Snow Schmow

Hmmm.  These were my first three thoughts this morning, upon waking:

1.  I don't think snow is pretty anymore.

2.  I'm going to be home with the kids, inside, all day, again.

3.  I hate snow.

Classes start next week, and I'm glad to be teaching again.  I'm teaching a new film class, and have some new ideas to test out for my other classes.  But I have a lot of work to do before then, and because we only have one car that can drive in the snow (which never seems to stop falling), Eric is taking it to work today, and I'm home with the kids.  This, because it is snowing, yet again, here in Denver.  For the third weekend in a row.   

I'm sure there's a lesson in this, involving--oh, I don't know--letting go?  Surrendering?  But I'm also feeling grumpy, and a little groggy, even after a cup of coffee and a cup of green tea.  I'm just not in the mood to play 300 games of Dora bingo, or paper dolls.  I don't want to sing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" again, and I'm tired of being urped on. 

As I wrote about here, I've been looking for ways to get some exercise everyday.  Because I canceled my membership to the gym (it was getting expensive, and I wasn't going much because hauling two kids there and back was too stressful), I've been trying to take walks or runs or do yoga at home.  I've also resorted to using a small collection of exercise tapes I have collected over the years during those desperate moments when I just wanted to change my life.  You know, Tae-bo, Windsor Pilates, step aerobics.  Eric lays in bed every night, snickering, while I sweat and quad-lift and roundhouse kick my way into a little sweat, in hopes of working off the 349 chocolate truffles I eat every day.

Because it is very difficult to get out at the moment without breaking your ass on a sheet of ice, I've been doing a lot of these tapes over the last few weeks.  Last night was Kathy Smith's lower body workout.  Between leg sweeps, I kept swearing at her.  "Bitch, 1, 2, 3, Lift, 1, 2,3."  I am so sore this morning.  My butt hurts just sitting here, and my quads were screaming as I squatted to put the chocolate pumpkin bread in the oven this morning.  The eating of which will necessitate a session with Susan Powter tonight after the kids are in bed.

So, I'm groggy, grumpy, and sore.  We're stuck inside while big, beautiful flakes swirl outside our windows.  We've got good music to listen to, and soon some hot pumpkin bread is going to emerge from the oven.  Addie has a ton and a half of new toys to play with from Christmas.  I'll have to work all weekend, but maybe today is a good day to just let Addie watch (yet another episode of) Dora, wallow in my gritchiness, and be thankful for some little pleasures.  Enough with the self-punishment.  I'm taking the day off.

Frosty's Revenge

I have never been the last person to leave a party, that I can remember.  I like to leave just as things are winding down, usually, and having kids has meant I typically have to be home early to relieve the babysitter, anyway.  In general, I don't like the feeling of overstaying my welcome.

But sometimes, you don't have a choice.  For example, when your city of residence gets socked with several feet of snow within a ten-day period, and you end up not being able to get home, and a very, very lovely visit with your family in Idaho goes just a little too long.  Denver got so much snow that we were able to carve this out of a bank in our front yard:

And that was before we left.  Before the second and third snowstorms hit, locking us out of the airport here (or at least we thought.  Turns out, our flight back to Denver wasn't actually canceled, but we probably wouldn't have been able to make the drive home from the airport because the streets were so nasty.)

But none of that really matters.   We had a great time in Idaho.  I love seeing my family, and it's all that much sweeter now because we get to watch the kids interact with their grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins.  For example, it's like my mom was pretty much born to play pretend with grandkids someday.  She has saved all of these play cups and saucers and plates and a pint-sized stove from the fifties (which you can actually plug in and make work!!!  How has our species survived???).  She played "restaurant" for about a million hours with Addie, where Addie was the customer at "Molly's Restaurant" and my mom the waitress.  Addie rang up a serious tab that we have yet to reconcile, and probably wore my mom out with incessant pleas of "Play with me!  Let's go upstairs and read!  Let's play hide and seek!  Let's play restaurant!"  I was exhausted just watching it, but my mom was an amazing sport.

 

Then there was the big event itself--Christmas Day.  Despite all of my curmudgeonly complaining about swapping of presents and spending of money, it was exciting to watch Addie tear into those presents.  Twice.  Once in the morning at my mom's, once in the afternoon at my dad's.  If there's a perk of coming from a divorced family, this is it.  In particular, there was some crazy madness at my dad's when Addie and her three cousins tucked into the million and one presents their Uncle Jade and Aunt Heather and Uncle Joe had bought them.  It was, seriously, overwhelming, and wonderful.

