A Little Snow Is A Good Thing

Well now, I know I shouldn't have complained so much about the coming storm in my last post. Sorry about that. And as it turns out, the weather guys were wrong! We only had about 4 inches of accumulation which this year is NOTHING! But the kids still had a half day on Thursday and Friday off - so we made the most of our long weekend....

A special lunch with Grams at her residence, in the private dining room....

"The Emilias"

Noah is all about the food - and the fruit punch...

And Grams, she's a simple girl. Just give her the strawberry "Minnie Mouse" and she is happy!

On Saturday, Noah and I had "Date Day" while Emmy and Keith went to an ice skating birthday party. First we went to see Percy Jackson and The Lightening Thief. I highly recommend this movie as a mother/son date movie. And afterwards, he took me to Barnes and Noble to check out the Percy Jackson books. But Thirty Nine Clues wins out right now for Noah.


It is amazing what a good movie, a mocha frappucino and a chocolate chip cookie as big as his head will do to my boy....

Sunday: Brunch, baby.... oh yeah!!

Just look at the excitement.... um, don't we all have our own seat -please!



We trek about 40 minutes to get to this favorite haunt.... Tortilla Press. Why the extra effort?

Maybe because THEY make the extra effort....

Citrusy goodness in their fresh-squeezed (like 3 feet away from the table) orange juice...




Or maybe it's the $6 Sunday Brunch entrees that are eyes-rollin'-into-the-back-of your-head deliciousness:


Noah's ChileQuiles


My Huevos Rancheros (yeah, I did pretty much eat all of that)






Emmy's "Eggs The Way You Like 'Em" - which for her should be titled "Four pieces of crispy bacon and honeyed toast as big as my face"



And Keith's breadfast enchiladas.


I really wish I was more versed in the cooking of this type of food myself!!!






We finished off our weekend with a birthday celebration for this guy:

Happy 73rd Birthday Poppy!!!!

For our family, we can always count on Banana Creme Pie in February. It's been the birthday boy's request for as long as we can remember!!!

My Mother-I-L's Artistry:

Okay. No more snow days. I'm full.

Really?

We were finally starting to see grass again and then some wisecracker weather guy told me to expect another 10 inches today.





Stop the Insanity! I need me some SPRING!

That's My Philosophy!

Well, you didn't think I was going wax philosophically on a deep level, did you? Oh. Well, not today. This was a Christmas present from my dear soul sister, Crystal. She knows me well.

While the bottle says it can be used as a shampoo, shower gel or bubble bath, I've only attempted shower gel as I am very particular about what I put in my hair. That would be because I have taken out a loan to pay my hair dresser. That' all I'm sayin'. I'm sure it works as a fine shampoo. And Bubble Bath.. ahh.. yes, if only there were time, and enough hot water to keep me comfortable... Let's just say that it won't be happening unless my dear hubby lets me pump up the heat above 65 in our home. Maybe mid-summer I'll try it as bubble bath...

I will also say that this particular product makes for a very heavenly shower experience, not that unlike my Hershey Spa experience. So if you can't get to Hershey anytime soon, perhaps you can get your hands on a bottle of this stuff.

It also comes in this flavor:

But I'm partial to the Chocolate Mint Truffle, myself.

And that would be because they forgot to put on the bottle: "tastes as good as it smells!"

Well... SOMEONE had to check...

Putting on My Pollyana

So, several posts down, I made some excuses for why I hadn't been blogging - out of balance, things not quite right, etc., etc. And then I proceeded to show you pictures of parties, and chocolate, and spa treatments. What's the problem, right?

Often, we don't have pictures of the bad stuff that is going on. I don't normally take pictures during intense arguments that Keith and I are having, or the abominable behavior of certain 9 and 8 year olds. Although, maybe I should - it might give pause to some inexcusables.

I didn't have an opportunity to take a picture of Keith's car dying, although I should take a picture of his nightly search on the internet for a new - used- car. It has become such a part of our routine now.

And I didn't take a picture of my Grams in the hospital, when she threatened us with leaving this world for a better one. Although, I should take a picture of her now - back at her residence, playing BINGO!, and attending Valentine's parties.

However, I DID get a picture of Keith and I before leaving for his Annual Company Party. What? You don't recognize that as a bad thing? I must tell you that the Annual Company Party is the most dreaded of all dates in my calendar. More dreaded than MY Annual, if you know what I mean. To say that I hate going would be an understatement.

But at least, in year's past, I've been able to "find the glad" as Pollyana would say, and tried to look at it as an opportunity to get dressed up in my finest and have a lovely dinner with my hubby.

This year however... well, this year, Keith's company threw me a curveball. For the first time in 18 years, the Annual Company Party would have a THEME. And this year's theme, my friends was...

Country Western. Lord help me.

