I'd do it all over again.

Yesterday marked one year of Adam's & my engagement.  It seems so long ago-but at times like yesterday.  We had an amazing year, busy and fun, but we spent it together and I'd have it no other way.  For Valentine's day we took it pretty easy-went to to church then Publix as we normally do on Sunday's.  Oh I almost forgot-Adam did make me a grand slam breakfast :)

The weather lately has been pretty cold for Florida and we had hoped to go on a picnic-like we used to do all the time-but weren't sure if it would be nice enough or if we could find a park in Tampa that we liked as much as our "grassy knoll" in St. Petersburg.  I had done some research on our area so after church we drove around and found Riverhills Park-which is literally across the bridge from were we live.  It looked nice enough so we went home and packed up the dogs (who were ecstatic to go on an outing!) grabbed our picnic gear and some snacks and headed back over the river.


The day ended up being surprisingly nice-the sun was shining and it was quite comfortable out.  After taking the dogs for a walk on the boardwalk we set up our table and played a mean game of chess.  I won.  But I think we were both off our game and how I pulled it out can only be described as Luck.  We then moved on to cards-Youva; which we invented while in Europe.  Adam one that game-so he was satisfied.  It was nearing five so we packed back up and headed home to start dinner.

 

Adam enjoying some wine

 Jordan & Bruiser loving being outdoors

 My attempt at using the self timer..

Adam did about 95% of the meal-I wasn't feeling the greatest so I went to sleep off a head ache while he prepared our dinner.  Mushroom & Garlic stuffed bacon wrapped fillets, Baked Potatoes, Asparagus, Cauliflower, Sauteed mushrooms & onions and Mahi Mahi (which I made).  Adam lit some red candles I had found in the drawer and dimmed the lights.  We poured the same wine he had purchased a year earlier.

During dinner I slipped off my engagement ring and handed it to him saying " you can do it again if you want".  He tucked it into his pocket and said "later".  We enjoyed our meal and each other company.  Adam finished his whole plate, while I only my vegetables.  ( I finished my steak tonight!)  Adam got up to clear his plate and as he came back I saw him reach into his pocket.  He knelt down by my chair and told me that this past year had been wonderful and the time before as well. And that if he had to he'd do it all over again.  Then he held out my ring and said "would you marry me all over again?"  This time I said "Yes" right away and let him put the ring on my finger.  (If you missed the original story you can read it Here )

Truth is I would do it all over again-the wedding, the planning, the moving, the adjusting if it meant that I could spend another day, month, year or 50 with Adam.  He truly is the favorite part of my day.  We are so lucky to have found each other and I thank God everyday for bringing him into my life.

Before we met Valentine's day was just another "Hallmark Holiday" to me, but Adam has made it so much more- it will forever be the day that he changed my life. 

 

February 14th, 2009

All clear.

I just got back from my follow up with my Dr. and she informed me that they were able to get all of the high grade cells out with a good margin and that none of the cells were cancer! So ya for me!  Big sigh of relief.  I will have to go back every three months to check that the bad cells haven't come back, but hopefully all will stay clear.  Thanks again for all of your prayers and well wishes. It  makes getting through these hurdles all that much easier.

Honeymoon Cont.

The second day of our Bavarian honeymoon took us to the Nueschwanstien Castle where we planned to meet up with my family friends, the Staubs.  (The Pleva's had taken a 3 week European vacation with them 16 years ago and both the Staub girls have come and lived with the Pleva's for a few months during past summers.)  Needless to say it was wonderful to see them all again and we had a great time.  We toured the two castles, had a lovely lunch then after we headed back we had traditional German desserts and coffee.

I should back up here a bit because as great as the day turned out...it almost didn't happen. 

