It's still all about winter weather and interrupted schedules around here. As most of you know, we got socked by winter storm Pax on Wednesday / Thursday. Frederick got about 20 inches of snow. The snow was supposed to start around midnight on Wednesday, but surprised us by showing up around 8:00 instead. By the time we got up Thursday morning, we had over a foot of snow. It snowed until around 11:00 (with a little sleet mixed in). Then we got some rain / freezing rain and snow (just a little bit of each) later that evening. We're supposed to get another 2 to 4 inches of snow tonight, believe it or not! Here's some pictures from the storm:
The view out our front door, with cars buried in snow. The snow was still coming down hard at this point.
Our front door would only open this far, before being stopped by a large snow drift.
Another picture out front. Sorry for the "screen" in front of the photo--as I showed in the photo above, I couldn't open the door enough to get a camera out.
A look out the kitchen window, at the table on our deck. Believe it or not, there are several bags of food under the table (more on that later). You can't really see them because they are buried in snow. Looks pretty close to 2 feet of snow on that table, wouldn't you say?
The corner of the deck, with snow mounded up. Hard to appreciate how much snow there is, just looking at the picture.
Another view of the table (without "screen" in the way)...you can see the bags of food a little clearer here.
The snow was still coming down and visibility wasn't great.
Later (much later) I took Snickers out. One of our neighbors with a snow blower had cleared the sidewalks.
The snow is definitely higher than Snickers!
This is our street. Notice the buried fire hydrant across the street.
"White on white"...Snickers doesn't show up very well! He cracked me up when he kept trying to jump through the drifts...he'd only get a little ways and he'd have to give up and turn around! Notice the stop sign...you couldn't tell that was an intersection, could you?
The neighbor with the snow blower cleared off the street for a foot or two behind our parked cars. But from this picture you get the idea how much snow was on the road. The snow plows didn't come through until midnight last night. Thanks to snow blowers and our four wheel drive, Frank was able to get out yesterday.
There was no school yesterday (shocker!) and no school today either. I think we probably could have managed with a 2 hour delay today...the roads are actually all cleared off now (although not as wide as they usually are, due to large banks of snow on both sides). Monday (President's Day) and Tuesday were already scheduled days off, so we are having a six day weekend! Crazy! Ok, I realize that's not really a weekend...it's just short of a week. There was some talk that there would be school on Monday and Tuesday (to make up for the 2 snow days we were already over) but apparently they couldn't scare up enough bus drivers to have school on those days so instead we are losing a day off in March and one of our spring break days. Now we've had two more snow days and we will most likely lose another day of spring break and add one day on at the end of the school year. Ugh!! It's hard to imagine that we are ever going to get back on a normal schedule, and in some ways I'm not sure I want to be since my normal schedule is ridiculously busy.
The good news is, it's supposed to warm up to 60 degrees by next weekend. Oh, except that's bad news because on Tuesday we discovered that our large chest freezer wasn't working. I sent Tanner downstairs to put something in the laundry room and he was greeted by a strong "burning rubber" smell. We traced the smell to the freezer. Unfortunately, it is extremely old (like older than me, I think...I'm not making that up) so replacement parts are not available. Also unfortunately, it was extremely full. We kept it shut on Tuesday evening (but unplugged, because it kept trying to come on, creating more of the burned rubber smell) and on Wednesday morning I cleaned out our refrigerator / freezer to make as much room as I possibly could. Then we cleaned out the old freezer (which was long overdue...I had no idea we had 6 cartons of ice cream down there, or two pot roasts...). Most of the meat went into two ice chests and everything else that wouldn't fit in the refrigerator / freezer went in bags and were put under the table on the deck. It was really cold on Wednesday, so we weren't worried about anything thawing. But in a few more days, it's going to be a problem. Even today it felt "warm"--it got up to the 40's and a lot of snow melted--but the deck is in the shade and the food is still buried in snow so I'm not worried about it yet. In the meantime, I've kind of abandoned all normal meal plans and we are just pulling stuff out of the ice chests, bags, and the freezer and making meals out of that. It's not all bad...tonight I had filet mignon and potato wedges! Maybe we will get a new freezer at some point, but since we just purchased a new dryer, I am trying to put it off. We have been so spoiled having that freezer, though! It is hard to go without one once you've had one.
