Snow Day, Sick Day and Tsunami

We had a snow day on Monday. While I hate getting calls at 5:20 in the morning it was worth it to get this call. I was planning to call in sick anyway so getting the snow day was a bonus. Then on Tuesday I took a sick day anyway. That cold just made me feel crappy but by Wednesday I was feeling better and back to work. We got about 5-6 inches of snow on Monday and it's been cold and gray ever since. Supposedly next week we will have temps in the 30's so maybe some of this snow will melt a bit. It's only a few weeks until Spring after all so we should be getting some warmer days sometime!

I took the pups to the high school field today and the snow was so deep they had to hop instead of run. They got worn out pretty quick though so we weren't there too long.


Zoe really wanted to go yesterday too and was giving me the sad puppy dog eyes yesterday around 4:00.

I didn't cave in though but I will admit to feeling guilty about it. I just didn't feel like going out in the elements.

Another reason I didn't want to take them out yesterday is we were pretty much glued to CNN all afternoon waiting for the tsunami to hit Hawaii. Tyler called yesterday morning just after I caught the news about the earthquake in Chile and the possible tsunami that was headed for Hawaii. He had already been to a couple stores in search of water and was planning to pack up and head to a friend's house who lives inland a bit and just hang out there. Thankfully there was no tsunami and no damage.

The worst that happened was that he lost a day of job searching. Speaking of which, he's really beating the bushes and not having any luck so far. He has rent money for March but he really needs to find something soon. He's trying to stay positive though and tells me he's planning to have a job by the end of the week! Good thoughts and prayers are out there for you Tyler! Keep up the search. I know you'll find something soon.

Amber had a little good news on Wednesday. Her infection was finally clearing up and she could go back to nursing. We were all happy about that but no one as happy as Quinn! She's still feeling under the weather with her cold and cough. Amber reports that she is sleeping pretty good most nights though which is a blessing for all of them!

I miss the little sweetie even though it's only been a couple weeks since I've seen her! I hope I can make it another month until we go back again. It's gonna be a long month.

So, that's it for the week. We've been watching the Olympics every night and I will miss them when they're over tonight. Right now the hockey game between the US and Canada is on and Canada just scored. This is gonna be an interesting game and I don't even like hockey.

This coming week I have conferences, a couple half days (though I think I have to work both of them, the kids won't be there those days), I start my Rainbows group tomorrow during lunch (I have 8 kids in it this year, who have all suffered some type of loss in their life either through divorce, separation or death), Bunco is Thursday night and bowling Friday night.

Busy week!

Words and other stuff

I made it home with no drama on Tuesday. No long lines, no denied boarding, no delays. It was nice to come home to H, Scott, Zoe, Charlie and my own bed! It's funny how no bed feels as comfortable as your own. I had to think twice about leaving as Amber was having a couple complications. The most serious one is some type of infection at her incision site that was rather worrisome. After a quick trip to the Dr. on Monday she was started on antibiotics and it seems to be clearing up. The consequence of it not clearing up could have been hospitalization which would not have been good. Then on top of that she caught Andy's cold and was feeling miserable.

Now Quinn seems to be having some symptoms of the cold too. I'm praying that is all it will be. A cold in an adult is a pain but in a baby or child it's compounded as they seem to be even more miserable. I'm also praying it clears up quickly and doesn't turn into anything else!

Even though I only had 3 days of work it seemed longer. I'm sure some of that has to do with the feelings I'm having about my job coming to an end. I will really miss the kids I've come to know over the years and helping them. I feel like I have made a difference in a few lives over the years. When you know something will be ending sometimes you just want it to be done already! That way I can get on to something new but right now I'm just hanging in there. March will be a very long month. Nothing to really look forward to except April and Spring Break!!

I took Zoe and Charlie to the park today. Boy, did Charlie need to get out and run! He hasn't been out for a couple weeks and was really in need of fresh air and frisbee. After that we went for a ride to buy bird seed, through the car wash and then got gas. They just seemed to be enjoying the ride and sticking their heads out the window. It's not warm here today but it's not as cold as usual and the sun is out so it feels warm. The long line at the car wash proved I wasn't the only one feeling that way.

