TGIF

Have a great weekend all regardless of the weather - and be safe on your trip, Jim and Kathy!

Happy Friday!

Weatherman promises 60 degrees today. I am so excited!!

Sorry I didn't get to writing for the NL this past month. Our days whirl past us and before I know it we're two months into a new year.

Things really are status quo around here. Scott has been doing some occasional day travel, but nothing too extensive. He does have a trip to Belgium in April, and I think mom is planning to come stay for a few days as it will be during Walleye Festival, and we plan to participate in the rummage sales this year. If you aren't familiar with Freeland Walleye Festival, there are literally HUNDREDS of sales throughout all the neighborhoods. I have considered renting a porta-potty and charging for usage there are THAT many people here. I am not even joking. Mom, back me up here. Freeland schools actually CLOSE the Friday of Walleye festival because the buses can't get through. A school district CLOSES for a RUMMAGE SALE. Yup.

Anyway, that was quite a sidetrack, huh? But, it's a lot more interesting than what's going around here. LOL Our day-to-day involves assorted playgroups and chasing toddlers. It's fun, and busy, and I really enjoy watching the kids grow, but it is exhausting.

Scott and I enjoyed a night away for our 6th wedding anniversary while mom stayed with the kids. We shopped at Somerset, then had dinner at the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant. Yummy.

We're both running three days per week, and I'm using my Wii Fit a couple days per week, too. We're thinking about joining the Midland Community Center to take advantage of the fitness classes,indoor pools, free babysitting and toddler "Jungle Gym" which the kids enjoy very much. I'll post pictures on my blog soon.

The kids love playing outside and we can't wait for spring to come. In fact, yesterday Evan helped himself to the great outdoors while I was upstairs with Rowan. He quickly learned that going outside in February without shoes on is a BAD idea (that was Gram's reference...he had some uncomfortable tootsies for a bit.)

Evan and Rowan were both evaluated for language development by our state consultant (for their hearing loss) and are both testing well advance of their age. Their hearing loss remains unchanged, but they're learning what they need to in spite of it. More info on my blog if you're interested.

Well, the kids are growing impatient with mommy's activity on the computer, so that's it for now.

Love to all!

Well, today Suzanne and Jim left early morning. We had gorgeous, quite warm weather and they go burned at the beach BUT the cold weather returned tonight and the rest of the week, high in the 50,s.
Congrats to Marc and Jamie with a new little one coming in Sept. We hope you will make the reunion in June.
Tracy, what a scare and I bet Rowan's feet hurt for awhile. No wonder he clung to you.
Congrats to you and Scott on the improvement in R&E hearing testing.
Working with the little ones pays off every time.
Love to all but disappointed in the response to the NL this month. Don't you love us anymore?

Suzanne and Jim should be on the ground and almost to Raintree now. We don't promise sunny weather but they won't have to shovel for a few days.
Next weekend J&K start down and hopefully out weather patterns will be settled a bit by then.
Have a good week all and be happy.

Must everyone is writing the NL, no current postings. Love to you and have a super weekend.

3rd storm in 10 days...

Wow...SW Ohio seems to think it's located in the North East! Crazy weather for us. We now have about a foot and a half of snow on the ground and it's still snowing! It's supposed to taper off this afternoon but the roads are still slick and dangerous.

And the icicles are out of control on our house! There are a couple of GIANT ones on the front that are easily 3+ feet long!!!

Well, I have a training at 11am so I'm going to start the slow crawl in that general direction soon.

Happy Tuesday all! xoxo

Hi all,

Enjoying a nice weekend with Scott's mom Dianne. She flew in for a surprise party we're having for Scott at a Japanese steakhouse here in a couple hours. I think he has no idea. Usually he isn't at all good at keeping secrets or surprises, so if he did know, he'd be all goofy about it, and he isn't. We'll see. He doesn't read this blog, so I feel safe sharing. I'll try to remember to take pictures but I've been bad about that lately...somehow wrangling two toddlers nonstop keeps me away from my camera.

We have a very good prospect for our house looking at it a second time on Monday. She called our realtor to ask for a second walkthru and actually told him she'd been prequalified for a loan specifically for our house. She's our next door neighbor's daughter's gymnastic coach, a recent divorcee (whose ex lives in the neighborhood behind us) and has a young son in Freeland schools. Apparantly she "fell in love" with our house and wanted to initially rent it; since we need the equity for our new build, we couldn't do it, so it's promising that she's still very interested and taking steps towards buying. We'll see. We hate to get our hopes up, but according to our neighbor, she is still on very good terms with her ex-husband and everybody, including him, is encouraging her to just step up and buy. Fingers crossed.

