Snow Update

I think the snow has stopped.  The National Weather Service says we will get another 2-4 inches tonight and Rob says it is done- and at this point I trust my husband over those clowns at the National Weather Service.  We'll see.  Rob is out there right now, snowblowing his little heart out in the dark.



If I was to guess how much we got so far, I would say about 6 inches.  Not all that much, just so much more than I was expecting or anyone was predicting.  It is really wet and heavy snow.  Bad news for Rob and the snowblower, but good news for the snowman-making team (me and Rex).



My assistant spent more time running around, being crazy than he did helping me.  I think his sole contribution was running through the house, wet boots and gear dripping all the way, to get a carrot for the nose.  He was more than happy to show off for the camera though.



Who taught him to make that face? I don't know where he comes up with this stuff!  He also sampled the snow.



I passed.  It was freshly fallen snow and probably was okay but it still just kind of gives me the willies.  So, to recap- We got a lot of snow today.  It has caused quite a few headaches for Rob and me, but we are trying to make the best of it.

You Can't Trust Anybody

The National Weather Service totally lied to me.  They said less than an inch of snow, starting sometime after noon.  So why does it look like this at 11:30am?

Thanks a lot.  I really needed to go to the grocery store this morning and thought I had plenty of time.  I dropped off Rex at school and Rob at work and before we could get home, it was starting to snow pretty good.  I kept thinking it would stop but it didn't.  I consulted with Rob and decided to pick Rex up about 45 minutes early from school because it just kept getting worse and worse.  I see now that the afternoon preschool class was canceled. Smart move, preschool. The roads were pretty bad when I went to get him but it wasn't unmanageable.  The worst part was coming up our fairly steep driveway- I had to put it in 4 wheel drive low which I have never used before (I use 4 wheel drive high frequently but never have had the need for the low setting).  It worked like a charm though and I managed to get the car in the garage without taking anything out or crashing into something.  We will be okay on groceries, just wish we had some milk because we are totally out.  Dang it.

I decided to take this video because although it was unexpected and I am not prepared at all, it is so beautiful.  It was such a big change moving to somewhere that had snow but I love it.  The snow falling on all the trees and houses is just so lovely to watch and it feels so peaceful.  Once, not long after we moved here, it was snowing at night and we looked out at our street and saw 3 deer, just walking down the street like the street was there just for them and that is what they always did.  It was amazing and one of my favorite snow memories.  AND taking the video gave me an excuse to play around with my new iPhone to shoot the video and iMovie to make my little news report.  I had too much fun doing that so be looking for more fun-with-iMovie-videos here on 2054 Miles.  That's Shelby [redacted], live from central Iowa with today's snow report.  Back to you in the studio, Bob.

Nothing. Well, Maybe Something.

Nothing.  That's what it feels like we have been up to lately.  January is now officially now as "Flu Month" and it went by so slowly.  And now February is almost gone too but this time, I don't know where the time went.  One thing I have been doing lately is getting ready for lots of house projects when the weather gets warmer.  I want to do the boys' rooms so I've bought them new bedding and I'm picking out paint colors. Here's the bedding I picked.

For Rex-

Source: landofnod.com via Shelby on Pinterest

For Wyatt-

Source: potterybarnkids.com via Shelby on Pinterest

I love them both so much.  I got Wyatt's bedding with his name on the sham (like they did in the photo) and picked up the "R" pillow to go with Rex's bedding. We were at Lowe's last weekend and I found two gallons in the same gray color (a color I really liked) so I picked those up for Wyatt's room.  $28 for two gallons of the Valspar super-duper primer + paint was a great deal and I couldn't pass it up.  I may mix it up a little with something else to try and get it darker or I may use it as is- I haven't decided yet.  I'm still trying to pick out a color for Rex's room.  He tells me wants green but all the ones he picks out are of the neon/super-bright/burn-your-retinas variety.  I'm fine with green but I think mommy will make the final selection.  I came across this today and am going to pick up a paint chip for Benjamin Moore's Spanish Olive because that looks like what I am imagining.

