Things I love right now.....

In no particular order:

• Peppermint Tea
• HD T.V. (shhhhh, don't tell anyone I said that).  We finally upgraded our service and I can't believe we watched such a bad picture for so long.  Food Network has never been better!
• The Chicago Bears!  We whooped the Eagles and it was AWESOME, even though it wasn't televised, we listened to Bears radio and cheered!
• Sabra Hummus.  The original flavor, although while looking at their website I discovered they have JALAPENO!  My grocery store doesn't carry this flavor.  I may have to make a phone call.
• The snow melting!  It's almost gone!
• Wool socks.
• My bird friends.  I've had the following visitors, Varied Thrush, Black-capped Chickadee, Steller's Jay, Evening Grosbeak, Eurasian Collared-Dove (this guy is a fatty!), Northern Flicker, and a few others.

We're back to work and school this week after the snow.  The kids had a nice long Thanksgiving break.  We survived our trip to Oregon and had a great Thanksgiving.  More on that later!

Uhm? Really.

So in the last two days we've received (much to our dismay) 12 inches of snow. I took these photos around 1pm yesterday and it was still coming down. As you can tell by how blizzard like the pictures are.

School has been canceled two days in a row. When it snows here it cripples our little town. We don't have the equipment to keep up with this much snow. The roads are covered with compact snow and ice. This has put our Thanksgiving travel plans up in the air. Oh poo. If we wake up tomorrow and the roads are looking okay, we'll drive to Oregon. If the roads are still looking like Antarctica, then we stay home and have mexican Thanksgiving. I'm afraid of the latter because my children will stage a mutiny if I don't cook turkey.

It's currently 22 degrees. The sun is shining. The snow has stopped. But, DANG, is it cold!

In other news, much better news in fact, I won a contest! ME! Isn't that awesome! My dear, darling Husband showed me this really cool blog called BOOOOOOOM.com and I entered a drawing for a pair of Interpol tickets, AND won!

Going to Vancouver in January YO! to see Interpol! Epic date night!

Sarah's Bird Friends...

Nezzbick vs. the salad

"OH man, salad," he said and let out a big sigh.


"I have to do this, for my country," he stated as he stared down at the mound of green smothered in ranch.


He looked up with a fierce determination in his eyes.


"Crunch, crunch, take that salad!" He declared as he shoveled it in his mouth.


"MUST. GO. ON." He couldn't let the salad win.


"Victory," he declared!

The whirlwind of suprise

The weekend before last I received quite a surprise.  This is no small feat.  I am not an easy person to fool.  I am incredibly static and any time there is the slightest difference in the routine I'm aware.

I knew my Husband was up to something for the past few weeks.  I was growing exceedingly suspicious, and nervous, and anxious.  See, my birthday was around the corner.  He was planning something, but I could never quite put my finger on it.

Two things I knew, or I should say I thought I knew, were my best girl friend and her husband were coming for the weekend after my birthday and we were all going out to dinner to celebrate.

That Saturday started like most, sleeping in, sipping coffee, watching DIY network to get pumped up about remodeling, you know the usual.  We made our grocery list, home depot list, and wal-mart list.  What can I say, I like lists.

After tackling Home Depot and Wal-Mart we made our way back into PA and proceeded to dink around.  A stop at a new quilting store I'd wanted to check out and a stop at the antique store, Marty had a chair he wanted to show me.  We found a few used records and I thought we were then heading to the grocery store, after all it was getting late in the afternoon and I needed to get home to get dinner started.

One more stop he assured me.  "I need to look at the menu for next weekends dinner," he said calmly.

Down the street we walked, hand in hand.  We ascended the dark stairs in to the restaurant, turned the corner to the back room and proceeded down the long hall.  It wasn't until we nearly entered the back room I realized what was going on.

All my closest friends and family were there patiently waiting for my arrival.  Waiting to surprise me.  And every one of them was dressed up like someone from the 80's!  Even the kids!  Madonna, Maverick from Top Gun, Claire from The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller twice!  There was Marty McFly, Magnum PI, Prince, Cyndi Lauper, Axl Rose and his "I'm with the band" girl.  It was like going back to 1985!  

I can honestly say I was COMPLETELY surprised.  All this time I was suspicious of the wrong weekend!  He had me so mixed up.  I really have to give him credit because I'm so nosy and apprehensive.  I imagine it wasn't easy for him.

Marty donned his Dr. Venkman (a la Ghost Busters) costume and informed me my costume was waiting in the bathroom.  About 20 minutes later I re-appeared as Jem, pink wig and all.

It was a perfect way to turn 30.  Thank you Marty for the amazing party, for the wonderful cake, and the great memories I'll keep from that night!  You completely and wholly outdid yourself.  It was the best party I've ever had and ever been to (except for our wedding, that was a pretty kick ass party)!  You are simply the most amazing, wonderful Husband a girl could ask for.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEANUT!!!!

30 years young today...and still so beautiful and amazing!

Summer recap in photos, part III

We went to Philadelphia.


























We had an 18th birthday.










We did some hiking.







AND thank goodness, school started.

Summer recap in photos, part II

We attended a very special wedding and then had a kick ass wedding reception in our back yard.




























We went to Hawaii.




















Stayed tuned for the last installment, part III!