No Rest for the Weary

We've been tired, busy, lazy, and cabin fever may be setting in a little bit. 

I say Dee and I are tired because two babies don't let you rest.  I know I'm also having a hard time still with adjusting to the three hour time difference.  I've been here almost a week and it normally only takes me a couple of days to catch up.  Maybe because it's winter and cold and dark longer, I just can't seem to be able to stay awake past 9:00 at night. 

Brandon had to leave on Saturday morning for the woods again to train a new class.  Dee and I got out a little bit and took the kids to the mall.  We didn't stay out long, but at least I got out of the house.  Then we picked up a few groceries since Dee was going to have a few people over for the Super Bowl.

Of course we were cheering for the Steelers but all the cheers weren't enough.  Regardless, the food was good, the company was delightful, and our babies looked very cute and in the spirit.

Today we just feel tired and lazy.  I feel like I'm not doing or moving enough.  I don't really know if that's completely true since these two little ones are very busy and don't sleep that well!  I guess I'm just used to a lot more housework, cooking, and work.  Dee tells me that I'm on vacation and to just relax.  When I relax, though, as I'm doing today, I feel lazy! 

Tomorrow I need to exercise or take a walk even if it is cold out!

Through Rain, Sleet and Snow

We made it to Spokane!  It was a long, hard trip.  I came to Spokane to help my DIL on the plane with the two kids and to stay for two weeks. 
Brandon has been back in Spokane since New Years to get back to work.  Diana stayed in Pennsylvania for a month.  Brandon was going to be out in the field most of the month and then last week he was in Alaska.  Now they are all very happy to be back in Spokane together.  But I must say, it wasn’t easy!
Dee and I were scheduled to leave Pittsburgh at 11:48 Tuesday morning, fly to Cincinnati, then to Milwaukee, then to Minneapolis, then finally to Spokane arriving at 6:50 Pacific time (9:50 our Eastern time).  Well, that wasn’t how it went.  The winter storm started to hit the East Coast and the Midwest on Monday night.  Diana was already in Pittsburgh at her parent’s house.  At 3:00 in the morning I was laying awake in bed listening to ice hitting my bedroom window and thinking that Bob needs to get me to Pittsburgh by 9:00 in the morning and the roads are going to be covered with ice and snow.  Needless to say, I didn’t sleep from that point on. 
We got up at 5:00 in order to leave by 6:00.  It would normally take us about 1-1/2 to 2 hours to get to Dee’s parent’s house but we knew we had to leave with more time to get there that morning.  We were right!  What a mess.  If it weren’t for having an all wheel drive vehicle we would have never made it.  By 9:00 exactly we were there.  The next hurtle was hoping that the flight out of Pittsburgh was leaving and on time.  Pittsburgh weather was much better than mid central PA, so it was looking promising. 
Bob headed back home for the 3 hour long treacherous drive and Dee’s parents drove us the remainder hour drive to the airport.  It was only raining at this point.  In the meantime I was getting messages on my cell phone that our first two flights had been cancelled and they were putting us on a different (and actually better) flight direct to Minneapolis and it was leaving at noon.  Some things were positive and going our way.  We checked in all our bags which normally would have cost us about $100 extra with 4 bags, but the Delta check in attendant didn’t charge us anything.  Maybe Dee’s military ID helped, and possibly feeling sorry for us on this awful travel day with two babies.  Whatever reason, that was nice.  The other good news is that the airport was empty.  So many flights had been cancelled.  This led to another good thing; the planes were not full, so we had extra seats to spread out in.
 
Dee and I were each going to have to hold a baby in our laps, which is really hard for a 15 month old to do.
We made it to Minneapolis with no problem.  We then had a four hour layover before our next flight to Spokane.  Thankfully Minneapolis airport is big with lots of restaurants and shops.  We had a nice lunch in Chili’s and Riley was able to walk and run a little energy off. 
The flight to Spokane was so empty that they were able to give us a whole row of six seats for ourselves.  That was nice!  Between diaper bags, filled to the brim large purses, and winter coats and hats, we took up a lot of room.  I don’t know how we could have done it squeezed into two small airplane seats as we normally would have had to do.   But by about half way through the 3 hour flight to Spokane the Chili’s food, which had tasted so good, started to hit me in a way that was not feeling good at all.  Acid reflux was setting in and that along with an active Riley and a little bit of turbulence – Ohhh! it was not good.  The last thing we needed now was for me to throw up on the plane! 
We finally landed in Spokane, a little early even.  Getting off that plane and being able to walk helped me out a little bit.  So we go down to baggage claim to meet Brandon and wait for our bags.  We waited, and waited, and looked and looked and no Brandon and no bags!  Brandon was held up at work and our flight was early. He eventually showed up.  It was a very excited and happy little family reunion.  Our luggage was a different story.  The conveyor belts were now empty and out bags were not there.  We go to the lost baggage desk and find a line of fellow travelers.  We had to fill out claim reports and from initial checking it looked as though our bags all went to Salt Lake.  Wouldn’t you know it!  And I never check luggage, but we had to have our hands as free as possible this time.  I would also normally have a carry on bag with toiletries at least, but I didn’t do that this trip.  Wouldn’t you know it!  You know what, at this point we really didn’t even care.  We were so tired and worn out. 
We got to Brandon and Dee’s house and it felt so good, except my acid reflux was not going away.  I finally fell asleep on the couch watching TV.  Being so exhausted helped the situation because I went back to bed and slept very well.  I woke up in the morning feeling just fine.
That was our Travel to Spokane adventure story.  It was one of those days that was not easy but will forever be a memory that we’ll always have and be able to look back on a smile about and say “Remember when ---".

