Animals Predicting Weather...Sunsets Predicting Super Bowls...

Well - I think first things first - obviously. Did y'all watch the Super Bowl? I mean...I think something like 100 million+ people watch the Super Bowl each  year, so if you didn't I suppose you're one of the precious few.

I'm a California bred, Mississippi raised girl and I cheer as a pretty die-hard Saints fan for most of the regular season...but the Saints weren't so hot this season...and so when all the cards had been dealt and my choices were the Broncos, the Cardinals, the Panthers or the Steelers...it was an easy choice to choose to cheer for Peyton and the boys from Denver! I think most people from Mississippi would agree that if one of Archie's boys is in the big game, you'll find us cheering for the team with a Manning leading the charge....although I'm partial to Peyton myself. I'm glad he's going to end his career on a high note (I hope he's ending it - I think it's time)...and if you need a laugh today, look no further than this article about Eli's "feelings" on the whole thing. It's a hoot. 

As for the commercials - I was wildly unimpressed. The Mountain Dew commercial will stick with me for a while...mostly because it was so darn weird! I personally loved the Super Bowl babies commercial; although I did see people had said it was one of the worse, apparently people thought Super Bowl babies were weird...but not the puppymonkeybaby. Eek! This weird world we live in. The singing sheep were cute and Doritos managed to walk a fine line between awkward (the sonogram...) and adorable (the puppies!)....but nothing really stood out as that impressive. And the halftime show was only okay - I do love some Coldplay and I like Bruno Mars fine, but I'm one of maybe ten people in the world who really do not care for Beyonce...so, it was just....eh.

This is my favorite picture - I'm a sucker for cute kids.

Now - beyond the Super Bowl - this past week flew by in a flash, but that seems to be the norm these days! I'm not wishing my life away or anything...but I can't say I'll mind these colder days passing so the warmer Spring breezes can start blowing. As I type this, the maintenence crews at the office complex are spraying down the roads with salt...snow is in the forecast and I personally think the almost four feet we got three weeks ago was enough to last a whole Winter. Mother Nature obviously has different thoughts! Oh well, at least the groundhog predicted an early Spring - for whatever that matters!

Wooohoooo! Monday afternoon surprise - we have tickets to see Billy Joel!

Spring is around the corner....Spring Training is even closer though....

Speaking of Spring - there are nine days until Nationals Spring Training begins, thirty-one days until the National's first Spring Training game, fifty-six days until Opening Day and fifty-nine days till I can once again plant my rear end in a seat at Nationals Park and watch a game again - and yes, I'm sure 95% of you are thinking I'm a baseball crazed lunatic and you'd be right. I enjoy football just fine, but I find I've missed watching baseball something fierce - which is funny since before last year, I had no real access or interest in professional baseball. It's amazing what living an hour from Nationals Parks can do for a person's interest in sports, huh?

Sunset picture...of course...

I'm maybe a little too in love with my new car tags...

The week literally passed so quickly - between work, coming home and cooking supper, walking/jogging each night and catching an episode of TV here and there, reading a chapter of a book - Monday through Friday passed without too much excitement to speak of. I suppose that's why I have a grand total of four pictures from the week itself; the big thrill for me was getting my new car tags in the mail, an absolute surprise to be sure. And I'm being so serious about that...and I know, I'm a nut...but my new car tags are emblazoned with a Curly W and I've been eagerly awaiting their arrival for about a week now; I'm so proud to have them on my car. I'm also proud that my tags are paid for through March of 2018. Hallelujah! We went out to supper on Friday night to celebrate that my Mom should be getting her cast off in less than three weeks - she's gotten pretty good on crutches and so we took advantage of her newfound skills and grabbed some Olive Garden for dinner!

Have you ever seen such a bum?

Seriously though - he excels at sleeping.

I slept until 8:45 on Saturday morning and if that isn't glorious, well I don't know what is. I used to be extremely good at sleeping in; I could sleep until almost noon, a side effect of my college years I suppose. These days if I sleep past 7:45 then there might be something wrong with me. The joys of getting older, right? My Dad, always eager to push me just a little bit harder than I'd likely push myself, set out on a walk with me and what started as a 2 mile walk turned into a 3 mile walk and I pushed on...pretty pleased with myself when all was said and done. It made me feel much less guilty later that night eating supper at Outback, after sitting in a movie theater for two hours (we saw The Choice, it was lovely) prior to that. Walking over three miles also caused my Fitbit to nearly lose it's mind and tell me I was "on fire". Ha! The affirmations of a digital pedometer - priceless.

Miles & miles!

Taking Sunday afternoon napping like a pro!

Sunday was a fairly chill day - I yawned my way through the early service at church and then did one of my very favorite things: went on a Target run! Abundant Life's early service is from 8:30-9:30, so I cruised into Target shortly before 10 AM, grabbed a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks and slowly cruised the store at my own pace. It was so peaceful...mostly...the kid who kept shrieking across the store was a wee bit annoying, but hey - what are you gonna do? I went to Wal-Mart later in the day to help my Dad get groceries and then we walked 2+ miles before settling in for the big game; we had pizza and chocolate chip cookies and thanks to the 11,000+ steps I'd taken, I didn't feel too bad about that!

Orange sunset = Broncos victory!

And now here we are, moving right into the second week of February. Perhaps the week holds more snow (maybe not) and it certainly holds more book reading, supper cooking, TV watching, walking/jogging and...work! So, I suppose that's enough for now!