Evening News

Evening begins to fall here in B'more and the Passey news bureau brings you: Jam falls asleep much to the blogging pleasure of his mother who was able to post many belated posts due to his sleeping. However she realizes that this angelic picture will likely yield an ornery bedtime monster. Tough mommy decisions. What a beautiful sleep it was!

Also notice the change in the snow from morning til night here in lovely Towson. Lots of melt, NO added snow, and no flooding but lots of neighbor bonding occurred over full shovels of the slushy stuff as everyone rushed to clear their spots out.

The kids still have Friday off of school and I remembered today they have Monday off for President's day. Grr. What to do? When was the last time they went to school anyway? I vaguely recall them having 2 hr early release LAST Friday? Let's hope the snow expected on Tuesday doesn't come early and cancel more school!

More news another lazy afternoon in the future. . .

Is post-dating your blog posts cheating?

I don't know if I can keep up with a blog and the scrapbooks....this might be the only way. Already I am struggling with remembering the what and when of the pics and everything I forgot to take pics of....Am I cheating? Its for a good reason, right?
Enjoy what I should have posted the past two months!

Have you ever been this happy to see the sun?

Some of you may have heard about the record snowfall here on the Atlantic seaboard. Yes, last I heard BWI recorded 79.9inches for the winter ** so far**. I can't remember ever having been so happy to see the snow go and the sun come up! It really has been a beautiful day! I was dug out by 11:30 and on a run to Dunkin Donuts for James and Jaren mostly. The snow at the very bottom of the picture is a pile between our porches - easily five feet tall. Last Thursday my front yard was grass and I was unsure if I could stand moving to the land of forever summer - LA.

LA-here I come!

After taking this photo and a few other at 6:40 this morning (another story all together) I came in and took these last two - beautiful - a rival for the sunrise, for sure.



My "roommate" while my spouse is out of town - especially cute when asleep - even after wrestling him most of the night. I have to say though that he has a cold and his room is colder than my bed. I guess he has an excuse?
Just before the smile - one of my favorite moments of the day if it is after 6:30am - just waking Cob.

Just a cute pic of Cob

Don't you just love those blue eyes? With his brown hair? We sure do! 5 1/2 months. I can hardly believe it has been so long, yet it seems like summer was ages ago!

Snow-pocalypse?

Yes, we are expecting what was originally 4-6 inches and has ballooned to 10-20 inches of snow and my spouse is headed out of town to sunny LA. Before he left though we had to clear out the blizzard of '10 to make way for snow-pocalypse as they have dubbed it.

This is the first pic - we couldn't get the door open! No, it wasn't drifted either!

Here are some photos of our fun. I remember watching the East dig out via the news when we were in Texas. I never understood what the big deal was and I repent - NOW. See, here we don't all have garages or driveways. You are privileged if you do have both, but it is a special feature if you even have a parking pad out back! So most of us are parked on the street and you all back West know what it's like to dig out your inturn after the snowplow! Imagine this:

Jar had to dig out the dog, by going out the front around the block to the back yard to clear the backdoor! Poor dog - poor cold Jar.

This is the snow in the back yard and yes, the garbage can is sitting in 2 ft of snow and the snow on top is fresh and at this point it is still coming down.

Evan Jam likes to "help" dig out after the storm.


Jaren spent more time playing than helping -his friend made mention of how much time he has to be an excellent engineer (this is the same kid who find Jar can never play because he has too much homework). Apparently he can focus on something!


A pretty front yard - from across the street at dusk. Can you find the van? You can see even less of it from the front door! And the snow is blown under it completely....aaarrrggghhhh! Good thing my husband shovels the snow!

Sugar rocks, snow rocks, whatever - as long as it isn't yellow!

Whew! Time to call it quits until tomorrow!

Not time to quit playing apparently. Jar's crowning achievement of the day was the tunnel in the front yard. It was only about 5 feet long, but enough to play groundhog - oh, yeah! 6 more weeks of winter. Thanks Phil!

Oh and no church tomorrow - such a strange feeling - second time in my life. Last time was the blizzard of 2009 - Dec 19-ish.

More News. . .

Some of you may have heard about Black & Decker being bought by Stanley Tools? It is a truth. Luckily it appears that we would still have a job here, but we are even more blessed than that! There was a fabulous opportunity that came up - exactly what he was looking for - in LA as controller of a company B&D is purchasing. He is really excited about it. So the other news? Oh, yeah, we're moving to the LA area sometime this spring or summer. That's the hard part...waiting patiently until the ball starts rolling or until I get to start juggling them. For now, we are waiting as he prepares to go out of town; only one week this month, but then we aren't so sure when he will be in town.

So I get to leave B'more? There are days that I am excited about it and others, like when it snows and freezes up the reservior and coats the trees in a dusting of white diamonds and the sky is so clear and blue that I have those pangs of regret. I will miss the snow, LR Reservoir, my new toilet, FALL - definitely miss fall here, and the people. Having my husband home for lunch most days of the week - stopping in to take him out. That I will miss. I might miss Jar's orchestra teachers at school and the program they run so well. I don't think I took the time to take stock in what I would miss as I contemplated leaving Houston - maybe I did, hmmm.

LA has lots to offer - nice weather, earthquakes, fire, hail, mudslides, summer all the time, smog, pollen all year round, BIG houses if you live far enough out, real football, smaller area wards and chiefly - closer to home and only one time zone away! I didn't even mention Disneyland - I'm a DW girl.

So we are working on the house when we can, trying not to let the stress boil over, and figuring out just what else we want to do before we fly away for good.

• Ft. McHenry
• one more NYC trip (with or without the kids???)
• Assateague or Chincoteague island
• rest of the Smithsonian
• beach week - outer banks, SC?
• Palmyra & Kirtland (maybe on the way?)
• Gettysburgh & Antietam
• Monticello
• DisneyWorld - do I even ask?
  

Do I try to throw in a genealogy trip or two? Probably don't have the time.

What do you miss? What would you most want to do back here?