Belly & Buckeyes

Most people in the area planned on a snow day Friday due to this big winter storm/blizzard thing - and they have already called it off in most places. But today was a little bit of a surprise! We got a snow day today too! My school called it kinda late (6:30AM-ish) but apparently it was bad out there. Big Rapids Public Schools didn't close in the morning and ended up closing down early and sent kids home at noon. 

I spent my day doing things around the house. It's days like today I wish our dog could come in the house and keep me company! Since we're renting and the lease clearly states "No pets indoors," and our landlords live right across the road :) , we can't really break that rule. Junebug had to stay in her kennel in the garage. 

Even if my dog couldn't keep me company, my bulging belly did! Ha ha! She was moving around in there a whole lot today!

24 weeks

Zach still had to go to work; he made appointments with customers and they had to install a new tank of some kind at the office - which had to be hauled up way into the air by a crane - which had to be unattached by someone in a harness when it got up there- which happened to be Zach... I don't think I would have worried as much on any other day but with the rain/sleet and high winds today, I was not thrilled to get a picture via text of this huge tank going up into the air... then when he came home he told me that they didn't have a harness so they rented a lift. But the lift didn't go high enough. So they used a ladder on top of that... in the high winds and rain. Good grief!

Later this afternoon I went down to my in-laws and helped make buckeyes! MMMMM! My favorite Christmas treat! Tyler, my brother-in-law, is usually the one in charge of rolling up the little peanut butter balls but since he was living out of state last year, I took over the job. He's since moved back home so we both sat at the kitchen table rolling buckeye balls. Once the chocolate on the stove melted, I dunked them in and put them on a cookie sheet to cool. I had to dip mine into the chocolate because I rolled the balls too big and they kept falling apart & making things difficult on mom. Whoops! They looked small when I rolled them!

Buckeyes

Currently, Zach is in the basement putting a coat of polyurethane on a buffet table we ordered from a local store called "Bare Furniture". The store sells wood items such as tables, beds, end tables and orders everything "bare" aka: no stain or polyurethane. So you either have to pay for them to stain/polyurethane it for you or you do it yourself and since my husband is so handy, he is doing that job in our basement. He must be enjoying it because I can hear him whistling and humming as I sit upstairs on the couch. :) Anyway, the buffet table is a light wood and will go in our kitchen. We commissioned a family friend do a set of paintings (which turned out AMAZING!) for us to hang above it. 

Four Seasons Paintings by Deb Rutkowski

It's a series of four paintings; each canvas is a season with countryside trees or a house or barn or tractors. They're very neat and we're so happy with how they turned out! Can't wait to hang them up!

Yesterday Zach said that if they cancel school Friday then he would take the day off work too - and they did! So we'll both be home tomorrow! This does NOT happen very often at all so I'm very excited. 

Our Christmas Tree - 2012

Well, I'm off to watch the last Christmas movie on our list: The Grinch with Zach. The others included: Elf, Home Alone, and A Christmas Story - which I had never seen until this year. Thanks to Katie & Kyle for renting it and bringing it over while you were here!

Love,

Sarah