More fun in the Snow

Well, the snow continued to fall overnight and we woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland. The kids had their first snow day and Shawn was given the morning off (if he wasn't to be on duty, he would have been given the whole day). So after breakfast, we took the kids out to enjoy the snow.

This is looking at the outside of where we enter our house.

This is the view from the play park that is just behind our house.
This is the front of our house. We share our house with the Post Office which our landlord owns and runs. We have the whole upstairs (5 bedrooms) and half of the downstairs. The house would be absolutely humongous if the Post Office didn't take up so much. As you can see, at 9:00 am the road is still completely covered. Cornwall only gets a snow like this maybe once every 3 years so they don't have the equiptment to clear the roads.

Here is the town church and cemetary.

Natalie making a snow angel.

Robbie's snow angel.

Mmmm, snow tastes good!

Shawn building a snowman!

Finished product.

Sadly, all of the snow is gone from the roads and it's warming up and melting. However, they are calling for cold temperatures this evening and overnight so tomorrow is likely to be a nightmare with ice on the roads. Thankfully, there is nowhere we need to go that we can't walk to.

Cornish Snow

Ok, so some of you who live in the US and Canada that get snow on a regular basis are probably going to laugh at this, but it's really significant to us.

Shawn and I were both born and bred in the Midwest, Shawn in Illinois and I in Ohio. We met and were married in Virginia. We grew up with snow and the winter after we were married, Virginia had a few really good snowfalls. Then we were transferred to Naples Italy in 2002. Well, didn't see snow at all while we were there except for when we came home to visit just after Natalie was born in November 2003. Then we came over here to the UK. Well some parts of the UK get snow regularly, but Cornwall very rarely gets a significant snowfall. We've had snow 2 previous times since we moved here in 2006, but it melted just as quickly as it fell so this is a real big deal for us. Natalie has no memory of the last snow she saw and Robbie has NEVER seen snow up close and personal so they were so excited! What is funny is that Shawn and I were out shopping today when the snow started and we were confused by it. Then we started our drive home after getting a bite to eat and fueling up the car. Seriously, if we had left to start home just 5 minutes later, we would have been in some serious trouble. We pull up to the school to pick the kids up on the way home and the roads are still really clear but there is a dusting of snow on the sidewalks and grass. We walk to Robbie's class to pick him up and it's still just flurries, then we walk to Natalie's class to pick her up and all of a sudden it's looking like a blizzard. I've not seen snow like this in forever! By the time we get back to the car not even 5 minutes later, the road is covered and there is an inch on the car. The 1/2 mile drive to the house was very interesting. The Cornish don't have a clue what to do in this kind of snow! What is usually a 2 minute drive turned into almost 15. Once we were safely at home, we let the kids play! Robbie was obsessed with making and throwing snowballs. It was so nice to share this with them and it was even better that Shawn was home too so we could play. The snow now has been scattered but there is about 2-3 inches right now and our little town is at a stand still (child's play I tell you, but when you only get 1 snowfall like this about every 3 years you don't get used to it like us Midwesterners!). Our usually busy street is really quiet and abandoned. Now we are snuggling down for the evening and we are about to have some yummy hot chocolate!

View from the front of our house about 4:00 PM.

Natalie catching snowflakes on her tounge.Robbie coming at me with a snowball.
Shawn enjoying the snow (sorry no pics of me, I was the one taking all the pictures!)

34 Weeks

Whew, the final stretch! It seems like this pregnancy has flown by. I remember thinking during the last 2 times I did this that the time seemed to pass so slowly. I have been keeping myself a lot busier this time and I have to walk 3 miles a day to take kids to school so our daily routine has been helping pass the time. I am starting to get anxious now thinking of all that needs organized, but in actuality, I am way ahead of the game.


Provided that the ultrasound we had is correct and this is in fact a girl, I have all the clothes washed and put neatly in drawers. I've ordered the gdiapers and have a few weeks of those (still need to get some backup disposables in case this little nudger is small) and they are organized and in the changing table. I've made lists of what needs packed for the hospital for me and the baby and we are going to pack a bag for the kids as well. We have the car seat and stroller all ready and accessible. We have the swing, pack and play and bassinet all set up. Next Sunday my friends are throwing me a baby shower. I have my birthplan all typed out and with my stuff. I still have loads of time!


Anyway, here is my latest picture...

A Natalie Funny

I meant to post this earlier but kept forgetting.

We were sitting down do dinner the other night and I had already dished out the plates and had them ready on the placemats. Well Robbie starts to dig right in and doesn't way for the blessing. Natalie offered to give the prayer and I asked her to ask a blessing on what Robbie already ate.