We had bowling last night and it was a struggle. None of us seemed to be on our game. I didn't bowl my average once. Not good. Judy and H weren't much better. We had to give the other team 111 points and they only had two members of their team there, thank goodness. Even with that advantage we were only able to take two games and they got one game and totals. Bummer. The race to the top is close though. There are 6 teams within just a couple points of first place. We are tied for 3rd, two teams are tied for 2nd but the top team is only ahead of us by 2. So, if we could just get our act together we are within striking distance! There are only about 5 or 6 more times to bowl. I'm hoping Bill will be able to join us a couple times and help us get our points up. Another bummer last night was that I missed out on winning $400! They have a house mystery jackpot and I rarely enter because they only call one number and it seems like it's always in the 200's and I never bowl in the 200's. Last night they called 135 and that was exactly what I bowled! I guess it's true what they say, you can't win if you don't play! For $1 I will probably play from now on. A guy on our league won the $400. Of course, if I had put my dollar in last night he and I would have had to split it and I would only have been $200 richer! Still, $200 would have been nice too. Live and learn.

I'm in to day two of writing this entry. I started watching the Olympics last night and just never finished so I figured I'd add to it today. Things with Amber have gone from bad to worse. Seems her infection is worse, the Dr. upped her antibiotics and she will have to stop nursing Quinn for a while as the antibiotics aren't good for her milk supply. Poor Quinn will not be happy especially at this time since she also has a cold!

Poor baby and hence poor Mommy and Daddy because you can be sure a baby will always pass that misery on. I'm just hoping and praying the antibiotic works this time and clears this thing up once and for all.

I also have a cold this weekend but I think I caught it from the student teacher at work who I share a desk with. She sounded really bad and when I mentioned that she should really be at home she told me she couldn't really afford to take the time off! Nice. Now I'm feeling so crappy that I'm seriously considering not going in tomorrow. That's what's wrong with people who get sick and go to work. They pass it on and wimps like me can't do our jobs when we feel this crappy. Unless I feel lots better by morning I will be using one of my sick days.

I took the pups to the park again today and we went to a different field, the one where as soon as Charlie gets out of the car he takes off. It's so weird. He doesn't do it from the soccer field, only when we are at the football field. He runs toward the soccer field as fast as he can, disappears around the corner, completely ignoring my yells and calls of "Charlie, here Charlie". I give up and say, fine, run away you stupid dog, start playing with Zoe and then a few minutes later I turn around and here comes the big dummy, back to play frisbee with us.


I took some pictures today, trying out some different settings. The one I used today is supposed to freeze the action. And let me tell you, there was plenty of action.

Zoe was in rare form today, getting most of what was tossed and then trying to intimidate Charlie if he tried to come near. He actually cowered once or twice, her growls were so fierce!








The sun was out both days this weekend, giving false hope that Spring is just around the corner. The snow on the ground was actually melting quite a bit today. But just when you think you can put away the heavy coat and snow boots, the weatherman announces that another winter storm warning is in effect and you are going to get 5 to 7 inches of new snow tomorrow! Not kidding here, we are getting more snow tomorrow. Another good reason to take a sick day.

The following link will take you to this site where you can put in your blog address and it takes all the words you use the most often and makes this cool design. Apparently I use the word "just" alot and a few others. I tried to take the word "gout" out of it but I don't think it worked! I also tried every which way to copy it somehow and paste it in here but apparently I'm not technically savvy enough to figure that out. Oh well.

title="Wordle: just words"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/1689387/just_words"
alt="Wordle: just words"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

Have a good week!!

I Made It...

I finally made it to Virginia but there were a few hours there that I wasn't sure I would, at least not on Saturday. It started at the check-in line, even though I thought I had arrived in plenty of time. The line snaked back and forth and after about 15 minutes in it while talking to the lady in front of me, we both realized we would need a boarding pass to check our luggage. She was nice enough to offer to watch my stuff while I went over to the kiosk to get my boarding pass and then I did the same for her. From there I headed to another long line to get through security. By the time I got to the gate I was feeling pretty thankful that I had made it just in time. That's where the real trouble started. We were supposed to board around 10:00 but when there was no call to board I figured something was up. Turned out they were just late getting the luggage on board.

