Better Late than Never

Here are a few more pictures from the cousins visit. We went to the Natural History Museum and saw the dinosaurs and the big elephant and then rolled to Georgetown, we went to the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport (on a side note, this is Leo's ultimate favorite museum and he wanted to take everyone on a tour of the museum. He was so excited to present the space shuttle to Auntie Heather, Ethan and Riley), on Saturday we Thanksgiving and on Sunday we went to the Baltimore Aquarium and saw the cool sting rays, sea turtle with one fin, sharks, and a super Dolphin show.

Here are a few more pictures from our visit.

Here is a picture of the boys getting ready to head out for the day. We rented a small car during the visit so I usually drove the big boys and Jason usually drove the little guys. We rocked it in the rental car.

 The boys at the aquarium. The Baltimore Aquarium is pretty fun. The Dolphin Show is the best part of the Aquarium. I also really love the sting rays pool. Ethan and Riley were excited to see the Sharks.

 The boys played out on the tennis courts and the playground that are in the back of our house.
 They played soccer, rolled cars down the slide and played on the swings.

 We went to this restaurant in Baltimore before we went to the Aquarium and apparently they thought it was a good business plan to open a restaurant where the waiters are rude and treat customers badly. It was pretty funny and we had a great time but I thought this was kind of risky. What if people don't want to be back talked by their waiter, get their own food, and where a hat that says "I'm a world champion booger-eater".

 This is a side ways picture of Ethan, Riley and Leo at the Aquarium. Just lean your head to the left.

 Here is another picture at the Aquarium. We are waiting for the Dolphin Show to start.

At the end of the trip we were all sad that they were leaving. We had tears a few times but we had a really great time and look forward to their next visit.

We were happy that Riley's black eye and Leo's goose egg had faded and they made it home safely. Their trip sounds like a bit of nightmare since they came home to snow, snow, snow. It took them hours to get home from the airport when it should have only taken 20 minutes. I told Heather please don't let your travel home affect your decision to travel to DC again!

Snow Update: Part III

Snowmaggedon 2010. Aidan's school has been cancelled through the remainder of the week and they had a scheduled day off to celebrate President's Day on the upcoming Monday. As you can imagine he was thrilled when they closed school for the rest of the week. He is starting to realize, however that the more school he gets off now the longer he has to stay at the end of the school year so he is excited but I think it is with mixed feelings. We are also off work today though I have been doing some work at home. I have to say that it has allowed me to actually get work done that I wouldn't normally have time to do in the office so in some ways this snow is just what I needed. I think others are thinking the same thing. I have 5 long evaluation reports that I had to read over the last two weeks and I just couldn't find time in the office to do it. I have finished 2.5 and will finish another 1.5 today. It is a huge relief to be honest.

Back to the snow report, Tuesday night we were expecting blizzard like conditions and another 8-12 feet of snow. It started to snow in the early evening around 6pm last night. It was very light and barely covered the car and the street. If it weren't for the 8-10 ft snow banks leftover from the weekend the snow would be nothing too spectacular.

Start of the snow Tuesday, February 9th at 8:55pm

At about 9am on Wednesday, February 10th it is snowing much harder, the wind gust are between 20 and 46 miles per hour depending on where you are and the visibility is down to 1/10 of a mile. Occasionally we can hear these huge gusts of wind and see the snow falling out of the trees and I am talking about huge amounts of snow because it is leftover from the last storm. I'm feeling a little nervous about losing our power but (knock on wood) we still have it.

Snowmaggedon: Wednesday, February 10th at 8:50am

As of this morning our car is covered with about 4-5 inches of snow and the roads are completely covered with snow. Just to give you some idea about road coverage, our parking area was plowed about an hour earlier and you still can not see the road way. They are telling everyone to stay inside. There are McDonald's and Starbucks which are staying closed for the entire day. Right now (at 9:51am) we are getting hit hard with snow.

Entertainment during the Blizzard of 2010. We have computers and Iron Man.

