Two New Vocabulary Words

Dan commented to me that I've been blogging a lot lately. It's addictive and I have nothing better to do today. I thought I'd share 2 new words with you.

The first is from my friend Angie. She commented "Kelly, you're so good to keep us all up to date. Journalizing your family's life is so awesome in every way." Journalizing - such a cool word. I had to look it up in an online dictionary to see if it is a real word and it is.

jour⋅nal⋅ize [jur-nl-ahyz] -ized, -iz⋅ing.

–verb (used with object)
1. to tell or relate as one would in keeping a journal.
2. to enter or record in a journal.
3. (in double-entry bookkeeping) to enter in a journal, preparatory to posting to the ledger.

–verb (used without object)
4. to keep or make entries in a journal.

My second new word was heard on the news this morning. They said the ferocious storm last night included thundersnow. I have never heard of thundersnow before and I've lived where it's cold and snowy several times. I went to Wikipedia for this explantion:

Thundersnow, also known as a winter thunderstorm or a thunder snowstorm, is a rare thunderstorm with snow falling as the primary precipitation instead of rain. It commonly falls in regions of strong upward motion within the cold sector of extratropical cyclones between autumn and spring when surface temperatures are most likely to be near or below freezing. Variations exist, such as thundersleet, where the precipitation consists of ice pellets rather than snow.

Snow Pictures

We woke up (very early) to a very white world this morning. Why is it the kids sleep till 7:30 on school days, but get up at 6:30 on the weekend. And of course, this morning they couldn't get up nice and happy so I could stay snuggled in my bed. They got up bickering and yelling at each other forcing me to get up and put on my referee hat. Thankfully, we still have power, although the lights did flicker once giving me a huge scare.

I decided to go ahead and shovel a small path. It'll fill in with snow, but maybe it won't be quite as high as the rest making the final shoveling easier.


We have 22 inches in non-snow drift areas. I bet we have closer to 30+ in the drifts. Our trash can isn't quite buried yet. The thing that amazes me is the snow covering houses. There's a red brick house across the street that looks practically white now. The window screens are coated in snow and ice.

My snow tunnel

Trees always look so pretty with snow on them.

Weather Update

So far, we are doing well. It started snowing at 1:30 just as the kids were getting off the bus. It was really wet to begin with, but it's sticking now. We have about an inch on the ground. Jaelyn and I have a photo project planned for tomorrow so we'll be able to show you the accumulation.

Speaking of accumulation, early this morning, the national weather service was warning of 18-24 inches in my area. By around lunch time, they'd added a few more inches. Now they are warning of "WIDESPREAD STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 20 TO 30 INCHES...WITH SOME LOCATIONS IN EXCESS OF 30 INCHES." Yahoo has finally added the word "Blizzard" to their forecast for tomorrow.

I thought we were prepared. I have food and water. I bought a new Wii game. We have library books and movies. I just realized I failed in one key area of my preparation....chocolate. There's no chocolate in the house other than hot chocolate. How could I be so stupid? Oh well, at least my jeans will still fit on Monday.

Pizza Night

Last week, I asked my friend, Kendra, if she had a well tested pizza dough recipe. She loves to cook and I knew she'd have one. She posted her whole wheat pizza dough on her blog for me and we decided to try it out for dinner to night.

It was spur of the moment and I didn't have whole wheat flour so I used all white flour (my friend is cringing as she reads this, I bet). I used a jar of Ragu pizza sauce because I didn't have a can of tomatoes, but next time I will. I cleaned out the veggies in the fridge for toppings. Allie and I had spinach, onions, cherry tomatoes, bell pepper and zucchini. Caden and Jaelyn just had cheese.

The pizzas were yummy. Even Jaelyn ate all of hers. We had fun making them. It was very reminiscent of my childhood. My mom made home-made pizzas a lot. Thanks for sharing your recipe, Kendra!

Early Release

I went to bed expecting for school to be cancelled today because of how fast the roads got bad on Saturday. There were wrecks everywhere. We even got a call from emergency management asking us to stay off the roads because the 911 call center was overloaded with calls. The weather advisery starts at 10 a.m. and says conditions will deteriorate fast. Apparently the school system knows something I don't because instead of cancelling schools, they are just letting kids out early on a 2 hour early release schedule. Crazy, but I'll take it because 2 days locked inside alone with 3 kids while I'm getting a cold (woke up with the worst sore throat) is about my limit.

