Snookies...Snow and Cookies.

With the looming 'Snowpocolypse', classes on Tuesday night were cancelled and Emily came over for tortilla soup, homework, and some good ol' quality time.  Between chat spurts, I decorated sugar cookies that I didn't make for Christmas.  It's obviously not Christmas anymore, so there was no way I was about to decorate with conservative colors...neon all the way! 

I spy a cookie that Christopher decorated...can you guess which one it was?

My super high tech decorating utensils...

Trying to be artsy with reflection on the bowl. 

Now, like I said, there was a 'Snowpocolypse' on the way...and it actually hit.  I believe the snow started about 11:00pm on Tuesday night and continued until about 11:00am on Wednesday.  In the 24-hours, greater Grand Rapids got about 14-16 inches of snow.  High winds created 3-4 foot drifts and pretty much everything was closed.  Thankfully, Chris was prepared with all the necessities to work from home, so he didn't have to make the trek in.  One of his co-workers sent an email saying that it took 3 tries in his big truck to just get into the parking lot at the office...and then his truck was stuck where it was when he finally got parked.  Our little Hot Hot Rod wouldn't have stood a chance.  

Here are a few pictures from around our complex.  It's not very pretty, but I couldn't walk anywhere to get better pictures because the sidewalks were buried like 5 feet deep in snow from the plows. 

Someone tried to get out.  The tracks go straight back and straight forward.  

Whoever it was didn't get too far. 

My car before the plows came. 

The sidewalk after a snowblower came through.  

The 'walls' of snow were knee high, at least.

My car after the plows.

This is the East Beltline and 28th street intersection at 4:00pm.  These are two highly traveled roads and we still couldn't even see the road/lanes at all.  If you're wondering why we even left the comfort of our apartment...we had to get a shovel to dig out my car.

28th Street

I was hoping for a record snow fall (you know, to beat the record set during the blizzard of 1978).  Everyone always talks about how epic that storm was, and I wanted to be alive for the storm that beat it.  That didn't happen.  Oh well.  At least we have neon sugar cookies. 

New Baby

We got a new toy!  Many of you have probably already heard.  It's taken this long to post about it because I was hoping to be able to get a good picture of our actual car, but it's winter in Michigan and driving 5 feet on the salty roads results in a filthy car.  And that makes for ugly pictures.  So here is one that I found on Google Images and it's pretty much the same color and everything - ours is a little darker blue.

The 2011 Chevrolet HHR (Heritage High Roof, if you ask Chris, Hot Hot Rod, if you ask me) handles wonderfully in the snow, gets great gas milage, has a remote starter, and is very practical.  Also, cash back bonuses and a family discount made this a very affordable purchase.  We took it for a trip to Novi/Ferndale/Ann Arbor last weekend and fully utilized OnStar and XM Radio, which comes free for 6 and 3 months, respectively.  But, the best feature - NEW CAR SMELL! 

I would also like to take this opportunity to clarify for those who have been wondering/speculating.  Chris and I are not expecting.  We'll let everyone know when we are :) 

Happy Birthday!

I thought this deserved a separate post...a few days late.  

HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY CHRISTOPHER!! 

For Pappa Blaxton

Recently there have been complaints about a lack of blog posts.  So, to pacify my father, here's what we've been doing the last month or so...and why we haven't had time to post.

First was the installation of our first Christmas tree.  Thanks to Chris' cousin, Justin, we had a color pre-lit tree that was just the right size for our apartment.  And thanks to Mamma L and Mamma B we had enough donated ornaments to cover it :)

The end of my semester was frantic as always.  Even though I only had one class, the work that I put off was enough to make me hate finals week as much as if I was taking a full load.  BUT! I ended up with an A-

The weekend before Christmas we had two parties.  First was a get together with our friends, hosted by the wonderful Straathofs.  The next day, Chris B and Sabine hosted the Blaxton party.  We met the newest member of the family, baby Cameron, and got to see almost all the family for a great day of food and drinks (plus the Lions won).

