Snowtober - How crazy is this?

We got just a mushy coating and I am glad we are "somewhat" along the coast! 

We will have to shove this slush off the drive though or we are going to bust out the ice skates!

Purple Hair and Aliens.....

You NEVER know what is going to show up around here!

All this snow makes it much easier....

to make snowball bunkers!

How much is enough?

I think when you start to loose sight of your yard...it might be enough for a while, but of course we are suppose to be getting another round coming in this weekend! We are trying to still LOVE the snow!!! We just really need somewhere to put it!

Snow, Snow, and MORE

SNOW!!!

Not that I am complaining, as CJ profits from the snow, but I haven't seen it snow like this in YEARS!!!

I am not sure who is loving it more CJ, the kids or....
the dogs! Dixie runs around like crazy digging her face in the snow! She will spend hours chasing after snowballs and LOVES to get the rub down when she comes in!He may not look very happy, but Rex actually has to be bribed back into the house once it starts snowing.

We have had snow on the ground since Dec.6th! Very unusual for our neck of the suburbs!

STILL in Maine...

...waiting for my car to be fixed! It hasn't all been bad, by any means, but I would like to go home at some point! The dealership got the part to fix my car on Saturday and it was broken - OF COURSE! - and since there is no mail service today they have to have the part over-nighted tomorrow, to arrive on Wednesday morning. The killer part for me is the fact that the part will literally take less then 20 minutes to put in.

Of course KM is having a wonderful time and even had her first successful skiing experience. Here are some pics...

Hopefully I will truly be leaving Wed - they are expecting 12-18 inches of snow and I would like to avoid that if possible!!!

Sledding, Sledding and More

SLEDDING

This was earlier in the week...

Then CJ decided to have his friend come over with some machinery to move the snow so he could park his truck in it's usual spot - CAN YOU GUESS WHERE THEY PUT THE SNOW?




The mound is at a high spot in our yard and crosses part of the driveway and heads down into the far back corner where the jeep mounds usually are. Originally it just went smoothly down a slope in the hill, but of course that wasn't good enough for the men with the machine - all I could think of was Tim "The Toolman" Taylor!!! - they had to redirect the course so that it went faster and off a pretty good jump! They did also make a side hill for SC when she comes back on Saturday. As for the BIG hill - I don't know which set of kids liked it better!

Utterly Exhausted -

There is no other way to describe how I feel right now! I awoke at 1:30a to complete blackness in my room, no idea why I woke up, but there I was laying there wide awake. Suddenly there was a huge flash of green light - honestly I thought I was dreaming that they aliens had arrived - then there were three power surges and another HUGE flash of light. The transformer blew three houses down and the power was out for our grid of the neighborhood.

Normally most people wouldn't have a problem with a power outage in the middle of the night, but you see it was 23 degrees out and we noticed that it was still snowing - it was suppose to stop that hours ago - We look out in the driveway and their is a good 4 more inches on the driveway that CJ had plowed before he dropped himself into bed last night - he had been plowing all day -

Of course the first thing I thought of was I am hungry - don't ask, I am always starving when I wake up in the middle of the night - so I go out to the kitchen and I hear this faint humming noise coming from KM's room, she had also woken up and was listening to her MP3 player with her battery powered speaker. She jumped right out of bed when she heard me in the kitchen - she gets that hunger trait from me - so I made her, CJ and I PB&J sandwiches, we lit some candles and had a picnic in our bedroom.

As we were sitting their, CJ's phone rang and he was off again to plow some more. He decided to get a fire going as we had been without power now for a little over an hour. He also got the generator ready before he left in case I needed to hook up the oil burner to it. Our oil tank is outside and exposed to the elements so he gets very nervous about the line coming into the house freezing. So I sat down in front of the fire with the Brian Jacques book I have been reading - Mossflower, the sequel to Redwall - and made sure it stayed going.

140 pages later, I realized I should probably close my eyes for a bit. So I put the book down, but within minutes - OF COURSE - the lights came back on. Now there were multiple things beeping and going off around the house that I needed to fix. I finally got everything quieted and made sure the heat was working properly, before I headed to bed.

So now I am sitting here, drinking coffee, waiting for SC to come...hopefully I will get to take a nice long nap with her this afternoon!

