Endless Winter

All summer I spend every free moment outside, soaking up the sun, feeling the warmth. I love, love, love walking out of an air conditioned building into the heat. Oh, it feels so good.

I should have been a cat. Or a lizard. Love that warmth.

Around August I start getting that feeling of dread. I know what's coming. While fall is beautiful in Idaho, winter isn't far behind. And, while I don't mind winter during winter,it just lasts so long here. A friend of mine said once that each season is given three months. It's rude and inconsiderate for any season to take more than it's share. In Idaho, winter is a greedy girl, taking much more than it's allotted three months.

Really,I can only take so many gloomy, gray days and so much windy, snowy weather. My spirit starts to wither. I feel like the old brown leaves on the bushes outside my house, covered in ice.

Let's see....this is February, so I figure we've got a good month of winter left, then it's supposed to be spring but Idaho spring is really just more winter.  It's cold. It's blustery. It snows. And the snow turns to muddy slush.

So, here I am. Quite frankly, I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the snow. I'm ready for the sun to come out. But winter in Idaho just seems so e...n...d...l...e...s...s.

I'll admit it  - I'm whining and complaining and I'm not much fun to be around. I'm trying to find the beauty in it but it's hard to find beauty in day after day where everything is gray - the sky, the ground, the trees, my mood.

I know it will eventually warm up. I just have to be patient. Maybe that's the lesson.....be patient. Live the day. Have hope. I found this video that helped me remember that winter is a time for quiet, for stillness which we all need. And spring and summer will come again.  So, if you're like me and are pining away for some warm, sunny weather, I hope this video lifts your spirits. It did mine. At least a little bit.

This One's for the Girls

 

We ditched the boys this weekend and spent the weekend together in Boise - shopping, laughing, shopping, playing, shopping, eating......well, you get it.

...no sissy Lifetime movies for this crowd...

We started this shop-fest on Friday afternoon, which found us at the Cheesecake Factory. We should have started with dessert, because by the time we ate, of course we couldn't eat any cheesecake. Really, what's the point of eating at the Cheesecake Factory if you don't get any cheesecake? But, there it is. We hit the mall (clothes and accessories), Pier 1 Imports (a lovely shabby chic picture frame for me), and then.....where's that cheesecake when you want it?......we were ready for dessert so we went to Cold Stone.

At Cold Stone, I was less interested in the ice cream than I was in the family that came in after us. Mom, Dad, a 2 year old, and a little (read newborn) baby in a carrier. Dad (big guy with a Boise State Broncos hat on backwards) saw someone he knew (who just happened to be a really cute young woman with her school-age daughters), so he peeled off from the group and got engaged in what must have been the most INTRIGUING conversation since he was totally oblivious to the fact that his wife was standing in line, holding the baby in his/her carrier, fussing at the 2 year old, and ordering, paying, and delivering ice cream to the table where he sat. Like a king. Who needed his head pinched off. By me. Or, preferably, by HER.

At any rate, after ice cream it was Ross and Marshall's, then the pregnant lady ran out of gas and we went back to the hotel for our comfy PJ's and back-to-back episodes of "Lockup".  (No sissy Lifetime movies for this crowd.)

Saturday we started at the Antique Mall where I told my cohorts in shopping crime to leave me and come back in a week, but they performed an intervention and got me out in less than an hour. We checked out the Factory Outlet stores (nothing much there), Chili's for lunch, then TJ Maxx, and back to Burlington Coat Factory to get the stroller we saw earlier. 

At Burlington, I truly wish I had been in possession of a video camera. The stroller and baby carrier came in a ginormous, oversized, "let's kill all the trees in the forest" box that, of course, could not be squeezed, levered, or shoved into the back seat or the trunk. There we were, three girls in the parking lot, with a huge box and nowhere to put it.

Never fear.

We unpacked the whole thing in the middle of the parking lot, stored the purchase in the trunk, and left Burlington with the task of recycling the box.

Problem solved.

Unfortunately, the greatest picture passed me by as we zoomed toward our next shopping destination....a seedy establishment on the street corner that advertised "Guns, Ammunition, and Divorce Toolkits". I never have my camera out when I need it. 

The boys fared pretty well on frozen lasagna and Mongolian Grill. The house was standing when we returned, the dishes were (miraculously) clean, and all was well. 

Hmmmm.....looks like they CAN live without us. I've heard Salt Lake has some sales going on......and Kohl's just increased my credit limit.