Valentine 5K

Today we Wayne did the Valentine 5K in Lamoille. I was pretty excited about it until I woke up this morning and wimped out. Lamoille is a quaint tiny town near us. The race started and ended at the Little Church of the Crossroads. I have seen quite a few churches - mostly in Europe - but this little church is definitely the cutest.

Large stained glass windows and cute fold-down chairs.

Wayne getting ready to start.

This picture is for my mom - the guy running in 'barefoot' shoes. He wore some Hawaiian swim trunks to complete his outfit. Very cute. (Also, he beat Wayne!! So we got a laugh out of it - I mean were VERY impressed Mom!.)

 And typical Lamoille - a trailer came through the race with two saddled quarter horses in the back.

 Wayne almost to the finish:

 It was about 20 degrees out, but nice and sunshine-y. Penelope slept most of the time in her stroller.

Super Bowl IVVIB!

We had a GREAT Super Bowl Sunday a few weeks ago. We partied like animals!

I usually don't get into the Super Bowl, but this year I knew both teams that were playing. We even knew the mascot for Baltimore: the Bengals!

On Super Bowl Sunday we were headed back from Boise. We passed through the Sovereign Nation of the Shoshone near Owyhee. Luckily they were lax on identification, as Penelope's passport had not arrived yet. They must not be lax on speeding, as it was the only stretch of highway that Wayne did not speed on. It's a cute little place, the next time we are driving through and Penelope is neither sleeping or screaming I will take pictures. It could be a while.

So this year we decided to celebrate the Super Bowl. On the way back home we bought a huge bucket of fried chicken from KFC. We arrived home and feasted, watched Penelope play, and took naps.  As usual, I don't know who won the football game. Now that's my kind of Super Bowl.

------

Today the National Highway Safety Administration recommends that children stay in car seats until they reach 8-12 years old, or when the are able to 'fit properly' into the seat and seat belt. In other words, when your child is an adult they can safely sit in a car wearing only (!) a seatbelt.

This seems a bit drastic, but I am all for safety, so we wear seat belts and Penelope will be secured in five-point harness until she goes to college.

However, when your child reaches school age, it's time to kiss and hug them and send them merrily off to school in a huge yellow chunk of steel on wheels. With no seatbelt at all, never mind a rear-facing safety enclosure. DOES NOBODY EVER THINK ABOUT THIS? Most school buses have no seat belts. Except for the driver, who apparently is the only one who deserves to live in the even of an accident.

A few more pictures of Penelope

Penelope teased the cat with the pen from her magnetic drawing board.

Penelope sat in the window eating a banana and watching dad scoop snow. We got about 8-10 inches Saturday and then 3 inches Sunday morning.

Sugar time

Penelope eating sugar!!!!! Ice cream at the mall and tiramisu at home.

Pictures of a little girl

Penelope has suddenly become attached to Bobby. Which is kinda cute because Bobby was Wayne's Cabbage Patch Doll as a kid.

 Penelope has also decided that she likes coloring.

She spends lots of times coloring, luckily the majority of that time is on paper! 

 Penelope loves when dad shares the headphones with her (yep, Statler Bros)

 And....we had puddles one day!!

 Penelope likes to scoot up the chairs to the window. She also figured out she can stand on the windowsill.

Hurried Morning

Remember I said we were supposed to get 4-8 inches? Well, we got about six. Wayne left early for work, but couldn't get out of the drive with the car, so he took the four wheel drive that I normally use. Unfortunately I can't blame anything on him, because he then texted me that he took it.

By the time I and other sane people had risen, I had forgotten all about it. The boys I babysit came and I had gotten everyone breakfast. Penelope completely coated herself with Cream of Wheat, and that stuff doesn't just wipe off. So I thought the boys could finish their breakfast and I could give Penelope a quick bath. While Penelope was in the bath, I realized that I didn't have a vehicle to take the boys to the bus, and we would have to walk. Which is no big deal, other than it was 18 degrees, we had 6 inches of fresh snow, and we would need to leave 10 minutes earlier. Plus the pressure of knowing if we missed the bus, I had no way to get the boys to school. So for the next 10 minutes the boys heard me yell from different parts of the house: "J are you finished eating? T put your dishes in the sink. J are you dressed yet? Hurry! Get your boots on!" I was going to put Penelope in the backpack carrier, but then realized that it was in the vehicle that Wayne took. So the boys and I dug out the stroller, but I dreaded pushing it through the snow. We finally pushed our way out the door with the stroller, while the entire neighborhood cat population attempted to get in the house. (For some reason there are now four cats that seem to think this is their home.) I'm sure it looked like a Norman Rockwell painting, with scarves flying and mouths hanging wide.

