Wisdom from my walk

We’ve had a busy day, cleaning and cooking. For dinner I am making, or rather right now the slow cooker is, one of Dean’s favorites, peppered steak. And I made him his red velvet cake too. Added some heart sprinkles since we didnt really celebrate that much for Valentines day, so tonight he’ll have a nice dinner and his favorite cake. I am working on cleaning house still, which is so hard w/ a toddler.

Heres how the cake turned out, not bad if I say so myself!

He did decide to take a break today though. As you can see, the snow is slowly melting, but what is left here on the deck is after we shoveled a lot of it away. We’ve still got moutains of snow surrounding us every which way.

Caleb was acting very lethargic today and was feeling fevered to the touch. We assumed it was due to having so many teeth coming through at once. I gave him some tylenol before lunch time. He ate a little breakfast and ate lunch. Shortly after he threw up two times. So I bathed him and put a diaper and onesie on him, he did not want to get dressed at all. I guess by that point the tylenol kicked in and he was feeling much better. He ran around the house like a crazy baby. I was watching tv and chilling, I have none of that hyper energy if any today. Next thing I know he crawls up next to me says night night and cuddles up in a blanket and is fast asleep. With any luck he’ll stay there long enough for me to shower and rest some myself, and here’s hoping he wakes up w/out a fever and about a normal energy level!

I dont find it too suspicious that I crave chocolate every once in a while but lately I dont know what is going on with me. This past weekend it was strawberry and maraschino cherry cravings, and again yesterday I thought I was going to eat the whole jar of cherries in one sitting. This morning for breakfast I gave in to my craving for pasta seafood, thats right, for breakfast! It wouldnt be so silly if it was an easy craving to fill, but it wasnt like heating up leftovers, I conciously gave in and waited for the pasta to cook and the seafood to saute in butter….mmmm….and now the craving is gone. As if the whole idea was purely ridiculous, and so it sounds. Maybe it’s just cabin fever taking over my body. Dont know and dont care, as long I dont start craving snow! At least if I did we have plenty to fill my need.

We ventured to the grocery store last night needing milk mostly, but ended up w/ tons of other things, guess Dean has cravings for a red velvet cake, so he got the stuff for me to make him one. But the egg and milk were out of stock! Either out of stock or the skeleton staff that actually showed up for work didnt have time to fill the aisles again. It was funny the things they were out of and the things they had. Had fresh Krispy Kreme donuts, but no pancake syrup? I forget the other crazy thing they were out of but it was unbelievable. Naive me thought we’d be ok as long as we could GET to the store, but guess if we cant get there than neither can the trucks or employees. DOH! Blizzards are much more fun when you are a teenager, thats when the last one was, when I was in high school. Funny how you never think how it affects you when you are adult until you are one!

Well hoping to get out for a walk in this 50 degree weather. With the way things are going we’ll either be walking around in shorts soon, or shoveling out more snow, or both!!

Take a look at the extended entry to view pics of us enjoying the Blizzard, it may take a few minutes to load for those of you with dial up. Dean has more pics here!

Caleb looking out at the biggest snow in Baltimore and of his life!

Dean and Caleb looking cute! Our closest neighbors got together and shoveled up the road in front of our houses and this is the pile of snow in front of our house that remained after all the shoveling out!

This is when we had 17 inches of snow….and this is when we had two feet +++ of snow!

After the snow stopped, but before we started digging cars out.

Inside on Thursday:
Making Valentines cookies! For some reason Caleb thought he could bake them on top of the stove not in the oven!
Outside On Monday:
Snow, snow and a heck of a lot more snow!

I am sitting here in the quiet and still of an empty house, finally! Not that I mind having a few extra hands around to help with the house and Caleb, but originally tonight was to be my night out w/ the girls from church and well the blizzard kind of ruined those plans. So after trying several times, Dean, the baby, and my mother in law headed out to find some food and anything other than the walls and rooms of this house! I was going to go despite how sick I feel but as they readied the van a news report showed a nine car accident on the highway right by our house, and the highway is the road that is cleared of the snow! So against my better judgement, they all trekked out, and I wasnt thrilled that my firstborn was going with them but I’ve talked to them several times via cell phone and they seem to be making it okay out there. The main roads are supposed to be ok, its the side streets that will be snow covered for days, until this big rain storm comes later this week that w/ it and the melting snow will cause major flooding. Wohoo! We prepped the basement for that possibility by taking up everything that could get flood damaged except the play room as I am still debating whether that room will get risked or not. So as of today, this record snow of 28.8 inches is now being named the Blizzard of 2003 and the worst snow storm of recorded history in Baltimore going back to 1891!

