Wiiiiiiiiiii a Snow Day

Wooooo hooooooo. We're snowed in. Can't get into or out of our driveway. It's 1/8 mile long and we've been stuck before and my brother-in-law had to pull us out with his tractor. Unfortunately, this tractor that he also uses to plow out our driveway is not working at the moment so we really don't want to get stuck. We're homebound until 1) someone else can plow our driveway, 2) the snow melts enough to drive on it, or 3) it's spring. Until then, it's like a free vacation day: sledding, playing in the snow, playing games, watching movies, etc.

Since we're all home, my daughter decided to set up a profile for me on a Wii game, "Your Personal Coach." It's fun but a little weird working out to a cartoon. I've been working out with Gilad on FitTv, you know, a real person. But, this Wii game is supposed to be a workout specifically made to meet your own personal goals. I'm going to do it for a few weeks and see how that goes. I'll miss Gilad and his funky pronunciation of abdomen.

I've been on Phase 2 of the South Beach diet which is super easy for me. Fruits, vegetables, lean meat, cereal, wheat pasta, cheese, etc. I can even have popcorn on this phase. I have cheated by drinking hot chocolate, but decided that snow days=hot chocolate.

Manic Monday on Tuesday

I always liked the song, "Manic Monday," probably because that's how I feel every Monday. Actually, I don't even know all the words, I just feel like Mondays are always nuts.

When we were leaving for church my kids all said, "Hey, we can see the dirt in the field now. The snow has finally all melted." Wrong thing to say. When we got out of church it was snowing and by late Sunday afternoon we couldn't see any brown in the fields. Yesterday it snowed so much my daughter stayed in town with a friend so she didn't have to traverse the dangerous roads. It snowed again during the night and we have about 6-7 inches on the ground now. The roads seem to be clear, but my driveway (1/8 mile long) is treacherous at best. The cleared roads don't so us much good if we can't even get out of the driveway.

And, I ended up having the flu and am finally now feeling better. I hate being sick. I'd much rather take care of sick kids than be sick myself. And, just when I was feeling totally barfy, my youngest decided to have an exploda-diaper all over the place. As if I weren't sick enough, cleaning that up about did me in. Good thing I love him so much.

Yes, I realize it isn't Monday today, but I feel like it is because all that I usually do on Monday to make up for a wild and crazy movie-watching, popcorn-eating, game-playing, kids-chasing weekend was put on hold while I was sick and I did all that make-up work today.

I'm looking forward to a Wonderful Wednesday!

Popcorn Popping?

When I looked out the window this morning, what did I see? Well, it sure wasn't popcorn popping on the apricot tree, I can tell you. Nope. It was snow. Again.

The car was covered, the ground was covered, and the roads were a sheet of ice this morning. My daughter had no idea it was going to snow so she was wearing high heels for school today. I told her she shouldn't wear them because she'd end up falling and breaking something and we've already done the broken nose with accompanying surgery for this year.

The wind is howling and another snow storm is expected this evening. I'm thinking someone forgot it was supposed to be spring. You know, with tulips blooming and a warm, soft breeze, easing us into summer.

Now, I know we need moisture and all of this snow has been a good thing, but come on, it's April, well past spring. Where's that nice warm weather?

Ready For Summer

It’s been snowing and snowing and snowing, and snowing some more. I can’t believe how much snow we’ve had. The ground has been covered with snow since the beginning of January—almost four weeks straight.

It’s wonderful to have so much snow because snow this winter means water during the summer. Colorado has suffered from a drought for most of the time I’ve lived here. We see the effects of the drought each summer when we have to start choosing between watering our garden or taking showers. I might be weird, but I always choose the shower. So all this snow means I may actually have a garden this summer.

The downside of the snow is the dangers it causes on the roads. We had a fatal accident last week because of icy road conditions. During an intense storm on Sunday and Monday, the police asked people to only call if the accident involved injuries or suspected substance abuse. Otherwise, motorists involved in accidents were told to go home and call the police later.

We’ve also experienced bitter cold. Temperatures dipped 10-20 degrees below zero every night for a few weeks and during the day the high was an average of about 15 degrees. While on the Klondike campout, my husband set a cup of water on the truck bumper, turned around to get a packet of hot chocolate mix, and then picked up his cup of ice. Yep, the water had frozen that fast. Now that’s cold.

Last night we had winds in excess of 40 miles an hour which caused snow drifts across our 1/8 mile long driveway. It also whipped snow all over the roads. We have snow inside our horse trailer because of the winds.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m ready for summer!

Let it Snow . . . .

Isn't she lovely?

I'm knee-deep, or today that would be neck-deep, in revisions for my novel. My editor has been great and I'm still having fun with the whole thing, but it doesn't leave me much time for any other writing (unless I forego laundry, cooking, and cleaning--that might not be such a bad idea!).

So I'm going to post a few photos of what we did over the weekend. Besides eating to engorgement, we also enjoyed a surprise sledding trip. Monday of last week we were wearing t-shirts and running the AC. Friday morning we woke up to 3-4 inches of snow and decided to take advantage of it. Yes, I do live in Colorado where we say that the the only thing predictable about our weather is that it's so unpredictable. We do still have snow on the ground and I'm spending my writing time next to a cozy fire. I love writing next to a fire!

My younger kids--we call them the "little kids." Don't know what we'll call them when they're teenagers. I think they'll always be the "little kids." We also joke that they're the "second family" because they're all close in age and there's a gap between their group and my older kids.

My daughters are so camera-shy. Can you tell? Usually they like to pose like Charlie's Angels.

This is about a 20 minute drive from my house. We like to go sledding here because it's so beautiful. A river runs just below these trees and it's gorgeous year round.

Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend and were able to spend time with your family.