We are trying to figure out ways to entertain ourselves. I am updating the blog, Aidan is playing Wizard101 on the computer, Leo is playing with Iron Man and now Leo and Jason are playing Wii Lego Star Wars. I think I will make some white chicken chili today which sounds nice and warm and hearty (see recipe on the side bar-it's one of my favorites) and maybe we will make some cookies.

Snow Update: Part II

Terracotta Warriors Exhibit, National Geographic Museum

A couple of weeks ago we bought tickets to an exhibit at the National Geographic Museum called Terracotta Warriors. We also bought Jesse a ticket because he was supposed to be here too.

Here is a brief description:
Soldiers. Charioteers. Archers. Musicians. Generals. Acrobats. Nearly 2,000 years ago, thousands of life-size clay figures were buried in massive underground pits to accompany China's first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, into the afterlife. Their discovery outside the city of Xi'an in 1974 is one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20 century.

Since we have been couped up inside for a couple of days we thought we should venture out and see the exhibit. If the exhibit staff could get to the museum (OMG did I mention my office was closed today?!?!) certainly we could make it to the museum right? We did have a few obstacles in our way. Obstacle #1: Metro was only running underground. That means the metro closest to us was closed so we had to drive three metro stops toward the city before we could get on. I had heard on the news that Wisconsin Ave was pretty clear but that was SO untrue. The roads were a bit of a mess. They still had at least an inch of snow in many places, there was slush and standing water every where and 15 foot mounds of snow every where too. After jumping puddles and stomping in the slush we made it to the metro. No problem. Down in the metro was Obstacle #2: the metro was only running every 30 minutes. Okay no problem: we are prepared parents with electronics (1 Nintendo DS and 1 Ipod please).

Leo, Terracotta Warrior, and Amy at the National Geographic Museum

We made it to the Museum 30 minutes before our schedule time but they told us no problem because they were letting anyone in that could make it downtown. The exhibit was very interesting and the boys seemed to like it as well. We got 1 audio tour and took turns listening to different areas. Leo was listening to something where they made mention of the "milky way" and was stuck on that and telling everyone who would listen about the "milky way". As many of you know Leo loves space! We also looked at a photograph of the actual site of the Terracotta Warriors where they were excavating and he asked if there was a "rover" on that planet. We told him that it looked like Mars with the waves of land but that it was here, on our planet Earth, in China. Very cute!

Aidan and Leo playing one of the Terracotta Warrior interactive computer games

After the museum we went to Bertucci's in Dupont Circle for lunch. We were the only people in the restaurant for most of the time. On our way home we were interviewed by abc news but unfortunately we didn't make it on. I guess we just were not exciting enough to make it. Cute most definitely, exciting I guess not!

We finally made it home. We stopped at the REI because I could really use some snow boots and they had NOTHING. The boots I have are getting my feet totally wet so I am looking for something warm and waterproof. I may go out in the morning to find something else because, brace yourself here, we are supposed to get 10-15 more inches of snow!!! I know! It is unbelievable. I just don't know where we are going to put it. Our island outside our house has 15 feet of snow piled on it. We have the same amount on the bench to the right of our house. I can not imagine where we are going to put this snow.

Aidan doesn't have school tomorrow and they have just announced that my office is closed tomorrow as well. The snow is supposed to begin around noon tomorrow. We will keep you all up to date on what is going on.

On the down side, I have had WAY too much time to watch QVC. I want to buy everything. Don't worry. I have not bought anything but I can't tell you how tempted I am. I wanted to buy the TSV (Today's Special Value) but I am resisting. Jason thinks I'm insane because I am torturing myself but I just can't help it!

Snow update

Here we have chronicled the snow fall through pictures starting yesterday evening and going through lunch time today. We woke up around 8am and opened our front door to about 18inches of snow. We couldn't even get the door open without shoving snow out of the way. You can see more from the pictures below.

Yesterday, Friday night at 7:34pm

Yesterday, Friday night at 10:17pm

We went to bed very excited in anticipation of the snow. On the news they said it would look very different in the morning compared to what it looked like when we went to bed. They sure were right!

