Not since '93...

...have I been a part of a snow like this. I mean, sure, when I went to Montana I saw some serious snow, but not in the SOUTH! Whoa...what's all that about. Our little city got about 6 inches...how about you?

It was a Sunday, and just about the time church let out it started coming down. The sidewalks had already iced over, but the roads had yet to be covered. We thought it would stop there and all would be well. We were wrong. As you can tell from the picture below it just kept coming, and in sheets!

This is a tree across the street. The "blur" yous see is the snow falling.

Here's a picture of my favorite tree in the back yard. You can tell the "sheets" of snow are really thick in this one. As for the tree, it's always like that. I'm sure I've blogged about it before, but if you don't know, this tree grows like this. I suppose at some point it fell over, but it's beautiful when it blooms in the spring. The only part of it that doesn' still sprout leaves is the bottom limbs.

About six o'clock that evening, the power went out. It might've been a little earlier, but it was out just before dark. My mom was at my house helping me as I was recovering from my car accident **will have more on that later** and she and Helen had fun making paper snowflakes! They are still hanging on the fridge. Helen couldn't get enough of looking at the snow. Like most kids, she wanted to be out in it. Of course it was too late and too cold to get her out in it. We promised her that we'd go out the next morning.

We played Yatzee with Helen that night. She loved it. We let her shake the dice in the little cup. Oh she was so happy--you would have thought we'd just let her run wild on a shopping spree through ToysRus!

Just about 9:25 (we let her stay up late b/c she had a REALLY late nap) I told Brian we should bring the futon matress into the family room, by the fire, and we'd all have a campout. So we got the futon matress for me (brian was a party pooper), Grammie slept on the sofa, and Helen's matress we put next to mine. Here we are laying together watching the fire. It was 9:35 when the power came on....**hmph**



Helen didn't sleep there. She HAD to lay in "Helen's bed" so we moved all her stuff back into her crib and she went right to sleep. I guess it's a good thing the power came back on...or else it would have been a long fight.

The next morning, after a good breakfast, we bundled Helen and Grammie in all the warmest clothes and sent them to venture out into the icy tundra...hehe.

Isn't she cute?

Off they go to the top of the yard, by the street. It's a perfect slope for a nice smooth drop towards the house. Katie, our 3yr old neighbor and her mom were outside. We invited them over to play in our yard. I think they liked our slope better.
Since Brian was having a hard time getting down the road, even in his rent-A-F150, he came back home and played in the show with Helen and Katie. That little red inflattable thing Helen is on is actually Katie's SLIP-N-SLIDE "board."
She fell over a couple of times, but as with most toddlers, she just laughed, got up, and kept going! She's such a trooper!
Here is Katie, in full SCREAM, as Brian gives her a little push. As soon as she put her booty on the card board she started screaming! Girls...

I have to mention Katie and her being a super fashionista even in the snow. Please notice that not only does she have great taste in her pink faux-leopard skin coat with fleece lining, but she's got two different boots and two different gloves. Gotta love it. I am CERTAIN that it was not that she couldn't find the matches but because she absolutely wanted it that way. She's a DIVA!

Here's the two sweeties holding hands and they walk back up the "hill." Ohwe!

I also need to mention how Helen has socks on her hands. They are the waterproof socks Brian wore in Montana...she had fun! Anyway, after 30 minutes or so of play time, helen didn't want to come back in. This is just before she got VERY upset when she found out she was finished. Notice the snot dripping...nuf said.

It was a fun snow day. The next day the road were clear, for the most part. The day after that nearly all the snow was gone, and by Thursday, it was like 70 degrees outside! What's up with that!?

I end this blog with a couple of super cute pics for the g-parents. This is Tomboy Helen in her Mickey hat. She put it on this way and wore it for a while. She put it on to take Jannie (her Cabbage Patch Doll) in her stroller, to the "store." Of course, she never left the house, but circled the family room several times before ditching Jannie for her computer.

Me and you, and you and me...

...no matter how they toss the dice, it has to be.
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together!

We celebrated six years this week!

(see next post about Helen)

Some exercise

Brian took Helen out for a nice walk this evening. I love when they spend Daddy-time together. His main purpose was to burn some energy, perhaps some calories, but Helen insisted on walking the entire time. Three of her steps made for one of his....so all he did was take a walk, but it was a walk with is daughter. I'd say time well spent! WAY TO GO DAD!

****Check out the next post****

Flippin and Flowin

Just a fun pic of Helen and Daddy flipping. Helen climbs up, then she holds herself upside down for a few seconds and then flips over, landing on her feet. They have such fun! She loves to flip and ride our backs...or shoulders.




Something funny that happened today:

Brian called the house to chat for a second about this and that. I let Helen talk to him for a few seconds. She put the phone up to her head and because her mouth was so close to it, Brian couldn't understand. He said, "Helen, I can't understand you baby, hold your mouth away from the phone a little bit." Well, she gives me the phone and proceeds to physically HOLD her mouth with her hand. She grabbed her bottom jaw and walked away! LOL! HAHAH! Bless her sweet innocence.


