Natalie Bullock

S.N.O.W.

...and I am not laughing. 

Well, I would laugh if we were prepared, in a clothing sort of way.  But we weren't.  None of us has the right shoes or coats for it, ...and gloves?  No, none of those either.

So, instead of being able to play outside in the snow, we stayed in, watching a movie and munching on popcorn and looking wistfully outside now and again.  Except for when we were so cold we couldn't stand it.  My kids aren't accustomed to wearing socks or slippers inside so they refuse, and then complain. 

I'm sure they'll figure it out soon.  For now, I placed an order for some footed sleepers for all three,  mostly for Bridget.  [Note to sleepwear sellers:  please put your items on sale because it is freakin' April and surely most of the country is ready to move on to spring, never mind our little slightly-snowy mountains here.]  I still  need some fleece footies for her, but I'm holding off ordering them because, c'mon, it's almost April and shouldn't I be checking out all the fun spring clothes out there?  And remind me that one major item on my "to do" list is to call a heating contractor to see what we can do about getting better air flow into the kids' rooms - that whole wing of the house is close to 10 degrees colder than the rest of it

Anyway.  Enough kvetching for now.   Thankfully, we warm up tomorrow, to a balmy mid-50s for the high.  Hey, that's 20 degrees warmer than today, so I'll take it!  (And I will try really, really hard not to think about the low 80s temps where we used to live in FL.  ...Ugh, it's not working.)

This was what we woke up to this morning; I know it's not much but it's been four years since James and Molly have seen snow of any kind, so they were overjoyed:

The weather kept doing this funky thing:  snow, then warm up and have part of it melt, then snow some more, then melt, then snow, then melt.  The temperatures kept fluctuating in the low 30s - just below and just above freezing.  Twice, though, we had this weird not-hail-but-little-snow-pellets thing going on; it was so loud, but thankfully, there seemed to be no damage from it.  (Molly very kindly -ahem- left her shoe outside so you could get a sense of how big these little snowballs were.)

And with that, adieu! 

Park Day

No fog at all today, but people, let me tell you - I was not prepared for what I saw this morning:  Ice.  On my car windshield.  Do I need to tell you that I, newly arrrived from central Florida after having lived there for over three and one-half years, do not actually own a windshield scraper?  Fortunately, Steve realized I wouldn't have one and although he risked being late for his 7 am conference call (note to East Coast people:  there really is a 3-hour time difference), he scraped enough off that I'd be able to see.  Thankfully the sun helped, too, but...dude.  Ice.

So obviously, I really need to unpack all the boxes in the garage.  They're pretty easy to ignore, but doing so means that I must park outside.   Which bugs me.  (Well, so do sentence fragments, but sometimes, they're what works.)   

In any event, I was not even a little bit productive this morning, other than to start a roast in the crockpot and put away a few things.  Mostly, we played with the rats.  ;)  After I took Molly to school, I took a quick scenic tour down a road; I saw a few things that seemed photo-worthy, but they're on private property.  I haven't yet figured out how people take pictures of old barns and such - I mean, do they wander up with a camera in hand and an erstwhile grin on their face, and ask permission?  "Hi ma'am, I've noticed that your barn is old and decrepit.  May I take a few pictures of it, and the rusting pieces of farm equipment you also have laying around?" 

Anyway, and then I came upon this hill, which is surely one of the prettiest hillsides I've ever seen:

The whole stretch of road was peppered with large and small farms, with mostly newer (<30 years old), and some very new, homes.  They were all lovely, and the land was just gorgeous.  When that road ended, I found another little charmer, and drove past an ostrich and horse farm - I guess they must get along, because there were both types of animals in the pasture. 

Afterward, I took Bridget to Central Park.  Well, our version.  ;)  My gosh, the grass here was sooo green and wonderful.  St. Augustine grass, which is what's often found in Florida, is also lush and very thick, but it's like crabgrass and is very rough and uncomfortable to walk on without shoes.  The park must be fairly new because it had a wonderful set-up - just the right amount of climbing, crawling, sliding and swinging options for all ages of kids.  And big trees with oddly shaped trunks.  And shade.  Oh, and a bathroom - which is neither heated nor air conditioned, so I imagine that, at least in the winter, it doesn't get a lot of use.  LOL

I tried to take pictures of Bridget, but the little rascal won't often look at me when I have the camera in hand.  And when she does, she cocks her head to the left or right, and the angle is always a little extreme.  Still, I rather liked this picture; forgive me the photo-editing - I thought it might look nice here:

Later, we returned with James and Molly.  I'll post a couple pictures of them tomorrow, but I'm too tired to keep going so...to bed I must go.  Later, 'gators! 