Today, Saturday morning at 7:57am

Today, Saturday afternoon at 12:37pm (after shoveling out our car and part of our sidewalk)

We went outside around 11am this morning to check it all out. The snow is very deep. We have about 22 inches now. We went for a walk around the neighborhood. There are few cars on the road except for the snow plows. Even the busy street outside our house is covered in snow although they have been plowing all morning. We tried to find a good hill to sled on but didn't have a lot of luck. The hill in the back is not such a good sledding hill anymore because there are tree branches down all over the place. We are (and I hate to write this for fear of jinxing it) very lucky in that we still have power. Apparently 90% of the people in our zip code are without power, including Doris.

Today, Saturday afternoon at 12:37pm (our back porch)

During our walk we decided to walk home on the trail that goes under the street (near the pond) but we didn't make it there at all. I got stuck in the snow! I tried to get out of the street to walk towards the trail and fell over face first in the snow. I reached my hands down to push myself up on all fours but the snow went up to my shoulders and my face was planted in the snow! I was cracking up and tried to turn over on my back but still couldn't get up. I had fallen and I couldn't get up! Jason had to come and rescue me but it was even hard for him to reach me because the snow was up to his knees. We decided to stick to the street and walk home which was probably a good idea.

This morning for breakfast we made some sausage and banana chocolate chip muffins. We gave the rest of our muffins to the poor guys who are outside shoveling all the walks in our complex. They work so amazingly hard all day and all night plowing our complex and shoveling our walks.

We are really enjoying the winter storm of 2010!

It's the Big One

Gracie and Leo Bust a Move

This past weekend we did a prep run for the big snow that we are expecting this weekend. Allen, Marcia, Gracie and Sabrina came over to sled, play in the snow, eat cheese, drink hot chocolate, and bust a move. As you can see from the video the kids had a great time dancing around. We were dancing to Bust a Move as sung on the TV show Glee. Cha and Doris love Glee, they got me into it, I got Marcia into it on our trip to Philly, she got Allen into after she got home and I got Jason into it. If you haven't seen it you should download a few episodes from iTunes and believe me you will be hooked.

Sabrina eating cheese

Anyhoo, that was a TV show tangent. We have fun with them. The kids had fun sledding. Gracie cruised down the big hill though I'm pretty sure she was supposed to stop before going down the big hill. Sabrina went down with a neighborhood 2-year old and they seemed to have fun. After they wore themselves out outside, they came in and had chocolate and of course marshmallows. Leo likes to take one bite of the mallow and hand it to me. Can you say "Sticky!" Gracie said about Aidan, "He is bigger than me, but he still let's me play with me." It was very cute.

Gracie Bustin' a Move

Jason and Allen chillin' after a hard day in the snow. I mean really, who doesn't love a Negra Modelo?

So now we are supposed to get a ton of snow dumped on us. This is the announcement that I received from Montgomery Country on the expected snow fall:


-----Original Message-----From: Alert Montgomery [mailto:msg4319@alertmc.info]Sent: Friday, February 05, 2010 10:24 AMTo: Alert Montgomery Users Subject: Alert Montgomery

The National Weather Service has increased the amount of snow predicted for Montgomery County to 20 - 28 inches. To assist the county in clearing streets of snow the Montgomery County Department of Transportation is requesting residents limit on street parking to areas where off street parking is unavailable. Please park in driveways and off street as available. This will facilitate snow removal operations.
Thank You

Of course everyone is going crazy. The stores are packed and people can't get enough Milk, Cheese, and toilet paper. Do people really not have enough tp to get them through the weekend? Doris went to the grocery store three times. Jason went and said that some guy whooped in the store because he finally found ground beef! I think it is slightly bad as well because people are trying to prepare for the superbowl. Here is a picture Jason took with his camera when he was at the grocery store. This is the cheese isle:

Who knew that cheese was a storm staple?

Today I worked at home because of the impending snow storm and because I had a meeting with a contractor that is about 1 mile from my house. They had early release from school and a four hour early release from my work. Of course because I was teleworking I didn't benefit from the extra four hours. Hardly seems fair but I guess that it the whole point right? I think it was the right thing to do. You don't really want a bunch of crazy panicked people exiting the city at dark. That would be quite disaster.