Following our Google map directions in Europe had so far been pretty good....Sunday was our first, but not last, exception.  We accidentally went to Austria twice on our way to the castles....we weren't supposed to even go into Austria.  Panic stricken we'd pulled off the highway twice trying to find our way and in fear of being stopped by Austrian police with big AK47's because we did not have the right pass to enter their country!  Also our cell phones weren't working and we couldn't figure out how to dial our friend; country  code, not code, add a zero, take off a zero.....ug!  Finally i looked at another map that i had and realized that we could get off at the 1st exit in Austria and take a small road back into Germany...so that's what we did.  I think we both held our breath as we crossed the border and when we did see the sign letting us know we were entering Duetschland we breathed a sigh of relief.  At this point we were actually on a road that we thought would lead us to the castle (and for sure there would be signs!)  So we drove through this little town and  I  looked out my window at the mountains to the south....and just like one of those 3D pictures all of a sudden i saw it! The Neushwanstien castle was right there beyond the field perched high up in the mountain. Stop! I say, It's right there! Adam not being able to see out my window did not see it. Finally he pulls over, we turn around and somehow found the entrance...which did have a sign...for the OTHER Smaller Castle. uh.  It was good to know that our friends, who are German, got lost too :)

Monday was our first day of skiing.  We went to the town of Oberstdorf and somehow found the resort of Felhorn-Kanzelwandbahn.  After a long drive winding up the mountain we parked, where we hoped was a non-pay spot, and set off to the ticket booth hoping they took Visa.  They did and with two passes in hand we geared up and headed to the gondola.  It was a nice day and the skiing was good-not too challenging, but icy.  I think the hardest part was coming down to the bottom of the hill; narrow short steep portions did a number on my thighs.  Adam proved to be a much more confident and apt skier than I, but i kind of expected that.
Dinner that night took us to our towns local brewery.  Luckily they had a menu in english so that helped us make some educated selections.  We had great food and beer!

 

Tuesday was another ski day in Oberstdorf but at a different resort-Nebelhornbahn.  This one was in town and the gondola right in the heart of it.  I looked at the cables and the mountain and thought...where do you ski???  We suited up, loaded the large gondola and started heading up and up and up.  From below you couldn't see where you were skiing-it was that far in the mountain.

We got off at the first stop and realized a chair lift would take you higher-so off we went.  Oh my-this was the most spectacular view I have EVER seen.  I had to just stop and stare-multiple times. We couldn't have asked for a better day, sun was shining, the snow was good and the slopes were at my level.

 

  

 

It was a great day...until I almost slid off the side of the hill. We  had decided to try out the "red" run that went down to a lower area...but at one point the run turned into a "black" so I opted for the Red off to the side-little did i know that it was a bunch of hairpin turns no wider than 10' and 40' long!!! After I almost slid off the side i decided "snowplow" was my best bet.  We decided to head back up (at the lift near where i fell) and as I looked at the "black" run portion, it didn't look all that bad-so we were going to try to get to the bottom that way.  Big mistake.  The snow that had been such nice powder earlier had begun to get icey and as I was slowly going back and forth down the black portion (which was steeper than it looked!) my edges slipped out from under me and away I went. Slidding on my hip both skiis parallel to the hill and gaining speed.  I didn't know what to do, i knew that if my skis turned i was a goner.  I started trying to dig in my pole, but it was all hard.  Finally after what felt like a good minute I somehow caught my pole and stopped.  Icey cold snow up my back, scared and a bent pole I informed Adam that i was not going down the hill this way. (it was 1/10th of the way to the bottom).  I rode up to the gondola and he headed back down the hill. 

So I'm standing in the gondola looking at the trail below I see a man off the path climbing up the side of the hill with his skis over his shoulder....Adam!!! What is he doing?!?!  I find out later that he had wanted to show me that it wasn't all that bad and video tapped his decent...only to find out that he was on the wrong path and it ended up going off the trail and whipping out-all of it caught on tape.  This made me feel slightly better.  So did the Becks beer that i had in the parking lot while waiting for him :)

Cooking in one night-We love Spaetzle!!

Wednesday we opted for a tourist day and went to Oberstaufen, shopped, lunched then headed back attempting to take some country road only to find them un-plowed and not passable.  We did find a great cheese factory/store and bough some Allgue cheese to go with our beer and schnapps which made for a fine dinner. 

Adam & I played a lot of cards on our honeymoon.  Seems the area we stayed in did not have much of a night life and since it gets dark at 5 our evenings started pretty early.  We quickly got sick of rummy and crazy 8's so we invented two new games; Plung and Youva. We were getting a little stir crazy-no tv (in english) no people to talk to besides each other...no place to go....So by thursday we were ready to head to switzerland and find our friends.  (oh and I should mention we awoke thursday to a snow storm-"great let's drive to Switzerland!")

Jonathan-Adam's friend from NC- had just returned from the US that morning.  We had trouble getting a hold of him-non of the numbers he gave us worked, so we spent the day walking around St. Gallen.  We stopped and had lunch at a nice cafe and asked the waitress if she new where his address was.  "Oh it's the next street over" she replied.  We headed out and after about 20 min of looking for his apt. knocked on his door and gave him a big surprise! All three of us hung out and he showed us more of his city then we loaded up in the Focus to head to Winterhauf to see our mutual friends Eric and Maelyn. 

Eric made us a fabulous Swiss Fondue dinner and after we headed out to some bars.  It was a late night-but a much needed break from cards.  Friday our last day all 5 of us headed out to see some mountain views.  We drove up and up and finally reached an area that we could ride up the gondola and get a view of Eastern Switzerland above the clouds! It was so lovely.  And while were were up there we saw many parachuters run off the side of the mountain and down to the bottom.

 

  

 

After we said our goodbyes we loaded back up and made the drive back through Austria to get to our resort.  Fog caused us some concern and we drove slow in the dark-with people passing us left and right-but again the maps weren't that good and the roads not marked well.  But we did end up back where we belonged had a nice meal at the 1st place we went to then packed up for our trip back home.

It was a nice trip, lots of sights and we enjoyed just being together. Next time though-we're getting a GPS and bringing friends :)

(Pre) honeymoon fiasco

It was finally time to go on our honeymoon-Adam woke up early and had showered, walked the dogs and packed the car all before i brushed my teeth.  He was like a little kid on Christmas.  We had our plan of action all mapped out: We were leaving the house at 8 a.m. Adam was dropping my off at the LabCorp next to the airport so that i could get my blood work done then he was continuing on to Clearwater to drop the dogs off at Krista's house (which is about as far west as you can go).  Then he was going to turn around-stop at our respected banks for cash, pick me back up and we'd get to the off site parking (to save $) by 10 a.m. and check our luggage no later than 10:30.  Plenty of time for our 12:30 flight.  So we thought.......
I call Adam after I finish up around 9 a.m. and he informs me "We have a problem."  Adam continues to tell me that he has left his ID, His Credit Cards and his Swiss Franks at home. doh!  For those who don't know it we live 30 min (in good traffic) in the opposite direction of the airport.  I try telling him he doesn't need it-I have his passport and I have my cc's.  But no, he needs it for the rental car (it's in his name.)  So I'm sitting in this waiting room helpless 5 minutes from the airport-not even-if i stood on the roof i could see it. plans  are flying so low i could jump up and grab on!  Ug what to do.  Finally we decide to save time I'll take a taxi to the airport(since where i'm at would take an extra 15 min) and meet Adam there-we can curb side check and then he can head home.  So i call up a taxi and tell them I need a pick up for the airport.

NOTE: NEVER tell the taxi dispatch you're going to the airport.

I get picked up shortly and the nice man drive me the maybe 2 miles to the airport.  "$15" he says. What!??!!? "Ya, don't tell them you're going to the airport-there's a flat rate." ouch. so i fork over the cash and get out to wait for Adam.  He arrives within the minuet and we start unloading our luggage-1 ski bag, 1 boot bag, 2 rolling bags, 1 large checked bag, 2 backpacks.  The man at the curb informs us that he has to go inside for the special ski tag-oh and since i checked those to Adam he needs his passport.  Adam tells me he can't wait and takes off in the car. WAIT! I say, you need to keep your passport-what if you ID isn't at home (He wasn't sure where is was and swore he put it in his pocket) no time he says. So i stand there with this luggage, one boarding pass and when the porter comes back 2 passports and no husband.  Great.

I decided to sit outside of the terminal and wait until 11 am for Adam.  He had left the airport at 10.  Luckily he hits no traffic and makes it home by 1030-lone behold all his stuff is on the dresser-the man was so excited he "thought" he put it in his pocket-but never did.  Since we're cutting it short on time he doesn't have time to use our discount off airport parking reservation-which included a free day-and parks in the long term lot. More $$.  So much for being thrifty.  Shorty after 11 am i see him emerge from the escalator and i finally relax for the 1st time all day.  The rest of the day goes smoothly and we board our flight, lunch in Atlanta and have a movie packed 9 hour flight to Munich.  I slept, Adam the eternal boy was too excited and watched movies all night long.

 

Waiting...

