There is someone in my backyard . . .

. . . and she is COLD.  She's told me that.  She doesn't really mind the snow.  That isn't a problem.  The continual Arctic blasts of cold air make her shiver to her sticks and carrot.  

My baby made us a snowlady outside of our bedroom window. 

Just sayin'. Even the snowlady is having issues.

To all of the college students complaining that they have class during the cold spell.

From the local university where K takes swim lessons:

Closing the University because of low temperatures 

Rarely does the University close because of low temperatures alone.  

The safety of all students, faculty and staff is our primary consideration in determining if the campus should remain open. No other factors supersede that one. If we receive information that weather conditions, or any other risks, pose a significant threat to the safety of our campus community, we will act appropriately and immediately. 

We serve a different clientele than our colleagues in elementary and secondary education. Our students and employees are adults. They are capable of preparing themselves for inclement weather and for deciding if weather conditions and their own personal circumstances warrant altering their schedules because of the weather. 

Second, we offer a service for which its students pay directly. If we close, we temporarily deny that service to students – including the many who live on or near campus. So, if our observations and consultations indicate that conditions do not present an undue threat to the campus community, we are obliged to provide the service that we have promised to our students. In other words, our job is to keep the University open.

 I get it.  It's cold.

This is the e-mail we got yesterday afternoon from the Director of the Aquatics Program:

Bundle up, bring your hair dryer!  We will still have our Thursday night swim lessons as scheduled.  Stay warm, Diane

When I was in college, it was -25 F.  (That was PRIOR to the windchill being factored in.)  Kent was the ONLY school in the area NOT to close.  Did I complain?  No.  I suited up and went to class.

Did it kill me?  No.

Here's the thing, you ARE in college.  That means that you are an adult now.

You ARE in college.  Do you know how many people would love to BE in college, but can't afford it?

I was reading through the Twitter feed while I was watching my dear child swim back and forth.  College kids were complaining.

It's ridiculous.  The university isn't watching out for our safety.   

If I wasn't graduating this spring, I would go to a different college that cares about their students. 

We need to text and e-mail the professors to tell them that it is too cold for class.  If we all do it, then maybe they'll cancel on their own.

Really?  You are going to flood the e-mail and text of your professor to get them to cancel class?  :tip of the head in confusion:  Um, aren't you a big girl and big boy right now?

Suck it up.  Go to class.  Wear some more layers.  Leave more time.  Skip through from building to building like I did.  You'll survive.  Look at it as the Amazing Race, only with this one, you get a degree at the end.

The beds are free of flannel which means that it will probably snow 12".

Last week, K's bed was freed from her cozy penguin flannel sheets.  She was sad to have to change to regular sheets, but did as mama asked.  This week was my week to free the bed of flannel.  The polar vortex seems to have moved northward, at least for now, and I wanted to move forth into spring with lighter sheets.

That probably just gave The Weather Channel the green light to name another storm a name often found on some model of vehicle.  Don't worry.  I haven't been brave enough to put the snow shovel away-- yet.  That usually comes right after tax day.

In like a lion . . . with blizzard-like conditions.

Winter Storm Watch

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OH
407 AM EDT TUE MAR 11 2014

.LOW PRESSURE WILL MOVE THROUGH THE LOWER OHIO VALLEY LATE TUESDAY
NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY. RAIN WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA AHEAD OF THE
LOW TUESDAY NIGHT. THE RAIN WILL CHANGE TO SNOW BY SUNRISE ACROSS
NORTHWEST OHIO AND SPREAD EASTWARD ON WEDNESDAY AS COLDER AIR
MOVES IN BEHIND THE LOW. A PERIOD OF FREEZING RAIN IS ALSO
POSSIBLE BEFORE CHANGING TO ALL SNOW. BASED ON THE CURRENT TRACK
OF THE STORM...SNOWFALL SHOULD BE HIGHEST ACROSS NORTHERN OHIO
INTO NORTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA WITH DECREASING AMOUNTS FURTHER SOUTH.
A GLAZE OF ICE HOWEVER WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE.

MEDINA-SUMMIT-PORTAGE-TRUMBULL-RICHLAND-ASHLAND-WAYNE-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...MEDINA...AKRON...RAVENNA...WARREN...
MANSFIELD...ASHLAND...WOOSTER
407 AM EDT TUE MAR 11 2014

...WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY MORNING
THROUGH LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT...

