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Friday, December 21, 2018

My little Tiger Cub is all grown up now!

This is a picture of Peter wearing his Tiger Cub uniform.  He was in first grade.  It was September of 2009 and he was ready for his first meeting as a Cub Scout.

Last night, Peter had his Eagle Scout Board of Review.  He went into a room with three adults from the Hickory Council and was questioned for almost an hour about his project, his time in scouts, his views, his leadership, his activities, his morals, etc. 

And HE PASSED!!!!

All of the official paperwork things have to be done on the councils end but hopefully on Boy Scout Sunday in February he will be awarded his Eagle Scout rank.

It has been a long NINE years from start to finish. In between all the fun activities and the meetings and the trips there was a fair amount of complaining (because y'all getting to Eagle definitely requires work) but he did it!

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Pictureless post with lots of news!

I'm alive!  I'm pretty sure you were worried that I wasn't but here I am.

I'm not going to lie. Last week's snow really threw me off.  My kids were out of school three days and went in late on two days.  (All the public school systems were out all week.)  Dan said he thought we got closer to 12 inches here.  My original estimation was around 8.

3 inches keeps the schools closed for three days so you can imagine the havoc this much snow caused.  And it was so slow to melt.  But finally, on Sunday it had all melted and the sun was out and this week the temps have been in the upper 50s and I am so happy about that!

But all of this weather has me behind but I am slowly starting to dig out of that as well.  We managed to get the Christmas cards sent and I got some packages to the post office and I think I have purchased almost everything I need to purchase.  I still have a few odds and ends but I will get that done.

Today my kids only have a half day and then their Christmas break starts.  So as soon as I post this, I am going to start wrapping all the things before I have to run back to the post office and to pick up the kids!

But that's not really why I was popping on here, I wanted to document that Peter got his driver's license yesterday!  Y'all, we were both nervous but the road test around here is fairly quick and simple.  I think the most complicated thing he had to do was a three point turn and he can do those fairly well.

I did not get a picture of him with his license at the DMV because we were rushing out of there to get him back to school because he had a chemistry test.  Luckily he made it just in time.  Apparently the teacher gave him a hard time about missing it the day before when he told her he might be late.  So, crisis averted.

AND IN OTHER BIG NEWS.....

We got Peter a truck this weekend.  It's a basic Toyota Tacoma.  We paid a little more than I was hoping but it's low in miles.  It was a work truck for a pest control company so it definitely been used and it's got no bells or whistles but the boy seems happy with it.  I'm just hoping and praying that it's dependable!  And no, I didn't get a picture of him in front of his truck either.  He is a teen aged boy after all, and pictures and teen boys don't really seem to mix.

And now, the wrapping begins and all of the praying because having a teen ager driving really brings you closer to Jesus! 

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Snow Event.

Last Monday, I noticed some weather reports stating that all 4 of the models they use to predict the weather were forecasting a potentially large snow event for our area over the weekend.  The forecasters were very quiet about it all and were being extremely cautious and were stating that they would not predict totals until 60 hours out from the event.

As the week progressed, it became more and more apparent that we were going to actually get snow and get a lot of it.  The snow was supposed to start early on Sunday (around midnight or so) and continue through the day. 60 hours out they were predicitng that depending on where you were, the snow would be between 6 to 12 inches!

Since I normally do my grocery shopping on Monday morning I knew I better do it on Friday in case I wouldn't be able to get to the store on Monday or Tuesday.

I even gassed up the car, took the trash to the dump, and cleaned the house - sort of.  And Dan, who had been in Singapore all last week made it home late Friday night.  Apparently he was on the plane in Singapore and it was about to take off when they made everyone deplane.  YIKES!  Wonder what kind of issue they found at the very last minute??  He safely made it home though on another flight and was only 6 hours later than expected.  His bag however, did not make it home until Monday afternoon.

Saturday was busy - we went to Mass at 9:00 am and then dropped Sarah off at school for a swim meet in Huntersville.  I had found the perfect truck for Peter and we had an appointment to look at it but they called and said, "Whoops!  Not sure what happened but that car sold last month."  I'm just glad they called before we drove to Statesville.  We stopped at another place that only sells used cars to see if they had anything but was told it was going to be hard to find what we were looking for but they took our information and will call us if they come across anything.  (Not holding my breath...)

On Saturday evening, Peter had to attend a classical guitar concert at Wake Forest University so Dan dropped him off for that and I picked Sarah up from her swim meet.  The three of us ate chili and then it was time to go back and pick Peter up from the concert.  And then we settled in for the snow event.

It snowed all night and by Sunday morning we had at least 5 inches at our house (it may have been more at that point but who knows and it was still coming down).  There was so much snow in the area that they even cancelled Mass.  (Our rectory is several miles from the church and since all the snow happened over night and since there are minimal snow plows here no roads were cleared.)