These Pictures - Priceless

You know those kind of homes that they show on some decorating shows that are modern, clean lines, very uncluttered, with white walls and all silver, chrome, black and white?  The modern, clean line look.  I hate that look!  It feels so cold and not cozy and personal at all.  Well, not my house.  I love collections, warm walls, lots of stuff, pillows, quilts, and a lot of pictures.  I love to sit in my living room and be able to look at all my kids.  And with a son and DIL, Austin and Melissa, as photographers, I get a lot of great family pictures.

For Christmas I got updated pictures of the grand kids and I've been waiting for a few days with nothing going on in order to switch out my frames and update my picture wall.  This week I was finally able to tackle that project.

This is the "before" wall and table top.

I got busy.  New pictures, a couple of new frames, tape, windex, and hammer and nails.  In looking back at this picture I realize now that it could have been a very bad thing to have my cup of coffee sitting in the middle of this mess.

Then I got into the cupboard with all the photo albums to file the old pictures coming out of the frames.  I try to stay organized and on top of this, but it's not easy.  Before you know it you have five grandchildren and pictures just in piles!

After two days, I finally finished the project.  I wanted to get all the wall frames to be more consistent in color. Now they are mostly black or a very dark brown.  The one on the far bottom left is silver but it's not bothering me too much yet.

The table top frames are all silver.  The only thing different here are the pictures in the frames.

These are some of my new favorites:

 Leanna

 Landen (during his Mohawk stage)

 Logan (his first school picture)

Their Christmas 2010 picture

Austin and his baby girl, Leanna

 Collage of Riley, Heath, Brandon and Dee

Sorry to be one of those grandmas that pulls out pictures of her grandchildren and shows them to everyone she knows whether they want to see them or not.  I said years ago I would never be one of those grandparents.  I used to make fun of my Grandpa for doing that.  Well, now I get it!  I can't help it.  Thanks for humoring me!

A Picture and a Hug are Worth a Thousand Words

Picture and Thought for the week:

This just makes me think of my Hubby with our grandchildren.  He is very well loved by them all.
This is from my new 2011 Mary Engelbreit calendar.

  I love calendars. They serve me as a journal as well as a great organizational tool. I sometimes will write notes about what happened on a particular day or the weather for that day.  Then I save my calendars to be able to look back on.
 I love to be able to look at the week and know at a glance what I have to do and where I have to be.  When I turn the page to a new week and see that it's blank it feels so good.  I am very much a homebody.  I know so many people that say they would be bored if they just stayed home all the time, but not me.  I have so many hobbies and projects and I love my home to be organized and clean and decorated.  But if I know ahead that I have to be somewhere or do something, then I can plan around that and stay organized.

I know, very OCD!  And it gets worse the older I get!

Anyway, I just love my new calendar.  

Steelers, Baby Shower, and Spokane

A nice, cozy, lazy day at home.  It is freezing outside, so we're staying in.  I'm going to make a pot of homemade, well ---- semi-homemade, chicken noodle soup with some hard crust whole grain French bread.  One good thing that has at least temporarily come from our bad, ugly flu week is that we feel like we need to eat lighter and healthier.  If it feels too heavy or greasy it just is not appetizing right now.  As I said, this may be temporary, but I know my stomach feels much better eating like this.

It's also the football playoffs tonight.  I'm not much of a sport's fan at all, but since we live in Steeler country, you can't help but get caught up in the excitement around here when the Steelers get to the playoffs.  It will be crazy Steeler country if they win tonight.

(Sorry so blurry, but it was free clip art)

So I'll be watching the game tonight, even though I don't really understand football that well.  The commercials and half time are always good.  I understand they are expecting the temperature to be about 12-15 degrees in Pittsburgh tonight.  

Yesterday Mom and I went to the baby shower for my girl friend's daughter that is adopting 15 month old twin girls from Africa.  She leaves for Malawi, Africa, in about two weeks to pick them up.  She is a 29 year old single young woman that I have known since she was 6 years old.  She and my oldest son, Austin, were friends that met in Kindergarten.  Through their friendship, her mother and I became very good friends.  

The shower was very nice.  Here's the new Mommy (on the right) opening some gifts.

Look at these stuffed animals she got for the girls' new American bedroom to remind them of Africa.

I finished the twin baby hats for her, along with a gift card.  I forgot to get a picture of the hats when I had them both finished.  Here's one finished.

The other one was just like it except the flower and trim was purple using the purple yarn you see here.  They turned out cute.

I also finalized the ticket purchase for Spokane for DIL, Diana, and myself.  I'm going back with her to help with the two kids on the plane and then I'll stay about two weeks.  We'll leave on February 1 and I'll come back on the 13th.  Travelling is so difficult any more, and especially with a 20 month old and a 5 month old.  This would be almost impossible for Diana to handle on her own.  Besides, you have to have two laps for them to sit on or you would have to purchase another ticket anyway.  Of course, there is no direct flight from Pittsburgh.  It's not an easy trip, so I'm glad I can go to help.