It's a Marshmellow world in the winter!

Look closely, our nighbor by the blue car is wearing shorts!
Ruby is learning to see things through rose colored goggles!
Thou shalt not envy! I know you are all jealous of my Jolly Green Giant snow suit! I boughtt it in 1992. It is uglier than sin, but it sure is cozy!
Holy snow Batman! We were hit with a DOOZER of a storm! Tuesday we got six inches of snow. Top that off with freezing sleet through the night, and 4 more inches of snow. This canceled school for 3.25 days! They even canceld IU. This hasn't happend since 1978!

We had a great time on our snow days. We had lots of hot chocolate, went sledding, had snowball fights, snuggled up and read lots of books, played at the Wonderlab, and wore P-Jammies for 3 days! My pictures are out of order, but check out our neighbor who was trying to dig her car out with a garbage can in her SHORTS! When we were done making fun of her, we went and helped her dig her car out. Check out the ice on the windows! We didn't get the ice too bad, many places had over 3 inches of ice! No fun to scrape off your windows!

We are thankful we still have power. Many of the surrounding states won't have it until MID FEBRUARY!!!

Snow Kidding

This picture totally cracks me up. Cooper stuck his goggled eyes in the snow, I think he thought it would be like the swimming pool.

I kept mocking our "snow" and now Mother Nature is getting her revenge! We are now on day 2 of school being closed. We have 6 inches already and are supposed to get a few more. The roads are a MESS!

They even canceled IU so Matt has the day off! He is exhausted from stress. He just finished his 5th interview in a week! I am so proud of him. It will be exciting to see where we end up for the summer!

Nada Lotta going on...

• Life is pretty slow here at the Rich household.
  
• Matt is back in school and he is crazy busy. We don't see much of him lately.
• The temperature got in the 40's! Big jump from last week!
• No school delays this week.
• Got some great stuff at GoodWill today!
• Got free stuff at Bath and Bodyworks today (if you want some to, click on coupon cravings until you see the Bath & Bodyworks coupon)
• Today I laughed so hard I cried because Ruby couldn't get her pants off :)
  

"ARTIC INVASION!!!"

I had no idea how cold "cold" really is! School has been delayed 2 hours for the past 2 days due to the cold. If you go to the weather.com and click on Bloomington this is what you will get!

... WIND CHILL ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 PM EST FRIDAY...

A WIND CHILL ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 PM EST FRIDAY WITH WIND CHILLS TO 15 BELOW ZERO AT TIMES.

A WIND CHILL ADVISORY MEANS THAT VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS WILL COMBINE TO GENERATE LOW WIND CHILLS. THIS WILL RESULT IN FROST BITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN. IF YOU MUST VENTURE OUTDOORS... MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A HAT AND GLOVES.

We ventured out to our porch and blew bubbles! It was the coolest thing ever, THEY FREEZE! I am thankful that I now have feeling in my bubble wand holding fingers! If you are outside for more than 2 minutes, your bugars will freeze!

I thew a wet towl on the floor by my washer which is located by a window and it is above the garage. The towl was frozen to my kitchen floor!! The rest of my house is 70. This is crazy cold! It stings your nose and bites your toes!

Grapefruit Goggles

Everytime we eat grapefruit I tell my kids how my mom would joke about wearing grapefruit goggles so you didn't get squirted in the eye. Cooper got new goggles for Christmas and will randomly wear them around the house. As he was wearing them (which I don't even notice anymore) he asked for a grapefruit. It worked! No citrus eye sting!!! Check out my favorite grapefruit spoon or spife (sereated spoon).

Come Alive, I'm 35!!!

Tuesday at 12:03pm I turned 35! It cracks me up how birthdays are so fun when you are a kid and somehow the morph when you are a mom. Matt was out of town for the big day so he took me out to Burmese food the Saturday before. YUMM. We had starfruit shakes that were to die for!

I asked my kids how we should celebrate the big day. Ruby suggested jumping on the bed and playing hide and go seek. Of course Cooper's suggestion was fighting with light sabers. I walked Ruby to the bus stop only to find out that there was a 2 hour delay because of freezing rain! Since we had an extra 2 hours we started celebrating big time. You guessed it, I JUMPED ON MY BED, played hide and go seek, and dueled with light sabers!

My darling friend Jedda took me to Mother Bears Pizza, Yum! Then we headed over to my favorite store Good Will for some great finds. The big hit was the Pooping Santa Candy Dispenser!

I decided that I was going to make me a fancy birthday dinner. I got out the red "You are Special" plate and goblets. I made my favorite chicken divan which Ruby has renamed "chicken divine" and had her make me a delicious pistachio bundt cake. In the middle of the prep, my cute friend Leslie brought me a cake! The funniest part was when I had the kids go around the table and tell me their favorite things about ME! Hey, a tradition is a tradition!

Thanks for all the calls, cards, and facebook posts! I feel very loved (even if I have to suggest my kids tell me why they love me)!

Merry Christmas!

This was our first Christmas just the 4 of us. It was reallly fun to just do our own thing. Ruby made the perfect Mary for our Christmas pagent.
I love watching my kids faces as they open presents! Notice Coop is sportin a new super hero outfit! We opened presents and packed our car for a "quick" 10 hour drive to Alexandria, Virgina. There is nothing quick about that drive! We made it by midnight to spend Christmas night at my brothers house. It was so good to be with family! There is nothing like a hug from my dad for Christmas!
We spent our first day with my dad and nephew in D.C.. My kids loved the metro but did not love the museums. Matt and Cooper invented a new game where Matt made a bridge with his body. Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny.
This picture totally cracks me up! We were eating at the Air and Space museum with Papa and the kids were really grumpy for pictures so I told them to make a crazy face. Little did I know it was just my dad and me in the picture. I love my dads shark smile!
Nick was married in the D.C. temple. It was beautiful. I really miss having temples so close by. 2 of my nephews have been married and a third is engaged. Crazy to think that I will be a GREAT AUNT in the near future!! Aren't great aunts supposed to wear Depends and have whiskers on their chins?




Our last day, we spent at the Baltimore Aquarium. I LOVE Baltimore! All the cousins had a blast hanging out together. My favorite part was watching my brother get SOAKED in the dolphin show! Sure glad I didn't sit in the "Splash Zone" :)

It was great to be with family! The bad thing about getting together is saying goodbye. There is nothing worse than seeing my daddy's eyes fill up with tears!

What a great trip! Thanks Eric and Cathleen for letting us crash at your house! It sure feels good to be back home!