Sadly this amazing storm has meant that Jesse couldn't come visit us. He tried to change his ticket to leave on Thursday but that didn't work out and then he got on an earlier flight on Friday but that just ended up getting cancelled as well. It seems that all flights to DC were cancelled today. We are totally bummed and we know he is too. We just hope that he gets to visit us in nice DC weather when we can take him out to see the sites. Aidan was terribly disappointed. I think he was looking forward to having someone to pound on properly! His old dad is just to fragile :)

We will keep you posted with regular updates on the awesome snow storm.

New Recipe and Wednesday

Last night we got about 5 inches of snow. I was hoping for a day off of work at the very least a 2 hour delay. I brought work home and my computer fully expecting to be out a day. Completely preparing myself for not being able to make it in.

As I am laying in bed this morning at about 6:30am, just starting to wake up, I am thinking "oh please, oh please, oh please let us be closed today". Jason was already awake and I know he already knows but I am afraid to ask him for fear of being disappointed but I have to know. Imagine my disappointment when I hear we are on "unscheduled leave" which basically means nothing -- well okay something -- you can ask for the day off without advance notice. What a royal bummer. I ended up staying home anyway working for part of morning and then taking the rest of the afternoon off because I had a doctor's appointment around lunch time.

Aidan had the day off and he was thrilled. After my doctor's appointment, Jason went to the movies. He went to see "Up in the Air". He won't tell anyone about it and just says, "you'll have to wait to read the blog". I'm still waiting for the review of "Youth in Revolt" and "Avatar". By next Oscars we should get a good review of the movies for this years Oscars :)

I tried a new recipe tonight. It was really flavorful and hearty and quite good. I give it 4 out 5 stars. Here is the recipe:

Smothered Beans with Leeks and Collard Greens

Ingredients
1 cup dried Great Northern beans
1/4 cup dried pinto beans
1 quart water
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups thinly sliced leeks (about 2 large)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, divided
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 pound collard greens, chopped
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped

Preparation
Sort and wash beans; place in a large saucepan. Cover with water to 2 inches above beans; cover and let stand 8 hours. Drain beans. Add 1 quart water and return beans to pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes. Cool. Drain beans in a colander over a bowl, reserving cooking liquid; set beans aside. Add enough water to cooking liquid to equal 3 cups; set aside.

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add leeks, oregano, 1 teaspoon salt, and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until leeks are tender. Reduce heat to low; cover and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer leek mixture to a large bowl; add greens. Toss well to combine.
Place half of greens mixture in bottom of Dutch oven; top with beans. Spread remaining greens mixture over beans. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Pour reserved liquid over greens. Cover and simmer over medium heat 1 hour or until beans are tender, stirring once. Uncover and stir in tomatoes; simmer 10 minutes.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 153 (24% from fat)
Fat: 4.1g (sat 0.6g,mono 2.5g,poly 0.6g)
Protein: 7.5g
Carbohydrate: 24g
Fiber: 7.8g
Cholesterol: 0.0mg
Iron: 2.3mg
Sodium: 382mg
Calcium: 158mg

Cooking Light, JANUARY 2002

I used can beans because I can never prepare well enough in advance. Since I didn't have the bean liquid I just used leftover low-sodium chicken broth and water which worked great. I also used diced tomatoes and not whole. Who needs the extra step of cutting? It's good. I had a lot of leftovers but it will be good for lunch. The kids were not fans but we really liked it.

We may get up to 24 inches of snow this weekend. We're a bit concerned because cousin Jesse is coming to visit us on Friday. Aidan can not wait for him to arrive. He keeps asking when he is coming. It is very cute.

We've got snow!

The weather channel was right! We got snow. I'm not sure what time it started but the boys took a shower upstairs, got dressed and ran downstairs at about 10am and yelled "mom! look outside!" and the parking lot was covered with snow. It was amazing. Let me just back up a little bit by saying the boys were upstairs playing while I was downstairs cooking breakfast (Jason was at work) and they come downstairs completely naked asking if they can take a shower. It was very funny. Apparently, they had also cleaned out our shower buck naked as well. Boys!