* ACCUMULATIONS...3 TO 6 INCHES OF SNOW ALONG WITH A GLAZE OF ICE.

* TIMING...RAIN WILL OCCUR MUCH OF TUESDAY NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY
  MORNING. THE RAIN WILL CHANGE TO SNOW BY LATE MORNING AND
  CONTINUE THROUGH THE AFTERNOON. AS THE RAIN TRANSITIONS TO SNOW
  THERE COULD BE A PERIOD OF FREEZING RAIN. THE HEAVIEST SNOW
  SHOULD OCCUR WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON INTO THE EVENING COMMUTE. THE
  SNOW WILL SLOWLY TAPER OFF OVERNIGHT BUT THERE MAY BE SOME LAKE
  EFFECT SNOW SHOWERS THAT PERSIST INTO THURSDAY MORNING.

* WINDS...NORTH 15 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH POSSIBLE.

* IMPACTS...ACCUMULATING SNOW ALONG WITH A GLAZE OF ICE WILL
  SLOW TRAVEL ACROSS THE REGION AND MAKE ANY UNTREATED SURFACES
  SLICK.

Here we go again.  It could be way worse, but at mid-March, I've been clearing beds and planting snap peas.  There is none of that right now.  :(

I don't know why blogger doesn't like the NWS report, so I apologize for the splits in words.  I tried to fix it and I give up.

Calamity Day 8: It's all of my fault.

Yesterday, I knew that there was a big, fat storm coming.  I decided that if I placed my spring wreath on the front door, it would take notice and dissipate. 

 Just in case you wondered, it didn't.  In fact, I think that it made it worse.

 It could be worse.  My driveway has walls, but I'm certain that up north scored more.

Today I decided to put out my "Welcome Spring!" flag.  I mean, maybe the spring wreath wasn't hint enough.  You can blame me when the epic storm of the century rolls through.  

In other news, K had an optional volcano to build for extra credit.  "She's doing great in science," says Hubs.  "It's extra credit and those opportunities don't come by often.  We'll be building a volcano."  We did!

We didn't have brown paint and it was Sunday and we were being snowed upon with about 4" then.  None of us wanted to go out, so Hubs suggested some gray house paint.  I mean, if it's good enough for the house . . .  I had some leftover Modge Podge from when Aunt Donna decided that she was going to save all of the puzzles that the puzzler ladies built downstairs.  It took once and she decided that once was enough.  K sealed it.  It sat on the floor near the heat vent for a day.  It was time for lava.  Well, since it was extra credit, I asked K if she wanted it to be rainbowy with glitter.  SURE!  Rainbow and glitter it is.  It has to work and frankly, I think her teacher cares none about the colors.  

An update to K's recent illness is that despite having a negative rapid strep in office, today I was phoned by the nurse to say that it was positive and she needs antibiotics.  Huh.  We were all surprised.  

I end with, my your snows be small, your warmth be much and may we not float away by the end of the week when all of this melts.  If Noah comes rounding the bend, I'll let y'all know.  

A paid day off and a pot of soup.

I got the call at 6:15 AM to say that my place of employment was on a delay open.  We usually open at 10 AM (and 6:15 AM was a little early to call) but with the 3" of snow covered with ice, it was decided that there would be a wait-and-see approach to opening.

Julia, my coworker, texted me to ask what the update on work was.  She said she doesn't speak English at 6 AM.  I gave her my update and called Judy back.  She said to give her another hour to make a determination.

She called before that hour was up.  The local university (which is a block and a half behind our store) closed, so she decided to close, too.  HOORAY!   A paid day off to putz around the house, load a bunch of CDs into iTunes (Pavement, CAKE, NIN, Blind Melon, Rusted Root, Squirrel Nut Zippers and onward to Porno for Pyros and Jane's Addiction and more) and cook up a pot of soup.

What soup am I cooking?  It's called, "I'm making from what's in my cupboards and refrigerator!"  We have turkey kielbasa, dried mixed beans, barley, corn, carrots, peas and half of a green pepper.  I'll bust out a pan of cornbread and the world will be a delicious place.

Be safe!