Also in painting news, I hope to finally get the living room painted.  If you recall, I bought the paint last spring and the walls somehow never got painted.  The hubs promises that it will get done this year though.  I also need to try and figure out how to get him to build this for me in our living and dining areas because it would be perfect there.

Source: thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com via Shelby on Pinterest

The bottom cabinets are the unfinished ones that are ready to go at Lowes so that saves a lot of work. I badly need the closed storage area they provide to store serving pieces and seldom used kitchen appliances. Finally I have one more request, I think, for Rob.  Right now we have one bedroom set that is kind of split up between both boys' rooms and I would like to use it all in Wyatt's room. Wyatt will be turning 3 soon and it is time to move him into a big boy bed and out of the crib.  So that means Rex needs a new bed and I have this in mind.

Source: ana-white.com via Shelby on Pinterest

If I come across something else cheap in the meantime, Rob is off the hook.  But I have a hard time finding boys' beds that I like even a little bit and I like this bed a lot. And if Rob could make it, it sure would save us a lot of money.  I guess that is all for my redecorating ideas at this time- I will be sure to share as we get into the painting/constructing/decorating phase and out of the dreaming-about-it phase.

As slow as the last 2 months have been, March is shaping up to be totally crazy and busy.  I think we're going on a weekend trip out of town so Rob can see a friend of his.  About 2 days later my sister, brother-in-law and niece arrive for a weeklong visit- so, so, so excited about that!!!!  The day after they go to the airport to go back to California, we will be dropping Rob off at the very same airport, headed to California as well, for a long weekend trip to go racing.  Two days after he returns, my mom and dad will be here visiting for a week- also very excited and looking forward to their visit!  Then in the last few days left in March we have my birthday and Easter. Whew.  That's a lot.  I guess I ended up having more to talk about than I thought I did- I suppose that could happen when you only blog once in the last 6 or 7 weeks!

Flu Shot Believer

I don't have any pictures for this post and believe me you wouldnt want to see them if I did. We are a sad and sickly bunch around here. We always get our flu shots and generally stay pretty healthy each winter. I don't know what the deal is this year but apparently the shot isn't covering all flu strains and Rex, Wyatt and I got it.  It has been over 3 weeks now since I (aka Patient Zero) first got it and that we have been dealing with it. Although it's been bad, I hear it is much worse if you don't have your flu shot.  I can't even imagine how bad some people have it. I will absolutely get us all our flu shots every year from now on.  I probably would have anyhow, but definitely now after all we've been through. Rob and I were supposed to have a date night this weekend but I had to cancel since Rex is still not 100 percent yet. Our anniversary is next weekend though so we will still get a date night then.  I hope.  I don't know how Rob has managed to not get it but I am so glad he hasn't. My husband is a wonderful man but he is a terrible patient. Here is hoping we all feel totally back to normal soon!

'Twas 6 Days After Christmas...

And I finally got to my Christmas recap.  It was a really busy, and sickly (for me), Christmas season around here.  I started off the month with a trip to Portland to visit Nanette and less than two weeks after I got back, we threw a Christmas party at our house.  It was pretty much all Rob's friends from work that we invited and a lot of them showed up.  It was open house style with lots of food and drinks and I was so busy, that I didn't even get a picture of the house during the party.  You would just see wall-to-wall people though if I had gotten the chance.  It was a good time and I'd like to do it again next year but Rob was so worn out, he said we could do it in about 3 years.  We'll see.  I did a lot of decorating around the house and I have two favorite projects.  The first one I didn't get a picture of either.  I am bad about that.  I got the inspiration from Pinterest to do an advent calendar out of a over-the-door shoe organizer.

Source: modernparentsmessykids.com via Shelby on Pinterest

This one is a lot cuter than mine.  I will have to see if I can spruce mine up for next year and make it look like this one.  The other thing I did that I loved so much came from another pin.  I got so many compliments at the party on it too, which was great.  On our gallery wall, I swapped out the photos I could change with all our different Christmas card photos we've taken over the years (that part was my idea) and then the ones that I couldn't change, I just wrapped them up to look like giant Christmas gifts.