Today we have relaxed, lounged in the living room, watched QVC Bare Essentuals, made oatmeal m&m cookies (we don't have any chocolate in the house because Jason apparently made 4 smores yesterday in the microwave) and now I am making split pea soup with our ham bone from Christmas (it was frozen). It is such a good day for lounging. Jason got home about 2pm and now the boys are all outside playing in the snow. They immediately went outside and flopped down and covered themselves in snow. Let me also say it is so incredibly cold. It is about 18 degrees out today! FREEZING.

Snow?!?!

So, I hear we are supposed to get some snow this weekend. Sometime mid-afternoon through the evening it should fall. Apparently only 2-4 inches but areas South of here (Thotlady and Bogey) are supposed to get upwards of 10 inches. Why can't the winds change to bring a lot more here? And can you please, please tell me why the snow always comes on Friday or Saturday and not during the week where I could possibly get the day off or at the very least I would settle for a "2-hour delay". I mean really is that too much to ask for.

Not a lot planned for the weekend. Jason is supposed to work tomorrow (not too long) and Doris may come over to scrapbook Saturday evening after the boys go to bed and other than that no plans. Tonight I didn't get home from work until 8pm (I know) but when I got in the car Leo asked if we could sleep on the blow up bed so we are going to sleep in the living room tonight.

Today, Aidan took another spelling test and got 100% correct (10/10). Hello! Look at that penmanship. He studied really hard and it paid off. We are searching for a preschool for Leo that is affordable (not an easy task) and hmm...what else? That's about it.

Still no doggy.

Ahem, where is Jason's movie review blog?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!! We had a very fun New Year. We rented a cabin in Belle Isle Virginia State Park. The State Parks actually rent cabins! Actually it was called a guest house because it was next to a mansion that could also be rented. The cabin slept 8, well actually, probably 9 but we had 8.5. Barb and Dennis, Thotlady, Bogey and Bramwell (cute dog in the pictures) and us 4. Thotlady found it and it was a bit of a risk because none of us had scene it before but it was fantastic! It has a well stocked kitchen, big family room and big dining room. It had one bedroom with double bed, one with bunks beds with the bottom bunk a double bed and the two couches in the living room folded out into beds (our room). It was right on the water. The back of the house is literally 5-10 feet from the water. Belle Isle is bordered by Deep Creek (where our cabin looked out on to), Mulberry Creek and the Rappahannock River.


As you can see we work up to beautiful views out on the creek and in the distance beyond we could see the enormous Rappahannock River. There were a ton of birds surrounding us and we went for walks every day. The last day, January 2, 2010 was freezing cold, unbearably cold but the other days were cold but great.

We took walks in the State Park which we pretty much owned because there was no one else staying in the park while we were there. We played cards, a little old maid, 31, and phase-10. We had lots of snacks (I love snacks) and ate great meals. We each took a meal time. I made chicken enchiladas and rice on New Years, Thotlady made Monkey muffins (yum-o), Barb made Lasagna and Jason made pancakes in the morning.

The cabin had a DVD player and direct TV so we watched Night at the Museum and started to watch Harry Potter, Half-Blood Prince and to my chagrin but in Crow's honor Sponge Bob.

When I asked Aidan what his favorite part of the cabin was he said the "shells". We found some really pretty oyster shells and other shellfish. We saw lots of birds but not a lot of other wildlife but we did see evidence of their existence including deer droppings, deer tracks, and other four-legged animal tracks.

December 31, 2009. Arrival at the cabin. It was quite foggy the day we arrived but beautiful nonetheless

Jason and Leo on our nature walk

The boys searching for shells

Amy playing solitare

Happy New Year everyone! We wish you a wonderful, peaceful, healthy and happy New Year!

Snow Update

Well it looks like we now have about 20 inches!