Calamity Days: Are we raising soft kids?

Most of the nation is in calamity day central.  This morning it was -10.8 F.  Now that is cold!  Add a windchill warning that is over at noon TOMORROW and we'll just say, the nose hairs are sticking together rather efficiently when breathing in through the nostrils while outside.

I have to ask though, are we raising soft children?

The first days of January gave us three days off in a row.  The first two days were beyond cold.  We were at -12 F.  I get it.  Too cold to go out.  On the third day, many school districts were out not because of the cold specifically, but because the buses wouldn't start.  Now, I'm thinking that if buses hadn't been started in over 2 weeks that someone would have the forethought to go start them BEFORE school was due back in session that next day.  Alas, they did not and that error chopped off another calamity day.

We didn't have school Friday.  They said it was cold and while it was cold, it wasn't non-functional.  We had no school yesterday.  When I went to work, it was 30 degrees.  It started lowering, but by the time the kids would have gotten out of school, it was still 20.  (Yes, I know.  Add a windchill reading to that.)  At any rate, in our area, these kids could have gone to school those two days.

Our children haven't been to school for a full week since the week before Christmas break started.

I was speaking to the retired principal of K's elementary.  I told him that I thought we were raising soft kids and he agreed.  When we went to school, we went regardless.

There was snow to my waist and we went.  We didn't call off unless the city that I'm currently living in called off and they never called off.  If they called off, you knew that it was a don't-leave-your-house day.  Throw whatever you have in a pot for soup and hope for the best.

If it was cold, you just put on more layers.

I remember being on 2 hour delay once because we had an ice storm while the leaves were still on the trees.  Much of the city was without power, but we still went to school.

Even Kent State didn't call off when we had a shooter running around.  They also didn't call off when it was -25 F (-50 F with windchill.)  They delayed classes.  You know what?  We survived it.

The suburbs have busing.  The kids go from their house to the bus to the building.  They have very little outdoor exposure.  25% of our kids are bussed.  Very few kids walk.  (We don't when it is this cold.)  Most are driven to school in warm cars and dropped within 15 - 20 feet from the door to a geothermal heated building.

We went to school in the heat.  It was hot and we weren't allowed to wear sandals or flip flops or shorts.  The windows were opened and the janitor mowed the lawn as you were trying to learn.  We survived, yet there are times that schools are closed because the AC is out.

Now obviously, there are different conditions for everything.  Acceptable road conditions for NE Ohio are different than in Williamsburg.  Acceptable cold is different in NE Ohio than it is in Georgia.

It just seems that the schools are bowing to the worry that they will be sued by parents who are afraid that their kids might get a little cold or a little sweaty.

Use calamity days.  Use them when needed.  Use weather forecasts.  However, be reasonable with it. At this rate, our kids will be in school until July.

ETA:  We have tomorrow off, too.  Right now at 8:30 PM, it is - 1.5 F and it is only getting colder.

Eden Pure lap dances and hugging a space heater.

Y'all, it's been cold.  Now, while I don't disclose my location, I can tell you that I'm in this mix:

Daily record lows broken today in the Midwest (old records in parentheses): 

-11 (-7) in Cleveland; -11 (-5) in Akron-Canton, Ohio; -12 (-7) in Mansfield, Ohio; -14 (-6) in Toledo, Ohio; -12 (-6) in Youngstown, Ohio; -7 (-5) in Columbus, Ohio; -9 (-3) in New Philadelphia, Ohio; -8 (-3) in Zanesville, Ohio; -14 (-5) in Detroit; -14 (-10) in Flint, Mich.

The lovely Arctic cold snap has left our kids on extended winter break.  They earned themselves 2 additional days off, with some (not ours) on a 2 hour delay or canceled for tomorrow.

Brrr.

When I went to bed last night, it was -12 F and that wasn't in the end of it where the thermometer reading would reverse.

I was up at 2 AM to start the cars.  I'm not kidding.  I got up, started and ran them for 15 minutes while I snuggled up in a warm blanket on the couch, watching That Metal Show.  I came back to bed to a less-than-thrilled sleeping spouse who was not wanting to share his accumulation of heat.

He isn't a pleasant sleeper.  I'll give him that.

