So please, if you are already friends with me, join the group. If you aren’t friends with me (I’m looking at you WT moms ) please send me a FR and join the group. That is, if you want to stay updated with the weather.

Jon’s Weather Talk:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/233295090095971/

Later!

Jon

MID RANGE: Another quick moving storm system is progged by the models to move through the region late Wednesday night through the day on Thursday. This one could be a bit more interesting for a few reasons. This system will have less moisture to work with, but colder air both at the surface and aloft. A stripe of snow on the north side of this system is likely to accumulate to 2-4 inches which right now goes right through the Twin Cities metro, but slight track changes could make a huge difference. This ushers in a pretty good cold push for the end of the work week, with snow showers and flurries possible most of the day on Friday.

LA LA LAND (AKA LONG RANGE): As indicated by the title of this section, talking about something 7 days out is a hopeless thing. Details are almost always different when the forecast verifies. HOWEVER, trends in guidance can be looked at and used to indicate a potential stormy scenario. The latest guidance and guidance over the last few days has been indicating a potential winter storm this up coming weekend. There are obviously a lot of things to be ironed out, but this is the first time all winter that this strong of a signal has been indicated by the models. I will, of course, be keeping an eye on all available guidance and posting any updates.

DETAILS:

Monday: Increasing clouds. Chance for rain/snow showers late afternoon and evening. High: 41

Monday night: Rain/snow mix, changing to all snow after 8-9pm. Light snow through the night. Total accumulations of 1-2 inches possible metro wide. Low: 27

Tuesday: Morning flurries, with decreasing clouds through the day. No additional accumulation. High: 37

Tuesday night: Partly cloudy. Low: 25

Wednesday and Beyond: Potential accumulating snow both Thursday and during the weekend.

As always, if you have detailed questions, let me know in the comments!

I had a shock lately that has put some things in perspective. My weight is not where it should be so I am working on taking control of that. I am watching what I eat, limiting the snacks. No donuts, bakery items, little to no ice cream. It is a work in progress, but I am working at it. I have an amazing support group in my WT moms as there are many of us working on this goal. I am just thankful that I have people to turn to when I need the extra “hey you can do this” and also the “great job!”

At this point I am down 2 pounds. Weigh in will happen Thursday night/Friday morning and I am hoping that my work this week will pay off. I am still not 100% so working out is tough as I start coughing pretty quick after starting. Guess I need to get at it again though. I know I can do this!

On a better note… the girls are both doing well. They are keeping us on our toes and helping cause as much trouble as they can. You would think with the lack of snow that we have we could be outside, but it actually isn’t that much warmer. However, that may just be what I need to take the girls outside as the sun is coming up earlier in the morning and staying up a little later (YEAH!). Guess I just need to suck it up and deal with the cold. For one being from Minnesota (yes I am even from Southwest MN) I still hate the cold weather. The snow is okay if I am not driving in it, but the cold just isn’t my thing. CJ has found a new love in the song “Fen.ces”. This kid can easily sing the song and I don’t even listen to it. Even found out Jon doesn’t really either. C has it on her Inn.otab and I guess CJ loves singing and dancing to it. She is really funny, especially when she is singing it as she is getting ready to fall asleep at night. C is loving her swimming lessons and I am so glad to hear it. She starts a soccer camp soon and right now hoping she continues to enjoy it. Seems a few of the girls on her team have decided they don’t want to play anymore so not sure she will want to continue where we have her. Just not ready to spend the money to put her in the “elite” league with her classmates as it is roughly $200 or so. A lot of money if you ask me to play a sport with volunteers as the coaches. Then again I didn’t play soccer so I can’t talk much about the money side of it. C continues to amaze us with her reading knowledge. I find it funny that she loves math and then dislikes it. I think sometimes it is too easy and others she just wants to play. To be honest I wish I could let her unwind after school but if I do that she wouldn’t do her homework so we have a plan in place that all homework needs to be done before tv or anything else. Maybe once she shows that she can handle it a fun time at the park will happen first and then homework or when she doesn’t have any homework.

All is going well here. We are keeping busy with life and what it has to offer.

