Scholarship weekend, 16 years later

It's bizarre enough to know it's been 16 years since mine. But this view never existed bc the building didn't!

Yet. Another. Snow day.

Well I'm about done with winter. Yesterday we had an event on campus and right at noon we walked out to sleet, freezing rain, and everything else you find in a wintry mix. Miserable and cold. The drive home was actually fine. But I made the mistake of waiting until after dark to drive my mom home. 

We left my house around 8.  We came up on a car with his hazards on near a bridge. As we got closer, the bridge looked like an intense game of Frogger. Eleven cars wrecked on a bridge about twice the size of my driveway. Since this was only about a mile from my house, I turned right back around. 

I woke up at 5 and kept checking and checking to see if Salem would be closed. Finally they called a two hour delay. I looked outside and saw the sheet of ice on my driveway, and my neighborhood and decided it was not worth risking the drive. Luckily we had power this time. 

When the roads melted and dried after lunch, we headed out to Target to pick up Frozen (ironically). Dinner was ready in the crock pot when we all got home so we filled our bellies and watched Ana and Elsa save the world. Lila was under the weather Sunday and Monday so it was nice to spend a quiet day with her. And her snuggles! 

Tomorrow is supposed to be near 60.  Get it together North Carolina.  

Snowmageddon: Part 2

So we packed a few bags and headed to Eric's. The kids were so excited to see their cousins! They played and wrestled and sounded like a herd of elephants, but they had a blast! Ice cream and popcorn and movies and bunk bed? Heaven! 

Although, Lila is only a good sleeper in her own bed. Not anywhere else. Which made for a super long night sharing a futon with her. But we were warm! 

We got up and hung out a bit before heading back to our house. Jay had stayed with the dogs in our freezing cold house and needed rescuing! We went home and took him out to lunch, making plans to save our freezer food. After Mexican food, we picked up 5 bags of ice. 

We pulled into the driveway and I saw our porch light on! Power! I ran inside to start the washer and dishwasher, bid adieu to the dogs and headed to my mom's with the ice we no longer needed. Victory! 

Her house was freezing so we saved her food and then packed up to come here. It was so nice to see my city returning to civilization! Stop lights and working railroad arms and power to gas stations, oh my! 

We were lucky to escape with just two days of mild inconveniences. Back to life as normal! 

Snowmageddon

The power is out. We went to bed Thursday night to the sounds of sleet and freezing rain falling heavily outside. We awoke to a dark house and neighborhood. The power went out once and came back on, but went off for good around 3am. Salem sent the closed email at 6 am so Hayden and I bundled up under the covers and went back to sleep for a few hours. We got up and ate breakfast, fed the dogs and retreated back to the somewhat warm bed. We played a few rounds of Cars Monopoly Jr and were on our third game of "Who Shook Hook?" when Lila woke up. At noon. 

We had a little lunch, of what we had in the pantry and fruit bowl. We cuddled back up under the covers and used what was left of my laptop battery to watch Shrek: The Final Chapter. That took us right to nap time and after I put the kids down, I headed outside. I wanted to be able to go out since it was just slushy and not icy. So I set out to shovel the driveway. 

What a job! 40 minutes and an outfit change later it was done. I felt super accomplished and decided to brave the cold water for a shower. To my surprise, we still had hot water!! I took a super fast shower just in case the water was a fluke but man it felt good! We packed up after nap time and went out in search of hot food and civilization. 

We grabbed some food and made our way around town without many working traffic lights. We decided to stay with my brother once Lila's lips turned blue...

An American Christmas

I haven't been in the states for Christmas since 2005, and then Jay was deployed so I kind of forgot what Christmas was like here. It's not all that different in Germany, but the pace of everything is so fast. I think it's because of all the options; Germany is usually pretty simple!

This year we had a lot of family to see and a lot of places to go! We started Christmas Eve like most of our days here, wrangling a two-year-old into clothes for the day and playing the "what are you saying" game at breakfast. We baked and prepped and thawed and chilled and generally tried to stay out of the way if we didn't need to be in the kitchen. Hayden got to open a present early, and hung out with a little friend for a bit. In the afternoon we did some last minute running around before going over to Jay's Aunt Teressa's for a Christmas Eve party. Jay's cousins have kids that are close to Hayden's age, so he had a blast playing on the stairs with them and helping them share. We barely made it through "Twas the Night Before Christmas" before Hayden was ready to sleep! Santa had a few things to do here but was soon ready for Christmas morning.

We woke up for Christmas and for once, Hayden was sleeping in! We had to go in and wake him up, we were too excited! He wanted a waffle and a few M&Ms (hey, it's Christmas!) before going downstairs to see what Santa brought him. What a difference from last year! He was really excited about everything and has gotten pretty good at opening presents. He had a little Buzz Lightyear from Santa that he wouldn't let go of, so it was pretty funny to watch him try to open everything with one hand. He had books and crayons, clothes and toys, toys, TOYS. He was super excited about his Toy Story race track and his Buzz Lightyear that lights up and makes noise! After we opened all the presents and played, we got ready to go to my brother's house.

As we were driving to his side of town, we saw a few flurries coming down! They had been forecasting snow for a few days but we had yet to see anything. We got to Eric's with some brunch goodies and started opening presents over there. Hayden was excited to give Ryan his sword, and Zoe really liked her tea set from Poland! Hayden got some new trucks and more Toy Story gear, but was really interested in playing with Ryan's Glowdome and Zoe's dollhouse. The kids played a long time, and Hayden was pretty worn out by the time we left. But on the way home we were driving through about an inch of snow, thus giving Hayden his first White Christmas and my first in NC since 1998.