I weaseled my way in anyhow and later, he decided that my intense heat production had returned and he would take advantage of giving me a hug to steal my warmness.

I might add that the furnace in the building I work in has been out for over a week.  Now, it isn't because my bosses are too cheap to fix the furnace.  The gentleman who was repairing the furnace didn't seem well versed as each time he replaced something, something else would magically come up broken.  The temperature has been anywhere from 50-65 F.  The 65 F was on days that were warmer and I might add that those have not been recent days.  We have space heaters.  We've been running the faucets.  We've been leaving the halogen lights on to give some supplemental heat.  We've been managing, but we've been working with our coats, hats and many layers on.  We've been getting things accomplished, but it has been slow going.  Today, our highest temperature was 54 F.  It isn't -12 F, but I can tell you that it is rather chilly.  We have a coworker who was kind enough to lend her Eden Pure heater to us.  There is a little space heater, about the size of a sheet of paper, that we keep on the counter.  It blows hot air, makes my hair full of static, but I was hugging it yesterday.  I'm thankful for the supplemental heat.

Turns out that I wasn't the only without heat.  Hubs' work was without heat, too.  They maxed out at 54 F.

Brrr.

It could be worse.  The temperature is only up from here.  We were actually colder last night than the temperature recorded at the South Pole!

Chilly willy puddin' pie!  We'll survive!

They act like the final days are coming.

Y'all, it's snow.

Y'all, it'll be cold.

We'll survive.

I don't know that the coverage is exclusive to our area but geeze o' Pete, we live in a northern climate.  We get snow and cold on a regular basis during the winter months.  It should be of no surprise.

Okay, I get it.  It's supposed to be below zero.  When Hubs and I started dating, it was -25 F with a windchill that took it to -50 F.  Everything, and I mean everything, closed around here except for Kent State.  I remember leaving myself enough time to building hop on my way to class.  KSU was on a delay start.  They started classes at noon.  I remember laughing because apparently Carol Cartwright thought that there was going to be a heat wave precisely at noon.

There wasn't one.

I decided to park at one of the parking meters.  I had to take my glove off to get the money into the meter and I kid you not when I tell you that my hand froze in a curved position.

As an art major, that did concern me.

My car, a 1985 Trans Am with leaky t-tops was the only car in the driveway that would start.  Getting it out of the driveway that was on a hill and adjoining in a way to the neighbor's drive with a telephone pole separating the drives at the bottom.  Most of the time in the winter, I was the last in and the first out, so I would just leave it parked at the bottom of the driveway.  I do recall getting it to the top during the freeze and freaking my mom out because my dad taught me to spin the back end around in order to be able to back up, but to miss all of the cars parked in the driveway.  I think she had a near heart attack every time I did it.

At any rate, I recall the snow freezing so deeply that you could stand on top of a foot or two of snow and not fall through.

Current snow estimates have varied quite a bit.  Temperatures have varied quite a bit.  Hubs' response to the news was, "It's just snow."  That it is.

K might not have work for a few days, but my work will be up and functioning.  Hubs might have work on Tuesday, but who knows?  We might have an extended holiday break.

Who knows?  It's just snow and some cold.  It's nothing that should shock the northern half of the United States.

ETA:  School was canceled for tomorrow at about 3 PM.  My cousin phoned and her daughter's school is called off for Monday and Tuesday.  She only lives 15 minutes south of us.

Inside, outside, count of three and the ice cube flush.

The first snow!  (That would be my draining rain barrel at the end of the slide.)

Snow!  K tried the recipe for a snow day.  Actually, she combined all childhood tricks into one snow day stew pot.

1 pair of pajamas, worn inside out
1 ice cube, flushed down the toilet
1 spoon under the pillow

After she saw how the snow was progressing at 9:41 PM (well after bedtime, but her dad called K and me out to see the snow,) then she decided that a few more spoons wouldn't hurt.

She didn't get a snow day, but she did get snow.  She was thrilled!  Keep it coming, we say!

A family day out on the boat.

A lovely day to go out on the boat.

We were (obviously) near one of the Goodyear blimp hangars.

Hubs got a tug on his line.  He said that it started about 100 yards back.

Lookie Loo!  He caught it!

A bass.

15".

And because we're catch and release people, he dropped him right on back out in to the water. 