Something funny that happened last week while I was keeping Nathan:

We are in the process of potty training. Helen has a small potty in her bathroom, but sometimes she likes to use the big potty. This particular time, she wanted to use the big potty when I took her to the bathroom. Of course, Nathan was in tow. As I was pulling down Helen's pants to put her up there, Nathan tells me that he has to peepee too! Since Helen was on the big potty, I told Nathan to wait just a second for Helen to finish or to use the little potty. Well, he wanted to do NEITHER. He HAD to peepee right then and in the big potty. So Helen had just gotten settled on the potty when Nathan immediately drops his drawers and proceeds to walk up to the same toilet to pee. Note he is just barely too short that he is unable to position "his parts" correctly to ring it. So as I finish saying, "wait just a second or use the little potty," he has a steady stream a flowin'. So whilest I am keeping Helen from being peed on and from falling INTO the toilet, I am deflecting pee (with the not-so-free hand) from getting all over the floor, the bathtub, and Nathan. All this going on at once...you can imagine how it turned out. Yep: Pee on the tub, pee on the floor, pee on Helen, a little bit IN the toilet, and A LOT OF IT ON ME! That potty break took quite a bit longer than the norm. All I could think of during this entire encounter was Brian and Leslie's childhood story I like to call "Just Scoot Up." HAHA! What a day.

Guess it could be worse.

Two words: Daddy time.

See next post also!

Time with Daddy

Just some pictures I wanted to share. It's hard to get pics of Daddy and Helen some days because they get to spend so little time together. They usually have "Daddy Time" between 6 and 7 o'clock in the evening, but since the summer "paint" season began they get even less time than that. But that is more than some daddy's get with their kids. Helen has a great Daddy, don't you think?!

(See next post, this is the second for today)

Our visitor (Rated PG--for sensitive viewers)

Brian and Helen were looking outside one evening before bedtime and Helen saw this little fella had come for a visit.

"Nake" she said.

"Yes that is a snake baby. Good job! ...KRISTY!! Come over here and hold her and watch where it goes. I'm gonna have to kill it" (This coming from someone who HATES with deep passion, any kind of snake)


This is the up close and personal shot I got as it wandered into our flowerbed next to the door. As I snatched up the curtain near the flowerbed so Helen and I could watch it, he stopped, dead halt, staring at us. I think he knew we couldn't get to him because he didn't jump at us, but he wouldn't take a chance at releasing is gaze.



Ugly fella....

This is what came around the corner at him. His gaze was fixed as well. LOL! Pretty intense for a guy who hates snakes. One wack of that shovel and it was over. That snake didn't have a chance. Helen didn't see her Daddy kill the snake, but I did. It wasn't pretty, but he wasn't taking any chances with missing it.

After he came back inside we got on the internet and found that it was a copperhead. They are pretty common in GA and only lethal to very small children if the snake is full grown. Thank the Lord Helen saw it through the window and not face to face.

(this is my second post for today, check out the next one too)

Camp

We did so much in such a short amount of time at camp two weeks ago I can barely recount it all in one day, let alone in one blog. I am still catching up on my sleep from it, actually. We went to Palmetto Bible Camp in Marietta, South Carolina for an entire week, yep seven days. We met some awesome people, made some awesome friends, and had some great Christian fun. It never ceases to amaze me how Christians have such bonds. I'd only met one or two people at this camp before the week began and I walked away with so many fun memories. I think that if there is a heaven on earth it's at camp. The singing is great, the fellowship is great, and fun is great, and God is always there. Who wouldn't love that.

I've attached several pictures for you all to see. I hope you will enjoy.

Oh, btw, there are so many pictures that were not taken by me. Most of these are from a girl named Kierra. She was one of the campers in cabin five with me. She's totally awesome. I totally bummed them from her facebook, with her permission of course!

Brittni, Hannibal, and Emily - some of the greatest counselors at camp

Jasmine (her friends call her Jazz) - one of the sweetest and coolest teenagers I had the opportunity to meet

Wes trying is hand at song leading. He did pretty well.

Jillian after being "banana-creme-pied"

Brian hiking up to the waterfall and then to the "sliding rock." (God-made water slide)

The base of the water fall

Team 5 (our team) playing human battleship

Pancake the dog taking an afternoon snooze

Our masquerade masks at the banquet

Water Slide (and the geese)

The Ark

The Miniature Golf Course

Canoeing on the lake

Our "helicopter" for our Coast Guard Skit

Our Boat for the skit

The driver

And the best shot of the weekend....on the way home, the boys slept...just like this.

I am alive and spiritually recharged.

This is the way I felt most days at Bible camp. We were busy all day long and running on pure adrenaline becuase sleep was very hard to come by.....

The theme of the week was "Christianity: Uniform or Costume" and it was VERY well executed by the directors and staff! We had at least three lessons per day and all of them were fantastic and so sound! All the staff and counsellors wore matching camo T-shirts each day...a different color for each day as well. That was fun too! I liked the camo!

I made lots of friends, but one really stood out. I'll tell you more about her later. I got to spend much time with my good buddy TRUDY, as well as a few days with her sisters, Heidi and Lavenia.

I want to spend the next hour telling you about my week, but I will save more for later. I will get into details then too!

I also have some pictures coming from the Saturday I left for camp. Brian and I took Nathan to the park along with Helen and my mom and stepdad. There was a festival. SO MUCH FUN! I'll have more about that soon, but here is one pic of my sweet nephew giving me some love....