Break Time

Be back to blogging soon (maybe?)

Titan

The weather people are naming snowstorms now, this one is called Titan. Snow is falling hard and should continue until this evening.  Every blogger has to include a deck photo of the snow accumulation (or if you are a fitness blogger, you need to include a picture of your Garmin or your feet while wearing your Brooks Pure Flows or some other fabulous shoe that Linda can't afford since she buys her sneakers at Marshal's on clearance.  (No digs or sarcasm intended, just the truth.) Since it will be a day where absolutely nothing blog worthy will happen, you get to see both pictures of Linda's favorite running shoe and snow on our deck.  Hold on, it's going to be exciting.

In all seriousness, these running sneakers from Target are really comfortable and at less than $25, a good buy.  Once she got a free pair of $150 sneakers from a company to test and review.  They killed her feet the first 3 weeks and she had all sorts of ankle and foot issues. 

This is the first few inches of the 12" that are predicted for today.  Linda was already out early shoveling the deck, steps and a patch of the backyard for us to pee.  When she had Sheba (the Siberian Husky) and Snickers (Doberman/German Shepard) she never once had to shovel the steps or deck.  They would go barreling down the steps and make their own paths.  Linda would have to drag them both back inside on snowy days.  They loved to romp and run through the drifts!

She called her the Demon Dog.  Her eyes were so blue they always photographed red.

Since my belly is only 4" off the ground, I can't physically get down the stairs when there is snow, so it's not like I'm being a pampered princess.  Chimi is bigger than me, he is just to afraid to go down the steps if he can't see each and every one.

There was a day when Chimi and I were the same size.  That lasted about one week before he started his growth spurt.

Surprise shower & more snow

Last night the family gave Sarah a surprise shower for the baby who will be here soon.  She really was surprised!  She almost looked shocked when she walked in and saw everyone.  Linda was totally lame and didn't take one picture, but she'll see if she can get a few from her brother or sister (who took a ton!)  Everyone chipped in and bought all of Sarah's favorite foods. Beef on Weck, shrimp, potato salad, mac-n-cheese and Nutella desserts (from recipes that she had pinned on her Pintrest board.)  She got a lot of cute baby outfits, a mini motorcycle made out of diapers and an amazing double stroller!

 Too bad Sarah didn't get this Crib Dribbler.  Could come in handy for those middle of the night thirsty cries. If it only had an exercise hamster type wheel, it would be perfect!

This is the first day in as long as Linda can remember that she hasn't worked out.  Not even a walk.  This morning after only 5 hours of sleep, she turned off the 5:30 a.m. alarm and blew off the gym before church.  Instead, she planned on running outside after church.  Due to extreme laziness, that didn't happen.  The temperature outside was fine, she wasn't overly tired or sore but she just never got around to actually going.  I doubt she'll be doing much tomorrow (besides shoveling!)  The predictions are 8-12 inches of snow right through Monday evening.  Linda has plenty to keep her busy at home... Like dressing Chimi up as a bride.

Chimi Bridezilla

Cookie Success!

Finally!  The latest batch of chocolate chip cookies didn't come out flat.  She used two new recipes and made a few changes. This time she didn't over-mix the dry ingredients into the creamed butter/sugar/egg mixture.  The Oatmeal-Banana-Chocolate Chip are her favorite.

Anyone who knows Linda knows that she loves to Swiffer our hardwood floors.  With two dogs in the house, Swiffing once a day sometimes isn't enough for her liking.  This morning she read that the wet Swiffer pads are dangerous to animals.  The pets could lick their paws and get sick from the cleaner on the pads.  This was not good news since she uses the wet pad every other cleaning. She decided to do some  more research and found out on Snopes that the sick pet stories are just rumors. The wet pads and Jet mop are fine and pose no danger to dogs or babies.  Whew... Linda would not be happy if she had to find an alternate method of daily cleaning.  Once a week she has been doing a deeper cleaning with the washcloth method (tucking the corners in the grippers) and a little hardwood cleaner.

Cleaning the hardwood is her favorite chore.  It's so relaxing.

Chimi is being strange and is afraid of his food bowl again.  He went through this particular drama sometime last month, but be seemed to get over it and was fine.  Today he refused to go near the bowl; shying away and acting scared out of his wits. Linda changed the food into another bowl and tried again.  He finally ate some, but he took the bites out of the bowl and ran to hide while he ate it.  Such a strange dog.

"So what?  Things scare me. At least I don't have cleaning OCD."