Weathering the storm

If there's one thing we're used to, it's a good storm. And with all of the huge snow storms we've had all winter, this was no surprise. They'd been talking about it for nearly a week, saying that the National Weather Service was slating us for some pretty nasty, severe storms. The last time they mentioned the NWS, it was last month when we got that big ice storm, so I knew this was no ordinary storm.

Around midnight, I hear Christopher and Preston coming downstairs (I'd fallen asleep on the couch) and I noticed he had a flashlight. The power had gone out. We debated whether we needed to start the generator as it started pouring, and decided we'd better. I sent Preston upstairs with Kate while I helped Christopher get everything set up. As soon as I plugged the sump pump in, it started hailing... HARD. Christopher had to run back around to the front of the house being pelted by hail. By this time, everything was rumbling, and I had both kids down in the basement while Christopher stood watch at the front door. I was scared. Really scared. Two summers ago, a tornado went directly over our house and took the tops of our trees with it, and yet, I had never heard a rumbling like I heard last night. Within 5 minutes, it had settled down enough that Christopher came down and I felt a little better. Soon after, we decided to head up to bed.

Since Preston is terrified of storms and power outages, I went and laid in his bed with him. He would not go back to sleep. I felt bad for Kate, so I decided he and I would go sleep in her big bed. Well, with her room on the north side of the house, it was much noisier, and Preston refused to be in there. I told Kate she could come in his room and I'd make her a bed on the floor. That worked for a while before she decided to go back to her own bed once everything was quiet. I got down and slept on Preston's floor at this point because he was sound asleep, yet I knew if I left the room and he woke up in the dark, he'd flip out (and he did when he didn't find me in his bed). It was well past 3:00 when I got to sleep and didn't sleep well on the hard floor.

I heard Christopher around 6:00 and the power was still out. I got up and tried to figure out what to do. I had no idea if there was power in town or whether or not they'd have school. I had no idea what I was going to do about breakfast, either! Then at 6:20, the power came on! God was with us! The rest of the morning was uneventful and we were SO glad to have electricity! With the power out for nearly 7 hours, a lot of the food in the refrigerator had to be thrown out. I took one whif of my OJ and nearly fell over. It went bad that fast! Luckily, the freezer was full and everything was still very frozen.

We escaped without much damage. The fascia blew off the north side of the house and curled up over the roof, but it is now nailed back down. I have no idea if there is any damage from the hail or not. I never got a clear answer on how big it was. And no major tree damage either!

So it's safe to say that we were all dragging today after being up so much during the night. Preston fell asleep within minutes of lying down tonight and I intend to follow suit very shortly! With the crazy winter we had, I can already foresee an eventful spring!

Another busy weekend

My sweet nephew, Cooper, turns one on Wednesday, so we had a photo shoot this weekend for his 1-yr portraits. Let's just say that this little man was too busy for pictures!
If there's one thing I love about shooting family, is the casual nature behind it. When he wouldn't sit, we stopped for lunch. We made many of these stops yesterday as he was just too busy to sit still. We had a brainstorm in the middle of the shoot and sent Seth to town to buy a cupcake. Why we didn't think of this in the first place, I don't know, but it got him to sit! He loved that cupcake and scarfed it down in nothing flat!

Later that afternoon, mom and I took the kids and Glen to see Gnomeo and Juliet. It was a great movie. Very cute! I didn't care for the 3-D glasses which kept falling off, but it's definitely a movie I'd recommend!
Mom cooked tonight, so we headed over there this afternoon and the kids enjoyed some time outside although it wasn't very sunny (or sunny at all for that matter). After dinner, Preston the Magnificent put on a magic show for us. He did a great job!

We're supposed to be in for a rough night of severe storms. One hit right as I was getting Preston to bed, and he started bawling because he's scared of storms. Luckily, it only lasted 5 minutes! I can hear the wind howling, so I expect a long night of him being up multiple times. Let's just pray the power doesn't go out!

You may be a contestant on the price is right

I took Preston in for a haircut Tuesday and Keri was all excited because a guy from town was going to be on The Price is Right on Wednesday. Of course, you get excited when someone you know is going to be on tv, especially when you're from a small town in the middle of nowhere, and this is a big-time show. I graduated with Brent's brother, so it was neat seeing him on the show. He's the one in the green shirt.
He ended up being the first contestant to play and missed out on winning a new car. I figured that was the end of it but he ended up in the showcase and he WON! Pretty exciting! I recorded it so I could show the kids. Kate goes to school with his nephew, so she was going to tell him we saw his uncle on tv.

