Waiting for Santa

It was just too much for the wee peanut.

Merry Christmas and a very happy new year!

The sweet so long

I knew it was too good to last.

My days as a stay-at-home-mom are winding to a ten-year end next month. Freelance writing has picked up, I have two long-term blogging gigs and great copywriting jobs that I enjoy with more coming down the road. However, it's time for me to head back to a place where suckers don't stick to my sweatpants on a daily basis and talk to a *gasp* adult once in a while. No. Bryan does not count.

I think I've found a great solution, however. I will be going back to school as a substitute teacher for the county so I'll be on the girls' schedule. Bry's home with Vyolette and he's considering also signing up to be a sub so we can switch off when my freelancing workload becomes heavier. With luck, by next fall I'll be able to switch to an idea I've been kicking around for a while - copywriting. I even have a fabulous name (see graphic)!

Now all I need are new clothes, good lord, how long has it been since I've been shopping??

Not so ice out there...

I haven't seen ice this bad since the Oregon ice storms off to Columbia Gorge! Last weekend, northern VA was hit by the nasty tail end of the clipper that ran up the east coast. While most of the valley below escaped, up here on TippyTop we were frozen to the gills in ice.

Saturday night:
1:40am - lily's up and vomiting. I can hear tiny shards of ice hitting the roof and windows but nothing too exciting.

3:30am - ice storm starts in earnest. I bolt out of bed, grab Vyolette who is staying with us in case we lose power and she needs warmth and start screaming "TREEEEE!" There are several large trees looming over my bedroom. I run out to the front room just in time to see the lights go out and flashes in the storm outside. Either the houses are on fire down the street or we have thunder ice and that's lightening outside. I fumble for the phone and have the power company on speed dial so report the outage and head back to bed. Another twenty minutes go by, ice is being torn from the trees and smashed against the roof (the sound that had woken me up) and the trees are being whipped around like pinwheels in the wind. I can see them in the flashes of lightening and I'm sure one will come crashing through the house.

7:30am - the storm is over hours ago. We wake up to a cold house and get the girls moving to keep warm. We have no back-up heat so watch as the house dips a degree an hour until we finally accept that the power is not coming on that night and we leave for Bryan's brother's house, 45 minutes away that evening.

5pm - Slowly we make it out of our driveway, Rowyn and I out before the car and dragging the downed tree limbs out of the way. We're being showered with hard shards of ice that fall from the trees and the dirt road is shiny with ice. We have a steep incline and after chipping the ice away from the car before we left, we're not inclined to put chains on. We finally make it to the main road, only to see ice encasing each tree and frozen road kill. We progressed in inches, dodging road crews and knowing the very steep hill leading down off the mountain to Route 7 lay before us. Luckily, FEMA headquarters are at the top of the mountain so the roads are kept as clear as possible and we made it down with little problem.

7p - after dinner we spent the night in a hotel, it's lights flickering, with the other refugees. The next morning, we took the girls to school on the off-chance it would be warmer there than at our house (it was) and Bryan, Vyolette and I went home to find three trees down on the property. The largest in our front yard, split in half and falling the opposite direction from our truck and front porch.

Crazy, eh? Power returned late Monday and last night the house made it back to 67 degrees. Anybody have a used wood stove?

Get back, old man!

Happy Holidays!

(Click on this one for a heckuva close-up, lol)

Ta daaaaaaaaaaa

See? The house really does exist...

'scuze the mess-

How to play Duck Duck Goose

Scene: my living room

Participants: Lily, Syenna, Vyolette, Rowyn and Wynter

How to play:
Have big girls sit in a wobbly triangle while Lily smacks them upside the head yelling "You're in the POO POT!" I can only assume she means the other kind of pot-thing we can't think of.

Suddenly, Vyolette follows Lily hitting them with equal vigor and bawking like a chicken and trying to strangle Rowyn. Anarchy ensues.

Wildlife tips from the girls

Since starting our adventure in the wilds of Mt. Weather, the girls have been picking up handy tips on how to deal with the various creatures that roam our acreage:

From Lily:
- If you see a bear, RUN! He'll chase you and pull your pants down otherwise.
- When a deer comes and looks in your window, hand him the baby.
- Frogs like flies and turtles -- SCREAM and run away.
- When you see a snake, don't move or say "peep."

From Wynter:
- If you found a snapping turtle, do not try picking him up. He'll jump up and try and bite your fingers off! (ow)
- If you see a snake, back away slowly and then RUUUUUUUUUUN
- If you see a skunk, you need to take a bath in tomato sauce, it doesn't matter if he sprays you or not!

From Syen:
- If you see a shark in your back pond, it's hunting season
- If you see a "stunk", yell, "STOP STUNK!"

oops

Apparently I've been remiss in updating the blog so:

- yes, we've moved in
- no, we have no interior doors put up yet. They're still in the box. WHA?
- I have no photos because we've packed away the battery re-charger and I still can't find the bugger
- the deer are bossy, demanding things that think Vyolette is a chew toy so I tend to keep away - far, far away