Free Vermont Stuff!

First of all, my prayers are with those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Hawaii, and California. A scary time.

The Giveaway...

So here goes....I talk a lot about my love for Vermont here on the blog. People around here are very supportive of Vermont made products and local stores.



I wanted to give away a little something for you made in Vermont. I have 2 Vermont products I'm going to send out. To win you have to leave a comment making a guess about what you think I'm going to give away (be specific - don't just say t-shirt - tell me which one and where it's from).

A few hints...one of the products comes from a place I've mentioned on the blog before. To be fair if you don't know me well or haven't read the blog for a while, one of the products I've never mentioned so pure guessing could win you that one.

I'm not getting any type of sponsorship or anything for these - I just love VT products and think they're great!

The first person to guess correctly will win! If nobody guesses then I'll pick 2 winners at random (no playing favorites, I promise). You have until Tuesday to guess :)

If you don't have a google account, you can comment under "Anonymous" and just leave your name. If you have trouble commenting, let me know!

Good luck!

One year!

WOW - It's hard to believe that it has been one year since I wrote this post. My life has certainly changed since then. The weather outside my window today is dramatically different than it was last March 11. We're settled here in VT - although I am facing another move (hopefully)! Blogging has also opened up a whole world I didn't even know existed!

I've really enjoyed writing and I hope you've enjoyed reading! This has been a great way for me to keep everyone updated since I'm often a little slack on phone chats. I also like that I can go back and read myself about what we've done this past year, having an online journal is an unexpected bonus to writing the blog. I was afraid that I'd run out of things to write about, but so far that hasn't happened yet....

I'm not writing to gain lots of readers or advertising or anything like that, but I enjoy looking to see how many of you are reading. I'll share a little more about what my google stats tell me.

The blog has had 8,328 visits!

8,077 from the US
91 Canada
32 Brazil
27 Russia
20 France
19 Saudi Arabia
18 Japan
16 Taiwan
15 Germany
13 Denmark

I'm not sure these are totally accurate because Meg has checked several times in her travels from China, Hong Kong, and Thailand and none of those show up. Perhaps those countries block stat tracking? I also know many people disable cookie tracking (as I do myself!). I'm not sure if stats track those of you that put this in your google reader either.

Anyway, most of you visit either by typing in my blog address or from a referral from google or facebook. My most popular posts were on backcountry skiing and hatcher crackers!

So, I plan to keep things mostly the same here for next year but I have a few things I do want to do better.

1. Tagging. I want to be better about putting labels on posts so you can search for them within the blog. I will also try to change the layout so you can access the archives easier...

2. I want to change the banner to fit the season - I do love that lake picture but I haven't seen a view like that in about 7 months!

3. COMMENTS! I love reading comments, it's fun to hear what you think. Write more of them!

In an attempt to get more of you to comment, I'm going to host a little giveaway! Check back later today and I will post some details...You have to comment if you want to win :) These aren't going to be a regular thing but I just want to see if anybody will actually commment!

I'm just posting these because I think they're funny...I found them all on google images.

This is so cool

I love this story!

Atlanta Fine Homes Tour

When I was down in Atlanta, I kept thinking about how many CHOICES there are! I've never been a city girl (even our last "city" in Virginia wasn't all that big), so I have never lived in a place where there was quite as much action as there is in the ATL.

It is especially true of housing down there. I've never seen anything quite like it. I'm from the south and I'm used to old houses with lots of character and charm, but where my sister lives takes that to another level. Everywhere you turn, you enter another beautiful neighborhood. I walked around with my mouth hanging open. I wanted to give you a sampling of some typical Atlanta homes so I made Meg drive me around before I left. I did get caught by the homeowners taking pics all creepy style a few times - it was embarrassing :)

One word comes to mind when thinking about houses in the South - BRICK.





Not a fan of the traditional brick look? OK. How about a more aged finish?



Or whitewashed?





Perhaps brick mixed with another style?



Red brick not your thing? Fine. How about painted?



I think this one is painted as well...



Just don't like brick AT ALL? OK. You would have other options.









Want something not quite so big? OK.