Newest Winter Storm Warning

Not Good. We are expecting a bad winter storm tomorrow. I've already gotten an email for sure shortening and possibly cancelling Caden's preschool tomorrow. I bet the girls' will be dismissed early if schools aren't cancelled all together. This does not sound fun. At least I have hot chocolate this time :)!

... WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM FRIDAY TO 10 PM EST SATURDAY...

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM FRIDAY TO 10 PM EST SATURDAY.

* PRECIPITATION TYPE... HEAVY SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS... STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 18 TO 24 INCHES.

* TIMING... SNOW WILL BEGIN MID-MORNING FRIDAY... AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING. CONDITIONS WILL DETERIORATE RAPIDLY FRIDAY AFTERNOON... WITH HEAVIEST SNOWFALL OCCURRING BETWEEN SUNSET FRIDAY TO SUNRISE SATURDAY. THE MOST HAZARDOUS WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS WILL OCCUR FRIDAY NIGHT.

* VISIBILITIES... THE COMBINATION OF HEAVY SNOW AND STRONG WINDS WILL REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO BELOW ONE-QUARTER MILE... PRODUCING NEAR-BLIZZARD CONDITIONS AT TIMES FRIDAY NIGHT AND EARLY SATURDAY MORNING.

* TEMPERATURES... HIGHS IN THE LOWER 30S FRIDAY. TEMPERATURES WILL BE IN THE MID TO UPPER 20S FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY.

* WINDS... BECOMING NORTHEAST 10 TO 20 MPH FRIDAY WITH GUSTS TO 30 MPH FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

CONDITIONS IN THIS STORM ARE EXPECTED TO BE COMPARABLE TO THOSE IN THE STORM OF 19 DECEMBER. PLAN FOR SUBSTANTIAL DISRUPTIONS TO TRAVEL FRIDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH THE WEEKEND.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE FRIDAY NIGHT.

Domino Lines

I found a set of double 15 dominoes clearanced at Walmart today. My parents are coming for a few weeks in May and they love to play Mexican Trains. I couldn't pass up the deal. Caden and I opened the box and set up domino lines in the kitchen. I can remember doing this in my Grandmother's kitchen when I was little. We dumped out all 136 dominos and went to work.

Just as Caden was starting it, Zac came and laid down beside the line. His back paw started it one direction and his front paw started it the other direction.

He was nice, though, and left a few standing for Caden to knock down. Doesn't he look annoyed at me after I yelled at him? Caden locked Zac in the bathroom and we started rebuilding.

Take II was successful.

Waiting for the Tooth Fairy

We've been wiggling Allie's tooth for over two weeks. On several occasions, she's let me try to pull it, but it wasn't ready...until today. This morning, I showed her how to wiggle it in a circle. Then during breakfast, it was hurting her; so she reached in, pushed it in a big circle and out it came. She screamed and cried a bit, but was very excited about it.

She put her tooth in a special frog box from Baba. We are all ready for the tooth fairy - who is real, by the way. We discussed it the other day. I asked if the tooth fairy was real and all the kids agreed that the tooth fairy and Santa Claus are real while garden fairies and fairy godmothers are make believe.

Four Inches and Two Hours

The weather channel was right on with their warning yesterday. It started snowing around 7 last night. By the time I went to bed (very late after watching the season premier of Lost!!!), everything was blanketed in a layer of white. I was expecting a phone call this morning from the school system's information line telling me it would be a snow day. I was wrong. The phone rang at 6 a.m. to say schools would be delayed two hours. You know what that means, right? I had to shovel four new inches of snow off the walks and from around the car. I need Dan and his muscles! I got it done though and everyone is enjoying a quiet morning for a little longer before we have to get dressed and hit the newly plowed roads.

We are expecting more snow this weekend. One neighbor used the word "nor'easter" and another friend said she heard 12-24 inches. It makes me cold just thinking about it. And then I read that silly groundhog saw his shadow yesterday...6 more weeks of winter! Yuck.

