Growing up

My kids are growing up so fast. Last summer, right around Labor Day, we updated our boys' rooms. Pickle (with the rock on hand gestures) turned 16 and we were thinking that his bunkbeds were a little too young for him any more.  So, we used a giveaway from the CSN Stores toward a new bed for Pickle. We were able to get him a really nice twin bed frame (with drawers under it - which is nice as he's a big pack rat) for $100. No shipping costs either. It was just what Army of Mom (or the doctor) ordered. We were stoked when it showed up. It only took Army of Dad and Pickle a few hours to get the old bed dismantled and the new one put up. It gave him a ton more room and a more mature appearance to the room. So, when the CSN Stores asked me about another promo, I was stoked. They're wanting to promote their office desks (which I will checking out as my almost 12-year-old desk has seen better days).

CSN Stores has more than 200 online stores where you can find just about anything you need from office desks to fitness equipment or even cute cookware! Today, I bought a pepper grinder on CSN Stores for $10!! Ours has seen better days and I've come to the conclusion that I prefer shopping online to going to the stores and CSN Stores' items have always been high quality, so I know I can trust what I get there. Our coffee grinder purchased last year has been one of my bet purchases yet. Freshly ground coffee is simply the best and I've saved a TON of money not stopping by Starbuck's to pick up a $5 coffee when I can buy a 2.5-lb bag will last me forever! Of course, I asked Pickle to take a picture of his bed for me and in typical teen fashion, it wasn't made. But, hey, it could be worse, I suppose. You can see at least a portion of his floor!

Snow Days!

We're on day four of the being stuck at home snow week. It really is lovely, but all a giant PITA.

I needed a diversion, so Little Bit and I made some cookies one afternoon.

The dogs have been indoors most of the time since it has been so cold. They have been loving it. And, it has been sort of nice for us, too. A few weeks ago, we took the dogs in for their annual check-up and learned that Rosie (the almost 14-year-old dog in the pink blanket) has some large tumors that are most likely inoperable. At her advanced age, the vet recommended letting her live out her days as long as she's comfortable as it would be too hard on her system (and possibly kill her sooner) to try and do surgeries to remove them. So, we're loving our time with Rosie while we have her.

Here are some giant icicles out our back door.

Happy Belle scampering in the snow.

Rosie stretching before a quick scamper in the snow with Belle.

Little Bit

Hot Rod

Texas sledding.

More Texas sledding.

My handsome honey.

Super Bowl XLV Comes to North Texas

Super Bowl XLV comes to JerryWorld on Sunday and some 150,000 visitors are coming to North Texas to enjoy Texas hospitality, unfortunately we've been bombarded with snow and ice and it just, well, no other way to say it - SUCKS. DFW is en fuego anyway with ESPN taking over downtown Fort Worth. Here is the Omni Fort Worth where the Pittsburgh Steelers are staying.

Here is Cowboys Stadium before the ice and snow arrived.

On Monday, my BFF and I went to downtown Fort Worth to Sundance Square where ESPN started broadcasting. Here is Collin Cowherd with The Herd. It was pretty cool to watch and get on camera upon occasion. We missed our chance to get those big ugly red ESPN cowboy foam hats. We tried.

The Fort Worth Mounted Police are always good for public relations when people come to Cowtown.

Here is my BFF and I in Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth on Monday. The Texas Roadhouse armadillo got tossed right after we took this photo. Apparently they didn't have permission from the NFL to be there.

Here is the Omni Mandalay in Irving. It's where the Green Bay Packers are staying.

And, my Super Bowl XLV t-shirt. I also bought a shot glass. :) When it comes to picking a winner, the experts at Jones Lang LaSalle claim they can successfully select Sunday’s champ by analyzing the commercial real estate climate in each team’s hometown. JLL’s analysis: teams based in cities with a higher percentage of vacant office space have won the Lombardi Trophy nearly two-thirds of the time since 2000. Roger says as a student of football and CRE, the vacancy rate hypothesis is the real deal. So congrats, Green Bay! As of Jan. 1, the office vacancy rate in Pittsburgh held steady at 12.1% (one of the lowest nationwide) while Green Bay reported vacancy of 18.9%, pointing to the likelihood of the first Packers Super Bowl title since 1997. Roger, who led the Cowboys to victories in Super Bowl VI and Super Bowl XII, denies that this year’s prediction is at all related to the fact that he lost two Super Bowls (X and XIII) at the hands of the Steelers in the 1970s.

Here is the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas. Repping the NFC, Dallas was lit in blue all this week and Fort Worth was lit in red for the AFC. It was cool. Only damper to the festivities has been the bad weather. It has been so bad in North Texas that we had 800 American Airlines flights in and out of DFW Airport canceled on Tuesday. DART light rail didn't run then either. Dallas Love Field was closed part of today. All the local school districts have been closed Tuesday-Friday. Rolling power outages were going on around Texas on Wednesday, too. Fun stuff. Not.