So now it was time to line up to board. Being the rule=follower that I am, I waited until my "zone" was called and of course, it was the last zone to be called. When I finally got up there to have my boarding pass scanned I was told that I had to be "reseated" and to go wait in a long line that I hadn't even noticed. By the time I got to the front of that line I was hearing rumblings that not all of us were gonna make it onto that plane. Apparently they downsized the plane. It was getting down to loading person by person. The gate agent would take one person down the walkway one at a time then come back to see if there was room for another one. They finally took the man before me, came back and closed the door! No more room. Next flight to Baltimore at 1:55, full. After much searching she was able to get me on a flight to DC at 5:20 that afternoon. That meant 7 hours of waiting at the airport. I decided to go have lunch and then came back to hang around the gate just in case the 1:55 flight wasn't completely full or in case people didn't show up. Apparently everything was a mess because of Delta and Northwest merging and the snowstorm in the southeast. The one good thing that came out of it all was that the plane I was supposed to get on at 10:30 ended up coming back from the taxiway because of a mechanical problem. First I heard it was the tires and then I heard it was the brakes. Those people had to sit on the plane until about 1:30 when the mechanical problems were finally fixed. I was so happy not to be on that plane! About that time they started loading the 1:55 flight. The agent from the other gate came up to me, asked for my boarding pass and said he would put me on a list for this flight. Apparently they had sent a bigger plane this time than planned so I, along with the 6 other people who missed the first flight, were on this flight and on our way to Baltimore! It ended up being good in many ways; I didn't have to wait until 5:30 and I was able to go to Baltimore, where my luggage went. If I had flown into DC I would have had to file a claim for my luggage and probably wait until the next day. I was able to make a quick call to Amber & Andy from the plane that the plans had changed, yet again. After an uneventful (thank goodness) flight, a quick search for my suitcase that was in a holding area, I was reunited with Quinn and Amber and Andy. Quite the eventful day. Then there was the drive home on the Beltway! Yikes! I think I'll try not to fly into Baltimore any more, unless I absolutely have to! Oh, another good thing that came out of being denied boarding (which is what they called it) was that I got a $400 voucher to fly on Delta at any time within the next year! That's at least 2 more trips to visit Quinn!

Look at these beautiful flowers that H surprised me with Friday night.



I'll be spending my Valentine's Day with a little sweetie named Quinn. Here she is in her little Valentine's Day outfit that my friend Natalie gave her. So cute!!


Here's Andy, taking his turn at putting Quinn to sleep. I've been calling him "the Bouncer" since his newest trick in getting Quinn to stop crying is bouncing her up and down on an exercise ball. She really seems to enjoy it and it quiets her down right away!


She doesn't really seem to like sleeping much during the day. I've never known a baby to not need a nap during the day like this. It's so hard because just when you think you've got her to sleep, all bundled up warmly, placed in her crib, it's just 10 minutes later and she's up again! I guess it's good that at least she's sleeping for 3 or 4 hours a night most of the time.


It will be my turn to hold her again soon so I'll write more later.

Hello Snow Day!

It finally arrived! The Snow Day everyone at work had been waiting for! I felt pretty sure it would happen yesterday. Although the weather predictors are often wrong, this just looked like The One! They had been predicting 6-10 inches pretty much all week. This morning the weather report for our area was between 7-8 inches.


The nice thing was we actually got the call last night around 10:30 instead of around 5:30 a.m. this morning like we usually do. That made it possible to just turn off the alarm last night and be able to sleep in this morning. The pups actually let me stay in bed until around 8:30! That's really late for them but they were enjoying their time snuggling up on the bed.

H stayed home today too. When the schools near his office are closed they close the office too. Of course he's still working. As long as we have electricity he's plugged in and plugging away. Right now though he's outside with his fancy snow blower clearing away the snow.

After waiting 20 years to finally buy one we've hardly used it at all. Isn't that always the way? I'm sure he's thankful about now that he has it though instead of having to shovel 8 inches of snow!


