Cabin Fever

Since Monday night, I think the greater Louisville area has received somewhere close to 6-7 inches of snow. With all this thick snow, it's a shame we didn't have any evaporated milk as I could have made a huge stash of snow cream (does anyone else remember this from childhood?).




As daycare was closed due to the snow, I spent the past 1 1/2 days with this little cutie:



I think I'm going to start calling her Curly Locks - her curls have a mind of their own. We have had a nice couple of days - lots of coloring and even more Elmo. However, while I've enjoyed my time with the little one, I'm starting to lose it a little bit and think it will be good to return to the office tomorrow - toddler tantrums in a confined space make a mommy's head ache (doubly so when combined with the fact that I am battling a head cold). Plus, getting work done with a toddler pulling on your hand every 5 minutes to go on a "walk" around the house is a near impossible feat.

Once upon a time (you know, pre-career, pre-husband, pre-child), I would have used a snow day as an excuse to snuggle up someplace warm and spend the whole day reading. This is a love of mine that has been sorely neglected lately (I do not count doctor depositions as "pleasure reading"). Each night as I crawl into bed, weary from the day, a stack of magazines and books taunts me from my bedside table:


Does anyone else's nightstand look like this, or am I the only one that is building a small personal library? A few of these I am reading actively, but several I have picked up and put down without delving too far into the book. I just can't seem to make myself put them up though, promising myself that when I "find time" (I almost snorted, I laughed so hard typing that!) I'll pick these books up and finish them.

Oh, and for those keeping record, there are 4 magazines and 7 books on my nightstand. They are, in no particular order:

(1) Most recent issue of US Weekly (rubbish, I know, but a guilty pleasure)
(2) Most recent issue of In Style (with Anne Hathaway on the cover, LOVE her)
(3) Most recent issue of Lucky (with Keri Russell on the cover)
(4) The special Oscar edition of Entertainment Weekly
(5) Twilight (which I fully admit to reading a second time in no less than 3 months)
(6) Food Rules by Michael Pollan (I read about this recently on a blog - I can't remember which - and am intrigued. I think Pollan was recently on Oprah to discuss this book - not that I buy into everything Oprah puts out there)
(7) Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (which I picked up last week after reading some really great reviews of it here)
(8) Understanding Exposure (still trying to improve my photography skills with my DSLR)
(9) Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On by Shellie Rushling Tomlinson (I swear that is the name of the book! It's a southern humor book - the tagline reads "What southern mamas tell their daughters that the rest of ya'll should know too.")
(10) The Time-Travelers Wife (I picked this up in the airport a few months ago and read the first chapter but have gotten no farther - not really sure why but would really like to finish this one)
(11) New Moon, the second in the Twilight series (yeah, I know, I admit I have a problem - that's the first step).