More December SNOW!!!!

This is beginning to be a trend! It has been SO COLD here! The temperatures are in the twenties with wind chills in the single digits! Friends and family in North Carolina saw snow as did we this Saturday. The city of Philadelphia had the second largest snowfall in history!!! A full 2 feet of snow!
Here you can see Whitney standing in one of the snowdrifts...


We totalled about 6-8 inches, but had some major drifting because of the snow. The snow was light all day, but since it was ALL day, boy did it accumulate!

Whitney loved playing in it...as you can see!



This one was not a wet snow like the one two weeks ago, so we couldn't make a snow man or throw too many snowballs, but we could make snowangels and write in the snow!





Whitney is counting down the days until Christmas and with that...the days until we go to GRANDMA's house! We are all very excited about going to NC to visit for the holidays. I have lots of big plans for making cookies, reading books, and spending time together on Christmas eve. I have also planned a birthday party for Blaine on Christmas afternoon. He is going to be over the moon, let me tell you!!! I cannot believe I will be the mother of a teenager...he is growing too fast :)


Santa came by on the firetruck tonight! We waited outside in the freezing cold, but it was worth it to get that candy cane! It was another fun Christmas tradition in Richlandtown!

December Snow

Today is December 5th...a year ago tomorrow (6th) we moved up here to Pennsylvania. It snowed on our drive up that day and true to form...it is snowing again at the same time a year later. Lots of people have asked me whether I like living up here in PA. My honest answer is yes. I do like living here. I love the weather....FOUR actual good seasons. Lots of snow, for sure...more than we ever saw in NC. I love my job! That is a major plus. I enjoy the two sides of it...working with kids sometimes and working with administrators and teachers the other times. I do miss Blaine...that will never go away. Yet, please remember that he wanted to live with his dad before we even thought about moving up here. We talk on the phone often and have worked out our visits. It is not enough, but it will do for now. This is the best fit for ALL of us right now.

So, here is the snow...beautiful, glorious, white powdery fun! The forecast called for about 1-3 inches, but we have already gotten about 2 and it is supposed to snow for another few hours yet. It is coming down pretty good and covering the roads...which they said it would NOT do! OH what fun, that it is on SATURDAY!



Whitney had a ball playing in it...trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue:)



Eating snowflakes off her gloves!



Throwing snowballs.



We miss our friends and family and that will always be, but we do our best to keep in touch and always think of those we miss.
stay warm there...we will still be watching the snow here for another few hours!

Thanksgiving

We had a very nice Thanksgiving holiday. It started off with me getting sick, but we were still able to enjoy our time off work and with family. We spent Thanksgiving day at home cleaning up the house, rearranging things, and putting up the Christmas tree. We took the big bookcase from the living room and put in Whitney and Blaine's room. They have SO MANY books (a good thing!) that we were running out of room for them all. We were also able to put some of here knick knacks on it and get them out of the way of other things. The smaller bookcase that was in her room, we moved into the living room and put the small scrapbooks and some of her smaller toys on. It was another good solution to an ongoing storage problem!

Here are a couple of pictures of us decorating the Christmas tree.

On Friday evening we headed to Sandy and Charlie's house to spend the weekend. Joe's High School reunion was Saturday night. It wasn't an even number like 5, 10, or 20....it was 17 1/2 years! They had not had one before...so why not start now! It was a good time and I even had fun talking with the wives of Joe's HS friends :)

Sunday marked our Thanksgiving feast day! Joe's brother Jeff and his family came over and we enjoyed a feast of turkey, filling, my sweet potato casserole, creamed corn, mashed potatoes...we even had WAFFLES! The kids had fun playing together and we even got some formal family shots. Joe brought his camera equipment and he did a fantastic job getting some good pictures of the family.

We hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving as much as we did. Sooner than later it will be Christmas!!! Take care

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Happy Halloween to all!

Whitney enjoyed all the festivities this year. She decided to dress up as SuperGirl again, which suited us because we did not have to buy a costume!

Blaine dressed up in a cape and a SCREAM mask. It rained on us trick or treating this year..pretty hard. Joe took Whitney out while I stayed home and passed out candy. We had mostly teenagers this year. I didn't see many small children except when we walked further out in the neighborhood. Joe and Whitney came back and we went out together to the firehouse where they had a haunted house set up. Whitney would not go through b/c it was too scary! It stopped raining, so we stopped at some more houses and Whitney saw one of her friends from preschool out trick or treating too!
They got to dress up yesterday at preschool too. They had a Halloween parade through the rest home next door and a party that afternoon. She had a blast!


We carved pumpkins and went to the Quakertown Halloween parade. Whitney drew the pumpkin on paper first and Joe carved it according to her specs :)

After we got home from trick or treating, Whitney took some time to sort through her stash! She wanted to separate it into likes and dislikes...mom and dad got all the dislikes!

Sense of Humor

I like to think that I have a sense of humor. Sometimes Joe would disagree, but I am usually the one at work that is making jokes and having fun. Apparently, some other people I know don't have quite the same sense of humor. In my last two posts I have mentioned that Joe and I are looking at a house and have to get together a down payment. I joked about contributing to the fund, etc...We are in NO WAY WHATSOVER asking anyone for money. It was a joke, simply.
I think the people who know me the best realize that, which would explain why I got the response I did from a person who has known me the longest, but knows very little about me.
So, to everyone else--thanks for being my friends and always supporting, loving me. Everyone else can, well....I'd rather not say.

What month is this???

OK...it is October 15th...only about a month into FALL, mind you, and it is snowing in Pennsylvania. Where we live, it is only very cold and raining...the 39 degrees is not quite cold enough for the change over, but about 30-45 minutes north and it is snowing! I left work this afternoon to find it snowing big wet flakes mixed with snow and sleet. Some friends that live towards the Poconos area have seen LOTS of snow, as well have Joe's mom and stepdad. CRAZY stuff!
From what I hear, this is not typical to have snow so early into the season, but obviously it is possible. If this is a sign of things to come then I think we are in trouble! 39 degrees today and this weekend, in the 60's again next week!
In other news, our house in NC is on the verge of being officially sold. We are anticipating closing day Friday (tomorrow) October 16th! It is a bittersweet moment. We LOVED our house so much, but it could not be put on the moving truck, so another lucky family was able to take it away.....ummmm, no one has yet volunteered to make any donations to our down payment fund!!! Come on---good cause! :)
Love to you all!

We want a house

We want a house. We have enjoyed living in our apartment for the last 10 months, but it is time to get our own place. We would like to stay in the area...it is only about a 35 minute drive or less for both of us to get to work. So, we found the house in this picture. It is in Richlandtown...the same town we live in now. It is actually only about a 2 minute drive to get there. It is a foreclosure, but is in pretty decent shape. It has a couple of issues, but none that couldn't be fixed. 3 bedrooms...2 1/2 baths. A nice back patio, a shed...great front yard...partially fenced in back yard. It also has hardwood floors in the dining room and kitchen.
Here is a link to the listing....
So, we want to offer a low price and see how that goes....but we need a down payment of 3.5%. Anyone want to help with that??? About $6000!!!! Hey....it's for a good cause! :)
This house is close enough that Whitney would not have to change preschool...which is great! She has been having some transition issues...saying how she misses different friends or her old daycare or our old house, swingset, etc... Joe also joined the volunteer fire department recently, so he could still be in town to help out. He actually went out on his first call last night!
So, that is how we are...how are you???