Snow, Snow, and More and More and More Snow

Yahowza! It is snowing so much! The snow started at about 9pm last night and has not really let up. It is supposed to continue through tomorrow morning. Right now (on Saturday, at 2:05pm) we have about 15 inches. They say we should get 14-20 inches! They have been talking about this snow storm for the last couple of days. They said, "it's a record breaker!" By "they" I mean the weather people on the news. Now, I love, love, love the snow. It is so beautiful, lights up the sky, and there is nothing more fun than playing in the snow.

Aidan laying in the snow. The boys liked laying in the snow. They also liked to purposefully fall down in the snow.

Last night was our 10th Anniversary. Yes. I said, "10th Anniversary!" (I am getting to the snow story). Oma and Opa are here so Jason and I went out to dinner. We went to the Blue Duck Tavern in the Park Hyatt Hotel. It was a delicious meal and wonderful dining experience. Jason had the braised beef short rib and I had the crab cakes. For dessert, we both had ice cream. Jason had vanilla with homemade caramel sauce and I had the mascarpone fig ice cream. It was superb! Thanks to Cha for the recommendation! Oh and no big deal but the restaurant is also where the Obama's celebrated their anniversary. Back to the snow...in one second. I have the best husband in whole entire world. I couldn't be more happy with our marriage. I feel so lucky that Jason picked me to spend the rest of his life with. Okay SNOW...after dinner around 9pm it started to snow and we decided to go the shopping mall to pick a few last minute things without the boys. We stayed for about an hour and when we left, already the ground and the main roads where covered in snow. The big red car did not do so well in the snow. The tires were spinning and spinning up the hill and we were barely moving. I was a little worried that we would not make it home. But we did, thank you big red car.



Jason is doing the hand measurement on the back of the car.

Today the boys went out in the snow. They must have stayed out there for 1.5 hours. In some places the snow was up to Leo's knees. They threw snowballs at Jason and went sledding. Jason went down with Leo and I went down we Aidan. We laughed the whole way down. The sledding hill was about a 20 degree decline and then had about 75 degree decline between two trees ending in front of the tennis court fence. After the first run Leo declared that he wanted to go by himself. I said, "no" because it's too steep and he could run into a tree or the fence but he kept begging to go so I finally gave in. He and Aidan did it all by themselves! It was hilarious. They can be fearless sometimes.

Snow on the back porch at about 2pm.

Oma and Opa were planning to go back down to Richmond tomorrow. I don't think they will make it. Let's see what Monday looks like!

Yeah...SNOW!!!

Busy Week

We have had a busy week and a half with Crow here. The boys have been having a great time with Crow or as Leo calls her "Tow". Crow has been teaching Aidan how to play Lego Indiana Jones or wait, maybe Aidan has been teaching Crow. They have been playing Candy Land, cards, dominoes, Legos, ball, reading books and they worked outside raking leaves. Most importantly, we had a super great Thanksgiving dinner. I forgot how much I love a really good turkey dinner.

On Friday, we went to the Aquarium which was great fun! When we first moved to the DC area, Jason and I were never really impressed with the B'more aquarium. We thought it was way overpriced and overrated. But we have changed our mind. They have added a number of new exhibits including a jellyfish exhibit, Dolphin show and Australian exhibit and it is fun and impressive. Crow even liked it.

Crow has done some serious Christmas shopping which has been great for me as well because I have gotten a lot of my Christmas done as well! I still need to make a list but I don't think I have much left to buy. How great is that?!

Today we ate a delicious lunch at Mario's (don't be jealous Pa and Sarah!). Crow and I split a "Lefty's special" and the boys had pizza. For dinner, Crow made us chili which we now have frozen for dinners later in the year. And today we put up a lot of Christmas decorations. We put up just about everything but the Christmas tree. It was great! Crow, Leo and I put the decorations up outside and Leo had a great time. He is really getting in the Christmas spirit and excited. Leo made us go to the other side of the street and admire our handy work!

Tonight we are going to play Wii. I'm going to show Crow how tight rope walking is really done!

Tomorrow is a very sad day in the Holma Family household. Crow is leaving tomorrow in the evening. We will all be so sad but will be awaiting her return in April (& Grandma Jackie!)