Snow Ice Cream!

Yesterday and today have been snow days for me and the kids!  Michigan is in the midst of a "polar vortex," which means LOTS of snow, air temps below zero with wind chills of -36! Brr. So needless to say, even though all three of us love to play outside in the snow, that was just toooooo cold to go outside.  We have been having fun doing art projects, baking, and playing Uno.  However, all three of us were getting more than a little stir crazy this afternoon.  The internet to the rescue! I decided that we should try out this recipe for snow ice cream. 

As you can see, we have plenty of the main ingredient right out of the back door!

Here are all the ingredients: big bowl of fresh snow, 2 cups milk or cream (we did a mix of 1/2 percent milk and half & half creamer), 2 Tblsp vanilla extract (we used yummy Mexican vanilla), 1 cup sugar, 2 adorable and eager helpers. :)

Just mix everything together, and you're done! Easy-peasy, and yummy!

My taste-testers approved. I had to double check them and have some myself though. 

 Bonus photo of my sweet boy.

Godzilla Kitty

This year I was so excited to set up the Christmas village in our house that we had growing up.  Mom had generously passed it along to us at the end of the season last year.  I had a vision for how adorable it would look, right at the top of the stairs, so as soon as you walked into the house you would see our little winter wonderland.  It turns out that our cat, Ozzie, was also very excited about the prospect of a Christmas village in his house.  Within minutes of me setting it all up and plugging in the lights, he was at his post in the middle of town, surveying all that was his and with his mere size intimidating all of the villagers into submission.  This is now his regular hangout.  Who knew that my docile kitty harbors fantasies of being Godzilla???

Snow Day

On February 2nd, we experienced something almost unprecedented--Kalamazoo College had a snow day!! The days leading up to the 2nd were full of dire predictions about "SNOWPOCALYPSE, THE BLIZZARD OF 2011." While there were definitely areas of the Midwest that were hit really hard (like Chicago), the experience here in Kalamazoo was a bit anticlimactic. We got lots of snow, but nothing too extraordinary. However, I'm not complaining, because it got me a free day at home in the middle of the week with my favorite kiddo! It was a very relaxing day.

See, super relaxing, even the cat was content!


My cool dude, about to go cruising in his hot rod.


It's always good to use a snow day to reorganize the cupboards.


The sun came out in the afternoon, so we headed outside to enjoy all the freshly fallen snow!


Snow makes sheepdogs feel sassy.



SO beautiful!

New Deck at the Cottage

This summer Dan and Basil have embarked upon the major project of ripping out and replacing the 38-year-old deck that runs across the front and side of the cottage. When he was up a few weeks ago, Dan helped Basil rip out the section along the side, that had an enormous maple tree growing through it (it was just a small little maple tree when the deck was originally built). In the intervening weeks between visits, Basil had the tree cut down and built the first section of the new deck all by himself--he was a man on a mission! This weekend the two of them worked a lot and got two more sections of the deck torn out and framed. It is going to be so nice when it's finished, as it already looks great!

A shot of the new deck and the old one during the demolition process.

Todd inspecting the support beams of the old deck.

Wow! Rotten! Definitely time for a new structure.

Grandpa and phase one completed of his project!

Nathan and Great Grandma peeking through the window.

Demo

The whole gang getting a status update.

Window into a workday

Ok, so the title of this blog post is slightly misleading, since it's really only once a year that I get to have an ice cream party with a bunch of students as part of my workday, but that tends to be when the camera comes out! Together with my co-workers Maureen and Pat, I help to coordinate, mentor, organize, supervise and rally our group of 225 current students who volunteer for K-Crew, the organization that conducts campus tours, picks visiting students up from the airport and train station, hosts prospective students on overnight campus visits and helps out with all of our group programs. I spend a lot of the year enticing, cajoling and persuading these really busy students to make time in their crazy lives for some volunteer work. At the end of every academic year, we have an appreciation ice cream party for them--one event where we're not asking them for anything! It was a gorgeous day on the quad, and we took some photos.

Not the entire roster, but all of the ice cream party attendees, posing for a picture that will be sent to our incoming first-year students.

Our two student interns (who I also supervise) Jessica and Paige, Pat and me--Maureen was traveling for work and wasn't able to make the party.

Some of my awesome co-workers who came to celebrate, thank the K-Crew members, and eat some ice cream: Ted, Hillary, Emily, Suz, and Ellie (stopping in after school)!

