Right now, my neighbor, Frank, is outside using his snowblower on our driveway and our sidewalks. The man is in his seventies, and every time it snows (which is an obscene amount this year, mind you), he's out there clearing our sidewalks, our driveway, and the area around the Chevy. He so totally rules.
I always bake him cookies to thank him, and I do wonder a bit if he keeps doing it for the cookies. I think he's really just that nice, though.
Literally just now (as I was typing this), my neighbor on the other side, Bill, rang my doorbell. He says as he points to a truck with a snow plow on the front, "If you give me the keys to your Chevy, I'll park it in the driveway and plow that part of the street for you."
I have a lot of cookies to bake. 
Yay for awesome neighbors. We really lucked out with this neighborhood.
This kid is growing at a ridiculously rapid rate right now, it seems. Every day, she's so different. She slept so well for me last night—about six hours. I was hoping she would since she ate for about an hour and twenty minutes right before we went to bed.
We have 18 inches of snow right now. I included some photos from today's snow in that group (from our back yard). The snow is still coming down, too. Hard. If Hobbes were to actually be out in the snow in that one pic (instead of being on the shoveled sidewalk where he is), you would just see his body. He's pretty funny out in the snow today.
I was thinking of attempting to get to the grocery today in the Chevy, but I took one look outside this morning to find that I couldn't actually see the Chevy. I can't dream of digging out and getting out with Nora in tow. The last time I cleaned off the car while I thought she was sleeping (she had a pediatrician appointment that day that we had to get to), I came in to a poor, screaming little girl. I felt so sick about that when I heard her. I was only outside for about 10 minutes, but I hate to think that five minutes or more of that time she could've been screaming. I can't stand it when she cries. It's just so stinking sad.
Also in the photos, you can see that Hank discovered Nora's car seat. He drives me nuts, but he is mildly entertaining, I suppose.
In other news, I had a weird dream last night. I dreamed that Willis and I were trying to break out of a high-security prison. It was dirty and nasty there, and for a moment, my cousin Kate was there, too. I remember talking to her about dirty clothes or something, and then I remember finding her clean clothes buried in the yard somewhere. I was looking her buried clothes to find dirty ones to wash for her, but I just ended up making her clean clothes dirty. It was sad.
At one point, I heard a gunshot, looked over, and saw that a guard had shot Willis. They were shoving him into a truck, and I ran over there to find that he was still alive. I hopped into the truck with him (after pleading with a guard to let me do so). I remember talking to Willis momentarily in the truck. I think he said something to the effect of being surprised that I would chase after him like this, and I was like, "Duh. I love you."
Has anyone ever watched Paula Deen on the Food Network? That woman's accent cannot be real. Nobody in the South really talks like that, do they? She makes some tasty food, but it's kind-of hard to get through. Heck. Almost every show that I love to watch is a bit of a struggle when it comes to the actual chef. I have trouble watching Rachel Ray sometimes. She's a bit too "on."
The "Everyday Italian" lady kills me with her massive over pronunciation of everything. Her mouth moves so seriously in order to get out every syllable so specifically. She doesn't talk like a normal person. It makes me kind-of crazy, but yet, she makes good food. I imagine dudes would watch her 'cause she's quite attractive and displays her "goods" nicely.
Tyler Florence has yet to bother me. Maybe it's because he's a dude that cooks. He kind-of wins. When you're a dude and you cook, you win automatically, I think.
Some of the HGTV shows are a little like that, but those people seem to be a bit more subdued. I like to watch "Save My Bath," and sometimes they're a little too over-the-top. Sometimes "Divine Design" is, too. I guess they feel the need to "entertain," but what they don't realize is: if someone is watching the show, it's not for their cheesy, terrible jokes. I don't mind it if they truly are funny, but when they're not and they're trying. Well, that's just dumb.
Nora's suckin' her fingers and grunting in her sleep right now. She's passed out in my lap on the Boppy. She does this every morning for awhile. It allows me to get some stuff done on the computer, and I can hold her at the same time. I win.
I need to eat. I'm thinkin' I'll have some leftover hearty chicken and noodle casserole that I made last night.
Haa! That's how Melissa says her name. It's so stinking cute. We watched Randy and Kelly's little girls on Friday night while Kelly had class and Randy had a service call. They're sweet little things. I have some pictures from that which I'll be posting here shortly.
Saturday, my parents came over for awhile. We had a really good visit with them, and on Sunday, Willi's parents came for a little bit. They watched Nora while we scooted over to Round the Clock for lunch. I ate some gyros, and I am STILL paying for that decision. I apparently can't eat red onions and pepperoncinis anymore. I was astounded that Nora wasn't actually affected by all that. I realized after we ate that Nora might not like it. Maybe she's got a seriously well-rounded palette like her mommy.
I've been cooking and baking up a storm lately. I've been craving lots of things. I made lasagna last week with Italian sausage, pepperonis, fresh garlic, onion, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, and some Parmesan. I, of course, also used lasagna noodles and pasta sauce. It turned out really well, and I was quite pleased. I've made two batches of chocolate chip cookies in a week. I'm obsessed with them right now, and that is probably a bad thing. If it's anything like how I normally am, though, I'll move onto something else shortly. I'm also craving chef salads lately, too. So, I've been eating a lot of those. I made a fun little tuna casserole the night Mom and Dad came over. I used the rice cooker for part of that. It enabled me to be able to bake cookies simultaneously.
My "play dates" with Kelly each week have proven to be quite refreshing and helpful. We're going to keep it up.
This week, I'm supposed to start up with work. I just have to wait for my computer to arrive so I can get set up. So, we'll see how that goes.
Here are some photos that I got from my mom. These range from the night she was born until Saturday. I was thrilled to get ahold of them. There are some photos of Nora only a few moments old in the nursery that I really cherish as I didn't get to spend that time with her right away. I hadn't seen those until now.
The next round of photos is from me as usual. She has on some "big girl" outfits in these pictures, and I am just excited that she's finally at a size where she can wear them. It's sad, though, 'cause she's only going to be able to wear them for about five minutes.
I can't believe how fast this kid is growing. She is smiling and becoming more interactive each day, though, and that is really exciting. We're having such a blast with her.
She slept for a nice, good run last night. It was somewhere between six and seven hours. It was lovely. She's been sleeping a lot during the day lately, too. I think she might be growing again. I better keep my eye on her so I don't miss it!