Not too long after that, we had a few sprinkles.  It was rather warm and humid, so some sprinkles were definitely welcome. 

Hubs decided to tuck us up underneath some branches.  He figured we could wait it out. 

And it kept raining. 

Here is where he is wanting to tell you that he checked The Weather Channel before we left and it said zero percent chance of rain.  He wanted to make sure that you knew he was showing you the zero under our festival of umbrellas.  We were thankful he brought them.

K, not an advertising billboard for Cabela's, is showing that she was going to sew.  As you can see, the floatation device beside her was rather wet. 

And it rained even harder.  It was at this time that K asked Hubs, "Did you remember to close the moon roof in mom's car?"  I could feel the fear running through his body.  It was then that conversation went a bit silent.  Well, and there was a large crack of lightning not too far down from us.

I tried to look the radar on my smartless phone.  After texting several people and calling my mom, I finally called my cousin.  Her husband answered the phone.  "Thank God you answered!"  I explained to Jacob that we were on the boat, the rain was only getting worse, there was lightning and when was it going to stop?  "You are ON the boat?"  "Yes, under some trees."  He told us that it would be just a little while longer and we would be good.  There was nothing else coming behind it.  Why couldn't Mom tell me that?

The thoughts running through Hubs' head ,as later shared with me,  "Oh crap.  If the roof is open in the car, it's going to take at least 2 days to dry it out.  The water is probably up to the steering wheel by now.  I can use my wet vac to dry it out.  Oh, this isn't going to be good." 

And because God has a sense of humor, He decided to poke Hubs in the side just a bit more and make it rain even harder.  It was at this point that we had waited the rainstorm out for over an hour.

Fog started to rise! 

But then, the rain stopped.  For zero percent chance of rain, the storm lasted for an hour and 15 minutes.  We were able to make it back to the car (despite the motor stopping momentarily) and the car-- it was dry.  

It's always an adventure.  Sometimes it is more adventure than others.  Hubs told me, "This is our vacation this year."  I told him that this would make three very wet vacations in a row.  He just laughed.  

Have a great day!

Clearly it is my fault that it hasn't stopped snowing.

I put my shovel away on Saturday and we had flurries for three days.

I put my flannel sheets away today and redressed the bed with the 3 season sheets.  Rachael texted me a photo of her spring break in Blacksburg COVERED in snow.

I was clearing the flower beds and I was roasting in my bed last night, but clearly I didn't wait long enough.

So sorry!

Fashion choices sometimes surprise me.

It's cold here.  I know, I know.  There is always some place colder, but when it is 5 F and the wind chill is - 11, that counts for cold for me.   Yesterday was cold, too.

We had people in and out all day.  It was a bank holiday and everyone got gussied up, wore some extra perfume (I swear that they did and my perfume sensitivity agreed) and came on in to work.  Fantastic!  We were thrilled to have them.

We had one lady, though.  She was dressed.  Oh my.  Michelle Obama would have been impressed.  She had a wonderfully fitted suit, hair not out of place, far too much perfume, but peep toe black stilettos to show off her fabulous pedicure in the snow on slick parking lot bricks.

Wow.

If it were me, I would wobble around on those things like a newborn giraffe on an ice rink.  She was steady and didn't even catch a heel between the bricks.

She was my work fashion hero yesterday.

Michelle Obama wins, though.  Her jacket was delicious.

Stay warm!

This side of the trough.

We have some bizarre weather going on here in the U.S.  The states, at least when I watched the forecast this morning, was split in half with a large trough of cold air across the west and a big trough of warm air to the east.

I'm in the warm air trough.  Well, that is at least until the weather changes tomorrow evening.

K and the neighbor friend played outside in the melting snow pile that used to be the igloo in the front yard.  They also were out back on the swing set.

What about me?  I opened up all of the windows and turned the fans on low.  I'm trying to air out the infectious funk that has been floating around here for about a month.  I had the windows open until 7:30 PM.  It was delightful!

Still, I miss the snow.  I welcome its return.

Wintertime vocabulary lesson for the masses.

I realize that not all of the readers here live in the cold, white north.  We have a different vocabulary up here during the winter.  Here are some words/phrases you may here:

1.  I've got to snap my blades.  That means that if you are really good at it, you can drive down the road, reach out your window and grab hold of a moving windshield wiper blade while in motion.  You need to do this to "snap" the ice off the blade to make it so that it can start clearing ice, road sludge, salty water and whatnot from your windshield.