Jay grilled steaks out in the snow and we had Christmas dinner with family. Hayden had a blast playing with more little people and is getting better at sharing his new toys. He was up pretty late, and at 10 he and Jay and Oscar decided they were ready to play in the snow! We put on his snowsuit over his new Toy Story pajamas and bundled him all up to play. He loved it! I stood on the porch to take pictures but the boys were all over the place! Hayden threw snowballs for Oscar, helped shovel the driveway and then threw snowballs at the inflatable snowman outside. He was definitely excited about all the white stuff. We came in, dried off and finally headed to bed after our long day.

On Sunday the snow changed our plans to hang out with my aunt and grandmother, so we picked up some snow boots for Hayden to make it a little easier to play in. We enjoyed a lazy day around the house and of course, some more fun in the snow. It's starting to melt a little, but today it's not supposed to get above freezing so it should stick around for awhile. The roads are pretty manageable and the sun is out, so it's not bad. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays!

Back tracking a bit

In my haste to keep you all up with our lives via the blog, I left out our Welcome Home Party!! Monique threw us a welcome home party the first weekend in December. This was a chance for us to see a lot of old friends all in one place, and enjoy the hospitality of one of my favorite hostesses. She had invited friends from Salem, people we worked with and of course, Uncle Ben. We had a great time catching up with everyone, and Hayden had a blast going up and down her stairs and watching "How to Train Your Dragon" on the big tv upstairs. There was tons of food, lots of sangria and great efforts at keeping Lucy from eating our food. I can't wait for Lucy to meet Oscar. We just can't tell Emma...

We also got our first taste of NC snow! It snowed for almost the whole day without being a dreadful mess. Just enough to blanket the ground and trees with the white stuff, but not enough to make the roads too dangerous. My favorite kind of snow! We are now waiting for the next round so we can take Hayden out sledding in it. Last year we didn't do too much out in the stuff because Hayden was still pretty unsure of it and dad wasn't home to do all the fun things. But this year we are armed with snowsuit and gear (and new tires!) and can't wait to get out and play in it. Most likely we'll get a few flakes here and there and maybe a good snow or two, but you can't expect this old NC gal to get too excited about winter weather. We left Germany, right?

The snow keeps coming

We were suppposed to get a pretty bad snowstorm this weekend, but it turned out to be just a few inches of light, fluffy powder. We stay put a lot in the snow but with my new all-season tires I feel pretty good about driving around in the thick of it. We took a quick trip to the antique store on Saturday and when we got back I figured since Hayden was already dressed for the snow, we should try it out! I love his snowsuit and his new hat, he's just so cute. I took him out in the front yard since it's smaller and I thought it would be less intimidating. Hayden wanted nothing to do with it! I don't know if it was too cold or too close to lunch time, but next time we'll try it with Oscar who LOVES the snow and can make anyone excited.

I start my new job today and luckily I don't have to be in until 11 because it's STILL snowing. 6-7 inches is probably a good estimate of what's in my front yard right now and it's coming down steadily. Today is a little bit of a hectic day, since our friend Cassandra will be watching Hayden but has a car appointment this morning. So we'll be car swapping and meeting on post instead of her coming straight to the house. I figure this week will be a learning experience for all of us, so wish us luck! Hayden likes Cassandra but I'm worried about him being sad that I'm not home with him all day. He's tough, he'll be fine :-) We also have an FRG meeting as soon as I get off work, so it's going to be a long day for us. Tomorrow should be more calm! Hayden did wake up at 3 this morning and just needed a little cuddle time. He didn't want milk or even to play in our bed like he usually does; he sat down next to me in the bed for a minute and then laid down right next to me with his head in the crook of my neck. I guess sometimes we just need a snuggle to put us back to sleep!

Busy busy!

We're pretty busy in the Rogers house these days! Last week I had a mini-baby shower lunch with some of my favorite ladies and it was fabulous! We're pretty stocked on diapers for awhile, and my ever-so-crafty friend Susie made my nursing cover and matching burp cloths. Hayden will be so stylish in his green stripes! A lot of our friends are moving to new duty stations in the states, so we're in the midst of saying goodbye, seems like every week!

Last Saturday we had an adults-only Halloween party so as not to interfere with trick-or-treating this weekend. We had it at the same pub we did my baby shower at, and it was tons of fun. I was a lady bug, as one of the only costumes that would accomodate my belly, and Jay was the super creepy puppet from the "Saw" movies. We ended up in the emergency room for a short stint, as one of the boys cut his fingers pretty badly, but other than that it was a good time had by all.

Today saw our first snowfall of the year in Germany! It didn't stick of course, and it only lasted a few hours but it was still exciting! Oscar loves the snow, so I let him chase snowflakes for awhile before we were both too cold to stay out any longer. Looks like we might share our first White Christmas with our baby! It's gearing up to be a cold winter over here, so I'm glad we're stocked up on warm blankets, super soft snow bunting, a snowsuit and baby thermals. A few more hats and socks and we'll be good to go! Cold-weather babies make me a little nervous, especially since Jay and I are so warm all the time. Looks like we'll be getting used to warmer temperatures in the house! We did order a wipes warmer since Germany is colder than where we usually live, and will use it at our downstairs changing station (if it ever arrives, that is!).

This weekend we are trick-or-treating with our friends on Friday and hopefully spending some time organizing the house and basement. We've gotten a little slack on the cleaning this week, and our basement is a wreck from digging stuff out for some of our friends that are moving. I'm very anti-clutter these days, so hopefully we'll make some progress! Four weeks left and we can hardly believe it!