Another basketball Saturday.

It was back to the rec center for us as both kids had their city league games on Saturday. We love getting to see our kids on the court! It's great that they're in different age divisions this year so we don't ever have to see their teams play against each other. (That was awful last year!)











After the games we headed home so we could get some chores accomplished. ChaCha volunteered to help me with MediaShout:
She's really on top of those lyrics!

Snow day.

WOW! It snowed ALL NIGHT LONG. We woke up to a BUNCH of snow. (That's our official measurement. A BUNCH.)

When I went out at 7:30 a.m. to take pictures, I could see we'd had a little visitor.

It was hard to remember the last time we'd had so much snow. Some reports said the area had received close to 12 inches of snow in the 24-hour period, a record.


The trees were especially beautiful.


My antenna ball, which had resembled Marge Simpson the night before, now had a mohawk.

We were impressed that our delivery people managed to get our newspaper to us, in spite of the crazy road conditions! We had received an email giving us the eEdition password for Friday's paper, just in case, but there was our print edition, right on time.


We felt bad for everyone who had to go to work in all of this.




It was a weird feeling to take a step and sink so deep into the snow! More than a couple of times, I almost twisted my ankle because my foot would keep going farther than I thought it would.

Later in the day, Brett, Katie and I took Frisco out to play.


Then we gathered some snow for some "snow cream." We're hoping our immune systems can fight off the pollutants that might've been in that snow.


Brett and I both remember our moms making snow cream when we were little, so it was fun to pass on this snow day tradition to our kids.

Ryan even interrupted his video game-playing and movie-watching marathon to try some!

We're so thankful that we were safe and warm throughout the great snowfall of 2010.

White night.

Thursday morning's drive to school turned out to be a harrowing one! Even though temps were right above 32, snow was coming down pretty steadily and accumulating on the roads, creating a slushy mess. My 40-minute commute turned out to take 55 minutes, and I had three good skids that scared me!

During passing periods and at lunch at school, our assistant principals stood guard over the courtyard to make sure snowball fights didn't break out (and to keep kids safe from slips and falls). Some students did manage to build a couple of snowpeople out front, though!

Right before the 3:57 bell rang, we finally got the email we'd been waiting for: NO SCHOOL ON FRIDAY! It was good to know we wouldn't need to set an alarm the next morning, but not so good to know we'll be coming to school on a Saturday in April to make it up. Ryan and Katie, on the other hand, are on cloud nine because they won't be making up their snow day, AND they have Monday off for a staff development day! WOO-HOO for their big four-day weekend!

I was nervous about driving home, but the roads were OK. (The parking lot at school and the driveway at home were NOT, but I survived those anyway!) I was so relieved to get to our warm house. It wasn't until 10 p.m. that night that I finally ventured out to explore our little winter wonderland.

It amazed us how bright everything was thanks to the snow! All of these were taken between 10 and 10:30 p.m., many without the flash, just 1600 ISO and a wide aperture.

Katie liked the way the flash lit up all the snowflakes.

She's demonstrating how much snow had fallen since they got home from school at 3:30.

My antenna ball is sporting a Marge Simpson look.

Brett touches up the snowthing he and Katie had made after school. It kept losing its head!

Katie demonstrates her newest favorite sport: snow falling!

Apparently snow angels are for amateurs.

After playing in our front yard, Brett and Katie took a walk around the neighborhood. I was ready to thaw out.

Super Sunday.

Who dat! Since the 'Boys weren't in the big game, we really didn't have a dog in the hunt, but we were rooting for the Saints anyway. (I went with the ol' "Who has the most Texas Exes" criterion, and New Orleans won that one 1-0. And the one former Horn they have is David Thomas, and he was one of my all-time faves!)

The commercials weren't all that outstanding this year, but we like The Who and the game was fun. I must say we all enjoyed the Super Bowl.

Even ChaCha!

OK, so maybe she did get a little distracted after a while!

Sweet and sour.

Chris and Erumi frequently bring Ryan and Katie Japanese candy. One of those candies is really sour, especially if you get impatient and bite down on it!

A confession.

Grief is a funny thing, ain't it? It slams you unexpectedly, and then when you think it's going to consume you, it recedes, leaving you with those inexplicable moments of peace. But just when you think you've come to terms with it, WHAM! It's back with a vengeance.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm still struggling to cope with our loss of Tim. And I'm not using that plural pronoun lightly. He was our Tim. The outpouring of emotion since the Christmas Eve accident has been a testimony to what he meant to so many. Because of the way he befriended all of us, I have a feeling I'm not alone in my inability to harness my sadness.

I know he's in a better place; I know he's at peace. But I miss my friend, my buddy. I miss his texts, his banter. And it's not just me. We all talk about him often. It's too easy for our family to recall those afternoons spent house hunting, or the evenings when we'd sit at our kitchen table, filling out paperwork. I can see him so clearly: backpack, visor, sunglasses, that big ol' smile.

And then there's the sound booth. That booth used to be my haven, but for the last five weeks, it's been the place where I feel Tim's absence most profoundly. That was the last place I saw him, where I had my last conversation with him. That's where we giggled about things that shouldn't have been funny (because nothing's funnier than something that's not supposed to make you laugh, ESPECIALLY during church!). It's also where we shared Kleenex (because that boy could tear up during a prayer in no time flat, and if he started getting weepy, I was a goner).

Now I'm really going through the tissue because the tears just keep coming.

Facebook, the network that helped us grieve in those shock-ridden days immediately after his death, has turned cruel, too. I missed a lot of work while I was sick last month, so I spent more than a little time on FB. I kept getting variations of this:
"Catch up." "Reconnect." "Share the latest news." REALLY, Facebook?

At Facebook's suggestion, I did send Tim a message not too long ago, and in that note, I said some things that had been weighing on me in the days since his funeral. It felt good, and it gave me some closure. But I never wanted closure.

Maybe that's it. It's too hard to let go, to say goodbye. Someone once told me that when you grieve intensely, those emotions are a witness to the impact of the lost relationship. And what a relationship it was. I keep waiting for the pain to dull a little, for the tears to subside. I'm thankful to have shared memories with friends, to have laughed over our "Tim stories," but I'm weary from the sorrow.

And I know that people I love are missing Tim infinitely more than I can begin to imagine.

Tonight, I'm claiming this from 2 Corinthians 1:

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

How awesome is that? My Father is the God of all comfort!

Dear Lord, thank you for Tim and for what he means to all of us. Father, we need your comfort! Please give Amy the peace only you can provide. And please, Lord, help us all to feel your loving arms guiding us as we face each day. Blessed be your name. Amen.

In case I haven't mentioned it lately,

I am SO PROUD of my husband! I just have to brag on him. Brett has been writing like crazy and has been published in several new (to him) publications and websites lately.
Antique Week is a widely circulated tabloid that has recently begun publishing his work. The latest issue, which arrived today, features his cover story on eight-tracks.

And just a few weeks ago, his story on action figures also graced the cover. (And check out that fine photography! Thankyouverymuch.)

Brett's a fantastic writer and really knows his stuff, so it's so nice to see his work ethic and tenacity paying off.

(Check out his blog for more examples of his published work.)