It was kind of a lot of work and definitely took a lot of wrapping paper and ribbon, but the result was totally worth it.  The whole house was totally decked out because I love to decorate and with the party I had a good excuse to go nuts but these were my two favorite things.  And we took everything down this weekend so that is all the photos I have of that.

We had a lot of fun on Christmas morning.  Santa brought Rex a "space station" that he was asking for (actually it is a space shuttle and launch tower) and Wyatt got a V-Reader so he will stop stealing his brother's all the time.  At least that is what I was hoping for and now we have two so there are a lot less fights over that toy.  They got all kinds of things from us and family and friends- pretend camping gear, Mobigo games, boats and trucks of all kinds, books, clothes, puzzles, play food and cooking stuff and more that I can't remember right now.  Because it was a LOT.  Here are some photos from that morning.









I have to point out the matching Christmas elf pajamas.  This is the one time of the whole year when I insist on dressing them the same and I will keep doing it as long as I can get away with it- they are so adorable!!

Cooking With What You Have

Rob and I were pretty proud of ourselves tonight when it came to making dinner.  We made dinner using only what we could find around the house.  The menu planning was all Rob- he is really good at figuring out what to make with what we already have.  I have a sinus infection and I wasn't planning on assisting with any of it.  So Rob decided to make cornbread muffins, glazed carrots, mashed potatoes and sort of a chicken a la king dish that he was going to use up a bunch of our turkey lunchmeat with instead of chicken.  When he called me out to help, he already had the cornbread made, the carrots were boiling and so were the potatoes.  I am the mashed potato queen though so he asked me if I could check if they were done and finish them up.  He also had the cream cheese and butter sitting out so that I could make them Pioneer Woman fatty-fat-fat style.  Don't get me wrong- they are the most delicious mashed potatoes I have ever had.  I just usually only make them that way for Thanksgiving.  As I was taking care of the potatoes, I watched Rob starting to make the gravy for the turkey a la king.  And I got concerned.  Making a roux or gravy is about one of the hardest things to make in the kitchen and he was going about it all wrong.  I am no expert but I have had some success with making a roux before (thanks mom and dad for the lesson!) so I jumped in and took over.  I also told him he did not have "gravy clearance" which we both laughed really hard about.  He was just dumping the flour right into the melted butter and onions and was about to add the broth before I stopped him.  The flour and butter have to be stirred constantly and cooked together for quite a while to make sure you get the gritty, raw flour taste out of there.  Anyhow, it turned out really good and I think we will have to add that recipe into the mix for future meals.  Like Rob said, "It's like really, really good cafeteria food."  I got a picture of what was left of it.



Not that I am enjoying the sinus infection at all, but it is kind of nice to have Rob take over the menu planning for a while- he does such a great job!

A White Christmas for 2012

Last year, we didn't get hardly any snow and this year has been off to a pretty slow start too.  Until last night that is.  I'm not sure how much we did get- I usually measure by the amount I see piled up on things like fences and outdoor toys so let's say we got about this much.



If I had to guess, I'd say we got around 8 inches of snow last night.  That's a pretty significant amount of snow for us.  The boys were so anxious to go out and play in it this morning; it was all they talked about from the moment they got up.  I was dreading it because I knew what would happen- so here it is.

Mommy opens the door and they rush out-



Wyatt's boots get "dirty" from the snow and he wants right back in-



Wyatt decides to watch us play from inside the house where he can stay clean and dry-



Rex plays in the snow with me and tries to throw snowballs at me-



Then he makes a snow angel-



Then I make one-



And then I decided we were both too wet and cold and needed to go inside.  I chased Rex around for a while and finally got him back in the house where we got into some warm and dry clothes.  It was a lot of fun though while we were out there.  Rex was asking all day to go back out but I had enough for one day.  I took a few pictures of our street from the front porch- I was all warm and dry again and didn't want to venture too far out so this was the best I could do.





