Ski Bunny

Yes, I have gone from snow bunny to ski bunny in a matter of weeks! We had an unexpected free Saturday afternoon and Sunday last weekend. Since Jared was post call, I drove us down to Maryland for another visit with Steve and some skiing. We got there just in time to support him at the Deep Creek Dunk. It was freezing out! We enjoyed some tasty beverages while hundreds of people jumped into Deep Creek Lake. Apparently this was the first year the lake wasn't frozen for the dunk.

On Sunday we were up early and out on the slopes. This time, I only fell once AND went on all the the intermediate slopes at the resort! Go me and my 5th time skiing!

I even caught the last run of the day for the boys down a black diamond.

It was a great quick little visit.  

Tour de Virginia

Kinda like the Tour de France, only better. Last weekend was a blink of an eye, filled with as much as I could, part family, part friends visit trip while in Virginia for a total of 64 hours. I was solo this weekend since J was on call and couldn't leave town. He is never happy when I leave but tried to have some fun catching up with friends Mary & Steve for dinner and going to his first gun show. Yes, I know. A gun show. That is what I get for talking about the end of the world and being prepared for emergencies.

I flew into town late Friday night. This is Cleveland as we were flying by. I just love flying and seeing everything lit up at night is so neat. Kinda like looking at an ant farm.

Dad was flying in from NYC and met me at the airport to take me home. With all the airport rules I couldn't meet him at the gate. But seeing my Dad at work in his Captain's uniform is still just as cool as when I was little and he brought me to work with him to see what he did.  :) We picked up pizza and headed home where I talked with Mom and Dad until I fell asleep on the couch. There is just never enough time...

On Saturday I was up early and on the road to meet the girls. What originally was planned as our annual weekend away was adjusted to one night in Richmond. This would be the first night Liss was away from her baby boy and I needed to see my Grandparents who haven't been doing so well recently. Even though it was only one full day of girl time, it was wonderful. We stayed with Courtney in her condo which she bought a few years back, walked all over the Carytown enjoying the shopping, eating, and drinking!

And as always there was a little bit of silliness...

Yes, hair extensions and masks. The talking was nonstop and Kiliaen and I about died giggling before bed for who knows what reason other than more silliness. And just like that it was time to hit the road. But not before a quick stop by my brother's place on the way out of town.

He is going to kill me for adding that camera photo... hehehe!

On Sunday I brought lunch over to the Grandparents and visited with my Uncle Connie who was also over that afternoon. Mom and Dad came by too. Unfortunately Grandpa slept the whole time... he didn't have a good night and slept through my whole visit. It is so hard to see how fast he is deteriorating... it seems like yesterday that they were smiling away at Julie's wedding or dancing together at mine.

I made one more visit over to the rehab center where Great Grandma Connie is progressing with her compression fracture therapy. I hate to see her away from her home but she is getting stronger every day and can move her legs so much now! She was basically only speaking in Spanish and giving me a hard time for not being fluent and  for not having babies yet. After another too short visit, I headed home for dinner. Mom made chicken pot pie and Natalie, finally home from overseas, spent the evening talking with me at the kitchen table... just like when we were teenagers.

My phone for some reason deleted the rest of my photos from this trip with the exception of one... me lovin' on my littlest nephew before I had to leave town and head back to Ohio. 

And just like that, my tour de Virginia was over. On Monday after a morning of coffee and talking in the family room with Mom and Dad I was fighting back tears at the airport when they dropped me off.  Sometimes being a grown up sucks.

First Valentine

Many moons ago was the first Valentine's that I was given a gift from someone other than my parents. And for the 15th time I received roses, chocolate covered strawberries. and a great card. 

I love Valentine's. The schmoopy cards and romance. I love, love, love it! While talking to J's Grandmother we found out she married her first Valentine on February 14th... 69 years ago.

Those Storck men are such romantics.

Snow Bunny

We spent this last weekend in the snow. Catching up with some of J's friends from med school, the first time they had all been together since 2006. We stayed in this awesome cabin, right on the lake in Maryland near Wisp Resort. It looked just like below... only covered in 10 inches of new fallen snow!

Friday afternoon we got to see the progress on a house Steve is building before heading out to dinner. 

We were up late with lots of wine, pool playing, and of course a hot tub and snow angels.

On Saturday after a delicious breakfast feast we headed over to the mountain for some skiing.

It was super snowy and windy, with the low that day at 5 degrees! But with all our new cold winter gear we were good to go. I even got this little video clip of J skiing down a black diamond. It isn't the best, I had gloves on and we were really far away.

And the best part of it all was neither of us got hurt and I didn't fall once! Not bad for only my 4th time skiing and 5 years since J's last trip. Just wish it hadn't been so difficult for Jared to ski on the easier slopes with me. We had plans to either ski again, tube, or snow mobile on Sunday but after another late night we ended up just hanging out before having to leave town.

It was a great time and hopefully, a yearly event!

Tebow

Even though the Super Bowl was practically a week ago... 
Even though it was with teams I don't particularly like... especially the super icky Tom Brady Patriots...

I thought I would share this photo of us pre-game last week, taken by my go-go-gadget arm.

That's right. In our Tim Tebow jerseys! Hahaha! My favorite NFL player. Happy Friday!
 

What I Will Finish This Month

I am really good at starting projects. I start them and then take FOREVER to complete them, if I finishe them at all. I am a perfectionist and nothing I do is anywhere near perfect unfortunately. It isn't just about the final result but the process as well. And I jump from one thing to another... don't even ask Natalie about the time we made a scrapbook together! I thought she was going to hurt me I was taking so long to make just one page!

So, for 2012 I decided each month I am going to actually complete a task I begin. January's was reorganizing our storage facility... fancy I know. Some other month will be to actually go through and get rid of the "crap" thay lay amongst the treasurers to keep. Anyway, while blog hopping over the past couple of days and have found some really good ideas for my task this month. One is for me to actually print out photos instead of hiding them on my hard drive or on this little blog. Not sure why I haven't done this but it is now my "To-Do" for February. I think it will be this little project I saw on tatertots & jello...

I can't wait to get working on it. Now I just have to decide if I should have it be filled with photos from just 2011 or from the time since we have lived in Cleveland. Decisions, decisions...

Wednesday Wishes

I came across a blog today that does "Wednesday Wishes" called Bright Wishes. I could use a wish or two today. This week the phone has been ringing a lot, my Grandparents are getting older and just as one was leaving the hospital another was rushed in this afternoon.

My Wednesday Wish would be to stop time and enjoy it with my family and friends. Really to have good conversations and spend it with those I love.

And especially for the health of my Grandparents and Great Grandmother.

Free 'bucks

All last month I was enjoying this...

A free Starbucks coffee EVERY SINGLE DAY. It was one of my gifts from our Grab-A-Gift exchange this Christmas. A special mug  for a free cup of coffee for the entire month of January. And even though I missed a few days, maybe 7 all together, and it wasn't a fancy latte, now... now I am craving it and it is killing me!

Oh, Starbucks. How I love thee...