The Last of the Snow Pictures...Maybe

It only took a few minutes to dig the igloo back out. It was still there under all of that snow.
Allie had boot problems. She couldn't walk through the snow without leaving a boot behind. In a non-drift area in the backyard, we totalled 32 inches.

Jaelyn tried to help dig too.

I even got in the igloo for a photo-op.

Jaelyn and Caden had fun collapsing the igloo so they could play in the yard safely alone.

Jaelyn almost got stuck...up to her bottom.

I love the crazy long wavy icicles hanging from the roof lines.

Thanks to Kelley for this idea. We brought snow in to play.

Jaelyn made herself a 5 tier cake.

And the Digging Out Begins...AGAIN

I went out this morning to take a few pictures and start shoveling for the millionth time in the last week (at least that's what it feels like). I only shoveled the walk. It's supposed to be sunny all day; so I'm going to let the sun do it's job and I'll shovel more later. We had wind gusts up to 55 mph last night. I'm amazed by what the wind moved around and what it left exactly as it fell.

Our deck railing2+ foot long icicles hanging from our bay window
Allie digging in the snow pile

I love the pattern the wind blew through our fence...there's a nice trough to walk down the side of the yard (next to a 3 foot wall of snow)

Our sad swing...there's just something about this that makes me either want to smile or cry. I can't decide

Allie sliding down a home-made slide in the snow pile

Marks from the wind in the front yard

Caden's ready to start a snow ball fight

Jaelyn is ready tooCaden fell in the snow

Making snow angels

Where are my bushes?

Electricity is Under-rated

We are currently in the middle of blizzard #2 of the week. This weather is crazy. My biggest fear has been our power going out. We had no problems other than a flicker last weekend. Well, this morning around 10, are power went out. I am not ashamed to admit that it freaked me out, too, especially when I realized I hadn't charged my cell phone. I calmly sat on the couch and folded laundry for an hour while I pondered what we should do once the house got really cold. Just as I was shoveling the walk to get to Dan's car to charge my cell phone, Allie opened the door to tell me the power was back on. Thank you God and all of your BGE power company angels!

We've gotten at least another foot of snow and the emergency management is warning of 11+ more inches with snow drifts as high as 6 feet from the high winds. At least the snow plows are out working...they've been through our neighborhood 3 times today.

We won't be swinging anytime soon!We are going to have to dig out the entrance to our igloo again. Jaelyn thinks it collapsed, but from the mound of snow, I'm pretty sure it's there waiting to be play in again.

Always Be Prepared

In the spirit of the Boy Scouts, we bundled up this morning and headed to the grocery store to get a little more food. I'm expecting we'll be stuck in the house until Friday. No school this week, but we will have 4 days added to the end of school. Bummer.

Giant was a mad house. Oh my goodness. People were parked all sorts of crazy ways so parking was horrible. We had to walk from the street practically. Once inside, is was just as bad. At least they have their scanner system so I could scan our food as we went and then go through the fast easyscan line. People were grabbing things off the shelves as fast as the stockers could put them out.

We also returned out overdue movies to the library and I picked up a new book to keep me occupied tomorrow. The forecast is still saying 10-20 inches of snow starting this afternoon. I managed to get Dan's car unburied with the help of anothe neighbor. I bought 3 bags of chocolate chips today so I can take cookies to everyone who's helped us. I've decided Dan can dig it out the second time though. That was hard work.

We Escaped

In addition to having a rip-roaring cold, I also have a bad case of cabin fever. It was so nice to get out today. The kids all behaved and enjoyed our outing just as much as I did. We stopped at Walmart and Target before having lunch at Chick-fil-a.

I let the kids spend a little more of their Christmas money. Allie bought a new Polly Pocket. She's definitely not ready for our winter. She came with 2 bathing suits and sunglasses among other things.

Jaelyn and Caden have joined the Zhu Zhu Pet craze. Those things are really annoying. If only I'd known that before we bought them. I'm getting them each a ball for Valentine's so hopefully that'll muffle the noise a little. Jaelyn named hers Vanilla and Caden named his Cheese since it looks like his favorite white american cheese.