I've always wanted to be on The Price is Right. I wanted to play Plinko. I watched it everyday when I was younger and I swear I saw my uncle on it once, winning a dining room set, but it wasn't him. I haven't watched it since Bob Barker retired. I'm not a fan of Drew Carey, and I'll admit to fast-forwarding through the show just so I could see the parts I wanted to see.

Here we go again

When I logged on a few minutes ago, I see on Yahoo's homepage that Rahm Emmanuel won the Chicago mayoral race. Nice... It comes as no surprise to me. It's Chicago politics at its best. CP is as corrupt as it comes, and if I were a betting woman, I'd put money on the fact that ol RE paid his way into office. Don't believe me? Look at our ex-governor, Blagojevich, and our own president (insert whistling...). Anyway, I don't think it was right that he was even allowed on the ballot in the first place, and I bet that there's something fishy behind that as well. Those Chicago politics are enough to make me want to move out of state. Sorry, I just had to get that out.

I am still sick and spent another day pretty much sacked out on the couch. I felt much better today, I just have no energy. I'm tired of sneezing and coughing. I imagine tonight will be fun trying to sleep, coughing as much as I am. I'm still debating wether or not to volunteer at the school tomorrow. I don't want to get any of the kids sick.

Speaking of school, Preston got a pinkslip yesterday. Figuring he'd gotten in a fight, I wasn't too pleased. Then I looked in his folder and read the offense: trying to wipe names off the lost tooth chart. Seriously? Yes, he did something that he should not have done. I won't try to deny that. But not only did he get a pinkslip, he also lost recess that day and the "good behavior" party on Thursday. Just for trying to wipe off names, which he was unsuccessful at because they were written with a permanent marker. I thought it was kind of silly, so I didn't give him any consequences at home- we just talked about the matter and made sure he knew not to try something like that again. I think missing the ice cream party will be punishment enough.

Sick and tired

That completely sums it up. Saturday evening, I started coming down with the cold that the kids have had. It's funny how it really didn't slow them down, but man, it's nearly knocked me out! I tried to do some laundry and ironing this morning and had to take a nap by 10:30! Dee called and invited me to join her, Jess, the girls and Grandma Lou for lunch at Los Amigos (my absolute fav) and I passed. I have to be pretty wiped out to pass up Mexican! Instead, I ate a bowl of Ramen noodles. I really wanted a milkshake so I decided I'd get one before I had to pick the kids up. I love Mc. Donald's Mc. Cafe shakes, so I headed there, only to find a sign taped to the speaker saying they were out of shakes. Went to Sonic and they no longer had the cream pie shakes, so I was so frustrated I didn't try anywhere else. I was so disappointed. I settled for a Snickers instead.

I really hope I feel better tomorrow.

Sunny Sunday

We were blessed with another very nice Sunday yesterday. Temps hit 67, and although it was super windy, it was fantastic and the kids made good use of the warm weather. We headed up to Granny and Pa's early so they could spend some extra time outside. Glen and Cooper were there, so they were beyond excited to get to play with Glen outside as well.

Preston and I played a little hoops. He sank 4 in a row! Granted, he was standing on a crate on the back of a trailer, but still, that's pretty good for a 7 year old!
Then I found a kite and thought it would be fun. I helped Glen fly it until he got bored with it, and then Preston took over.

Now, I don't know if it was too windy, or Preston just letting go of the kite, but it ended up in a tree over the hill.
The kite was rescued, although minus part of its tail which remains in the tree. It still flew. After that, the kids just ran and enjoyed the sunshine while it lasted.

Today, it is a nasty, rainy, thundery day. The backyard is flooded and it looks like spring. Too bad there's snow in the forecast for Friday. I knew these nice temps couldn't last long.

All's quiet on the homefront

Tonight is one of those rare opportunities when the kids spend the night with the grandparents. With all of their grandparents living in town, you'd think that would happen a lot, but they really have to be in the mood to stay with them or they just won't. And if Kate won't stay, Preston won't either. The last time they stayed with them... November.

So I had big plans for tonight, being kid-free and all. I was going to spend that time working on my quilt. Unfortunately, when I did happen to find some fabric today, they didn't have enough. Scratch that plan off of tonight's list. Then I figured I'd get caught up (or at least try) on the kids' scrapbooks. Well... I have no "boyish" papers to work on Preston's. I ran out of pages in Kate's album and need some extenders to put the refill pack in. Then, when I did work on them a bit this afternoon, I ran out of the little sticky tabs. Scratch that idea off, too. So, by 7:30, I'd already taken a bath, and bored myself so much watching some movie with Christopher, that I got on the computer. I seriously can NOT just sit and watch tv. I HAVE to have something physical to do at the same time. Ugh!