Again this year it was a ton of fun. Well except when someone always gets sick. This time it was our sweet niece. Thankfully it was Sunday and she was doing better Monday when they left for home. We all got there on Friday within minutes of each other. We enjoyed dinner at Famous Dave’s and down time. Saturday started with breakfast and then water park and ended with Buffalo Phil’s. Sunday was water park as well. There were some arcade games played, some Ma.gique.st dragons slayed, money spent at the outlet mall and of course clean up in the condo as well as a run to a super store that is only an exit away.

The kids had so much fun playing together and it was so wonderful to watch the two youngest who are only a day apart play together. They had so much fun. The older two enjoyed their time together as well. I think it was a challenge for both of them, though they seemed to work well around it. Of course C was the ring leader most of the time as the others would just follow her lead.

We are thankful that this is something that we can all enjoy as a family and that it is possible to do this. Here’s to next year!

When I got the news earlier this week it hit me, but maybe because I was away from home it wasn’t the devestation that I am now finding. You know, that wait it couldn’t really be true, but looking at his obituary online it really is. My heart hurts. The tears are flowing down my face as the realization comes forward that I have one grandparent left in my life. When I was 16 (just 16) I lost my grandpa P. It was so difficult to know that we wouldn’t go out to the farm anymore.  That same year I lost my great grandma D in May and New Years Eve lost my 5 year old cousin to a freak accident. During my junior or senior year I lost my great grandma K. After getting married I lost my great grandpa K, he lived to be 100 years old by one month how awesome is that! In 2003 I lost my 17 year old cousin to a car accident. She was killed by a drunk driver as was her best friend that was due to graduate that day. Not long after that I lost my other great-grandpa. Again he lived to be 100 years old by a month. Just last year my grandma K passed away after a long and amazing battle with cancer. It started out as breast cancer and ended up going into her bones. It slowly took her away from us, but it didn’t win. God won, because she was whole again and pain free. Now my grandpa. For a short time, we had 5 generations alive. C had a great-great grandpa and I have a beautiful picture to always remember that. Now there are three generations left on that side. The stories have ended and I never got them written down. Now I need to make time with siblings of my grandparents to get those stories for my girls to always have.

In my head I have some great memories of my grandparents. They aren’t always great and I can admit I wasn’t always the best grandchild, but I know I was loved by them both as were my girls. I remember making homemade ice cream on the machine that you had to hand crank. After it was made I would put Creme de Menthe on the vanilla ice cream and enjoy it. My grandma loved butterscotch. I remember staying with my grandma for a few weeks when she broke her ankle and was in a wheelchair. She allowed me to walk down to the local pool and go swimming even though I was suppose to stay with her. I would sit on the rollaway bed that was in the “loft” area before going into the two bedrooms upstairs and play with the buttons that grandma collected in a jar. I want to say I learned about Tom and Jerry’s at their house, though mine were always virgin. And memories that make me laugh as my favorite was singing happy birthday to a couple cans of pop. Yes they kept pop until someone either drank it or dumped it out without them knowing as they didn’t want to waste money. When my cousin passed away at the age of 5, they were staying with one of my uncles and their house caught fire. Thankfully no one was there at the time, but they did what they could to save as much as possible in their house, regardless if even years after the fire it still smelled just a little bit of fire.

My heart is very heavy tonight and I will get through this as I was the strong first grandchild a year ago just a few days after my birthday. I continue to work through the emotions that I have in my head and in my heart. The guilt I feel for not going down there and visiting family more, especially since they only live 3.5 hours away. My kids come first, but they also need to have time with their extended family while they are here. I need to get down there and get the stories from my lone grandparent of how she met my grandfather and their life on the farm. I seem to say this quite a bit but it just doesn’t happen. Now it needs to. I will be down there tomorrow, hopefully if the snow holds back so we can get down there safely.

I love you Grandpa. Enjoy the new car trips with Grandma. We all miss you both so very much but know that the angels watching over us are two amazing people.

