R.I.P. Frosty

Today, the last day of February of 2010, our beloved snowman passed away only six days after being brought into this world. The temperature outside reached 50 degrees and he could not cope. Standing happily in the shade on our back patio, he brought us joy for nearly a week before returning to the watery state from which he began. As Winter slowly yields to Spring this water will wash into the Earth, and next Winter the cycle will begin anew. The box of snowman parts will come out and a new figure will be created. Will we see the return of the snow chick?

before and after

You know how when you go to someone's house, see some cool stuff, and then you come home and your house looks not so awesome? Well, after visiting some of our family and friends this past vacation, my mind has been on re-decoration overdrive since we got home.

I already re-arranged Paige's room. I did that on Sunday afternoon. And, it's MUCH better.

Then, I took a look at our family room/great room. It's so BORING. We already painted. New furniture is not in our budget. How about some new draperies? Yes, we can do that.

I know that Eric doesn't think so, but man oh man, adding some draperies to a room really makes a difference.

Here is the before:

And now, the after:
MUCH BETTER don't you think?

In case you are wondering - the clock on the sofa table is broken, so it's always 10 o'clock in the front room.

I am now reviewing paint colors for the kitchen. I am just doing an accent wall. It's probably going to be red. I am a little scared, but I am just going to dig in and do it.

And incidentally, it looks like this outside.Have a great weekend...you may be seeing more before and after on Monday. I think I may be making a paint run to Lowes later on......

never before seen....

Is it really true...is February almost over? Well, It must be. My February photo file is just busting at the seams. And while looking through my photos for the month, I found some that escaped my blog that I am just loving....even the one of myself. So, as a treat, I thought I would share.

These days, I am finding that more and more I am reaching for my SLR camera rather than my p&s. The result is much prettier photos. And in a couple months, I will be pulling my hair out when I am trying to pick which ones I want to scrapbook. I am about a year behind in my scrapbooking, and I am trying out a new system of not printing anything until I need it. I am hoping that this results in a lot less photos that are sitting around not being scrapbooked because I have no earthly idea why I printed them....

But these photos, will most likely be on the top of my printing list for February:








Happy Thursday!

vacation. days four thru end.

After DisneyWorld and all it's magic, we left on Tuesday morning for South Florida and loads of family and friends. We stayed with Eric's parents and watched them get to re-new their relationship with their Grand-daughters. It was a delight.

Wednesday was a day I would like to forget. Not because I didn't have a very good time seeing all my co-workers at Adventure Travels, and not because I didn't have a perfectly wonderful lunch with my good friend Linda at our all time favorite place - La Bamba, and also not because I got to spend time with my old friends at the McCarver house.....no, I would very much like to forget my eldest daughter's run in with a moving car at the Promenade of Coconut Creek.

The story goes like this: We left La Bamba in Ft. Lauderdale to go back to our old neighborhood, see our old house, maybe see some of our old neighbors, and play in our old park. Well, our neighbor friends weren't home at that point, and we all needed a bathroom break. I wasn't sure if the bathrooms at the park would be open, so I decided we would check out the new shopping plaza and use their facilities. We went into a Starbucks, did our thing, and waited outside for Eric. I spied this really nice fountain, suggested to Emily that we go and have a picture taken by it, she agreed and was off. I guess she didn't realize that the cobblestone/paver walkway was also for cars, and she went running....right into the side of a moving car. Luckily, she wasn't two seconds sooner, or else she would have been under the car. As it was, she smashed her nose into the side of the car, and was bleeding quite profusely. Yeah. It was very scary. She wasn't knocked unconscious. She knew her name and age. And after a couple minutes, the nose bleeding subsided. Everyone within the vicinity of the accident was totally wonderful, and brought us napkins, wipes, water, bags and bags of ice, and even a stuffed reindeer. I am truly thankful for all their help.

So, Ann-Marie, this is why we never made it to your house......we were totally planning on going back to see if you were home after our pit stop, but, for obvious reasons, we couldn't.

Anyway - Emily took it easy for the rest of the night. Her swelling went down as the evening wore on. She never complained of any pain other than just on her actual nose. No black eyes the next morning, just slight bruising on the bridge of her nose. Another side effect - parents who now cannot stop warning her about cars...even if they are miles away. :)

I can still hear the sound of her hitting the side of that car. It haunts me. It was my suggestion to go and have their picture by the fountain.....ahhhh, Mother's guilt, right?

