And the snow continues to fall... It looks like 3 - 4 inches so far, the light, fluffy, pretty flakes that I don't mind at all. Bailey, on the other hand, has decided that the front porch is about as far as she wants to go. I haven't seen or heard the snowplows yet this morning, so it appears the city is not too concerned with clearing the streets. Fine by me. I stopped at the store on the way home from work last night to stock up on a few essentials and am prepared to spend the weekend at home. That's probably a good idea anyway, as I am still suffering the tail end of the cold / flu / pneumonia or whatever I had....

It's been a busy week back at work after my vacation, with lots of paperwork and post-inventory stuff to catch up on. I'm glad to have the weekend off to regroup. So, I'll probably spend the rest of the morning working on some handmade cards and then hit the couch for an afternoon of movies.

Enjoy your day. Here's a look outside my front door right now:

Yesterday was spent at the craft table, working on two new scrapbook pages. It felt good to get my hands all ink-y again because it's been awhile. Here's what I accomplished:

(christmas page)

(year in review)

I love my 'year in review' pages! They're full of photos that really don't merit a page on their own, but spark a memory nonetheless! My scrapbook is all caught up. Now what?

Among other things, New Year's Day is traditionally a big day for football, right? Nothing made me happier this morning than to wake up, flip on the TV and see my Iowa Hawkeyes playing in The Outback Bowl. It was a great game - the Hawkeyes trounced South Carolina 31-10! Even Bailey got into the spirit. After all, she's a Hawkeye too!

Still sick. I think I have a sinus infection because my head feels like it's going to explode! Not the vacation I had in mind...

As we (meaning me, Bailey & Carson Daly) get ready to count down to the new year, I've started thinking about resolutions. This year, I'm keeping it simple - I resolve to cherish myself. This starts and ends with being healthy and happy.

May the new year be an amazing journey for us all...

vacation, day 3

sick. sick. sick.

Not sure what I have, but it feels an awful lot like a head cold/sinus infection. It totally caught me offguard, especially since I didn't get sick at all last winter. I guess it's a combination of not enough sleep, stress at work, the holidays and the absolutely frigid weather we've had for the last couple of weeks.

I spent the first two days of vacation in the house. Although I should have been resting, I just couldn't bring myself to waste the days. So, Saturday I took down all of the Christmas decor and hauled it out tot the garage. Then, I power-cleaned the whole house. (This was brought on by the fact that I noticed an awful lot of dust all over everything.) A couple of errands later and I was spent.

Sunday was a wasted day. I can't even remember what I did? I think a lot of my time was spent in front of the computer, mindlessly surfing the 'net...

Today was not much better. I went out to Sundown for awhile, but felt like crap and came home after about three hours. Then, I spent nearly 6 hours downloading music from Limewire and loading it onto my MP3 player... http://www.limewire.com/ ;-) (Okay, another wasted day, sort of...)

Now, at 9:17 pm, I am exhausted and can only think about bed. Goodnight!

home for the holidays

Merry Christmas!

Baby, it's cold outside!

1:24 pm - Eleven degrees below zero? Not a joke. We are experience blizzard-like conditions with blowing and drifting snow and a windchill factor of -37 degrees. No one in their right mind is going out today. What am I doing? Going to work, of course! More later...

9:00 pm - It's very windy. There are areas of blowing snow everywhere and there's a chance of flurries overnight with a near record low around 16 below. Wind chill readings to 39 below... Hope the car starts in the morning!