Snow Day III

The branch is even more bent.

We have hairy icicles.

My plot to NOT pick all the apples has paid off...for the birds.  Evidently they've been passing the word along that our yard has apples - there are between 2 and 10 in the tree at any given time. 
Just doing my part.

Oh, and YES, it's still snowing.

Trying to Beat the Heat

It's gonna be another scorcher today. It's 11am and the thermometer on my deck reads 103'. That may not be the true temperature, but it's hotter than yesterday, and that's enough for me. We don't have air conditioning (few people up here do), so that means we have to find other ways to survive. Here's a few options:

• go see a movie (any suggestions/recommendations?)
• hang out at the grocery store. I guess I could go and do laps around Fred Meyer.
• go for a drive -with the ac turned all the way up.
• go to a beach....which would involve a longish drive.
• go to the church property - which is 10 minutes away.

Guess which one I chose for today. Yup. We're heading to the church property. Located on the banks of the Stillaguamish River. We're meeting Stephanie and Cory there in about an hour. Nathan invited some of the singles branch...

Shall we gather at the river? (it's too hot to dance, so we'll just sing and tap our toes)

The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring, tra la.

Not quite "the darling buds of May", but here at out house we're doing our part for the environment. You can practically see the oxygen being emitted by our lush, slightly overgrown lawn. I'm sure that my boys are just being environmentally conscience by NOT mowing the law - less pollution, more oxygen. Just doing their part.

I'm thinking that tomorrow their "parts" better be behind the mower.

5 Alarm???

Not sure why the fire trucks were spouting. Nothing was burning. They may have just been cleaning out the hydrant or more likely they were cleaning out their hoses. Whatever. I missed taking a picture of the first truck - just as I pointed my camera the water ceased. I was ready for the second one.

I'm sure it was no coincidence that it started raining just as soon as they finished spraying.

It's not spring yet!

The good news is: I think it will melt soon.

It's Raining, it's pouring...

Actually, I think the rain has taken a brief break.

The boys took our wheelbarrow into the back yard on December 22nd - so that they could build a bigger snow ramp for the grandkids. It hasn't moved since. It looks fairly full of water - a combination of melted snow and steady rain.

That same combination of melting snow and heavy rain is playing havoc with Western Washington right now. All the passes are closed. I-5 south is closed. Many school districts around the state are closed. This on top of snow closures. The required make-up days are sure adding up fast.

I wonder if this is Mother Nature's way of voting for year-round school? At this rate the kids who attend brick and mortar schools won't be out of school until July. Not us. Yet another advantage of going to a virtual school.

Snow, Snow, Go Away

I looked out the window and what did I see? More white stuff coming down. I am not a happy camper. We missed 4 days of seminary before the Christmas break - I'd really like to get back down to business. I've been prepared to give the same lesson 4 times now...enough is enough!

The snow is supposed to turn to rain sometime during the night - but if it doesn't do it soon enough the schools will decide to have a late start. Late start for school means no seminary.

At least Danny will have his regularly scheduled school day - that's one of the advantages of attending a virtual academy. No snow days. Very few sick days either. We just plow on through.

Word of the Day

Anathema

a⋅nath⋅e⋅ma 
–noun, plural -mas.

1.a person or thing detested or loathed: That subject is anathema to him.
2.a person or thing accursed or consigned to damnation or destruction.
3.a formal ecclesiastical curse involving excommunication.
4.any imprecation of divine punishment.
5.a curse; execration.

The snow mixed in with the rain this morning is anathema to me.

Second Hand News

Steve sent an email to our newspaper on Friday night. The gist of it was that we hadn't received our paper in a week...Saturday afternoon guess what? They brought us a week's worth of papers. Great. Who wants a week's worth of papers? We've had to subsist on television and internet for a week - so we pretty much have heard the highlights already. The only thing to do was to read a weeks worth of comics and then recycle the papers.

Did I mention we haven't had garbage or recycling picked up for weeks? Both cans are already overfull and we've started storing the extra bags in the garage. I feel a bit like Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout....

Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would not take the garbage out! She'd scour the pots and scrape the pans, Candy the yams and spice the hams, And though her daddy would scream and shout, She simply would not take the garbage out.

And so it piled up to the ceilings: Coffee grounds, potato peelings, Brown bananas, rotten peas, Chunks of sour cottage cheese. It filled the can, it covered the floor, It cracked the window and blocked the door With bacon rinds and chicken bones, Drippy ends of ice cream cones, Prune pits, peach pits, orange peel, Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal, Pizza crusts and withered greens, Soggy beans and tangerines, Crusts of black burned buttered toast, Gristly bits of beefy roasts. . .

