Where's the snow?

We have been watching the weather for days, awaiting the snow they said would come. We did see a little snow, but the majority of what we saw was freezing rain and sleet. When I got up yesterday morning and turned on the television, the schools were already closed. When Courtney woke up she was a little confused to be getting up and the sun already being up. When I told her school was closed she got really excited. She went to the door and looked outside and she looked disappointed. She wanted to know where all the snow was and I told her to be patient it would come. She got to go to her Granny and PaPa's to spend the day and ended up spending the night too, which made up for the lack of snow yesterday..

I took pictures yesterday as it started to fall and throughout the day documenting the progress. Then we woke up this morning to what looks like a winter wonderland. I stepped outside and took a few more pictures I've included in this post. It is very pretty outside, but it is mainly ice. There is some snow on top, which I'm sure we will get out in at some point and time today to play in.

I had noticed yesterday while the freezing rain and sleet came pouring down on us that the top of my bird feeder had blown over in the wind. There was no bird seed left in it, so I didn't try to fix it. It was amazing to see the amount of sleet the bird feeder collected over the day yesterday. I, of course, had to take a picture. Now you can see about how much ice we have. So far, the power is still on, which we are very grateful for, and it's time for some hot coffee.

Stay warm out there.

To be or not to be? That is the question.

Let's go back about five years to set the stage for this blog post. I was working at the pharmacy as the Billing Manager and Stacy worked for the competitor. An opportunity arose for him to come and work for the same pharmacy as I was and he took it. Not because I worked there, but because it was a good opportunity. We worked together for a couple of years until September 2007 when I lost my job. It was a very difficult time for me, but had an amazing support system that helped me get through it. Stacy stayed at the pharmacy and I stayed at home with the kids. I have been a stay at home mom now for a little over two years, which is trying at times being with the kids all day and night, but well worth it.

Stacy was approached a while back about a position open at another company not related to pharmaceuticals. He decided at that time not to pursue this opportunity. At the beginning of December 2009 he was approached about this position a second time, this time he decided to give it some thought. At the same time the General Manager at the pharmacy resigned. Stacy has said for years that he would like to be the General Manager at the pharmacy. After he heard of this, he came home and we talked it over and decided he should at least let his interest be known. The month of December and beginning of January became a little stressful trying to weigh the options of both opportunities before him.

During the month of December the higher ups at the pharmacy decided to make a few changes and offered him the opportunity to be the General Manager, but the money wasn't there. After turning down the job, they came back and said they could offer him the Pharmacy Manager position and this way he could learn more about the financial side of things and be more prepared if the General Manager position became available again. Once again it was time to weigh the options.

Our main concern with him taking the other job, was insurance. We would have to get a private insurance policy just in case and none of the pre-existing stuff would be covered. So, no medicine or doctor appointments related to needing the medicine would be covered. Stacy and Courtney both take medicine daily and I should as well, but I am awful about it, so there would be an added expense until the new insurance kicked in, three months later. Also, he would lose his vacation and sick time he had built up over the past several years and would be starting from scratch all over again. I was relieved when he accepted the position, because I did not want to have to mess with all the insurance stuff, especially with two doctor appointments scheduled for the kids in February. $$$$$

After much soul searching he decided to accept the Pharmacy Manager position at the beginning of January. Last Thursday it was made official to the staff at the pharmacy and the new General Manager starts today. I needed to wait to post this information until after everyone at the pharmacy had been notified.

So, I feel like after two years of wondering why I needed to lose my job, I finally have an answer. I'm a firm believer in all things happen for a reason and I feel this is the reason. If I was still employed at the pharmacy, I would have needed to quit or he would not have been able to have this opportunity, instead we just had to wait things out. He even informed me last night, that his office is my old office and now it's time to decorate. I had already printed out a couple of pictures of the kids and put them in a hinged frame for his desk, which he was to take with him today.

Congratulations Stacy! We are proud of you!

