Snowmageddon

I. Love. Snow.

However, I think I'd be pretty disenchanted with it had I been living back home in DC.  Then again, a week off with Sean & the kids...sounds pretty nice.  Unless you don't have electricity and suffer from cabin fever and Sean & the kids start driving you crazy.  Thank goodness we live down here.  ;o)

Just kidding.

We did get to experience the white stuff last weekend and our snow-loving pooch was in heaven.  The roads were still a mess but I'm sure waaaaaaaaaay better than a week prior.  Case in point, almost missing our hair appointment because streets of Bethesda were being plowed so entire streets were blocked off due to snow removal...because there is so much of the white stuff there is also nowhere to put it.  So, the whole weekend I saw dump trucks from WV & NC that apparently were contracted to haul the snow away.

While in Bethesda...Kaia accomplished her goal of this past year.  Donating her hair.  Donations required at least 10 inches of hair.  She donated 14 and wanted to go longer...but A-yi and I were a little concerned what if she freaked having such short hair.  Danggit...we actually could've gone shorter. Anyhoo...

Before:

From The Lee-Espiritu Fam

After:

From The Lee-Espiritu Fam

Oh yeah...A-yi & I also jumped on the bandwagon...with 12 inches & 10 inches respectively (my stylist didn't want to go shorter):

From The Lee-Espiritu Fam

Pardon the fact that I look a wee bit sleepy or boracha (en espanol...look it up).  I promise it's just a bad photo.


The Lee Ladies donated 36 inches of hair. 

Also...some snow fun:

This little cutie stayed inside and tried on her V-day gift from the kids (although a certain overprotective uncle REALLY did not approve...at least it was a one piece!!):

What's that white stuff?

Well, it was SNOW!  

It was definitely, by far, the largest amount of the white stuff we have seen for this area.  Mind you...it was a decent amount but nothing that would've kept DC-area kids out of school for two days!  How many days did I go to bed wishing for a blanket of white stuff and the magic words "Montgomery County schools...closed"...shoot, even a friggin' delay here and there.  Still...it was nice to have my baby girl at home those two days...even though Ba-ba was standing duty and we didn't see him for those days.  This area is just poorly equipped to handle such weather...because, well, since we've lived here...it's barely ever snowed.  If it has...nothing terrible and nothing so often that the cities would need better snow equipment.

It was also the reason why we had to postponeBrother/Uncle J's Birthday Fun Weekend in DC...booooooooooooooooooo.

And now, it's gone.  ;o)  Thanks to the rain...most of the icy mess is gone and Kaia went back to school.

But...we did have a nice weekend indoors enjoying the white stuff from the comfort of the heat.  The kids, Jax, & Sean went out for a bit on Saturday and Jax got to enjoy it often all weekend.  Remi & Jaron both found it too cold for their liking...the latter probably would've like it more had his mom bought him gloves that are actually made for that kind of weather.  OOPS!  SORRY JARON (and Kaia)!!!!

Anyhoo...the fam having a bit of fun (sorry, there was a lot of wind and it was cut short since I was due to some moron filming without gloves and a coat):

Blast from the past...

I'm working on a li'l somethin'-somethin' for my sister's upcoming 30th...and came across these old (but not so old) pics from a couple of years ago.

Notice my poor hardworking hubby...but more importantly, notice how hard I'm working to set up the perfect family photo.

Poor Sean...the things he has to put up with!!

Picnicking on the Deck

Since we're back in our first home and have this amazing view, you'd think we'd be out there all the time. Except, we're not. One word: bugs. Well, two, bugs and SUN. We're east/west facing so we get some crazy sun. Sean's more of the bug-a-phobe (entomophobia for those needing the exact terminology). Maybe he's not so much of a bug-a-phobe, but more of a bug-hater....like he really, really, really does not like bugs.

Anyhoo, I digress...weather was good, deck is freshly painted, and both kids are home...so with grilled cheeses, a fresh juice concoction (spinach, blueberries, red grapes w/seeds, strawberries, ground flax, & water...all whipped up in the Vita-mix), and our picnic blanket (we still need new deck furniture)...we headed outdoors...along with Jax.

It was really nice. The kids loved it and watched the butterflies flying around our bushes. Sean missed out...on all the flies, that is! HAHAHAHA. The kids are so used to disciplining the dogs they were yelling "NO!" to the flies instead of swatting them away!!

The only sad thing is, I realize how fast the kids are growing and that both of them will be in school this September (well Jaron possibly only part-time...we'll see). I feel like I've just missed out on so much even though I've been with them almost everyday of their lives (save a total of 5 days for Kaia and 2 days for Jaron).

Really...where did time go and when did my babies grow up?

Plague

The plague that is Tanya has managed to infect her poor, poor PREGNANT sister!!! What a good big sister I am! SORRY SISTEE!!!!!!!!!!!! This cold is a whopper too...definitely the sickest I've been this year.