2.  Drifts.  We're not talking about hints that people are dropping.  Oh no.  We're talking about swirling measurements of snow that collect and block the worse possible places.

3.  Beet juice.  Where I live, they use a beet juice cocktail on winter roads for ice treatment.  No, we don't drink it.  Surprisingly, it doesn't turn the cars pink or purple like I thought.  Well, I suppose it is hard to tell under all of the gray road gunk.

4.  Parking lot sludge.  Gray and black semi-frozen matter that is a result of salt melting and driving over ice and snow.  It will ruin pants.  When you walk through it, you end up with a stripe of gunk all the way up the back of your legs.  Nice.

5.  Give my car a brush, please.  No, I don't drive the dog mobile from Dumb and Dumber.  Brushing a car is simply taking the lovely snow brush and brushing the snow off the windows and lights.  My husband usually brushes my car off, but this morning, I was on my own.  :(

6.  Snowman snow.  Snow isn't just snow.  There are different degrees of snow and just because you have it doesn't mean that you can make a snowball or snow person out of it.  The warmer it is, the more the snow sticks.  The colder it is, the fluffier it is.

7.  Car blanket.  You don't have this to tuck your car in.  You have this in case you end up in a horrible traffic jam because someone decided to stomp on their brakes or because your car failed to cooperate.  A nice, toasty blanket in your car may never be used.  In the winter up north, it is a necessity, though.

I know that I'm forgetting a ton of things here.  Feel free to keep adding to the list.  :)

Getting ready for our storm.

We're supposed to have 8-12" of snow today.  By Saturday, we're supposed to have 19"+ on the ground.  Hubs returned to work today after being off on vacation time.  I get to greet the Christmas Sale crowds (ugh) and then we are to be slammed late this morning and on through this evening.

I'd rather be hanging out at home.

Hubs thought I was ridiculous to pack him a bag with a blanket, water, gatorade, foil packs of tuna, granola bars, fleece pants, a sweatshirt and wool socks.  Oh, and because he's been suffering with a cold, I sent him with a box of Puffs and a disposal bag.  He also has a little shovel with him.  The road out to where he works was shut down and blocked for an obscene number of hours (as in overnight +) so that particular stretch of road doesn't have a real good track record.

My MIL has asked that K stay over so that we don't have to worry about going out to get her.  K has her bag packed, her doll's bag packed, an extra blanket and pillow (she got yesterday) as well as a doll bed and a doll barber chair.  Methinks she packed a lil heavy.

As for me, I work just up the road.  I'm blessed to work for people who will and have sent us home early.  If it is getting ugly, they will send us home.  I'm looking forward to that today.

I've gassed up both cars.  Hubs is in front wheel drive and I have 4 wheel drive.  We'll be okay.  It's the driving of everyone else that concerns me.

We pray that everyone remains safe.  For now, we're under a Winter Weather Advisory.  Up towards the lake, they are under Blizzard warnings because of wind.  Who knows what this will really hold?

A birthday, a new car, parties, snow, the collapse and more!

We celebrated K's 9th birthday on Thursday.  The previous weekend, we had a sleep over so that she could celebrate with her friends.  Little girl is growing up.  I had her stand next to her growth chart and she is 56" tall.  At 10 1/2, she'll officially be as tall as me.  Bless her heart.

We had family over for filled cupcakes, brownies, chocolate covered pretzel ice cream and party cake ice cream.  I mean, how could you go wrong with those choices?  Needless to say, she had delightful gifts given to her, too.  Lego Friends are a big hit, though we have two bodies in the box and one head. I'm going to have to e-mail them about that.  She wanted Kids Bop, so I picked that up for my mom along with a Spirograph.  I mean, how could you go wrong with a Spirograph?  She also received the movie Brave, a stuffed puppy and a book.  We added to her Webkinz collection, gave her an American Girl sewing kit that she wanted (clearance at Target!) and a Hello Kitty MP3 player (clearance at Target.)

