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How an Angry Snowman Made me Happy

Feb 082010

I had been wanting to build a snowman for awhile. Snowpocalypse, round 1 didn’t involve much packing snow by day two and we missed the window in which to build our snowman. So on Saturday, day two of Snowpocalypse, round 2, we bundled up, traipsed outside and began to build a snowman. By we I mean that FireDad began to build a snowman. I just took pictures.

BigBrother helped a bit.

BigBrother Helps

LittleBrother mostly fell down in the snow, cried, got picked up, took two steps and fell down again.

Falling Down

And again.

Again

This was the first time we’ve been able to use the Snowman Kit that we got from one of my Grandpa’s friends during the week of his funeral. In the plastic bag came two black circles for the eyes, an orange carrot-type nose, a yellow pipe for the mouth, three brown circles for the buttons and a black scarf to tie around his neck. All pieces but the scarf were handmade. It’s totally awesome. So, once the pieces were in place, I thought FireDad was done and I took a picture of him with his creation.

FireDad with his Snowman

We went about slipping and sliding and tripping our way through the snow. Then FireDad told me to go look at our snowman. I did. I laughed out loud. Really, I lol-ed in the snow. My awesome husband made me an ANGRY SNOWMAN.

ANGRY SNOWMAN

We’ve been talking lots about Calvin & Hobbes for the past few weeks. Even before Grandpa’s sudden death (for which this particular strip is totally appropriate), we had been talking about rebuilding our Calvin & Hobbes library so that the boys have access to what we both feel is the epitome of comic strip awesomeness. And so with the angry snowman in mind, my husband made my day. Or weekend. But we didn’t bring him to life. Promise.

Win, Win, Win

We did some sledding.

BigBrother LittleBrother

We had a snowball fight. Or two. Or three.

Fight

Laughing

GOT HIM

And, really, despite the fact that we haven’t left the house since Friday and they cancelled not only soccer but church, we really had a wonderful weekend. I mean, with smiles like this, how could it be anything but good?

Big Smiles

I’d be singing a different tune if we had been without power (like my parents and grandmas and some other bloggers I know). I hope everyone was able to be safe and warm this weekend. Let’s hunker down for Round 3, set to begin on Tuesday. (By the way? Despite the cheer of this post, I’m over winter.)

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Cue Cheesy Anniversary Post, And Go!

Living Life 16 Responses »

Dec 182009

On December 18, 2004, I married the man that you all know as FireDad. I didn’t know, then, that he would become FireDad. I just knew that I was marrying the man I knew as my best friend.

Every Time a Bell Rings

There was no way to predict what the future would hold. We didn’t even know as of our wedding day that we would be trying to conceive in short order due to my health issues and the advisement of one of my doctors. We had no idea that one day shy of eleven months later, we’d be welcoming our first son into our family. Or that two years and one week after that we’d welcome another son into our fold. We never would have wanted to imagine the loss we endured between those two dates. Other dates spring to mind and fall away as I sit in awe of all we have and all we are.

He still makes me laugh.

Laughing, Photo Credit: Shutterly Amazing Photography (Don't Use Them)

He still gives me butterflies.

Kiss, Photo Credit: Shutterly Amazing Photography (Don't Use Them)

He’s the glue that keeps me together, keeps our family together.

Family, Photo Credit: Shutterly Amazing Photography (Don't Use Them)

He’s still the man I love.

Us, Photo Credit: Shutterly Amazing Photography (Don't Use Them)

Happy Anniversary, FireDad. Thank you for the past five years. Here’s to fifty-five more.

You Capture: Christmas Flowers, Bells & Firefighters

Holidays, Photography 33 Responses »

Dec 172009

When Beth challenged us to take pictures of our favorite Christmas decorations for this week’s You Capture challenge, I’ll admit that I was bummed. I already did a very detailed photo post of our Fire Tree (please go see it; I promise that it is awesome). I couldn’t figure out what I was going to photograph. Over the week, I took a few pictures and finished it off this morning.

Turns out I have more favorites than I knew. Most with great stories.

Centerpiece

This was the centerpiece in our wedding. That’s right. We had a Christmas themed wedding. Actually, our anniversary is tomorrow. My grandmother did the flowers for our wedding. This centerpiece sat in front of us at the head table. It was gorgeous then and it’s gorgeous every year when I pull it out of our holiday closet, dust it off and situate it on our half wall with the little Christmas trees that were the centerpieces on the guests’ tables.

See?

Centerpieces Together

I added lights for the first time this year, which I’m loving. Though we plan to be in this house for another three years, give or take a Christmas, I hope that our next home has an easy place, like our half wall, to display our centerpieces. Other than our Fire Tree, it really is my favorite part of our decorations.

Next we have our front door which also brings us a gem from our wedding. Maybe your front door has a wreath. Maybe you also have a bell attached to your front door right now. We have… wait for it… two wreaths (small), tied together, made entirely of jingle bells. These were made for the front of the church on our wedding day.