The Tale of the Persimmon Seed

My mother-in-law was talking not long ago about an old wives tale regarding the Persimmon seed. I had not heard of this so I was curious, especially when she said they have been used to predict the type of winter we will have. The tale states the seed will have inside of it one of three shapes; a fork, a knife or a spoon. The fork represents a mild winter, the knife a bitter cold winter or stabbing winter and the spoon represents lots of snow to be shoveled.

After hearing her tell us and realizing our neighbor had a Persimmon tree, we had to check it out. My husband went about a month ago, got a seed and opened it. I could not believe the perfect shape of a spoon inside. I wasn't thinking at the time about writing about it, so I didn't take any pictures. I started thinking about it today after listening to the weather and the impending winter weather advisory and storm we are expected to get in a couple of days. So, here it is, a picture of a Persimmon seed I just went and picked up from my neighbors yard and opened. As you can see there is a spoon shape inside. I guess I will have to do this again around this time next year and see if the shape inside is any different, but for now this is what we have. I guess we will see if this holds true or not.

Courtney's glasses

Well to say the least last night was not a good night at our house. After I had asked Courtney to stop playing with her glasses and put them on or put them up she kept on and they broke. I was not happy since I had just asked her to stop, but the punishment she gave herself I think was worse than anything I could have given her. She cried for hours and even asked me to tape them back together so she could wear them. Oh the joys of a six year old learning responsibility. She said she was afraid everyone at school would laugh at her for breaking her glasses, which of course my first thought was it's usually the other way around kid, but I did say that I just told her it would be okay. She then asked if I could take her to the eye doctor so she could get her new glasses last night. After explaining to her that they are not open all night, she finally settled down. This morning after her usual "Good Morning Sunshine Mommy" she apologized again for breaking her glasses. I got her off to school and talked to her teacher before I left to let her know what had happened. I then took Carson and went to the eye doctor, which was not a fun trip, but we made it. They were able to order her a new pair, which I hope will be in on Friday and they were even still under warranty so I didn't have to pay a dime. Thank God! I told her this afternoon when I picked her up that I had taken the broken ones in and they were ordering her a new pair. She was very insistent that they be the very same pair. I told her they should look the same, but from now on she needs to take better care of her glasses. I have to say though, I have broken a pair or two of glasses in my day. This is the second time these have been broken in the 15 months shes had them. Hopefully she has learned her lesson and we won't have to go through all this drama again. She looks like such a different child without her glasses, it's amazing how something so small can make such a difference.

Update on Carson

The past few weeks have been pretty big for our little guy. First the passy went away and he hasn't even asked for it, which I am very thankful for. Since the passy has gone away he has started saying more words you can actually understand. He says "peas" which of course means please, he has said Momma a few times, but not all the time, "shocks" for socks, shoes, chips, game, show, choo choo train and has started saying the names of the characters he likes to watch on tv. He likes to play games on my IPod and is quite good at them. When we wants to play he will come and point to my IPod and say "game peas". I can already tell I'm in trouble. He has the cutest look on his face when he wants something and says please. It's hard to deny him, but I know that there are times I have too. His vocabulary has really increased lately, for which I am grateful. I finally got in touch with the place that will do his speech therapy today and my next meeting with them will be February 3rd. Hopefully, after that we can get him started.
This past week I finally put my foot down and told him he was a big boy and needed to use the potty and there would be no more diapers. I really felt like he was ready to try this again since he was telling me no when it came time to change his diaper. He didn't say it every time, but enough that I finally said okay let's do this thing. Last Wednesday after I took Courtney to school I put him in big boy underwear. He wasn't real sure at first, but put them on. He has several accidents but we made it through the day. I let him sleep in his big boy pants that night and prayed he stayed dry and he did. The next day we had fewer #1 accidents, but still had work to do. By day three he only had one #1 accident. Now, he has been in big boy pants for five full days and is coming to let me know when he has to go without me having to ask every few minutes. He even came and got me when he had to go #2, but still isn't sure about doing that on the potty. Hopefully, he will get the hang of things and we will be accident free soon. He hasn't had a diaper on at all, but I still have a few just in case something was to happen. I'm hoping that this will be the end of diaper changing days for me and I have to say he is one of the cutest little boys in a pair of "tighty whities" you have ever seen.