White (purple) Mountains Manjesty

I took this in Cedar Hills when I picked Taylor up from piano lessons. Naturally, all I had with me was my cell phone, but I think it turned out ok. Today was beautiful! The sun finally shone again, and the sky was so blue. The moon is even up there in the sky. It was so warm today that a lot of snow melted, so it is slushy and wet everywhere.

I laid down on the couch while Jack was talking to me (Jack is ALWAYS talking) and playing a game on the computer. The room was kind of dark and I had a blanket on me, and . . . well, you can guess what happened next. I don't even remember closing my eyes, and I was gone for a little over an hour. Boy, it felt good. I haven't slept good for a few nights, and I guess I was more tired than I thought because I don't usually go out like that (except on Sunday afternoons, because that's what we Mormon's do!).

It won't stop snowing!!

This is my picture for the day. The snow is so deep, and it looked so pretty on this tree.

This is the tree across the street that I curse all summer long because it blocks my view of the lake. As always, it's all about ME!

This is the same lantern from yesterday - but the snow is just a wee bit deeper! The snow on the ground is now level with the retaining wall - 18" or so! (Seriously, scroll down the page to yesterday's post - it's amazing how much more snow there is, just since yesterday. Both pictures were taken at about the same time of day - 2:30 or so.)

I don't know if it stopped snowing last night, but it was snowing all day. It is so deep! Evidently, the storm has just parked itsself over northern Utah County, from Alpine to Orem, and has just buried us! Cars keep either getting stuck or sliding off the road out on Nathaniel.

I played Guitar Hero with Jack tonight and somehow managed to beat him on 2 songs. I barely beat him both times, but I was shocked that I beat him at all. I've only played one other time, and he plays a lot. I guess he was having a bad night. Then we played DDR for a while. We haven't played for a long time and we have so much fun. Jack gets way into it and kicks and flails his arms. It's quite a spectacle.

It's SNOW Fun

Lane and Jack are shoveling. This is after only a few hours - see how deep it was already?

Jack starting to goof off - shoveling was only fun for a minute.

Swing set - that ultimate symbol of summer - all covered up. See how big the snowflakes are?

My first attempt to capture the size of the snowflakes. It didn't turn out - too little contrast, I guess.

So . . . last I heard, KSL predicted a storm - 1-3 inches they said. It would come in after the morning commute and end before they evening commute they said. WRONG!!! It started just before I left work - only snow flurries, nothing major. I had lunch with Calvin and by then it was starting to stick. As I drove up the hill to our elementary school (I had to drop something off) it was really sticking and the flakes were HUGE! I wasn't sure I would make it up the hill, but I did. I even got the car up the driveway on the 2nd try. Grandma called and said she wasn't coming up for Family Home Evening, and Lane didn't want to go get her since it was really bad by 5:30. So we stayed in, had our turkey soup and homemade Rosemary bread (Tara - YUMMY! thank you!) and played Wii. I had been unbeaten on bowling and Taylor beat me - badly, I might add. I told her I was distracted by the snow, which was still falling at 8:00. Lane and Jack had gone out to shovel again, so they weren't there to see my shame. Lane asked his car pool buddy to drive tonight because Joe has a 4 wheel drive, and I think they will need it. I don't think the snow plow has been around yet, and the snow has really stacked up. At least 7 inches, I'm thinking.

Funny, Funny Addie

I hope the picture of Addie comes through ok - I had to lighten it up alot to get her hair to show. We had been laying around all day, watching one episode of Mythbusters after another, and she finally got up to get a snack and her hair was all standing straight up with static electricity. It was so funny! The drawing is Addie's rendition of our family that she drew as part of sharing time in primary. It is so precious because we are all holding hands. It kind of looks like Jack was an after-thought. I guess we know where he ranks with her! It is so nice to be on the early schedule at church again. I hate the 1-4 schedule. We had the best day, just laid around watching Mythbusters and Destroyed in Seconds - we love to watch things explode. When Lane got up he forced us to eat something healthier than the popcorn, Dr. Pepper and candy we'd been eating all day. I forgot to buy more Cheetos!

My Adorable Husband

I managed to catch Lane before he hid his face or threw something at me. He's just relaxing, watching a football game before he goes to work tonight. Today I was helping Taylor sew a shirt. I took her to the fabric store to find a pattern and fabric, and she found a really cute little dress pattern with a jacket. She chose aqua fabric wtih brown polka dots for the dress and brown for the jacket. It will be really cute. She is doing this as a value project for her personal progress, and I was worried that we would have to sew a second project because I didn't think this one would take the required 10 hours. Considering how long it took her to lay out the pattern and cut it out, I have since revised my opinion that it will easily take more than 10 hours! I forget that she is still learning. We managed to get the shoulder seams sewn today before she decided she had had enough for one day. This is going to be my challenge - not taking over and sewing the whole thing myself! It has given me the sewing bug again, so I might have to make another trip back to the fabric store - this time for myself!

Photography & Peaches

So we're at day #2 and I still at 100% for picture taking. Poor Addie, I had her in different poses for 20 minutes or more and she wanted to go play. Maybe by December 31, 2009 I'll learn how to take a decent picture. I'm surprised to learn how many people are doing the "365" thing, in one form or another. I'll look forward to seeing their pictures, too. My friend Danna posted a great one today of the sun shining through the icecicles on her house.

I was reading an article in the Ensign today about pruing peach trees. It was really a good article, and the point was that it's hard to prune off fruit trees because it seems like you would get less fruit, but in the end you get better fruit, just as we need to prune things out of our lives that aren't important so we can focus more on the things that are important. I didn't express that right, but read the article because it was a good reminder that we have too much fluff in our lives that divert our attention from where it should be.

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Today is the first day of a brand new year, full of good intentions, New Years resolutions and hope for better things to come. We'll see how long that all lasts. One of my resolutions is to take more pictures. I am the worst at that - I just never think about it and am mad at myself that my kids have no pictures of anything but Christmas, birthdays, and Easter. The everyday events are the best, so I want to really work on that. Of course, there is the misguided belief that this is the year I will lose 50 lbs, become a tidier person, read my scriptures ever day, and all that (like everyone else alive). Baby steps, baby steps, I have to remind myself.

So this is my first day, first photo. This is the new couch, the apprently oversized couch that won't fit in my basement. Now that I've had time to live with it for a few days, I think it really worked out for the best since it looks really nice upstairs and gives me something new to look at. Having my computer downstairs will be a good thing, too, I think.

Last night Lane & I just spent a quiet night together. The kids went and slept over at my parents house, Lane had to work a half shift, so he got home at about 8:30 p.m. We went over for a late dinner at Applebees (those workers were MAD that they had to be there!) and then came home and watched Third Rock from the Sun on TVLand and laughed our heads off. I slept until 9:30 this morning! The kids were still at my parents house until 6:30 tonight, so while Lane napped (he has to go to work at 10:00 tonight) I did all the boring stuff like laundry, organizing books on the shelves, vacuumed (Lane finally unclogged the vacuum - third time's the charm!), and did my data entry work.

I have to work tomorrow, back to the grind. I'll be happy to send the kids back to school. I have missed my quiet afternoons while they are gone. We are on the early church schedule this year, hurray! It should be a great Sunday afternoon - Mythbusters has been recording all day long! And on the early schedule, we'll have even more time to veg out and watch it. I'll have to remember to buy more cheetos!