Yeah, I can't even remember how many times I've been ill since the beginning of January. Definitely more than 6 times now. I cannot wait for the weather to be warmer and school to be out!!! ;o) Hil reminded me that I've been sick more than I've been healthy. Great.

We spent the weekend up in DC celebrating family birthdays. Po-po turned 59 and we got to eat (even though I didn't have much of an appetite...you know I'm sick if I don't have an appetite) at Texas de Brazil...a carnivore lovers paradise...SOOOOOOOOOO YUMMY!!!! I also made a yummy coconut cake for my coconut-loving nutty mom!

We also celebrated the 1st birthday of our nephew Aidan!! He's more of a tank than Jaron was and is so super yummy! He's such a little charmer and just so adorable!! We got him a bomber jacket from the base and Sean attached patches of jets & subs on it that will hopefully remind him of us! Papa & Mama Yuan made some maaaaaaaaaad good food...as usual!! Our cutie niece Lina was also there and is equally as delicious as her first cousin! It's so nice to live closer to home and be able to spend time with family! Sean keeps saying that it's nice to drive 3.5-4 hours rather than the 12 hours from FL...not that he drove it too often. Anyway...good to see our family and celebrate our nephew's milestone! Hopefully, I did not infect anyone there!!

No photos this time...too sick! Wah, wah, wah.

The biggest shout-out this weekend...my hubby. He did EVERYTHING this weekend so all I had to do was take care of myself (which I normally complain he should do, but I was so sick that I wanted no one around to catch my plague). This man did all the packing up (the car, that is), took care of the kids...canine & human, drove, ev-er-y-thing!!!! He was so awesome. PLUS...Kaia was still getting better so she was still having crazy nightmares...esp. our first night in DC...where Sean slept with the kids all weekend and I was in my little cave. Poor guy. Really...he busted his sweet little tookus off this weekend and never complained or showed he was even bothered by it.

My hubby...I'm really lucky.

And so starts December...

I had way better shots, but didn't want to post those for fear of the whole security thing of our guys and stuff.

So, we said goodbye to Sean this morning. Found out late last night that we had to take him to the base (as we've always done anyway) reeeeeeeeeeallllly early in the morning. It was days like today that I really wish we had lived closer so Sean could get some more rest in. The kids and I came back home and snoozed for a bit and I had planned on taking us to the Island (Amelia Island) to the state park (Ft. Clinch) to say our goodbyes again. We got to hang out with the uber-cool Ms. Lynsey Hickman and watched the boat go by from atop the fort. Like I mentioned before, I got some really good shots from that fort of the sub, but don't want to post them and have NCIS breathing down my back. ;o) It was also fun having random people pass us by and ask if the sub came or is coming and I was like "WTF?" The spouses are sworn to this Don't Tell Don't Tell policy and yet the three times I've gone, other civilians have known that a sub was coming through. So much for security and confidentiality of our sub's movements. Anyway, I digress...living in FL has made me a cold-weather wimp. It was 50 degrees and a wee bit chilly. I guess it's difficult after it was upper 60s-70 degree weather just a few days ago.

But, during our snooze, Sean called to let us know that AGAIN our move dates needed to be rescheduled...the day AFTER we had just confirmed dates with the moving company. Of course, I can't find out anything else about our schedule until I hear from Sean next...I love being in limbo. Fun stuff. But in actuality, there isn't too much stress here, but just hoping that we'll make it home with The Fam to celebrate (and all of our other various fams/friend-fams to visit). Just stressing to get our place rented out. We haven't locked in a property manager (although we did interviews this past weekend) so I wanted to give MilitaryByOwner.com a chance and see how that works out. I still need to clean some more and upload more photos.

Anyhoo...our weekend was crazy busy and stressful, but we managed to head down to downtown JAX and catch the Light Parade & Fireworks. It was extra great since we got to hit my favorite downtown Jax soft taco goodness Burrito Gallery. The Light Parade was actually on water...people would deck out their boats in all sorts of decorations. There were some mad cool decorations and others that were like "ooooookaaaaaaay". Case in point of a mad cool one was the Santa Riding the Alligator down the St. John's River.

I also got to play around with my new cool toy the Gorillapod, which is a tripod for cameras that you can wrap around various things. I used it to get some clearer nightshots (man, am I reaaaaaaally wanting an SLR for some seriously crisp and no-noise photos...one day...*sigh*) by wrapping it around the railing and just snapping away (and playing w/various settings to finally settle on something I was satisfied with). At the end of the night, since we barely have photos of the 4 of us...I wrapped the Gorillapod around the stroller and this was one of the shots I got:

The fireworks were great since they were launched off of three barges and we could see all three...and were next to one of the two bridges that displayed the famous "waterfall" display of fireworks:

Anyway, what a long day it has been and I'm interested in seeing how the next few weeks pan out. I leave y'all with this photo of the kiddies as we were leaving the fort after saying goodbye to Sean: