Sharing a embarrassing moment....

What? Why yes...those are my crocs full of and covered with snow. How did they get that way you ask? Well, as I was letting the dogs in I thought I would take a moment and see if I could clear some of the ice on the front porch. So, I let them in and pulled the door to close it enough to stop the cold from coming in. It's got an automatic lock on it, so I'm always very careful not to pull too hard. But I must have forgot what I was doing and the next thing I knew, it was closed. Very closed. And I was on the front porch in my pajamas and crocs. And the only thing between me and the inside was a 15' walk through snow that comes up past my knees. Did I mention there were no boots anywhere? And it was at least 40 minutes or so until John would get home. And the dang dogs have yet to learn how to open doors (gotta teach them that!). So I gave myself a little pep talk about how it would be over really quick and started off. And the crocs came off in the snow at least 4-5 times while I tried to make it to the driveway. Snow on bare feet is COLD! But I did it and said a little prayer of thanks that there was a hidden spare key for the back door that I could get to. I am happy to report that the feet have almost thawed. LOL!

Just before that incident, I was making this: Spiced Chai Concentrate from Tasty Kitchen
I just strained it and will be having some a little later this afternoon. Review to follow...

New love/addiction...

In an effort to avoid reality and get some inspiration to get moving here, I have become very strongly attached to playing here: Pinterest. What a fun place! I am totally enjoying the beautiful pictures and great ideas here! If you find yourself interested in maybe getting yourself a new addiction, let me know and I'll send you an invite. :)

And the first rejection is in...

Dang. I thought I did so well on the phone interview. This is going to be a long road to employment I think...

There's a robin outside my window!

(and no SD card in my camera!)

Maybe Puxatawney Phil got it right! I always consider seeing my first robin a sure sign of spring. Admittedly it's usually the first week or 2 of March when that happens. So maybe, just maybe, we've crammed winter into the past few weeks and spring is coming sooner rather than later!

A girl can dream can't she...

Snow Angel and...

and Snow Licker...

Her new favorite thing. And always with the same look: "This stuff is awesome! You don't know what you're missing. You should get some of this!"

At least one of them is embracing the snow. LOL! The old boy is just frustrated because his yard has been significantly reduced in size and there's no place to wander.

And yes, I made that snow angel myself! The fall wasn't so far now that the snow in the yard is up over my knees! It was more like sitting down and making one.

For simple updates, I've got these:

• Unemployment applied for
• Several more jobs applied for
• First phone interview done and hopefully leading to a real interview
• New job searches created and set up for daily emailing
• Much soul searching about where to go from here
• Still keeping up with a little journaling every day in my super cute Moleskine calendar books
• Mastering crossword puzzles on my Nook
• and the best...There's going to be a new baby in the family this fall. YIPPEE!!! And no it is NOT me! Unless it's twins and I said I'd take one of them off their hands. ;)

Now I'm really going to make myself do something with the scrapbook supplies and pictures sitting on my table. Promise!

I think I'm going to need smelling salts!

The predictions are getting worse. We moved up into the grey area in the last 2 hours. Now it's looking like OVER a foot of snow for us!!! Thank goodness we just spent some time doing some additional cleaning and clearing of the pretty white stuff. We dug out the trash barrel from last week and moved it to somewhere that the company can get at it. We took a quick store run to make sure we had necessities for the next couple days. Thankfully we didn't need much and the stops were quick.

I suspect that we'll break the '95-'96 winter snowfall record tomorrow. And we'll have done it in slightly more than 1 month v. the entire snow season of that year. Woohoo!!! ;)

Thud...

We live right on that line dividing orange and red. Which, loosely translated, means another foot of snow. Again. Oh my...

I don't even know what to say except...More Snow???

[insert horrified smiley here!]

Yes. More freakin' snow! I know I said I love it. And I really do. But my driveway resembles a luge course and pretty soon I'm going to be able to climb UP and out of a window. I've lost the bottom steps on my stairs. The dog area is now like a fenced-in yard and we can actually put them out without leads or leashes. They can't go anywhere. The little one can't even stand up high enough to get to the top of the piles! And it's taking money out of John's pocket. He's had to lose 3 work days this month due to the snow and it's looking like he's going to lose at least one more. This is causing him lots of stress and for that reason alone I wish we could catch a break. You know...maybe the next few storms only bring an inch or two. Or we get a few warmer days in between to allow it to melt a bit and people to clean things up a little more. But that's just wishing and the reality is that today I'm going to bundle up and see if I can move at least a little of this stuff and make a little more room for it. John is going to try and widen the driveway a bit if at all possible. And I'll be chipping at the ice mounds on the steps to try and get rid of some of that. Good times. Good times.

On a positive note, I have a screening call for a job that is 20 minutes from home today! A bit excited about the prospect, but daunted knowing that this is just the beginning of the process. A 10 min. call today that will hopefully lead to an actual interview in a week or two, to be followed hopefully by a second interview in a week or two after that. If all goes remarkably well, the actual job offer will come in a month or so. It's such a slow process when all I feel is urgency. I'm trying to convince myself that it's a good lesson in patience...one I need and should embrace. And I'll keep repeating that to myself.

