Red Door Reveal

It has been a long, but great week. I never thought I would hear myself say that with the girls out of school because of all the snow we have had. I don't like winter. I love how the snow looks when it's coming down and how excited the girls get because they get to go out and play in it. What I don't like is when they have to miss school because of it. It's hard I guess because I pay for them to go to school and when they don't go, I feel like I've flushed money down the toilet. That's been the hard part. The easy part is spending more time with my girls. Sure, I could have used Tues and Thurs to get a ton of stuff done, but that wasn't meant to be. My old self would have been incredibly ticked off and in a bad mood all day, but since losing Jonathan, I realize just how precious life is and what matters the most is spending time with my family. So this week, I chose to "be" with my girls and enjoy every moment with them.

I am thrilled that the snow is melting and the hubby and I get a date night. Yahoo! Thanks mom and dad! It will be nice to have some adult conversation and eat at some fancy schmancy restaurant, a.k.a. TGIF's, and let someone else do the cooking. Ok, so I'm in this money saving mode right now and I have coupons for TGIF's so that's what I picked. I have a hard time eating out when I don't have a coupon or deal days when the restaurant has buy one, get one free. Anyone else like that?

All right, on to the Red Door Reveal. Back in the Fall, I was contemplating painting our front door red, but I just wasn't sure if it would look good or not. I asked for your input here and almost everyone said go with the red. So I did and I loved how it turned out. Wanna see it?

We added new hardware to the door with a keypad for the lock. We love it. We no longer have to use a key. You punch in a 4-8 digit number you create and that's it. On your way out, you push one button and it locks. It makes it convenient for Brian when he runs in the morning, he doesn't have to worry about a key. The other nice thing is if there was ever an emergency, I could just give out the code and the firemen or police could get in easily. You can get the lighted keypad at Home Depot or Lowes.
I love it! I didn't know what the neighbors would say, but I've been surprised by how many have stopped me and said they love the door. They're either lying, just to be nice, or they actually really like it. I hope it's the later.
We added the brick planters around the flower bed and trees. I love how it turned out. It also keeps the mulch in the flower beds and not on the walkway. I bought two black rocking chairs from Lowe's and the iron bench on the right is from Walmart. This picture was taken in the fall as obvious by the October Glory maple trees. You can read about the cool way God blessed us with those trees and the meaning behind them here.

Thank you to all who commented a couple of months ago. You gave me the confidence to go for it and I'm so glad I did.

White Out in the South

What a gorgeous day we have had here in Nashville. We got about 4 inches of the white powdery stuff and it is just spectacular. I knew it was coming last night, but you never know whether to believe the forecasters or not, but this time, hats off to them because they got it right.

I knew we would be staying in all day since I didn't want to try to get down our hill in the car. So the girls and I stayed in our pj's all day. I was secretly hoping that Brian wouldn't make it down the hill, so he could stay home with us, but that didn't happen. It was just one of those days I wanted to stay in bed all day with the family and watch movies. Maybe next time.

I knew our day might get long being cooped up in the house all day, so I decided to create different "Steps". We do Step 1, 2, 3 alot with the girls. They seem to listen better when we instruct that way. If you have a child that is more of a visual learner, like Brooklyn, this works really well. Plus, they love to help make up the steps, so it gets them involved in the process as well.

So here were our steps today.

Step 1- Lunch

Step 2- Play in the snow

Step 3- Bathtime

Step 4- Naptime - This was mommy's favorite step today. :)

Step 5- Bake cookies with mommy

We made chocolate chip cookies that were so yummy! It was a perfect way to end the day.

The girls are now out with daddy on the deck making a snowman. I'm gonna run and go take some more pictures and some video. Hope those that got some snow today are enjoying it and making memories with your family.

Slip N Slide

I'm watching the girls take a warm bubble bath after playing in the snow with daddy this morning. It started to fall yesterday and has really stopped. I've lived in Nashville 11 years now and don't remember snow this early. It's not even winter yet. I guess the girls and I will be staying at home today.

Yesterday we had Brian's work party to go to. I always look forward to his office Christmas party and this one did not disappoint. We went to the Nashville Dinner Theatre to see "A Scattered, Smothered, & Covered Christmas" featuring Joyce DeWitt (Janet) from Three's Company. It was such a great original musical. It had really funny bits and some tear jerker moments as well. The food was yummy and I got to get dressed up and hang with my hubby. It was fabulous. If you live in Nashville, you must go see it.

When we walked into the theatre at 1:00 it was snowing a bit, but when we came out at 5:00 it was bitterly cold and the snow had fallen at a pretty fast rate. I knew we would be in for a fun drive home. Luckily we were in a tour bus, that Brian's boss owns, so we were comfy and safe. When we got back to the office is when we had to get back into our own car. That's when the real fun began.

We were fine until we got into our neighborhood. We live on the top of a hill and I knew it would be a slippery ride. We tried to go up the main thoroughfare but there were too many cars at the side of the road and 3 firetrucks were in our way, so we had to turn around and go a back way to our house. When we got onto the side road we came upon a truck that was pulled over at the side of the road in a ditch. He was facing oncoming traffic and had no lights on. Brian said, "I think we should pull over and see if they need help". As soon as he said those words our car slammed into the side of the truck and all I heard was this horrible scrapping sound. Then the side mirror flew off. It all happened so fast. Thankfully no one was hurt. Brian got out of the car to talk with the guy. He was an EMS worker on his way to the hospital to start his shift. Thankfully he was cool about it all and it was so cold and dark, we just exchanged names and phone numbers and we were off. I didn't want anyone else hit or hurt. So much for being a good samaritan.

Here is the amazing thing. There is not a scratch on our car. I don't get it. The mirror is gone and something is wrong with the tires and steering, but not a scratch on the body. So crazy. The guys truck has a small dent in the door, but that's it. So know the fun starts with the insurance company. Brian just left to go get a rental car and we will call to get the car towed to auto body shop. Oh yeah, left out the best part of the story. So we couldn't get our car home last night after the accident. So we had to park it at the clubhouse and walk up the huge hill to our house. That hill is a bear in normal weather, but at 20 degrees, in 35 mile an hour winds, with snow falling fast and in 3 inch high heels, it was unbearable. At one point Brian said I could hop on his back and he'd carry me, but I didn't want to do that to the poor guy. Needless to say, I was never so happy to get inside my warm and cozy house and hug my sweet girls. I'm gonna chalk this one up to making a memory.

I was thankful that the girls Auntie Jamie and her friend Ashley were their to take such good care of them. They also got stuck at our house and had to spend the night. By the time 7:00 rolled around the hills were just too dangerous for them to get their car down. The police even decided to close the two main roads to our house because there were so many cars off the side of the road, they didn't want anymore accidents.

I wouldn't want to be working for an auto insurance agency or a rental car agency today. They are slammed. I'm thankful we got a rental car when we did because they will run out of cars for sure. There have been 442 accidents in Middle Tennessee alone, 109 of those are still on the road. We haven't seen this cold of temps in Nashville since 1942, according to The Tennesean. Tonight it will be a low of 6. I'm praying that the girls have school tomorrow so they can have their parties and do their Christmas program for all of the parents. Hopefully some of this snow will melt this afternoon before the single digits tonight.

Stay safe and warm out there everyone.