He had to wear this shirt. Ug-stupid American Tourists.

Our overseas purchase-afterward I realized this added to our "American Tourist" ensemble...and I was wear red!

Saturday January 16th 7:30 a.m. we arrive in Munich-I'm slightly rested and Adam is still jacked up on excitement.  We find our way to the Hertz desk after pushing our cart of luggage what feels like a mile and Adam gets our car.  We then attempt to find the car in the large cold garage by trying the key in multiple vehicles we think might be ours.  After the 4th try we find it...A Ford Focus! We must reek of Americana now.  We hope in and begin our 2 hour drive to Missen-Wilhams; Google map directions in hand.  We do pretty good-only missing 1 exit and getting off on 1 wrong exit.  We arrive at 10:30 a.m. to our resort and are looking forward to showers and a quick nap.  Now when we looked on-line the resort said that reception was open from 9-17:00  however when we walk in we're confused-they're closed! Deciphering the "hours" We realize that they're on "lunch" from 10:00-14:00!!! OMG. We find this key box that says call this number after hours for a code to retrieve your key...oh that would be great-if we had a phone!  We are so tired-and hungry-and cold so we curl up in the two chairs in the lobby and doz off.  What a start.  I wake up and venture to the nearby cafe hoping to get some food-but they barley speak English-don't take visa (we have yet to exchange our currency-they were closed at the airport!) so i stumble back in and try to wake Adam.  Finally we decide to venture out-there was a Roller Coast toboggan in the next town so we figure lets do that.  We find it alright, change into our snow pants and head up to the ticket booth.  They don't take Visa! (We still have no $ because  it's Saturday and the banks are closed) Luckily a lady in the office speaks a tiny bit of English and gives us some directions to an ATM.  We get back in the car and attempt to find this magic money machine.  Lone behold after walking around a bit-we do! And after two attempts find a machine that takes our card!! YA!!!!!

We head back into the car and back to the coaster, buy our tickets and head up the chairlift.....and man is it high!

I find out we can take separate carts down-Adam is all for this.  So after quick instructions in broken English he goes first and i follow shortly after.  It takes me about 3 min longer than Adam to get down...it should have been a blast-but boy was scary!  Imagine riding a roller coaster where you control it.

 

Click here to see a video of what we did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf9YV8YWBc4 

Only there was snow-and ice on the track!

We headed back to our resort, showered, napped and then headed down the million flights of stairs to go to dinner at the resorts restaurant-which we find out is closed, for renovations.  The lady at the front desk does recommend an Italian place in the next town.  Italian!!! Luckily Wilhams has one restaurant and we "think" we find it, but it looks empty and like someones house.  We enter cautiously and find that it is in fact a restaurant!! Ya! We order beers and attempt to decipher our menu.  We have realized quite quickly that not many people here speak English, so we do the best we can.  Luckily we both order something good and figure out how to say "dark beer". 

Our first two days were quite a lot to handle-so I'll leave this post for now.  More to come :) 

Auf wiedersehen!

In Sickness

Well we survived my surgery yesterday and I have to report that my husband is amazing.  He wouldn't eat anything in the morning because I couldn't.  And by 1p.m. I was starving.  I was craving a cheese burger and I told everyone in the hospital that I wanted one...but no one delivered.
We arrived at the hospital at noon to check in.  Adam was with me whenever he could be.  I made it through my first I.V. and it wasn't really that bad once i got over the notion that there was  a needle pumping saline into my hand.  I was also hooked up to a heart monitor and we had a good time trying to make it go fast or slower; I held my breath, got excited, and laughed all while Adam read me out my results.  We played seduku while i was in pre-op and tried not to think about what was going to happen.   When my Dr. came in she explained everything and we asked a lot of questions-all in all she eased our minds.  Then they put some meds into my IV and I started to feel a little goofy.  They rolled me into the operating room and there were about 4 women in bright colored scrubs getting me ready.  I recall them strapping my arms down to a board-but i didn't care.  Then they were putting the mask on my face and it tasted yucky.  All of a sudden my face started to tingle and go numb.  I laughed and cracked a few jokes-then i was out.

