It's the Night Before I Return to Work And...

... my car is 1/3 ready to go.  Fynn's extra clothes, a box of diapers and four packs of wipes refills are in the cargo area.


... the seating area is full of crap that I need to remove.


... Mad's car seat is currently rear facing because Fynn borrowed it during our trek down south.


... Madelyn's extra clothes are sitting at the top of the stairs.


... I am wearing the new jeans that I wanted to wear tomorrow (we went shopping today and I swear they were the only pants that were completely dry when it was time to leave)... and that I now really need to wear.  Why?


... it's snowing.  We got a little snow last winter.  In the past four hours we've gotten at least twice the total of last year.  Mad and I went out to play in it briefly while Tom was upstairs on sleep duty with Fynn.  Then we switched places so he didn't miss out.  (No, that didn't mess things up for Fynn at all.)  He and Mad made her first snowman.


... our neighborhood is blanketed in white and dotted with children running around and riding new Christmas bikes.


... the pass down to our jobs is, last I heard, running with CHP escorts, but may be closed by morning.  Elevation-wise, it's about 1600 feet higher than here, so that area gets a lot more "weather" than we do.


... our phone just rang with a call from the local school district indicating that there will be no school tomorrow due to inclement weather.  (This brought hearty scoffing sounds from Tom because it's really not that much snow.)


... I'm sitting here, kind of hoping that we'll be snowed in.  Tom could take a vacation day.  I might be able to maneuver my schedule at such late notice, but an unpaid day off wouldn't be that bad.  A day of snuggling with the girls whenever we weren't outside building more snowmen sounds perfect.  Doesn't it?


***Okay, since I started this post, the car is now in order, laundry is about to move to the dryer and photos from this evening are uploaded.  Here's a sampling of Mad's first romp in the snow.

For the Little and the Big Things

*I'm thankful Corey is home again.  We're about to wrap up our first week.  Not quite what it once was, which is both sad and good.
*I'm thankful for that thing Mad has added as part of her bedtime routine.  After bath and teeth are done, it's storytime, followed by the short jaunt down the hall to her room.  I pick her up so she can turn on her music and turn off the light.  Then she normally smooches Buvva and closes the door before I hand her off to Dada.  Since Buvva's been home, she smooches him, leans the other way and says, "Ah Dada" (and Daddy), leans back, "Ah Buvva" and so it goes until she tires of the work to bring us all closer together.  Occasionally I get a smoochie, too... or, like tonight, a tiny finger up my nose.  Ahh, love.
*I'm thankful that we never have managed to buy a small turkey at Thanksgiving.  Even though Corey professes to only like the ceremony and not the actual turkey, I am concerned we might not have enough to make Tortilla soup tomorrow night.
*I'm thankful for my friends, and even for the struggles that some of them are going through.  While there might be an extremely small feeling of, "Thank goodness it's not me," I know very well that it could be.
*I'm thankful it's not.  No doubt they may very well feel the same about what we've been going through.
*For the small number who do know all that we've handled the past three weeks, and who've shared time and tears and slightly maniacal laughter, I am thankful.
*I'm thankful that it's so cold it feels like it should be the holidays, even though I've told people Happy Halloween twice in the past week.  Eventually I'll get to Happy Thanksgiving and then to Merry Christmas.  By then it may be Easter, but whatever.
*I'm thankful that we've gotten most of our kids' Christmas shopping out of the way.  Hooray for online shopping and free shipping!
*I'm thankful that Tom and Corey went way overboard buying lights for the front yard of our apartment last year.  We made that place as ghetto fabulous as we could.  And now I think we should have just enough lights to be tasteful this year.  Because that's how we roll... from tacky to moderately classy (and probably all the way back real quick like).
*I'm thankful Tom is down with my crazy ideas... like inviting 56 people to our house for New Year's Eve... and asking them to bring their sleeping bags and pillows because we live that' far away.  (No, we don't think they'll all come... or all stay.)  With any luck, he'll help me make all the food for breakfast, too.
*And for you... well a particular few of you, I am thankful.  The tens of people each month who stop and check out my blog for 0.00 minutes and view 0.00 pages, feh!  I can live without 'em.  But you, who've made it this far in yet another too long post... for you, I'm thankful.