Before we had K's celebration, we plunked her onto the bus with a cake container full of brownies and headed off to buy Hubs a new car.  We had made the deal on Sunday, left a locator deposit and were on the wait for the arrival.  What did we buy him?  He chose a standard shift 2013 Black Toyota Yaris.  It gets 38 MPG and when I wash it, I can reach the roof without standing on anything!  We call her the Barbie car because she is rather petite.  He loves it and I appreciate him and his decision to purchase something that is more practical and cost conscious.

We got snow yesterday!  Of course, being the first snowstorm of the year, they predicted Armageddon. They had crawls on the TV not to go out until after the advisories had lifted and things of that sort.  Really?  In fact, K is so excited right now since she is dressing to go roll around in the 2 or 3" of snow.

Yesterday was K's classroom Christmas party.  I made Rachael's baking soda/cornstarch and water ornaments.  I made 32 stars and baked them for 2 1/2 hours at 170 degrees.  The ornaments were a hit!  The kids loved them and I purchased styrofoam bowls for them to take the ornaments home in.  We stapled the bowls together to make a container to take a wet ornament home in without wearing the glitter, glue and other things that were stuck to them.  We had a delightful buffet of snacks, even though no one could tell me that they were sending anything in.  I was kind of sweating that one.  It all worked out okay.  Hubs came to volunteer with me and the teacher was thrilled.  We don't see that many dads at our school.  We had another mom who was able to come to help.  She has a great boss who allowed her to cruise on in to help.  I thought that the ornaments would take far longer than they did, then I realized that we had a half hour left.  I did my "unhang man" AKA building a drawing of something other than a guy hanging.  I drew a snowman, a Christmas tree and Santa.  The kids dug it.  We only got the wiggly widgets the last 5 minutes, so I call that a success.

I came home from the party, drew myself a bath, put on my pajamas and hopped into bed.  We had no obligations last night and I was beyond dog tired.  I had run for two weeks straight without stopping, having multiple meetings, breakfasts, work, other school obligations and such.  I knew that we could all take a quiet night and kick back and rest.  I ended up taking a nap (which I never do) and the fell asleep at 10 and slept all night long.  Hubs commented this morning how I was "dead to the world" and must have been beyond tired.  He said that the ADD keeps me spinning and the fact that I was down and resting kind of threw him.  I wasn't sick, but I was pretty convinced that if I didn't stop, I would be.  I needed to listen to my body and listen I did.  He chose to work out last night and K decided to watch the movie Brave three times in a row.  We aren't big with TV with her and doing that is a very rare thing, but she's been exhausted, too.  Kiddo needed to decompress, so she rested, played with her dollhouse in the middle of the living room floor and loved the quiet time to herself.

Today is Happy Home Day!  Today is the day that we celebrate that K came to be with us.  (Most people call it Gotcha Day, but that title doesn't ring real well with me.  I wanted something more meaningful to us and a little less slang.) We like to take her to see Christmas lights on the evening of Happy Home Day.  There have only been a few years that we've missed it, but we always like to do something special with her.  (One year had the stomach flu and last year we had no lights where we usually go.)  We'll have fun this evening for sure!

Having spent every single day at the school this week, I can tell you that our procedures for different things have been tweaked all week.  The tweaking is definitely a good thing and everyone seems to be fairly obedient about it.  I texted my PTA peeps to let them know that they needed to print badges as well as wear their lanyards, we needed to give specific whereabouts to the office and are absolutely under no circumstance to let anyone in at all.  (We already knew most of those things, but it didn't hurt to reiterate.)

I have to jog out to the land o' retail madness today.  For those who speak with me by phone, they will be thrilled to know that Santa (my parents in this case) will be gifting us a new cordless phone!  The phone system was a hand-me-down from the neighbor and it has gotten so beyond that it doesn't beep when the battery is low anymore.  It just hangs up.  People know that I will call them back, but still  . . .

K is out shoveling snow from the neighbors drive.  She is moving snow to probably make herself a mini sledding hill.  She loves playing in snow more than I can even express.  There is more coming basically everyday.  To her, that is the greatest gift.

Have a wonderful weekend!

The out of doors is fevering.

It was 99 F today.  It is supposed to be 101 F tomorrow.  What do you do when the environment is fevering?  I mean, how much Advil will it take?  :S

So many ways of wrong.

