http://www.blogger.com/html?blogID=1755139666841541603 about a dream: January 2015

Saturday, January 31, 2015

More snow. Yay.

Well, Friday was another snow day. With more snow. And wind. This time, mother nature mixed things up a bit by giving us snow, then rain, then snow again. That was a fun change of pace.

It does look pretty, though:

Poor tree. All weighed down with snow. Snow that it loves to drop on me when I walk by!

Trampoline. Snow-poline.
Guess how many shovelfuls it takes to clear the trampoline? 100. More than I'd thought!

Honestly, I don't even know how much extra fell. Something in the 6-8 inch ballpark I think. Boy, I hope that's all. Wait, what's that you say? There's something in the forecast? Let's take a look!


My favorite part of this map is that most of the mid-coast is in the 6 to 10 inch blue swath. Oh, but what's that one teeny little tip of that peninsula that's purple and 10+ inches? OH IT'S US! YAY!

There's good news though. Someone lost tooth number two!


Eek! She's so funny, she doesn't like the tooth fairy to take her teeth, so we leave the teeth in a plastic bag and write a note for the tooth fairy asking her to not take the tooth. And she doesn't! She left Maggie a very nice note and some chocolate coins!

So with all of these snow days (3 last week remember. At this rate, we'll be in school until July), the girls have been painting a lot. They've done some awesome ones. Look!

Maggie did this. It's a cat with a bandanna around its neck.

This is by Nina. She's burnin' up!
Well, we're enjoying our 3-day weekend. Nina's doing a sleepover at her friend Grace's house, and Maggie's BFF (and Grace's sister, how convenient) is over at our house for an almost-sleepover playdate. I must say, I don't mind a 3-day weekend! Just so long as it doesn't become a 4-day weekend!

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

What fun!

Well, we sure got snow. And we got TWO snow days! So exciting! Here we are loving snow day #2:

Can you even spot Nina in that huge snowbank?
 Here's Maggie, bundled up for the fun:
In the background is my car, after I shoveled it off
 Our little house, blanketed...
Moxie is my shadow. He follows me everywhere.
Remember how I took a picture of my wrought iron planter this summer, beautifully filled with flowers? Here it is now!
Icicles are beautiful too.


The sun is shining and it's warm today, but yesterday... brr! The wind howled all day, and the snow didn't so much fall as blow horizontally. Quite the blizzard! Our wind gusts were somewhere in the 40s, and I'm still not sure how much snow fell. Somewhere in the ballpark of 20 inches I think.

But here's the kicker--more snow forecast for Friday night, and then maybe even MORE on Monday. Winter is finally here!

Sunday, January 25, 2015

It's cooooming...

SNOW! LOTS OF SNOW!

I was plenty excited for this stunning snowfall:


Just about 6 inches of the fluffiest, prettiest powder you've ever seen. Then a high of 35, a sparkling sun, a bright blue sky... winter days just don't get any better than that.

But NOW, we're looking at a real doozy. Check out this forecast:


That's not even the best one! Some have us at closer to 2 feet. On top of that, we're expecting blizzard winds and whiteout conditions. I'm gonna go ahead and assume there's no school on Tuesday, possibly Wednesday too. I'll definitely keep you posted!

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Aloha!

No, we're not in Hawaii. I wish!

But Nick and the girls got close to it at last night's Daddy Daughter Dance! It's an annual dance held by the library group CLICK (I don't know what that's acronymical for), but boy is it a good time. Here are my beauties, all ready to go...

First, Maggie's hair:


And Maggie from the front:

That gorgeous bun from the back again. So Hawaiian!!

Nina's hair, also Hawaiian:

And my beautiful Nina all dolled up:

They had so much fun! First it was dinner at the House of Pizza, which was "awesome" and "fine," and where they were each treated to their own Orangina (favorite soda!). Apparently there was so much food at the dance (including pizza) that they could have skipped dinner out, but dinner's part of the night out experience.

Then they danced the night away at the Opera House. Such a fun tradition!