I woke up in recovery and was crying.The nurse came and wiped my tears and had me tell her my birthday.  I felt very groggy and I had cramps in my abdomen-she gave me some medicine for the pain and it helped them subside.  It was very difficult for me to open my eyes and i kept crying - I don't know.  The tube that was in my nose was really annoying and she took that out.  As I came too I noticed that it was 4:30! I couldn't believe how long I had been out.  She helped me to the bathroom and I changed into my clothes and then she brought Adam to me.  He explained that the Dr. had called him afterward and said that everything went well.  They had to take out more than they expected due to the fact that the cells had spread.  There was also another area she noticed and she took samples of that.  She also said that I didn't bleed a lot and that was good.  After some apple juice and saltines they wheeled me out to the car.  I was very tired, very soar, and very out it.
We attempted to fill my pain prescription at the closest Walgreen's-but it would have taken an hour and we were 1/2 hr away from home.  After we made it to our local CVS Adam took me home where I was greeted with two vases of flowers at my door.  Thanks Mom & Dad. Thanks Tara & Krista.  Adam set them up in our room and I crawled into bed and set the heating pad at high.  Three Ibuprofen seemed to take away the pain and I didn't need to take the Vicodin the Dr. had given me.  Adam made sure i had water with a straw and made me food when i decided I was hungry.  The cheese burger was no longer in my mind-Mac n Cheese worked just fine.  He was great and brought me tea and sat with me while we ate.  I got lots of rest and woke up feeling much much better.  This morning I made it into work and the only pain I had was in my head-which we assume is from lack of fluids yesterday.  I will go back to the Dr. in two weeks and she will give me my results-which we hope are good.
Thank you to all for your prayers, support and rosary's.  I am lucky to have such great family and friends and of course a model husband.  And I promise to get up the details on our honeymoon soon-we have lots of pictures and stories.

Mixed Emotions

This last week has been an emotional roller coaster.  I debated writing about it-but came to the conclusion that if I'm to be honest about what Adam & I go through in our first year of marriage this will definitely be apart of it.  Tomorrow we leave on our much anticipated honeymoon to Germany.  We are so excited and have been planning and preparing for quite some time now.  Last weekend we made a final trip to Peter Glenn and got hats/neck warmers/socks....all the last minuet things.  My new ski jacket finally arrived on Monday and I love it-and it fits!

Within all this excitement I got a call from my GYN informing me that I need to have a cone biopsy on my cervix to remove some invasive high grade pre cancerous cells. Not what you want to hear before leaving on the honeymoon which was going to be the official start of our "baby's are a go!". So now the Tuesday after we return from our honeymoon I will be having out patient surgery to hopefully remove all of the bad cells, pushing our "baby's are a go" at least 3 months.  For those of you who had bets going at the wedding-sorry to mess up your spread.  Adam and I are are disappointed to say the least, but know that my health is of the utmost importance and like my Dr. said "we're going to nip this in the bud".  We know that God has a plan for us and we just have to trust that His plan will work itself out and in the end this will all make sense.
So we ask for your prayers as we board a 12 hr flight to Munich for safe travels, as we drive through snowy foreign roads and fly down mountains with sticks stuck to our feet and that we have a fabulous honeymoon.  And when we return that I may come out of that O.R. a stronger-healthier women who will someday be able to give my husband what he longs for most-a family.
I can't wait to share with you all the photos & videos we capture on our trip and I'm sure all of our funny stories.
Deutschland: Here We Come!  To all of you: Auf Wiedersehen