The garbage rolled on down the hall, It raised the roof, it broke the wall. . . Greasy napkins, cookie crumbs, Globs of gooey bubble gum, Cellophane from green baloney, Rubbery blubbery macaroni, Peanut butter, caked and dry, Curdled milk and crusts of pie, Moldy melons, dried-up mustard, Eggshells mixed with lemon custard, Cold french fried and rancid meat, Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat. At last the garbage reached so high That it finally touched the sky.

And all the neighbors moved away, And none of her friends would come to play. And finally Sarah Cynthia Stout said, "OK, I'll take the garbage out!" But then, of course, it was too late. . . The garbage reached across the state, From New York to the Golden Gate. And there, in the garbage she did hate, Poor Sarah met an awful fate, That I cannot now relate Because the hour is much too late. But children, remember Sarah Stout And always take the garbage out!

-Shel Silverstein

Slush Puppies

Pavement! I can see pavement! It's still pretty sloppy out, but I can see pavement!

Stephanie just called and invited us to have dinner at her house this evening - so that gives me a reason to leave the house - besides the fact that I need to do at least a little grocery shopping.

Think Warm Thoughts.

We were supposed to have warmer weather today. It was supposed to rain.

The weather hovered just above freezing. The rain was snow....

I'm expecting better (meaning warmer) weather tomorrow. I really need to do a little grocery shopping, but I'm going to stay grounded until I can see at least a little pavement in front of my house.

I Looked Out the Window and What Did I See?

And now, we dance.

Hunkering Down...

On the street where I live.

I'm done Christmas shopping.

I'm done grocery shopping.

I've taken Daniel to the orthodontist.

I am not going to go out and risk my life driving around town until the streets are clear. Or at least a lot clearer than they are right now.

I usually don't drive on the snow and ice around here, but we had already rescheduled Daniel's orthodontist appointment once because of weather, I didn't want to do it again. Besides, I thought that the roads would be slushy when I got down off the hill. Wrong. So wrong. The freeway was fine, but once off of that all bets were off. It was slippery, icy, rutted, and crowded with holiday shoppers. I narrowly avoided running into a *&@!!! idiot who ran a stop sign, then stopped in front of me on a busy street to find out why I had the nerve to honk my horn (which I did because I had no traction to stop and an oncoming truck in the other lane). Yes, I may have yelled at him (not directly - but his window was down...), I may or may not have called him an idiot...okay, okay, I'm not proud of myself, and for punishment I will ground myself from driving for at least 2 days. Probably more.

We've Got Mail.

No. The mail was NOT delivered to our mailbox. Steve went to the post office and asked for it. It was a surprisingly small bundle for this time of year and for the amount of days ...oh well, I feel a little more connected. I might try tomorrow - but only because Danny has an orthodontist appointment about 2 blocks from the post office. If I make it to our orthodontist office, I may as well hit the post office too.

I haven't driven for a week now - I pretty much avoid driving on icy roads around here, but I will just have to bite the bullet and give it a try tomorrow. I wish Danny's appointment was closer to noon (it's at 8:50 am) - it's supposed to be a little warmer tomorrow - maybe the roads would be a little better given a little more time.

We went out this evening and delivered Christmas goodies to several families. One family lives at the top of a long, slightly steep cul-de-sac. Danny took the treats up and the dad (Aaron) opened the door, then put his shoes on to come out to talk to us. First he asked us how we got up there....hmmm...we're sitting in our van, while it's running....hmm....then he warned us to be really careful going down because he had had trouble negotiating it in his four wheel drive Suburban. Then he asked us not to tell his kids that we had driven up there, because then they would think he was a snow wimp. We made it down just fine, and now we get to call Aaron a "snow wimp". Teasing. The gift that keeps on giving.

Awesome Uncles

Alex and Danny spent at least an hour yesterday constructing a sledding slope in our back yard - for the grandkids. Then they spent at least an hour playing outside with the grandkids. Trevor has been desperately wanting to go sledding - and they live down in the flat part of town - no slopes at all. We have plenty of slopes up here, but most of them are on the streets - and I really didn't want to have the kids sledding around cars - they are a little too young for that. With the addition to our existing slope in the backyard Trevor ended up a happy camper.

