The Return of the Baby Car

In our household we have three vehicles: David's quad cab, the SUV, and what I refer to lovingly as "my little Honda" AKA, the baby car. No one else in my family appreciates this car nearly as much as I do. If given the chance they would all pick either the truck or the SUV to ride in. I find it sad when no one wants to ride in my little Honda. The baby car is in good condition--no bondo or rust spots to be ashamed of--it doesn't make any funny squeally noises that a car of its age might (it's 15 years old) and it still has a lot of getty-up and go left in it. So what is the objection of my family members? Well, they all say they have outgrown the baby car--meaning they all think they are too big to ride in it. Carson can't really say that just yet because for the time being he is still shorter than me (by only about 2 inches), but Katelyn passed me up a year ago and David never really did fit very well in the Honda, especially after I was driving. Anyway, with all the snow that fell at the end of December my little Honda just didn't have enough ground clearance to drive over all of the snow ruts, berms, and drifts. So she had to live in the garage. I was a little sad not being able to drive my little Honda. I missed the feeling of sitting down low and feeling like the car was enveloping me. I missed her sweet little manual transmission and the tight cornering. Finally on Sunday the snow had melted enough from our driveway (before the snowblower arrived I only shoveled enough snow to get the SUV out and therefore had a huge berm behind the Honda's slot in the garage) and my little Honda and I went for a drive! Oh it was wonderful! The baby car and I were out on the road again and all was right with the world. She and I are bonded--it will be a sad day when I have to hand over the keys to Katelyn. Unless...David realizes how special I would feel if he got me another Honda. But this time I want a Honda S2000 (baby blue, hard top please).

A Week in Review

Since from time to time I like to think of this blog as a sort of journaling experience, I wanted to review what occurred during this last week. Monday: Ready, Set, STOP! Even though we were supposed to return to school after our Christmas Break, schools were ordered closed by the county sheriff. That's OK because it gave me a chance to get out and use my new snow-thrower (that's the official name for my snowblower). Tuesday: Next verse, same as the first. A little louder, a little bit worse--schools were closed again. What really sucked was that on Monday I told my friend that I would be at spin--at 4:30 AM thank you very much. I didn't think I could ditch her cuz she is the instruct and I felt duty-bound to show up even though I totally could have slept in. Wednesday: Surely they would re-open schools, but No, they were still closed and crews were brought in to shovel snow off of the roofs. I told my children that if school was closed on Thursday I was just going to take them and drop them off there anyway and I would come back at 3:00 to pick them up. Total empty threat because we live only a few blocks from the middle school and a couple of miles from the high school and the children know that they could walk home. Thursday: FINALLY and hip-hip-hooray! Schools are open! Friday: The best for last. Carson received the Athlete of the Season Award for his outstanding performance this past wrestling season. Saturday: Quiet day, spent sometime doing laundry and running errands. Carson and his dad spent about hour looking at old pictures. Dave discovered that the apple didn't fall from the tree where Carson is concerned. He came up and said, "we found some of my junior high pictures--man, Carson looks almost just like me." Really, honey, I never noticed. Well that wraps up the week for the Graham's. We'll see what adventures this week brings.

Oh How Lovely

In my imagination this is how the morning should have looked...radiant sun, birds singing, bees humming, music ringing through the air. In actuality, everything was pretty good until I looked out the window and what did I see? Mushy brown piles staring back at me. The lovely 60+ inches of snow are finally melting, revealing not only the sleeping plants and grass, but also all of the above-mentioned piles that Josie and Pepper have left all over the backyard. Yet I am determined to find a positive in this, so here's what I have come up with. First, I have 2 indentured servants (um, I mean children) who are needing a job for the weekend. Shovels, bags and buckets are in the garage. Thank you children. Second, at least we are getting a thaw now. Even though it's gross, can you imagine the grossness if we did not get a thaw until late spring? So, there is my silver-lining to this winter thaw that is grossly revealing the downside of having two dogs. Oh and one more positive about the melting snow...I can FINALLY get back outside and run! I've been running on the treadmill for weeks now and I am so done with that! I love being outside running and now I can. Monday, Josie and I are hitting the running trails.

A Little Stir Crazy

Today the children and I were supposed to go back to school. But at about 5 p.m. last night, the county sheriff recommended (or ordered, depending on which newscast you listened to) that schools in Spokane County be closed today. I find it frustrating that he would have made this recommendation prior to the storm even arriving. I guess he was just trying to be proactive in the matter. Anyway, I was looking forward to getting back to school and I think the children were as well, even though they will only grudgingly admit to this. We are all getting a little tired of the walls of the house, but thankfully not each other. However, lest anyone think that my recent foray into "positiveness" has ceased and desisted, let me just say that last night's snowfall gave me another opportunity to go out and use my new toy. Unfortunately I still cannot show you a picture of my new snowblower because technology and I are not the best of friends yet. I received a new camera for Christmas, and even though it is the same model as the one the Josie killed, there have been some upgrades so I can't download pictures as easily. Well now that I don't have to go to work I guess I have some time to read the instruction book so I can download pictures. See, another silver lining to the "no school" cloud. I love my new-found optimism.

It's Finally Here

Finally, it came. I have been trying to wait patiently for over a week--well not so patiently since I called the dealer every day asking if it was in yet. Then yesterday the blessed phone call came, "Mrs. Graham, your snow blower is in, serviced, and ready to be picked up." A joyful "hallelujah" erupted from my throat as soon as a I hung up the phone! It's here, it's here! Yeh, me! David and Carson unloaded it from the truck this morning--we actually picked it up last night, but since there was no snow, we decided to wait until morning to unload it. It's even awesomer since it arrived home. Carson's comment was "This is the smaller one, Mom? Holy cow, it tackled me and Dad as we were taking it out of the truck." I giggled because it really isn't that big--7 hp, 6 forward speeds, two reverse speeds, 24" opening for the snow to be sucked up in. But I am so happy because it's here.