Winter Has Arrived

First Snowfall 12/14/2008
Originally uploaded by tmesiab

Let there be snow!

We are literally snowed in. For Washington standards, that is. My apple trees have snow almost all the way up to the first branches! Wow....thats rare in the northwest, where we're used to rain and misty mornings. Even in the winter.

I dont know why the backyard is so full of snow, but I think that really its only about 10 inches. Thats still alot, though. My mother and Dale stopped over to pic us up and take us to the mall so I could finish Christmas shopping. While here, Dale shoveled the walkway and put down some de-icer. Whew! I was going to sneak out and shovel it myself, but was soooo happy when they showed up to do it for me. There are alot of roads that are shut off or closed. The highways still have ice all over it and the main roads here in my little town were barely de-iced. Im not expected at work in the morning, so thats a relief. We've had snow all week and all the schools have been closed for snow days. That meant that we all brought our little ones to work with us, and we were just so unproductive. It was the longest week ever!

I took the Monster and M&M out in the back when the snow first came to play. Monster had a ball, but M&M did not like it one bit. I ended up letting the Monster play while I nursed the baby in the window. I only let her play for maybe 10 minutes due to how cold it was. Brrrr!

Its beautiful, but cold. We've been having a winter storm warning all weekend with "potentially dangerous" conditions. How exciting! I was so hyped up that I took the kids out to Walmart in the beginning of the storm to get candles, canned soup and extra stuff. That was stupid, because it was packed with others doing the same. M&M was super cranky and I was totally exhausted by the time we got home. And to make it even worse, the wind that we were expecting never showed up. We did get tons of snow though. Enough that I dont want to venture out in it. And Im not usually scared of a little snow on the roads.

So, speaking of the holidays. I bought myself a Roomba as a present. I love it to pieces. Its so handy and does a really good job of vacuuming. I let it go and while I bathe the Monster and put her to bed, she's (Ive named it Rosie) cleans the kitchen floor for me. The other day, I had it clean the Monsters room while I fed her dinner. Yay! I think thats the best way to multi-task. Its like a happy little surprise when I go back to that room and find a clean floor. Hee hee!

Well, can you believe that my little baby is 3 months old now? He's a huge boy. Somewhere around 17lbs now. Thats like 3lbs more than the average baby at this age. Thats quite alot when you put into account how little these babies are. Ive discovered that he's cow milk intolerant. He gets bloated and cries in pain. So bad, in fact, that I took him to the ER one weekend because he had been crying non-stop since 4am. Poor guy! I was so worried. I was sure he was going to have to be admitted. Turned out that he had a scratch on his eyeball, but that wasnt really the reason he was so uncomfortable. It was the gas. Once he got out the gas, he was back to normal. I had eated some Costco ravioli with cheese and had a tummy ache for two days because of it (Im lactose intolerant). It was delicious!!! But the stomach ache was awful. Then M&M started fussing and was in so much pain, it was obvious that there was a connection. Especially when I had noticed months ago that if I ate a Blizzard from Dairy Queen, he would be fussy the next day too. No more dairy for me.

*sigh*

Well, Im super tired. Gotta rest my eyes...