Randomness and Reasons I Like My House

Here are some random things:

One day (recently) on the way to work (I was driving that day) I noticed a red cardinal in the tree at the end of the street. I hadn't seen one before at the house, so I reversed up the street to take some pictures. I took about 10 pictures. But I will just show you one. Isn't he pretty?



More randomness....
The Friday before the Bears/Packers game, we had a spirit day at school. And because I love to jump on a fun bandwagon, I asked Adam to borrow his Bears jersey. But he told me I had to be very careful with it and I couldn't get it messy.

But I had to paint penguins for a game we were playing.

So I put on a yellow smock (one of the kids') to paint my penguins.

Also, I have been thinking about some reasons that I like living in our house better than my townhouse:

1. When I decorate for a holiday I can actually enjoy it and I don't feel super crowded with the decorations out on tables and on walls. And I LOVE decorating for holidays. And we can have a big, real, Christmas tree. And I totally heart Christmas.

2. When I do laundry, I don't have to try to remember to catch the wash before the rinse cycle and go add fabric softener. But then forget. And have to restart the rinse cycle over after the wash is done so I can add the softener. I can put it in all at once.

3. Speaking of laundry....I can hang my clothes to dry on a pole over my washer and dryer and not on my shower curtain and then have so many clothes on it that it falls down or there's not enough room to close the curtain to shower.

4. I can walk to work. I mean, I could walk to work before (and did in the spring), but it was like 10-15 minutes. But now, it's literally across our field.

5. We don't have to play a game we affectionately called "Cardango" (where one has to pull out one car to pull the other in the garage and vice versa when you want to get out) because there was a one car driveway and garage.

6. There is a place for pretty much everything. I like when things have a place. (Though there are still catch-all rooms through the remodeling, everything WILL have a place).

7. We can easily have people over without feeling crowded. We can even host comfortable large family gatherings. And I LOVE to have people over.

8. There's more room to cook. And bake. Albeit, not a ton. But more than I had!

9. There's lots of space for books on our bookshelves. And for pictures. And I LOVE pictures. I love to have them everywhere.

10. It is OURS. Though it was "Adam's" before, we have renovated, designed and decorated together. And it feels like OURS.

Things I don't like so much:

1. I don't have a garage. And that is not fun. And I seriously hate walking through snow to get to my car early in the morning and scraping off my car. But luckily my husband is awesome and scrapes it off most of the time.

2. It is cold. Very cold. It is an old house. And then we turn the heat up. And it's not so cold. But then the gas bill is VERY expensive.

3. There is too much house to clean. And I'm not the best housekeeper in the world. I like it to be clean. I just have trouble finding the time to do it. And the baseboards are always dusty. We have a lot of baseboards. Who has time to dust baseboards? And the hair on the bathroom floor??? How do I even have hair on my head??

What do you love or not love about your house?

Blizzard 2011-It Really Happened (Video Works Now)

So. I was a bit skeptical of this blizzard. I admit it. I didn't think it WOULDN'T happen. Just that I wasn't so sure it was going to be as crazy as they predicted. Because? Sometimes they are wrong.


Everyone was all "snow day! snow day!" for about a week before. And really? I never really HOPE for a snow day. I'd much rather go to school in the yucky winter than in sunny June. Don't get me wrong. I totally get pleasure out of a surprise day off. But not as much pleasure as crabbiness having to go extra time in the summer. Also if I teach summer school, the extra days that get added mean I have like ONE day off between the end of the school year and summer school. And that's not cool.


So at 11:00 on Tuesday morning when they announced a snow day for Wednesday, I was a bit crabby. Really? It hadn't even started snowing more than a few flakes yet. What if it totally missed us? What if it stopped at midnight and they had all night to clear the roads? Why not wait until the morning like in the good ole days (2 years ago)?


But. The snow? It came. Big time. And that's OK. I was just saying we didn't need to call it so early! But why did they have to call today at 12:00 yesterday? I was a bit crabby about that too. Until Adam pointed out that it took 3 of them virtually the entire afternoon to just clear ONE of our driveways. I guess clearing the bus yard and 51 schools would be quite the chore.


So I enjoyed the day! I fully expected to be productive. But...I wasn't so much. I did, however, install Windows 7 on my laptop (Thanks Dad!) and I am enjoying it quite a bit. Adam's brother Andy came over early and had to come in the side door because the snow was too deep to open the front door. He tried to borrow the snow blower and bring it down the block where he lives, but the snow was too deep. Parts of the driveway weren't that high, but other parts were waist deep! The two of them tried to clear the driveway and then another bro, Austin, came over too with Heidi and Chase. Their Internet and cable were out and Heidi needed to work from home. So the boys worked to clear the driveway. They also tried to take the big tractor out to use the bucket to clear snow. But that didn't work either because the tractor got stuck.


Chase enjoyed playing outside all day and when he came in with his clothes covered in snow and ice, despite his snowsuit, I lent him some of mine while I put his in the dryer. His response, "Aunt STEPHIE! These pants are PINK!". I did enjoy playing outside taking LOTS of pictures and experimenting with editing them. I really wish I could get some better pics of the barn in the snow. One side, however, has work vans in front of it. And the other side has a trailer and pieces of blue tarp hanging off it. Bummer. I was imagining one blown up on our dining room wall in black and white with just the red barn. Maybe another year.


We also busted out Adam's snowmobile and rode around the property. Adam and I even rode over to my school in the bus lane that hadn't been plowed and I took a picture in front of it. See! I could get to school! Though our street wasn't even plowed until 3:00, so it really would have been a problem.


The family stayed all day and then we had tacos together. It was a fun snowday and I love having a family that is so close (literally and figuratively) to hang out with and to create memories with from The Blizzard of 2011.


I am trying to be more productive today, but so far I have read, took a bath, changed into new pajamas, and now am blogging. With no water. Because a water main burst up the street. Homework is next!


I made a slideshow of my pictures. The song is just for laughs because I kept laughing at everyone who was all "The world is going to end!".

Untitled from Stephanie on Vimeo.