Record snowfall

Last week Justin had 3 days worth of training in Dallas. Luckily, it just so happened that I was scheduled to give a test on Wednesday night, so I got a sub and we all headed up to my parents' Monday night when I was done with class. I hate getting subs when I actually have material to teach - they never teach what I ask them to so I try really hard to only miss class if there is an exam.

We knew it was going to be cold while we were up there, but on Tuesday we learned that it might snow on Wednesday night or on Thursday. Wednesday night the weather people said that we should expect about 1 inch of snow during the night and maybe another 1 - 3 inches on Thursday.

When Jacob woke up sometime around 5am everything outside was covered in maybe an inch of two of snow. It was kind of exciting because now that we are in the Houston area we never get to see snow on the ground. In fact, even though it snowed at our house a little the beginning of December, none of it stuck.

When Jacob woke up again around 7:30, this is what it looked like just outside of the house:

A couple hours later, as it approached naptime for Jacob, I decided that we couldn't pass up the opportunity to take him out to play in the snow. I dressed him in layers but sadly didn't have any gloves for him (why would I? We live in Houston!!!).

As soon as I tried to stand him up outside, he went down on all fours and started crying, probably because the snow was so cold on his hands.

My dad made a snowman and kept trying to get Jacob to stand up next to it, but he refused to stand up on his own.

FYI - if your yard is covered in leaves when it snows, then your snowman ends of covered in leaves.

Jacob was outside "playing" for no more than 5 minutes, but he made it very clear to us that he was done.

Colby couldn't make his mind about the snow, he went back and forth between loving to run around in it and then not wanting to be outside.

It continued to snow ALL DAY LONG. The next day they said that a new record had been set at DFW for the most snowfall in a 24 hour period - 12.5 inches. I attended BYU for 4 years. I'm pretty sure I never saw it snow so much in one day until last Thursday.

Work in progress

Lately when I look around my house I think of all the things I want to change. For instance - when we first moved into our house we had no desire to paint any of the rooms, but now I am getting sick of the cream-colored walls that I see in every room. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I spend so much time at home these days.

We painted our half-bath a year after we moved into the house and didn't do a spectacular job on it and we kind of left the idea of painting behind us. Then we were very happy that Justin's aunt and uncle offered to do the work and paint Jacob's room for us. But after I made very frequent comments about wanting to paint other rooms and even went and got some color swatches we decided that it was time.

We started with the living room and dining room, but I have already picked out colors for the family room as well. The color we chose is called Tangy and is a dark yellow color. Here is the view from our front door:

Once we get around to it, we will have pictures hanging up in the dining room.

The view from the other corner of the living room:

One view from our dining room:

And the other angle into our living room from the dining room:

Not only do we have plans to paint the family room but I have a list of things I still want to do in the living room and dining room. In no set order:

• Get a bookshelf to go on the left side of the piano. Oh yeah - I have a piano!!! We got it used from someone at church (we got it just a week ago). It needs to be tuned and the keys are pretty yellow, but it is beautiful and and has a good sound to it. (Which means - something to add to my list of things to do is to learn to play the piano.)
  

• Get curtain rods and get my curtains made. Yeah - you can see the bolts of fabric standing up in the corner of the living room in a couple of the pictures. Fabric to make curtains for the living room, family room and our master bedroom. And ideally to make a valence for the dining room. Yes, this is the same fabric I bought 3 years ago. Maybe if I knew how to sew I would be more on top of getting my curtains done.

• In a dream world, we would get a new couch and chair for the living room. But we don't so as of right now I want to get a slipcover for that gross looking plaid love seat that I bought almost 11 years ago.

• Recover the chairs for the dining room table to match the unmade curtains.

• As stated already in this post, put pictures up in the dining room.
  

Maybe in another 3 years my living room and dining room will be finished.