Well, other than that, the rest of the week has been fairly calm. The sister I was talking about last week surprised us all by passing away on Saturday. Her funeral is tomorrow morning. Her family did not want to put us to the trouble of making a meal for them (even though we told them we wanted to) so they ordered food and are going to have a meal at their house. Some of us may help them with food pick up and set up, though.
I took food to one set of Elders on Monday. Frank was working and Tanner stayed after school to help with a rehearsal so I knew inviting them over wasn't going to work. It turned out perfect for them too since they were in a big hurry and I actually made them ham & cheese sandwiches and French fries, and had packed it in lunch bags for them (along with applesauce cups and cookies). We did manage to have family night later, after everyone got home. The boys and I had dentist appointments on Tuesday and everybody's teeth are in great shape. Tanner is going to need to get his wisdom teeth out this summer, though. Tanner had a doctor appointment that day too (just a check for his meds). I had my rescheduled doctor appointment today...I was actually worried the office was going to be closed again because of the weather, but it opened late, which didn't affect my appointment time. Something kind of funny about that...I was having a procedure done (I'll spare you the details of what, but it's routine, nothing to be concerned about) and the doctor was telling me how great I did. I said "what do you mean, do a lot of people squirm a lot or something?" and she said "Yes! They do!" I was surprised by that...it was only slightly uncomfortable. I guess I'm pretty tough! :)
I had a presidency meeting on Monday, did a food order Tuesday evening, and on Wednesday evening we had our monthly RS meeting. We did a community service project...we made bibs, burp cloths, and baby hats for an organization that helps pregnant women in crisis. It was really a great activity...I loved seeing all those women together working, and talking and laughing together as they worked. It felt good to know we were helping other women and at the same time we were being strengthened ourselves, by being together. It wasn't supposed to start snowing until at least 10:00, but at 8:00 someone coming in let me know that it was already snowing and there was already about an inch on the roads, which were getting slippery. So we let everyone know, in case they wanted to get home, and a number of people cleared out but a lot stayed and finished up their work and helped clean up. By the time I left there was an inch or two on the roads, but it wasn't bad and we got home without any trouble.
On Wednesday evening we brought the boys' friend Taylor home from the church with us and he spent the night and most of the day Thursday with us. The other set of Elders came over for dinner...Frank had to go pick them up because they aren't allowed to drive in bad weather...and then after that he took the Elders back home and took Taylor and the older boys to another ward member's house to watch a movie. Afterwards he took them all out to Taylor's house where they spent the night last night.
Today we all got haircuts (except Frank, he had his done last Saturday). Frank was out and about quite a bit on Thursday, in spite of all the snow. He had asked for Thursday and Friday off already (and his office was closed Thursday anyway) but he is still helping his client with their move and has a lot of set up to do yet. So he worked on that for several hours yesterday and a few more hours today as well.
The boys and I got chores done yesterday morning and then they played games. I finished reading the book for book chat (Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell). I enjoyed it, and it did come to a somewhat decent ending in spite of the fact that the author died suddenly while writing it. As the reader, you definitely know approximately how it's going to end, but I did feel a bit frustrated because after wading through over 600 pages, I felt deprived of the really great ending that it was obviously leading up to! I'm sure the author would have written a really sweet ending (she was a very good writer). Anyway, I'd heard it had been made into a movie so I decided to look it up on Netflix and was gratified to find out that not only does Netflix have it, but it is available for instant viewing. So I watched that yesterday. It was actually a four episode mini series done by the BBC, so it took a while to watch the whole thing (I was up pretty late last night!) but I really enjoyed it. Also, just as I'd hoped...they used "artistic license" to fill in the blanks and create their own ending, which was a lot more satisfying than the abrupt ending of the book.
I hope everyone has had a nice Valentine's Day! We had some treats and cards for the kids, and Frank and I got each other some chocolate to share, plus...surprise...I got red roses too. And we got mushy cards for each other too, of course. Hope you all feel loved because we love you!
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