Our New Sport

When we moved to Western New York, we noticed that people were more interested in the Sabres than in the Bills. People here just LOVE hockey. They think that it is the greatest thing ever. They seriously go crazy for it. At one of our favorite restaurants, Duff's, they even have an alarm like they have at the hockey games for when the Sabres make a goal.

This kind of peaked our interest. One of Spencer's friends, Mark (aka Big Sweaty), is obsessed with the Sabres. He was so excited to find out that Spencer had never been to a professional hockey game. He has season tickets and so he told Spencer that he wanted to be the one to take him to his first hockey game. He talked about it like it was this wonderful, and magical experience.

So, in November Spencer attended his first hockey game. It was the Buffalo Sabres vs. the Atlanta Thrashers. It really was something magical. Spencer was hooked. Since then he has fallen in love with the sport. He loves to watch it. And he has gone to a few games since then.

And finally, in December, I was able to go to my first professional hockey game. It was really fun to watch them get into fights and hit each other. It reminds me of soccer, except more violent.

Spencer got the NHL PlayStation game for Christmas from Greg. This was by far his favorite present. He plays it all of the time. And we often play together. It has been fun to become familiar with the sport and it's rules. We are officially hockey fans. More specifically, we are forever Sabre's fans.

Here are some pictures of the ring and of the players warming up.

Spencer's favorite player is Patrick Kaleta because he instigates fights. He is a Buffalo native. He also likes Jochen Hecht and Derek Roy.

My favorite is Paul Gaustad because he is tough and a team player. He also reminds me of Spencer. And his nick-name is Goose...like Moose.

Mia Loves To Bound

This is a video of Mia bounding in the snow. It was a lot funnier when the snow was deeper.

Brianna Biffs It

When we were playing in the snow with the dogs, we kept Brady on a long rope so he could run without running away. We don't trust him. Well, we tied the other end of the rope around Brianna's waist. In this video, Spencer caught Brianna eating it hard because the rope caught her feet from underneath her. Sorry for the shaking. Spencer was laughing pretty hard.

Snow Days

When we were little, we used to get one or two Snow Days every winter. These were days after big snow storms when we couldn't get to school, so it was cancelled. There was a Snow Day here just before Christmas. The Bills cancelled practice and all of the school cancelled. I was already scheduled to have the day off, so I didn't have to work either. It was really fun to have Spencer home for the day and to be snowed in.

So, we took the dogs out to play in the snow. It actually ended up being more like swimming in the snow.

Mia loves to bound through the snow. It was really hard for her when the snow was this deep.

A couple of weeks after this, we took the dogs out to play in the snow again. The snow was much more shallow this time.

There are multiple benefits to taking the dogs out to play in the snow. One, it's something fun to do to get out of the house in the winter. Two, it's good exercise. And lastly, but most important, it makes the puppies tired.

Even Brady was too tired afterwards to play ball.

Yes, It Snows Alot in Western New York

Since we found out that we were moving to Buffalo, and the whole time that we have been here, there has been one big question on our minds: Does it really snow a lot in Buffalo? We have spent a lot of time looking up the answer online and asking our new friends and neighbors. We have gotten a variety of answers. But now, we have discovered the answer for ourselves.

Yes. It snows a LOT in Buffalo.

The good news is that the city does an amazing job at clearing the streets and highways during and after the storms. I have never seen such a good job done in any city I've even been in during a snow storm. It is impressive. We are even able to get around in our Honda Civic shortly after the storm is done and even while it is still storming because they clear the streets and parking lots so well.

In the weeks before Christmas, we got a lot of snow. We got over four feet. Here are some pictures around our house of our own Winter Wonderland.







Even our apartment complex does an excellent job of clearing off the snow as soon as possible. They spend the whole day clearing snow during the storms. It's nice not to have to do it.



The dogs of course love the snow. We have been taking them out to play in it. They love to eat the snow and bound through it. The only real problem is that Mia does not like to go to the bathroom in the snow. It's hard enough to find conditions that are satisfactory for her to do her deed, but in fresh snow, it is a lost cause.



Mia looks like the Abominable Snowman when the snow flakes are flying and they stick to her face. It's really cute.



One morning we awoke to this disaster. Yeah. It was like three and a half feet of snow all overnight. Awesome!




We were nearly snowed in. It took a lot of shoveling to get out.




Then we had to figure out how to get our cars out of the snow. Here is our new car. Thank goodness we got it before all of this snow. We would not have survived well without it. I definitely would have been snowed in at work at least once and I would have had to stay at the hospital overnight. Ugh! Again thank goodness for the new car.







Here is our poor little snowed in Honda. It took a long time to get him out of the snow drifts.

I thought that the icicles on our house were so pretty....until...

They turned into the icicles of death! These are icicles on our roof. They form cold jaws of sharp icicle teeth that can come crashing down at any minute. They are all connected and when it starts to warm up, the pieces of ice and snow come crashing down off of the roof. It makes a horrible noise when you are inside. It scares Mia to death. And if you are outside, you'd better watch out. It could cause some serious damage.

The snow isn't all that horrible. There is a lot of lake-affect snow, but it's not so bad that you can't get to work. And it's kind of fun. It reminds me of when we were little and used to get a ton of snow back home.

A Brand New Car!! (like on the Price is Right)

Since we moved to New York about six months ago, we have been getting by with just one car. This was a challenge because we both work almost every day and we work in different places. We did pretty good at it, though. I found a couple of friends at work that would let me mooch rides with them to work. They have been so sweet and understanding about it. I would pay them gas money and I promised them to drive when we got a new car.

We had planned to get a car in October, but it didn't turn out that way. We started looking at cars and prices and how much it would cost per month. We kept going back and forth on if we would need four-wheel-drive or not. We didn't know what to expect with the winters here. We had heard horror stories and we had also heard that it wasn't that bad. We were also nervous about monthly payments. We wanted to make sure that we could afford the car that we bought easily.

So, for about two and a half months we searched for the perfect car. We finally decided on the Toyota RAV-4. We bought it December 11. Just in time. The next two weeks it snowed like crazy. Four-wheel-drive was a good choice. We love our new car. I named her Betty.

Thanksgiving

We are officially the worst bloggers ever. Sorry that we never blog. We are going to catch up on the last couple of months and then try to do better.

So for Thanksgiving this year, we went to my friend's house. Her name is Nancy and I work with her at the hospital. We are car-pooling buddies. She made a fabulous dinner. I made a million rolls because I thought that I had messed up the first batch and so I made a second batch. However, I thought that the first batch tasted better. Then I couldn't decide, so I brought them all. I felt pretty silly. We also brought a veggie tray and a cheese tray. Our other car-pooling buddy, Lindsay, came with her husband and little boy, Willard. Nancy's mom and aunt also attended. It was a nice, quiet evening. We were really grateful to have somewhere to go for Thanksgiving. And I was grateful that I didn't have to figure out how to make a Thanksgiving meal for two. We have been really lucky this year and have a lot to be grateful for.