Quick Update since the Snowstorm

Well the same week that brought us 10 inches of snow gave us our first taste of Spring. We were amazed that on Monday we were searching for gloves, scarves and mittens and Saturday we were in shorts – able to play in the last remains of snow. What a roller coaster! Things cooled off again (unfortunately).

This last week has been a bit of trial for me. Monday was great – Barry has Mondays off so get to run errands and do projects together on Mondays. Not exactly a date night – but it's time together and that is really cool. Late Monday I started getting a cough, and by Tuesday morning I knew I was coming down with something. I was pretty sick the rest of the week. Kind of frustrating to be out of commission again so soon after the whole eye thing. I was also fortunate but frustrated to have the week off from work – sick in bed wasn't how I wanted to spend the week!!

Friday our phone line stopped working – and wasn't repaired until Sunday afternoon. That was annoying but not that big a deal – at least the internet was still working – whoo hoo!

Saturday was a logistics nightmare but a full and fun day. We had a Stake Youth Sports Activity in the morning. It was a good time – lots of fresh air. Victoria, Francesca and I were there for the whole event. It was brisk but not cold out and we all stayed moving enough to stay warm. We had to book it out of there though – and get up to Barry's work to pick him up on the way to Mays Landing, NJ. It was little stressful staying on time, because it was a two hour drive and we couldn't be late for Francesca's first Gymnastics meet.

Francesca was pretty nervous. So nervous in fact, that we wonder if she didn't make herself ill. When we arrived her cheeks were flaming – not unusual of her and we had been outside all morning. But she was also burning up with fever. Since I was just getting over an illness that was mostly aches, pains, fever and chills – I wondered if she had caught it. The coach had some children's Motrin, which she took. It starting cooling her down, but it took a lot of convincing for her to join the team. She participated in three out of the four events – and milked her unique situation a bit. But we count it a victory of sorts – first that she doesn't appear to have a bug, no recurring fever – second, that she did participate and third we are officially over our first time nerves. So we're praying that with this competition under our belt we can have a drama-free meet next time around. By the way, she did pretty well. I'll post some pictures this week.

Some of you might not know this about me – but my maiden name is Kiernan. I love being Irish and Saint Patrick's Day! Have a happy one this Tuesday!!

Another Snowday!!

Well Delaware is a little wimpy when it comes to road conditions and school cancelations. But we like these unexpected mini-vacations - so we say, stay ultra cautious!! These pictures were from yesterday's sledding expedition. Delaware is at sealevel, therefore not very hilly! So we improvise...our sledding hill is at the High School/Little League ball fields. The good thing about not having long steep hills for sledding down, is no long steep hills to climb back up :-) There is an upside!! Francesca didn't want to leave -- and Tori totally wimped out...she was freezing cold in 2.5 seconds (who's the native Alaskan???).

Snow on snow on snow

Delaware winters are generally mild. We get the occasional snow storm -- a few inches that close everything (we love that!). This winter has seemed cold to me – we've been spoiled the last couple of years with especially mild temperatures. I've felt anxious for Spring to arrive – and when our furnace started making a strange noise last week – I was really really anxious for warm weather to get here. Not to worry a little WD-40 in the right spot and Barry fixed the strange noise, but we are worried about how many seasons our dinosaur of a furnace has left in it!

The funny thing is I had just told Francesca the saying, "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb." This morning she's been singing it to her own little melody – it's been prophetic. We had our very own Nor'easter come in Sunday night and this morning it's still snowing. So far we've got over 9 inches (and that's just the ruler stuck in the yard – so I don't know the official measurement – we've had blowing and drifting too). Tori's mad because her school was already scheduled off – but it's worked out great as far as we're concerned because Barry is off on Mondays!! We may go sledding this afternoon – I'll post more pics if we do.

BTW: I love the song – "In the deep mid-winter" my title is inspired by it – some time I'll learn how to rip a track to play with my page – in the mean time if you know song you can hum a few bars!! J