Blizzard?

Well, after all of the hype and craziness about the massive blizzard that was supposed to hit us, we didn't really see much of the storm at all. We got about 4 or 5 inches total for the past two days, which was totally manageable and no big deal. Especially since the highest prediction I'd heard was 36 inches, and the lowest I'd heard was 14 inches... so... 4 or 5 was NOTHING compared to what they were saying! I think New Jersey and parts of New York got pretty walloped by the storm, but I'm glad we didn't experience the blizzard they were predicting for our area.

So, aside from a little bit of shoveling, the snow wasn't really an inconvenience at all for our area. Guinness has been LOVING our snow-filled yard, and I'm happy to report that he's been napping quite soundly for a few hours already today. He's exhausted! Yay! I took some pictures of our area, and a bunch of Guinness playing in the yard:

Running... 

Running... 

And running! 

Chewing on his frozen tennis ball... 

That is a very snow-covered tennis ball he's holding in his mouth. He loves to chew the snow off. 

So this is a big stream that seems to have developed behind our yard... It's just a bunch of snow melt. I took this picture earlier today, and I just went and checked on it again and now it's pretty much just a bunch of mud. 

Here's Guinness checking out the stream. It's usually pretty dry back there! In fact, one of Guinness's tennis balls got over our fence a few days ago and was in that area... We hadn't had the chance to go get it, so I think it's officially gone now! 

 I hope everyone is staying warm and dry!

Winter winter winter...

This past weekend was super fun, but the weather was kinda un-fun!!  It snowed a decent amount on Friday night (and it wasn't even supposed to snow that night!), and then on Saturday it was freezing rainy grossness, and then the temperature got ABOVE freezing by late morning, which meant everything turned to slush!!  There was just deep icy slush everywhere. McGee and I walked up to this awesome diner near us for breakfast, and for the first time ever there was no wait! I guess no one else wanted to go out in the slushy mess. I took a few pictures:

McGee!

Here's some of the slush we were walking through... 

McGee standing in some of it! 

This part was sooo bad. Some of the slush had totally melted and was just like 2 inches of cold water we had to walk through! 

This was our driveway! We sorta kinda "shoveled" it so that it wouldn't just freeze into an icy block when the temperature dropped at night. The "shoveling" was actually just pushing the slush to the sides of the driveway. 

Guinness looking super sleepy after an afternoon of running around the slushy yard!! He loved playing fetch in the slushy yard, but I think it was quite exhausting for him.

Today and tomorrow we're supposed to get a pretty big snowstorm I think. I've heard predictions for just a few inches per day, to a prediction for the biggest storm our area has ever seen (with like 3 feet of snow or something). So... who knows. It could end up being just some flurries, or it could actually be something massive. I'll keep you posted and take lots of pictures if it turns into something crazy. McGee brought a few changes of clothes to work today, just in case he ends up having to stay because of road conditions. And Guinness and I are all set with lots of food, bottled water, and flashlights just in case there's a worst-case-scenario. I'm not too worried, so don't worry!!  I hope everyone is staying warm and dry!! 

Guinness the Cuddler

Our dear Guinness has become quite the cuddler! He's always enjoying snuggling up on the couch, usually by our legs or something, but lately he's been getting way more in-your-face about cuddling!!  He literally gets right up in your face. Here are some pictures of some of his recent cuddly times! Please ignore my enormous and bulky winter sweater/blanket thing... It keeps me warm during this freezing weather!

He's watching some TV with me... And no, there is NOT much room next to me on the couch. He's squeezed into like a 4 inch space (and mostly laying on top of me).

Then he passed out... 

And now he decided to cuddle my face, which was cracking me up. 

And then he fell asleep like this... We were like this for awhile

He's too darn funny. He had his front leg draped over me.

Frickin Freezing

Oh my gosh it has been cold!!  This morning it was 10 degrees, but with the wind chill factored in it was -5 degrees. Yes, that's MINUS 5 degrees. And McGee and I were idiots and decided to go to the gym this morning... And we always just wear our gym clothes (no jackets or anything) because the gym is always quite warm (and we get super warm when we're working out), so we only have like one minute outside walking to/from the car... But this morning, I think we probably should have thrown on a jacket or something for that 1 minute outside. It was SO damn cold.

And I had thought that the gym might be kinda busy, because I know gyms are typically super busy after the New Year because of everyone's resolutions... But that gym was probably the emptiest I've ever seen it!!  I think everyone else was much smarter than us and decided it was just too cold to venture to the gym. We're dumb. BUT, it feels good now to know that I've already had my workout for the day! So that's something.

Tonight we're having lasagna which should be good because it'll be nice and warm, but let me tell ya, right now the thing that sounds best is some nice hot soup!!!  And some nice hot tea... and some nice hot coffee... You get the idea!  Oh, but speaking of hot soup: We made this soup a few nights ago, and it was AMAZING!!!

If you're looking for a new soup recipe, I highly recommend it. The dill adds such an amazing flavor (and I may have added a bit more than the recipe said). Here's the link for the recipe: http://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2013/11/chicken-meatball-orzo-hearty-soup.html

I think we're going to finally go see the new Lord of the Rings movie this weekend. Last night we went to see The Imitation Game (starring Benedict Cumberbatch), and it was beyond amazing. It blew my mind, and I think everyone should see it! I hope Mr. Cumberbatch wins an Oscar for that performance!! He was so great in it.

I hope you're all staying warm!!

Snow!

