He's a keeper!

This is Husband, warming up and clearing off my car in the bitter cold on Saturday morning so I wouldn't have to do it. Best husband ever.

Snow Day

Last week, we finally got some snow here in Central Virginia and what a snow it was! Beautiful, large flakes of wet, wonderful snow. I can say that because I was home, cozy, warm and safe, when the snow started. Also, I did not have to go to work the next day (definitely one of the perks of working for a teacher!). From what the news said, it wasn't so wonderful for those who had to venture out during the snow, or even after. It had rained non-stop for 4 days leading up to the snow, so ice on the roads caused plenty of problems. Unlike last year's snow, this snow stuck around for a couple of days! I was so excited to wake up and see snow still on the ground.

Here are some pictures from a walk we took the morning after the snow. There is a path near us that follows a stream. It is pretty walk any time of year, but I think it is especially pretty covered in snow.

As I am posting this, it is snowing again (for the second time in 8 days!). That's more than it snowed all of last winter!

The great photo purge of 2013

See this blue storage tote? It holds years and years worth of printed pictures of my life. It has been moved from Canada to New York, from New York to Texas, and from Texas to Virginia. It is heavy: very, very heavy.

Every time we move, I say to myself "Self, you need to go through this tote and weed out those pictures!" but I never do it. Over Christmas break, I decided enough was enough. I dug the tote out from our small storage space -- okay, if I am being honest here, Husband dug it out; it weighs a million pounds --  and got to work. Well, if I am being completely honest again, the tote sat in our living room for a few days before I actually opened it. Over the course of a couple days, I went through every picture. Some pictures were from high school--trust me when I say that was a LONG time ago! I had copies of pictures that I had already put in scrapbooks. Why was I keeping those? I had about 25 pictures of Niagara Falls that looked pretty much the same. Who needs that many pictures of Niagara Falls? And, even though I have a deep and abiding love for the Mountains near my hometown, no one in the right mind needs as many mountain pictures as I had in my tote. Toss, toss, toss. At first it was difficult to put pictures in the toss pile, but once I realized that I do not, in fact, need 15 pictures of the Empire State Building, things got easier. When all was said and done, I think I tossed 250-300 pictures.

I still kept plenty of pictures, and maybe one day they will make it into a photo album. But for now they will sit in the tote, which a little lighter, but not by much.

Happy birthday!

I got hit with some sort of cold/flu bug on Christmas Eve and as a result I was still sick on my birthday (In fact, I am still not 100%. Whatever this bug is, it's a nasty one!). Not the way I wanted to spend my *cough* 25th *cough* birthday but sickness doesn't seem to care about that. My birthday celebration was pretty low-key since I wasn't feeling very well; just some presents, some soup, and plenty of rest!

The cookbook I've wanted for a few years. I finally got it!

It snowed just a little, but it was enough to make me happy.

The card my sister sent me. I am pretty sure I have never been able to do that!