a couple more snow pics

Well, here is our deck after the snow stopped falling. We got 22 inches of snow (according to the news people). I couldn't measure since it was deep in some spots, and not as deep in others.










Travis and I went out to help shovel the pipestem and made a little mohawk on Foxy girl. Awwww. :) I took her for a drive around the block and got lots of smiles and waves. Then, the snow chunks started falling off onto the windshield...time to go home. :)

It's Monday, now, and school has been cancelled the rest of the week (Sara was supposed to go today, tomorrow and half day on Wed). It's a good thing, tho. I think she might have the flu. She's a sick chick..fever and runny nose. She's been drinking lots of liquids and laying on the couch. My poor little baby. I have to go out to get our Christmas ham, and a couple of presents for Sara. Other than that, we're stayin' in. :)

DC Blizzard 2009 (enter new theme music..dun dun dun)

Well, they predicted we were going to get up to 24 inches around the DC Metro area. They were right! We got a TON of snow. When I measured on the deck it was 16 inches, but the deck isn't a real good indicator because it's kind of protected from the house. I had to go around the house to clear the snow from the heat pump and the snow was up to my thighs! Now, I have to say, the snow is blowing a bit, but that's still a lot of fluffy white stuff.

We are used to snow now, after living in SB for 3 years, but we only got one storm while we lived there that dropped this much snow at once. AND, there are no plows or salt trucks here. AND people in Virginia don't know how to drive in snow. Heck, they can't drive in rain!~ :)

Anyway, here are some pictures from this morning around 11ish. It's been snowing all day and since then, we've gotten a lot more. I'll post some more tomorrow, hopefully. We finally got our Christmas tree yesterday, so hopefully I will have those pics up too.

Here are the vehicles all covered with snow. Don't they look so cute?? :)












This is the deck at around 11 this morning.













Here is the deck around 4 this afternoon. Look at the chairs by the table and the bbq for comparison. We got a lot during the afternoon. I AM LOVING IT!! :)

So Much Stuff

We've had company for 3 weeks, now. Anisa's boyfriend, Aaron has been here from WI, then my mom, sis and niece came to visit for 5ish days. The girls left yesterday, Aaron leaves today. It is always so much fun having company, but it's nice to put the house back together, too. :)

I wanted to post this first, because it was the best day EVER~ we were in DC and a very sweet, tame squirrel came to visit us and even got on my lap. I was THRILLED. Tragically, later we watched a hawk swoop down and take another squirrel for lunch.














Since we've had company, we've been showing them around where we now live. My mom has been to DC several times, but we had to show Wendy and Kelsey and Aaron stuff. Here are some pictures of the last few weeks.

The sun coming into the National Cathedral.
















Mom, Wen and Kels in front of the White House.













The Beautiful Cousins.













Obama landing at the White House from Copenhagen.












A squirrel friend for Aaron.












The Ellipse from the top of the Washington Monument.













Sara had a dance competition this last weekend. They took 1st place, again, but we knew they would. The mix of kids really works. They get along, their coaches are incredible, it's just a really great experience for the dancers (and the parents). Here are some pics from the competition.

Today, Anisa and Aaron will get the last activities in and he will fly home this evening. I'm sure this evening at our house will not be a happy place, but we have had a really good time showing Aaron around. It's gonna be quiet around here, but with Christmas just next week, that will be ok. :)

Where am I?

Ok, guess where we are by the picture.....













Nope! We're not in Wisconsin anymore. It's Dec. 5, and we are in Virginia and IT'S SNOWING! wahoo!!!! The weatherman was right, and he's lucky. I had plans with my girlfriends to go to a BIG Christmas Bazaar up in Pennsylvania today, but "they" were calling for snow. So, we decided yesterday to cancel the trip just in case it really did snow. I woke up this morning and looked out and there was no snow. I felt the violence welling up in me, but a little while later, it started snowing! And I'm happy. Sad to have missed out on a girlfriend day out, but happy to see the beautiful snow. Us chicks will be rescheduling a day out soon! :)

Quiltiness

One thing that I DID have time to finish is the raffle quilt for the dance team. They are the West Springfield Spartans. Their colors are more of a navy blue, but oh well. Hopefully we can make some good money on this baby! :)

The team is going to Nationals in Orlando, FL in the spring, and any money we raise goes to the cost of the trip.

