A Gold Medal Experience

The 21st Winter Olympics came and went, but not without notice from the Neal family. While I enjoy the Olympics usually, this year was extra special because Best Friend/ Godmother / Aunt Sherry was up in Vancouver hard at work making sure that all spectators got their tickets smoothly no matter how stupid they were (Now, she never said that... I just know from her past jobs that anyone who purchases a ticket has the capacity to completely lose their common sense when on the phone with ticketing problems.) Sherry didn't sit in a booth selling tickets, she managed ticket sales with lots of skill and determination. I always thought, you pay your money, you get a ticket, what's so complicated. HA... lots is complicated behind the scenes and then if something goes wrong... whew lots can go wrong. So there was Sherry up in Vancouver hard at work, but was it all work and no play for Sherry in the Great White North?

Well... maybe there were some perks. Hmmm... like attending opening ceremonies and the gold medal hockey game between Canada and USA. Oh and making awesome friends and having great experiences. But if that weren't enough she got a once in a lifetime chance to be a torch bearer. Yes our Sherry carried the torch. She got to keep her torch also thanks to her company Tickets.com. Pretty awesome.

Sherry and Torchy


Part of the awesomeness of Sherry carrying the torch was there was a webcam that followed the torch. So a couple of us gathered at my house to watch Sherry in this tremendous moment. We made a night of it, making paper torches to keep Lea entertained and had dinner. Here is the gang around the computer waiting to watch Sherry.


Unfortunately the webcam experience was fraught with glitches. I got a call from a friend way before Sherry's time saying "I think that was her" so we cut dinner short and I raced around all 3 computers in the house trying to find the best feed. We then watched for an hour as torch bearer after torch bearer paraded by. we were finally one person away from Sherry and ... it went black. The feed cut out. We were so disappointed. But thanks to Facebook and Twitter we knew it wasn't just our connection. From Colorado to Arizona to North Carolina, Sherry's friends were watching and got cut off. While we didn't get to see Sherry live, we were all watching & rooting for her!
And in the Neal house, we all had our own torches.


Here is a photo of Mommy and Lea with their Olympic mittens, a present from Aunt Sherry so we could be warm just like the torch bearers and athletes. The mittens are amazingly warm and kept up dry as we played in the snow!


Besides paying close attention to the torch run, we also managed to watch some of the games. I noted in the last post that we watched the opening ceremonies during our snowmageddon refugee experience with friends and that was fun. Nothing better than watching old white men read from a paper with people you love.

Then I was excited for Lea to see figure skating since she plays skating in socks on the kitchen floor. She enjoyed the spangly costumes. But an unexpected favorite sport for Lea and I was ski jumping. I encouraged her to pretend ski jumping and this is what we got. I thought it was adorable.
Video of Lea as she ski jumps

She'd "ski" through the kitchen and "jump" off the step and then push her body forward and her arms back as she "soared" though the air. Lots of fun. She always won.

In fact Lea had so much fun playing at each sport we watched, she told Daddy that for my birthday we needed a new wii game and selected Winter Sports. With the Wii controllers we flip them back and forth to speed skate or flip them in time to music to figure skate. We can hold them like ski poles for the Super G and slalom. But the absolute best is Wii curling! I thought bowling was fun until I beat the socks off my husband at curling! Nothing feels better than sweeping the stone from the house to right on the button, eh.

The Olympics are all over, well except the Para-Olympics which is keeping Sherry busy now and cleaning up all loose ends will keep her there though spring. So I'm taking advantage to visit in late April. I'm looking forward to a much warmer Vancouver than the athletes got and seeing the sites.

Snowmageddon Refugees

So I posted that it was snowing. What I didn't know that it would continue to snow.

Lea and Daddy came up to lunch at my work and we went down to the courtyard to play in the snow. Little did I know it would snow all day, and night and again the next day! Here I am catching snow flakes on my tongue and holding a variety of make shift sleds.

We tried to sled in boxes down the hill in the courtyard at work. It didn't really work, I mostly just pushed Lea down the hill.


When I got home that afternoon we had 6 inches of snow if not a whole foot. Lea was up to her knees in snow in front of our house!


Here is our snow angel. Everyone in the family made a snow angel.


In my last post you saw the piddly little snowman that Lea and I made in the morning. Well, Lea and Daddy built a REAL snowman... taller than Lea in his weather proof hat. This was Thursday Feb. 11.

He lasted for almost a week! This was taken probably Monday or Tuesday afternoon.
A slowly melting snowman after the weekend. See the carrot on the ground.

Then Thursday Feb. 18 the last remains of our snowman... the snow triangle. Lea ready for gymnastics in her pig tails.


So it snowed all day and accumulated on trees and power lines causing all kinds of problems. At work several people were without power. I happily offered for them to stay with us, fortunately no one took me up on it because our power went off in the middle of the night Thursday. I heard huge thumps on the roof which I thought were whole trees falling on our house. But no it was just clumps of snow. Dan went out to shake snow off our large Live Oak in the back. He got on the roof and shook branches with a rake. I don't know if it saved the tree, but we had no broken branches like the other houses on the streets. In the morning Dan went two houses down to help a neighbor with a branch that had fallen on his car.

This is a photo of our backyard at about 10 pm as Dan went up on the roof.. It was so beautiful, the sky just glowed with all the reflected light from the white snow covering. It was hard to shoot without a flash so everything is blurry, but the light was just beautiful.


