The Folk Singer

Last night was an interesting night at the Coleman household. We have been stuck in this house for almost 5 days, and we are all going stir crazy! I think all of the pent up energy Sarah has been saving manifested itself in an hour and a half bedtime routine. She picked up her guitar, and sang for 30 straight minutes! I chose one (of the many) video clips I got of the concert she put on for me (I think it was to keep me from putting her PJ's on, boy she is clever). She calls this "Shelly's song". It is about our dog who has been in the house more this week than in the past year, due to all of the inclement weather we have been having. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!



Sarah the folk singer from Angela Coleman on Vimeo.

Ice World 2009

This has been the weirdest weather week I have ever witnessed! Mother Nature has thrown every possible type of precipitation in her arsenal at us and (so far) we are living to tell the story. I was scheduled to work Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week but did not work one day! One would think that I would be excited about this turn of events, but in my 32 plus years of wisdom, I know that I would rather be home when it is 80 degrees and sunny than stuck in the house suffering from cabin fever!

My one consolation is that I am getting to spend so much quality time with my little one. She is so much more agreeable now that she has turned the "big 3" and her comedic personality is shining through. I am so amused by her current discussions of " Mommy, let me ask you a question." "Mommy what is a question? and "Was that a statement or a question?" She also loves to say "Mommy, I've got an idea....Let's pretend to be..." and a million different things pop out of her mouth. I truly love age three. I begged to teach three year olds when I worked day care and this is why. They are little adults with wants, needs, preferences, and personalities.

After this incredibly long week, I am officially tired of eating at home, and am ready to go back to a regular workweek (I cannot believe I am saying this). Here are some photos of the week.

Day 1 (Tuesday) We already had received an inch of snow from the day before (which canceled school but shouldn't have). On this day, the snow turned to ice, and later freezing rain. Here is the view from my front porch.

Out back, my bushes were suffering the effects of coating after coating of ice.




This is a beautiful tree behind my wrap around porch. One just like this bit the dust during the last ice storm in 2003. Will this one suffer the same fate?



Tuesday night, all of the snow topped with a half inch of ice made the entire neighborhood look like a beautiful skating rink. These photos do no justice to it's beauty.

On Wednesday, we were pounded with ice and then inches of snow. This is the view out back of my poor bushes.

Well, I guess this tree bit the dust just like the last one.

Our neighbors escaped some costly repairs on Shelley's Camry by moving the car to the left spot late Tuesday night.

Wednesday turned out to be a much worse day than Tuesday. With heavy snow the entire day on top of a very icy night, it was very difficult to travel. My car was encased with a skeleton of ice and its very bald tires wouldn't be moving over the deepening snow for days. Long story short, Sarah and I were home bound! Chris drove the Escape to work each day and we waited patiently for his return. For those of you who have watched the video of her folk singing, this was the kind of thing that we did to stay occupied all week.

Brandy, Caden, and Cohen came over on Thursday. Brandy lost power during the storm (as of this post it has still not returned). Notice the milk jug in the foreground? She brought food over and kept it outside so it wouldn't ruin. She is currently staying at Jason and Ashley's until power gets restored. Her entire family in western Kentucky is in a lot worse shape. They are all out of power, heat, and water, and virtually no business is open. They are traveling from town to town looking for necessities. Please pray for the families out west.

Sarah and Caden decided to use the time while Cohen was sleeping to have a little backyard snow play.

Sharing is difficult at this age (as you can see on Sarah's face). They worked things out shortly after this photo and got along fabulously the rest of the day.



On Friday, I was still out of school but couldn't get the car out of the driveway. My lovely husband offered to catch a ride to work with Jason so that those of us with cabin fever could find life outside these four walls. We went over to Mollie's house and picked her up to head to Lexington for some grocery shopping. Here is the view from Mollie's house. From destruction shines God's handiwork. I must say, I have never seen the bluegrass more beautiful than in the past few days. It feels like we are living in a crystal world. Mollie says "Everything sparkles like Edward" for those of you who are fans of the Twilight saga.

Ice and snow are dangerous but make a beautiful combination.



The blue sky, the sun and the ice just magically sparkle.