Now, I can work on some other projects that I've been wanting to work on. I'll show you all later! :)

Adventures

Ok, I have had company so that's why I haven't posted lately. But, here is what has been happening around here.

Anisa's boyfriend, Aaron, is here from Wisconsin. My cousin April came down from NY last week for a night. So, we took them into DC to explore. We went to the National Cathedral, Botanic Garden, Library of Congress, and lots of museums. Of course, the best part was all the squirrels we saw. :) Here are some pics of the trip....




















My mom, sis and niece are coming out next week and we'll be doing a lot of this all over again, but that's ok. Oh, and the weathermen are calling for possible snow fluffies this weekend. heehee I am not getting my hopes up, but it's possible.

WINNERS

The WSHS Dance team left the Paul VI competition with a 1st place trophy and an overall winner of choreography. To us parents and the spectators, this was a huge DUH. The team TOTALLY owned it! They performed their hearts out and it showed. I got all tingly and shaky when they were dancing....it was THAT good. Of course, I am biased since my baby is on the team. I felt the same way when I'd watch my girls dance in SB. :) This is a different kind of team, tho. Their coaches are dancers, choreographers and strict leaders. They don't allow drama, they expect only the best from their dancers, and there are rewards for good work and consequences for not doing what is expected. So far, I've seen that they are fair and even tho I don't necessarily like some of the consequences, they are consistent. I love that. :) Anyway, here are some highlights.

Here is a little zombie tower. Sara, Nicole and Nikky after they've been all made up and hair done.

















This is some of the hair teasing process. I heard they went through 3 cans of hairspray.













This is the whole scary bunch with their first place trophy and their plaque for best choreography. Plaques were also given for Audience appeal and best costumes. They could have won those, too, but they couldn't hog all the awards. :)

lately.....

Today we spent the day fixing my van. She's been running badly for a while...shuddering up hills, shifting hard, and making some funky noises. Turns out she had a bad distributor and needed a tune-up. We changed the distributor, cap, spark plugs/wires and fixed her timing. She is running like brand new! :) I'm very happy because we thought she was dead a couple of weeks ago. Travis was threatening to buy a new vehicle and I was mad! Now, I'm a happy girl, and so is Baby. :)

Last night I braved 36 degree night air to watch my baby girl perform at the football game. I can't post the routine, but here are a couple of pictures of the team. The dancers are all very nice...a couple of them need a little attitude adjustment, but they're teenagers! I've met some of the parents and so far, it seems like a really good group. One family even lives in our neighborhood and goes to the same church as we do! :) woot.














And that has been my life the last couple of days. Oh, and I've even gotten some sewing done. I'll post quilts soon! :)

Fall in Virginia

Well, since winter is almost here and fall is just about over, I figured I'd better hurry and get these pictures posted. The leaves are falling like CRAZY here, but there are still some trees hanging on to their leaves. The colors are now starting to fade a little, but there are still some bright colors.

These were taken last week out at Burke Lake. It's just about 5 miles from our house. Travis and I have run the trail (we saw a little fox), and we discovered how beautiful it is. I wanted to get some pics of the girls, but they weren't cooperating, so they'll have to suffer through another photo shoot another day. dorks. Anyway, here are the shots we took.

Our (soon to be) baker

Well, we finally got off our butts and got all the paperwork filed, gave away our money and now our baby is officially a college student. She's going to be working on her AA in Culinary Arts with a concentration in Baking and Pastry. Her future goal is to someday open a bakery with her BFF Karalee. They're both in classes and on their way to degrees, we'll see about the bakery in the future. :) Anyway, here she is in her uniform. Doesn't she look so cute?? We look forward to her homework. Keep watching, you may see her on Iron Chef or Ace of Cakes someday! :)

Blood and guts, well, no guts. :)

Travis and I have found a really great running trail. It's called the Cross County Trail (CCT). It goes from the top of Fairfax County, to the bottom, and it's about 40 miles. The really cool thing is it's accessible from our neighborhood. Well, we actually have to go through a little tree path to the next neighborhood over to the trailhead to the actual trail. The first time we ran on it we didn't know how far it was, where we were going, or much about it, but we felt good, loved the fresh air (better than running close to the Parkway with all the exhaust), and we saw 8 deer. That was my favorite part. We ended up running about 6 miles. That was the first day of the rest of our runs.... :) We REALLY like the trail, so we've taken to running down there instead of on our old, normal route.

