My Little Life

Five years ago (hard to believe I've been blogging that long...) Mother Nature played a nasty April Fool's joke on us (the good news is that 2 1/2 weeks later it was in the 70's...could that actually be in our future?! Also...that link is my 3rd post. Ever. 3. Whoa.). She dumped HEAPS of snow, forcing schools to declare a snow day. In April. Not funny, Mother Nature, not funny. Well, guess what, my friends? We're under a Winter Weather Advisory. Again. For April Fool's Day. Please hold me, I'm going to cry. (And it's gonna be ugly. Ain't no pretty cryin' over here.) Currently our back yard looks like this: (And yes, that is a path through the snow to the trampoline...raising tried and true Minnesotan kids over here.) Let's see what it ends up looking like by 8 am tomorrow morning... Sounds like the wind will be the bigger factor tomorrow, not a ton of snow, but rain, turning to ice, with snow on top and high winds. You'r...

Life. It goes by so stinking fast, doesn't it? And it gets clogged up with so much...stuff. Parties and sports and dance and commitments and meetings and appointments and this and that and OHMYGOSHLEAVEMEALONE. Right?  I mean, seriously. When I took my new job, I was really looking forward to the extra family "down time" we'd have on weekends and evenings. Family meals are so important to the Mr. and I and so often, when I was working a weekend, I longed to be home with my family. Doing whatever it was that they were doing. I have those weekends free now (well, most...I'm still picking up an occasional weekend at the hospital) and guess what? Ain't no downtime to be had. Feels like we're busier than ever before! It's constant...and I'm wondering, did life get busier or did my new weekend availability now create a debacle in which we say "yes" to things that we would've said "no, I'm working" to before? There...

We're kickin' it old school today...bringing back 5QF for another ride around the block! Also...I'd like to give Happy Birthday Shout Out to my amazing and wonderful husband, Mr. Wonderful. 41 years young today...love you, handsome! (Your own birthday post is coming later...) Kinda excited about doing 5QF again...absence makes the heart grow fonder, perhaps? Been over 6 months since the last 5QF, hard to believe! Okay, let's get this party started! Welcome to Five Question Friday!! You've come to the right place if you want a  fun , easy post to get you through your writer's block!  Rules for 5QF:  Copy and paste the following questions to your blog post, answer them, then watch for the linky post to appear Friday morning and LINK UP!  Oh, and remember (pay close attention...this is the important one)... HAVE FUN ! Questions for Friday, March 21st :  (Special thanks to  Pam ( @trooppetrie ) from  Troop Petrie ,  Kate ( @KatieB38 ) from...

Yup...you read that right! Five Question Friday is back this week! After a few requests to bring 5QF back for a week, I thought, hey, why not?! So here we are...back in the saddle...let's see if I can remember how to do this! Welcome to Five Question Friday!! You've come to the right place if you want a fun, easy post to get you through your writer's block!  Rules for 5QF:  Copy and paste the following questions to your blog post, answer them, then watch for the linky post to appear Friday morning and LINK UP!  Oh, and remember (pay close attention...this is the important one)...HAVE FUN! Questions for Friday, March 21st :  (Special thanks to  Pam ( @trooppetrie ) from  Troop Petrie ,  Kate ( @KatieB38 ) from  ~Kate's Life~ , Gassy Mama ( @gasfamily ) from The Gas Family (for the win, with TWO questions!!)  and little ol' moi ( @5crookedhalos )   for  these 5QF  question suggestions!) 1 . I f I had 5 minutes alone wit...

JUST when we were starting to get a glimpse of spring (temps in the 40s, melting snow, patches of grass peeking through), we get BOMBARDED with another winter storm.  For real. 4 fresh, fluffy inches have covered the ground...with another 4-8 on the way. Gross. Just yesterday that tree (why yes, that is our Christmas tree...DON'T JUDGE) was completely free of any snow. And today, we woke up to new of (yet another) snow day! You know you've had too many snow days when even the kids start to complain..."I DON'T WANNA MAKE IT UP!!!". I feel your pain kiddos. This snow day, however, was a bit of a reprieve for me. I have contracted the deadly plague. Yeah, yeah, yeah...so that's a bit of an exaggeration but still. Feel. Like. Crapola. Started off as a mean old sore throat and quickly progressed to an all consuming head cold. You know, the kind of head cold in which your nose won't stop dripping so you shove toilet paper up it just so you can sleep...

I worked at the hospital this past weekend...and had the pleasure reconnecting with my old co-workers.  One of my co-workers, a sweet mother of many herself, a newborn foster mom, a doting grandma, had a visit from one of her (adorable) grandbabies. Oh you guys. This baby. Nothing, in a long time, has given me quite the longing pangs as this sweet little munchkin did. 5 months old, all slobbery fingered and chubby cheeked and happy shrieks, she came right to me and nuzzled into my shoulder. I was smitten. I offered to take her home. Actually, it was more like "begged"...but they wouldn't let me!!  Oh that sweet girl did a number on me. Excuse me now, I need to go find my 6 year old and see if she'll play baby for me...

As most of y'all know, I'm not a good flier. (As evidenced by my prescription for a sedative for flying only.) And by "not good", I mean, I avoid it at all costs. I never want it to prevent me from going anywhere, but I doubt I'll ever be a lover of travel and will only fly when absolutely necessary.  It's just not worth it to me! Sure, I'll suck it up, pull up my big girl pants and slurp down a Valium, but you'll never find me salivating to hop on the nearest plane and jet away at frequent intervals. Nope. Not me. Which in turn, makes me one in experienced flier. Like, I stand in the terminal and look this way and that, reading signs, trying to decipher which line I should be in and finally giving up and asking the nearest uniformed employee where in the heck I should be. It also makes me not real savvy about security, appropriate attire and TSA pat downs. Here's one thing: when I do fly, I fly in comfy clothes. If I could hop on a plane...

With all the snow/cold days that we've had, the schools have resorted to doing some creative shuffling of the schedule...which left me working on a day my Baby Girl had off from school. This day also happened to be my amazing Gram's birthday (her 82nd!)...good golly do I love that woman. I'm really not sure what I would do without her. (I love you Gram!!) Anyway, I was in need of someone to watch my sweet girl and I ran it past Gram and Gramp, who said they'd be delighted for Baby Girl to hang with them for the day! The thought of my girl spending the whole day at grandma and grandpa's brought with it a surge of sweet memories from my childhood...Saturdays spent at their house after CCD, advent calendars filled with treats, "boken oken" eggs (broken yolks), coffee and graham crackers, love, laughter...ahhhhhhh, here I am, walking down memory lane again! Such warm, loving memories of those days. Gram had it all planned out for my girl...they...