Enough Snow Already!

Lets see, this week was just another normal week, right? NOT! But it was filled with a lot of joy!

We had more snow, and more snow, and more snow! The picture of Meghan is with our tribute to the Eiffel tower, the closest we could get to a snowman. The snow on top was wet enough to pack, but everything under that was pure powder. One thing in abundance this week was community spirit. Most of the neighbors helped each other dig out after the repeated snow falls. The picture on the right was from today - Mark from the end of the street (his wife has my old job) using his tractor to help scoop snow, Mark and Jenna helping Mr. Holmes dig out. Randy also had a tractor out once in a while to dig out. Hamilton doesn't have anything capable of clearing heavy snow, so I wasn't expecting town assistance. Mayor Tim surprised me with a large backhoe with a blade that cleared the street with one trip down and back. Unfortunately, it pushed the snow across the driveways, so everyone was helping to dig out from that. It definitely helped make the street drivable again for the people without 4 wheel drive.

Jenna's birthday was relaxed - that's her licking the bowl. She wanted a confetti cake. The girl's had a great Christmas, opening everything in a very short period of time! Our neighbor joined us for Christmas dinner. We made it into Mount Vernon for speech Sat, snagged some after-holiday stuff at Home Depot and came home again. We've managed to get out every 3-4 days so the cabin fever isn't too bad. Mark officially has work tomorrow. They don't work if it snows, and he doesn't get paid if they don't work, so we're glad he's working again. It was nice to have him home though.

Winter Wonderland

Well, another 2 weeks have gone by, and I took almost 250 pictures in 14 days! That took a bit of sorting through! We went to the Lights of Christmas, Lucas' party at Jungle Playland, the kids played at Kendra's since they didn't have Christmas teas at school, Jenna's party at the Children's Museum and SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!! We have had 4-5 times as much snow as we usually get all winter in just the past week, and they are still calling for more. Mark worked Tuesday last week, hasn't worked since - that's also the last day the kids had school! They're scheduled off this week anyway, but missed 4 out of 5 days the last week. Mark doesn't get paid if they don't work, so thank goodness he hadn't taken vacation yet - he's using that up, but it's only 8 hours instead of the usual 10-12 he normally works. The poor van gets unburied just to get covered again. We've had strong winds that created drifts, especially since it was so cold the snow is powder. The wood stove has been going constantly for almost 2 weeks - it's a balmy (if slightly staticy) 72-80 inside the house, while outside it's been into the single digits. The forecast is lower 40's around Christmas - then more snow! The top picture is Meghan trying to walk across the front yard - it's gotten deeper since then. Next is one of her rock star positions - she's really into air guitar. Jenna's pic is from her party (Thanks, Sue), blowing out candles that Mark eventually helped her with. It seems impossible that Jenna turns 4 tomorrow - they are both growing so quickly. I'm really trying to slow down and savor every moment with them. I especially love their laughter - it's the best thing in the world for anything that ails you!

Tis the Season

Well, the tree is up and decorated, the lights are up for outside, the boxes to be shipped are ready to go, and the Christmas cards are almost done! Now I get to get caught up on the chores which have not gotten done, and get ready for Jenna's birthday party.

The Boy Scout popcorn is pretty much over now (thank goodness!). I made the last trip to Everett to "close out" Thursday. As I'm going down the road, I can hear the window cracking! We had a nice circular crack from a rock hit, and it was really cold that morning - the thermal shock from cold outside and hot inside (Mark had turned on the defroster full blast for me) did it in. Fortunately it just split sideways, not enough to impair vision. We got it replaced on Friday. The picture of Jenna is from the 2 hours we spent at McDonald's waiting for the van. We did get a car to use, but I really didn't have many errands to run, and there they could play while I got things done, like cut apart all the school pictures!

The picture of Meghan is from today. We were watching Kung Fu Panda, and she decided to spear her french fries. She used a paint brush handle to do the spearing - I think it was a chop stick thing.