This is the view of the pond entering Mollie's subdivision.


A photographer was outside taking photos of this fence. He was kind enough to give us tips on capturing a cool photo.

This is the icy entrance to Georgetown College

The trees are so stressed, I am concerned for what damage the thaw will bring. There is such beauty in destruction.
The view leaving our subdivision.

This has been a trying week. I am conflicted, because I have enjoyed the time off with my girl, but I am anxious to get back to normalcy. I want my time off this summer! Please Superintendent Silberman, ask the state for calamity days so we don't have to make all of the snow days up this year. If winter stays on this track, we may not have a summer vacation!

Stay warm and safe,

Cold winter fun...What a month!

What a month! Unfortunately, I have been so busy with school and class (Chris and I are taking a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class for 12 weeks), there just hasn't been much time for taking photos and blogging. There have been a few exceptions in which the Coleman "cam" came into some use and I thought I would compile them into one big blog.

Earlier this month, we were invited to Sarah's friend, Nico's 2nd birthday party. It was lots of fun hanging out with friends and watching Nico open presents.

Nico's mom Karen, bringing the birthday boy his cupcake.

The kids were anxiously awaiting their cupcakes as well. Here you see Avery, her baby brother West, Sarah, and her "best buddy" Caden.

Cohen was a little too impatient to be given a cupcake, so he took matters into his own hands. He is truly a man of action.

Nico got lots of cool presents! Most were related to planes, trains, and automobiles! A true boy's birthday dream.

Andrew, Anna, Phoebe, and Amelia also joined Nico in the celebration.
It was a fun day of hanging out with friends and getting out of the cold. And boy was this month cold!

Here is one of our minor snow events. Sarah loves playing in the snow so much! I must admit, I think it is fun as well. Having a child gives you an excuse to do lots of things I secretly miss from my own childhood.

She was mesmerized by the snow stacked on the car. We spent lots of time examining flakes and knocking them off the roof of the car.

I love to watch Sarah think. That tongue always creeps out.

Here is one of my few family photos of the month. She loves her Daddy so much, and as you can tell, the feeling is mutual.

Sarah is giving the camera one of her famous looks. She is becoming quite the comedian at age three. Just the other day she came up with one. Sarah goes to daycare at Mrs. Joan's house but all of the older kids call her "Joanie". She looks at me the other day as we are watching the nightly news and says, "Mommy, Peyton and Zoe call Mrs. Joan "Joanie" but I call her "Joan McCain". She is such a hoot!

Now for a mini-photo shoot. We have had "Wildcat Fever" since Jodie Meeks caught fire and began scoring an average of 30 points per game (with a high of 54 one night). Sarah is excited as well. Here is a cheer leading photo shoot for Mamaw and Papaw.

Go cats!





The serious, pensive pose.

Not really sure what this move was supposed to be, but it was cute.


Finally, a real photo! No goofing around.



With a cheerleader this cute, the Cats have to win!






Finally tired, Sarah decides to take a rest in Papaw's arms.

These two are so close, he is very high on her list of "Buddies". We are just glad they are able to come up and visit pretty often.

Stay tuned, the "Great Ice Storm" of 2009 photos are up next.

Better late than never...

Some random but cute moments from the holiday season. We love Maura and Julie so dearly and cannot wait for their return!


Rudolph the Red nose reindeer from Angela Coleman on Vimeo.


Rudolph (part 2) from Angela Coleman on Vimeo.

PS. I now love vimeo.com (as you can tell). Putting video on the blog is so much easier!

Boys already?

Untitled from Angela Coleman on Vimeo.

Ballet anyone?

As I said in the last post, Sarah has become quite fond of ballet.
The proof is below. Enjoy!


Sarah the Ballerina from Angela Coleman on Vimeo.


Untitled from Angela Coleman on Vimeo.