PS  The roast, by the way, was delish.  :)

The fog is lifting

What an interesting day yesterday!  Since it rains so infrequently here (annual average for precipitation is 10-13 inches), the dreary, drizzly and eventually rainy day was a nice variation, even if we have only been here a couple of weeks.  However, I can do without the 37F degree temps, thanks so much - our high today is supposed to be 58F, but it's 10:20 am and I just don't see a 21F degree temp increase happening.  This house, though, must have great insulation - even though it's cold outside, it's 71F inside (heat will come on at 68F). 

Anyway, I'm making good progress with unpacking so I'll just post these pictures of the fog lifting.  I'm loving this hilly/mountainy thing.

and zoomed in a bit:

Outside right now

At just before 2:30 pm, the fog is rolling in, it's in the low 40s (F) right now, and there is a chance - a very, very small chance - of some light snow action (of the flurry kind, not a real snow) tomorrow morning.  Or rain.  ;)

It's been sunny since we've been here, so this is quite a lot different!  Kinda neat, actually, except we can't see the trains right now.  If only the boxes were unpacked and we could just hang out on the couch and snuggle up and enjoy it, but I haven't found the crockpot yet so I guess, instead, I'll need to make dinner. 

Pictures? Check.

Well, it's official:  I hate unpacking.  Actually, it's not the unpacking so much as it is the finding a space for the boxes after they're emptied - they're like rabbits or something, and seem to multiply daily.  The packed ones, too - taunting me with all that still-to-be-done work.  Yuck. 

Things I need:  some of those space-saving vacuum bags to store bedding, a coffee maker (I have my eye on one, but I'm hoping amazon will start carrying it so I can get it as a "Prime"/no shipping item), a desk chair, and I'd be very grateful if Target would build a store nearby.  Seriously, this 1-hour away thing is not working so well.  OTOH, I'm overjoyed that I can shop at Trader Joe's, even if it IS an hour away!  Ikea is about two hours from here - a reasonable distance if I just want to make the L.A. thing an all-day project.  Oh yeah, and speaking of that - I will definitely need a portable/vehicle GPS system.  Yes:  need.

I will admit that I rather like this rural little town with shopping still so far away.  I still miss our schools and of course, our friends, but there must be something in the air (or water - OMG, do not EVER let a Rainsoft rep in your house!) here that really causes you to love it.  It probably helps that I'm here mostly AFTER winter, too, though this week will give us a run for our money and make us wonder if that's really true.  Highs in the 40sF, thankyouverymuch.  If it snows, it might help - the kids really want it, and honestly, I think I can handle a smidge if it'll help them even a bit, with their "I miss Florida!  Why can't daddy get a job THERE again?" schtick.  I know it's hard - I miss it, too.

So anyway, here're some pictures, since it's already after midnight and I have wasted exactly three hours doing nothing productive online, just surfing and enjoying some "me" time.  I'll pay tomorrow, of course.

View from our back/side patio; there is both a road and train tracks in the distance.  You can hear the train, but it's far enough that it's not intrusive, just a welcome little bit of information (and a chance to run with Bridget to see the chugga chugga choo choo). 

Molly waves to her classmates in FL.  The tree in the background is technically on our property, just not enclosed in the fenced portion of the back yard.


This picture was taken from the side patio, facing the rear of the house; the stone path takes you to two circle-shaped concrete patio areas behind the house, which abuts the stone retaining wall on the other side.

Taken from the other side of the yard - you can see most of the concrete patio areas which are between the back of the house and the stone retaining wall and of course, you can also see how sloped and rocky the back yard is:  the kids and dogs love it.

Um, this is Bella (left) and Brietta, Molly's two new pet (baby) rats.  Unfortunately, they are still absolutely terrified of us, though they don't bite.  They are really cute, we think!


Molly had her first real horse riding lesson today; here, she's learning to balance on the horse without holding the reins.  Seriously, she had quite an upper-body workout and nearly fell asleep on the way home.


More balance/exercise work:


Learning how to post:


Can you see her smiling?  They were trotting, and she loved that!

That's about it for now; I'll try to post a few more of the yard and views sometime this week.

I am ONLINE, baby!

Same email address, so that's a big ol' hooray.  :)

I still have at least half a zillion boxes to unpack, so this is a drive-by posting.  Oh, I have a few pictures I hope to post later, too, lol.  ;)

We're here

It's lovely,  really it is, but I'm so sad to have left our schools, our neighborhood, and all the amenities we are used to having nearby.  I'm sure I'll grow accustomed to much of it, but the schools?  I can't see how I'll get over that.  Both kids are quite a bit ahead of what they're covering in school now (Molly's K class is still learning letter sounds).  Now, I worry that if we leave, will they be very, very far behind peers in a new place?  What if we went back to our old school?  How badly behind would they be?

Oops, my 15 minutes on the public library computer are up, so...more later, must go!