Winter Wonderland Vacation

This winter our school calendar has been plagued with snow day after snow day.....I can't recall when we have had a full week of school.

Now, for those of you who don't know me, I don't like the cold weather....in fact, I HATE it. The only reason I like to live in the northeast is because I do enjoy the change of seasons.....which makes me appreciate the warmer weather - Ha!

Anyhow, this year we decided to spend our winter break with my husbands family....and where, you might ask, did we go????

Well, why not the snowy mountain tops of West Virginia at a ski resort called Snowshoe Mountain.

What?! No way am I going somewhere cold...

....... fine, so that my children can play with their beloved cousins, I will take one for the team....*sniff sniff.

We were all pretty much set to go on Thursday Februrary 13th when the emails and text messgages starting buzzing.....WINTER STORM WARNING - the worst we have seen this yea, starting on none other than Wednesday, February 12th.

Perfect.

Just perfect.

I immediately called up my dearest hubby, who was in NC on a business trip, and told him to forget his flight home and rent a car and meet me in West VA.

I dropped off the dog, pulled my kids out of school, packed up the car and started out for what turned into an eleven hour road trip to West Virginia....and yes, we were driving into the oncoming storm system.

hmmmmm....maybe that wasn't too smart ~ but if we stayed we would have never gotten out.

Now, I'm not afraid to drive long distance and I'm not bad driving in the snow....BUT after driving for nine hours straight with three kids in the car along a winding mountain road, flanked with bottomless cliffs, one starts to get a bit jittery.....then when you add the lack of cell service, 8 degree inclines and heavy snow fall paired with darkness.....you get the comment "wow, you look like you've aged five years.".....SMACK!

Well, the good thing is that we made it in one piece - maybe not mentally, but physically. Three families drove in on the night the snow began while the other two groups drove in later.....one taking 2 hours to drive 30 miles from Winston-Salem and the other getting stuck in the snow due to the lack of 4-wheel drives at the rental place.

Needless to say, the children had a blast with their cousins. The slopes were fantastic and my children who have never skied before really enjoyed themselves. We stayed at a Ski-In Ski-Out unit with a hot tub that apparently can fit a whole lotta cousins.

I, for one, will never ever drive up the mountain during a snowstorm again.....my vote for the next reunion ..... let's go to the beach!

What did you do this winter?

One of the dads remembered that it was Valentine's Day.
He brought flowers for all the Moms.....So Sweet!

Did you do anything for Valentine's Day?

Taking the Plunge!

Well, I finally did it.

After learning that I'm considered a butterfly when it comes to resume reviews, I decided to sit down and think hard about what it is I want to do.

".....gee, what am I gonna be when I grow up?"

HELLO?!?!? Wake up! You're a mother of three and your well into your fo--orrr---ties.

While all this true...... what does it matter?

Honestly, it's really now or never. I have never been a big fan of my actual career path as a pharmacist and having taken years off to raise my children, I really don't want to head back to the healthcare arena in that capacity.

It's time to follow my dreams. Learn something new and start on a new path before I'm really too old! So, last week, I signed up for the Front-End-Web-Developement course offered by Thinkful.

How do I like it? Well, so far it's not too bad....I've only fallen asleep once while reading some text (reading always puts me to sleep) and I've had a couple of assignments that have lead to a little frustration on my part as I tried to do things not yet in my wheelhouse, but......I'm super excited.

I'm finally understanding how and why things are coded the way they are and I find it absolutely fascinating! Ok, you can say it.....NERD!!!!! GEEK!!!! But I don't care! I love it!!

I can now take a blank web page and make it look like something....of course at this time it's rather ugly, but hey it's my first week.....it can only get better. (if you want to see the real thing you can click here : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49988315/html-resume/resume.html )

This is a screenshot of the webpage I made for class.....it's ugly, I know.

It's still early to give an educated opinion on the course I'm taking, but the Thinkful FEWD program  seemed more comprehensive than some of the other courses out there - at least for me. I need a little more nudging....and knowing that I have to meet with my mentor every week and seeing what my "classmates" are doing, motivates me to get off the couch and get moving, or in my case throw my PTA and child rearing responsibilities to the side.

Have you ever thought about changing careers? If so, let me know..... I would love to hear your stories.

Listen, if I can do it after all these years, you can too.....follow your dreams and reach for the stars.