Why does the year always start like this?

Too busy to think straight? Between swim meets, a yoga workshop (which I organized and which went quite well despite my guest instructor suffering a massive flat tire and being an hour and a half late), birthdays, and well...mostly it's the swim practices and meets, I don't have a clear picture of what we've been doing for the past month.

We weathered our "biggest storm of season" snow (a pittance compared to last year), and now we're just suffering massive subzero temperatures. The 1000 piece puzzle is done. We're trying to get organized for M3's slumber party on Friday night for her birthday. I'm subbing a ballet class on campus. I'm trying to make sure I don't forget we have music and tae kwon do, too. Oh yeah, I'm taking a French conversation class to prepare for Mark's and my trip to London and Paris in March. It's not much more than a month away!! (Did I mention that?) OK, now that I'm amassing that list...I'd better go get something done!!

M & M built a time machine (which has now been recycled...futuristic energy saving materials):

And I cracked up when I saw M3 practicing her sax with Blankie hanging over her shoulder:

Yes, indeed...

...it's a snow day! And the college actually canceled classes!! They have never done that, not once in our 11 and a half years here! Not even last year when we had feet and feet of snow! Not when we had an ice storm! Exclamation point!

The word is that we got nine or ten inches of snow. (I know that's not all that much to you Mainers. :-)) It looks very lovely. If it weren't -12 windchill, I would be out snapping some pictures of the kids playing in the snow. Perhaps later. As it is, I've been hit with a wicked head cold and just want to curl up and die. I mean, sleep.

We've got a 1000 piece puzzle on the dining room table and hot chocolate on the stove. Stay warm, everyone!

Snow day!

The kids and I are hunkering down for a snowy afternoon. They got out of school early, and it seems likely there won't be any school tomorrow. We've only had one snow day so far this year...last year by this date we'd had I don't know how many!! So hooray for snow! I am always happy for an excuse to snuggle up, light a fire, play games, watch movies, and just stay in. It's definitely looking like a blizzard out there!

You never know...

...what sort of fun could be had with an oddly-shaped box. (P.S. He has had his hair trimmed since this photo.)
(M4...not the cat.)

Swimming State

During the swim meet yesterday, M3 qualified for the state meet in her 100m freestyle event! She is very excited and happy so that is cool. I don't think she was necessarily focused on getting to state (which I'm glad about), so it is a great treat for her. For us it means another month of nights at the pool. Oh well. I am working on my swimming, so perhaps I can use that time wisely. In fact, we had parent/child relays yesterday, and I swam freestyle all the way across the pool reasonably quickly without drowning! And I wasn't too far behind the other parents (including M3's coach)! So that is my state.

I tried to get a couple action shots of M3 yesterday:
Didn't do a good job of getting her start:
I have a video I'll post, too.

Unrelated: We got a 600 piece puzzle for Christmas. It took us a while, but it was great fun to work on together. We finished it last night, and the Packers won, so it was a good night!

Christmas

Yay! for Christmas! We had a good one! There was the PERFECT Christmas Eve snow...falling gently all day, warm enough to play outside. The only downside: it wasn't sticky enough to make snowmen. But that didn't stop M & M from creating an elaborate "kitty town" in the backyard with paths and storage areas, etc.
Christmas morning!
M3 with her big present: an iPod Nano with touch screen! Woot woot! I must say, the touch screen is pretty cool! It's much nicer than her Shuffle: she can make playlists and store photos.
Rumpus with his gift: a water fountain! Maybe he'll keep his grubby mitts off the counters now.
One of M4's gifts (although not his "big" gift which was a Playmobil Pyramid. It is wicked awesome.). But the Rock-em Sock-em Robots are pretty fun, too!
It was lovely to be home for Christmas morning. We had a relaxing day and then had our friends who had been in DC for the fall semester over for Christmas dinner. The day after Christmas we headed to KC to hang with everyone, which was ever so fun....and I forgot my camera. Gah! Will have to get some pics from my moms to post. Suffice it to say, it was great to play with cousins and aunts and uncles, to play games, to consume massive quantities of booze and sweets, and to enjoy the warm weather in KC which allowed M & M to use their new scooters and us all the get outside and play!!

I got new poles for my XC skis and am now impatiently waiting for the snow to ski on!!

Merry Christmas...

Quite an experience to have your dryer catch on fire, as it did last night. Thank goodness we were home, and it really was pretty mellow as far as fires go. The smoke detector didn't go off, but the fire extinguisher worked. One out of two? I'll never turn on the dryer and leave the house again, that's for sure! This is the best picture I could get of the fire location behind the fan.

As far as we can tell, it was electrical and not lint. There was not much lint in the machine to speak of. In this picture you can see how black the smoke made the lint that was in the trap from the load in progress. The clothes are OK except for a bad smell which I hope will wash out. All Max's pants were in there!
I am extremely, profoundly grateful that nothing worse happened. It could have been much, much worse. We are all OK, the house is OK, the dryer is not. But that is a very small inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. Happy Holidays! Check your smoke alarms and fire extinguishers!!