snow daze

it snowed in atlanta on sunday night. a lot. (by GA standards. i know, boston is getting a foot, blah blah blah. they have more snow plows than we do so i don't want to hear it. my entire county has two snow plows. two!)

on monday morning my street was snowy, icy, & unsalted. (it still is)

i think we got 3-4 inches of snow. i also think they are letting us off work one day for every inch of snow.

at least it was enough for the neighbor to make a cool snow sculpture

as fun as it has been, i'm looking forward to seeing some sun soon

gullible

remember how Niece #1 wanted to throw a snowball at Boy? as he was leaving to get released, we went out to have our snowball "fight." he was wearing his suit so he mostly hid in the garage and used a broom to hit away her feeble attempts. after i got tired of making snowballs for her, she unsuccessfully tried tossing handfuls of snow at him.

our little future lawyer

eventually she realized she was never going to hit him so she tried a different tactic:

Uncle, i want to show you something!

[Boy peeking tentatively around the corner] don't hit me with a snowball

i won't. i won't!

[Boy finally comes out, lets her come right up to him, and bends over. she throws the entire pile of snow in her hands into his face/eyes]

arghh! i can't believe she did that!

[much laughter from everyone other than Boy]

she lied to me!

no i didn't! it wasn't a snowball - it was a pile of snow!

he should have known better.

for the record

i applied to PhD programs in Biostatistics at Emory, Harvard, Boston U, Minnesota, & Washington. i'll hear back around March. i want to study how diseases move geographically.

i am so tired of saying these sentences.

winter holiday by the numbers

days i spent in k-town: 12

bedrooms i slept in as various family member came & went: 3

days i got dressed after noon: 9

girls in my parents house: 7

boys: 3

consecutive hours i was forced to look at pictures/videos from Albania: 2

number of times i fell asleep during PictureFest: 1

toy toilets we have: 1

days the twins fought over the toy toilet: 7

days the twins were here: 7

times one of the twins took off their diaper and flung feces around the room during nap time: 3

times i helped clean it up: 0

where i ranked on Brooke, Jr.'s "People I Like" list: 3 (following her mom and grandma. her dad got #4)

times i cooked for myself: 1

times i did the dishes: 0

hobbies

everyone needs them, these activities one does just for enjoyment. unfortunately, my 3 nieces' favorite hobby is running all the way across the house screaming, "whoooooaaaaa" at 7am, giggling, & running back. and, they like to start in the room directly above the one i'm sleeping in. so that's fun.

"let's figure out how to make more noise!"

happy christmas

this christmas might have to replace mission christmas #2 as the best christmas ever. on christmas eve i was annoyed all day b/c my older sister had called earlier in the week and said they might come down early to beat the snow, but then they decided not to (this year was the other grandparents year for christmas). i was containing my boredom by watching "It's a Wonderful Life" (which i've never seen) when Babes came into the family room literally bouncing up & down with excitement saying "come to dad's office!! come to dad's office!!" i assumed her boyfriend had gotten her a puppy or something but when i came into the foyer, Older Sister was there with Brother-in-Law and the babies! they had decided to drive down early after all & only told Babes so they could surprise the rest of us. as i told the Manorexic on christmas, i was so happy i almost starting crying. but i kept it together.

on christmas itself we opened presents with a very excited 4 year old (the twins were much more interested in the unwrapping process than the actual presents). at noon we got to do video chat with Boy [side note: he returns in 29 hours. if you think i am obsessed you should have a conversation with my father. all day he's been saying things like "well, he should be going to bed right now", "well, he needs to get up in 3 hours", "well, he gets on his plane in 6 hours", etc. also, we have looked at the weather forecasts for every city in which he has a layover]. Boy said if we made a bunch of signs & embarrassed him at the airport, he'd pretend like he didn't know us. after we got off the chat, we made two signs, including one that lights up. Older Sister said, "since when have we respected Boy's wishes?" good point, Older Sister, good point.

also, it snowed all christmas eve night, all day and all night christmas, and all day today. we rarely see snow in TN & i can't remember ever having so much snow on christmas. after church this morning, Babes, the 4 year old niece, & I played in the snow. after several semi-successful attempts at sledding, we decided to build a little snow-girl.

we're hoping the snow sticks around for a few days, b/c as the 4 year old told me this evening, "I want to throw a snowball at Boy!"

Priorities

Boy gets back from Albania next Monday night. today i found a list on my dad's desk of things he wants to talk to Boy about when he gets back. most of it was pretty basic - money, keys to the Utah house, keys to the truck, my dad's photography website, etc.

the top item on the list: video of Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent.