Overlapping seasons

Just trying to find the beauty in this beastly weather.

I iz cold n lazi

So I plai I haz cats, duz u?

1 Phil




















1 Lil
Lil is a boy. Sorry, Lil.

















My cats are good with little maniacs.
















I don't know why.



















If I were a cat, I would not like small people.

































At least, not this small people.






















But these boys keep on loving!






















Lil is the lazy one.





















Phil is the curious one.

















But they're both smart enough to know when children are the most lovable.























I haz dog pets 2, but dey iz big and harder for kidz 2 ketch 4 fotoz. Nekst sno dai.

Snow day, snow what

I do not like snow. Choosing to live up high in the Pocono Mountains probably wasn't my smartest decision, but I don't really think about the downsides in May, June, July, August or September.
The rest of the year, I tend to be a miserable fool.

My due date with C was April 17th of last year. That weekend, we had a big snow storm.

Last week, we had flurries. Today, we have a couple inches of white crap, and no clue as to when it will stop.


















When J was still in "regular school", I was actually able to take some pleasure in snow days. They meant not having to bundle everyone up by 8am to drive to, then sit around waiting in, the bus stop parking lot. And we could do nothing but sit around, watching cartoons, drinking hot chocolate.



















Our exact location earned us even more snow days than the general student body. Our district is extremely large, square mile wise, and we live at the highest elevation for the area. Two miles down the mountain, it can be raining while we are snowed in. In fact, the husband just headed out to work and reported back that the main roads are fine, while the road ours branches off from is littered with 7 stuck vehicles. We have had lots of hot chocolate since moving here!
















Now I don't have a single child in "regular school." Our morning is just like every other morning. There's no real reason to avoid math, and no lack of reading material. We have no scheduled activities on Tuesdays. No legitimate reason to change our routine.




















Technically, I have the power to declare school canceled today, but that seems like such a silly thing to do. Instead, I think we'll have a "delayed opening" and a few mugs of hot chocolate before getting down to business.























If the wind manages to calm down, the kids are going to LOVE recess.

And since I'm annoyed about not being able to get really good pictures while it's still snowing, I'm going to post this one to make myself smile.

Happy Halloween... kinda

Our development doesn't allow Trick or Treating on Halloween. Well, unless Halloween falls on a Sunday. Or maybe even a Saturday. I guess I'll find out about the Saturday thing next year.

We don't have any sidewalks or street lights, and most of our roads are lined with drainage swales, AKA giant ditches. Since most of the kids around here don't get home from school until 4:30-ish, weekday ToTing would involve darkness.






The whole thing really annoyed me when we first moved here. Then I actually took 3 young children ToTing during on our first Fake Halloween and saw what a madhouse it is, even during the day.

Since most of the houses around here are spread far apart, the kids really only ToT along the main road. 2,000 or so families worth of children along a 2 mile stretch for 3 hours. It's CRAZY. I have come to appreciate the seemingly ridiculous policy.

For the past few years, we've also had a Trick or Trunk at the lake parking lot. As a person who grew up having hundreds of children coming to the door for candy, I like having this chance to be a part of the fun. Back at the house, I think we've had about 6 Trick or Treaters in 4 Halloweens.









Sadly, not many people are into the giving aspect of Halloween. Despite this being the best weather we've ever had for the event, we were one of about 10 cars providing candy for 300 kids in less than two hours. We all had a great time but, yeah, I am bitter. I've always seen Halloween as a "take a penny, leave a penny" kind of thing, ya know?









So, we did our thing. Nobody froze for a change. The kids went off and made sand castles once their stashes were confiscated. And then we went to the Halloween party.









Our social committee does such a great job with this party. I could have done with one or two fewer plays of The Cha Cha Slide, but I guess every DJ has his favorites. The kids noshed on "brains and eyeballs", "witches fingers", "pig snouts and whiskers" and the like, and managed to get to "dirt in a cup" and plenty of other creepy, sugary garbage before withdrawl kicked in.










By the time we were getting ready to leave, C was very unsteady on his feet. A few times, he simply rolled around on the floor, babbling incoherently, with a giant smile on his face. It was a Good Day.








But why in the world did I agree to take the kids to Grandma's for real Halloween?!

Thanks, Kristin! And Picasa.

I finally figured out how to work Picasa (sort of)! I'm so excited to have some editing capabilities back. Eventually, I will have to suck it up and buy a program, but Picasa is worth its price tag. I guess that doesn't mean much, considering it's free.

So, I will try to show you.
Which is a bit difficult to do when you're the kind of person who never remembers to make a copy before editing.

Since I have the originals uploaded here, you can scroll down to my Garbage Day post and compare these images. Pretty impressive, in my opinion, for a camera phone and a free editing program!