So this is Natalie's prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for this food and bless it to nourish and strengthen our bodies and please bless that Robbie doesn't CHOKE! I say these things..."

It was so hard to not crack up right in the middle of her prayer. The way she said it was almost funnier than what she said, with attitude and sincerity all at the same time.

Anyway, my kids are always coming up with silly things they do and say and if I don't start writing them down, I know I am going to forget them!

I found the coolest diapers

It almost makes me more excited for baby Penelope to get here so I can try them out! I've been contemplating for a while changing over to cloth this time around and while I was doing my research on which kinds to use, I came across a friend of a friend's blog and found these...



These are called gdiapers and they are a hybrid between cloth and disposables. I know how I am and I NEED something that is going to be convenient but I hate that we've thrown so many diapers in the garbage over the last 5 years (probably close to 12,000)! Americans put over 20 billion disposable diapers in the landfill every year and it takes 500 years for those diapers to decompose. Gdiapers are great because the dirty liners can be flushed or composted (well the wet ones can be composted), and if you do have to throw them away, they only take 50-150 days to decompose as opposed to 500 years. This saves on washing which uses up a lot of water and energy with traditional cloth diapers.


What sold me though is that in this friend of a friend's blog, the poster mentioned that her sweet son has had severe diaper rashes for almost the whole 1st year of his life and the last one contributed to a 2 day quarantined hospital stay for MRSA. Since switching to the gdiapers, they had only had one major diaper rash.


I am seriously wishing I had heard of these before and could have been using them sooner. I may even get Robbie a set to wear at night until he is dry completely through the night.


Anyway, here is a link to the website... http://www.gdiapers.com/. Go see for yourself how cool they are, and they are cute too!

Dad's Yummy, Fresh, Homebaked Bread

A year ago for Christmas, Shawn got me one of those fancy and expensive Kitchen Aid Stand Mixers. I wanted one because it was my intention to bake more and we could have yummy fresh bread. Well, I've used the mixer for pie pastry, pizza crust, cakes, and cookies but I have yet to bake bread. I just found the whole thought of it totally too overwhelming and didn't want the mess to clean up when I was done so I kept making excuses why I couldn't be bothered.

Well just after Thanksgiving (when I used the mixer for something, I think pumpkin pie), Shawn decided that he wanted to give it a go and bake bread. I was grumpy at first because in my mind I am thinking, "Yeah, you go and bake bread and it will be a disaster and I will have a HUGE mess to clean up and I'm just going to resent you!" So I begged him to wait. A couple of days later he asked again. This time I told him he was welcome to bake bread, but I was NOT going to clean up after him and if he ever wanted to be given permission to EVER do it again, I had better have nothing to clean up afterwards. It seems like I am always feeling like I am being punished whenever he is given free reign of the kitchen. So he started with an easy recipe that you put in the refrigerator overnight to rise. It was the recipe recommended in the instruction book that came with the mixer. It turned out to be pretty good. Well, we haven't had store bought bread since. Shawn has been quite the baker and he is graduating onto more ambitious recipes, such as this beautiful loaf you see below which is whole wheat. It's made using wheat that we ground ourselves. This is by far the best tasting he's made so far and look at how beautiful it turned out! I am so proud of him! He's even made yummy dinner rolls and the best homemade pizza crust I've ever had. Maybe he's found his true calling in life? Oh, and I have yet to have to clean up a mess as a result of his baking adventures, everyone is a winner.

30 Weeks!

Never before in my two previous pregnancies have I felt like I had the beach ball syndrome. When I got pregnant with Natalie I weighed 220 pounds and I weighed 190 when I went to deliver, and at the end of the pregnancy, I just felt like I looked fat. Then when I got pregnant with Robbie, I was back up to 206 and again weighed 190 when I went to deliver and felt the same way, just fat.

This time around I started out the pregnancy at about 185 and right now I weigh about 160ish, I've taken most of the weight off in the first trimester and I only put on 2 pounds from my 16 week and 28 week midwife appointments. If I look in the mirror front on, I am feeling pretty good about myself and you can barely tell I'm pregnant and from the side, you can definitely tell it's all baby. I can actually see my collarbones again and I haven't been able to see those in about 7 years and my legs aren't rubbing together when I walk anymore! I just hope and pray that I am able to keep the weight from coming back on after little Penelope comes. I'll just have to keep up the increased activity! Natalie's school is 1/2 mile away and we walk so I've been walking 2 miles a day and starting Tuesday I'll have to make the trip 3 times a day as Robbie starts afternoon preschool. I wonder if this will help at all during labor? We shall see in about 10 weeks!