Oh, Baby!

I am proud to announce that I have a brand new nephew.  And he's such a cutie!  He was born last night (this morning) at 2:21 a.m., and my other sister (the one not giving birth right then) kept me up-to-date with text messages from the hospital.  While it definitely wasn't as good as being there, I loved the minute-by-minute (more like hour-by-hour really) updates.

This afternoon, the kids and I went to go meet Baby L, and we are SMITTEN!

I was so mad at myself that I forgot my real camera, but I was able to get some cute shots with my phone.

Meet Baby L!

Romance

On our honeymoon, we went on a Caribbean cruise.  Aaah, romantic.

On our first anniversary, we were in two different countries.  But just a few days later, we rendezvoused in Belgium for several weeks.  Aaah, Europe.  So romantic.

On our 3rd anniversary, we were expecting Sis, and shortly moved back "home" from Kentucky.  Aaaah, nice.  Not necessarily romantic, but nice for sure.

On our 5th anniversary (actually the December before), we went away for a long weekend to NYC, where I got my engagement diamond re-set in the Diamond District.  DEFINITELY romantic!  :)  And we were expecting Bub.

Gotta be honest...  6th through 9th anniversaries were a bit of a blur (small kids and all), but I'm sure they were romantic.

On our 10th anniversary, HOLY COW!  The September before, we had gone back to NYC for a wedding and Don got me another diamond band to go with my 5-year-anniversary ring.  DEFINITELY romantic!  THEN....  we spent our actual anniversary together doing a scavenger hunt that Don created using clues from our time together.  I got to visit family, my old college, the OB unit of the hospital where the kids were born, finishing with a romantic dinner for two in the balcony of our still-unfinished church while a stringed quartet played for us in the foyer below.  AAAAH, ROMANTIC!!!

Let's see... on our 11th anniversary, we left for a cruise with my entire family (kids, parents, siblings, siblings-in-law, and nieces... whew!).  Maybe not romantic, but FUN!

Our 12th anniversary (can you tell I had a camera by then and I was taking more photos... so it's easier to "remember" what was going on?), we got a new nephew!  Definitely, not romantic, but oh so sweet.

On our 13th anniversary, I was blogging, but I didn't blog about our anniversary in particular.  It must have been THAT romantic that I didn't feel comfortable sharing.  :)  I did mention it in a thankful post here, though!

Here's my blog for our 14th anniversary (click here).  Aaaah, I'm so romantic, aren't I?

So, guess what yesterday was?  Our FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY!!!

And guess what we did?

We went to work, I went to the dentist, and we took Sis to Martial Arts.  Aaaah, so romantic.  :)

Actually, though, it was.  Even though I knew Don's schedule was jam-packed all day, he still called me for a lunch date.  And even though he could have stayed and worked late while I took Sis and Bub to their kid stuff at night, he went with me.  In my book, that's romantic!

AND, I get to go on a real date with him on Saturday night.

Everyone together now...  AAAWWWW!

Updated to add:  tonight I was talking with a friend who reminded me of a past anniversary (probably the one in 2008) where he and his wife watched our kids while Don and I went out for sushi (our favorite).  Then I got the stomach flu...  AT A MALL!  Now THAT'S romance!!!  :)

Snowpocalypse 2011 Day 2

Well, yesterday had all the makings of a great Snowpocalypse except for one thing... SNOW!!!

We had plenty of ice... it was kind of like pellets of ice.  And when Don shoveled it, it had the appearance and texture (?) of sand.  Very cool.

Here are some non-snow Snowpocalypse photos from yesterday:

I have come to the conclusion that if I were homebound for much of the time, I would gain significant amounts of weight!  I seem to crave cooking when I'm "stuck!"  Yesterday, I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and tuna salad later in the day, then "pigs in a blanket" when we got hungry even later.  Yup, we're definitely off our normal eating schedule!

We did a combination of togetherness activities yesterday as well as letting everyone go off and do their alone stuff as well.  In my alone time, I worked on a puzzle, checked Twitter and the Weather Channel app (waiting on the snow!), and read.  It was lovely!

As a family, we played Quirkle and Scribblish, both games the kids got for Christmas!  They're both a lot of fun.  Don and I prefer Quirkle and the kids prefer Scribblish, so we all got our way a little!

We also figured out a good way to get the house cleaned up without overwhelming the family with the magnitude of the project (not that our house was that messy, but it definitely needed some cleaning love).  We set the timer for 15 minutes and all worked really hard on the house for those 15 minutes.  And when the timer went off, we were done.  Then later in the day, we did it one more time.  For only 30 minutes of concentrated effort, the four of us got a LOT of cleaning done!  And it wasn't too boring/overwhelming/tears-inducing for any of us!  :)

We introduced the kids to the "old" crew of Star Trek on a movie last night.  They weren't as bored as they assumed they'd be.  hehe.

We all went to bed knowing school (and work) was cancelled again today, so I thought maybe we'd wake up to loads of snow.  But not to spoil the surprise or anything, there's not much to see here.

I'll update probably only one more time about today's adventures during the Snowpocalypse-without-snow.  It'll contain scintillating stories about cleaning out our closets and such.  Then, I'm expecting the roads will all be cleared off and we'll continue with our "normal lives" starting tomorrow.

Stay warm and safe!

Snowpocalypse 2011 Day 1

So, the term Snowpocalypse cracks me up.  But according to the really, really excited meteorologists, this winter storm we're experiencing is gonna be one for the history books.  We shall see...

In the meantime, I'm burrowed at home with my lovely family, watching the freezing rain fall heavily down.  This would be the freezing rain/sleet that shall occur before the blizzard takes place.  I feel a little like Laura Ingalls right now.  Minus the braids and bonnet.

Sorry, C.  No, I'm not!  :)

So, I'm considering yesterday to be the first day of Snowpocalypse, although it really wasn't too bad yesterday.  The kids had a full day of school yesterday, so I worked until it was time to pick them up (even though my boss told all of us to go on home).  That's not exactly true... I did leave early enough to stop at Walgreens to pick up a 5-in-one-box puzzle and Twizzlers... priorities, you know.

So, we headed home and I started on a new puzzle...

Not this one... I already finished this one last week.  Yes, my name is Darla, and I'm addicted to puzzles this winter.

Then I made a huge pot of black bean chili and some homemade chocolate chips.  Let's all have a moment to absorb the fact that I actually had the ingredients on hand to make the cookies.

Okay.

So, here was my refrigerator drink shelf the night before...

But based on the whole homemade chocolate chip cookies, there's already a lot of that milk gone.  So, now we're on milk rations.  Except for me, because I don't drink milk anymore.  I'm on rations for the almond milk right next to it.  Yay for rations!

Finally, we took advantage of Netflix on our Wii and watched a not-so-great high school football movie that Bub really liked, Don kind of liked, I tolerated, and Sis completely disliked.

What I did like was all the cuddling during the movie.

No, he didn't have a shirt on...  it's difficult to wrestle all the sofa cushions when you're constricted by a shirt.  Right?

Hope you stay safe and warm/cozy during the snowpocalypse.  I'll update our exciting snowed-in life as I'm able (PLEASE, PLEASE stay on, power!!!).