Minne Monday

Happy Valentines day and hello awkward moment

"Not sure what's worse, the snow, the ice or this sweater" - Minne

Goose Island - 312

Time out, look who is using my photo!!!!

See that 312 image?  I took that as my husband shoveled. That's how he kept his beer cold during Blizzardmania a week ago today. Go me and my photography skills (go ahead and laugh - hahaha).

1 Week Anniversary

One week ago from today Chicago shut down. Honestly, the entire city shut down. Besides working from home I was able to spend some bonding time shoveling with the hubs and capturing some of these photos. Enjoy!

The ones at the end are the hubs 6ft high 7 ft wide fort. I'm serious. He was so proud.  

Happy 1 week anniversary Snomageddon or whatever it was we were calling you back then. For Minne snow video action check out this link.



Panic Attack - How do people do it

I thought this year was going to be awesome, now that we bought a house. You know, more weekend girls trips, some baseball games maybe a few concerts and a quality summer not working or looking for houses with the hubs.

Yikes! I was super wrong. I am currently putting together budgets for the next year for things I want to do and things we are doing. 

• We are in 3 out of town weddings which means 3 weddings x2 (flights and hotels + all the bridal stuff + gifts), 3 showers, 3 BPs. In addition I am in another wedding but it's local but hotels will still be needed and the BP is in Vegas. 
• We also have friends having babies and some travel is needed for baptisms.
• We also decided to run a half marathon which recommends a few trial races (smaller ones working up the big one) x2 again. 
• We also have a laundry list of things that have to get purchased for the house this summer (we've already cut the want list out all together)

The things above are have to do things, and I do not mean to write that in a negative way at all. I love weddings, in fact I may even be in love with them, believe me I wouldn't miss them oh well unless I had something just terrible happen (which has happened twice in my life). However great they are the fact is they are still expensive.

 Additional want to dos that are currently off the list unless I win the lottery

• join friends on their yearly trip to Vegas for March Madness (we say we'll do it every year but something always comes up)
• A trip to Seattle (to have good fish and to check the Mariner stadium off our baseball tour list)
• 525 girls weekend in Florida
• join friends for a 30th Birthday surprise (in Vegas...I'm beginning to think my life would be less expensive if I lived in Vegas)
• A trip to Philly where we can actually watch the Phillies play - more for the hubs
• A trip to Utah to ski and do the Olympic Bobsled (this has been a number 1 priority for the hubs since the winter Olympics...maybe next year?)
• Attend some other sporting events - specific to the baseball tour
• visit my grandmother to see Wicked
• Our 1 year anniversary trip we said we'd take.... a year ago....

Now I know people who do it all and maybe they can do it all but the question is how? Do you put it all on credit? Do you ask other people to pay for it? Do you barter services on Craigs List? Some one tell me how you do it because to be honest, I want to do everything on this list. I will barter, I will barter down to every last item in my closest, I will even go as far as giving up my ovaries - see I'm for real. Let's make it happen people. 

Side note: we are also saving to visit my bestie in Germany and then to adopt kids...how do you save while doing all the above? Answer that and I'll make you some Monster Cookies from Jess's recipe. 

Minne Monday

There's not enough blankets in the world to warm me up after Blizzardmania.

Recap:

Minne and the Blizzardmania

Tuesday night was just terrible. The winds were so bad it felt like I was living in the house from Wizard of Oz. Along with things like our pilot light going out, we had a dog who refused to go outside to the bathroom. Instead, she opted to sleep all of Tuesday evening into early afternoon Wednesday.

At that point we could tell she really had to go to the bathroom. She was pacing and making some whiny noises, so we decided we had to make her go out.

Attempt 1 didn't go so well.

Attempt 2 (about an hour later) went a little better, although you can see my hand pushing her out the door. We're still not sure that she went.

Finally we got her to go out for less than 5 seconds to do her business (no video, but come on do you really want to see that?).

Storms can be very traumatic on animals

She followed it up with another 5 hours of sleep while the hubs and I shoveled. More photos to come.

Blizzardmania

Snow!

 I live in the Midwest, scratch that I live in the Chicago land area. Let's be real here, this city was made for snow, half our budgets get poured into snow and ice removal. Snow days are far and in between. 11 inches of snow, work is still on, 2 feet of snow over a 2-3 day period, work is still on.

snow in Wheaton

However, in the instance that we do get this so called "'Life-threatening’ blizzard" (you know the one where we have rapid accumulation in a short stint of time with a punch of winds) I received this email from my boss.

Lets keep an eye on the weather, if the we get what its expected overnight Tuesday, I don’t want any of you in on Wednesday. There are a few folks closer to the building that can muster in if needed.  We will most likely have an EQ* tomorrow to get people out before the weather hits hard.

*EQ is our office terminology for Early Quit

the one and only snow day from when I lived in Minnesota

Due to my early am dentist appointment tomorrow combined with tomorrow's EQ, I've been privileges with the chance to work from home. So tonight, I'm going to put together my survival kit and then prep for the best 2 snow day ever. Here's what I am thinking

• a corncob pipe, a button and some coal for the best snowman ever (I wasn't prepared in Minnesota)
• a shovel and some buckets to turn our kids playset in the yard into a winter fort (Minne's gonna be stoaked)
• Catch up on thank you cards (I'm so behind) and help Minne work on her Valentine's
• Maybe some baking
• hot cocoa, wood in the fire place me cuddled on the sofa with a good book in hand
• perhaps a sled ride with the hubs - we'll see if he gets all his shoveling done first ;)

 the one and only snow day from when I lived in Minnesota

If you were to have a snow day, what would you do?

PS I bet Minne is going to be most excited.