A whole decade

Our Engagement Photo

One decade ago, in the Portland Oregon Temple, Craig and I were married.  It's been a wonderful ten years.  This weekend we will celebrate with a trip to The Cape, sans children.  Hurray!

Time to enjoy.

I'm done.  All presents are purchased, all food procured.  Now I can just stay snuggled up in here:

and bake.  And wait for Santa.

The last few days

THE ICE STORM

This is part of our neighbor's tree.  Normally it reaches high, giving us shade in the summer.  It's bent over so far that you can see the top of our 4 ft. fence in corner of the picture.

A bush in front of our house--I took all the ice pictures from inside since we were trying to contain what little heat we had (see previous post).

SNOW STORM

Dogger in the backyard.  The snow fell for another 7 hours after I took this picture.  We ended up with just shy of a foot.

We sure had fun though!

TODAY

Here are the kids in their Christmas clothes from Grandmommy. 

And the snow started up again around 8:00 this morning--4 hours earlier than forecasted.  Last night they were saying 4-6 inches, but now it's looking like 8-14".   

Crazy Winter Weather

Phew!  It's been a week since our ice storm.  The one that coated everything in an inch of ice, and knocked out power to 420,000 PSNH customers.  That's a lot you know.  We were without power for 30 hours.  We hung plastic over the entrances to our living room, and turned on the gas fireplace--which gives off a little heat.  But not a lot.  We got down to 52 degrees in the house before the power came back on.  But, we were nice and toasty under blankets, so we did okay (except for my nose.  It was freezing.).

On Tuesday it snowed.  About three inches.  Then it did this nasty slush and frozen rain thing for a while.  Yuck.  Some of that melted away, but we have about an inch and a half left.

By 2:00 pm today it will start snowing.  They're telling us to expect 5-10 inches.  Let's hope those newly repaired power lines hold.  And, let's hope that the crews still working to restore power to several communities can keep working safely.

And it's supposed to snow again on Sunday.  At least we have good chances of a white Christmas.

12 Days of Christmas Giveaway

That Design Mom!  She just never stops.  Head on over to enter some fantastic (I've been using that word way to much lately) giveaways.  Best of luck!

Three Years

It's been three years since I set foot in New Hampshire.  I confess, I didn't think we'd stay here this long, but here we are.  And, even more unexpected, I haven't returned to Utah since I left.  That's my longest absence since I was 12.

So, in honor of my former home, I will now list things that I miss about Provo/Utah (which I also thought would never happen):

Restaurants-- There are so many restaurants to choose from in Utah County.  Seriously.  Here it's all national chains (not even the good ones), pizza and subs.  That's pretty much it.  And most of them are not places I choose to spend my money (which I guess is really a good thing).

Grid System-- Oh, to be able to find an address simply by looking at it.  And to always know which direction one is heading.  Simplicity.

Wide streets-- How pleasant to be able to drive down a two way street with cars parked on both sides, and not worry about having a head on collisions with on-coming traffic.

Provo Public Library--  The facility.  The selection.  The free parking.  The vast offering of children's classes and story times.  And it's open on Saturdays, year-round.

Groceries-- I miss my familiar brands and items.  I have yet to find granular bullion here.  And there's not a Nalley's Chili can to be found.  Granted, we do have a decent Kosher aisle (I don't think those exist in Utah, do they?), but our Asian/Indian/Mexican section in the grocery store is generally 1/3 of one side of an aisle.  You get the idea.

Open spaces-- Occasionally I get a little claustrophobic here.  I miss being able to see beyond my immediate surroundings.

Affordable activities-- The movies, children's dance classes, pre-school....you name it, and in Utah it's affordable.  Here, well, unless you're a two-income family or making six figures, you might as well forget about it.

And, lastly, though perhaps I should have mentioned it first...

BYU Football-- I miss games, and game days, and the excitement.