We have gorgeous weather.  I should highlight that.  Beautiful weather beyond any memory that I have from living my entire life in Northeast Ohio.  We've had record breaking temperatures for the last three days.  With that comes some major issues.

1.  Cabbage whites have been out for about a week.
2.  Bees are out in force, doing their bee thing.
3.  The Korean Magnolia at work has been bloomed long enough to be shedding petals.
4.  My butterfly bushes have leaves-- big ones.
5.  The purple plum is starting to bloom.
6.  The dianthus are back-- and very big.
7.  The mums that my sister gave me, I half planted them while being broken and all, hoping that they would make it during the winter on the worst corner of the house are greening up and doing great.
8.  My garden bed is cleared and collard and snap pea seeds have been sown.
9.  I've had to water the garden.
10.  I've cleared all of the fall debris from the beds and can now start on the field grass removal in a 3' diameter section of one bed and along the tree lawn.
11.  Our central air has been on since Monday.  We turn it on in the evenings.  The pollen is so bad that Hubs can't take the windows being open.
12.  I found a 3" lime green nicotiana growing next to the house.  They reseed themselves every year and usually emerge around June.
13.  I've had the laundry on the line for the last two days, excluding Hubs or anything communal due to his allergies.  It has been in the 80's. 
14.  I've been driving with the window down and the moon roof open.
15.  I took my RAV for a chassis bath today (as well as the upper portion, of course) figuring that it might be the last salt I need to clear from the car.
16.  My parsley is big, green and very bushy.
17.  My sage is very big and very bushy.
18.  My lilies are probably 4" high at this point.
19.  The sedum is seduming.
20.  The black eyed susans are cruising along nicely.
21.  The strawberry I planted last year (a gift from my MIL) never browned out, remained a lovely green and is growing, growing, growing.
22.  Our lawn could stand to be mowed.  The neighbor's lawn crew was out today and her lawn has some lovely stripes.

Why are these things problems?  Well, we live in Northeast Ohio.  State wide mantra is not to pack the snow shovel away until after tax day.  These are things that don't happen until the first or second week of May.

Frost happens.  Hard frost happens.  It actually killed a very well established, probably 5 year old tulip tree. 

I'm looking at the possibility of having to string sheets through my yard not for two bothersome weeks in May, but for the potential of on and off for two months.  Another thing-- if it snows we are in so much trouble.  I will lose so many plants it will just be horrible. 

I'm thrilled to enjoy the weather.  Don't get me wrong.  We haven't had a winter, which frankly I miss terribly, but I hope that if the weather is like this, it is not going to flip-flop back.  Something tells me to ready the drop sheets just in case.  I think that a trip to the thrift for extra flat sheets may be in order.

"Wolf," cried the meteorologist.

Once again, the meteorologists were saying, "4-6 " of snow."  What we got in a combined snowfall over two days was probably 4".

Me thinks that the predictions were a hair off.

Here's the thing, we sit in a weird spot.  We're not in the snow belt, but in a band where we can get clobbered by snow.  We get clobbered when storms come up from the south.  In fact, I really only heed the snowstorm hysteria when the words, "Panhandle hook" are uttered or something to the effect that the weather system will not be coming from the west.  When it comes from the west, it is a crap shoot.  When it comes from the south, it is generally dead-on.  People were rushing to the grocery over this one and honestly, I steered far away.  We had enough and we weren't going to starve.  Besides, even if it was 4-6 actual inches, that's really no big deal anyhow.

The roads got a little crappy, but I've certainly driven in worse.  The first year I was driving, I had to drive home in a blizzard from the grocery store that I worked at.  My car was a 1979 Camaro that was rear-wheel drive and was sporting a very heavy drivers side door that decided that on that very night, it didn't want to latch.  I was stuck driving home in snow that I had never driven in while holding onto the door for dear life.  I made it and my dad taught me how to flip the interior latch with my hand.  Still, way worse than current driving conditions. 

So I sit, a little disappointed by the measurement of current precipitation that we've managed to accumulate.  :(  I need feet of snow right now.  A good 18" or better snowfall is what I really long for.  Since the weather can't decide what it wants to do and is supposed to be sailing back up to 44 melting degrees F on Monday, we'll just have to enjoy what we have.

Until the snow melts . . .