Snow! Snow! and even more snow!

Last Saturday we had kind of a big snow storm. Kind of big as in the biggest storm in decades. The report for our area said we got 19", but because it was so windy we had drifts much deeper than that. Church was canceled, and the last two days of school before Christmas break were called off. They even shut down the federal government on Monday, although to be fair they have shut down the government for much less. I sure hope terrorists never figure out how to control the weather, because all it takes is a few inches of snow to bring us to our knees.

Here's our front yard as the snow was still falling. That dark figure in the background is Eric, shoveling our driveway for the third time that day.



This is what I found when I opened the front door. Our hiding front stoop (around 2.5 feet high) had just about disappeared.



This is what our deck looked like the next morning.



And here's a little boy who was very happy to get out of the house by Monday morning.




And a dog who hates the snow so much that she refused to go outside even to relieve herself. That was not fun. Thankfully, once we dug a path for her onto the deck she relented.

Looking for LOST?

I've decided to create a separate blog for my LOST posts. That way those of you who read just for LOST won't have to wade through posts with pictures of my dog, and those of you who read just for pictures of my dog (I know you're out there!) can skip all the LOST musings. The new blog is at http://chelseagetslost.blogspot.com

I'm going to be following the Lostpedia: Rewatch schedule, where the plan is to watch seasons 1 through 5 before the start of the final season in 2010, and I'll continue with the weekly blogging through season 6. By the end, I should have a complete LOST blog. And that's what I'm doing with my summer vacation.

Back from the Dead

I feel like I'm back from the dead. The past week has gone by in a blur. We all got sick with a horrible cold - congestion, headaches, bronchitis, body aches, and fever. No, it wasn't swine flu. (Although when we went to the doctor last Thursday there was a big sign in the waiting room stating that if you had any flu-like symptoms and had traveled to infected regions to please put on a face mask and use the provided hand sanitizer before signing in.) Even though it wasn't swine flu, we were pretty darn sick and miserable for several days. Eric even took a few days off work, which he NEVER does. 10 days later, I'm still sick - I now have a sinus and ear infection. Antibiotics, here I come! All this is to explain why I've missed blogging about getting a new dog, celebrating Sawyer's birthday, and two great episodes of Lost. Time to play catch up.

Updates

So, some stuff has happened in the past couple of weeks. 1) We bought a house. 2) We moved into it. 3) We made our first ever trip to the ER with Sawyer, who had croup. 4) We've tackled several home improvement projects with mixed success. 5) And last but certainly not least, we have watched two episodes of Lost on our new TV. Yep, Eric talked me into it. We got it at Circuit City's going out of business sale so it was a good deal, 60% off the retail price. Not as good a deal as just keeping our current more moderately sized TV, but whatever.

1) The closing process went more smoothly that we ever could have hoped. The inspection went great (very few problems, especially considering that it was a foreclosure), the appraisal came in high above our price (that was a relief!), and we ended up needing less cash at closing than we had expected (more money for furniture! Woohoo!)

2) Moving went well, although it was a stressful 3 days. Eric took boxes over in five trips on Thursday and Friday, and Saturday our wonderful Elder's Quorum came to help with the heavy stuff along with Eric's dad and brother. Thanks to them it took less than an hour! We spent the rest of Saturday cleaning the empty townhouse and filling in nail holes (ugh).

3) On Monday night Sawyer suddenly started wheezing during his bath. He kept saying "It's scary!" I wasn't sure what he was talking about - he has had a lot of new fears come up during the process of moving and he's been saying a lot of things are scary. A couple of minutes later he was breathing normally and seemed fine so I put him to bed and left his door open so I could hear him if he needed us. A couple of hours later I could hear him coughing and crying and he seemed to be gasping for breath. We called the nurse's hotline at the hospital and they said to bring him in to the ER. The triage nurse could tell right away that it was croup. We felt a little bit sheepish for rushing him to the hospital late at night, but they said it was a good thing we brought him in because his oxygen levels were low. He got an epinephrine nebulizer treatment (and hated every second of it) and felt much better. We got home a little after 2 a.m. I guess I'm being paid back for making my parents take me to the ER countless times for my childhood asthma attacks. It was always in the middle of the night.




