Life in 2016 - Part 1

Well, I let it happen again.  I went another year without posting and now I'm playing catch-up once again on a snow day.  Snow days are great for catching up on things that you've been meaning to do for months!  I've decided to recap 2016 in quarters, so here's Part 1.

I knew from the get-go that 2016 was going to consist of two things for sure - lots of friends having babies and continuing school to finish my Master's.  So, it seemed fitting that the very first thing I did was host a baby shower for my running buddy who was having TWINS!  We did everything twin themed and had fun activities for people to do.

Cuties are coming!
Chip, chip hooray! Twins are on the way!

Twin Layer Chocolate Cake

Decorating alphabet blocks for the girls.

Mom to be just days before be ordered to bed rest.

Of course, the first part of the year also consists of a lot of snow.  I don't particularly care for the cold, but I tried to make the most of it - finding fun indoor activities for the days is just way too cold and then getting out to play in it when I can.  February started off with some super cold and snowy days.  The school district was actually closed for 3 days in a row!!!  That was unheard of.  So days 1 and 2 I enjoyed watching the snow from inside my home.

That's a lot of snow in my parking lot

And some really good icicles

I used those days to finish a painting project.
This chest has had "potential" to be cute for over 10 years;
I think it finally reached it's potential :)

By day 3, I was getting a little stir crazy and was ready to go out and play.  Luckily my friends were feeling the same way.  We all made our way to a good snowy hill and had a blast sledding!

Here I go!

I want to do that again!

After a good day of sledding, we got to warm up by a
roaring fire and make s'mores!

Other happenings in February included celebrating Chili Day for the 4th year in a row at work, the arrival of the first of my friends' babies, and I took up making my own kombucha!

Always a huge hit at work!  You should give it a try.

Welcome to the world Magnus!

My first attempt at kombucha...

successfully bottled!

March brought one of my favorite random holidays of the year and then some unexpected excitement.  I'll start with my favorite random holiday - Pancake Day!!!

I had all kinds of pancakes going on in the kitchen!
Buttermilk, blueberry, banana, black bean, corn,
bacon, pineapple upside-down

And lots of topping options!

I love getting to see my friends enjoy
pancake day!

How's that bacon pancake?

My most loyal celebrators of Pancake Day

I have to share these next few to be transparent that not all pancakes turn out as you would hope.  I had such high hopes for the pineapple upside-down pancakes.  Sometimes following the directions just doesn't work out.

So cute with their little heart cut-outs, right?

Recipe says pour the batter over the pineapple...

Hmm, not quite so pretty when you try to flip them over.

 They tasted good, but were not good to look at.  I saved some batter and pineapple and tried again the next day using my own method.  I poured the batter in the skillet and placed the pineapple on the batter once it had a chance to set a bit...

...much better!  This is what I was hoping for!

 Now, for the unexpected excitement.  As I was walking home from work one day, I got a phone call from my neighbor.  He was wondering if I was on my way home because there was a surprise waiting for me.  I asked, "Is this a good surprise or a bad surprise?"  To which he replied, "This is not a good surprise."  So I picked up the pace a bit to get up the hill and see what was going on.  As I turned the corner into my complex, I was shocked by this site:

Yep, that's a car in the condo directly beneath mine.  Not something you expect to come home to on a beautiful afternoon at 4:00.  The amazing part of it all was that no one was injured at all.  The driver was able to crawl right out of the car.  My downstairs neighbor wasn't home.  And no one was walking across the parking lot that could have been hit.  I was thanking God all night that he had protected everyone!

The police, firemen, and news crews all responded very quickly.  It turned out that the driver was drunk and probably lost consciousness as he pulled into the complex and proceeded to fly right into the building.  The firemen checked the structure of my place and declared it safe.  And then I got to be on the news -  not exactly the TV fame I would seek out ;)

Reinforcing the wall before extracting the car.
I was obviously very thankful for their work.

And we were just left with a bit of an eyesore for a while.

But again, we were all just so thankful that no one was injured.  It could have been so much worse.  Buildings can be repaired and stuff can be replaced.  I also had a paper due that night, which was very hard to focus on.  Should have taught me to not leave assignments to the last night.  Do you think I learned my lesson?! :)

To end on a high note, shortly after that my parents came for their March visit. I am always so excited to have them here!  We got to celebrate Spring Break and my mom's birthday.

Birthday breakfast at Over Easy - yumm!!!

And that sums up the first quarter of 2016.  More to come in Part 2...