Pictureless Christmas of Karma

Well it is now 2010 and we enjoyed our first Christmas as Mr & Mrs Young. We spent the holidays with my family up in Michigan-leaving Tampa at 4 pm on the 23rd and arriving in Flint a little after mid night.  We had a very pleasant surprise when we arrived at baggage claim.  My Dad's cousins, Denny & Carrie, were waiting for us at the bottom of the escalator.  They had driven over to see us for the brief time we were in Flint (they live near by). It was so sweet of them to do and great to see them as always.  My parents, who were picking us up, were waiting in the cell lot so they parked and came in for a quick visit too.  We got started towards PW around 12:30 and pulled up to the house somewhere around 3 am...I'm thinking we had a night cap, but i don't know-I was very tired.  Joseph & Jen arrived Christmas eve morning early-so we were up by nine. Let the festivities begin.  We spent time preparing food, drinks and playing games.  Out side it was cold and rainy.  After a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner we attempted to head to mass at 930-only to be told by Father to stay home.  So for the first time in my 31 years I did not attend Christmas Mass!! (mishap #1)  The roads were covered in ice.  We sang  few Christmas carols and called it good.
Christmas morning we were all a little slow to rise...I believe it was Joseph who woke dad with the video camera in his face.  However...this will never been seen. Dad inadvertently deleted all but two clips of our Christmas eve/morning footage when switching to his internal drive. (mishap #2) He was not happy.  But not to worry dad, I'm taking lots of still pictures with Adam's camera.   (Note mom & Jen both got new cameras-charging and Adam a new camcorder - charging).  We finished with gifts around noon-had breakfast then Jen and Joe left to go to her family's in Muskegon.  Our good family friend Chris joined us for the Day-which happens to be her birthday-so we began with the holiday cheer and went way into the night with drinks, food-the best dinner ever!- and lots of fun games!
We went to bed with fresh snow falling outside and awoke to at least 3" of fresh powder!!! We were so excited-we found boots and pants and coats and gloves then crammed our heads into helmets and fired up the snowmobiles.  It was Adam's first time on a machine and as I came out of the basement i saw my dad giving him a quick lesson driving one-then i was told to hop on the back!! What!?!? I'm not riding with him-I'll drive! but no-he wanted to so i held on with a death grip and hoped he wouldn't kill us.  We were having a good time on the trails when all of a sudden our machine just shut down. (mishap #3)  Luckily Jonathan was behind us so we weren't left alone for too long-dad came back and began puttering around with it.  Eventually they towed it back to the house and we had a hot lunch.  Afterward Joseph convinced Jen to out and with the machine fixed we headed back out-this time i was riding with Jonathan due to space on the seats. (he takes up less space then Adam)  We had  good time riding around through the woods neighborhoods and out to the river-snapping lots of pictures to commemorate the occasion.  Good thing Adam's camera is waterproof and freeze proof! I had it zipped up safe in my pocket. We started to get cold and headed back at 4 to get ready for the party my parents were throwing.  I rand in the basement and stripped off my gear and headed upstairs to help.  Friends arrived at the house after 5 and we began eating and drinking a catching up.  My very good friend Brian arrived with his girlfriend Cathy-and i noticed a lovely diamond ring on her hand!! I grabbed it and said WHAT IS THIS!?!?!?!?! We were all soooo happy and over the moon! What great news.  OH! and I found out my good friend Felicia-who was in our wedding-also got engaged on Christmas! It was a great party-lots of friends and fun.  We headed out later to attend a local party and then onto the Antler-I went to grab Adam's camera out of my jacket-But it wasn't there! No worried it's probably in the bedroom-we would find out the next day as we were packing that it was not-nor was it anywhere to be found. (mishap #4)  I still feel awful-but certain it's going to show up.
Sunday we got up early and headed to church than back to pack-it was time to go home :(.  We left Pentwater at noon and arrived home at 1:20 am.  It was a LONG day.
Monday Adam was back to work and i was headed down to Marco Island to see my cousins and Aunt and Uncle.  Just when i was 10 min from their door traffic stopped.....for a LONG time. I called Joseph to check the traffic report and sure enough there was a wreck blocking all 4 lanes! finally after sitting for 30 min I was able to drive over the median and head back up to 41 to take the LONG way to the island.  I arrived at 1 pm. 4 hours after i left. (mishap #5)  Once there we had a great time, good food, lots of  laughs and plenty of play time.  The next day i headed north and stopped off to see my friend Stephanie and her family. Then it was back up to Tampa and to work the next day-oh and my parents, Jonathan and grandma were flying in at 2.  So i worked half a day-as did Adam- and picked up the family.  note I have been home awake for about 6 hours at this point.  Mom and Dad took grandma to Marco on NYE and Jonathan stayed with us.
We had a very low key NY's-dinner-movie-cards-drinks.  Tara joined us completing our foursome.  Oh and surprise surprise-i had a cold.  Friday and Saturday we spent time with my family (they came back w/o grandma) and had a really good time.  Sunday we got up early and took them back to the airport and for the first time in a week and a half had the house and time to ourselves.  The tree came down and the laundry was folded....and then we relaxed.  It was a busy-fun-busy-happy holidays-despite all the mishaps.  I wish I had pictures to share; but they will have to wait until the snow melts.
Happy New Year to all!