We made it to the bus stop in plenty of time. Penelope and I came back to the house for a cozy day in. We're out of milk and could use some groceries, but that all pales when I can spend a nice quiet day with my little bear.

Caffeine Anyone?

Caffeine Anyone?
Over the holidays some of Wayne's cousins came to visit. We were excited to have them and had a great time. Wayne and I enjoy making a big breakfast together on the weekends, so we made breakfast, complete with coffee. Wayne's cousins were self proclaimed 'coffee addicts,' and they had a big day of traveling ahead of them. I fluffed my hospitable feathers and made them a big pot of coffee to take with them in their thermos. I'm so nice, right? At some point after they left, I looked at my coffee and noticed for the first time that I had mistakenly bought DECAF! The poor cousins, I'm glad they didn't fall asleep at the wheel drinking my carefully prepared decaf coffee.

Oh Elizabeth
There were several things that attracted me to Wayne when we first met. However, his taste for music was not one of them. Some of his favorite songs are sung by the Statler Brothers, Merl Haggard, and several hillbilly singers with names like 'Johnny Millboy' and 'Stompin' Tom Two-tooth.' Currently Wayne's phone alarm bellers slowly at 4:30 every morning: "OH ELIIIIZABETHHHH, I'M SURE MISSING YOOUUUUU..." I have it memorized, and occasionally sing along at 4:30, or even occasionally if I wake up at 2:30, just for spite. As a side note, Wayne also works out to this music. No kidding. It's like going to sleep at a nightclub.

Nevada Winter
This fall, a seasoned local was telling me that the last two winters have been 'VERY mild.' We have only lived here two winters, but I still brushed it off and thought....right. Well this winter has been a different. For the last month we have had snow on the ground and temps from -15 to +15 most days. We really haven't minded so much. The snow is beautiful and we spend lots of time being lethargic in our living room. It warmed up to the high 30s for the last two days and melted about half of the snow, however, 4-8 inches are forecasted for tomorrow.

January

Penelope and some cheese. 

 Getting out of the house on a 'warm' day. Penelope went for a stroller ride and Wayne took the bike out.

Remember Trial of a Marriage? Huge failure. The piles of snow were too much for our nice little fence. Luckily the marriage is still intact.

 This picture was taken the morning after mommy and daddy dressed up to go to a work banquet. Someone was watching... and someone else didn't put their things away.

Weekend at Lake Tahoe

Last weekend we went to Incline Village, NV to go cross country skiing, relax, and spend a little time with our friends Tony & Ionna and their interesting Greek family.

This picture is just when we were eating at a cafe, but they had a stove just like ours, only black and miniature. It was very cute. 

 Driving past Squaw Valley. The Winter Olympics were here in 1960. There was plenty of time for pictures since the road between Truckee and Tahoe City, CA (about 15 miles I think) was very slow - when we were moving we were going about 20 mph!

X Country skiing at this nice place near the lake. We rented this little sled contraption that Wayne pulled. Penelope wasn't happy about it, but didn't cry either. She just sat their zoned out for until about 20 minutes before we finished, she fell asleep. 

 And she slept...

 ...and slept - inside the ski place.

 Lake Tahoe

And nice gas prices-the price in red on the right side is Unleaded - $2.89!

At the condo - We ate this New Year's cake/bread. There is some story that goes along with it, however, with several people telling the story at the same time in 2 different languages and heavy accents, I eventually just started smiling and nodding. The bottom line is there is a coin baked into it and the cake is cut into pieces - one for each person plus one each for the house, the Virgin Mary, and two more, I can't remember. The cake is very dry and has almonds on top and something similar to Vanilla that is only grown on some Greek Island that gives it a unique taste. 

The Cake: 2013

5 greeks talking at one time is interesting. I think they were arguing about how many pieces the cake needed to be cut into. I think Minola was the lucky one who got the coin.
Polly, Minola, Mary, and Tony

Polly and Minola are here visiting their daughter Ionna from Greece. They have another daughter in Texas - so we asked if they would be visiting her too (they are here for 3 months). "Oh, NO! It is much too far - it takes a WHOLE day to fly there from here!" Yes, that is right, they will be here for 3 months, sharing Ionna and Tony's apartment. Oooo Yi Yi! (or so I would say if I were Greek)

The road on the pass between Reno and Lake Tahoe. The temp was between -17 and +20 while we were there. The Greeks were COLD!

Nevada winter Landscape

Shrubs at our house.

Wayne's Winter Pictures

 Wayne had been snowmobiling, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing in the mountains this winter. Here are a few pics.