I commented that we could have lived a few more years as homeowners without needing to learn about how to deal with a blizzard and the melting aftermath but as with us nothing comes easy. Our first year in the house and already this. Lovely. In other news, we are currently without health insurance for God knows how long, and this means next week I will be completely out of meds for my condition. I’ve slowly been weaning myself and lowering the dose so the pills last longer as we cant afford to pay for a refill and I am already feeling the affects. Back is the dizziness, naseaus, spots, not yet any killer headaches but with luck my surgery in December will keep that from happening. I am scared of what will happen without medicine and without being able to go to the dr. I was planning on calling my neurologist this week but no ones been available with the blizzard, I am hoping to give them a call tomorrow to see if I can talk to the dr about what to do. He doesnt yet know that I havent had my follow up or my complete dose of meds, I hate to tell him but when you cant afford it what do you do? Today has been bad. Yesterday was bad. Trying to keep it from Dean which is never a good thing. I never told him til earlier this week that I was dropping my dosage to make the pills last longer becuase I knew he would worry. Now that I will be almost out soon I thought I better prepare him that things might get rough soon. Worst part is I just talked to a lady about a nanny position today. She has an 18 month old little girl and needs a sitter for her all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For me I think of it as a paid playdate! We are to meet with her and her daughter this upcoming Friday(they are stranded somewhere in W.Va and got their messages today from their answering machine and are hoping to be back by then) I hope to talk to my dr before then to discuss options so that that is something I can do. It will mean a friend for Caleb and a little extra cash for us. Both are big pluses.

Will have pics up soon of our wonderland of snow!

On Thursday night my mother in law arrived w/ our nephews and a friend of the family. On Friday Dean took 1/2 a day off of work to spend w/ all of us. We went to lunch as a family then came home and crashed for a long nap. News of a threatening winter storm came our way and we all joked about it thinking people were exaggerating. Dean and I were going to go out Friday night but instead went to the grocery store alone, sad how a trip to the store w/out your kid can be a treat. We got milk and food just in case the weatehr got bad, and apparenlty everyone had the same idea, the milk case at the store was almost empty! When we got back we made chocolate covered strawberries, mmmm! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention for our Valentines dinner we had salmon!! My favorite!

On Saturday we went to the mall for a bit after shoveling some snow, just a little, well a couple of inches. Then we went to lunch w/ the whole family again. Then napped again. Last night Dean and I went to TGIFridays for an appetizer, drinks, and vanilla bean cheesecake. Another favorite! then we came home and crashed. More rumors this time of huge proportions of snow coming our way. We awoke to 7 inches of snow a little before 9 am there is now at least a foot and a half and the snow is not expected to stop falling until sometime tomorrow. It’s been snowing non stop!

We took Caleb out to play a bit but it was way too cold and the snow was still really coming down. Now caleb is napping, grandmom is playing on the puter as am I and Dean is playing GameCube. I already cleaned house and did laundry so we really have nothing aroudn here to do. Hopefully we’ll get some games out and play while caleb naps. Our guests were scheduled to leave tomorrow but as the whole coast and even in Ohio where they would be going back to is covered in snow and/or ice. Its been nice spending time w/ family and getting to know a new friend to the family that came with them. Been very nice having extra hands around w/ Caleb esp as we are getting to be housebound its nice to get a break! well hopefully we wont be stuck here too long but I dont mind! We’ve plenty of treats and love to keep us all happy. Or so we hope!!

Around 8 pm last night it started snowing heavily and continued to until early this morning. I was looking forward to a hot chocolate snow suit filled day with my son and my hubby, but Dean was determined to get to work. I thought for sure 8 inches of snow was enough to convince anyone to stay at home in bed for as long as possible, but guess not. So needless to say, its just Caleb and I and I doubt I’ve enough energy to try to attempt a trek outside with Caleb to play in the snow. I am going to try to get a good nap in this morning so later on he and I can get out.

It was so nice to lay in bed last night and cuddle w/ my honey as we looked out at the snow covered trees and yard. Caleb looks out the window and declares snoweee now. It’s so cute. I’ve got some more pics to put up but I think I’ll work on that later. For now I am going to try to get some rest if Caleb will let me. It’s not been a stressful week but a long and tiring one. I havent had many psuedo tumor symptoms but I am also not feeling 100% either, doesnt help that my sprained ankle got twisted again earlier this week and so it’s been really bothering me this week as well. Off to enjoy a warm bed w/ a cute and cuddly toddler who just wants to watch tv all day! I think I’ve let him do so much too often and now he will stay glued to it way too much but when I am not feeling good its about all I have the energy to let him do. Poor kid. With any luck and much determination on my part we’ll be outside playing later on today.