{twenty ten}

it's 1:35am and i'm sitting here in my chair with my fuzzy lamb slippers on. the fire has died out, and my contacts are telling me it's time for bed. before i hit the hay, and hopefully before i need to hit the ground running in the morning, i wanted to get a quick post up.

first and foremost, it's a day of celebration. at 10:59pm on january 7, 2002 the world was blessed to welcome my sweet baby girl. HAPPY BIRTHDAY my precious little emma... eight years old today. please don't ask me where the past eight years have gone because i could not tell you. it's been a whirlwind of wonderful memories, crazy moments and lots of lovin'. happy birthday bubby-doll! i love you more than ever {and maybe even more}.

secondly, at least as of now, i'm continuing on my project 365 for 2010. flipping through the pictures from last year, i almost can't imagine not doing it again. there are just so many little moments that would have been forgotten without it. not to mention watching the girls grow before my eyes in pictures. it is an amazing process.

since i've managed to make it 6 days already, i'm guessing i'm all in. last year at this time, stan was laid up from getting hit hard by a drunk driver. looking back a year later, you can't help but shout, God is good! this year on january first, stan is overseas and the girls and i were out visiting my brother in colorado. a million miles and about 100 degrees fahrenheit apart. we were tromping around in the snow, and he was tromping around in the sand. and i'd wager to guess that our day was a little more fun-filled than his. all that said, we all are tromping toward homecoming just as fast as we can!

we spent the day at the garden of the gods in colorado springs with my two brothers, sister in law and dad. it was the last day my brother dave & his wife were in town from japan, so tromping around in one of america's amazing wonders was the perfect way to spend the day.

january 2nd we had breakfast with my brother and headed out for the long trek home. 1300 miles, or there about. i would have said about 20 hours of driving, however, we had a little hiccup along the way...

just over the summit of vail pass in the rockies, i hit an icy patch and went for a disneyland-esque ride that ended in the snowbank. as we were spinning and costco dried mangoes were swirling around above my head, i somehow knew it was going to be alright. and as we plowed to a stop under the curl of a snow wave... we were alright. what was that about shouting God is good... maybe i should do that again! my dad hopped out of the car and said, "um, we have a little bit of a problem." it wasn't that we were pointing the opposite direction of traffic with our behind buried in snow.

nope! notice in the picture how the truck canopy hatch is open. oh yah! our luggage was back there. guess where it ended up after our deposit in the snow bank? oh yah, again. it shot out of the back of the canopy, landed about 50 feet away then was buried in the large amount of snow we displaced with the truck. hot dog! or more like... cold fingers! my dad and i jumped out into waist deep snow (ok, for you "normal sized" folks it probaby wasn't that deep... but for the "fun sized" among us, well, it was waist deep.) we hobbled through the snow in a not-so-graceful manner and started hucking the bags back toward the truck. i'm pretty sure i was running on adrenaline at this point because it took me a minute to realize a critical mistake i'd made... "packing" all of the ski coats, snow pants, goggles and my heels in a laundry basket. yah, that didn't go so well. the laundry basket contents had exploded like a firework, except that the evidence was all covered as if the snow had always been there. oy! there was a puff of pink snow hat here, and a dash of brown snow pant there. but, oh man, was it cold out there.

back into the truck for those heated seats to work their magic, and a little belated call to 911 to request a lift out of our current predicament. once we had an officer and a tow truck on the way... i went searching for gloves so i could finish the job of finding as much of belongings as possible... and my dad went to snap a few pictures of our misadventure. all the while, the girls sat in the backseat, happy as clams, playing with their american girl dolls. ah the simple joy of childhood! i threw the last of the items i managed to find in the back of the truck, and waited for our rescuers.

the state patrol officer got there first. a very cheery navy veteran who enjoyed the humor of the moment as much as we did. it is a blessing to be able to look at a near miss, to laugh and be grateful. just a few minutes later we were joined by a tow fella who amazed us with his skills of getting a backward angled ginormous truck out of the snow and on the right track, without blocking traffic and all in about 10 minutes! and with a quick swipe of my card, he had us back on our way... completely unscathed from our crazy little ride. God is definitely good!

after 22 hours of travel, we finally arrived in town, quickly hit the drive through car wash to wash away 1300 miles of road grime and snow pack. and figuring i might crash as soon as we rolled into our driveway, i decided to snap a picture right there in the car wash. clean and simple. :)

monday was filled with cleaning and doing an inventory on the items we donated to vail pass. i kindly donated one shoe two different pairs of shoes. so my super cute naughty monkey heel is now missing it's partner. poor cute shoe! but all things considered, we survived the whole thing and only lost 2 shoes and two gloves. (read that 2 pairs of shoes and 2 pairs of shoes... one item from each pair was eaten by the snow.) lol

tuesday and wednesday life rolled back to its normal routine. school, homework, lunch making, house cleaning and all that jazz. it is those normal moments where you can sit back with a cup of coffee, and laugh at the crazy life that is swirling around your head like costco dried mangoes, and know that God is good.