Jaelyn's Prize

I love Jaelyn's orthodontist. Dr. G and everyone in his office is wonderful. We especially like one of the technicians, Katie. She's so sweet and always has a joke to tell Allie. Dr. G gives out tokens for taking care of teeth and braces at each office visit. Once you have enough tokens, you can trade them in for prizes. Jaelyn got 7 tokens today (2 for the office visit and 5 for no cavities at the dentist a few weeks ago). That brought her total up to magic 25. She traded her tokens in for a $10 gift card to Toys R Us. Talk about incentive to take care of your teeth. She can't wait to go spend it.

She's still in a holding pattern with her braces while we wait for her laterals to come in. Next month, she'll probably get brackets on them, pull them in line and then it'll just be a few months of stabilizing and she'll get her braces off. I'm amazed at how quickly they corrected her bite.

Not So Happy About the Weather

Dear Winter,

Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't like you. You make me cold and sad. Please go somewhere else. Visit someone who will welcome you and embrace your cold side...maybe Santa Claus and his elves. Please let Spring come and visit me instead. I'd also welcome summer with it's beautiful sunny days, occasional showers and high humidity.

Sincerely,

About to Freeze in Abingdon

From the weather channel - Snow Day anyone? It's a good thing I went grocery shopping today.

• Issued by The National Weather Service
  Baltimore/Washington, MD
  12:03 pm EST, Tue., Feb. 2, 2010
  
  ... WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 5 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 7 AM EST WEDNESDAY...
  
  THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR SNOW... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 5 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 7 AM EST WEDNESDAY. THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.
  
  * PRECIPITATION TYPE... SNOW.
  
  * ACCUMULATIONS... 3 TO 6 INCHES.
  
  * TIMING... BEGINNING BETWEEN 5 PM AND 7 PM... ENDING BETWEEN 5 AM AND 7 AM EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING.
  
  * TEMPERATURES... MID TO UPPER 30S THIS AFTERNOON... DROPPING BELOW FREEZING DURING THE MID EVENING.
  
  * WINDS... EAST 5 MPH OR LESS.
  
  PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
  
  A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

Surprise in My Check Register

I sat down to pay bills today and found a surprise. It made me smile! Allie wrote (with spelling errors corrected), "I love Daddy. We are best buddies in the world." Sweet girl!

I think I should start putting my check book up. Next she'll be writing checks for me.

Our Weekend in Photos

We've had a pretty good weekend. We tried to get out yesterday, but the roads were horrible. We turned around and came home. We filled our day with cleaning, games and cooking. Today, we've had a snow day filled with playing inside and out. Since a picture is worth a thousand words...

Changed My Mind

After I typed my last post, I realized that the toilet in our half bath was stopped up too. It's below the problem toilet. It got me thinking...did I find the toothbrush and move it down the pipe??? I had thirty minutes to kill this afternoon while I waited for the new DVR to download whatever it needed to activate (ugghhh) so I got out the pipe snake again and did the upstairs and half bath toilets. I'm getting faster. This time I did both in thirty minutes where it took me almost an hour to do one yesterday. As I tell my kids, practice makes perfect (ha - wish I weren't practicing this skill). Anyway, I am hesitantly hopeful. Both toilets are flushing. Neither is what I would consider normal or are as quick as the other two working toilets, but water is swirling and leaving the bowl. I'm giving it a few days before I declare myself successful. I would have shared my news earlier, but my modem went out. Yes, that's right...something else stopped working correctly. I was sure we'd be visiting Walmart in the morning, but after the second reset, it started working again. So...oven, toilet, toilet, DVR, modem - zero...Kelly - five. I win! I think I should get a massage as a prize or at least a trophy. I've saved us a ton of money this week! :p

I Give Up

And I don't say that likely because I don't like to give up. When I set my mind to do something, I do it. If I don't know how, I learn. I have way too much of my Grandpa Tommy in me. I'm also a tad bit frugal with my money (GUC - Is that a nice way to say it? It's definitely an inherited trait). I don't want to pay a plumber when I can put in the effort and do it myself. Well, I give up. I tried. I tried valiantly...but I can't fix it.

