Snow Day: The Sequel

We don't get snow in Nashville. OK, technically we do actually get snow....but not SNOW. But last night we got SNOW. 4 inches of real packable, sleddable, not seeing the grass type of snow. The city shut down (well except for my husband who went to work) but the rest of us enjoyed an honest to God SNOW DAY!!

(Got to start them young on that manual labor thing)

Mmmmmmm - snow cream

And look at that...we have a puppy!! Believe it or not, that is Guinness acting like a 2 year old. The kids made snowballs and he jumped and caught them in his mouth, ran around the backyard...I don't think he has had this much exercise in years.

Yay Snow Day!!

Best Guests

An astute eye might have noticed that over the last couple of posts a third child has been appearing. No, we didn't have another and not tell anyone. Our friends Jamie and Page with their son Hudson made an appearance in Nashville for New Year's Eve.

So of course we had to show off our driving skills....


And teach him the finer points of hockey...


We even took him for his very first time on the ice (which of course I forgot my camera for).

After 100 takes this was the best group shot we could get....


Maybe next year.

Happy New Year

The Winter Classic

His second favorite hockey team

A reason to stay up late and watch TV

His Daddy's hockey jersey from when he was a kid

A Boy in Heaven

Really Big News

I suppose if you didn't know us and just happened upon this blog you would know a lot about me and the kids and probably assume there was a husband somewhere around - he occasionally is in the background of one or two photos and every once in awhile he gets a mention in the text. I can't imagine he is too upset about his supporting role here but today he is the star of the show. (Lucky him).

As long as I have known Raif he has dreamed big, really big. He never does anything halfway and never takes the easy way out. The way we eat, live and do almost everything screams a certain amount of vibrato. He has carried this into everything he has done....well almost everything. For years Raif has been itching to get out from under the thumb of 'the man.' He has always detested working for someone else...the thought of his hard work making someone else besides him money has never set well with him. I personally was never bothered with working for someone else. I enjoyed the comfort of that steady paycheck and someone else taking most of the risk (along with most of the reward).

But as everyone knows I am not Raif, which is probably why our marriage works so well, and as much as I tried to convince him that security was the bomb-diggity he of course didn't listen and last week Raif became 'The Man.' He bought 1/3 of the company he works for and is now an owner. I am immensely proud of him (and admittedly immensely nervous) as well. His actual work duties aren't changing just how he is compensated is.

So to my darling husband - "I love you and am very proud of you. Keep up the good work!! And no more complaining about your bosses."

Flashback

I love projects.

OK, well that isn't exactly true. I love to think up projects and I love to start projects...finishing them not so much (I won't even show you the pathetic job on my basement - that last project I posted). But yet I keep starting them and I have embarked on the mother of all projects (didn't I say that about the basement?).

About a month ago, on a random website I found an ad for a slide to digital converter. I thought, hmmmm, my parents have THOUSANDS of slides perhaps I should convert them to a digital format to preserve the memories forever. So I ran the idea by Raif who informed me that we could actually do it with our current printer so my parents brought me a couple of test slides over Christmas and I spent an evening getting cozy with my printer and voila.....

Yes, that is me at the ripe old age of 1. Apparently the converter works so in February, the next time they return, my parents are going to lug my entire childhood in the back of the car and I am going to spend my evenings reliving my childhood so you may get to see a few more pics of me going forward...unless I don't finish the project.......

The Moment

For all my faithful readers over the years, you probably remember our previous attempts at organized sport with Greyson. First soccer which he refused to participate in at all and then hockey when he screamed bloody murder and refused to get out on the ice.

But hope springs eternal in the Erim household and so when, a couple of weeks ago, Greyson said he wanted to play hockey with some coaches Raif and I signed him up for skating lessons (though we did tell him that it was 'hockey practice without sticks').

Needless to say I was more than a bit apprehensive about the whole thing since it was I who was taking him and would have to deal with any potential hysterics. We talked to him extensively about the fact that he was going to go on the ice alone with his coaches but that I would be watching the whole time. He seemed OK with it so off we went.

My first "Oh Shit" moment came when he found out who his coach was....a girl. "But Mommy, where are the boy coaches I need a boy coach. Girls are yucky." I managed to convince him that when he starts practice with sticks he will have a boy coach. After a couple of minutes of off ice instruction it was time to leave the Mommies and head out to the ice.

Then the tears came...but not from Greyson, but from me because my boy followed his coach to the edge of the rink, turned around, waved, smiled and marched onto the ice without a tear, a whine or a whimper. He then proceeded to skate and fall and laugh and occasionally turn to wave but he did it. He took one giant leap from little boy-dom to boy-dom and I couldn't be happier or prouder of my little man.