Uhhmm...Snow, Snow Baby?!

Everyone loves a one-upper, right? Well, looks like Texas weather is honing its one-upping skills this week. Three days of temps in the teens and a solid sheet of ice over everything? Oh yeah? Well, how about 5-6 inches of snow on top of that?

Yep, for the second year in a row, we have snow, and lots of it! This time it's on Super Bowl weekend...when the Super Bowl is HERE! Guess we wanted to make sure the Steelers and the Packers didn't get homesick.

Here is what our front porch looks like today - scroll down to yesterday's post to see the icy version of this same shot:



And here are some more pics Jeff took when he ventured out this morning (WISH I could have gone out...but sadly my walking boot does not double as a snow boot).

Ice Ice Baby

It's TOO COLD in Dallas right now...we are having a very uncharacteristic cold spell right now, with temps well below freezing (in the teens with wind chills in the single digits and below zero)! Since Tuesday morning, every outdoor surface has looked like this:



Which is exactly why I've only left the house once in 3 days! The slick surfaces plus my bum ankle and walking boot do not make for a fun journey outside! Jeff had to hold both my hands yesterday to help me get to the car without an epic fall on our slippery stairs and driveway.

Oh yeah, by the way, this is what I've been wearing for the last 2 weeks - I haven't blogged about it yet:



I sprained my ankle really badly in a Zumba class at my gym...ugh, loser! I should have taken pics of it when I first did it - the swelling was huge and the whole side of my foot was black and purple. I can hopefully start physical therapy next week and get it back to normal as quickly as possible. I guess it's a good thing I am not working on a contract job right now...not sure how well I would fare walking across icy parking lots! So this week, I've just been hanging out at home with Bella, who protects herself from the cold by sleeping in a tiny rolled-up ball, like this:



Notice how she has her arm over her eyes to block out the light - what a diva!

I hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying some days off from school and work! Stay safe on the roads!

Easter Weekend

My parents came in to visit us for Easter weekend, and we got some quality family time. They are definitely not ones to sit idly around, so we got a TON of work done to the yard. Jeff and I have been wanting to do a long day of yard work for months, but we lacked the motivation to get it started by ourselves. So my parents came to the rescue, and all four of us worked hard for at least 7 hours yesterday. We cleaned out all the dead leaves from the flowerbeds, trimmed bushes, planted a few flowers, raked the dead thatched layer of grass from the yard, and filled in low spots with topsoil. It looks amazingly better - I'll post some pics soon when I finish planting the rest of the flowers.

Today we cooked a big Easter lunch before they headed home. I was able to log at least 4 new recipes that I'll add to my Six Degrees blog posts. We had ham, 3-cheese mac & cheese, fruit salad, homemade yeast rolls, asparagus, and a carrot cake with cream cheese icing for dessert.






YUM! But now I am too full and can't manage to get off the couch. But when and if I do get off the couch, I should go work out because I probably gained 5 lbs this weekend!

Decorating for Christmas

Last night we put up the tree in our big front window...isn't it lovely?



Our tree is 9 feet tall and VERY heavy! We got it two years ago at Target about a week before Christmas. It was the floor model, so we got it for only $60 since it had been used as a display and came without a box!! It has some minor issues, such as a few strings of its pre-wired lights that refuse to come on, but considering how cheap it was, we think it's pretty awesome! It took both Jeff and I to haul it into the house. We had to go down the driveway with it and through the front door so we didn't have to dodge furniture. Bella was very excited for the tree to come out; she likes to snuggle up under it and pretend she is in the wilderness. As soon as we took the tree out of its storage bag and before we could even put on the tree skirt, she crawled under it!



Today we're going to put lights on the outside of our house for the first time. We'll have to borrow our neighbors' extension ladder because our Tudor-style roofline is pretty tall and steep. Hopefully we won't have any Chevy Chase-like moments...at least the roof isn't icy! It's actually so warm that we will probably be wearing short sleeves - some Christmas weather!