Week (or 2) At A Glance

Remember me?  Once again I've not been here too consistently.  This time it's because of what I feared two months ago.  My laptop died.  Fried more like it.  You can imagine the stress as I waited to see if all my pictures from the last 5-6 years (including grad party slideshows), documents and the most prized microsoft excel spreadsheet that I made all by myself over many hours that contained addresses for Drew's wedding invitation list could be recovered.  Aaaaagggghhhhh! It wasn't pretty.

I'm thankful to report that "they" were able to retrieve all of it - major answer to prayer - so this is now my new best friend.

There you have it, my whole life (minus people) on a 2 inch piece of plastic.  Scary.

I'm also thankful for my thoughtful husband who has agreed to let me borrow his ancient super slow-mo laptop.  All I have to do is tolerate this screensaver. And how sllllllloooooooowwwwww it is.







In an effort to catch up, below you will find my life at a glance these past two or so weeks through the pics I cleaned off my phone.  Warning - be ready to need a nap after you finish.  Yes, it's that riveting.

Let's start here.  Ally's school women's chorus had the great thrill of singing the national anthem at a Binghamton University men's basketball game.  Worried about arriving late, she rushed us out of the house so quickly that one of us forgot to put shoes on.  I'm not mentioning any names.

Always on the lookout for a craft idea that is quick and simple, I made these.  I'm on a quest to clean out a lot of yarn baggage I've been carrying around and this was perfect.  I've never really had many decorations for Valentine's Day.  Now I have this.

 Not too bad, huh?

Speaking of riveting, I moved the furniture around in the living room to take advantage of our big windows on these cold days.  This is where you can find me most of the time on sunny days.  Nice and warm.

We've been getting lots of glorious winter weather lately.  This is our third winter living in Binghamton and to be honest the first two were a bit disappointing, quite lacking in the snow department.  I dare say this year has more than made up for it.  I love it.  In an attempt to share my delight, I've even posted a few pics on facebook that much to my surprise have drawn criticism.  Like taking pictures from the window of my living room isn't as "participating" as actually going out to shovel. 

is this not the cutest little marshmallow cupcake you've ever seen?

I believe the one who stays inside has a special ministry.  This is what I was doing for them.  So there!

Can I get a little respect for that?

I've made some yummy soups as well.  Stay tuned for recipes.

One of the snowstorm days produced a winter advisory/state of emergency warning.  Kind of like stay off the roads unless it is an emergency.  Well, we had an emergency that day.  It was Drew's 22nd birthday, my beloved firstborn.  You see, I believe kids should be with their parents on birthdays.  The tragedy is that once they go to college this isn't necessarily likely.  Because of this, we have not been with Drew on his birthday for 3 years.  Count 'em, 3!  Not cool.  This would be the first time since he turned 18 that we could see that face we love (since he's only an hour away now), so making the trip was non-negotiable.  And it was an hour south too.  Except the snow was coming from the south.  Oh well, don't worry, we waited until the emergency travel ban was lifted (about 10 minutes) and it stopped snowing (mostly) and then we hit the road.

 I mean, look at that kid's smile.  Worth every white knuckle mile.  Nah, it wasn't that bad.  Scott is a great winter driver.

 

Would have driven much farther to be able to do this.  Doesn't matter if it's the 2nd or 22nd birthday - each one matters to me.

***On another day, a favorite conversation that I finally have permission to share with you went something like this.  I promised not to mention the other party's name.

Me: "What time do you have to be at your event?"
??:  "10:00"
Me (knowing it didn't start until much later): "Don't you think that's a little premature?"
??:  "No, I don't think it's premature, I thought it was a very mature decision to be there early."
Me: "Oh, I see......alrighty then. Let's go."

Two of us laughed for hours.  One didn't think it was that funny.

This morning I woke up early after having spent a good portion of the day in bed yesterday (might have been something I ate).  I treated myself to a golden french toast k-cup.  Did I ever mention that a very good friend found them on sale shortly after Christmas?  I scarfed up four boxes to be rationed through the year.  Today was one of those days.  It was delicious and smelled so fantastic. I suspect there might have been an extra dose of caffeine too, because I soon found myself a little, how shall I say, silly.  Yeah, that's about right.

I got an idea to send the boys a picture text, "Good morning!  Just wanted to say HI!".  I mean what college boy doesn't want to see a picture of his mother first thing on Sunday morning?  So Scott snapped this before I was ready and refused to take another (because he thought the whole thing was dumb) even after we saw this ridiculous expression.  He said it suited my mood. 

The responses:
BEN - "Haha!  Well, that was random."
DREW - "Hahaha!  HI!"

I asked them if it made them laugh, smile or just shake their head.  Between the two of them, I got all three.  Success.

As for the coming week, I have just one thing on my mind.  Thursday-Saturday.  When this kid comes home to do this at Davis College three times. Don't forget we haven't seen him since Jan 2 and may not again until June.

And if his brother knows what's good for him, he will follow his mother's instruction to skip class Friday and come home too. 

I've got a feeling it's going to be a good week.