Ice, Ice Baby

Okay, so I have to give the weatherman a bit of credit. He was sort of correct on his predictions yesterday. Yes, a massive storm did arrive last night, but he wasn't totally right on the money. I knew there was no chance we would get 4-8 inches of snow like he said, but we did find 4 inches of new matter on the ground when we woke up. Three inches of snow topped off with a solid inch of ICE. Not a good set up.

Count this as SNOW DAY 4 & 5 as they closed the schools today and tonight announced they are closed tomorrow as well. Here's to another really long week! (Last week, the boys had a four day weekend because of weather.)

To be totally honest with you, I didn't really think any of this bad weather stuff would actually happen. They are REALLY bad here at 'guessing' (as I would say) what is headed our way in the weather department and early this morning when I peeked out my window I had a silent laugh when I could still see grass in the neighbors back yard. I knew school would go forward as planned. Then Rich went down at 6 AM. He brought me the news- school was canceled and everything was coated with ice. The poor fella had to literally dig and scrape and pry ice off his car for 20 minutes at 6:30 AM. No fun there.

And while that was a bad deal for him, my day did not entail sitting back in a warm home and putting my feet up. I had to haul 5 kids to Kaitlyn's dental appointment at 9 AM and the drive on a good day would be 20 minutes. It was a frantic morning. The roads were bearable, though we never went over 30 miles an hour on any major road (we were crawling around our neighborhood under 10 mph.) And I was proud to say we were only six minutes late to Kaitlyn's appointment- good for me even without the crew in tow and ice on the roads.

The fun didn't stop there. Kaitlyn was soon good as new and we hit Payless, Wendy's, Wal-mart and piano lessons before 3:30 PM. Not sure if anyone else in the city was as crazy as us because every where we went it really was quiet deserted.

Good thing we got out when we did, I don't know if we'll be going anywhere tomorrow. The rain has continued all day and night and I wish I could take a decent photo of the gleaming winter wonderland I can see through my front window. The ice is thicker and the tree limbs are beginning to sag.

We did try to dig ourselves out a bit. After piano, I took the garden shovel while Josh assisted with our only snow shovel and we did our best to chip away some for the frozen mess that was our walkway, front porch and driveway. I would hammer and bang and Josh would scoop. After 45 minutes I said enough! Josh, who helped out without being asked, inquired if I would be willing to pay him for his services. He who helps because they chose too certainly should be rewarded. A one dollar bill was his prize. Since I usually only give out quarters (which had been depleted at the dentist's toy vending machine), a whole dollar was more than he had bargained for. Delight and wonder filled his eyes when he spied the bill. I just wanted to freeze that moment and hope that forever a single dollar could bring such joy and thrill to us all. Oh to be young and so easily pleased.

Who knows, maybe Sally is right and a week home with the boys is in our future, but I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope Thursday might be our lucky day and our life can return to normal.
Well, maybe.

If not, here's to no guilt TV, movies, blogging, popcorn and endless games. At least that's what I'm hoping for. We'll see what the kids have in store.

And you know kids. They are as unpredictable as the weather!

100% coatedEvery tree and bush had white tips as the ice covered them from top to bottom.We drove past the boys' school and found what looked to be a lake of ice in the parking lot.TreyYes, Trey did fall after I snapped this picture.JoshMattIce coating the parking signsI love how you can see the tree's reflection on the sidewalk.My mirror was coated as we drove.Matt enjoying the outdoors with friends