Christmas Bell Wreaths

Love them. I love how they jingle every time the door is opened or closed… even if you’re trying to be oh-so-quiet because you’re carrying a sleeping child in the door. Okay, well, maybe that part isn’t so hot but, otherwise, I love their shiny silver greeting every time I look at our front door. (Ignore the bows. I haven’t re-fluffed them since the wind storm we had last week. They’re a bit… mashed looking.) But, yes, I love the shiny beauty they bring to the door… even if you can see me, with morning hair, in my robe (no socks again! but no snow) on the front porch.

Bells

Finally, the last bit of favoriteness also sits on our front porch. You see, we have a firefighter that sits next to our front door. He guards it, if you will. He stands about hip high. On me, you know, since I’m short. At Christmas time, I take out a bow and wrap it around his neck like a scarf. It’s also another bow related to our wedding. It was some ribbon my mother had purchased to see if I wanted it for anything in the wedding or reception. While I love Christmas, it was a little too Christmas-y for the wedding. But I kept the bow. When we moved into the house and celebrated our first Christmas, I delegated the firefighter to wear the bow. Our front porch is festive and safe. No?

Firefighter

Did you really expect my favorite Christmas decorations to lack something fire related? Never!

And so, there you have it. These are my favorite Christmas decorations in our home, minus our Fire Tree. Though I do have a post coming with all of our Nativity sets. Turns out we have quite a few! (Do they make a firefighter Nativity set? If not, they should.) I’d head over to I Should Be Folding Laundry to view today’s You Capture post if you’re interested in viewing others’ favorites.

The next challenge is YOUR HOLIDAY. Meaning mine, not yours. I’m not showing up to capture your holiday! (A side note, there will be no You Capture next week due to Christmas Eve on Thursday and Christmas on Friday! We’ll be back on December 30th with a smorgasbord of our holiday pictures. Which works well for our family because we’re not celebrating in Pennsylvania with my side of the family until the 28th! WIN!)

Finally, come back tomorrow if you want to hear me blather on about FireDad, our marriage and general awesomeness.

Thirteen Days

Living Life 2 Responses »

Aug 272009

FireDad went back to work yesterday. With the way our vacation fell, he was off from the fire department for a total of 13 days. Thirteen days. Even for our wedding and honeymoon stretch, we’ve never spent thirteen days together. Normally he leaves for the fire department every third day and spends twenty-four hours there, leaving me at home with a bed to myself. I love sleeping next to him but, really, I’ll be honest, that third night? It’s nice.

We made jokes about being sick of each other by the time our thirteen days were up. We laughed and said we’d never make it through a seven day vacation and associated travel, let alone the full thirteen days. But, at the risk of sounding horribly sappy: it was flipping wonderful.

We took walks on the beach. We splashed water at one another. We went shopping without children (which is the benefit of vacationing with extended family). He bought me my first-ever fishing pole which is pink with lights. Then he took me surf-fishing, taught me how to properly cast in the ocean and even let me re-bait my own hook. (I’ve been fishing before but have never owned my own pole. With lights.) We sat on the deck in the evenings, silent and still. We teased and we poked. We laughed and we joked. We spent time with our boys together, taking them to the aquarium. We splashed with them in the ocean. We argued with one another over whether or not to go east or west at one point. (Perhaps I was wrong because I wanted to stay at the beach? Yes?) We learned dorky information about the route home (like the state line between Virginia and West Virginia is inside the East River Tunnel).

And, of course, I took lots of pictures of the two of us.

Us Day 2

Dinner Day

At the Beach

Family Pic Day

(Also: I wear a lot of green because it’s my favorite color. Obviously.)

We don’t have a ton of pictures of ourselves. In fact, the photographer we hired for our family portraits on the beach made sure to get some of the two of us by ourselves because we haven’t had any of that nonsense since we got married! I’m hopeful that they turn out well and that FireDad isn’t making his “I’m Purposefully Trying to Mess Up Your Photo” face. Like this one.

Goof

And so, yesterday came, bringing our vacation days to a final end. FireDad woke up to an alarm, something we didn’t do since we set out on vacation at 3:00 on August 15th. He showered, got ready and came in to give me a kiss. I felt sad as he left, knowing it will be a long time before we have another thirteen days together. I did roll over and snuggle into his pillow, catching a bit of sleep before the boys woke me up. We spent our day without FireDad running errands and doing the school orientation thing. But by dinner time, we simply missed him. So we stopped at the fire department and got some time in with our favorite firefighter.

He came home this morning and we’ve worked our way back into our normal routine. I’m sad that he has to leave us every third day but, really? The bed last night? All to myself? It was good.

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Having returned from vacation this past weekend and not having done the grocery shopping until just this morning (we did a lot of pasta), I have absolutely no pictures of food to share with you for this week’s You Capture theme. We’re lucky we ate. (We also did pizza. And went out for Mexican yesterday. My diet? What diet?) But, as we’re back in our routine now, hopefully I’ll have some pictures for next week’s challenge: Old Signs. Ooh, fun.