Took C in yesterday for her 7 year well check, wait a minute when did my girl turn 7? How the heck did that happen already! Anyways, at her appointment they had a hard time getting her blood pressure and once they did it was a little on the high of the normal scale. I always thought blood pressure was linked to your heart. Well in kids, I guess, it is linked more to kidneys. Well C (and CJ for that matter) both have kidney reflux. So a renal ultrasound has been scheduled to check her kidneys. Just another “thing” to deal with.

With everything going on my weight has kept climbing. It isn’t like I eat horrible, but I snack when I am stressed. Gee, I wonder if I have anything that could stress me out lately?! I have noticed this and have been keeping a food diary with calorie intake. I would love to join Wei.gh.t Wa.tch.ers but we just don’t have the money right now for it so I am working on doing it with some help of some amazing moms on my WT board and my wonderful mom.  My hope is that they will have a nice litlte New Years deal that will make it affordable and I can go full force into it. So until then I will maintain my calorie intake and keep taking the stairs. What stinks is since we live in an apartment it isn’t like I can do any W i i game that has jumping involved, let alone any fitness DVD that has it. So working out can be difficult for me. It is getting cold and taking both girls on a nice walk is difficult. I have finally started to figure out why this is so important to me, and it isn’t just to get healthy, I have never had to diet in my life. I have been lucky to be involved in sports when I was in school, both Middle and High. My BIL’s wife is tiny, my guess is she weighed what I did at the start of my pregnancy with CJ at the end of hers with my niece. Why do I bring this up? Well I am seeing that what other think of me and see me as really affects me. In two months we will be having family Christmas with hubby’s family. I love spending time with everyone, but putting on a swimsuit scares me so much that I feel like I am having an anxiety attack. The last thing I want to do is put on a suit with my extra 30 to 40 pounds and stand anywhere near his family. I don’t want to embarrass myself or anyone else by how I feel I look. I realize it seems selfish to think of myself that way, but I do. I understand that 30 to 40 pounds is nothing and such, but to me it is huge. I feel huge. I feel unlovable, and to be perfeclty honest VERY unsexy. Now is the time I take control again. Now exactly sure how I am going to do that yet, but I will.

First is my sweet friend lost her little boy. One of our special Wild Things has grown wings and is now sitting high up in Heaven on a beautiful puffy cloud with WT angel Izzie watching over their cousins and keeping them all safe. It has been really hard for me, though I will never say it is anything close to what my friend is dealing with. I went and saw this sweet little man 4 days before he passed away. If you didn’t believe in being directed you just may now. For the longest time I will have names keep coming up in my mind. I will be sitting there either working on something, playing a game or watching tv and a name will just keep popping into my head. Usually I will write the name down on a piece of paper and then continue on. If it continues to come through I will write that person a little card and send it. Sometimes I get a note saying thank you, how did you know I needed those words. Just makes my heart smile to know that there was a reason for the name. Well this little boy kept coming into my mind and heart. Since we were going to be out for C’s follow-up on her broken arm I convinced hubby to take me to the hospital that he was at. I spent some special time with my friend, her husband and watched her baby sleep. Just as I was getting ready to leave I was able to catch a glimpse of little man and touch him. As I was watching him and listening to my friend talk about what was going on, I said a silent prayer over him and asked the beautiful white light to cover him and the room keeping him safe. He passed away a few short days after that visit. It hurts to know that a mother is out there not holding her child, especially after having him for over 2 years. I will never question God’s decision, but I wonder why. Why did this child, or any for that matter, get cancer? Why do children get sick and leave this Earth so early? I believe that we all have a path that is planned for us. People come into our lives and stay for a short time and then leave. Sometimes we are so blessed that they stay for a really long time and we are able to learn and grow with each other. These friends help us through hard times and rejoice in the great times. I have a few of these “old” friends and I have quite a few friends that are WT moms. These ladies have seen me through the birth of CJ, my going back to work, C’s broken arm and cast, the death of my Grandma to cancer and everything else during these almost 3 years together. I don’t know where I would be without the support these ladies all show me in their own way.