Unreal...right? Notice how lots of them had such green green grass, even in winter. I guess if your yard isn't covered in snow 5 months of the year it's worth taking care of it. However, in the summer, residents in Georgia often face extreme heat and drought, which leads to water restrictions. Think these beautiful houses have a summer with dead grass because they're not allowed to run the sprinkler system? NOPE. That's why you see signs like this all over the place.



As long as you provide your own water source, you won't get a dirty look from the neighbors or a fine from the drought police, and you get to have that pretty green green grass.

Do I wish I had street after street of these beautiful neighborhoods here in Vermont? You bet. I love looking at them. It makes going running so much more interesting. Then I remind myself of what makes living here so beautiful...





Amazing, huh?

WOW

Yesterday morning, Matt took Willow for a walk in this. The R word, aka the reason I don't like when it gets warm here in the winter.







I heard we were supposed to get some snow, but had no idea it would turn into over 24 inches in about as many hours, the 5th biggest storm Vermont has ever seen (according to my favorite weatherman Tom Messner).

Check out this story and these pictures from our local news and paper.

EVERYTHING was closed today...schools, town offices, Matt's office! Plow crews around here are amazing at getting the roads clear, but many were declared almost impassable. Good thing Matt drives a truck so we could go skiing!

We woke up to this...







We were lucky to have a wonderful neighbor help us with the driveway.



Willow was a little unsure of how to get out (this is what it looks like if you forget to close the storm door properly - dang).



She was so excited, she figured it out quickly.



We spent about an hour digging out the driveway, then headed out. The skiing was so great, I didn't stop to take many pictures.

Matt talked me into doing some hiking (not all the lifts were running, so there was lots of fresh snow to be found). It was worth it.



Please excuse my amateur video skills...We were almost to the bottom by this point but better late than never.



We skied from 10:30-4 with no snack, rest, or warmth breaks - can you believe it? Not one complaint from me, which is pretty unusual. I rewarded myself afterwards.



We received about 7 more inches during the day, so we came home to shovel the driveway again. We will probably have to do it once more in the morning because I'll have to get out to go to school (that's right, school tomorrow...they aren't slowed down for long around here by over 2 feet of snow) after the plow comes through again.

Whew! Good thing we still love winter!

House Hunting Update

Sorry for my lack of posts! We've been busy up here. I wanted to give you a quick update on our house hunt...

When we first decided to move to Vermont, I began to dream about my future Vermont house.

I figured we would end up with something like this...

or this...

or this...after all it is Vermont! Everything here is rural and charming...

The first 2 are houses on home swap, the third actually a bed and breakfast.

I even thought about the potential of finding my ultimate dream house - a restored barn. Ah. Something like this...

I figured we could find something we loved in a neighborhood we liked for about 300-350K or so. Right?

If I could go back in time, I would laugh in my own face. New England charm doesn't come cheap.

When I started searching for real estate up here in Vermont, I began to get the feeling that our price range afforded us something more like this:



Ok - maybe I'm exaggerating. In all seriousness, I meant it when I said things are expensive here y'all!

Once I adjusted my expectations to something a little more realistic, I realized we could find something great but that it probably wasn't going to look like what I'd first pictured.

We've been searching, and searching, and searching, and searching, and....well....you get the point. We looked at all styles, in all neighborhoods, of all sizes. I fell in love with a nighborhood that we were afraid was out of our price range, but we got lucky :)

We found a great house and made an offer that was accepted! I'm not going to post pictures until we've closed (a few weeks from now and we still have a few things to check off before then), but we're super excited! It has "passed" inspection (as well as a 50 year old house can) and we've done a walk through with a contractor to get an idea of how much we can do now and what will have to wait until later. We're doing some updates since the house remains in its original 1950's glory.

It's going to make for some great before and afters!

Have you heard about this?

As an OT, I have the chance to work with lots of kiddos on the autism spectrum. Since 1 in every 110 children are now diagnosed with ASD, I know we're desperate for answers. Vaccinations aren't it. I respect that parents want to make their own decisions regarding vaccinations, but I'm so glad that there are finally some answers for them on this issue to help in making that decision!

Autism Study Fraud

If you want more info on the latest research...look here!

I've been meaning to post about this for a while now, but keep forgetting. I just read this article from the New York Times on the fear of vaccinations and the importance of getting them that reminded me to put it up!