But, as my mom and I mutually agreed on the phone today, it's good to be home and back to a routine.  There's still a crapload of snow on the ground, so things aren't completely back to normal, but we're home and unpacked.  The laundry is done and the new loot put away.  We go back to work tomorrow, and the kids go back to daycare.  And those suitcases are put away for a while, awaiting our next adventure with kids on a plane.

Snowed In

We just got socked with about two feet of snow, and Addie and I just got back from a walk--she was in the pack, and I was trying not to fall on my ass.  So, she's going to help me write this blog.  Here's what she has to say:

sink

I don't know.

mail

Go to Nancy's.  Nancy wasn't home.

a letter pack

That's it, friends.  Straight from the mouths of babes.  Apparently Addie isn't feeling too talkative today.  Here's the picture she wants us to post today, though (not sure why she likes it--Nolie's acne was pretty agro in this shot):

 

 

Your Sausage is So Small

Over the last month or so, I have been getting triple the amount of email spam.  I opened my inbox this morning to a subject line that said "Why your sausage is so small :) :)?"  A few questions about this.  First, does anyone really call it a "sausage"?  Because, ew.  Second, do the emoticons really help here?  I mean, you're insulting the receiver of this email by a) assuming the person has a sausage (I don't.  At least I don't think I do.) and b) telling him that it is small.  A few smiley faces don't really gloss over that kind of insult, in my opinion.  Curses on whomever stole my address and is sending me this schlock (and you know who you are, you bastard Craig's Listers!).

Anyway, I had an exhilirating ride to work today.  If by exhilirating you mean terrifying, that is.  I got on the freeway and it seemed perfectly safe--if not dry, at least not icy.  I suppose that is why the dreaded black ice is so tricky, eh?  You can't see it!  Bastard black ice. 

Lucky for me, I have some experience almost dying on the freeway, and knew how to keep my cool.  Doing a half-scream as you pump your breaks while the world spins past you is my standard operating procedure.  Works like a charm. 

Harrowing is the word of the day.

Update:  A new email just in.  This one?  "Take Your Award, Mr. Smallest Weenie 2006."  Now really.  Does this actually sell products?

Impending Arrivals

Today, I am so excited.  First, we woke up this morning to heavy snow that fell on and off all day.  I took the girls to daycare so that I could get some work done, and it was all cold and frosty outside, and the roads were a mess.  But it is so beautiful when it snows, and it makes settling in to get some things done so cozy.  Hot cup of cocoa, please.  Brrr.

But I'm also so excited because Eric's family is coming in from San Diego--his mom, and his brother Steve, sister-in-law Julie, and our niece Gwen, who is almost two, and Raiff, who is about eight months old.  It is going to be a crazy, packed house this weekend!  But I love it.  I love having people hanging around in their pj's, and I love making big dinners with Eric, and watching the kids be adorable.  It's particularly relaxing to be around families with kids the same age as yours--you can all totally bliss out in the amazing-ness of your children without having to apologize or trying to hold an extended adult conversation.

And I haven't seen these guys since last Christmas.  Eric and Addie went back to meet new baby Raiff:

in April, but I didn't go (mostly because I was pregnant and bitchy and didn't want to sleep on an air mattress and also because I wanted a weekend to myself before Nolie came.  And, I must admit, that weekend to myself was wonderful.  I ate out and saw friends and slept in and cleaned up and read books.  But, as a result, I've really been missing these guys.  And I'm not just saying that because they read this blog.  I really miss them.  I'm tearing up just thinking about it).

Isn't Raiff beautiful?  And Gwen is stunning, too.  I can't wait to see them, and to watch Addie interact with them.  Addie's been running around saying, in one long breath, "Tomorrow Grambie and Unca Steve and An Julie and Cousin Gwen and Cousin Raiff and Cousin...ARE COMING!"  She's been adding on the extra cousin just because she gets so excited.  Nolie will just be smiling and sticking her tongue out a lot, when she's not screaming her head off.  But I'm looking forward to that, too.

And I love that Eric's mom is coming, partly because she is just a cool woman who knows a lot about politics and art and culture but also because I love showing off these grandbabies to their grandparents.  And I know how important grandparents can be--mine were to me. 

Of course, I'm a little worried about them all.  It is freezing-ass cold here, today, and tomorrow is only going to be a little warmer.  I think we'll have to bundle them all up in quilts and fleece and hand out steaming cups of hot tea.  But won't it be exciting to see snow?  Or just alienating and cold?  I'll let you know.