Mom and Dad and I went to our own dinner at the Watershed Tavern, then I did a luxurious solo shopping trip at Hannaford and watched My 600-lb Life. Good times all around!

Poor me was sick (you're shocked, I know. Me? Sick??! Unbelievable!). Fortunately it was finals week, so it was easy for me to leave a stack of tests for the sub and just stay home. I have a lot of grading to catch up on this weekend, but I'm feeling much better. Just a head cold, but it's lingering and I'm starting to cough a bit, but mostly on the way out.

Moxie was so cute when I was sick. I just mostly sleep when I'm sick, so he laid beside the bed the whole time. Once I went downstairs and he followed me down, and Nick asked him if he wanted to go out. He came over to me, stood right next to me, and looked at me with this look that said, "Only if you'll be ok without me Mommy!" It was adorable!

Now the first flakes of today's snow are falling. Excitement!!

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Mid winter fun

Knock on wood, but this hasn't been an awful winter! Today's super cold (just below zero overnight, mid-teens forecast for the high), but it's bright and sunny, and tomorrow's supposed to warm up.

You might remember from the year-in-review post that both girls were looking forward to the field trip to go see Paddington. Well, poor little Nina got sick and couldn't go! It started with a bellyache and runny nose, and progressed to a big fever overnight. She felt nauseous and miserable in the morning, and just couldn't do it.

Maggie was up half the night on Thursday night too, but not from being sick. She'd just woken up at 2 am and was so excited about the movie, she couldn't fall back asleep. We were up until 4!

Paddington was great, she says. Then she came over to my classroom after school and made Nina this beautiful card

Get better soon it says. Note that the Os in "soon" are hearts. Aww!


This is the back. It shows Nina lying in bed with Marley at her feet on the bed and Moxie on the floor next to her (you can tell Moxie from Marley by the curled tail). This is how the dogs were all day--right by her side looking out for their precious sister.


This was inside. The left-hand side says "Is this how you're feeling?" above a sad-face picture with a thermometer in its mouth. On the right it says, "I hope you're feeling like this" with a happy face. So cute!

Nina's feeling much better today, thank goodness!

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Well, it's 2015 and it's COLD!

Dang January! Why do I live in Maine again? Sure, sure, summers are amazing, fall is beautiful, spring sometimes doesn't totally suck, but winter is guaranteed to be awful. Cold, icy, windy. At least we get a brilliant winter sun though. If there's one thing that was positive about that winter in Austria, it's that it taught me to appreciate winter sun. I'd always just taken it for granted, but no more. In fact, as I write this, it's only 22 outside, but the sun is streaming in through the dining room window, and my back is feeling nice and toasty.

The big cold hit for the first time right at the beginning of January. We had one morning that we woke up, and had to drive to school in, about -10. Crisp! We made it above 0 that day, but not by much. A few dustings of snow too, but nothing really fun. Enough to look pretty at least.

We ended out our wonderful, relaxing Christmas break with a trip to Portland to see our old friend Heath. We'd hoped to jump at this indoor trampoline park in South Portland, but the wait was 2 hours! Holy cow! So instead we went to Target to spend the gift cards that Aunt and Unk had gotten Nina and Maggie for Christmas. (Nina picked out a big chair for her room, and Maggie a Lego kit. On the way home, she was reading the box. "Ages 7 and up," she read. "Well, I'm a pretty capable 6-year-old," she said. "I think I can do it." Ha!) After Target, we went to build-a-bear. Sigh.... I thought I'd maybe escape the build-a-bear money trap, but no. The girls absolutely adore their bears though, so I guess it was worth it. Maggie named her's fluffy and says she's her best friend. Here they are, looking fabulous:


They're going to a party tonight while I'm at my mom's night out, so Fluffy had to get dressed

 And here's the stuffy zip line Maggie made, so the stuffies can have fun while we're all at school.

Tonight I'm headed to Portland for our first ever Big Time Mom's Party Night Out. Should be fun!