Super Bowl

Super Bowl 2011 was just as fun as Super Bowl 2010. The game was fine, the commercials were fine, the food was delicious and the company was GREAT! Mike and Meredith were kind enough to invite us (and our buddy Wes, holla!) over to their house for the second year in a row. This is Owen's second Super Bowl and I think he enjoyed this one more than the last.

None of us were particularly excited to see the Black Eyed Peas at halftime and their mediocrity was just as we suspected it would be. There is a reason all of their songs are so heavy on the synthesizing...they are all terrible singers. Somehow our conversation got around to the topic of babies dancing to Beyonce's music video for Single Ladies. I have seen a video of this before and found it quite hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikTxfIDYx6Q

We decided to put the video on to see if Owen would dance. Approximately 2 seconds into the song, Owen started dancing! It was really funny and he kept up the dancing for most of the song. He even did a lot of the same moves as the baby in the original You Tube video. I don't know what it is about Beyonce but apparently she has some kind of hypnotic power over the babies of the world.

During the second half while "intently" watching the game we got onto the topic of movies. Wes declared that he has never seen Forrest Gump. In unison the rest of us (not including Owen) exclaimed, "I can't believe you haven't seen that!" Within a few minutes we had each come up with a movie that we had not seen that everyone else (or almost everyone else) had. Thus was born the idea to get together to watch each of the 5 movies over the next several weeks. The 5 movies are:

Forrest Gump
Slumdog Millionaire
Saving Private Ryan
The Big Lebowski
Pride and Prejudice

My vote was to make it like The Finer Things Club from The Office and have themed snacks and drinks to go with each movie. Don't know that everyone else is going to go for that idea. :) I will keep you updated as we start watching the movies.



2010 Super Bowl



Sitting on Merdi's lap



Sitting on Merdi's lap a year later

Wicked Cold

Last night as I was just about to get in bed, I heard Myers grumbling in the bedroom. I got up to see what he was doing and quickly realized (as I got out from under my blanket on the couch) that the air was distinctly colder than our pleasant 72 degree setting. After fiddling with the thermostat on the wall, Myers headed into the attic to check things out. Oh, by the way, it was 17 degrees outside so not having heat was potentially a gigantic problem. Anyway, 15 minutes or so later, I was up in the attic with him putting my zero percent knowledge of HVAC into good use. We unscrewed the control panel from the unit in the attic and followed the instructions for dummies that were printed inside. All of our attempts to fix it were in vain.

We made the decision to pack up Owen and the dogs and head over to my parents house. Not only was it cold outside but the roads were pretty icy so the drive was very slow and intense. I was praying that we would not slide off into a ditch for 2 reasons: a) because we didn't want to slide into a ditch and b) because I didn't want anyone to see what we were wearing. It was late and we didn't feel like changing out of our pajamas so we just added some hats and coats and shoes to our pj ensembles. Not very attractive.

Although I was delighted that we had somewhere warm to sleep, I was not looking forward to sharing one room with Myers, Owen and 2 dogs. Owen is usually a super sleeper but he doesn't go to sleep easily when he knows there are other people or animals in the same room. We tried putting him in the pack n play for a little bit, then we tried letting him crawl around the bed, then I walked around the house rocking him but he was wanting to play instead of sleep. After a few hours my wonderful mother offered to stay up with him so we could get some sleep. Bless you mom!

I called our go-to repair company for all things heating and air: Climate Care. They are awesome. It took awhile to get a hold of them but thankfully they had an open appointment at 11:00 this morning. Myers had to go to work but stopped by the house to check on things and let me know that the inside temperature had reached 45 degrees. Brrrrr. By the time I got there the water from the dripping faucets (must protect the pipes) had turned to ice in the bathtub.

I went home to wait for Climate Care. It was really freakin cold. I had on 2 pair of pants, a long sleeve shirt, 2 jackets, 2 pairs of thermal socks, gloves and a hat and I was still pretty chilly. The guy showed up right on time and was able to get things fixed pretty quickly. And as an extra bonus, he made no rude comments about my unconventional indoor attire. Unfortunately, it takes awhile to reheat a two story house whose temperature has fallen 30 degrees below the normal level of comfort. I think Robot was a little colder than me. We survived and are now back to normal. Weather forecast is predicting more snow tonight, lovely.

Crazy Weather

One of the New Year's Resolutions in the Lever house is to take more pictures. We are slowly getting a little more skilled with our camera and are enjoying practicing photography on our favorite subject: Owen.

3 days ago the weather was 70 degrees and sunny. We took Owen to the playground to soak up the sun and get some energy out at the park. Today, (just 3 days later) the weather in sleety and snowy and icy and frigid. We went outside briefly to snap a couple of photos in the snow but had to come inside quickly because it was way too windy and cold. Here are a few of our favorite photos from the two outdoor shoots. Enjoy.






This one is my favorite...




Brrr...bundled up for the snow.



Pajamas and boots are always a good combination.