A Day for Matriarchs

February 28th

Today was my maternal grandmother, Mary Mitchell's birthday. She shared her birthday with her granddaughter, my cousin Kim. If I were asked to describe Gram, the first word that comes to mind is strong. She "managed" things well. Her circumstances were not always chosen, but she did the best she could with what she had. I loved her stories. Especially the ones about when she first met and married Grampa. Today was her birthday.

Today is also the two-year anniversary of the day my mother-in-law, Sue Fricano, lost her battle with cancer. Ellie was not quite 2 years old at the time. Pictured here with Ellie, who is just a few weeks old .. she's being cradled by her Nana - who adored her already!

Today marks the day that we miss two matriarchs, in both my family and in Bill's family. We still keep them close to our hearts.

Events from Saturday

Today we enjoyed a big breakfast .. omelet, bacon, toast and good coffee! Even Ellie partook in the healthy breakfast. About mid-morning we were out to show Uncle Pat the UVA grounds, Pantops area where we work, a quick stop at the Hallmark store and we were off to Michie Tavern for a historic lunch!

After that we each enjoyed a leisurely nap and then we were off to church! And now we're making homemade pizzas! That's while we're enjoying our cheese/crackers/fruit, stuffed clams and chicken salad. If it appears as though we're eating a lot - WE ARE!

Papa & Uncle Pat visit

After barely escaping the snow in the Northeast, Papa and Uncle Pat arrived Friday around noon. Bill & Ellie took the day off to prepare - and we waiting when they arrived. The four of them went to The Boathouse for lunch. I was able to escape work around 2pm in order to come home and get ready for the Team USA 3pm game. Well worth leaving work early to see the win!

We enjoyed shrimp cocktail, shrimp old day and cheese and crackers as we shared cocktails. For dinner (even though it's a Friday in Lent) I made meatloaf, mashed potatoes and broccoli. We were full!

Tonight we settle in for a bit more Olympics!

Date Night

Bill & I at the Downtown Mall

SUSHI..........

Awesome bar, Bright Lights, Big City .. and our bartender, Ben

Cocktails ... the Cherry Fizz and the Rubiaka

Ellie began asking when Miss Shannon was getting here at about 6:30am this morning! She was scheduled to arrive at 6pm! We had a fun day getting some things done around the house, a trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond with lunch at Panera. Here's a few shots from our date tonight. We began at Siips for a glass of wine and their phenomenal cheese board. Great place for a great wine by the glass. After that we walked a bit and enjoyed the outdoor music and atmosphere. We walked over to TEN for dinner. We decided to enjoy one of their house cocktails as well. Bill enjoyed the Cherry Fizz, while I partook in the Rubiaka. Our sushi was great too! We just got a few rolls to split. It was amazingly fresh, and so delicious!!

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

Tonight we celebrated Bill's birthday. We had California Kitchen pizza, Old Bay shrimp and brownie sundaes for dessert. Bill got a new SmartPhone and Dunkin Donuts coffee from me, and a baseball and Big League Chew from Ellie. She was very excited to sign her own card.

Sometimes Valentine's Day is exhausting ..

We've been celebrating all weekend, and with the weather so wonderful we're taking a break this afternoon. We spent time puttering around the house all morning, and by noon we were ready to get out and about. Ellie requested lunch from the place with bubbly water and black and white checked floors where she could get a hot dog and fries. That meant Five Guys to me! So off we went ... after lunch we shopped at Kroger and stopped to recycle this week's glass, tin and plastic at McIntire Recycling. Before he knows it, I'll have Bill composting yet!

Here's a shot of my goregeous roses from Bill, and Ellie fast asleep on the couch after just about enough V-day partying!

Pre-Valentine's Day celebration

Alright, so we celebrated on Saturday instead. It was just better to have the whole day to shop and celebrate. None of us are good and holding on to things we get for each other! Ellie was set on finding chocolate covered strawberries for Bill .. so while she and I shopped for his birthday next weekend, Bill was off filling a bag with Valentine treats for Ellie!

We're having crabcakes with cocktails to start and chicken with capers, mushrooms and lemon over wild rice for dinner. And, yes, the chocolate covered strawberries for dessert too!

Valentine's Eve Eve

Ellie's school Valentine party was today. She got lots of Valentine cards, candy and other treats from teachers and friends. She loves her heart rock-star sunglasses! She has a plan for tomorrow to get her Daddy a Valentine present (and while we're out we'll get her planned gift for his birthday too!) We'll update on our shopping progress tomorrow!

Sunday, the day of rest ...

This morning we're all tired and sore from shoveling, sledding and our sides hurt from laughing. We had so much fun in our 'snow-bound' adventure. If the President can call it "Snowmageddon", we'll call it our personal 'snow-bound' adventure. We were prepared with food/drink/snacks, and just in case we lost power we have flashlights, batteries, gas stove and gas fireplace to ensure we didn't loose all our comforts! We're very fortunate to still have power, as we've found out that many, many of our fellow Albemarle County residents are without. Thank you for such a big blessing being afforded us this weekend!

Bill and Ellie made pancakes this morning. She enjoyed adding chocolate chips to hers and we made 'maple butter' as we witnessed Bobby Flay compete last night in a Throwdown with Clinton St Baking Company in NYC. They made this awesome looking Maple Butter .. and we had to try it this morning. It was great!

We're enjoying a day of snow fun, studying for Insurance Exams (yes, both of us!!), and making a Sunday-esque lasanga and spinach salad for dinner later. Perhaps we'll even stay awake for the Super Bowl, but that remains to be seen.

Well there's no place like home, when your snowbound!

Ellie having fun sliding along the snow banks in the front yard


The front of the house .. with the huge piles of snow!

Bill's 'stash' of cold ones - might as well use the snow for something good!

A cocktail at the end of a long day shared in our front, snowy yard!



Today's adventure consisted of shoveling, drying hats/mittens/jackets, napping and back outside to start all over again.

After all our outside time we had a wonderful dinner of spinach salad and cheese ravioli with spaghetti sauce and portobellos.

Once dinner was cleaned up we went back outside for more fun, and to assess the snow totals and what was left to be done. With the 18 or so inches over two days, we've been plowed once.... and not well at that. We're hoping for another swipe tonight and then a clean-up plow tomorrow, but we won't hold our breath. Our driveway and walks are down to pavement! And the snow has nearly stopped, so are hopeful to only have to shovel one more time to clean up the end of the driveway once the plow goes by!

Sleigh Ride

You may think this looks like an old time movie of bad quality. What you are actually seeing is the snow that continues to fall. It's currently been falling for 18 hours straight. We took this slight time-out with Ellie to sled in our yard, between rounds of shoveling the driveway and sidewalks!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

I know, I know ... you're tired of hearing about all the snow we're getting here in Virginia. Really, we're tired of it too!! But we're enjoying some extra time off to spend as a family ...shoveling. They mentioned on the local news today that this storm should put us in line to break the all-time snow total record of 54.6 inches. We're 18" shy of the record that was set the winter of 1995-1996. We should get 2 - 2 1/2 feet by tomorrow night .. and that will be enough to break the record. Woo Hoo - exactly what we had hoped for when we moved to the Mid-Atlantic region - record snowfall!