So we woke to a winter wonderland in a cold dark house. The roads were slushy, but not icy.
Snow day video


So we decided to travel as a pack in one vehicle. We went to breakfast with our friend Michael Hopens who was staying home from work. Because the restaurant we chose (Barbec's) was one of the few neighborhood places with power so it was PACKED! But our tummies got full and we were ready to face the cold roads. But the main road to my work was blocked off with road partitions. It was a 3 lane road by the lake so I couldn't imagine what had happened. I took it as a sign that I shouldn't go in to work, a weak sign perhaps, but I felt like sticking with my tribe on the snowy day. It turned out to be a large old tree that had fallen across the road. While I kept saying my way to work was closed, Kris would later be quick to correct me with "One of your ways to work was closed."

We were slated to go out to my mom's house for the weekend, a perfect refuge under normal circumstances. But, alas, she was without power on Friday also. No since in going from one cold dark house to another, so we become snowmageddon refugees at Uncle Michael's house. He had toys, cable, lights, fireplace and wi-fi. Everything a displaced family could want!

We were not alone. The Scott clan sought refuge with us so Lea got to play with Hunter and WIlder all day and night.

They played in the snow at least 3 separate times. Long enough for pants and gloves to get soaked, fingers and toes to start to sting and then it was time to warm up by a roaring tv filled with sponge bob! Uncle Michael kept handing them cookies and marshmallows. They were in heaven! Here Lea and Wilder have one of many snowball fights.



More than anything Lea loved throwing snowballs. For the most part there were no snowballs to the face, just a friendly game of snowball to the back. Kris invented a game of throwing snowballs into the trees to get an avalanche to fall. I was not very good at it because I always managed to be under the branches I was dislodging snow from. Lots of snow down the back of my coat!



Uncle Scumfy and Hunter



Lea & Wilder Video


So we settled in, talked the Scotts into staying the night, like a giant slumber party. It was mostly fun and games. Hunter (age 2) took a shine to Lea and followed her around and wanted to play with whatever toy Lea was playing with and sit where Lea was sitting. I could see he was honoring her, by mimicking her, but of course to Lea it was "Hunter it taking my toys. Uh... Hunter is sitting on me." Well, it just so happened that the night before while reading a story, Lea told me she wanted a baby brother or sister. I took this teaching opportunity to point out to her that THIS is what having a brother or sister is like. She decided being an only child was fine.

AND THEN... it was time for bed. Well we let the kids stay up a bit too long, they got over tired and while Lea was actually willing to lie down (a rarity) Wilder got (like Lea usually gets) more active the more tired he got. So of course they played off each other until it was determined they could not sleep in the same bed. Lea became almost inconsolably frightened for little 4 year old reasons that boiled down to "I want to be in my own bed!" Finally, after taking her to the bed we were sleeping in and back to the kid cot again I got her to sleep, only to be awakened at 2 am. All three of the Neals ended up sleeping in one bed my the middle of the night. We managed, but were a bit tired as the sun (and kids) rose. I was fortunate enough to sleep in thanks to Dan and Lea having other people to be interested in. Michael might have gotten the short end of that stick, but I takes my sleep when I get it!

The really great thing for me was that all the grown ups got to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics together. We joked about Canadian celebs, chatted about our friend Sherry being there and oohed and ahhed or mercilicly mocked as things happened, failed to happen and were commented on by tv personalities with too much time to fill. It was a lot of fun for me.

The next morning the Scotts took off for less crowded digs. We made Uncle Scumfy pancakes and played in the snow one last time.

Breakfast at chez Hopens with Tim Horton coffee
We greatly enjoyed the comfort and hospitality extended to us by good ol' Uncle Scumfy and chez Hopens.

Our power was still out on Saturday, but Mom's power in Emory had come on about midnight. So we headed out there, as previously planned. That Saturday night Mom and I went to a church supper of lasagna and wine, hosted by the women's club. It was very nice to see her friends again (I had gone last year). And while I cherish my husband, it is a nice tradition to go to dinner with my mom for valentine's day. Something we don't do (without Lea) very often. I enjoy her company and cherish her as well. So a couple hours of free box wine and conversation and we went home to warm beds and scattered patches of snow in Emory.

Then Sunday our power was on so Dan and I headed back to Dallas, while Lea stayed with Grandma. It was not exactly the original plan (Lea was going to stay with Grandma on Friday), but it allowed Dan and I to celebrate Valentine's day all by ourselves. He made a delicious beef Wellington, parsnip puree and roasted asparagus. It was so yummy and we were so glad to finally be able to sleep in our own beds after two nights as snowmageddon refugees.

SNOW!!!

It is snowing! It has been snowing all morning since 7:30. Its great fluffy snow that packs tight when you make snowballs or Snowmen.

Lea and I raced out this morning and cleared the snow off the car. I wanted to make a snowman, Lea just wanted to throw snowballs and push the snow around. But she got excited about putting the nose and eyes on the snowman.



But then she smashed him!



Its been very nice. The snow is beautiful, the roads are not frozen, gymnastics was not canceled.

And finally after 3 snowfalls in Dallas. Early December (we woke up and it was pretty much gone). Christmas Eve (we were out at mom's where it didn't snow). New Year's Eve (we were out at mom's where it didn't snow). And now Valentine's week we get to enjoy it!