Now, maybe at first blush, this does not seem to be such a bad thing to you. But please take into account that I know no females at Keith's company, I had no one to confer with. No one to discuss unknown clothing faux pas. Keith ASSURED me that everyone was wearing jeans, but I was very wary of this. After years of cocktail gowns and high heels, I am supposed to wear jeans and cowboy boots. I wasn't so sure. So, my yearly high anxiety about the Annual Company Party reached new heights. And you see the smile I'm wearing in that picture? That's Love, right there. Painted on for my cowboy.

Now for the Glad:

It could have been togas.
A collective prayer of thanksgiving is in order here. Amen.

Milton and Me

This is the story of Milton Hershey and me. Do you know Milt? I'm thinkin' you know his chocolate. Why do we have a story together? Well, because we have so much in common. We both love Jesus and chocolate. And I went to his town in January. So, there's that.




Way back in January of 2009, yes - last year - my dear husband, the yang to my yin, gave me as a 40th birthday gift, a weekend at the Hotel Hershey with money to spend at the Hershey Spa. Aahh...

One year later, we still had not ventured off to that chocolatey place. I began to whine just a little. My man made it happen. We descended upon Hershey before the blizzards of 2010 and I found chocolate bliss.

While I'm off at the spa, Keith will take you on a little tour around the cottage where we stayed...

Keith surprised me with chocolate covered strawberries as a little extra gift. Don't they look cute sitting on a bed of jimmies? You don't suppose those jimmies were just for decoration, do you? I sure hope they weren't....they sure tasted like I was supposed to eat them... all.

The room was very luxurious!!!

Bathroom really wasn't too shabby, either. Keith actually took 3 or 4 more shots of the toilet, -must be a guy thing - but I'm sparing you those. Your welcome.

The shower actually had a rain shower head above and two other shower heads on the side walls... heavenly...

We ate at 3 different Hershey restaurants, but I only got pictures at breakfast. Should you ever find yourself in Hershey (which I highly recommend you find yourself at some point) the hotel's restaurant, Harvest, was amazing. I wish I'd had my camera with me for that. Sorry. But here is breakfast at the Circular Dining Room. Also, on my list of places to eat again.

This was our view over-looking the hotel grounds.

We had the buffet, of course. I behaved quite well, I thought.

Well... okay, I almost did. How could I possibly pass up this?

Chocolate Bread Pudding with vanilla creme sauce? Breakfast of Champions I tell ya! Ask anyone on the US Olympic Team. Or not.


Okay, well I tried to do better at lunch. This was the Tuscan Salad at Houlihans, next to the Hershey Museum in the town. It was really quite beautiful, and delicious and I didn't even get dessert. I didn't need to. I had a big ol' dark chocolate Hershey bar in my purse, a small token of thanks from the hotel...

So, that was our Hershey weekend. Well, except for the spa part. I was NOT bringing the camera with me in there! I will tell you that I had a whipped cocoa bath, a rejuvinating facial AND a Cocoa Bean Body Scrub. I highly recommend the last of the three, if you could only pick one. I smelled like chocolate for days. Although, come to think of it, that could have been all the chocolate I was eating....

Thanks for the memories, Milt. You've wooed me. You had me at "cocoa".

I'll be back. The End.

A Good Place To Begin

As if there were not enough calories to take in during the month of December, January brought with it party after party after party. It was my birthday, and Emily's - however, Emmy's was celebrated approximately 8 times.... Even if our birthday cakes were less than traditional, all this partying was such a HUGE problem for me. For my birthday, I insisted on a "cake" that I would not be tempted to eat. Keith purchased grocery store cinnamon rolls, as these have never been a problem for me to say "no" to in the past.... We'll blame it on the time of the month... I ate three. For Emmy's birthday parties, I did a little better, but not much. I was able to pass on the cupcakes and chocolate chip cookie cake with the blue icing, but not my homemade cinnamon rolls which were a part of a brunch that I had for her with Keith's family.

Where's the chocolate you ask? Well, of course there was chocolate in January. I'll tell you all about it - tomorrow.

Coming Up For Air

So where have I been for the past 7 weeks?! Wow. It has been awhile and I have missed writing in this little world of Blog. That is not to say that I haven't thought of blogging. I'm hesitant to admit how many blog posts I have written in my mind in the wee hours of the morning, while standing in the shower and while driving in the car. But I never got those thoughts to paper or screen and they are now mostly gone, lost forever in the mire of thoughts along my perifory.

It has been difficult for me to write or even read other's blogs as I was feeling (and still do to some extent) rather out of balance and whiny and, and, well, fat. Do you get that way? Not fat, but out of joint for reasons you can't quite put a finger on and then have difficulty in even discussing the simple, easy, every day? Well, I do, apparently.

The start of my 2010 wasn't smooth. It was fractured, fragmented, disjointed. Not unhappy, but just not right either. And I couldn't put finger to key until I found my balance again. Since some will argue that I've never been very balanced anyway, I decided to stop waiting. Over the next few days I'll fill in some of the gaps of my time MIA, and then get back to the norm. It's nice to be back.