Second, my Grandpa is really sick. How sick you ask? Well sick enough that they amputated his toes a few days ago and then decided that it wasn’t enough and he just today lost his leg. There is so much fluid in his body that it has to start coming off or he could risk having organs shut down. He has a virus in his body that they are trying to “vacuum” out of him with hopes that nothing else will need to be removed. My Grandma, his wife, passed away December 15 of last year. I cannot imagine how hard it has been for him during this past year not having his companion there. He took care of her when she got sick, they celebrated life when she went into remission, then took care of her as she started to pass away. They were married for over 50 years. I believe it was 54 or so. I am not ready to lose another family member, especially around the holiday’s not to mention my birthday. My Grandma passed away 2 days before my birthday. Last year was the first year I didn’t get a birthday card from them. Sounds silly, but to me it was that they remembered me. I am the oldest Grandchild on that side. I have three cousin and one cousin in Heaven that passed away when she was 5. My Grandma passed away in December, My cousin passed away at the age of 5 on December 31. How’s that for timing. Now nothing can happen to my Grandpa in December :(

In October, C broke her arm playing soccer. She found out the hard way you don’t stand on a soccer ball as it more than likely will fall out from underneath your foot and you have a good chance on landing wrong on your arm. She was in a cast for just over 5 weeks, which included the rest of her soccer season, Halloween and her birthday. C decided to not have a birthday party with friends this year which was really hard for her as she is our social butterfly. She just couldn’t do much so she didn’t want to have one. Thankfully her Grandma D made their costumes this year and they were Little House on the Prairie girls. So easy to fit over her hot pink cast. Not quite era right, but she looked beautiful as did CJ.

Last, but not least, my boss of 1 year has decided to retire early.  She has been so stressed out about things at work that she has had enough. I will be going through the process of interviewing with a bunch of others a replacement for her. I may not have always agreed with her or liked her choices, but she is amazing to work for. She is very family first which is nice with two daughters, both in some sort of school that keep you busy. She has been great about not asking me to move my hours around and has given me the opportunity to attend a couple classes for free. So while we finish up our winter catalog together and she departs right as the Winter catalog classes are going and driving us crazy I will learn just how much I know at work. I still depend on her knowledge of so many things, especially being I am still new to the position. Just so much going on. Not to mention that by the time she leaves, we will need to start getting the Spring/Summer catalog letters out to start planning that catalog. Yup, not much down time that’s for sure. I think I need a little vacation!

So that is where I am right now. Things are stressful, but we are all doing well for the most part.

If you’ve never heard of MuteMath, I highly suggest checking them out. They are hard to describe and compare to other groups, which is a good thing. Technically they are under the ‘Alternative’ genre, but it’s hard to have them under one classification. I’ll post a youtube vid or two down below for you to check out. I have yet to be disappointed in a CD from them. Their 3rd release comes out tomorrow. From what I’ve heard, it sounds quite different from past albums. I was a bit afraid of what I was hearing this summer, but once I was able to hear a few preview clips last week, I’m excited. 

Guess what Thursday is? Go on, guess. HOCKEY SEASON. As a hockey nut, I am really excited for this year. I have two teams I cheer for, the Red Wings are #1 no matter who they play, but living in Minnesota, it’s hard not to be a Wild fan. And there is reason for optimism this year with the acquisitions of Devin Setoguchi and Dany Heatley. We actually might score some goals! YEAH! Can’t wait!

Last, but certainly not least, Snow. It snowed in the higher elevations of the Appalachians this past weekend. In fact, there were some areas above 1500 feet that got quite the accumulations! I’m excited for snow, when it comes. Meanwhile, the forecast for around here: Boring for the next week. Much above normal temperatures and virtually no precipitation. Yuck. 

Here’s a few of those MuteMath vids:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_t7E7gEDk8

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv2mjAgFTaI

I am going to be taking a break from this as the much anticipated Dream Theater album is coming out next week. It may take me a few weeks of listening to that before I come back to this, so forgive me.

Hello again. It’s been too long. Had a HECK of a week last week with Hurricane Irene taking up most of my time. However, that only kept me from doing blog posts and NOT from listening. I’ve completed 5 more albums since the last post. So without further adieu, here they are.