Painting the kitchen

We've had paint swatches up for months, it was finally time to chose and start clearing out the kitchen

Edging the ceiling and outlets

We chose the green, think it's going to look great!

And where is miss Barkley? Hanging out on the new couch....she hates home improvement....:)

Just a little bit of snow

With moving plans for China and some other things that came up, Brandon and I decided to stay home rather than go to Hawaii - we'll get there one day, for a nice long vacation, rather than a squeezed 10 days. So we decided to have a bit of a staycation instead, painting the kitchen (maybe even the living rooms.....but i'm skeptical that will get done too!), playing in the snow. We've had quite the snow dumping the last few days, there's barely anyplace to put the snow at the end of the driveway today! 

Barkley for scale!

Digging out! 

The sunshine helped clear the cars

We have a beautiful christmas tree at the end of the street, so pretty in the snow. 

Our drive into town. 

Snow day!

That Nor-easter hit with a vengeance! We probably had around 10 inches come down, followed by rain and ice which packed it down to a solid, and heavy, 6 inches....but it's still snowing! There is a respite today, then tomorrow afternoon we're set for another 6-8 inches - weeeeeee!

The best part too is we bought a new couch with some left over Xmas money! My first ever 'grown-up' couch (i.e. one that isn't a futon). Our friends spotted it at a local place in their bargain basement, so we went and checked it out on monday, and yes, it's perfect! A corner couch....finally enough room for both me and the Barkley! Brandon could even possibly fit too.....

Hiatus

Sorry for the long hiatus - I can't believe Jan 1st was the last time I posted! Really, it's because there's not been too much to share. Lots of work, lots of snow (yay!) and lots of sitting in front of the fireplace (some of us closer than others). Everyone has been well, Barkley Bear has had a few wobbles here and there, but some tweaks in her medication have sorted it through. Brandon twisted his knee last weekend when we went with our friends to Lost Valley, a ski area just an hour away. He's healing, but the snow shoveling isn't helping him....:)

And in just over a week we're off to Hawaii, mostly for a vacation, but I do have a day or two of work to do as well. We'll stay on Oahu with our friends Jenny and Doug for most of the time, but will do a 5 day hop around the Big Island. From there though Brandon flies home and I fly to China on a ten day work trip. I'll be choosing next years Chinese students to come to our Semester by the Sea at the Darling Center. So exciting, i've never been to China ever and our school director found a day in the schedule for me to take a tour of Xiamen and of Shanghai!

So lots of things coming up, including a big Nor-Easter on Thursday threatening even more snow! We're just about out of places on the driveway to put it at this point!