So Sunday we slept in, ate lunch at my parent's house, watched the Panther's lose, heard about the Patriot's loss, and did the Christmas cards and I wrapped a few gifts.

My husband's company was even closed on Monday so we slept in again.  We live on a very busy road that connects two major roads so our road was scrapped by Monday morning.  My husband had a huge case of cabin fever so we did we always do on a snow day. Piled in the SUV with my brother and got wings at Christo's. 

And now it's Tuesday and Dan is back to work but the kids are out of school again.  Many of the local public school systems have already cancelled for tomorrow as well. It will be interesting to see if their school is cancelled tomorrow or just on a delay.

The official reports are that our town got 8 inches but many of the surrounding areas got 10 or even up to 12 inches!  That is a lot of snow for here and there will be many small roads that don't get plowed and have to wait for melting to occur.  The snow was beautiful to see on Sunday morning but because we don't get big snows very often, it just messes everything up.

Sarah and her Girl Scout troop were supposed to go to Charlotte to sort boxes for Operation Christmas Child on Monday afternoon  but that got cancelled.  My care group was supposed to go to Boone on Wednesday to sort the gifts at that facility but now we aren't going to be able to go either.  Sarah was supposed to have a swim meet tonight but that got cancelled too.

I'm trying to use my time at home wisely though - getting gifts sorted and wrapped and trying to determine what I still need to get.  I also need to work on my menu for our little Christmas Eve party.  And I'm trying to encourage my kids to work on things that they need to be working on for school.  You can imagine how well that's going over.  :) 

Here's a shot from the front door on Sunday morning when I got up.  It's pretty but now I'm ready for it all to melt!


Sarah and I made a big batch of chocolate chip cookies on Sunday.  Sunday is my diet cheat day and I definitely had some of these. Now I'm practicing my willpower but now eating the rest of them!

I also had a big piece of this delicious coconut cream pie I made for Sunday dessert.  Sunday cheat days are the best!  :)

This was my view while doing the Christmas cards on Sunday afternoon.  I had a cup of peppermint coffee, the snow was falling outside, I had the fire going and football was on.

Wally started relaxing in the sink this weekend.  He did this at least twice when I was using the bathroom.  Poor thing is going stir crazy.  He wants to go outside so bad but he can't deal with the snow. 
And when he's not curled up in sink, you can usually find him curled up under the tree!

Happy Tuesday everyone.  And I'll just be over here trying not to panic that it will be Christmas Day in TWO WEEKS!

Monday, December 3, 2018

Everything and then some. And a whole lot of pictures.

It's Monday and we've been busy.

Sarah had her second swim meet on Thursday evening and she did great!  The team we were swimming this time was really good.  Well, correction - their women's team was good but their men's team was terrible so we split the meet. 

Sarah swam in two relays  and also in the 100 backstroke again but instead of the 50 free she swam a 100 butterfly.  She was so nervous about this.  She's never done a 100 butterfly in a meet before but she finished and she didn't DQ and she came in third!  (Which isn't as impressive as it sounds because there were only three girls swimming that event.)  But she survived and her time was respectable. And even though she swam that before her backstroke, she still managed to have roughly the same backstroke time as last week. Her goal now is cutting time off her backstroke.

Here's my girl doing the butterfly:


On Saturday morning we got up and headed to Laurel Springs to get a Christmas tree.  It was a cloudy morning and by the time we got up the mountain, it was rainy and extremely  foggy.  Peter did a great job driving in the fog and the rain:

Zero visibility!

It proceeded to rain  on us the entire time we were picking out our tree so we were quick this year.  Typically the kids disagree over which tree to get but they were wet and cold and ready to get back into the car.


We got home and got the tree up and then it was time to go to Mass.  After Mass we went out to eat and came home and started decorating the tree.

























And we went to be a little early for a Saturday night because Dan was out the door and on his way to Singapore at 3:00 AM on Sunday morning.  But not before he got my coffee ready to go with a little love note.  This is what greeted me when I rolled out of bed at 8:00 AM:

 I definitely married up.

The kids and I had lunch at my parent's house.  Peter stayed there to watch the Panther's game with my dad and my brother and Sarah went with my mom to another painting class.  Look at their 
masterpieces:

And look how pretty it looks on my shelf:

And while they were all doing their own thing, I stayed home and finished decorating the tree and putting out the rest of the Christmas decorations and then, at 6:30, Sarah had two friends from school come over so they could work on a religion project.  I ordered some pizza and they got to work.  They finished the first part and it sounds like they will be meeting at another house next Sunday to finish things up.

And just like that, it's Monday.  Dan left the house at 3:00 AM on Sunday morning and literally just called at 11:45 PM today (Monday)  to tell me he was finally at his hotel in Singapore.  Yikes!  That's a lot of travel time!

Tonight is the first home basketball game of the season and Peter wants to go.  So it looks like after I get Sarah home from swim practice I will be heading back to school to watch a basketball game!  Thankfully the price of gas is going down.  :)