Cute little Cutie

She is so cute, I know! Already growing so big. Sorry the quality on this video is terrible, but you get the general idea!

The Abominable Snow Shovel

Do you ever have one of those dreams that someone is chasing you, and no matter how hard you try, you just can't shake them? One recurring theme in my nighmares is when I try to call 911, the phone won't work.

It has snowed a ton here, much more than we are used to. We weren't good snow-shovellers to begin with, AND Miguel has had to put in many extra hours at work. Even though the house was a wreck, I tried my hand at shovelling the other day. I was sure I looked awkward (hey, I never do it!) and of course imagtined that all the neighbors were staring at me. And the snow was dang heavy! I had envisioned clearing the whole driveway in a short time by running with the shovel through powdery snow. It was not like that. It was heavy. It hurt my back. I got the steps cleared and about two feet in front of the garage. Then I went inside. To heck with shovelling, this is the pits!

Coincidentally, the next night I had a dream that someone was chasing me and I just couldn't get away. I ran into other people's houses and hid in their closets, borrowed their phones (of couse the phones wouldn't dial 911), and tried escaping my attacker by running out the back door and through neighbors yards as fast as I could. At one point, I ran into a house afert passing a man who was standing in his driveway. After I passed, the man faced off with the "bad guy"-- he squared his shoulders, blocking the walkway, and raised....guess what? A shovel. For some reason, the guy chasing me also had a shovel. They had a pretty nasty fight with those shovels.

It took me a little while to put two and two together. I had a nightmare with a fight involving shovels! I think this is a sign that I should definitely NOT try to shovel the driveway again. I'd better just stay inside my messy house. I'm definitely safe there.

The Latest

We couldn't go to the lake, so the lake came to us!







We were a day away from signing a contract on a house, when someone warned us we were paying too much. We decided to get an appraisal before we signed anything, which angered the owner, who decided to put it on the MLS for 20K MORE than he was asking us! Good and bad-- we got the appraisal back (which we had to fork out some dough for!), and the house was indeed priced about $30-50,000 to high! When we told the owner, he said appraisers don't really know what they are talking about. He's sure his house is worth what he was asking. We said, well, we can only pay what it appraises for and no more and he said...sorry! So, yes, we are sad, but our little investment in an appraisal may be the best return on our money ever! I guess we're out a house, but not the shirt on our backs. And now we get to enjoy the view of the lake from our back windows AND in our basement a little longer!

Two special days recently. The pictures say it all.