I will enjoy waking up on my own terms in the morning, not having to fix breakfast and clean up from it, and just being low-key. By that time, the kids will be home and it will no longer be quiet!

Randoms

Lots of little stuff floating around my head. None of it is really newsworthy, but I'm bored and figured maybe I'll stop thinking about everything if I put it down.

Purina's dog food is now better tasting. Who exactly has tasted this to come to this conclusion?

Even though I've ripped the seat out of *4* pair of LOFT jeans, I still buy them because they're the only brand that fit. A new pair is on the way tomorrow that I snagged for $32 plus free shipping! Yeah!

My quilt top is finished! Now I can't find fabric for the back. It's funny how there are tons of cute blue fabrics, yet all the reds look crazy. I might need to re-think a red back and go with blue...

Flat Stanley is in Florida now and will go to Hawaii next week. Then he's home for good, which means I need to get his book made so Preston can take him back to school. So far, Stan has been to Germany, Italy, Houston, Chicago, the Bahamas and Florida. Preston's grandparents are some busy travelers. Even though the project will be over, he'll be going along with us when we go to FL this July.

I need to start working on the kids' scrapbooks again. They're almost a year behind. I still have almost 300 pictures from Gatlinburg to put into an album from 2 years ago. Need to get that done before we go on another vaca.

Both kids have colds. Preston never stopped coughing between colds (it changed from productive, to dry, and now productive again with this cold), so it doesn't look like the Singulair is working. As soon as this cold is over, we're going to Dr. B. to find out what to do.

I gave the car a top to bottom cleaning today- inside at least. It had been a LONG time!

On the way home from Ramsey today, I decided to go out searching for the old Alderson place where my great-grandparents used to live, where Granny was also born. I had only been by there once, years ago and tried to find it. I think I might have found it, but it doesn't look like what I remember. It may not even be standing anymore. Need to ask Granny this weekend.

I plan on teaching the kids all about our historical little town this summer. Last summer, we had weekly picnics. We'll probably do that again, but I also want to do one thing educational each week so that they know about their town.

We're trying to sprout an avocado seed. We've tried several time before with no luck. Turns out we always had the seed upside down, and it takes 2-3 weeks. It's been a week already, so hopefully soon we'll see some roots and be able to have an avocado tree.

Last week, I accidentally laid a plastic bag on a hot burner and now have melted plastic on my burner and one pan. I have no clue how to get it off, but whenever I use that pan, the burner gets more on it and it stinks- bad!

I got my leg caught in a 3-hole paper punch today and really boogered it up. I'm lucky it didn't break the skin or I would have needed stitches because the nasty mark left behind was a deep v-shape. It looks pretty bad. Using a paper punch on the floor and leaning into it isn't a good idea.

I'm loving it!

Today was simply a wonderful day! Why? Because the sun was shining and it was 67 degrees! And tomorrow? A high of 72. I can only imagine it will be even better! I'll admit that it's kind of crazy seeing 67 degree temps and snow on the ground at the same time. This time two weeks ago, we'd just been slammed with a 1/4 inch of ice and 2 more inches of sleet that froze solid. Crazy February weather! The normal high for this time is 45, so I know this warm weather isn't here to stay, and I imagine we'll have more snow, but I'll take advantage of it while it's here! Too bad the ground is a virtual swamp or I'd be outside all day!

I also got all but two rows finished on my quilt top. It is looking amazing and I'm so glad I decided to do it. I plan on going to the fabric shop tomorrow to buy the backing so I can start quilting. It's seriously making me giddy!

Our Valentines Weekend

Holiday weekends are like chaos in our family. There's always gatherings, no matter how big or small the holiday may be. Take Valentine's Day for example. Yesterday we got together with Christopher's family. The kids had a great time playing with Sarah and Gracie and went wild with the toys. They really didn't want to go home! Aunt Kendra had ordered a cake and wanted all the kids to pose by it. This is what we got...
Points to Preston for looking at the camera!

