Snowmaggedon

I got a job (more on this later -- the person I'm replacing hasn't been fired yet and I haven't signed a contract, so when I start the job, it will receive its own special attention). I was supposed to go do all the new-teacher stuff on Friday. I was a little worried, because the snow started up here on Thursday around 4 and wasn't supposed to stop until Saturday. Well, I thought, I'm sure I'll be fine. At the same time, I was praying to make the right decisions and not, you know, die.

Fortunately for me and everyone else, the school was closed that day. So I sat at home and looked out the window as the snow fell ALL FREAKING DAY LONG. I'm not convinced that we got as much as at my parents' house, which apparently got approximately twenty-seven feet. But when snow is falling all over the Wasatch Front and you live on a sparsely-populated street in a rural community, well, you get plowed twice in 24 hours. Maybe. That is not enough to keep up with the snowfall. Not, I am quick to add, that it is the fault of those paragons of virtue, the snowplowdrivers. No, they just had a lot to do.

Zane took Sabrina skiing yesterday near the end of the storm. He said she did great on the groomed areas, but the powder, in some places, was up to her waist. She may have whined, just a little.

It was nice to see the snowplow last night and the sun this morning. Although I do feel a strange yearning to read The Long Winter in the comfort of my warm, well-lit, well-stocked house with no animals to take care of. The best way to celebrate Snowmaggedon.

Yay! I'm a bad mom!

Raiden had his supplemental because-he's-tiny doctor's appointment today. Guess what? After two weeks of frantically shoving a bottle in his mouth every time he opened it, as well as giving him magical Seven Star Tea, a magical Chinese formula designed to magically fix WHATEVER is wrong with your child, Raiden has gained 1.2 pounds. In fourteen days! (I'll pause here for your awed silence.)

So, it turns out that there is (probably) nothing wrong with Raiden. I was just starving him. Great news! His doctor was actually really nice about how I wasn't actually a bad mom and I shouldn't think of it that way, but we all know the truth. Still trying to figure out how to blame someone else, but now that he's back on the weight chart, the need to do so is fading.

Now I guess I'll stop crying on my keyboard. Or at least take a hiatus until his 9 month appointment, where I may well find another something to panic about. Stay tuned!

Beautiful Boots

For the past six months, Sabrina and Sasha have been in contention over a pair of cowboy boots. They are Sabrina's (once they were Jane's), but Sasha lurves them. Sabrina was usually good about letting him wear them, but when she wanted to wear them, well, they were hers, after all. So, like all good mothers, I solved the problem by asking my parents to get each kid a pair of cowboy boots for Christmas.

My first problem was that I don't know the sizes of my kids' feet. I know my size -- they've been 7 1/2 for, I don't know, two decades. But kids? Their feet just keep a-growin'. Because I didn't want to get boots too small, I said sizes 8 and 10. I think this is probably at least a size too big.

My mother, being the wise woman that she is, didn't want Sabrina's boots to be too small, so she suggested that my dad, who was tasked with this important job, to get size 11 for Sabrina.

Dad got the boots. Sabrina's were pink, which gave her flights of ecstasy. Sasha's were dual-color, super cool. They only had size 8.5. Well, the BOX said 8.5. Inside the box, there was one boot that was an 8.5 and one that was a 10. And they were both left boots. Oops.

So Dad got to make another trip to the boot store. Thanks Dad! He took Sabrina's boots as well, to get a smaller size. Oh, her face when she found out the boots were going to be taken away! Only quick assurances that she would get other boots that would fit her better and would STILL BE PINK averted tears. Sasha was more okay with his boots being taken, partly because he never actually got both boots on his feet. However, he got his new boots yesterday and has worn them all day long both days, including for both naps.

Here he is in his new cowboy boots. Notice how he wants his pants rolled up so they don't cover any of the glory that is the boots.

Can you say "I look beautiful!"?

Little soccer star

Who wants to see the cutest little soccer player in the world? You? Okay, here she is:

So? Cute! I swear, the hair is not my fault. It is fine and wavy, so it will not be contained. Will. Not. But check out those eyes! And smile! Who wants to see another one?

So. That's my girl. To make it even better, she's also beautiful on the INSIDE.