Happy Last Day of 2008!

Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!

Tonight Matt and I fly to Colorado for some skiing. We are all packed and ready to go, just waiting for Matt to get home for work and might resign our apartment lease for another year. It has been a good apartment, and for the most part we have had no problems.

I think the highlight of 2008 was our last trip to Colorado over Easter time :) (awwww cheesy I know) when my Matthew took me by surprise and popped the question. We have done some wedding planning in the past 9 months, but will have to renew our efforts in 2009. Maybe writing "09" on things will make me realize July will be here sooner than I think! I am excited, as I sit here and stalk wedding pictures of the ton of people that have gotten married recently. I have my dress (and it fits) and I pick up my bridesmaid dresses on Friday! Also, my forever friend Kim just got engaged to Hunter, and her excitment is spilling over into me as well.

I hope everyone has a good last day of the year, and a Happy New Year!

Back to Houston

Matt and I returned last night for the most part uneventfully. I complained (again) to Enterprise that I had no windshield whiper fluid, and they gave me 20 dollars off my bill, which I guess is worth the annoyingness of it. Maybe. We watched some of the Lions game at the airport bar, Matt kept getting excited that it was a tie game (14-14) and was disappointed when we had to board the plane. I told him not to get his hopes up on the 3 hour flight, they were going to lose. Perfect season! The flight took forever it seemed, but we got to Houston and our bags came out and the parking bus was waiting for us, so that went smoothly. We got into the Jetta and neither headlight worked, so after checking the fuses we just drove home with the brights on. It is now sitting in the garage.

Matt is back at work today and I took down all the Christmas decorations. Sad really, but glad to have that done. Both cats have been very clingy and out in the open, which annoys Carol (neighbor who watches them) because Magic came out once for her in the 8 days she came over.

We leave for Colorado on Wednesday for a week of skiing at Beaver Creek! Maybe I will have some good pictures to post from there.

Christmas in the Sun

Yesterday Matt and I celebrated Christmas together. I got a ham at the grocery store and we had baked potato, corn on the cob and pineapple. I realized after I made all this that I had a decidely "yellow" color plate, but oh well, it was good! I even got us a Christmas tablecloth.


We lit the last advent candle (this upcoming Sunday) because we are leaving tomorrow and I wanted to see them all lit. We had the AC on because it was SO HOT, which marks my first Christmas celebrating with air conditioning. (It is 80 degrees and HUMID).

No dinner would be complete without Miss FEED ME!!!

"Hey you! Are you listening?" *smack smack* "I want food and I want it now!"


Matt and I exchanged gifts and we are heading up to Michigan tomorrow!!! I am very excited, but neither one of us has started packing. They have lots of snow up there so I am even more excited for an anti-AC Christmas!!! Right now I have some Christmas cookies in the oven to give to our neighbor Carol, because she is watching graceful, wait til after dinner to beg for leftover ham Magic and Miss Feed Me Now Peanut while Matt and I are away.

Merry Christmas!!

You'd Think I'd Never Seen Snow

Now I am aware that I have plenty of snow experience, but all the news and hype about the snow it is amusing me. So I was reading the newspapers and looking at pictures, and man aren't these little snowmen so cute?

Since attending Sunday School puts you on email lists, the church sent out pictures of it snowing too!
"The flurries tied a record for Houston's earliest snowfall ever and warmed the hearts of winter weather lovers who have pined for snow since it last made an appearance on Christmas Eve 2004." I guess 4 years without snow is something to get excited about. Kinda why everyone is so excited for snow Up North this year!

"Because the ground in the Houston area was relatively warm — 77 degrees as late as Tuesday afternoon — neither snow nor ice was expected to stick and cause major transportation problems for long." It was HOT and HUMID on Tuesday, so I am with the weather channel people when I say I did not see this coming. PS. I love the use of "relatively" - it was 77 degrees - the GROUND! What is "warm" if 77 is "relatively warm"??

"Wednesday's brush with winter left some Houstonians less enamored with the snowfall, including those stuck in delays of up to three hours at local airports. Drivers unaccustomed to snow encountered difficulties on the roadways, and even getting into their cars.