It looks so beautiful but it is a little scary out there still so we didn't go out anywhere today.  Rex's school was canceled so that was good.  Rob took the bus to work so he didn't have to worry about driving.  Rex's last day of school before Christmas break is tomorrow and they are having a party so we'll have to go out for that but it should be a lot better by then.  I'm so happy to have all the snow in time for Christmas!

Lowering the Weirdness Level in Portland

I said goodbye to my husband and babies last Thursday morning to catch a taxi, shuttle and two airplanes to go visit Nanette and her family in Portland, Oregon.  It was the first time I had been away from the boys for more than just a couple of hours so it was a big deal.  I cried a little here and there throughout the day I left but was also looking forward to some me-time.  Something I have only had very small doses of for the last 4.5 years.  So it was a fun, but kind of difficult, time for me all wrapped into one.  Anyhow, moving on...

I noticed even at the airport gate in Chicago that if you are a guy from Portland, you probably are sporting one of these things- a beard or skinny cords.  If you don't have either, you better at least have a cardigan sweater on to make up for it.  I hate going places and being obvious that I am a tourist.  I have very few pictures of my trip, in fact, just because of that reason.  I think though that there was no way to hide it in Portland.  The motto is "Keep Portland Weird"- don't believe me?



It is painted on the building right there by Voodoo Donuts.  I think I'm pretty normal and not-weird so I'm sure the weirdness level dipped a bit over the weekend.  Sorry Portland.  Speaking of Voodoo Donuts, it is a must in Portland so we went there for breakfast Friday morning.  I love donuts so it wasn't hard to convince me.  I decided to step out a little and try something different.  Now they have a lot of crazy donuts so maybe it wasn't so different but I got the "fritter of the day" which turned out to be strawberry-pineapple-banana with sprinkles on top.



It was good but a little too much sugar for my breakfast.  I ate half and threw the rest away before I gave myself a stomachache.  From there, we cruised over to Powell's City of Books where I loaded up with books for the boys for Christmas presents.  We shopped around downtown a little more and then headed over to the Clackamas Town Center.  I had requested a visit to one of the H&M stores and the mall provided that along with lunch and a showing of Silver Linings Playbook.  The movie was great and I was just happy to see any movie in a theater because that rarely happens these days. I picked up some Molasses Chips for Rob at See's Candy, bought the boys some more clothes at a super-duper sale at Gymboree and then we headed back to Nanette's place.   Brent picked up dinner for us at Killer Burger which was fantastic.  Such a good burger.  Thursday night's dinner was also a big winner- we went to Hopworks and the soft pretzel sticks were amazing.  I felt like I didn't really get the whole Portland experience since it is beer-heaven and I don't like beer.  In fact, no one ordered beer at Hopworks.  Lucky they didn't kick us out.

On Saturday we went to the Little T Bakery for some breakfast.  Like everywhere else they took me, this place had fantastic food.  We did a little shopping in the Sellwood area and then were headed to the Japanese Garden when we got distracted by the a food cart pod downtown.  It was lunchtime, after all.  I got distracted by this one, in particular.



Mmm, Cuban food.  I ordered the pork box and it was great.  The pork, the maduros, the black beans and rice- all of it was delicious.  As we were all getting our food from the various carts, it started to rain.  No one brought an umbrella (I was advised not to use one as to avoid looking like a tourist and being snickered at) so we decided to head back to their house where we all took naps.  We hung out there for a while before heading over to Dove Vivi for pizza.  Once again, delicious food.  We all spent some more time at home hanging out before I headed to bed fairly early since I had an early flight the next morning.