I'm also filing for unemployment today and starting that process. I hope that it goes quick and that the wait for the money to start won't be too long. Off to get that started...

Ummm...snow yesterday....more snow today...

The forecast for today is somewhere around 8". On top of the 2" we got yesterday. On top of the 327" we've had since the beginning of the year. (that might be a SLIGHT exaggeration, or not!) I still love snow, but even I, a die hard fan, is having a bit of a tough time with the sheer quantity of it that's been coming our way this year.

I've started researching health insurance plans on the possibility that I may still very well be unemployed at the end of February when my COBRA kicks in. I haven't received the official COBRA letter from my last job, but I suspect it will be more than I can reasonably afford and I'll need to find another alternative. Unless Congress restarts the subsidies from last year. Or John's company magically gets a decent plan that allows for an "individual plus 1" plan (because it's silly expensive to add me to his plan - it has to be a family plan for the 2 of us). And for the first time in my life I have a pre-existing condition and a state law that says I must have insurance, cost be damned.
I've been watching the progress of the icicles on the house lately. They are a dangerous thing of beauty to me (one almost fell on me the other day!). I love how clear they are and how they are all different. So pretty!
A shot of the temperature on Monday. At 9:30 in the morning. Which means it was about -10 when I let the dogs out at 4:30 in the morning. And it warmed up to a whopping 5 by the end of the day. Thank goodness there was no wind! Good times! (NOTE: While I love snow, I don't like really cold weather)
And this is the nut that still crams herself under the coffee table and then tries to stuff her big head through the opening to chastise us and get us to play with her. She's doing her weird growl/chatter in this photo and won't stop until someone acknowledges that she's there. And she'll move from the opening near me to the one near John just so no one feels left out! She's just not right...

John is heading back from Maine today. It was just an overnight, but it was good for me to have some alone time. The past few days have been hard and I'm struggling with the situation I find myself in. The call about a job that was set up on Friday never came. And that was OK because I really suspected that I wasn't truly qualified for the position. But I have applied for a few jobs that are just what I used to do and have heard nothing. I know the process is slow, but it's hard to wait right now. I want to work. I want a job that I can enjoy. I want to be a productive member of society. I am feeling frustrated because it seems that all the jobs are at least an hour away. I don't live in a rural area. It shouldn't be this hard to find a job that doesn't require me being out of the house 12 hours a day. I'm mad because I feel that all my prior work experience means nothing. I worked so hard to get to the level where I worked for the key people in a firm. I am by no means an entry level candidate. But the pickings are slim for anyone who wants to make more than entry level pay. ARGH! I know that things will turn around and that these feelings are just part of the process of dealing with the changes, but I want it all to be better now.

There is a bright part to this time off. This time I have been good about using the time wisely. My kitchen cabinets are on their way to being spectacularly clean and organized. I've taken care of a pile of personal filing that has been growing for a year. Yesterday was the first day in a week that I've kind of dropped the ball on productivity. I ran to drop off John's work FedEx and get a few things at the grocery store. And then it was home for too much computer time and getting set up to do some scrapping. I didn't do much more than organize the things I want to work with, but it's a start and I'll take that.

Today, it's job applying/following up and working on this project: Special Delivery: Share Your Love. I can't think of a better way to use some of my downtime.

Sorry for the epic (and mostly boring) post. It'll get better...

Some visitors from yesterday...

This mountain ash is just outside the window in front of my desk and all day long I get visitors. (The feeder is just around the corner, so it's not really me they're coming to see!). Sometimes one of them will actually sit on the window ledge looking in, but, of course, there's never a camera ready when that happens.

John is home from Maine, the driveway has been plowed and the kitchen cabinets are almost all scrubbed. I installed many new fonts on the computer, did a little filing of recent downloads and purged a bunch of emails. Signed up to take Mouse, Paper, Scissors at Jessica Sprague.com so I can finally learn how to use PSE the way I've wanted to. A productive day that feels good!

Tomorrow John is threatening a visit to the gym for us and then maybe a Sunday drive to an antique store or two. We'll see how cold it gets and how much we feel like being out and about in single digit weather. Maybe I'll do a little scrapping instead, while he plays with the Wii. Lots of possibilities for how to spend the day.

Off to get dinner started (baked fish, couscous w/pine nuts and snow peas). Yum!

A good day...

Despite getting 8" more of snow (the pretty fluffy kind this time) and more or less being stranded until John gets home tomorrow, it was a good day!

I was "crowned" Blog Commenter of the Year at the blog for Meyer Imports. And I'm getting a box of glittery sparkly goodness for it! I'm honored and really would like to look like the lovely girl in the picture they posted! If you love bling, their glitter is amazing and their blog has lots of great ideas and tutorials.

And even better...I was contacted by a recruiter for a very large company that has a location near my house and they are looking for an Intellectual Property Assistant to work with the lawyers there! I've got a preliminary call on Monday. Not getting to excited because even though it's a job in law, it's not my specialty (I've done pretty much all real estate and commercial work), but I'm a quick learner and I've done lots of project management at my prior jobs and that should help. But it felt good to be "found" and even better to have a call set up. The ball is rolling now!