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March 2010

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  Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson

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Yesterday I decided to get a bit ambitious with our unpacking and organizing.  Andrew was such a doll while I was away and began to organize our boxes (by categories).  I came home to 14 bins in the living room labeled “decorations” . . .  I decided to open all the bins and rediscover the items I just couldn’t live with out .  I now have 7 bins and 4 boxes of Christmas decor.  (Not to mention the 5 bins and 8 boxes up in the attic.) 

Considering our house is so petit, Christmas next year is going to be FESTIVE!!!!

 

I’m exhausted and the week has barely begun. I spent yesterday in the back country of PA, woke up at 4.30am this morning to catch my flight to CA and head to UT tomorrow evening before returning to VA Saturday morning.

CA is beautiful! It’s like I stepped forward a month . . . the trees are all in bloom and the grass is british racing green. Makes me want to relocate here to Napa Valley.

Andrew and I have spent weeks, so far, unpacking, organizing, sorting and discovering. We found a juicer recently (complements of Gma Roan, I think). We tried apple juice today. So insanely good. Here is the left over pulp.

I wasn’t sure what to get Andrew for Valentine’s Day this year . . . As Andrew was updating our Aperture library (new Apple software for his bday present) the answer came. In his mailbox popped a message promising a free Suunto heart monitor (to the earliest responder). A gentleman in the neighborhood had just upgraded and was getting rid of his old one. These bad boys (the older version) retail for $400 on Amazon. So awesome!!! Free cycle to the rescue . . . luckily!

Schools and government have been closed since last Friday. We have amassed more than 40 inches of snow across our yard. With garbage cans nearly buried, walkways barely passable and surges of wind howling all day and night, this has been one amazing storm.

Andrew definately has cabin fever . . . I am enjoying the time to work from home. Sometimes I really hate remote accessibility, though. Would have been awesome to get the entire week off .

Andrew’s birthday is tomorrow and in all likelihood, the federal government will be open . . . only to close again for President’s Day on Monday. The one day I was hoping we could be at home together, Andrew will probably have to go in to the office. Bad job Mother Nature!!!

So we went out to do some shoveling (Andrew) and take some pictures (Shiloh).  I shut the door behind us to keep the cold out. Sadly, it never even crossed my mind to turn the switch on the door to “unlock” . . . Andrew ended up breaking the window pane in the downstairs door to get in. Now we have a boarded-up basement door. Good thing we hadn’t replaced it yet. I guess it’s time to give the neighbors a spare.

During our adventure, we hiked up to 5526 Jacobs to see if we had smartly given them a key. We didn’t find our key but we did get to trek through snow up to our mid-thighs. It’s a workout, just in case you were wondering.  We are living in a winter wonderland for sure!!

This has been the second serious snowstorm of the season.  Andrew and I narrowly missed the first one, so Mother Nature is showing us who’s boss!

Andrew decided to go out and shovel the walks last night . . .  A sisyphean task.  No one would ever know the paths were cleared at 10pm.  The snow is supposed to continue through the afternoon, ending sometime after dark.  I have seen a total of four cars (other than plows) out on the road today.  I also saw one runner with a ski mask and ski goggles.  That’s serious dedication!

I’ve been slacking off for the last couple weeks. I know I owe pictures of our new house and hope to post a couple of rooms in the next few days. We are mostly still living out of boxes in a disaster zone (or as Jonny put it, we are “digging out of a hurricane”).

In the meanwhile, I just couldn’t let all the heroics of the last week pass me by without taking the time to realize what amazing generosity abounds. Wanted to share this story that had me in tears early this morning. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705360693/Haiti-quake-sends-father-on-blessing-filled-odyssey-for-daughter.html?pg=4

As my brother Tay has on his gmail status “if were not going to help in a time like this, we will probably never help . . . http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake“

Although it could have been the candles on the cake, this year for my birthday Andrew hung the chandelier in the dining room. I LOVE it.
The house is coming together. We have officially spent four nights in our home and are still unpacking. Moving takes more time than I ever imagined, but is the best 2010 New Year present. (Side note: Andrew proposed four years ago today!!! Crazy. Seems like yesterday.)
I also realized my bday this year is pretty cool binary code … 011010. Awesome!

Almost back to new.

Andrew cut his head open on the kitchen cabinets.

Andrew and I left for the airport at 5.30am Friday.  By the time we landed in Utah, the snow had started.  24 hours later this is the progress outside.  Flights were cancelled from IAD and DCA nearly all day yesterday.  Good thing we left when we did or we probably wouldn’t have made it to Utah this year.

We heard the snow finally stopped today (Sunday) around 10am.   I wonder what the final accumulation was outside.

*An update to my earlier post titled “Disappearing Act”

Yesterday morning, on my way to work, I received a call from an unknown number and decided to go ahead and pick up the call. It was Mo (the number 2 guy at the original floor place we hired to do our work, back in Oct). He informed me that he had just returned from a 3-week vacation in Morocco and had spent 3 hours that morning listening to VMs on the work phone. He apologized for the delay in getting back to us over the holiday (Thanksgiving) and asked me if I had heard the news. I said “What news” . . . “Hassan died,” he responded.

I couldn’t believe it and am still processing the news (as you can tell). Our floor guy never called us back because he was in a car accident on Nov 29 in Orlando and passed away. I think this ending is much sadder than being out several thousand dollars.

Hassan was the goalie on the Moroccan Olympic soccer team in his youth and is quite famous in Northern Africa and in the DC area. His wife also broke her legs in the car accident. So terribly tragic!!

On my flight to Atlanta I discovered the ring (white gold band) which Andrew gave me when he proposed nearly 4 years ago was no longer on my pinky finger. I’m still struggling to try and figure out what happened.

Cold weather and a heavy bag possibly contributed to the ring slippage. Such a bummer! I searched for the ring the entire flight with no luck.

Yes, we were trying to move in to our new house at the end of November. Unfortunately, the company who we hired to refinish our floors completely vaporized over Thanksgiving. We have had to hire another company, and yes, we have to pay once more. I’m so so soooo upset about it. Hate it! We paid all but 1k to the old floor people (and they had already tried to refinish 2 other times but we had some quality issues they still needed to fix) so for them to just leave us high and dry is pretty lame. Not a great magic trick.

Now we are hoping to move in at the end of December since we are headed to UT Dec 18 and it takes six days to finish the floors. When, oh when, will this saga end?!?!?

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