frozen mornings in Atlanta

It's been very cold here in the mornings, cold enough for our pond to slightly freeze on top.
It would be fun to be able to ice skate, like we used to do back on LI.


But then again, that would mean it would have to be freezing for a few weeks!
Brrr...
I for one would rather have it be warm, but the icy pond is pretty isn't it?

I love the Lake!

Even in the winter cold, it's peaceful and beautiful out at the lake house. We had a 3 day weekend, and had not been out recently b/c of the holidays, Drew's travel schedule and the rainy weather, so... we decided to meet Alex out there and enjoy a quiet weekend. We all relaxed, ate yummy food (still low carb-ish) and played a ton of Mexican train (our new game obsession).
This will be our 10th year! An anniversary we've never spent in any house, so we decided we need to have an anniversary party to celebrate! We may have to make it a co-celebration with Alex's college graduation, to be sure all the family will be there. Just think of all the fun you've had at the lake house over the past ten years.... from deciding it was the one, to the very first dinner and the oven catching on fire and sleeping on cushions on the floor that night, to ripping out the kitchen and the flooring and rebuilding it all, painting all the trim work white (4 coats later), to all the high school and college friend sleepovers, swimming in the lake at night and shining the flashlight on all the bugs that were there with us, sunbathing on the dock, playing board games and imprinting the table with our Balderdash words, crashing the brand new wave runner, Dad, Alex and Kaitlin getting a ticket from the DNR, water skiing and tubing on big bertha (ouch), jumping off the "Big Rock" dare, Kristin living out there all by herself one summer while interning at Reynolds, growing a vegetable garden, going to Union Point to adopt Sharkey, the Thanksgiving visit we had our own version of arachnaphobia but with wasps, fires and s'mores in the chimenea, canoeing, visits from Zach and Hanna when they were little, having a house full of guests when the AC chose to break down, shaving your legs off the dock and giving the pups a bath, Easter at the little Methodist church, 4th of July fireworks and taking the boat around to Great Waters, celebrating Grammy's b'day Labor Day weekends, using the lake as a stop-off point to and from Kiawah, and more recently swamping the pontoon boat on the 4th, boating over to the Ritz for lunch, hanging out floating at the "little rock", walking the pups around the circle, boating over to the Harvey's for dinner and coming home in the dark...
... ten years of fun and memorable times! What's your favorite memory?

Winter USTA is over

We did play tennis this morning, and it was hovering around 30 degrees with a wind chill. But we were all dressed for it, thanks to the media, and we survived without frostbite. My partner and I won 6-2 in the 3rd set, after a close first and second set of 6-4, 4-6. Hooray!
Alta practice will start the end of February, so until then, it's just social play.
For a GalPals update... good health news for Carolyn who had a clean scan this week! And prayers go out to Margaret, and her family, whose husband is in the hospital with complications from a kidney infection.
On a lighter note, you may have noticed I have a new and improved header, thanks to my daughter Kelly! She's quite a bit more computer savvy than me, and... she also has the program.

the long winter ahead

The weather this week is not cooperating for my sports schedule. The gals have all canceled out of golf for tomorrow. It will be a high of 46 degrees, but colder than that when we would've gone out at 11:00. Thursday, for tennis looks worse! We start at 9:15 for warm up. The temps will be hovering around 32 degrees, but the wind blowing at 20 mph is more my concern. I've asked to play ahead, tomorrow, if the other team agrees. We'll see if it works out. I'll let you know when and if my fingers thaw out and I can resume typing.
So with 2 more months of cold ahead, I've started an indoor exercise routine. I love FIT TV! You can exercise in the privacy of your own home, even in your pj's. Gilad is my fave for toning, but there's also Yoga, dance and step routines... mornings and evenings every day. Walking the neighborhood is an option too,
for those fair weather days.
Along with the activity, I'm watching what I eat, going for low calorie, low carb options. Not in an effort to lose weight, but to tone and get rid of the "muffins" as Alex has said. We'll all be in bathing suits before you know it!

Beautiful day in January

On Friday, it was a gorgeous day! We usually golf on Wednesdays, but postponed until the end of the week, due to the chilly and rainy weather. Worth the wait! One foursome of the gals went out for the 12:30 shotgun. We all played quite well, thank you, after a short holiday hiatus. I shot a 54 on the back nine, which is good for me, the back being the tougher of the 18 holes.
We're signed up for Wednesday with an expected high of 46 degrees.
Brrrr.... We'll have to see about that.

Happy 2009

Not that I'm ever going to do this, but... my girls all have a blog and they set me up with one. So Happy New Year! Christmas was great with the family all home to celebrate. Everyone's gone back to work and Alex goes back to school tomorrow, and tennis and golf start back up this week. All the decorations are all still up, and I know I need to take them down, but the weather is rather gloomy and to take them all away will just accentuate the gloominess. I know once I start, the house will be a mess for a few days, so I'm putting it off. To avoid the mess and the emptiness of them being gone along with all the family.
But... it's the start of a new year and I'm sure we'll have many more great family times to look forward to in 2009!