Look what happened last night...

it snowed!!!

I've not been sleeping well since just before the wedding, so I was awake when Erich left for work this morning at 5:30am (gross, I know). I was laying on the couch as Erich opened the front door and exclaimed, "It's snowing!". I scrambled off the couch and ran to the door (in my PJs) and was shocked to see about 2 inches of snow already covering the ground and no sign of the snow stopping anytime soon. So I took out the old camera around 8am to take some pictures of this beautiful sight around our condo complex.

The picture above is of my favorite tree. Yes, I have a favorite tree. It sits outside our back patio next to the pool and we have full view of it during all the seasons. It hovers majestically, greeting me each day as I stand looking out of our kitchen window. Clearly it is beautiful when the branches are bare except for a healthy heaping of snow. But it is equally exquisit during the summer when the leaves are lush and green, and it sways in the light breeze while neighborhood kids shriek and laugh as they swim. Autumn might be my favorite time for this tree, though, when it's leaves start changing colors...vibrant yellows and crispy oranges with hints of deep, dark reds. I guess we'll all have to wait another 9 months before we see that again...

...so for now, I'll drink my morning cup of joe admiring the winter wonderland that is my backyard...

Those Crazy Rabbids

Josh, Stacia, Dylan, Teresa, Shea, and Melo(under Shea's leg)

doing some laundry in Rayman's Rabbids 2 on the Wii...

creepy...in an adorable kind of way...

I was reading the latest blog entry by Lorie & Scott which has a video of their handsome son Henry laughing (adorable)...but for some reason our laptop decided to go into "standby" mode right in the middle of the video which, for a moment or two, just showed our new desktop display (below) with Henry's giggle in the background (creepy).

how seriously disturbing would it be if the Joker's laugh sounded like an infants? eww...

"It's a beautiful day...wanna go outside?"

Erich came home from work at 8am this morning and woke me up to say that it is a beautiful day (which it is) and did I want to do something outside?

I stared at him blankly...asked him if he had met us before...and promptly pulled the covers back over my head...

silly man...

It's Tiles People!!!

God bless our best friends Josh and Teresa...We try to get together every Saturday to play games (video, board and recently card too) and eat food that's bad for us, and catch up. It is always a good time, especially when the games get really competative and tense.

You might be wondering what the above image is...allow me to share my pride with you.

Last year, Teresa begged us to play "dominos" with her since it's a game she has played most of her life with her family (who are apparently extrordinarily good and, therefore, no fun to play with). I had never played "dominos" before, except to set them up in elaborate configurations just to knock them all down. So, begrudgingly, I agreed to play (I don't typically like to play games that I'm not confident I can win...it's a horrible character flaw and I'm not proud of it). But by some fluke (and after much trash talking on Teresa's part) I managed to win...and I was as surprised as anyone! I thought Teresa's head was going to explode!

Well, earlier in the evening I had mistakenly referred to "dominos" as "tiles" (maybe it's the Asian in me...who knows), which immediately threw Teresa into a fit as "tiles" is apparently never to be used when referring to "dominos". So naturally when I won, I declared that "dominos" would henceforth be called "tiles" until my victory was overturned.

I managed to avoid playing Teresa again until last night, very nearly a whole year after my initial victory. She had simply had enough of us calling the game she treasured so dearly "tiles", especially when we told the news to her family who were less than happy with what had happened. I sat at the table, washing the tiles, fully expecting a loss and a little sad that I would have to go back to calling the game "dominos" or "bones". We started the game and Teresa got an early lead, but I kept pace with her (surprisingly) falling a little behind in the third house until the third to last hand when I managed to lock the table for Teresa so that she had to pass. The next round my loving and supportive husband (who was also setting himself up for a position to win) put himself in a position to get a lot of points, which fortunately set me up to get a lot of points myself, much to Teresa's frustration. I was suddenly within striking distance of possibly winning the game...and Teresa knew it too. Suddenly it was all, "now wait a minute Erich...think about this...let's talk about this...I'm the loneliest number!"...but it was too late. Josh won that round keeping her from gaining any more points and putting me within 10 points of winning. Last hand comes and who wins again? Me!

And so "dominos" will be called "tiles" for another year...GLORIOUS VICTORY!

*Special thanks to Josh and Erich who helped make this win possible...

The Schienbeins Brave the World of Blogging...

i've been wanting to blog since I found Lorie & Scott's blog but was too intimidated to begin...plus I didn't feel like I had that much to say. but I got married at the end of last year and am excited to spread the word!


here are some pictures from our amazing day...

all in all, it was the most amazing day of my life...the first of many to come!