Brrrr

So cold right now. I hate being too cold. It makes me cranky. I have always made it known that being cold sucks. Well, this summer, when it was SO HOT, I told DJ, "No matter how much I say I hate being too cold next winter, ignore me. I hate being too hot worse than that. If I say otherwise, ignore me." Well, I stand corrected, being too cold far and away out-sucks being too hot. His reasoning is that you can always put on more clothes. If you're too hot, you can only get so naked. Makes sense. But when it's super cold, you can only get on so many clothes. I think we need to move to San Diego.

Come to Mama

I am expecting. Expecting my new camera (baby) that is! Due to arrive Monday, hopefully won't be late. Labor pains have begun (watching the slow tracking progress across the US.) Can't wait to show her off!

Storm

We got hit by a windstorm in our little town yesterday. 120+ winds ripped through causing power outages (ours was out about 20 hours) and hundreds of trees, ripped, roots and all, right out of the ground. Many fell on powerlines and houses, like in these photos. These weren't little trees, we're talkin' 60'+ pinetrees and huge Maples, which looked like the Whompin' Willow from Harry Potter with their limbs whipping around, snapping lines and windows.

All is calm right now, weather-wise, but people scurrying about, starting the clean-up. We were fairly lucky - we only lost part of a fence and some house siding, maybe a few roof tiles, and have quite an assortment of big limbs scattered about the yard. We did watch through the night as a huge pinetree on the edge of our property leaned so violently that the ground around lifted up several feet around it. We're not out of the woods though, as we are supposed to get another night (Tuesday) of 60 mph winds, about 1/2 the strength of yesterday's, but with lots of stuff being weakened, it might be bad then too. The temperature, luckily, was warmish, about 50, but our HIGH by Thursday is supposed to be -5.

The upside was after the last of the Nintendo DS's and laptop's charge ran out, we got to watch the girls be inventive. Yes, Indy chimed "I'm bored " and "this is the worst day of my life" over and over, but we did get to play some silly games of Telephone and Charades. Everyone slept in the living room, like camping, to keep warm.

Hush

Ali Edwards has issued a sort of challenge to choose a word, one little word, that will define your year. I hadn't really set out to do this challenge, but as I uploaded this layout it occured to me that I am stressed. Signs of stress include seeing the birds flying in the air and hearing a voice in your head say "oh, how I wish that was me". Or chanting "I wish everyone would just leave me alone" as you drive to work. I couldn't tell you any particular thing that has me stressed, but I am certain it is a compilation of things, like the 1,000 times in a day I hear a sentence that begins with "Mom..." or "You need to fix..." or "Will you..." or "I need you to...", etc.

I know a vacation would surely help, but as that isn't possible (for quite some time), I have decided to adopt hush. I'm claiming it as my buzz word for 2007, or, rather, my hush word. So although this layout was initially about the "pretty picture", it has taken on a new meaning that had not occured to me until this very post. I need some hush.

Lylas, Brenda

I recieved a Christmas card yesterday from my very first friend! I met Brenda when I moved to Colorado Springs, CO in 4th grade. My family moved alot and I was always joining classes in the middle of the year. I was assigned Mr. Malfeld's class and remember sitting down at an empty desk, so self-conscious to be joining in the middle of the year, the day and the class! A few minutes later, a tall girl with long blonde hair made a little hidden waving motion at me and we were friends from then on. I lived in Colorado Springs for 3 years before moving to Denver in the 7th grade. Despite the 1 1/2 hour distance, our parents still made sure we got together for a weekend every month or so, and thus Brenda and I stayed friends. When I went away to college and my adult life, we lost track of each other. Years later my mom mentioned that she and dad still saw Brenda's parents occasionally for camping trips and I was thrilled to get Brenda's address. But as often happens in adulthood, another year went by. This year I included Brenda on my Christmas letter mailing and yesterday I heard back! A simple little card saying she was thrilled to have gotten my letter, see my family and that she would call as soon as the holidays were over. Two things I had "forgotten" came flooding back to me, bringing INSTANT tears to my eyes. Brenda was my pretty friend who 1) could not spell to save her sweet life and 2) always signed her notes to me "Lylas" (Love you like a sis). Well, in those few wonderful sentences (in which the handwriting was instantly familiar) she misspelled a word and she signed it "Lylas, Brenda". I sat like a blubbering idiot, bawling, smiling, unable to speak and I'm sure leaving my family thinking I had read something awful, when instead it was a misspelled "bussy" (busy). Love when you get a flood of memories that are so special that its like a little gift just for you.