DIGGING THE CAR OUT

My poor car has been buried under snow since Saturday. I cleaned some of it off on Monday and tonight my husband went out there and dug a lot of snow out of the driveway. Then he cleaned my car off and moved it out. I'm hoping to drive to work in the morning. This snow is crazy. I got things to do, places to go, people to see. :)

I HEART SEATTLE

PUBLIC TRANSIT...

...IS NOT ALWAYS THE SAFEST.

A charter bus sits perpendicular across a side street and with it's front end tangling over Interstate 5 Friday, Dec. 19 2008, in Seattle.

EVEN VEGAS GOT SNOW!!

In this photo provided by the Las Vegas News Bureau, people play in the snow in front of the Las Vegas welcome sign in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008.

STANDING ROOM ONLY?

In this Nov. 2, 2008 file photo, Pakistani Sunni Muslims devotees return back to their homes on a packed train after attending annual religious congregation in Multan,

OH MY GOSH!!!

Ya hope for snow and it just kept coming!! Over 12hrs of nonstop falling snow today!!! I can't remember ever getting this much. They said somewhere between 6 and 10 inches fell today but we never measured and we had to have gotten more then that.
Here are some pictures...

earlier in the day I took my car into town, this was tonight after it had already been cleared off once



we have lights that are on our bushes and line around our front yard and we had to eventually shut them off because they couldn't keep up anymore and just got buried.

CHECK IT OUT

CLICK HERE FOR INSTRUCTIONS TO A STARWARS GIVEAWAY...

JACK FROST

Last year at the end of the season I bought this snowman kit on clearance. Full kit, just add snow. So my husband and I went out today and used our magic and made Jack Frost. It's pretty cool that all you have to do is add the snow!

SANTA ELF

The above picture is of a very old Santa Elf that sits on our tree. This was my Moms and the story is that he arrived Christmas 1959 packaged inside an item of clothing to my Mom. She was 19 at the time. She said she saved him and each year she put him on her family Christmas tree. I can't believe he's almost 50 years old.

Every Christmas I grew up watching my Mom put this little guy on the tree. He was always the first thing on and the first thing off. She would always carefully pick out a safe place high near the top. My brother and my Dad would always tease her about her little Santa Elf. But my Mom always took such good care of him and he had his own little box with a cotton pad that he layed in when put away.

In 1999 my Mom gave him to me to carry on her tradition. She even wrote up a letter of his history to keep with him.

So for the last 9 years I've been keeping him safe and of course now getting teased by my husband. My hope is that my daughter will grow up with a soft spot in her heart, like I did, for this little Santa Elf and forever give him a home.

It's fun to hear of silly little family traditions so feel free to share any of yours.

tWiLiGhT mOvIe

Ok, my husband and I just went and saw the movie last night. He was actually dragging his feet a little. He loves vampire movies and he had heard from some guys he works with that the movie was lame. Well, he was more impressed then expected. He can appreciate the different takes on vampire stories.

I had started the first book awhile ago but got about a quarter of the way in and stopped reading it. I was afraid to keep reading and see the movie and then be disappointed. So now that I've seen the movie I will start back to reading it.
With all that said I wanted to comment about it without giving too much away....
Edward grew on me by the end of the movie. I could see how Bella would feel protected and safe. I loved how he moved around so quickly. I liked his family, how they stick together and protect each other.

From what I had read in the book, I had pictured Bella differently. I'm hoping she grows on me as I read more of the series. Alice was super cute, loved her skin and hairstyle. And Emmett was strong and hot!

I loved how it was filmed in and around my home state of Oregon. When we were watching the movie we thought for sure the brick high school was a high school near my home town but they look very similiar and it was not the same one.

Looking forward to reading more of the series. I heard the next movie starts production March 2009.

WERE YOU PART OF IT??

Does the above view look familiar? If you answered no then that means you were not involved in the busiest shopping day of the year. Yes, I brave it every year but it's actually not that bad. I get up about 3:30 to get showered and ready. Only because after I've shopped, I head to work. So I start at a local store at 5am and my husband even joins me. You meet up with friends in line and you also might possibly make new friends in line. Everyone seems to be in a fun spirit. I think the die hards that really are shoppers must have a good attitude. So that leads me to believe all the grouchy shoppers with no patience are at home sleeping, where they should be.

