Mama On The Move

We were under a high wind advisory last night.   It's not enough that we have blizzards and hail interspersed with lovely warm weather that lasts just long enough to give you hope that Illinois is not a frozen wasteland and that Spring will come one day. Now we have gusts of wind blowing so hard people's roofs are blowing away, lawn furniture is rolling down the street, and trampolines are being folded in half like giant tacos. I half expected to wake up in Oz. The wind was shrieking around the house so hard it sounded like a hundred screaming women on broomsticks flying around outside. The dogs did not like it. While we were watching television, Rigger was trying to wedge himself between the coffee table and the sofa and underneath our legs.  He actually put one foot on the sofa as if he were about to climb into our laps, but that is a no-no.  No dogs on the sofa - especially not a dog who can make the sofa collapse. Kerry went up to bed before I d

Because we've been stuck in the most horrible winter of our lives (and I lived in Fairbanks, AK for three years, people) we had to try to find some ways to make this not such a miserable experience. We've found that there are people who actually live here by choice, can you imagine?  We took a bunch of balloons and filled them with water and food coloring and set them outside to freeze. We checked them after about three hours.  I poked one and the balloon shattered and the partially frozen insides splattered all over the porch. Three hours is not enough. We left them outside overnight and checked them again in the morning.  Voila!  Once you tear the balloon off, you have a giant frozen marble! They will actually stick to your hand, so wear gloves. They'll stick to your gloves but that's okay.

Yesterday, it warmed up enough that I was able to go out without a coat, I just needed a light sweater. Last night it snowed hard enough that all the schools are closed today...... We also have been under a high wind advisory since midnight.  It scared Ringo so much during the night that he tried to get on our bed with us four times.  He's not even supposed to be in our room.  This morning, we discovered that after we wouldn't let him sleep with us, he clawed all the folded linens out of the bottom of the linen closet and burrowed in there. (I don't actually have anything made of linen in my linen closet.) The wind is literally shrieking around our house right now.  I believe this is the same sound they must record and use in horror movies when they want to simulate the sound of a group of women screaming in terror. As I sat here at the computer just now, the wind ripped the front storm door open and slammed it against the house.  I jumped sky high, the

We were very excited about having our family come visit us.  However, Mother Nature was feeling moody and caused all sorts of strife. Kerry's family was able to drive out the morning before the snow hit.  My mother and sister were supposed to fly out the following morning but we found out we were supposed to have extremely heavy snow.  We were concerned about our ability to get them to the airport which is about 30 minutes away.  We wound up taking them to a motel near the airport where they could get a shuttle the next morning to make their flight. Thank goodness we did.  The snow came down all night and we never would have been able to get our of our neighborhood, let alone to the airport.  But because of our strategic planning, they were able to make it on their flight (after watching the plane be de-iced twice and watching dump trucks cart away snow). Unfortunately, the rest of us were stuck at home in "near-blizzard" conditions.   Ben's girlfrien

Who could have guessed back when I married an Army private that one day I would be pinning on his Lieutenant Colonel rank? What made it the absolute best was that so many family members were able to make it here to share in the glory.  It just wouldn't have been as awesome if they hadn't been able to be here! Kerry had been working on his speech for weeks.  He wouldn't tell me what he was going to say, because he wanted it to be a surprise.  He said he was going to make me cry. Well, as it turned out, when he thanked his parents for all they've done, he was the one who started to choke up!  Then, he was trying to get himself under control, so he just told everyone I was his supportive wife, and he handed me flowers. He made up for it a few minutes later when he handed my mother some flowers and publicly thanked her for providing him with a "smokin' hot wife".  That got a good laugh from the audience! We are all just as proud