Bowlin Beige

We've had a lot of snow (and sleet and freezing rain) days this year. The kids have enjoyed several play dates sledding and building snowmen with their neighborhood friends. Parker doesn't have quite the cold endurance that Ainsley has - she would gladly stay outside all day while Parker has about a 90 minute limit in the snow. Here are some of their adventures! Post-sledding lunch with friends. Sledding fun at the babysitter's house. Helping Papa shovel the driveway. Helping Ainsley build a tunnel. She stayed outside working on this until after dark - she was very proud of it!

I will preface this post with saying that Valentine's Day is a stupid holiday. I think it started out okay - a special day to show people that you love them. Except then, like most holidays, Hallmark got ahold of it and turned it into a chocolate-eating, flower-sniffing, pink-and-red-heart-obsessing, let's-think-of-more-ways-to-spend-money kind of day. I'm happy to take the opportunity to tell my family and friends that I care about them. It's an excuse to spend the day doing nice things for people. I don't have a problem with that in theory. But too many people take it to the extreme.Thankfully my DH shares my opinion on this holiday. We spent the first few years together spending a stupid amount of money on a mediocre meal with poor service because we went out on the same night as everyone else. So we have spent the past several years just enjoying dinner out (usually a week before or week after V-Day) and giving each other inappropriately funny  sentimental cards...

Many of you know that I like to read historical fiction. History books? Boring. Romance novels? Monotonous. Mysteries? Predictable. Put them all together into historical fiction and  I feel like I'm learning something worthwhile while enjoying a good story. So if you haven't read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander  series, I highly recommend it. Better yet, if you haven't watched the new Starz TV show that is based on the books, I recommend that even more! Sure, there are now eight novels to the series, plus eleven novellas, a graphic novel, and a few non-fiction references tossed in there. It's a lot - but having read every single one of them (in the past 4 months), I can say they've been very educational as well. Who wants to take a trip to Scotland with me? If you haven't read the books and have a Nook, let me know and I can share them with you. I also have the first two books in paperback (if I ever get them back from the friends who borrowed them...) For those...

Today I attended a memorial celebration for one of my college roommates, Mellissa. After bravely battling cancer for 18 months, she passed away on New Year's Eve. She left behind a husband, two step-children, and loads of family and friends across the U.S. I hadn't seen her in many years; she had moved to Seattle but we managed to keep in touch. Mellissa was part of our 'family' of six color guard girls. We were all inseparable through college and managed to remain friends through the past 17 years. Sure, we've all had our ups and downs, and gone through our life stages at different times or on different coasts. But somehow the six of us have managed to keep up contact over the years, going to weddings, celebrating new babies, and checking in along the way. Mellissa's passing was sudden and sad and a vivid reminder that, even at age 36, cancer can be a temperamental and illogical disease. And so today we went up to Northern Virginia to celebrate her life, most...

Just another lesson that Ainsley wants to share. This week she learned about London!

Ainsley has been learning about China in school the past two weeks (Chinese New Year was Friday).  My DH was traveling and she wanted to tell her what she had learned. Here's the first, in what I assume will be many more, educational videos courtesy of Ainsley.

This year's Christmas was special in so many ways. We were blessed to spend time with so many friends and family. The kids spent the month of December finding Sarah, our Elf on the Shelf, each morning in her new hiding spot. They both helped us decorate our big Christmas tree (and then decorate it a second time after it fell over). Eric's parents came to visit us in Richmond on Christmas day, and then we went to my parent's home in York the weekend after and celebrated with them, and then with my aunts, uncle, cousins and kids. We also had a chance to see some friends over the long break.  Parker still doesn't quite understand Santa, but he was very  excited about opening presents - whether they were his or someone else's! We all had a wonderful Christmas and look forward to a new year.  Elk racks are hung - a great Christmas present from my parents! Opening some gifts from Grandma Camilla! Riding his new scooter! Guitar lessons with Gra...