Totter Otterville

Over the New Year break, we spent a lot of family time just hanging out together at home. The one exception to this came just before it was time to return to school and work. We took a day trip to Cincinnati to go to the mall and to visit Totter Otterville in Covington. Chris's sister Amy told us about the place thanks to a friend of hers who lives in Grant County and takes her son there often. We have been trying for months to visit, but for one reason or another, it never happened. Finally, we were all together with nothing but time on our hands and decided to give it a shot. We are glad we did. For $7.50, all three of us got in and Sarah played to her hearts content. This place was sort of like a children's museum. It had a ball pit, slides, train tables, water activities, and conveyor belts, but it also had lots of pretend areas like living rooms, kitchens, grocery stores, ballet rooms, puppet rooms, veterinary hospital, etc. For a three year old, it was paradise! The only downer was that the outside activities (dinosaur bone digging, construction zone, and real train ride) were closed for the winter. A kid could easily spend 5 or more hours occupied in this place. Below are a few photos and video clips of the fun.

Sarah was drawn to the pet hospital first. She especially liked dressing up like a vet!


She said she felt like Diego, taking care of all the animals.

Sarah's love affair with dance has recently manifested itself in ballet. I think this room has a lot to do with that. She LOVED strapping on the ballet shoes and tip toeing around. I guess I need to start saving for some lessons... Too Cute!

Here is the pint sized grocery store. It was very realistic.



Notice the baby trapped under all of the groceries. I guess the mothering instinct will come later.

Ready to check out!

Here is a view of the store, complete with check out lanes!

Here is the pizza restaurant. There were many staff members who cleaned regularly. Chris said when he entered that he felt like he was in a universe of germs, but I saw them spraying toys down often. This makes a mom feel much better in the middle of cold and flu season!

Our exploration of the different rooms ended when Sarah heard screams coming from the puppet theater. We moved over for a closer look. She loved the puppet show!

Just after this video, she found the puppet room and began putting on her own version of this show. This is a great place to visit and we hope to return really soon.

"I'm a big girl now!"

New Year greeted us with the dilemma many American families experience during the weeks after Christmas. "Where are we going to put all of this new stuff?" We actually bought one another a hutch for our desk for Christmas for this very reason. We also converted the front room into basically a playroom to minimize the toys lying around all over the house (it has helped a little). But the biggest change of the New Year is that our girl moved to a new big girl room! We had intended on painting the large guest bedroom last summer, but you know how that goes...six months later, we have finally successfully completed her room! We have bought items over the past year for this room and were able to use many decorations from Sarah's old room so, it was very inexpensive to create. I even used our old comforter from our newlywed days as her bedspread (Chris is mortified that he was at one time expected to sleep under wild flowers). We told Sarah of our intentions, but then whisked her away to the grandparents for the bulk of the painting. We knew what would happen when she tried to "help". But being the good Daddy he is, Chris left her a small spot behind the door to finish off the room. We thought this might help the transition into the room by giving her some ownership. Below is the result.

Sarah was thrilled to help her Daddy with the painting. She even did a pretty good job!

Below is the finished product.

The book/toy shelf is probably her favorite part of the room. She loves books more than any toy in the house. She not only "reads" but she builds bridges with them all over the floor! I was happy to move her to a bigger room where more of her items could fit in one place. Now if I can only convince her to clean up after her bridge creating!

My old furniture from childhood is still in the room. We were planning to move Sarah's furniture in when she was ready to move over. We expected this to take a little time to warm up to the idea of leaving the only room she ever knew. We were shocked when she immediately asked to sleep in the new room!


As you can see, there is a full bed in this room. The first night, she only managed to stay alone for 10 minutes before announcing, "I think I am too little for this bed". Then she walked back to her toddler bed and slept safe and sound. The next night she walked right into the new room and slept like a baby all through the night! She has been there ever since.

Notice the ugly blue chair? It is the most comfortable chair in the house! We cannot bear to part with it. I guess it will have to move elsewhere now that the room is pink and green. I remember so many late nights rocking Sarah to sleep in this chair....Memories....

One of the great draws of the room is the lighting. We went to Ikea in Cincinnati and found these cute decorative lights shaped like flowers and ladybugs.

At night, they let off just enough light to read. She likes to leave them on for the "settling in" ritual every night.

All that's left is moving some furniture and buying some curtains. This was one easy transition that was such a pleasant surprise! She is so excited to tell her teacher, friends and family about her big girl room with all of the butterflies and flowers.

She is such a big girl now!