Now, some of the trail is paved, there is a creek that runs by it and sometimes you have to cross over it, but there are built up stepping stones to go across without getting wet. Some of the trail is dirt or crushed rock. I like running on the dirt better just because it's softer than the asphalt part. But on Wed the unpaved part of the trail got me a good one! There are hills on the trail, and Travis likes to bonzai down them. So, if I was in the front and we came to a downhill, I'd let him go first so he could go full force down and I could be careful. I had warned him early in the run that I had to be careful so the children would still have one parent if he killed himself! hee hee So, we were done with about 5 miles, had one mile to go. We went up this rooted, rutted, dirt hill and had to go down the other side. I let Travis go in front of me so I could "be careful" and a root just jumped out and grabbed my foot and I went down! Travis said all he heard was my scream. I hit with my hands and knee, then rolled. I told him I wish he had been behind me so at least one of us could have seen how funny it looked. He rushed back to me and made me get up before it stiffened up. We walked a bit and it actually didn't hurt too much so we finished our run with blood down my leg.

Here we are after we got home. I'm pretty proud of my Gnarly Trail Run Injury. :) I don't want to do it again, but we are definitely staying on the trail to run. We'll just take a pack with bandages and maybe some little medicated towelettes. :) Today is Saturday, my knee looks good, just a few scabs, not nearly as cool as when I did it. We're going to attempt 10 miles today. I'll keep you posted. :)

college

Well, it's official. We FINALLY got Anisa enrolled in school and she starts Oct. 5!~ :) She'll be going to Art Institute and working on her AA in Culinary Arts specializing in Baking and Pastry. I'm sure we will LOVE her homework! :) Sorry for no picture, but when she gets all her supplies, I'll post a picture of her in her uniform.

Postcards anyone?

Hey gang,
One of the sweet daughters of the family who moved into our Sturgeon Bay house is asking for postcards from all over the world for a class project. If you can send a postcard to her, email me or comment me for her address, or if you have my old SB address, you can just send it there to Ashton Spritka. Thanks!! love you all! :)

BREAKING NEWS.....

Sara made Dance Team!! woot!

She went on Thursday to try-outs. They had to freestyle and learn the try-out routines. She came home tired and sore and has a huge bruise on her leg.

Well, Friday she said she might not try out because she couldn't remember the routine. She said it was harder than the finished routines on her last team. She couldn't do some of the moves, etc. Anyway, we all tried talking to her, but her mind was made up. She wasn't going to finish try-outs. We picked her up after school, got home and the phone rang. It was the coach. She asked Sara why she wasn't there, Sara told her the same thing she had told me....she didn't think she could do it, couldn't remember the routine, blah blah blah. The coach told her to come and try. If she couldn't get it after they reviewed the routine she could leave. Well, we never got a phone call to come get her. Anisa went to pick her up at 7, and at 7:45 she came out....ON THE TEAM! :)

She is a very sore girl. This team has a really hard work-out schedule, well, really hard if you're not used to it. ;) Anyway, we look forward to spending all our money, um, er, I mean watching our girl dance again this year. :) We had so much fun watching both girls dance at SB. These are the times I love being a mom. :)

Tea Party, anyone?

We decided at the last minute to head into DC on 9-12 for the Tea Party. There was no tea drinking, just jillions of people in crazy outfits, t-shirts and carrying signs telling the government to stop spending all our money on stupid stuff. It was cool. Lots of energy. Everyone seemed happy to be there. Here are some highlights....

National Cathedral

Some of you know the girls were in Wisconsin for 2 weeks before school started. They had fun with their friends, and were sad to come back to DC.

Travis and I had 2 weeks ALONE. We were going to go camping, but the weather was so hot and humid we decided it would be miserable. We went into the city and went to the National Cathedral instead (well, for one day, anyway). Here are some pictures of it. Pictures don't come close to showing how really beautiful it is. But when you all come to visit us, we'll take you there! :)

Here is the north side of the building.













This is looking toward the front of the church.


















Here are some of the stained glass windows.


















This is my favorite little set of windows. When I saw them, I thought they were perfect inspiration for a quilt... ;)













Here is the front of the church, the Jerusalem Altar.


















Here is another shot of the outside from the garden.












After we took the tour at the cathedral, we decided to walk down one of the main road to find another metro stop. We ended up on Embassy Row (Massachusetts Ave). Here are some of the embassy buildings....
Britain's embassy...it's HUGE! This is only half of the building. Then there are the residence buildings on the side.










Ireland













Chad