Today we got a good bit of snow, which meant that Guinness and I played outside quite a lot! We played fetch in the yard a few times today, and I took pictures during this morning's fetch session. Not a ton of snow had accumulated yet, so you can still see some grass through the snow... but we ended up getting a little over 3 inches of snow today! Which means I also did a fair amount of shoveling. So, I found my back muscles that have been dormant since last winter!!  I am feeling more than a bit sore from my shoveling.

He loves fetch in the snow! 

He was not loving the snow falling in his eyes though! He was doing a ton of blinking. 

He's such a cutie :)  

He loves to chew on tennis balls... He gets a little obsessive about it. 

I had his ball... 

This one cracked me up! I got him mid-headshake. 

Don't his legs look super long in this one? He was wagging his tail like crazy and making lots of whiney-noises because I had his ball. 

2015 so far

2015 has been very eventful so far! For our NYE celebration, we didn't do too much... We just stayed in and relaxed and watched some movies. We did stay up til 12:30 though! That 27 minutes later than last year.

On New Year's Day, we took the train into town to see the Mummer's Parade! It was super fun as always, and we met up with McGee's youngest sister (Mook) in town for a bit. Then we started walking our way over to Timmy's house, because he has a party every year on New Year's Day (with a keg and everything!). We hung out there for a bit, and then we walked back to the train after a few hours so we could head home. It was an exhausting (about 6 miles of walking!) but super fun day!

Here's one of the groups that went by us! They were pushing beds for some reason... I don't know.

The beds again! I don't get it... 

And here's more of the parade down Broad Street, and you can see City Hall in the background. 

I thought it was really fun that the inside of the trains were decorated!! 

This is going to be such a big year for us!!  We're getting married in June (I hope you can make one or both of our parties!!), and buying a house this year too!!  I've been keeping it kind of quiet, but we're in the process of buying a house right now actually! Our offer was accepted (after a little negotiation... mostly on their part because we didn't budge much... ), and we've had the home inspection already. We actually even met with an arborist this morning, because the property has a bunch of HUGE trees that we wanted to find out more about (there's an enormous one within a few feet of the house!). The arborist was really awesome, and she told us so much about all of the trees on the property and let us know that they were all healthy and solid, and told us how to keep up with their health and maintenance. Most of them are red oak or white oak, with a few tulip poplars too. Fingers crossed everything else goes ok with the home-buying process... but it's looking like we may have a house starting in early March!

Tonight we're taking it super easy, because the weather is GROSS outside!!  We've had a mix of snow, sleet, and rain... It's way gross. So, McGee is enjoying some beers and I'm enjoying some hard cider, and we're watching a ton of movies while a nice fire warms us from our fireplace. We just finished watching Dark Crystal for the first time ever, and WOW what a weird movie!!!  Thank goodness I'd already had a cider or two for that one. Now we're going to watch The Interview, and hope it's as funny as we're thinking it could be. I hope you're all having a very relaxing and fun weekend too!!

A belated California/Christmas post!

This post is super late, but I had an awesome time while I was in California for Christmas! It was so great seeing everyone while I was there, but the time went by way too quickly (as it always does when I'm there!). The trip started out with a trip to Oakdale with my parents and my nieces for my cousin's wedding! Here are a few cute pictures of the girls while we were at the ranch house getting ready!

This is how Cassidy insisted on posing for every picture at the house. I have like 8 pictures of her posing like this! Where on earth did she learn this pose... (AMANDA???)... 

Here's an attempt at getting a picture of the girls together! Neither one really wanted to do it... 

I also went to see my Grandma while I was in town! She's doing really well, and looking lovely! I saw her a few times, and every time she had on a different Christmas shirt/sweater. 

My lovely Grandma! 

I also went to see my cousin Anna and her husband, and their 3 adorable kiddos. The two youngest went down for a nap, but we got a picture of Abbey and my nieces! Abbey did NOT want her picture taken though... haha :)  

Abbey is in the purple shirt, if you can't tell! She covered her eyes for every picture I took... Haha :)

We celebrated Christmas Eve at my Uncle Jim's house! I didn't take a ton of pictures because I was too busy relaxing and having fun, but it was a great time! It was just what Christmas should be: Family and Fun :)  

Here's some of the gang! Elijah, A.J., Amanda, Cassidy, Mom, Brad, my cousin Nick, and Addison (in the chair)

Here's Jim and Rhoda! 

Here's Brad, Dad, and Rhoda looking at the gorgeous Christmas tree!!  

On my last night in CA, we went to the Winter Wonderland at Cal Expo, which had tons of Christmas lights and rides! It was a total blast, and such a cool experience. The kiddos loved it, and all of us adults did too!! 

Here's Amanda and Addison! And that was the Golden Gate Bridge in the background (well, not the REAL Golden Gate Bridge... but the Christmas lights version!!). 

Cassidy and Brad!!!  This was in the Faux Snow area (it was really bubbles...)

Addison! She's posing by some huge flowers.

Cassidy!! More huge flowers in the background :)  

My parents posing by some awesome-looking trees! They looked even cooler in person.

After looking at a ton of the lights, the kiddos each got to go one one ride. Elijah (Amanda's oldest nephew) chose a scary ride, A.J. (Amanda's youngest nephew) chose a Jeep ride, Cassidy chose a HUGE slide (that girl has no fear!! She went all by herself), and Addison chose the Carousel (she's obsessed with horses!!)

This is my terrible attempt at taking a picture of Cassidy on the slide. She's on the left (in the pink), and all of my other pictures turned out sooo blurry. 

Here's Brad with Addison on the Carousel! And that's her horse stuffed animal (from McGee) sticking out of Brad's jacket. 

A great picture (if I do say so myself...) of my dad with Addison!!  

It was SO great seeing my family and friends, and I miss everyone already!!  I hope you all had an amazing Christmas!!