Brrrrr!

Dear Mom,

It has been COLD this week. And obviously it's colder up here than in Quincy, but not much! This was my screen shot on the way to work Tuesday morning. 

Andrea sent these photos from the ferry on Wednesday as she headed in from New Jersey. 

Debbie E. texted me a photo of the fire Kerry built for them and gave me the Quincy weather report: 

It's 28F here now & was 19F at 7:30 this morning, when I walked out to look. It never got above 32F all day long. K came home & built a fire. Nice!

What I would give for a fireplace of my own! (And a man to take care of it, natch!) 

Emily's husband Tyler posted this pic of the frozen water bucket for the dog outside their back door with the caption "put another log on the fire." Remember when Dad used to sing that as he went outside to get more fire wood? They've had the kind of nights when Waylon definitely would have gotten to sleep inside!! 

Tyler and Emily also posted some shots of Taylor outside, which reminded me of the old photos of us standing outside holding sheets of ice with "cousin" Tasha during one of the Goulds' traditional NYE visits.

 
Tom Gould, Dad, Tasha, LAS & LSS. Hmm...see note at end.*

By the way, I called Aunt Lil and Uncle Don to make sure they knew about the cradle. I asked Emily if her mom has an iPad, since you loved yours so much. "If not, tell Don to pony up!" you would have said. Don is a step ahead; he got her a tablet for Christmas. 

Meanwhile, Mae is posting photos from St. Bart's! 

You will be tickled to know Mae has Portugal and Mallorca on her travel radar for this summer! How cool is that? I mentioned it to my friend Julia, as she is also a big traveler, and we are going to meet for drinks soon to discuss.

I'm also emailing with some of the Duke gang to try and set up a spring break in early March in the Bahamas. Some of them went to the Atlantis last year for a long weekend and had a great time, so I asked if Barb and I could join in. Not sure if it will work with their schedule, but I've got high hopes! 

The girls who went last year are Angelina and Julia, who was a DG with Hilary. Julia and Lindsay Brown are friends in Atlanta, but Lindsay and Dave are taking the kids to Costa Rica for spring break, so she can't go. Nice plan, huh? Caroline is on the thread too. 

I hope it works out; it would be great to have something to look forward to during these cold winter months. Yesterday and today have been kinda tough for me. I just felt tired and sad. I treated myself to another pajama day. Everybody at the office has been extremely understanding and supportive, and it's still pretty quiet this week. 

But, on the bright side, if you have to grieve, this is kind of a fitting time of year to do it. Hopefully having some trips on the horizon will keep me from getting the winter blahs. And I think the blog will make me do fun things so I have something to post about. 

Saudade,

Lynsley 

P.S. I asked Tyler if it was okay for me to share his photos. He said sure, and told me he lost his mama in 1997 and misses her every day. She must have been a great lady if he picked a sweet, sassy wife like our Emily. 

P.P.S. * OK -- that photo is not the one I had in mind, as I think those are NYE fireworks. So, the ice photo may have been a victim of your photo culling, which I have pledged to stop kvetching about, as the fact you "pre-cleaned" your house for us was a HUGE gift. Uncle Bob has still not stopped talking about the bag o' mystery goo y'all found at Grandmama's back in 2003. 

Also, on this note, I cannot resist telling you we had to make a few runs BACK to ChristTown to pick up items that were prematurely discarded as we cleaned out the house. Just like the time I had to go up to Goodwill and look for my summer clothes you took up there when I moved to Charlotte in January of 2004! CSS did not like a junky closet. And she did not bother to call you before she pitched your stuff! ;) 

I am tempted to plug in another "funny Goodwill fact about CSS" but don't want to (a) let out any secrets or (b) hurt anyone's feelings, so people can just ask me about that one too! Clue: "Go to Goodwill. Go directly to Goodwill. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200." LAS will get it, and Miss Betty might too.