Our kids...the trouble makers!

Igor and Miss Lippy wanted to say hi and post a couple new pictures of themselves. They would do the typing, but they don't have working thumbs. They have been getting into mischief as usual - Igor just chewed the puff ball off my ski hat this morning. Their favorite thing to do is to have Miss Lippy knock things off of either the coffee table, desk, or counter tops, then Igor goes to town demolishing it by chewing it to pieces. The whole time, Miss Lippy just sits there next to him looking all innocent and saying, "Mom - it wasn't me".

Girl's Basketball

I have been helping out as the trainer for the Richlands High School girls basketball team. We just got back last night from their district tournament where they got 4th place. They lost their last two games by 2 points!!! It makes my stomach go into knots sitting on the bench. They have been a really fun group of girls, and I riding the big yellow school bus from time to time brings back such fond memories from when I was in high school.

I have a funny story from last night. Most of the girls traveled home with their parents, but two of the older girls stayed with the coaches and myself so we could stop and watch the boy's tournament. We grabbed some Quizzno's before heading to the game. I was trying to be a good person and walk around the court because I had outside shoes on when the girls "coaxed" me to just walk straight across. Well, right over the free throw line, the bottom of my Quizzno's paper bag broke and my broccoli cheddar soup splattered all over the floor! We were all laughing so hard and couldn't really figure out how to go about cleaning this mess up with our hands full of pillows, bags, and purses. We eventually got it all cleaned up, tears of laughter and all. Let's just say I've learned my lesson to always walk around the court even if two seniors are bullying me. :)

Valenersary Festivities

So I am not a really big fan of Valentine's Day. I'm sure it comes from back in the day when I was single during a few Valentine's Days. Two years ago when Damon proposed on Feb. 15th, we created a new holiday - Valentinersary - now shortened to Valenersary. This last Monday - Feb 15th, I walked out to my car after work to find some lovely surprises in my front seat - roses, a big stuffed bear wearing a sports jacket, and a note giving me two options. Option 1 offered adventure and excitement and but it may be perilous and fraught with danger, but there would be a delicious surprise waiting at the end. Option 2 was to live the luxurious life where rest and relaxation would be await me.

I went with option 1 because I thought it may include our favorite restaurant, The Tavern, in Abindgon. The note told me to call Damon's cell number because the bear, Beary White, had had too much to drink and I needed to call in a back up driver. So on our way out of town, I realized that I only had scrubs to wear and that was really not appropriate for where we were going. We stopped at our local department store, Belk, to try and quickly find some jeans and a shirt. I quickly realized that my age group was not present at the department store. My options were either skinny jeans from the juniors section, or grandma jeans from the misses section that went above my belly button and were about 2" too short. Well I couldn't fit the juniors jeans, so I went with the grandma jeans. To top it off, literally, Damon found me a shirt that said, "World's Tallest Leprechaun". I think in the end, I may have looked more classy in my scrubs! :)

So off we went to enjoy our favorite meal, the Black & Blue steak medallions. The dangerous part of the trip came as we went to travel home. Our roads became suddenly snow covered and the visibility was very poor. Luckily, we made it home safely and are so thankful that we got to have a fun evening out.

Winter Travel Adventures

I wasn't able to go back to MT for Christmas, nor was my Mom able to come out to VA this year because ticket prices were astronomical. So I planned an early February trip instead. Let's just start by saying this was a very "memorable" trip but did not rank in my top 10! I'll break it down for you:

While driving down to Greensboro, NC (where I was flying out), I got a call from the airlines saying my flight was cancelled because of the predicted snow storm. Greensboro got 8 inches of snow on Jan 29th (surely a record for them). All of the airports within a 250 mile radius were also closed, so I waited patiently for 1 1/2 days before getting to depart. So being that late, I was unable to meet up with my good friend Kristina or go skiing. I flew into Spokane Sunday evening where I got to see my best friend Tammy and meet her boyfriend Howie. Monday was a quick day of shopping and then dinner with my old boss and co-worker from TAI. I took the train that night to Montana to see my Mom and family. I was presently surprised to see that the train was actually on time and was quite a comfortable ride. My Montana part of the vacation could be summed up at "chaotic". I never have enough days, and always want to see as many friends and family as I can, so four days flew by. During my time at home, I took some walks admiring the thick frost on everything, helped my mom with technical things on her computer, had dinners with family and friends, met up with some of my old friends from PT school, and babysat my cousins/friends during the days.

Now is where the trip really turns south. I boarded the Amtrak train on Friday evening, and within 2 hours (of the 10 hour trip) I got a stomach virus. I spent a couple of hours sleeping in the small bathroom until the conductor could find me a sleeper car. That was by far the low!!! I spent all day Saturday lying on the couch, nursing a fluid mixture to prevent dehydration. I was scheduled to fly back Sunday, but due to not feeling well, I rescheduled for Monday. On a positive note, I got to spend an extra day with my friend Tammy (even if it was just on the couch). We did Superbowl at her boyfriends house/work where we got to watch the game on a huge projector screen in a small movie theater. Sunday night after just falling asleep, I got a call from the United saying my 9 am flight had been cancelled due to fog and I could either wait another day or fly out at 6 am. I needed to get home to teach my class so I took the 6 am which meant I'd have a 3 hour Denver layover and a 5 hour Chicago layover. After landing back in Greensboro, I was welcomed home by another snow storm, so I stayed the night and drove home the next morning.

To end the wonderful trip, I came home and gave Igor a new toy I got him on my trip and he proceeded to swallow the last 1 1/2" piece of the bone whole and choke. I ended up having to give him some sort of heimlic maneuver before he swallowed the whole thing.

Life is never dull around our house, and my luck just didn't seem to be on my side this past vacation. Oh well, I'm back to normal now and into my normal routine. I had a great time seeing all of my family and friends, and I look forward to coming back again this next summer. I look now at all of my pictures and realize I didn't take that many - probably because half of my days were spent dealing with sickness and travel delays. I was really bummed though that I didn't even get one picture of me with my Mom or Tammy! :( I've put a few snapshots below, but if you would like to see my entire album, click on the black box to the right which says "My Picture Album".