I'm Day 30

I'm the final day 30 of giveaways over at Ni Hao Y'all




{ I'm spending the day as a weather geek following model runs for an impending storm that none of the local TV guys are calling...yet. My fav. private forecaster who called much of last year's storms correctly is saying we are in for a possible doozy- like a snow hurricane and feet of snow! His site is down with 80,000 hits yesterday! TV guys are saying a possible dusting. I'm not buying it. Did my grocery shopping yesterday. Now I'm spending my time in weather forums looking at models and trying to understand isobars and ridges and lows stalled off the coast. The Euro model has us trending for the "perfect storm" and the more unreliable GFS model is starting to mirror the Euro. Last Euro run had us in for over 2" of precipitation and you multiply that by 12 or 14 to get inches of snow! I'm guessing Christmas travel to my family won't be in the plans. Hopeful not to lose power if this all comes about~ }

What a busy time of year!

So much to post about! Pictures and full details will have to wait.

We had the end of the week off of school due to the weather. That allowed me to get some more stuff done at home and all my orders to that point shipped out. Whew! Then Saturday we went down to Williamsburg to meet my parents and have our traditional breakfast with Santa at the William & Mary Alumni House. We were the last to get to talk with this amazing Santa. They went in order of when reservations were made, and my mom was sure she was in early. Teagan was having a hard time waiting. Santa takes as long as each child wants, and some took 20 minutes. They have a craft room, and a movie room to pass the time, and we had already had about 30 minutes of Santa telling all the kids stories (did I mention that he is amazing!!) and breakfast, but it was a long wait for our turn. All worth it though. When we were saying goodbye, the director of Alumni programs mentioned to Santa how patient the girlies had been. He said: "You know what- you have been incredibly patient to wait your turn while I visited with all of my other friends. I want to give something special to you." He then took off his hat and removed a very special necklace from around his neck- a Santa face carved from reindeer antler. He presented it to the girls whose eyes were as wide as I have ever seen. It's carved EE 10 on the back. The girls have decided that stands for Edward Elf #10. Santa told them he has 29 elves and one elf has the job of doing all the carving. So magical!!

Then that night we went to Busch Gardens for Christmas Town. SO cool. Really, I mean cool... I was in the 20's and snowing. The light displays were awesome. We had a blast walking around the park watching shows, sipping hot cocoa and looking at lights. We were frozen when we left, but what a great family evening to cap off a great day.

Monday was our 12th anniversary. Our babysitter had to go out of town to a funeral, so the girlies came with Paul and I to dinner at a Japanese Steak House. They got all dressed up on their own and were very excited to be going out with us.

Today we are preparing for snow. I was worried my brother wouldn't make it home from London because of the snow there (he got back a few hours ago w/o a problem, but many are still stranded in Heathrow). Now it looks like we might be the ones unable to make it to my folks. Our impending white Christmas could be feet of snow- a full blizzard. Watching the weather model runs with great interest.

What a fun time of year!!

Snow Day!!

There is a whoping 2 inches on the ground- we are expecting 4-6 with a layer of ice. So they closed schools for today, last night, in anticipation of the snow that began about 9am. Darn. Really, darn! I'm all for a good snow day, but not now!!

Teagan was quite depressed this morning and Piper wasn't too thrilled also. You see, they had their big holiday parties at school today and now they are cancelled. That's a big bummer to a 1st and 2nd grader.

They have been outside playing with frineds for the past several hours, so I hope they return in better spirits. Teagan especially is very grumpy when she is sad.

My fingers are crossed that we'll be able to go tomorrow. It's the last day before break and the girls need to deliver their bus driver and teacher gifts.

And is it too selfish to admit that I was really looking forward to receiving my Christmas presents from the kids in my class??

Seventeen

Degrees, that is.

Our expected high temp today- 17 degrees. It's twelve degrees out right now. Crazy for my neck of the woods!

And obviously too cold for the heat pump at my school. It was struggling yesterday to maintain the balmy 61 degrees I arrived to in my classroom. So I wasn't all that surprised to get a phone call from my director saying that the heat was broken and would be completely shut down for repair and there would be no school today. My assistant and I broke up the phone list and set to calling parents yesterday evening. Lots of families were not home, so I hope that messages were checked (I'm awful about checking mine!) and too many kiddos don't show up this morning to a locked building.

I plan on getting some wrapping done and more bow and key fob orders completed and shipped in my 4 hours of found time this morning. That and trying to stay warm!!

We are expecting snow on Thursday. Who know what that might do to school?

She's up late

For the past few nights the girlies have been staying up after they have been tucked in bed. Lights have been dimly turned back on and they think that I have been unaware.

Piper has been so involved in reading as many chapter books as she can so she can take a comprehension quiz in the library and get points and earn a necklace and book charms. She took a quiz today and her point total has earned her the ball chain necklace and her first charm. She's very proud. So are we.

Teagan, on the other hand, has been staying up writing "secret notes" that have appeared on my keyboard when I get ready to shut the computer down for the night.

Her notes have melted my heart.



"You make me love you mour"

"I want to be like you"

"I love you"

"You are nice to me"


These are all keepers!!



I'm not minding the after hours activities so much!

I'm here

So much for my goal of more regular posting.

Piper fully recuperated and we have managed to avoid the really yucky tummy bug that has ravaged my preschool and been known to be present at the girlie's elementary school too. After eating a huge dinner last night, Piper told me her tummy ached, and I freaked out! "Do you think you are going to throw up?" Thankfully she assured me that she just ate too much chicken. I really want all to be healthy around here for the rest of the month!

I have one last craft show this Saturday. That will make 16 events for this season. It has been exhausting, but well worth all the work and ridiculously late nights.

Now I'm knee deep in on-line orders. Bow stuff and key fobs. Yes, the fundraiser sales have picked up. I have been greatly blessed to have had some publicity. I received a sweet email from a new friend, Karen, that the Lord led her to my site when she was looking for fundraising families to feature. How cool is that!

I'll have some goodies given away as part of Stefanie's 30 days of giveaways over at Ni Hao Y'all in the coming days.



And I have been blessed to have my fobs as a co-op deal for a group buying discount forum, The Spavin Mavens. I've already had six new orders in the first 24 hours of having the buy go live!

It's hard to sew when I can't feel my fingers, but that's just life now that the high is a lovely 36 degrees and I'm always freezing anyway. Ugh.