Yesterday, I watched two YouTube videos to learn how to use a plumbing snake in a toilet. It took me three tries, but now I'd say I'm pretty good at it (I probably shouldn't have admitted that). I managed to get all 25 feet of our snake into the toilet.

(the towel is so I didn't scratch the bottom of the toilet)

I was so proud of myself and sure I must have hit the toothbrush and knocked it loose. Caden was quite impressed as I pulled the snake back out of the toilet. 25 feet is a long way. The moment of truth came when we flushed the toilet and....nothing. Water filled the bowl. Talk about frustration, but I know when I'm beat. I give up. I will call a plumber. Anyone know a good one in my area? I'm not worrying about it this week though. Today, I'm exchanging my DVR that crashed yesterday. I think I've had my three (oven, toilet, DVR). Add in a sick kids, doctor appointments, dentist appointments, a vet appointment and tantrums and I think it's time for Dan to come home.

For now, the toilet is off limits. There are 3 other bathrooms in the house. I'll worry about it next week!

You Put a Toothbrush Where???

I need this book: Who Flushed My Toothbrush down the Toilet? : A Survivoir's Guide to Parenthood by Dave Wilson. Unfortunately, it's out of print and I don't think it'll solve the problem. I've blogged about my recent issues with the toilet. Well, the Clue mystery has been solved. It was Caden in the bathroom with a toothbrush!

Last night, as I was plunging (once again), I calmly asked the kids if anyone would like to tell me what they flushed down the toilet. I assured them I was calm and promised not to be mad. First Allie said "I flushed a towel down the toilet." My eyes got very big I'm sure, but I remained calm. "A towel? Show me what size towel, please." She got a square of toilet paper which doubles as a towel for her Polly Pockets after bath. Okay, not Allie. "Anyone else?" Caden stepped forward and said "I flushed a toothbrush down the toilet." My mind quickly inventories the kids' toothbrushes. I didn't think any were missing so I didn't totally believe him. I asked him to tell me more and he told me about getting Jaelyn's toothbrush out of the trash can to put in the toilet. What toothbrush? Jaelyn and I were stumped until Caden described it and then I believed him. We went to the dentist on Tuesday and Jaelyn got a really odd toothbrush with a small round patch of bristles on the end instead of the normal oval of bristles. I'm sure it was for her braces, but she wasn't going to use it. I threw it in the trash. Caden said he got it, put it in the toilet, closed the lid, flushed it and walked away. The timeline is right for when the toilet stopped up. So the great question remains, how to retrieve a toothbrush from a toilet?

I posted on a couple of message board and have gotten responses from plumber husbands. I didn't totally believe a toothbrush could make it past the bends, but the plumbers all say you'd be surprised what will go through the pipes. For now, I've bent the float arm up to allow the tank to fill up more. The toilet is flushing fine with the extra water. I'm hoping the water will eventually push the toothbrush out into the sewer. Wishful thinking possibly! If that doesn't work, we'll have to use an auger when Dan gets home. We have a pipe snake, but it's metal and will scratch up the bottom of the bowl. I tried with a towel, but I need an extra 2 hands to hold everything and try to push the snake through that first big bend. And if that doesn't work, the next step will be removing the toilet ourselves or big bucks to a plumber! Caden gets a mulligan this time, but if he does it again...big consequences for the Little Man!

Bible Stories and Faith

I've always wanted to read the Bible in a year. Great intentions, but you know how that goes sometimes. Well, I did it in 2009, but I must admit it was a kid's Bible :p. Does that count? We started this summer on the My First Message Bible which is the kids' version of The Message. We loved it. It had a 3-4 page story every night including discussion ideas, an activity and suggestion for a prayer topic to go along with each story.

We finished it in December and are none too happy with our new devotion. I polled some friends and just ordered 3 new books: The Pray and Play Bible, What Happens When I Talk to God, and My First Message Bible Search. It's going to be hard to decide which one to start first.