Amber & Andy are also getting another blast of winter in DC. They are expecting another 10-12 inches and the news was showing a white out at the White House. Amber called this morning and said the wind was really blowing. Andy's sister, Liz, is there visiting and her flight was cancelled. She's hoping to be able to get out tomorrow once the storm stops and the runways are cleared off. I'm hoping that will mean I won't have any trouble getting in on Saturday. I'm so looking forward to spending time with my sweet little Granddaughter again. Amber says she's had a couple fussy days. It's so hard to know what's wrong with them. Amber thinks it could be gas as she's pulling her legs up. Poor Baby!

The pups were watching H with interest, hoping they might be invited out to play too. When I took them out first thing this morning they were hopping around like bunnies because the snow was so deep, especially Zoe. She's a little shorter and the snow was almost up to her belly. I'm not sure if I'll make it out with them today or not. It's past noon and I'm still in my pj's!


Maybe I'll at least get out to fill up the birdfeeders. I'll have to look for my taller boots though if I'm gonna make it out there without getting snow in my socks!


Maybe someone would just be happy with a new batch of dog cookies!


Have a great day and if it's snowing where you are, stay warm and safe! I'm sure I'll be back to work tomorrow!

It's Still Winter...

Yes, it's still winter here. Though I guess you could say we've dodged the bullet (or at least the big snowstorms) this year. I think our total snowfall for this winter season is about 17". Our "norm" is about 40". It's been cold but at least the sun was out, both days, this weekend. That's a bonus!



Friday night was bowling and I wasn't sure how I would do since I hadn't bowled in a month. My foot only hurts a little, nothing to really worry about but I took some Advil before bowling, just in case. The other team had pre-bowled so it was just the 3 of us (Bill had to work) so we just took our time. We won the first game by 20+ pins, lost the second game by 2 pins and won the third game by 2 pins. Crazy! We ended up taking the 2 games and totals. We are up near the top, tied for 3rd or 4th, something like that.

Saturday I took the pups to the park. It was about 24 degrees and the wind was whipping! At one point we were blocked from the wind behind some trees but once you came out from behind those trees the wind was brutal! Charlie was in rare form, catching everything thrown his way.



The only time Zoe was able to catch something was if Charlie decided he didn't feel like running after that one. I have to give her credit though, she goes out every time.


She's determined and doesn't give up even when Charlie is the frisbee hog!









Even in 24 degree temps they get winded and hot! Always panting!


Zoe started eating this snow and Charlie came right over to see what he was missing.


The rest of the weekend was spent catching up with laundry and doing a little cooking. I made pizzas Saturday night. I split the dough 3 ways and we each had our own personal pizzas. They are getting better each time I make them. I guess it's true, practice does make perfect. Well, not exactly perfect yet, but better.

Amber and Andy (and Quinn) got a ton of snow over the weekend. I'm so glad I wasn't flying in this weekend! I wouldn't have made it as all the flights to Baltimore were cancelled on Saturday. They lost their power early Saturday morning for a few hours but thankfully got it back before they really started getting cold. Today they were even able to get out (in the car) and go out to lunch and to the grocery store. I'm kind of surprised there was anything left to buy. CNN was reporting that there wasn't much left on the shelves as people were buying supplies for "the blizzard" that was coming! I heard on the Weather Channel that Dulles Airport got 36" of snow. That's a lot of snow! I'm counting the days until my visit (5 to go). I know it's only been a few weeks but I think Quinn is growing already! Just look at her here!


We have the Superbowl on right now. I'm listening (sort of) to it but not really watching. I'm trying to keep my eyes on some of the commercials. Boy, Doritos has really spent some money tonight. I think I've seen at least 5 commercials so far for Doritos. So far I haven't seen anything that entertaining. I thought the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet was more entertaining. I guess I'm just not a football fan. The only time I come close to enjoying football is when The University of Michigan is playing.

Tomorrow before school we have a meeting with the head of Special Ed. I'm not really sure what she's gonna tell us but it should be interesting. I guess I'll know more tomorrow how likely it is that I'll have a job next year.

Today I was reading a blog that explained how to use your camera on more than just the automatic setting. I pretty much leave it on auto since I really don't know what I'm doing. I'm gonna try using some different settings though next time I'm at the park. I took this one today and it does seem better to me, more clear. Or is it just my imagination?


Have a good week! And good luck job hunting Tyler! I hope you find something soon!