The morning rush of shopping gives me about a 3hr window of going to some stores nearby and buying what things I perused on the ads the day before. Then I go to work and I can work my day and make back what I just spent and I haven't lost any vacation time. Easy peasy. Some day I might take the day off but for right now this works.

I hear the same thing every year from people: "I can't believe you get up at 4am to get half-priced socks!" I do stick mostly to the deals on their ads. I also figure I can sleep later and I feel good that some of that stuff I would have bought anyway.

So thank you grouchy shoppers for coming out of your cocoons later in the season and not ruin the fun and havoc on Black Friday.

look how much fun these women are having...

GIRLS WEEKEND...

...NEED I SAY MORE???

6 of the 8 of us on our last morning (see, it doesn't always rain in Oregon)

In her zen zone

The hula hoopin queens

All 8 of us dressed down and hanging out

Check out our Grills!

A perfect day for late November on the Oregon Coast

HALLOWEEN 2008

This Halloween was a lot of fun. My parents came in to our house like they have in the past. We had the traditional meal of pizza. Once it started getting dark and we were all dressed we went out to do a little trick or treating to some homes we know in the neighborhood. My parents stayed back and handed out candy. They really helped out a lot tonight and we really appreciated it.

The weather was perfect. It had been threatening rain all week and for some reason it stopped this afternoon and is suppose to start up later in the night. Wasn't even that cold out.

There were a ton of people out tonight. Even the Chief of Police was driving around and gave all 3 of us stickers and candy. We love walking around the neighborhood because there are a few houses that really do it up. This one house had a pirate theme and they even had a boat sitting in their front yard with a bubble machine which had smoke inside of them when they popped. They were standing out in their pirate outfits and the whole set was really cool.

We came back to the house and relieved my parents and handed out candy. Although, we continued to take turns. Just depended on what was going on inside the house. We must have went through almost 13lbs of candy and it was just about 8.

Soon as our friends showed up we shut the lights out and retreated to the back of the house.

The below pics are of my husband in his stealth stormtrooper outfit. They are a special op stormtrooper. He got a lot of attention and there were people taking pics of him and kids running up to him. This one kid in a white cloth stormtrooper started yelling about a house away and was running up to him. Then he stood there and admired his costume. He was like 9 and was really interested. Some people called him Darth Vader. You could tell who were the fans and then you could tell who didn't know much about the movies.

He has wanted the white stormtrooper for awhile now but settled for the stealth one. He plans on wearing it ever year. Eventually he wants all of us to have star wars costumes.

He has some modifications to do and it's not a suit thats made for a lot of walking. By the time we got back home he was pretty worn out but still answered the door and passed out candy.

Big Kids...

My husband grew up never carving pumpkins as a kid. For the past 9 years he really gets into it and always puts thought into what he's going to carve. I on the other hand, just wing it.

We got our pumpkins a few weeks ago and just like an excited child he's been asking when can we carve them. I tell him it's always best to wait till the week of so they don't mold too early.

So yesterday afternoon we went out back to carve since it was such a warm day. I had to laugh when I saw how into it he was. A dremmel tool?? Gloves? He can't stand the feel of the pumpkin. While it never bothers me and I can have pumpkin all up my arms!

He chose to do a starwars look and I just made a traditional jack o' lantern. Our third pumpkin was our daughters and she had no interest in the pumpkins. She was too busy playing in the backyard.

Steve and I had no idea what to carve. We looked at all the different tracing patterns but neither of us wanted to get started on one. We ended up doing stars and with the colored light inside of it I think it turned out pretty well.

OCTOBER IS BREAST CANCER AWARENESS

The White House went pink tonight, part of worldwide campaign at more than 200 landmarks around the globe this month to commemorate breast cancer awareness.

During a ceremony at the White House, First Lady Laura Bush flipped a switch and suddenly a building that has been white ever since John and Abigail Adams took up residence there in 1800 was suddenly pink. She said:

We're showing our support of breast cancer awareness and research in a historic way. In recognition of the mothers, daughters, sisters and wives who struggle with this disease, we're lighting the White House in pink, which is the color of the cause. May our lights tonight shine as beacons around the world, a signal of the United States' commitment to saving lives for breast cancer.