Snow Day...

...well not quite. In the traditional sense of the word, that would mean waking up with school canceled and having the whole day to watch it snow, play in the snow, etc. But now I'm all grown up, so Ryan and I braved the snow to get me to work yesterday.

Just follow the white tree-less path and assume that is the road.

The bridge to cross the lake was a bit dangerous...fog, snow, and minimal visibility.

Finally made it to town! And yes, there were some other crazys out...other than us.

Finally at work, this is the view from my desk...I watched it snow all morning (in between seeing patients, of course...).

This is some Gingerbread cocoa...I need to experiment with recreating it...

And this is my best friend at work. With floor to ceiling windows, it gets a bit chilly.

The happy ending is that the clinic closed at noon, and my knight in his North Face jacket came in on his trusty steed (aka the 4-wheel drive truck) to pick me up. We made it home safely and have been snowed-in since...time to make a snowman!

Playing with the new toys...

For Christmas, we got a few new small appliances. Ryan got me a mixer. I got him a deep fryer...healthy, I know. I've used my mixer a few times now. I'm trying new recipes whenever I can. This weekend I decided to try the Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pound Cake. Here it is...the pictures don't to it justice. It has such great flavor and texture. Click on the link for the recipe and try it yourself!

We don't use the deep fryer very often. We try to avoid fried foods when we can, but when we do pull it out, we fry just about everything in sight (it's the consequence of having a husband from South Alabama). On tonight's menu: chicken wings, fried pickles, and fried pepper jack cheese.

Sooo yummy...now excuse me while I go take a Tum's and have a heart attack.

The Only Pics from Disney World

We got back from Orlando one week ago today, and jumped straight into work and school on Monday morning, so I've been absent from the blogging world for long enough, thank you. We had a great time..even though it was probably Orlando's coldest week in recorded history.

Thursday and Friday were spent in Disney World, and since I had never been, I was perfectly content just taking it all in for the short time we were there. We went to the Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom, and I have to say..it really is a MAGICAL place.

I took lots of pictures and videos on my new camcorder, but much to my dismay, it stopped working about midday on Friday. We have finally fixed the camera (turns out it was something wrong with the memory card), but the following are the only pictures I have from my first time at Disney World...tear...sniffle, sniffle...

Here we are at the condo. It was a great place to stay, and it was only a short drive to Disney.

Here's a picture of us runners after the race...and after some hot showers. It was so cold the morning of the race (25 degrees and sleeting at the start of the race, just over freezing and raining by the end of it) that we didn't get any pictures while we were there. You may say, "25 degrees for January isn't too bad, wimps." But remember, we were in ORLANDO...it just isn't fair.

We got some really cool loot at the race...Here are the finisher's medal and race shirt.

Here is a link to a few pictures we could purchase from race day, from the professional photograpers that were scattered all over.

We had so much fun that we hope to do it again next year...even Ryan wants to try to do the half-marathon...even if he has to walk some...I know he can if he puts his mind to it!

When it's 15 degrees outside...and "feels like" 4

This:
Plus this:

Equals a warm fuzzy feeling inside...er maybe that's a way too full feeling...

Hey Reece, here's our Cardinal!

Last night we had dinner with the family for my dad's birthday. Reece, my nephew (5 years old), was wearing his Cardinal baseball shirt. Ryan said, "Hey Reece, guess what...we took a picture of a cardinal today."

To which Reece replied, "Really, where?!?"

"In a tree in our back yard."

Reece politely responded with "REALLY? cool...can I see?" His words were completely appropriate for the situation, but his face was puzzled...I'm pretty sure he had a mental picture of a baseball player perched in a tree in our back yard.

So to clarify....here is our Cardinal, Reece!

Love you,

Snow :)

Snow makes me smile. Here are some still pictures that I took on my run this morning.

I took this for Ryan. There is a wooded area down our road with this sign at the entrance...I think it should belong to him ;).

So purdy...

I love this...the white and green hills...the lake in the distance...the hazy look that the falling snow creates...sigh...

This is the view from our back porch...you've probably seen it in pictures before.

Now excuse me while I go sit on the couch and watch the snow fall 'til it just can't fall anymore.

One last long run...before the race anyway

If you remember, last January I mentioned a little race that Ryan's dad and I registered to run. Well, it's finally almost here. The race is next Saturday (Jan. 9th)...in Disney World! I'm so excited, but since it is a half-marathon (13.1 miles), I needed to get one more long run in this weekend. Friday, I did a bunch around the house, Saturday I went to Harrison with my mom and sis for some shopping...I thought, "Well, I've still got Sunday...I'll have plenty of time to go out and run 6 or 7 miles...no problem." Well, there was a bit of a problem...about 3 inches of snow...and counting. I wanted to get out and take some pictures of the snow anyway, so I toted my new video camera along with me to share some of my snowy run.

Here, I just climbed my first hill...there were tire tracks to run in, but the packed snow was even more slippery than the fluffy stuff!


Here is were I made it back to where I was in the last video...my foot prints were already starting to fade because the snow just kept fallin'.


Finally back home...snotty nosed, and ready for a hot shower!


I ran for an hour and 19 minutes...with my 10 minutes/mile pace that translates to almost 8 miles...probably just a little less since I stopped to take a few pictures :).

I'm going to post some still pictures soon...the snow is just so pretty!