I think we are totally ready to be snowed in for 2 more days. The warning has been updates...now it's 10-20 more inches of snow. We have new boots, the last pair of snow pants in Target (so everyone has a pair now), 2 puzzles, kleenex with lotion for my nose, and caramel hershey kisses for my stress chocolate cravings.

Newest Weather Warning

I just came back inside from digging the car out AGAIN. The snow plow came through last night and pushed a wall of snow behind everybody's nicely dug out cars. This wasn't just snow, this was snow boulders - big huge rocks made out of snow. This weather is just ridiculous. The weather channel finally confirmed what everyone is saying...more snow tomorrow and Wednesday. At this point, the kids might make it back to school by Thursday or Friday. At least the little snow symbol has been replaced with a cloudy symbol on Saturday's weather forecast.

As soon as the sun gets up a little more and starts to melt the snow and ice packed around the tires, we are going to TRY to get out. If we can get out of our parking place, we'll be fine now that our neighborhood roads have been cleared. I'm having major cabin fever. My goal isn't far...just up the road to Walmart or Target and maybe Chick-fil-a.

A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON
THROUGH WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

* PRECIPITATION TYPE...SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS...POTENTIAL FOR 5 OR MORE INCHES OF SNOW.

* TIMING...MID TO LATE TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY
AFTERNOON.

* TEMPERATURES...TEMPERATURES AT OR JUST ABOVE FREEZING AT THE
ONSET TUESDAY AFTERNOON. TEMPERATURES WILL DROP INTO THE MID
TO UPPER 20S TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY.

* WINDS...LIGHT SOUTHEASTERLY WINDS TUESDAY BECOMING NORTH-
NORTHWESTERLY 15 TO 25 MPH WEDNESDAY.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT
SNOW ACCUMULATIONS THAT MAY IMPACT TRAVEL. CONTINUE TO MONITOR
THE LATEST FORECASTS.

Our Igloo and the Newest Snow Pictures

Newer Snow Pictures

Thanks to Miss Krissy, we were almost prepared for snow with 2 pairs of snow pants. Caden wore insulated pants that kept him pretty warm and dry for about an hour.

It was fun to finally get to walk in the snow instead of just looking at it from our walkway.

Snow Angels!

King of the Snow Mountain

Walking Through the Snow

Jaelyn helped clean off the cars

Another neighobr's husband stopped to help me dig out the car after helping my next door neighbor get there car unstuck from the road. They made it half way down the road before getting stuck and then took all morning try to get the car back to their parking place. Mr. Snowplowman, we are ready for you!

Taking a walk to visit friends

Checking out Shelby's snow tunnel - very cool!

The kids are requesting one in our yard...I agreed to trenches so they could have a snowball fight...tomorrow!

My Wordle of the Week

Seriously, I think this is my new favorite website. I've been "wordle-ing" all sorts of sites. (click on it to make it bigger)

More Snow Pictures

When I talked to my Dad earlier, he suggested I think about shoveling the snow off the deck. Snow is heavy, especially when it's on flat surfaces. Then I got an updated call from the Emergency Management Center and they cautioned people in flat roofed buildings to watch out for sagging roofs. Apparently, a couple roofs have collapsed until the weight. So...I got my snow shovel and went to work on the deck. The drift at the back door was from 3 feet to almost as tall as I am in the corner. Our trash cans were totally buried.

Jaelyn said she knew I'd want a picture of me shoveling snow. Thanks, Dear. Instead of throwing it over the railing, I just pushed it underneath. I've gotten about a third of it done. The rest can wait until tomorrow, but not past that because snow is again in the forecast for next Wednesday and Saturday.


Within a few hours of shoveling the tunnel in the front, it was totally filled in again. When I came in from shoveling the back, I noticed the front had been shoveled again. None of the walks around me had been shoveled and I didn't see any foot prints. Later, I went back out to shovel more and I noticed foot prints in front of my car. If you look closely between our 2 cars you can see them. Someone from across the street came over and helped me. I think it was probably Mark, my friend's husband. Thank you whoever you are.

I let the kids come out with me the last time I shoveled. They had a good time playing in the snow for a few mintues.

It's stopped snowing, FINALLY. My grand total is 24 inches of snow!

The wind was really crazy. It was blowing straight across most of the day. I love what it did to the snow on Dan's car. He has a side wing on the roof.