Scene: Sunday morning, 8:00 a.m.
Setting: Kitchen/Family Room


Reed: Mom, I want cereal for breakfast.

Me: So do you want me to make it for you?

Reed: No, not right now.

(30 seconds later...)

Reed: Mom, I'm starving!

Me: So, do you want me to make you some breakfast?

Reed: No.

Yes, Virginia, It Does Get Cold in Texas!

Yes, friends, even in the south we have ice and snow....sometimes. Infrequently. Rarely. And this has been one of those times. Everyone in our family had a three-day weekend planned due to being off for MLK's Birthday on Monday, but our three-day weekend has turned into a five-day weekend as prolonged icy weather moved in. All area school districts closed for both Tuesday and Wednesday and my office closed as well. It's been nice...sitting by the fire, playing games with the kids, and even catching up on all the laundry, but tomorrow, it will be Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, it's off to work/school we go! Which is probably a good thing, because I'm now sitting in front of a fire made with our last fire log, and we're running out of entertainment options unless you count eating.

Our normal January temperatures in our area are around 60-62 degrees, but for the last two or three days, we've been in the upper 20s and low 30s. It even snowed some yesterday, mixed with quite a bit of sleet. Here are pictures I took this morning as everything is beginning to melt now.

I like the ice and snow when it happens because it's such a novelty, but I'm a warm-blooded girl. Can't take the cold for too long!

The Birthday Party that Wasn't

Well, my baby turned five last Thursday! My, how time flies. Just yesterday he was an under 4-lb. preemie and now he's so big.

Reed has had about a week of celebrating his birthday. He went to his grandparent's house the weekend before and they had a cake and presents for him there with the whole family. Then, on his actual birthday, he took cupcakes to school to share. The birthday child in our family gets to pick anywhere they'd like to go eat on their day. Lane and Reed love shrimp and if you recall, Lane chose Red Lobster for his birthday dinner. But Reed? He's a cheap date. He chose Long John Silver's for popcorn shrimp. Hey, it's easy on the pocketbook.

Then on Saturday, we were going to have his birthday party with his school friends at our local YMCA. We handed out invitations a week and a half ahead of time, but it was the holidays and I think a lot of kids weren't in school. Well, we had four people (out of 20) RSVP and three of those were with regrets. We called the Y the night before, but they said in this day and age, no one RSVPs anymore (I do!) -- they just show up and we'd have kids there. Um....no. We had one child -- the one who'd RSVPd. Reed could not have cared less. We cancelled the party, he and his friend jumped on the inflatable moonwalk for an hour and then we took his friend and mom out for ice cream.

Lesson learned: Next year, hold the party a week later when everyone is back in school!