Pass the Wine, Please

This mama is hittin' the road in a few hours. It seems a little self-indulgent to be leaving Anna and Mike for the weekend, what with Christmas and Anna's birthday right around the corner, but sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right? And this girl couldn't be more excited for a few bottles glasses of wine, some Christmas shopping, and bonding time with my sister. I also get to dress up and wear a mask to help celebrate a friend entering into her third decade. If you hear someone shouting "I'm free! I'm free!" around four this afternoon, it's probably me as we pull out of the driveway. Don't judge.

And just so I have some pictures to look at when I start to miss my little family, probably right around five o'clock, here are some from the past few weeks that I've been meaning to share...

Our first big snowstorm of the year. All these outdoor shots were taken by Mike.

Nose kisses!

Taking a walk with Oma and Opa.

Our pin-head snowman. I got lazy. Anna was not pulling her weight.

Cheese!

I also want to share a few pics of my bathroom.

Remember when it looked like this?

Well, my amazing mother-in-law Winnie came to the rescue last week. And if I felt stupid before for waiting so long to scrape that damn wallpaper off, I can't begin to tell you how moronic I felt after our work was done. Because the bathroom looks amazing. Like, I walk in there and I'm all "Ahhhhhh." And we had a ton of fun sanding and taping and painting. So, lesson learned: don't look at something ugly for almost two years when it takes like three enjoyable hours to change it.

I just noticed the empty paper towel roll on the floor. Sigh. Some things never change, right?

Winnie painted this cabinet - how awesome is it?

That's all I've got for now.

Enjoy your weekend - I know I will!

Happy Friday!

Snow Day!

Snowmageddon.  Snowpocalypse.  Snowtorious B.I.G.  SnOwMG.  Call it what you want - I call it awesome.

Living in South Carolina for four years, I didn't think I missed the cold Michigan winters.  I was happy to banish my winter gloves and hats and marshmallow-man coats to the closet, dusting them off occasionally when we got the rare cold snap.  I loved calling family and friends in January and casually asking about the weather.  Oh really?  I'm actually wearing flip flops.  I think we might need to turn the air conditioning on.  I had myself convinced that I had become a true Southerner, wincing at the thought of any temperatures below fifty and wearing sweatshirts and shivering in seventy-degree weather.

That all changed when we packed up our little family and moved back home.  I can remember the day we had to make our final decision.  Anna was maybe four weeks old, and Mike and I were both still shell shocked from lack of sleep and the fact we were parents.  We were making pro and con lists, charting out reasons for staying, reasons for moving, assigning point values, all in hopes of figuring out the right thing to do.  Ultimately, I think we went with our hearts, but it was far from an easy decision.  And on that January day, it was in the sixties, with blue skies and fluffy white clouds, and we were meeting friends for a walk.  As we loaded Anna into her stroller, we looked at each other and were like, "Are we totally crazy?"

I think as soon we we crossed that Michigan state line, we got our toughness back.  We unpacked our snow boots and sleds with glee and embraced the cold, wet, nastiness that is winter.  The first time the thermometer reached seventy?  You know we were in our bathing suits, doing a happy dance.  (Well, it was probably more like sixty, but who's keeping track?)

So I love a day like today.  I know that I didn't have any where to be, no school getting canceled or missed appointments.  I probably wouldn't have left the house anyway.  But it's the perfect excuse to crank the fireplace, stay in our pajamas all day, and bake cookies while we watch the snow fall and the winds gust.  And it's the best reminder that even though we miss Greenville and the friendships we left behind and the balmy weather, our family is right where it needs to be.

A true Michigan girl

Cedella & Anna: Snow Bunnies

The snowshoeing dream has finally become a reality!

Our partners in snowshoeing crime - Michael, Alexia, and Cedella