CJ and Tania

I guess my soon to be sister-in-law was a little offended that she was not included in my blog entry about my trip to Las Vegas and Halloween. So, here I include a picture of her and my brother who just recently got engaged. They are getting married on Feb. 9th and I am really excited for them. Congratulations CJ and Tania!

Sunday Snow Day

Who ever heard of having a snow day from church? I don't think I have ever had one, but last sunday was a great time! We had a big snow storm in MA and as a result they cancelled church and I was able to play outside in the snow instead. It was so much fun. We made a big pile of snow and my cousins and I jumped off the treehouse into the pile of snow. Here are some videos of the jumping. I can't figure out how to get the videos to be right side up, sorry about that.

Keaton trying a flip

Bentley hesitated a little but finally jumped

Cutler gives it a go

My sweet front flip

Ice, what about a blizzard!

Okay, I thought the ice storm was pretty crazy. Well how about a blizzard. I walked out the door today to take my last final of the semester, which I was not as prepared as I needed to be for it, and that is when the craziness of today began. It started snowing. Every school in the state including all the colleges and many businesses closed early due to the bad forcast. My school however decided to be brave and make us all come in and take our last test (at least it's done). Once I got out of my final I knew it was gonna be a bad night. The traffic in Worcester was horrific! I had to go to a home teaching assignment that was 3 blocks from my school and maybe 4 blocks from the parking garage. Any guesses on how long that little drive took? Well, it took almost 50 minutes! Not fun. I tried to get out of the appointment cause I knew the storm would only get worse and the roads would only get worse. I was right. I flew through the visit and was back on the road. Now, usually it takes me about 20 minutes to get home from school. Today it only took 1 hour and 1/2! In a standard! With a foot of snow on the highway in some places! I guess with a mass exodus from the city they couldn't even get the trucks in to plow the highway. There were cars everywhere and the traffic guy on the radio commented, "The road conditions today are as bad as the blizzard of '78." He also said that he was in boston and it had taken him several hours to go 8 blocks! Insane. I guess the MassPike was causing delays of 3-4 hours. The country roads were no better. I was slippin and slidin all over the place in that mix of slush and snow. I have never been more grateful to just be home and not have to leave for awhile. I'm a little grouchy about the winter weather tonight. Maybe tomorrow I will wake up and appreciate it a little more.

Finally finals

Why is it that I always like to blog during finals week??? I wish I could stay focused and just study, but it is nearly impossible. I only have one more test left and then I am done for the semester and I can relax for the holidays. This also means that I am halfway done with my program and only two more semesters left in the classroom with tests. Each day is getting better and better for me!

Ice storm

I have lived in MA for over year now and I have had the opportunity to see an ice storm of two before but never have I appreciated one as I did the other day. I walked out of the house on monday morning at noon to go take my final. I thought that some of the ice would have melted by then. No such luck for me. In fact the moment I took one step on the ice covered driveway I knew I was in for some fun. I slid the whole way down to my car occasionally just saving myself from doing the splits. Once I got to my car, I turned it on and turned on the defrost full-blast and got out my trusty scraper. There was no way I was gonna be scraping this off, it was a thick sheet of ice that covered my entire car! Crazy! I sat in my car for twenty minutes and studied my notes before I tried to scrape again. Scraping was still not an option. But I did discover that I could slowly chip away pieces to clear my windows. Quite a process that I will be prepared for next time. Today I went out there and I found that the ice sheet was slowly coming off the back of my car but its still too cold for it to melt. The result was a sweet wing of ice on the trunk of my car. Maybe it will help me go faster??

Priceless

So this happened a few weeks ago, but I thought I would blog about it anyways cause it makes me laugh. Some friends and I were studying at the hospital across the street from our school in the atrium (a big open room with lots of people walking around and tables where people eat and a small fake garden on one side). We see this lady start taking all these "glamour shots" as if she is a model. But remember this is in the middle of the hospital. She is wearing spandex pants and it is very clear to see that she is wearing silver go-go boots. I was laughing my head off! I had to get a picture of it. Little did she know she would become famous on my blog...

The season

It's after thanksgiving and we are already in the month of December and the first snow has fallen in MA. It is officially the Christmas season by all criteria!! Yeah! I love the Christmas season. I love going downstairs and seeing the Christmas tree and stockings and other decorations. I really like christmas music, although I haven't yet found a radio station that has started to play christmas songs full time yet, so that's a little dissappointing, but I'll get over it. I just like this time of year, that's all