Today, the kids and I, along with mom and Granny and Pa, loaded up in Pa's van and headed for Monkey Joe's. We had originally planned on going ice skating at the rink in Fairview, but Granny and Pa didn't want to skate after their falls in FL, and mom is leaving for FL on Tuesday and didn't want to fall, so that left me to skate with two kids. Not feasible. So we decided to go to Monkey Joe's, and Glen would be able to join us. The kids had a blast! They ran and played so hard. It did them a lot of good to really get out some energy!

When they were tuckered out, they were ready to go and didn't complain at all. I knew they'd fall right to sleep tonight and they did!

Yesterday started our Great Winter Warm-up. It was 45 degrees yesterday, and after weeks in the teens, and two straight weeks of ice on the ground, it was NICE! Today, it was nearly 60 degrees! We still have ice on our driveway (it was 2 inches thick), but at least I now have traction! All last week I had to pray backing out of the driveway because the car just slid down to the highway. Turning around was impossible because the car would just slide. And getting up the driveway required a good running start. When I'd stop at the mailbox, I'd have to back back out on the highway to get speed because otherwise, the wheels just spun. Fun times! It's supposed to be in the upper 50's all week, so every bit of snow and ice will be GONE! I don't think it will last long, but I'll take every bit of warm weather I can get at this point! I do plan to get out int he garage and give my car a complete and thorough cleaning inside. It is a mess! But it's been too cold to go out and do anything to it.

Ahhhhhhh. Only 5 more weeks until spring!

Silence

Today was my day to take Preston's class to computer lab. I just go to school with him and stay until it's time to take them at 9:00, so I'm there for their morning routine. It's funny now because the kids will see me and say, "Hey! It's computer day!" Anyway... During morning "announcements," the say the Pledge of Allegiance, the school pledge, and sign the National Anthem. Today, however, they asked that they take a moment of silence to "think about your day." Being a public school, they can't ask them to take a moment to pray, but that's exactly what I took that moment to do- to pray for each of those children there learning, and for continued success in school. I hope this is a new feature and that many of the children will use that time to pray. Way to go, JPS!

On a school related note, I got a school reach call last night with a calendar modification notice. Because of all 11 snow days, the rest of the school holidays (i.e. Presidents Day) and 1/2 day inservice days will all be full-day attendance days. I knew something had to give. While at the school, Mrs. D. asked what I thought of it, and really, it doesn't matter much to me. Half-days are a pain since they're only there 3 hours, and really, if it keeps them from going into summer break, I'm all for it! Apparently, since the high school graduation date has already been set, and invitations and such ordered with that date, they won't go past it. So they're making up days in between. So nice to know summer break will still begin before the end of May! Let's just hope we don't get any more snow days!

Grandma would want me to

Ever since mom gave me the bag of great-great-grandma Bess's quilt pieces last month, I've had such energy and excitement about finishing it. These pieces have sat, largely untouched for about 40 years. I started right away piecing them together- by hand- as mom suggested I do. Maybe it wasn't so much a suggestion but rather, "You're not doing it by HAND? That's how grandma started it." when I mentioned I could whip it out quickly by machine. I felt at that point that I had to do it by hand.

I worked tirelessly as much as I could, which wasn't much with the kids home as much as they were last month. I had two whole rows of "blocks" together. Unfortunately, since they were attached with ovals, they didn't always match up well and certainly didn't lie flat. It just looked poopy. Talking with mom and Granny, we decided that splitting the ovals down the center and sewing them on first to make an actual square block would be much easier to put together. So Preston and I sat down Saturday night and took the whole thing apart (he's good with a seam ripper). The. Whole. Thing. I could have cried.

When I went to re-start it, my determination was lost. I wanted to do this by hand, but realistically, I have two small children. They keep me busy. If I intend to have two of these finished by Christmas, there's no way that I could do it by hand. I know that Grandma Bess started this by hand. It's evident by all of the neat stitches carefully placed. She put in a lot of work and love into it. I can feel it. But just this morning, I realized that Grandma would want me to do it however I wanted to. She intended for those pieces to make a quilt, and being that they've sat untouched, she would want them put together. As long as someone took the time to do it, she wouldn't care how it was made.

So now I have a renewed optimism. I am ready to get this made. In her memory. Thank you, Grandma Bess!

