And so it ends............

Today, the final day of Christmas vacation. You cannot see, but I am here, in my bathrobe, jumping with joy. It has been 16 days of time well spent with my boys. It has been a good vacation, a good holiday and now I am ready to greet the bus driver tomorrow morning. The excitement of new toys has wore off and we have moved into; "Mommmm, I'm bored". I hope the bus driver doesn't think I have totally flipped my lid if I greet him with a big hug tomorrow!

The picture I have added here is of my front yard, where you can see the snowman family the boys and I built. The poor things have taken a beating. We have had warm temps, then freezing, then inches of snow, some sleat and rain, with that process repeated over and over. They kind of look how I feel. When my folks were here my Dad found great amusement in the fact that each snowman had a carrot, almost a foot long, for a nose. I usually only buy the baby carrots and when I made a special trip to the grocery store so our snowmen would be complete with noses I bought the regular bag of carrots. I don't think my boys have ever had carrots like this and they were pumped!! Yes, it is the small things that make life fun! So we have four snowmen with giant, wilted noses that greet you when you come to visit us. They are overlooking our driveway. The driveway. UGH. Since the Mad Scientist has been busy putting many hours in at his job it has become my job to rid the driveway of snow. Yes, at 44 years of age, for the first time in my life, I have now taken over the snow blower. It is a battle that I don't take lightly. Since, after all this is Minnesota and it seems that the snow has been falling at least every other day. Somewhere I have read, 79 or so more days until spring. C'mon Mother nature, bring it on!! I am so ready. I am anxious to see our new homestead in the spring with the trees and grass green. Then I will be here to write about (complain) the mud, the grass cutting chore and planting flowers! Now, it is just a dream and I am spending time gazing out the windows mentally planning what I will plant and where.

I have been doing my best to get along with ole Mother Nature. I have taken time to go out exploring in the woods with the boys. On Christmas day we made a family trek through our land, in snow that when I stepped was up past my knees. Not so easy for my little TanMan. His little legs are short and it is hard work for an adult even. It was fun though and we even walked through the frozen swamp, guessing what animals would live where in natures habitat. At some point the Mad-Sci and TDog got way ahead of the TanMan and me. Those two go like crazy men through the woods. I took my time and listened to TanMan complain about his tired little legs. By being the slowpokes, we were able to find deer tracks, turkey tracks and tons of bunny tracks. Somewhere along the line we found a clearing in the woods and we both sat down for a break. It really was an awesome spot, with the sun shining through onto completely untouched land. It was then I had the great idea to make snow angels. I told TanMan, only the wild animals would ever see our snow angels and wouldn't that be cool. Whatever, Mom can you carry me is how I believe he replied. But my mind was made up and I flopped in the perfect snow to make my snow angel. It was then that I became very worried. While I laid flat on my back making the perfect snow angel I felt a pain I had not expected. Yep, way up there in my groin area I felt something pull. Ouch.....the snow was deep and apparently I am out of shape and trying to push all of that snow is a lot more work than I recall. It was a long journey back to the house. Old Man Winter is giving me a run for my money. I am not giving up easy though and 79 days til spring really isn't that long.

Now only 22 hours until I see the shining bright lights of the big yellow bus coming down the road. And then the old battle of dragging TDog out of his bed and pushing him into the shower starts over. Only 5 more months until summer vacation!!!