Hope everybody is staying warm. We've dug ourselves out and things aren't as cold as they have been.

Cold and Windy

We have GOT to move further south. I am in Fort Myers this morning; the wind is whipping and the high is predicted to be 59! Are you KIDDING me? At least it isn't raining this morning. We had that all day yesterday. I drove down when I got out of work at 2:30. Visibility was less than a mile and all the idiots were out driving like it was black ice. But I got here OK by 5. We all went out to eat at Applebee's then watched some of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Such fun!

Happy Helpers

OK all u FBer's. U no who u r. We need neighbors on Happy Island. We don't care if you play and we promise to never send you a gift so you have to clear your "requests." :) Thanks. U will hear from us!!

New email address

Thought I would post here in case my email didn't get to people. Our new email address is:

kjmcq@avci.net

The old one doesn't work any more & hasn't since the evening of Feb. 9.

Shoulder Saga

The final chapter of the shoulder saga. I saw the Ortho doc on Monday and he said use the arm, strengthen the muscles, be patient with the amount of time it will take to feel "normal," and don't do anything crazy with it for a few more months. So I guess water skiing, tug of war, snow shoveling, etc. are off my list for awhile:) I'm done with PT but will continue the exercises at home, ice it when there's pain, and move on.

Made it!

...to Florida, despite a WHOLE bunch of snow. I was concerned that the flight would be delayed but no problems, no worries. I'm warm (sort of) and safe in the bosom of Mom and Dad - and Lori. Di will be down in a couple days. I'm excited!!!

That's how winter goes when you live in the snow belt. Yuck! It gets a bit much afterawhile.

Here we "snow" again...

Trying to make the best of another day snowed in at home. So far I've returned some work emails and spent several hours on the phone with IT support to get help with computer issues. Eric will be home soon, they're closing the office at 1pm because of the Snow Emergency issued.

Good thing we have lots of soup and beef stew left from last week's storm! :)

Hope all is well with the rest of you! :)

Gamma that's one way to get both of the kids in a picture facing front. Thanks.

Saturday

Yes, it's snowing in Freeland too! We had a great time at the Professional Bull Riding show last night with Jim and Kathy. What a hoot! Me, Rowan and Evan are just starting to have fun. They are just up from their naps and in pretty good spirits. Here's a couple pics just to make you smile. XO

All of that information is wonderful, Joni, in Ohio and wherever else it may be falling, Our sunshine is beautiful, the wind is strong but we are enjoying it.
G'pa's porch garden has started to sprout seeds, radishes, carrots, cukes and summer squash. We Sandy gets here she can teach me how to post pictures and we will send some.
Enjoy the snow all, as we USE to,

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

...but the "furnace" is so delightful, and since we've no place to go...let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

And snow it has! At least 8 inches on the ground since yesterday afternoon. Luckily we are prepared to hunker down and stay in for the weekend!

We have movies and books from the library, a giant pot of chicken noodle soup on the stove and lots of time for Rockband jam sessions!

Of course, Mozart LOVES the snow, as usual. He went crazy running around when Eric took him for his walk this morning. The fact that the snow came up to his belly didn't slow him down a bit!

Brian too! Brent is going on a cruise in March so I'm sure he will be traveled out.

Good news. We're looking forward to you coming.
Are you going to get Brent to book a trip this winter?

G

FLA!

Just booked our flight to FL for March!!! We arrive in Orlando on March 25th at night, and will leave from there on April 2nd. Patrick's Dad and sister live in Cocoa area and have a vehicle we can use for our trip. Not sure when we'll head to NFM, but we will for sure be there!! Details in the future!! Can't wait to see the FL family!!!

Wednesday

One more week until I go to FL for 5 days! But I'll be busy so the time will go fast. Friday night, we're going with Jim & Kathy to a professional bull riding competition at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw. It's like a rodeo but with only the bulls! Then Saturday, I'm having a PJ party with Evan and Rowan at their place. It's Scott's weekend before birthday celebration so E&R get to watch Gemma for the night.

I'm sure I'll have to make meals and leave notes for Ray before I go south so as I said, I'll be busy! Please have the warm weather saved up for me!