Somewhere under this snow is the ruler that Danny had stuck in the snow to measure how deep it was getting. We had about 10 1/2 inches last night before I went to bed, and now we have at least a little bit over a foot of snow. No one showed up for Steve's vanpool this morning - so he's alone again...I may have him stop at the post office on the way home this afternoon and see if there is any way we could get our mail. We haven't gotten any mail since last Tuesday, and it's not looking good for getting any today or tomorrow...I miss getting the paper too...

Dig Deeper

On Thursday, Danny went with Steve and I as we braved the icy roads to go shopping. He doesn't usually want to go shopping with us, so why the unusual trip? He wasn't doing any Christmas shopping, no, he was searching for a snow shovel. Turns out all the stores that carry snow shovels in Marysville and surrounding areas were already bought out. He came home a very disappointed shopper.

Yesterday my little entrepreneur went door to door in our neighborhood until he found someone home that had a snow shovel, and he asked to borrow it. Then he proceeded to spend about 4 hours shoveling snow (mostly our driveway). I was very impressed. He never asked to be paid for it, he just worked away on it. Danny was finished by the time Steve got home from work. Steve praised him, told him what a good job he had done and how nice it was that he had shoveled the driveway. Danny then proceeds to hint (broadly) that since he had done all that shoveling, maybe he should get that big ticket item he wants for Christmas.

On one hand, I'm very impressed with the initiative he showed in going door to door looking for a shovel. I'm pretty sure none of my other kids would have ever done that (too embarrassing). I'm also impressed at the hours of work - he really stuck to it.

On the other hand, well...let's just say that we have a ready made FHE lesson on the true meaning of Christmas coming up this week.

Cold and Sunny.

It was 17' this morning when Steve went off to work. He was the only one in his van pool to go in today - 1 out of a possible 12.

Good "news"? Our morning paper was delivered today! Now, if only the post office and FedEx will get their acts together and put some chains on...

We're expecting snow again tomorrow evening and Sunday- I'm pretty sure the stuff we have won't be gone - not with highs in the 20's. Last Sunday we only had a couple inches or so - and some wards in our stake cancelled or abbreviated their services(not ours - we met). I'm guessing we might have more wards cancel this week - they've already cancelled the stake Christmas concert.

I did get out yesterday (with Steve at the wheel) - we're stocked up enough for the next week - I even picked up a ham for Christmas and the ingredients for our traditional Christmas morning sticky buns.

Let it snow.

Virtual Snow Day

Snow day.

Virtual office.

Virtual school.

Virtually awesome.

Snowed In

It doesn't take too much snow for us to be snowed in. I know that those of you in Idaho, Colorado and Utah think that we're wimps. Truth is, we are snow wimps, but with reason.

Steve worked from home today (we love having the "virtual office" option). Danny had school as usual (that's what you get when you attend a "virtual academy"). Nathan did get bundled up and walked to work (3 miles away). I'm not sure how he's planning to get home - or if he will find a place down in the lower part of town - Stephanie lives about 1 1/2 miles from his work - he could beg a hide-a-bed from her...

I didn't leave the house today...and it doesn't look too promising for going out tomorrow either. I'm wondering if yesterday was the last day of seminary for the year. I'm glad that Steve and I pretty much finished our Christmas shopping - I need to go to the grocery store sometime before Christmas Eve, otherwise, I'm good.

Warm fuzzy blanket, fire in the fireplace, a cup of hot chocolate and a book. I'm good.

Failure to Plan.

We had a little snow over the weekend. A couple of inches. Not too much, but along with it we had some unusually cold temperatures (cold for us). Our high today is only supposed to be in the 20's and the low is around 17 degrees. So what? So the school district decided to have 2 hour late start this morning. Thankfully a friend of mine was scheduled to sub in Alex's seminary class and she found out about the late start and called me (at 5:15am). We only have seminary on days when the kids go to school on time - so that means that I had to call 10 families this morning at about 5:30am. It's a fun call to make:

Them: (very sleepy sounding) hello...

Me: I'm calling to let you know that since school is on 2 hour late start we won't be having seminary.

Them: (wide awake and very chipper sounding) really??...thank you!

I had to leave a message at two houses - one of which is our seminary principal. I talked to him last night - he called me because I had a question about our "snow day" protocol. He said that he would work on it and we (all the teachers) would discuss it this morning. Oops. Too late. I talked to a couple of the other teachers this morning and we each offered to call one other teacher to make sure that they knew. The one that I talked to knew, but he wasn't going to call his students - he expected them to find out for themselves and if they didn't, they would be punished by showing up to a closed church. Ouch.