Paul Ramirez spent several minutes digging through his truck Wednesday evening outside the Fry's electronics store on West Road, trying to find something he could use to scrape the ice and snow from the windshield of his truck.

"It's really coming down," said Ramirez, 33, as he tried dragging a large envelope across his window. "This is crazy. It's Houston — we shouldn't need to keep ice scrapers in our cars."'

Haha that is funny. I did read a short article that said this snow ("Since 1895, records indicate, snow has fallen this early just once — on Dec. 10, 1944.") is proof against global warming, and another said that snow only comes after a Major Hurricane. But the Hurricane of 1900 that destroyed Galveston Island the first time (they talked a LOT about that hurricane during Ike) obviously didn't register snow, or at least not this early. And Hurricane Rita (the other major hurricane to hit Houston) hit in September 2005, so that doesn't explain the "huge snowstorm" that Houston got on Christmas Eve in 2004. So I am not completely buying that Hurricane reasoning.

Lastly, I had to include this little guy I found. I think he looks more like an alien. If Matt was home maybe we coulda combined our brain power and thought to leave the car outside instead of the garage so it would be cold enough to catch the snow and we could make ourselves a little alien snowman. But, it wasn't too be and it was back in the high 50s today. Fun while it lasted.

Quotes from: Houston Chronicle

Magic's Skirt

As requested, here are pictures of Magic and the tree skirt. It is very hard to catch her in the act. I really needed a video camera. Or a hidden camera.

After this Magic went peacefully to sleep in the cat bed right there until Peanut comes up and attacks her. Magic runs under the bed (the real bed), Peanut then lies down and goes to sleep in what I guess is "her" bed.

PS. Still snowing.

Dear God, I Think You Misunderstood

When I prayed for snow, I meant in Michigan. On the ski slopes. Up North. NOT TEXAS!!!

I woke up this morning freezing (except for my little warm spot that is Peanut) and I looked outside and it was dark and scary. And COLD. I got out my big fuzzy warm socks and my princess blanket and bundled up and watched the temperature grow colder and colder. And now at 3:30pm it is snowing. The rain turned to sleet and now it is snowing. SNOW IN TEXAS!!! Peanut is no dummy though, shes still hiding under the covers.

But before I worry too much, supposed to be 77 again on Sunday so I guess I will survive a day of this. But SNOW!!!

Let it Snow! (Up North that is)

Up North that is!!! I have been checking out Nubs Nob ski report to see how much snow they are getting up north and it is a lot!! I hope it stays and that we have lots and lots of snow for Christmas this year!!! I will probably have to stay inside and not enjoy it because when it hits 60 here I bundle up in everything I own, I can't imagine a temperature half of that.

I haven't posted in awhile, but nothing really exciting to post about. We went to the first of two Christmas parties this weekend. It was okay, a little different than I expected, but I had a great conversation with Mickey and Shawn about Michigan skiing. And Jimmy and his fiance showed up so I got to meet her and tell her to play softball next year so I am not the only girl. And our other Ohio State friends Eric and Julie showed up so it is always fun to poke fun at their school (I am cheering for Texas hard in the bowl game).

Matt and I went to our first "Newlyweds or Close" Sunday School class with Dan and Kristin yesterday. A little out of my comfort zone, but pretty much everything is so I guess that isn't a bad thing. I do like going to church at night, at least now when it gets dark so late. We came home and had Taco Bell to our now 2 lit Advent candles. Very festive I know.

Speaking of festive, Magic LOVES the tree skirt. We are in a continual fight about if the tree skirt should be nice and straight around the tree or wadded up in a ball full of white cat hair. It seems everytime I turn my back she has her way with it. I blame Matt for opening the presents under the tree, but as I lay in bed I can hear the little paws going at it. So I run around the corner to catch her in action and she is lying there so cute and peaceful looking that I just can't yell at her. I guess I will continue to straighten it every morning so she can wad it up again every night.

12 days til we go to Michigan!!

PS Matt and I finished our turkey yesterday....go us!