Playin' in the Snow

Some Pics I forgot to post the other day ---- our first time playing in the snow with SC!

Sooo much to put on!

Trudging through the snow!

Determined to climb up, even with the extra garb!

Still just wants to swing!

The joys of 3 dogs!!!

and the LOVE of two cousins!

Snowed In ~~~

~~~Or out as the case may be. KM and I are snowed in! CJ is snowed out! He was called to duty yesterday afternoon at 5:30ish after working on the neighbors addition all day - trying to get the walls up before the storm hit - and sneaking in a 30 minute catnap. He flopped onto the bed at about 6:15 this morning. I came out at that point to make sure the fire was still going, made some coffee, and shoveled off the back porch for the 5th time since yesterday - the dogs have to get out somewhere! - and fell asleep on the couch for a little while. I was awoken at 8:30 to the phone ringing and CJ was off again! The weather reports for today say "Snow showers. Patchy freezing drizzle possible. High around 25F. Winds NNE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 60%. About one inch of snow expected." - Well it is 10:30am and we already have had another 2 inches of snow just this morning and "it doesn't show signs of stopping!"

The path for the dogs - just can't seem to keep it clear. I also had to go and shovel off the steps down off the deck, as Rex just couldn't find his footing to get off the deck - I can't imagine what people with little dogs do in this type of situation!
The snow atop the table has not been touched - so you have a frame of reference that is the little tikes picnic table and the mounds on either side are the benches.

The rest of the back yard - that has been untouched.

We measured the snow on this table lst night at 7:30pm and it was 7.5 inches - this morning it - while I am typing this KM is measuring - it is 11.5 inches!

Luckily I have LOTS to keep me busy inside - finishing up gifts, baking and cleaning!

Snowy Sunday

We had a great afternoon in the snow.

First we took a walk around the yard to just look at the snow.
Then we made some snow angels and had a snowball fight!
When CJ got home we all made a snowman!

They decided to make him skiing!

We ended our day listening to "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by the fire with some Hot Cocoa!


According to the weather it sounds as though Mr. Snowman will be sticking around for awhile!

First Snow Fall -

I love waking up to snow!!!

Seeing it on the rooftops, decorating the trees,


and catching the perfect tracks!!!


Rex was the first one out this morning and I had trouble getting him back in! He was running around in circles, hopping around and howling.
Guess he was excited for the snow as well!

snow covered everything

I know that most of you will think I am a bit crazy, but I absolutely love waking up to see everything snow covered!

I really do. There is something about winter that just makes me feel cozy! I couldn't imagine living somewhere without all four seasons. I don't like the cold when it is just cold for no reason, but when it is cold because the beautiful snow is falling, I really don't mind it at all.

Hope everyone has a great day, stay warm and get ready for the FOOT of snow we will be getting!

First Snow Day! 1-15-2008

We had a great day yesterday! It was our first "snow day" at home and it went a lot smoother than I thought it would, especially due to the fact that the schools took their first snow day in nearly three years (just KM's luck really!).
We were going a little bit slower in the morning as CJ left early to go plow,but other than that we were right on track. She finished her work, we had lunch, and then she went outside to do her artwork using the most readily supply we had SNOW!
She had a great time sculpting, forming and creating with the snow! I have never seen anything like it. She was going, going, going! All on her own and without any prompting.
It amazes me how many opportunities she had been missing to really be able to DO things.
KM has asthma and has always spent the majority of the winter not being able to play outside because of bronchial or sinus issues. In fact the two weeks before the Winter Break (when she was still in school) we had her at the doctors' office 3 times for coughing, wheezing, and chest pains. She also had this wretched cough that didn't go away until just after Christmas.
However she has been fine since then. I had always thought that it had a lot to do with the temperature changes that we have here in New England (20 one day, 55 the next, -10 the next), but last week we had four days of weather in the 50s during the day and 30s at night. KM was outside everyday ~ before, during, and after the warm spell~ and she has not had one sign of any asthma, breathing or nasal problems.
HMMMMM.....
Well KM & CJ will be going out later today to work on physics, construction, and cooperative learning by building a sledding hill!!
Hope you can take some time out of your day to enjoy the snow...if you have any that is!