Another Beautiful Weekend!

Two pretty weekends in a row - wow! The girls and I had been sick earlier in the week, but in spite of our lingering sniffles and coughs, we were able to get out and enjoy the nice weather. Saturday afternoon we spent some time at the NC Arboretum down the road. We've got season passes that we got for Christmas, but this has been the first time we've used them, just because we didn't feel like getting out in the cold earlier. Here are a few pictures.

Andy on the drive there. He LOVES riding in the car!

Claire was not happy out there - too many gnats. *sigh*

Larry and I spent this afternoon trimming back the Hydrangeas. Ugh. I'm just ill about them getting zapped by the cold this year.

Here is how they usually look in June:

 

And here is how they look now:

 

 

Usually in June:

 

And now:

I guess it will be good for them to have a year to concentrate on plant growth. We can print out some pictures to show folks who come to view the house.

A beautiful weekend!

This weekend finally, finally we got some warm weather! Mia is almost sick with allergies, so was kind of puny yesterday and today, but we got outside to relax a little yesterday.

 

Andy got to play a little fetch. Please note my hydrangeas to the left of him. Usually this time of year, they are covered with green leaves on last year's dead wood, and maybe even showing some flower buds. This year, when we need to sell this house, they are totally brown from a late frost. We have them all around the house, and they look TERRIBLE! What luck.

 Beautiful boy!

 

Mia did not want her picture taken.

 

 Then I went inside and whipped up this eggless edible cookie dough from Laurie's recipe. YUMMY!

 

 Yummy, but NOT low-calorie! (Although I did use lowfat sweetened condensed milk.)

  

We finished up the day by having some friends over and toasting hot dogs and making S'mores on the deck.

Pinterest Easter Fudge

I saw this cake batter fudge on Pinterest, and since I LOVE cake batter (It was my dream as a child to eat a whole mixing bowl full of it!), I thought I'd try it. It was super easy, and quite tasty! I made mine in a 9X13 pan instead of 8X8 as it called for, thinking it would be thinner and less calories per piece. Yeah, right. I'm not even going to key this recipe in to MyFitnessPal - I know it will be terrible. Here's a link to the recipe, if you'd like to try it. Warning: If you have trouble with the words "you", "your" and "you're", buck up before you read it!

Next I'd like to try this in chocolate, and then I'd like to find some sort of chocolate chip cookie dough fudge or something that I can eat raw. I also dreamed as a child of eating a whole bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough (and a whole can of orange juice concentrate!).

Big changes ahead.

After 29 years in Western North Carolina, 26 of them in this same house, we're going to be moving! Larry is retiring from NC Public Schools, and has accepted a teaching job in Tennessee. It will be at Highland Academy, where I went to school for my last two years of high school. The town is quite rural (or at least it used to be - I'm not sure anymore), about 30 miles northeast of Nashville. I'm looking forward to a change, but there are so many hurdles to jump before we can get over there! Just the thoughts of cleaning out and packing up 26 years' worth of junk built up in this house, and trying to sell it are overwhelming.

I don't know the timetable for the move, or even where we'll be living. I'm guessing faculty housing, but there may not be any available. I'd love the safety and convenience of living on campus, but most likely any house they provide will be old and small. We'll see. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

I'll also have to find a job, and I dread that. But until I find something, I'm just going to enjoy being a stay-at-home mom. It's the only thing I ever wanted to be. Since 1986 I've not had more than a week off at a time. Wait - I had a hysterectomy in 2001, and may have been off for a couple of weeks, but maybe not. (I've always done payroll every other week, so that wipes out any thought of a 2-week vacation.) Even when I started the job I have now 17 years ago, I worked my old job one day (New Year's Day 1997) and started my new job the next. He'll be drawing his NC State retirement, and I wish we could survive on just that and his new salary, but it's doubtful. Tuition will be higher now, since Claire will be entering the academy.

The girls don't really want to go and leave the grandparents here, but I think they'll be okay. I'm overwhelmed at all of the changes we'll need to make - everything from new drivers licenses to hair salons to doctors and dentists. In the long run, I think it's a good decision, and where we're supposed to be, but it's going to be a tough transition.

Part of the campus. I wish I had a better picture to post - this is off of their website.

Snow!

Our schools were out 3 1/2 days last week for snow. I think we ended up with about 6 inches, and the girls and Larry had a great time sledding down our road. I was home for two days, and had a good time just puttering around the house. We decorated Valentine cookies, and made snow ice cream. Yum!