Give me a break

What was supposed to be a "dusting" of snow early Saturday morning turned into about 4 inches. WHAT IN THE WORLD? I can tell you that I was not a happy camper. Not to mention that it was PReston's last day of bowling league and we couldn't get to town. Boo! Just another nuisance this winter. Mid morning, Granny called to say that mom had been trying to get up her hill for an hour but could get no traction since the county had not come to plow/sand their hill. My grandpa had tried to blade the road with his tractor with no luck- there was still 2 inches of ice under that snow. Finally, she parked at the neighbor's and he drove her up the hill in his 4-wheel drive and she was home. Shortly after, the county truck came up to plow/sand and got stuck. They called another and it got stuck, too! They both had to be pulled out. The kids had been begging to go up to Granny's that afternoon to sled, but after mom getting stuck, there was no way we were trying to get out. I am officially DONE with all of this snow.

Friday afternoon I took the kids up to Granny and Pa's to sled. They had been sledding behind the mule, but never downhill. Trust me, we've tried, but we've never gotten more than 10 feet, and the kids just didn't enjoy it. Well, with 2 inches of ice and just a dusting of snow, we could really sled! Pa got out his old Royal Racer runner sled that's at least 65 years old and we had a blast going downhill on that. We really booked! We'd get near the bottom and I'd yell to whichever one was with me to bail and they'd bail before I plowed into whatever was in my way (barbed wire fence, brush pile, the woods, water spigot). It was a blast! I had only used that sled one other time in my 31 years and it was fun to share it with them. It's not that often we get ice to use it. We hoped to go up again the next day, but with the snow that fell, I knew we wouldn't be able to sled like they wanted. Nor did I want to get stuck. ;)

I am praying that the kids have school tomorrow. Country roads still aren't that great. Granny and Pa's hill tonight was still ice covered in spots. They are at each other's throats constantly, and I'm about to go nuts! I need a day of peace!

Is it Monday yet?

That photo just about sums it up. As much as I love snow and winter weather of all types (as long as I don't have to drive in it), and as much fun as we've had in the snow this winter, I'm done with it. The way this winter has been with a big storm every week, I don't look for it to be slowing down any time soon. Sigh...

Today was snow day #11. ELEVEN snow days. Our previous record was 8 days, but never have we ever had this many. With the exception of the half-day Monday, they've been out all week- tomorrow is parent/teacher conference day so they're out for that, too. It's like spring break in February, except spring break isn't even this long. It's only a weekend now!

And with all of the snow days, the kids have had a little too much family togetherness. At least during the summer, we can go outside and run off some energy. But when the ground is covered with 2 inches of packed sleet, going outside to run is a trip to the E.R. waiting to happen. It's dangerous enough to walk to the mailbox. So the kids have been fighting, getting attitude with me, and just plain driving ME up the wall. I am so ready for Monday. And I think I'm just going to ignore the snow I just saw on KSDK coming in for Sunday and Monday. It better be flurries...

Ice is nice

We were prepared for the worst. We had a refrigerator full of water. We had food. We had our emergency kit. We had the air mattress aired up in case we all had to sleep downstairs by the fireplace. The generator was ready to go. Just general stuff when you're expecting and inch of ice.

Christopher called at 11:30 yesterday to say it was raining in St. Louis and he was on his way home. At 1:15, the schools dismissed early and I had to drive to town in pouring rain (and I still haven't bought a new umbrella...). Ice was forming on everything. Luckily, the roads weren't slick at all. Once home, we settled in and watched the rain continue to pour and keeping a vigil by the continual news cast. This is what we awoke to:





Nearly a quarter-inch of ice. It was very pretty. We were expected to have another straight day of freezing rain, but instead, got 2 inches of sleet. Had it been rain, we'd be in a mess right now. And the snow we were supposed to get has mysteriously vanished from the forecast between 3:30 and 6:00. No idea why they said all afternoon (they had continual storm coverage from noon-3:30) that we'd get anywhere from 4-12 inches overnight to now not getting any. The winds are supposed to pick up to around 40 mph tonight so I imagine we'll have some limbs down overnight. Hopefully no power lines... See that pine tree a few pics above? Ameren came around 2 years ago wanting to chop down our cedar that wasn't anywhere near our lines. We declined and asked them to instead chop down the 30+ ft. pine that is clearly in the lines (you can see them in the picture), but they wouldn't. So here we have this massive pine that is so weighed down with ice, just feet away from knocking down power lines. Nice. I told Granny today that if her power goes out (we're on the same line grid), that it was probably from our tree.

But so far, so good. We've had a few flickers, but no outages. Dad called and his was out for a few hours tonight but is back on. No school tomorrow, so we're just staying in and keeping warm- it's going to be cold tomorrow! Supposed to be -6 tomorrow night. No clue how the roads will be after the blowing all day tomorrow if there will be school Thursday. I'm hoping there isn't. I hate getting out in this weather.