Chris had to work through the 23rd so I went on to Shepherd early on the 22nd.  On the way I made a detour to my Emily's house.  She had just arrived home from her semester in Rome and we hadn't seen each other since August - well, we hadn't seen each other in person...Skype doesn't count.  It was so great to see her.  I missed her so much.

We had a full house again in Shepherd - Mom, Dad, Aunt Chelie, Stephen, Tim, Chris, and myself.  Grandpa Blaxton came on Christmas eve and we got to Skype with Philip, Julia and the boys.  It was a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of life.  We played games...

we exchanged gifts...

ate lot of delicious food, thanks to the resident chef...

and had a generally relaxing time...when we weren't chasing the squirrels away from the bird feeders.  Eventually, Dad gave up and started naming them (the squirrels).  Stephen, in all of his mental-health-wisdom, commented that Dad has provided for his family for just under 30 years and now that we're all growing up he has to turn his efforts elsewhere, so the little critters of the neighborhood are well fed and loved by Dad.  Tim wasn't so kind...

Anyway, the day after Christmas we traveled to Bay City for the Leikert family party and then the same night to Traverse City for the Schultz family "Christmas house" on Spider Lake.  

As always, we had a ton of fun with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins.  This year was a down year in terms of numbers - we ONLY had 33 people in attendance.  I know, it sounds silly that 33 family members in one house (well, mansion really) for 4 days is a small number, but we had fun nonetheless.  Here are a few photos from our stay. 

Ok, that's enough.  Enjoy for now. You're welcome Daddy!

Disappointment

Our blog is titled "Live from GR" and we haven't posted anything in about two weeks, so to keep our blog from being retitled "Syndicated from GR" I figured we should post something.

As a lot of you know, I am in the midst of completing of my CPA exam. I took my second section (Auditing) about a month ago and I just received my score today. I navigated to the website where my score was posted and entered the necessary information to check for my score. Before I clicked OK, I said a quick prayer asking God to help me accept whatever happened after I clicked that button. So I clicked..........waited........and didn't pass. I earned a score of 72, a 75 is a passing grade. As you can imagine, there were a lot of things going through my head when I saw that evil number. Maybe I should have studied for one more hour....What a waste of time and effort....Am I going to have enough time/energy/drive to complete these three sections in the next year?

So after a couple of hours and a good run, things became a little clearer. I can't feel sorry for myself, period. I tried (maybe not quite hard enough) but didn't pass and there is no shame in that as long as I get back up and try again. This post is not a pity party for me, rather a realization of two things:
1) Life does not always go perfectly so we need to learn to live with disappointment and
2) It is important to have a well rounded life so that when things aren't going well in one area of your life, you have other areas that you can rely on (my wife, my faith, and my Wii).

I did not fail my exam, I just didn't pass-there is a big difference. I can live with disappointment, but I refuse to live with failure.

Wii Have Fun

The Wii Fit was gathering dust so Ruth and I pulled it out and had some fun this past weekend. This video is a result of the Hula Hoop game that will actually make you sore the next day. Hope it gives you a laugh!

Amazing

Today Chris is sitting for the second section of the CPA exam.  It's one of those things that accountants just have to do - take more credits than most people, gain specific experience in certain fields of accounting, and take four really hard exams.  I can tell you honestly that I would NEVER be able to do it, not only because the subject alone is enough to deter me, but because of the amount of dedication it takes to be successful.  Every day Chris goes to work for 8 hours, comes home to run (or sometimes he gets up early to run before work), eats dinner, and then studies for three or four hours.  And he REALY studies, not this, “I’m studying but I’m really on Facebook chatting with friends while flipping back and forth to this paper that could have been finished 2 hours ago had I really applied myself.”  And every day while he’s pouring over the books I think about how lucky and blessed I am to have such an amazing husband who sacrifices so much to make our lives better.  Then I kick myself for the pity party I threw earlier that afternoon when I didn’t want to iron his Express dress shirts.  Then I go in to see if he needs some water or a snack while he’s studying to try to make up for it and make myself feel better.  It doesn’t usually work.

The bottom line is; I am constantly amazed by Chris and truly thankful for everything he does for our family of two.  He inspires me to work harder, complain less, and really appreciate all the blessings in my life.