We bought Jaelyn her very own Bible for Christmas. She has been listening to the Bible story with us and then looking up the reference in her Bible and reading on her own during her quiet time before lights out. She gets stuck sometimes on words and phrases so I also bought her an early reader Bible. I spent way too much money on Amazon, but growing their faith is priceless, right?!

Allie has told me on several occassions that she asked Jesus into her heart. She has yet to be able to really talk to me about it to convince me she totally understands. Maybe she doesn't need to understand though. She believes and Jesus tells us we need to have child-like faith. I've caught her kneeling at her bed praying several nights lately. She's supposed to be in bed, not loudly praying and disturbing everyone. But can I really complain??? I am working on teaching her to talk to God in her head in her bed!

ETA Sorry if that's hard to read without the paragraph spacing. Blogger is being fickle and won't add them.

Wordle

I noticed a friend had a wordle picture in her sidebar the other day. I tried it today with my blog and laughed at the words that popped up the most....

click to see it larger - Thanks for the tip, Sandi ;)

TV and Toilet really stand out to me...you can see where my time has been focused!

Tantrums and Toilets

We had a long weekend and it's turning into a long week. Jaelyn's tantrums have gotten worse. I believe it's a combination of togetherness and over tiredness. School has only been in session 4 of the last 11 days. That's a lot of time of us being cooped up inside together. Jaelyn and I butt heads a lot...Dan is such a good buffer for us. It's hard when he's gone.

We were sleeping wonderfully 2 weeks ago...from about 8 till 7:30 the next morning. In the last week, Jaelyn has been up late every night (9:00-9:30) and she's waking up way before 7. Instead of going back to sleep or crawling into bed with me, she's waking Caden and Allie so everyone is over tired. It's a vicious cycle that just builds on itself, getting worse and worse.

I guess I should admit that I threw my own tantrum the other night. The kids' bathroom toilet clogged up at bedtime. I got it cleared and then the next night, it happened again. The first time was pee, the second time...well, it wasn't just pee. This happened in the middle of one of Jae's meltdowns and I joined her. I sent the kids to bed without even brushing their teeth and spent 20 minutes trying to clear the toilet. I would scream and rant every time water splashed out of the toilet onto my socks. It wasn't a good night. I did get it fixed (I thought) and apologized to the kids for my behavior before taking a shower to wash all that yuck off me...Ew. Anyway, there's still a problem when the toilet gets flushed several times in a row. It's only partially blocked. Everyone promises they didn't flush a toy or underwear down the toilet. I'm about ready to put tape across the toilet and not let anyone use it until Dan comes home.

The good news of the week is I figured out what was wrong with the oven (saving that $129 minimum visit from the repair guy) and the charity truck came and picked up our old media cabinet and TV. I put an ad on Craigslist, but decided I didn't really want strangers coming into the house while Dan was gone to get the armoire. I'll take the tax write-off instead. It's nice to have that out of the middle of my living room.

Caden has school tomorrow and I'm going to enjoy Panera alone. I didn't get to on Monday because Allie was sick and I ended up at the doctor's office with her. I diagnosed her correctly with a sinus infection. A day and a half of antibiotics and she's already feeling so much better.

If you think about it, I'd love your prayers. We have 2 1/2 weeks until Dan gets home. I know I've done longer and I have friends with husbands' overseas so I really shouldn't complain. It's just hard some days.

The Gigaball

Last winter, I bought the kids a mini-trampoline for the basement to help them work off some energy. Before that, we had 2 different jump-o-lenes. A few months ago, I saw a gigaball online and was very intrigued by it. I thought it would be perfect for this winter in the basement, but it got horrible reviews so I didn't buy it. Well, we need something to blow off steam. Last week proved that point to me clearly. YesterdayI saw a gigaball in a store and bought it. It was cheaper than us going to a movie so I decided if it provides at least 2 hours of entertainment, it'll be worth it. The thing must have 12 different spots to put air in it so it took forever to blow up. Patience is not one of the virtues in this household, unfortunately. Finally after a good 30 minutes, the kids got to draw straws to decide who would get to try it out first. Well, I got to go first to "test it out." (It's rated to 150 pounds so no comments about me popping it!)

The gigaball proved to be a big hit! I'll let you know how long it lasts~