4) I've replaced half of the kitchen hardware (the other half requires drilling new holes in the cabinetry and I'm scared to do it without Eric's help), painted big squares of sample paint on the walls, and installed a new chandelier in the breakfast room (with Eric's help - that was definitely a two person job!) I have new door knobs coming this week. Little by little we're getting rid of all the shiny bright gold fixtures. Before and after pictures to come!

5) LOST! I loved the past two episodes. Reactions/recaps are also forthcoming. Since there is no new episode next week (why?! WHY?!?!) I'll have time to play catchup.

Good News

We bought a house! We've been looking since late 2008 without much success - with three separate houses they sold or were pulled from the market right before we could make an offer. We thought it was a buyer's market, but apparently that doesn't apply to foreclosures in our area - they are selling like wildfire when they're at the right price. My sister Megan is our fabulous realtor and she took us to see a listing, a foreclosure that had just come on the market on Saturday. We fell in love with it as soon as we walked in the front door. There's almost nothing we need to change, and it's big enough that we can potentially stay there forever (assuming I don't have sextuplets next time we do IVF.) The yard is large for the neighborhood and already landscaped. We were anxious when we heard that there were other offers but figured if it was meant to be it would work out. We heard from the listing agent this morning that we were tied with someone else for the highest offer, so we increased our offer by just a little bit hoping it would be enough. Apparently it was, because we got it! We're closing in February.

And now you know why I didn't blog about it before, because the details of real estate transactions are only interesting to those directly involved with them.

Here are some pictures - that's less boring, right? I'm already thinking about how I'm going to decorate. Once we save up some money after blowing our life savings on the house itself.

Exterior

Front hall staircase

Living/Dining Rooms

Kitchen/Family Room

Kitchen

Breakfast Room/Solarium

Deck/Backyard

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Welcome baby Wes!

While I'm giving out congratulations...I just realized I forgot to officially congratulate Andrea and Rick. Their little boy, Wesley Charles was born in August. Congratulations, Andrea and Rick! He's a cutie and they have the pictures to prove it!

Not Gonna Happen

Last night I read in Real Simple magazine (my favorite bathtub reading experience - because I get too hot if I try to stay in long enough to read a book) that National TV Turnoff Week is coming up. I'm a big fan of the idea in principle, but I have a serious problem with the dates this year: April 21 to 27.

Guess what shows are coming back that week - all on the same day, the 24th? The Office, Lost, and Grey's Anatomy. Yeah, turnoff week isn't going to happen in our household at that particular time. It's like opening a chocolate shop in a little French village during Lent. Although I wouldn't have a problem putting a moratorium on Dora for the week (sorry Sawyer).

Edit: I was wrong about The Office; it's actually coming back on April 10. Much sooner than I thought! I'm still not going to manage to keep my TV off on the 24th though.

President Hinckley

For those of you who haven't heard yet, President Hinckley passed away last night. He was 97 years old. He lived such an amazing and energetic life that it's almost hard for me to believe that he's gone. He just kept going and going for so long. I feel privileged to have been a member of the church while he was President.

I was lucky to have a few opportunities to hear President Hinckley speak in person and to shake his hand. When I was at Southern Virginia College our choir sang at a regional conference where he spoke. He found out that our signature song was an a cappella arrangement of "Shenandoah", which apparently was a favorite of his, and during his closing remarks he asked if we would sing it. We were unprepared and needed a pitch to start so this guy Adam crossed the stage to get to a piano. It was so crowded that he had to step over and around people. I guess it was taking too long because President Hinckley said "Come on now son, we don't have all day!" with a big smile on his face. I'll always remember his humor in that situation. I had a solo at the beginning of the song and so I got to stand right next to his seat and sing. It was an amazing day I will never forget.