Ellie Ann!

Happy hour

Yesterday was bittersweet. My dear colleague and friend, Jen, is leaving Kalamazoo College! She has been a wonderful friend and a great admission counselor and co-worker. I am sad to see her go, but she's headed off to graduate school, so she's leaving for a great reason! Yesterday after work we celebrated her with a happy hour in the Bell's beer garden. Todd and Nathan joined us, as well as Bryan, Ellie and Gavin. It's so great to have not only a venue, but a group of co-workers that are very open and friendly and excited to see spouses and children join in the celebration.

Nathan absolutely adores Ellie (and she is so good with him!) so between playing with her, exploring the garden, and eating dirt, he was in heaven!

Me and my dirty-faced boy


Nathan, Ellie and Gavin hanging out in the grass

Lunch with Annalee and Miles

I had to make a day trip to East Lansing for work this week, and I made sure to schedule it for Thursday, as that is Annalee's day off of work. After my meeting at the high school I headed over to the Appledorns' house for some lunch, some baby snuggles from Miles and some much-treasured conversation time with Annalee. Miles is such a smart baby--he timed his schedule perfectly so that I got to hang out with him and admire his new drooling, toy-grabbing, squealing and bouncing skills, but he took a nice nap so his mommy could eat lunch with both hands!

Miles loves his jumperoo, as it allows him to bounce up and down while playing with his toys. What a cutie--check out those bright blue eyes and pouty lips. Love it!

Although he has developed many talents, Miles has not yet mastered photography, so I had to make do with a self-portrait of Annalee and I. :)

Saturday night

After dinner, we headed home, and tucked our sleepy little boy into bed. A little while later, Joey and Toby came over, and we all hung out and drank malt liquor! haha. It was great to hang out and talk with Toby and Joey, and it was a funny flashback to our younger days.

The boys drank forties. I had a double deuce.

Inspiration and Decoration

So the combination of the fact that most of the paint in our house is 8 years old, and the fact that I've been watching a lot of HGTV lately has inspired me to begin the process of repainting the rooms in our house. I decided that the main living area was too overwhelming a project to tackle first, so to get a little momentum going, I will be using my Christmas money to re-paint and do some decorating in our bedroom and bathroom.

I had a few ideas swirling around in my head, and yesterday Hillary and I spent an absolutely lovely afternoon immersing ourselves in paint chips, the decor aisle in Michaels, and the bedding sections of Bed, Bath & Beyond and Pottery Barn. Hillary has a great sense of style, knowledge about color and flair for finding bargains, so she was the perfect design consultant! We solidified the color palette, found new bedding and curtains for a crazy good deal, and really enjoyed hanging out in a non-work setting.

Today Todd, Nathan and I headed to Home Depot and purchased the paint. I took everything off the wall and removed all the outlet covers, and Todd did some spackling. So we've started the prep process, and hopefully soon will have freshly painted walls!

I will save all of the details for the final reveal (I told you I'd been watching a lot of HGTV lately!) but here is a teaser--the color palette and my inspiration decor. What do you think?

Now if only the furniture fairy would bestow a new bed and couch upon our household...

Motherhood is glamorous

It is tiring being a working mom--this is proof that I can fall asleep just about anywhere! Ah, the joys of the breast pump...

This is something I never imagined myself doing... and I do it all the time!

Snow Day!

Kalamazoo got the first snowstorm of the year, and it resulted in a snow day for Kalamazoo College! Given that it is our busiest time of the year in Admissions, I still had to work, but I got to do it at home, in my pjs, while my little guy was napping (and I still got way more work done than I would have at the office, go figure).

Last weekend Grandma Nancy gave Nathan some cute holiday pjs and a Christmas decoration that he's allowed to play with. Since he was rockin' the new pjs this morning, I decided that it would be a good time to take some holiday-themed photos. The series did not turn out quite the way I envisioned, but they are a great demonstration of how curious, busy and funny N is right now.

A few shots of our snowy backyard.

Checking out the snowman's nose.

The floor is a much more appropriate place for snowmen.

Hmmm... I appear to be surrounded!

Look! It's a tree! (he's in a phase right now where he points at everything--SO stinkin' cute!!)

Mom, your vision for me posing in my Christmas pjs in front of the beautiful tree with snowmen in my lap was a TERRIBLE idea!

Terrible, I say!

I'm outta here!