what this looks like from the inside?

In some places the icicles have icicles!

Some icicles don't want friends. They hang around by themselves.

Others like as many friends as they can get.

It is supposed to warm up tomorrow.  These pretty icicles will change from beautiful decorations to nasty bombs.  Watch where you park your car!

Winter is here.

I can remember many winters that come and go.  What I mean is it will snow, cover the grass, but by the next day the grass is back and the snow is gone.  This will happen many times in the same month let alone the same winter season.  There have even been winters that I have seen grass many more days than I have seen snow.

This winter is truely a winter to remember.

This picture was taken January 5 out our front door.

This is our deck out back.  Normally we don't shovel the deck but this year we have a welsh corgi puppy.  They are short, as in not tall.  Please remember this fact as you look at the rest of the pictures.  She really needed this path.

 
 

At this point we only had seven inches of 
snow.










She really likes the snow.

In our area, the snow continued to fall and do amazing things to the landscape around us.  Snow which should have fallen to the ground held tight and refused to finish its trip to the ground.

These three pictures  and the ones following were taken on January 8.  I am amazed at the amount of snow that just "hangs" in there!
I saw this cold creature trying to warm himself in our backyard, but that didn't last.  Another creature was headed his way.

Jedi's chin at this point was not quite at the level of the snow.  She had to keep her head up, but she didn't always do that.  She is young, only 12 weeks, so we will forgive her.

Her path on the back deck kept getting deeper.

 

Jedi is not the only member of the family to enjoy the abundant snowfall.  My boys gave it a go also.

My angels.

Snowball fight.

Jedi wanted to stay out with the guys a little longer, but she was having a hard time getting around (she's short remember).

We ended up with about 17 inches of snow.  And lots of great pictures.

  

 

Happy winter everyone!  May we all see grass again before July!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! For the first time, we allowed our boys to stay up to watch the ball drop in Times Square. To help them stay awake, we thought we would watch the Chick-Fil-A Bowl (since my honey's team was playing). Mikey made it through the entire game. Matt fell asleep somewhere around half time.Mikey was still going strong as the midnight hour approached. At 11:45 we woke Matt (which took a LOT of effort) and sent the boys to get their PJs on. That way once the ball dropped they could head straight to bed, besides those last 15 minutes can be sooo long!

We counted down and when the countdown reached zero we blew our noisemakers and popped those little bottles that shoot streamers. Matt who was still not fully awake, was startled by the noise and did not like the fanfare of ushering in the new year.

This morning started later than our usual 7:30. Had it not been for the small bladder of our young puppy, I would have been able to sleep in with my guys until 9:30! They came slowly down the stairs, still lulled by the late night before. The TV came on and they settled in to "wake up slow".
We had nothing but fun as we spent this first day of the new year cocooned in our house, watching football and eating "game food". Snow fell outside. We cheered on our teams inside. The boys' teams won. My team lost. But fun was had by all. Not a bad way to start the new year, not bad at all.