Oh the weather outside is frightful!

...that might just be the understatement of the year!

I know, I know, I know...people in the Mid West and Northern Atlantic might think DC'ers are whimps...but from a girl from Southern California to be stuck in this weather ALONE (aka I have to shovel out a path for 2 little dogs to go to the bathroom outside) this is a blizzard.  Actually it really is :)

It's coming down HARD now...all I pray is for the power not to go out (although, it rocks to live close to Dominion Power less than 1/2 mile away...hehe). 

But being the over prepared person I am....I did my "Omg it's going to snow" freak out a couple weeks ago (for the light dusting we got).

I have my awesome shovel, my little mitten with built in ice scraper.  Pet Friendly ice melt.  Wood for the wireplace.  Tons of food.
And...I found my snow boots from high school survival camp!!


So I will be stuck in my hilly neighboorhood until Monday.  No cars can make it up these hills and only a few have tried and gotten stuck.  Kids are sledding in the street.

And I am sipping hot chocolate....

Here are a few pictures...very hard to take pictures in the snow and I'm scared to get my camera wet!

How ironic is it my tree has a beach theme and we are getting close to 20 inches of snow?

This is looking outside the front door.  Notice the snow on the mailbox.  And my poor car covered in snow.

Charlotte is in there somewhere

Just realized that snow sticks to dogs fur. Nice....

Jake thinks he is part husky

Almost there ....and a taste of creativity!

I just finished my photography final project.  Just one more final and this chick is DONE!!

Since I have been editing in Lightroom and PS Elements for the last day....lemme show you some of my favs

(PS to all your REAL photographers out there...you rock!  I hate editing...and don't most of the time...hehe)

And if you can't tell....I really like playing with landscape and light :)

Peace

I woke up this morning.  And that's what I felt.  Peace.  Thank you for all your kind words. 

After I got back from putting together gingerbread houses with my 2nd graders (if that doesn't make you smile I don't know what does!!) I managed to find these pictures.

My half brother and I

(Wowzers....could I have been any tanner?  Or my shorts any shorter?  Or my top any more multicolored?!  Give me a break, I was 13 :)

And with my grandmother on that same trip to meet him.  He was 20 or 21 in these pictures.

Just when I was getting back into the swing of things...

I get rocked. 
I had this grand idea that after class today I would get started on my Christmas cards and then update my blog (which is long overdue).
When I got home, I had a message that I could barley understand.  Some needed to talk to me about the "Estate of... blah blah blah".

Hmmm...Now, after my mom died, I had TONS of calls from people (mostly creditors and real estate agents).
It's been almost 3 years since she passed away, so any claim they had after a year from her death is not happening....but I called away.

It was a creditors office.  But it wasn't for my mom's estate.  It was for my someone with my dad's name. 

Umm...I asked them if the middle name was Antonio.  Yup, it was.  I told them I hadn't spoken to him in over 10 years so I wouldn't be able to help them. 

Then I thought.....WAIT....the estate?!  They told me he had passed away October 24th, 2008.

They apologized for letting me find out this way and took me off thier calling list.

I got off the phone and cried.  Not because I was close to my father....I wasn't as you can see by the lack of communication.  My dad never really kept in contact with me.  When I got older, I stopped trying to keep up the contact that was left. 

You see, my dad was the eternal teenager.  He didn't "do" the responsible parent thing.  He was married 3 times and had 4 kids (23 year difference between my oldest 1/2 brother and my youngest 1/2 sister).
I have seen 2 of the 3 half siblings once when I was a teenager and I went to visit my father (because I was determined he was cool and would understand me....I was 14 and mad at my mom.....for the entire month I was there my dad handed me off to my aunt/uncle and I saw him a handful of times.  Needless to say, that summer showed me how much of a responsible parent my dad was).

So why was I crying?  Maybe because the other 1/2 of my DNA was gone?  I felt when my mom died I was an orphan.  Today I really felt that way.

So I went on the internet to see if I could find anything out.

Put in the date of death, and the name...

And then my mouth fell to the floor. 

It wasn't my dad...it was my 1/2 brother. 

He died at 36.

I didn't even know him but for the one summer....

I think we have a couple pictures together...so instead of addressing Christmas cards...I am searching for those pictures.

Just one more week....

and I will be back to the land of the living. To say these past three months have rocked me has been an understatement. In order to survive, I had to cut myself off from 2 of my biggest vices; blogging and facebook. And since "cutting back" wasn't an option, I deleted my facebook account until after finals (you know I have been busy when my own husband asks if I have "unfriended" him on facebook...haha).


I also turned off the email notification when someone commented on my blog.

Throughout the semester, I've received emails to see how I was doing. (I'm the girl that usually comments on everything on blogs and facebook....what can I say, I love to be caught up).

A lot has been going on...school, driving a ridicules amount of time, dr.'s, lawsuits, moving (lots of Debbie Downer type posts, so maybe me posting them was a way to pretend they were not happening)....I promised myself I would catch everyone up after finals.

Then yesterday, I got 2 emails from my WONDERFUL friends wondering how I was doing! And then I thought "OMG, maybe people have left messages on my blog". And they had.

So I am writing this to all my friends to say "Thanks for thinking of me". I have a lot to catch you up on. I have a lot to catch up in your lives! It has taken a lot of will power to put my studies first, and I apologize for not being my usual self!

I should be outside enjoying our first dusting of snow...instead I am writing my papers....sigh

MISS YOU GUYS!!