Flowers ... Just Because

As any pregnant woman knows, you lose a little of your brain, mainly the memory portion. I have a bi-monthly "Girls' Night" where we rotate who's house it is at. It's a nice time of talking and relaxing, but we also strive to have a clean home and great food ready for each other. About three weeks ago, I was scheduled to be the hostess. I usually look forward to hostessing, and that week was no different. However, at the previous Girls' Night we had decided to change the night for a few weeks to accommodate a schedule change for one of the girls. For some reason, this had escaped me completely.

At about 1:30pm on Tuesday of that week, I got a call from my wonderfully sweet husband stating that he had heard from one of the boys married to one of the girls to talk about what they might do during our Girls' Night. WHAT?!!! Oh my gosh!! I had been operating up until that very moment on the thought that I still had one more day to get ready. I still hadn't cleaned and the dinner I had planned on was incomplete ingredient wise. He just giggled a little at me and then immediately offered to help me. He said he would leave work early, even, to get what I was missing at the grocery store. If that wasn't enough, he called his brother and arranged for him to watch Mercy for the rest of the night. WHOA!!! What a treat!

The icing on the cake was when Tim got home, he handed me the most beautiful tulips for no reason at all. In fact, had there been no flowers, I wouldn't have thought any less of him for all he had already done to help me. Still, It definitely made the whole experience sweeter. I hate forgetting things, and it happens quite regularly these days, but if every time I forget I get this type of response, then ... I'd better not push my luck.

Lesson Learned: I sometimes forget (unrelated to pregnancy) that my husband really does want me to feel special. I don't think the above event must always take place for me to be reminded, but these kinds of reminders are definitely nice. Still, when was the last time I got Tim "flowers" just because or after a particularly stressful day? Good to at least remember this lesson.

Cat Chronicals: Death Wish

Sometimes I wonder if Tobias is trying to kill himself or just testing that whole "9 Lives" theory. This picture makes me lean more toward the former. We must be really bad pet parents for him to go this far. NOOOO TOBIAS ... DON'T DO IT!

Big Bear for Valentine's Day

In Southern California it is rare to think of Winter in terms of freezing or below. The only way to get that experience is to go to the mountains. Some years are colder and wetter than others, and this year happens to be one of those years. Yeah!


Tim and I wanted to coordinate a getaway for several friends and us for the President's Day Weekend. Inevitably, it happens to be the same weekend as Valentine's Day. This year, as we all know, Valentine's Day actually landed on a Saturday. A few of the couples that we invited decided to pass since they wanted to have a private getaway of their own. Good for them. We missed them, but marriage comes first. Tim and I didn't necessarily find that getting away with others completely hindered our Valentine's Day, but we aren't really traditionalists when it comes to this holiday. We generally avoid going out on the actual day, and usually try to just make it another excuse to go out. So, we really didn't miss too much.

The weekend proved worth the effort. One other couple decided to go with us. They have two kids who had never seen the snow. Mercy hadn't either, so we made it a Family Valentine's getaway. We originally had plans to stay at a friend's cabin. She did say it was snowed in, but we were hopeful that we could still make our way to the cabin. When we arrived, I really didn't know we had, since the road was invisible. Apparently "snowed in" really means "snowed out". The road had a good 2 feet of pristine snow all the way to the cabin. We tried to trek it, but turned back a few hundred feet from the car. The kids were melting down even in the freezing cold and the women (ok ... really pregnant me) were not going to make the full quarter mile hike.

What to do now!? We all decided to do a little cabin hunting near town to see if any vacancies were also affordable. It was a holiday weekend and fantastic snow for skiing. We checked 3 places before finding one that was willing to negotiate. Tim, the "Master Negotiator," worked his magic and secured us a cabin that was going to cost each couple less than $50 a night. SOLD!! We went to dinner before confirming, not wanting to seem too eager, but we all knew that we were not going to find better.

The cabin wasn't the fanciest, but it had the essentials, including a kitchen, beds enough for all of us, and running water, which we were not going to have at our friend's cabin. Yep! No running water was on the original bill ... bucket and camping toilet bags were purchased for an alternative to the obvious. Well, who wants to go #2 next to a bush when it's freezing outside anyhow? The cabin never got cold. The heater worked well, almost too well, and we had a bunch of firewood for the fireplace. We also brought two space heaters that we thought we would need, but ended up using them for getting out of the shower and drying wet clothes.

The weekend was great! It snowed twice, one being the day we were leaving. The younger kids (19 and 14 months) were not as excited about playing in the snow, but they didn't mind touching it and walking around to see it. The oldest child is 4 and loved everything about playing in the snow. He sledded, threw snow balls, and jumped in deep snow just for fun. Since I really couldn't "play" in the snow, I did a lot of watching from the window. In fact I had to be careful not to slip on the ice underneath the snow, so going outside was not really an option if Tim was busy. But it was still worth it. Unfortunately, the younger two also got sick while there, which did not make for a good night's sleep until the last night. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the experience and would definitely do it again.


We headed home with everyone else visiting for the weekend. It snowed almost the whole way down the mountain. Tim's finger was cut while helping a fellow traveler with the removal of his tire chains. It was a bad enough cut that stitches were considered, but the cut seemed to stay closed on it's own with the use of medical tape and gauze instead of a bandaid. With fun comes some peril.




Here are some more pics ...





Lessons Learned: When going to the snow with kids, bring snow pants for sure! They stay warmer, dryer and cleaner in general. Also, when planning a trip to the snow, prepare for detours in your plan. I really am glad that we found an alternate place to stay, but prepare for the worst case scenario (snowed in or snowed out). Otherwise, make the most of the experience since you never know when you might get another opportunity to play in the snow, especially in Southern California.