So, on a lighter note...pictures:

The following, are from Thursday - we spent the day with Eric's parents, and Aunt Ingi. The girls finally got to go to a park, and had a fun day.



We also saw 7 alligators in the morning at a nature preserve in Boynton Beach:










And that's pretty much it. I didn't really take any pictures in Tennessee. We just enjoyed a relaxing 23 hours with my Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Ed. And then we took off Saturday afternoon for home - we arrived at midnight, and collapsed into bed.

Glad we made it safely - glad no one got really hurt - and glad to see everyone. Good vacation.

we interrupt this blog.......

To bring you pictures from our snow day......

vacation pictures will resume tomorrow.

BTW - Emily DID have school today. Which is hilarious because they had a snow day almost two weeks ago - and there was at least TWICE as much snow today. Gotta love it!

vacation. days three and four.

On our third day of vacation we left Atlanta around 8am. It was about an eight hour drive - that's with stops for gas and food. We got to our room, ate a dinner/snack, and took off for Downtown Disney...we took the boat instead of the bus. It seemed much more exciting. And it was, but, dang, it was FREEZING. And, in case you were wondering, YES, we took the bus, not the boat, back to the hotel.



Downtown Disney was CROWDED. Wall to wall people in the LEGO store. Emily picked out a new house building set. Eric loaded up on a la carte Lego parts. I tried to keep Paige out of trouble. She, Paige, picked out a stuffed "Lumpy" - from the Heffalump movie. Lumpy is no longer with us...but I'll go into that a bit later.

We went back to the room around 9ish and set the alarm for a wake up at 6:30am. The park opened at 9am, and we wanted to squeeze every possible minute out of the day at the Magic Kingdom that we could.


Waiting for the gates to open. The Mayor of Disney comes out and they do this song and dance, Mickey and all the others arrive on the train, throw out some fairy dust, and the park opens. It was very Disney. And of course, I got all teary. I am such a Disney sap.


First stop was the Teacups.



Then the cars.



Dumbo.
And the Carousel. We rode this THREE times.

Nap time...see Lumpy??

Emily on her second roller coaster of the day. She rode on Thunder Mountain earlier...her first time, and she LOVED it.

Then, we had lunch at the Crystal Palace. If you have never eaten there, I highly recommend it. It's buffet style, but the food is AWESOME. Really. They have the BEST pickles. And mashed potatoes, salad, chicken, steak.....No kidding. AND, the characters - Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet - come right to your table. And since it's the CRYSTAL palace, the roof is all windows, so the light is DIVINE. They do this parade around the whole restaurant where the kids get follow them and wave their napkins in the air. Emily loved it all. The only thing is, it's a lot of distraction, and apparently this leads to little children not eating much. Oh well. It's my favorite place to eat at Disney, and if we don't get to go there, my visit is just not complete.

Paige loved all the characters. And even though Emily doesn't really remember, she was still an old hat at knowing what to do. I did ask her at one point if she knew that they weren't real, and she did, but she said it was still pretty cool.









Then we went on the people mover. I know, not the most exciting. But we like it.

And we met Mickey and Minnie. My children look totally disheveled. Must have been that 45 minute wait.....


Carousel again.....

Eric took this while Emily and I rode on Big Thunder Mountain again.

I know it's cheesy and corny, but that place is just so MAGICAL. Every few minutes the castle changes color. Very enjoyable to watch while waiting for the fireworks show.

And can I just say....the fireworks....AMAZING. It's set to music. Tinkerbell flies above you on a zip line that starts out at the top of the castle. And I cried. Big surprise right?

So, at the end of the night, we rode the Teacups one more time, the Carousel one more time, watched the SpectroMagic parade with the girls on our shoulders...OUCH...and left.

I won't go into too much detail, but after waiting about 15 minutes for a bus, we finally were able to get on one, and have seats....right across from a child who had apparently had a bit too much fun at the Magic Kingdom. His fun spilled out of him and all over the floor. EWWWWWWWW!! So, we plugged our noses, and waited, not so patiently, for our stop. I was so concerned with just getting off that bus, and not stepping in the "fun", that I didn't notice that Paige dropped her precious Lumpy somewhere on the bus. I realized this about halfway back to the room. Emily was very upset about it. Paige didn't even notice. Oh well.

It was a messy way to end a perfectly wonderful day. But, the magic was still there. I have missed Disneyworld so much, and we all can't wait to go back!