Winter DRAGS ON!

To avoid sounding like a broken record, I won't begin this post by discussing how long it has been since my last post. ;-) It has basically been snowing since I wrote last. That is only a slight exaggeration. Last week, we were stuck in our house for 4 solid days. It was miserable! The ice storm hit on Monday night and the temps didn't pull above 20 degrees all week. You could literally ice skate down our block. The school district was closed for a record 4 days in a row and we couldn't make it out of the house. Jer did manage to get to work each day, but it took him hours to drive the 25 miles to DFW. It was a nightmare! The Super Bowl was here last weekend and I am convinced that every sand truck was sent to Dallas for the tourists. It seemed so strange that none of the roads or highways were cleared...even the busiest of roads remained impassible all week long. It iced again yesterday morning, but nothing like last week and it looks like we will FINALLY warm up this weekend! Thank heavens...I need to get out of this house and stop cooking!

Which brings me to my next topic...I need to seek help for my cooking issues. I can't stop! I was doing better, but with all the snow and being stuck in the house, I am back to cooking like crazy. I made braised pork ribs and polenta, chicken pot pie, chili, cornbread, from scratch banana pudding, loaded oatmeal cookies, pot roast and mashed potatoes...that is just what I can remember off the top of my head from the last couple of weeks. I love to cook so much, but I have to get back to my chicken breasts or I won't be ready for a bathing suit! ;-) In all fairness to me, I started delivering all the sweets to my two pregnant neighbors. They are starting to get mad that I am fattening them up, but it lets me keep cooking if I don't eat the whole batch myself! :-) I am dusting off my cooking light recipes as we speak. Seriously. I mean it this time. Really. Probably. More or less.

Colin is now obsessed with space. I love it when I see his interests grow and change and now he is consumed with the planets. He talks about them ALL the time and loves to ask the most random questions that I have no idea how to answer. Last week, he woke up one morning and asked me immediately how big Saturn was. When I could not exactly answer that, he ordered me to get his "space book" and also look up how big Earth and Venus are. It was so adorable. While playing fireman last night, he randomly looked up and said, "Mommy, did you know that Neptune is a stormy planet?"...I went and got the space book myself at that point and sure enough, there was a line about Neptune having very high winds. I purchased the "Twilight Turtle" nightlight for Colin a couple of weeks ago and he LOVES it. It is a plush turtle whose back projects stars and the moon around the room when you turn it on. Colin named him "Bustard" and we spend quite awhile looking at the stars now when we go to bed. I am enjoying the switch to space...it is nice to play something other than fireman. :-)

Today is Colin's Valentine's party at school and I MAY have gotten a little out of control with said valentines. I loved Valentine's Day at school when I was little. It seems odd, being such a silly little holiday, but making the boxes and then having all your friends (even the boys!) deliver cards to you...I just thought it was the greatest thing ever. I loved the cupcakes and cookies and most especially, I loved carefully sorting through all the cards to see what each person gave me. I remember paying close attention to which cards each boy gave me and if it meant that my favorite boy "liked" me. HA!! I was serious about choosing which cards went to which friend and I worked really hard to make them beautiful. In high school, you could buy a flower and have it delivered to someone during homeroom. I think it was a fundraiser for the Student Senate, but regardless, it was awesome. I would wait on the edge of my seat every year to see if someone sent me a flower. It was usually just my mom, but still. ;-) SOOO, needless to say, I was super excited to find out that Colin has having his first Valentine's Day party. I put together little gift bags with a card, plastic dinosaur, kazoo, notebook and candy. I made little name cards to go in each one and even added some glitter. I honestly had a blast making them! I also picked the cutest cards for Colin's best friend and best girlfriend. hehehe!

Finally, here are a couple of pictures from our trip to the botanic gardens in Fort Worth. We went with some of our friends the weekend before the "Ice-pocalypse" and it seems crazy that it was 80 degrees that day. Texas weather is crazy! Colin and Hayden were so adorable...I am looking forward to this weekend so that we can get outside again!!