Now, about my flights home.  What I had booked was terrible.  I was using a mileage award for the ticket and my choices were poor.  I was supposed to fly Portland-Seattle-Chicago-Des Moines with about 4 hour layovers.  Yikes.  I tried on the phone to get the direct Portland-Chicago flight so I could completely skip Seattle but had no luck.  When I got to the ticket counter, "Sure!  There's room on that flight."  So I got to Chicago way ahead of schedule.  It looked like I would spend 9 hours there before my flight to Des Moines took off.  I figured I would spend $30-40 for a rental car and just drive home from O'Hare.  This was where my plan started to unravel.  I never checked the cost of the rental car until I got to Chicago and then realized it was going to be $140 for a car.  Uh oh.  As I'm talking to Rob on the phone about this, I realize there are 3 flights bound for Des Moines, all leaving at 2:00.  It was 1:40.  I hang up with Rob and run from the L gates all the way over to the G gates to see if I can get on one of the planes.  As it turned out, Des Moines was foggy all morning and no flights had been able to get in there yet.  Bad for everyone else, fantastic for me.  I had to pay a small fee but I was able to get on a flight that left at 2:20.  Woohoo!!  Rob and the boys picked me up at the airport and I made it to my house about 9 hours before I thought I would.  My advice is that if you want to change a flight, keep asking because someone just might tell you yes.  And even more miraculously, my bag made it to Des Moines ahead of me and was waiting at the baggage claim counter.  I wasn't due in until 11:35 that night so I have no idea why that bag was there- it shouldn't have been, but it was.  Everything just turned out perfect.

My boys didn't get more than about 4 feet away from me once we were home, which I loved.  It was a great trip but I was thankful to be home again and see my husband and my boys.

Thanksgiving Recap and Christmas Decorating

I love Thanksgiving.  It is a great day to eat some good food and spend a lot of time with your family.  However, when all your family lives 2,000 miles away, all you are left with is a day of good food- and that is not that exciting.  Thanksgiving is probably the hardest time I have being away from family and it has become not my most favorite holiday.  I really miss our family and look forward to the boys being old enough to travel at the Thanksgiving holiday (when everything is crazy and it all can go wrong) so we can once again spend the day with our family.  We did cook up the whole meal, like we do every year, but I only took this one picture of Rob with the persimmon pudding he made.



On to happier things- like decorating the house for Christmas.  During the summer of 2011, we picked up a Christmas tree at a neighbor's estate/moving-into-retirement-home-and-downsizing sale.  It was a good deal at 5 bucks and it was a good test to see how we felt about going from the real tree to an artificial tree.



I was very anti-fake tree but I found myself growing to like the fake one.  It holds up better with the boys, no watering or drying out, very little needles come off the thing and I can put it up the day after Thanksgiving and it will look the same on Christmas.  To solve the smell issue, Rob found a candle for me that makes the house smell like Christmas tree.  Now I was sold.  The only thing is that I was wishing it had clear lights and was taller.  I started scanning craigslist and waiting.  I missed out on one so I waited a bit longer and found a really nice looking one at a really nice looking house.  I went to peep it out last Friday and it was awesome.  AND it was only $50.  That thing must have cost at least $300-$400 when it was new.  The owner was meticulous about taking care of it and storing it and it is in fantastic shape.  I brought it home and we set it up right away and decorated it.



Most of the decorating around the house is done now, including putting the lights and garlands on the exterior of the house.  I still have some more to do, like decorating the tree in the family room but I need to go shopping for some Rex-and-Wyatt-proof decorations because they destroyed the ones I had on it last year.  I love Christmastime!

Thanksgiving Prep Part 1 - Crafts

Rex had a Thanksgiving feast at school today.  They ate a lot of food, decorated their own placemats and made special headwear for the occasion.



I'm not real sure how this would rate on the politically correct scale for Thanksgiving attire but I think I made something like that when I was in school 30 years ago.  I was planning on having him make something similar for our own Thanksgiving dinner as seen below.

Source: celebrations.com via Shelby on Pinterest

I don't know if I can get Wyatt to do it but I might try.  Rex and I could always make one for him if he isn't interested.  Because even if he doesn't want to make it, he will want to wear one on Thanksgiving if his brother has one.  The decorating placemats thing is a good idea too so now I'm trying to think how I want to do that one.  This idea looks pretty good.

Source: jennwa.blogspot.com via Shelby on Pinterest

That is probably too much for Wyatt so maybe this one is a better idea for him.

Trying to paint his little hand will be tricky, for sure, but I think we could manage.  I've only got two days though so I better get on it asap if I am going to get placemats and turkey hats ready in time!