Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

The kids have a snow day today. We have maybe an inch of snow but schools are closed because of bitter cold temps and wind chill.

The NOAA web page says that the actual temperature right now is -13 degrees.
The NOAA web page says that the actual temp + windchill makes it feel like -41 degrees.

I believe those might be the coldest temps I've ever experienced in my life.

The funny thing is that it was really, really cold when we were in Winter Park last month. There were a few days while there that we had sub-zero temps. We even went tubing one day when the actual temp was -5. I told John last night that I'm glad we weren't watching the news 24/7 while we were there or we might have realized the stupidity of our decision. Ignorance truly is bliss.

Anyway, yeah, it's COLD outside.

That's why we're staying in today.

I just put a roast in the crock-pot for dinner, and I'm thinking movies, hot chocolate, some reading, and cookie-baking are on my to-do list for the day!

John has to get out later to get a hair cut. I called last week to make an appointment and was told it would be about 3 weeks before Rachel--our family hair wizard--could see me. John called yesterday and got an appointment for this afternoon. HUH? It's not the first time it's happened. I tease him all the time about how quickly those salon ladies accommodate him. It's absolutely true, but I think he got an appointment so quickly today because they had multiple cancellations because of the weather!

I was really thankful for a snow day because Abbey is still sick. I took her to the doctor yesterday to rule out strep, which we did. She seems to have some sort of virus with sore throat, cough, and fever being the symptoms. I would have kept her home today anyway but it was nice for it not to be counted against her. She still has a low-grade temp this morning...boo!...and so I'm still not sure she'll be going to school tomorrow. So far the rest of us are well and I'm hoping it stays that way.

John took Jack-the-beagle back for (another) follow-up appointment with our vet yesterday. He's now on his THIRD round of (sorry, no generic available) antibiotics. That dog has cost us a lot of money lately. I really really really really really want an iPhone. I've been waiting forEVER for Verizon and Apple to join forces and as you probably know, they recently did. I suppose I'll be waiting a bit longer because we've spent he equivalent of 3-4 iPhones on Jack's rear end. I'm slightly bitter. Grrrrrrrrrr.

FYI--Tell About It Tuesday will be back next week. Because I have one more life-changing discovery to share. I know you're on the edge of your seat.

Peace out, peeps. And Happy Snow Day!

Spring?

Will had a track meet yesterday afternoon. I wore my down parka and still froze. Felt so sorry for the runners in shorts and tank tops.

My friend's husband met up with us at the meet and said nonchalantly, "So did you hear we could get 4-12 inches of snow?"

I laughed. I hadn't heard that and frankly, I didn't buy it. It's been warm and sunny lately. (I told you yesterday that I have a farmers tan from wearing short sleeves.) 

Evidently, the joke is on me because when I woke up we had about 5 inches of snow on the ground.

And our make-up snow day ended up being cancelled because of SNOW. Irony.

It's still coming down hard, and my meteorologist-neighbor said we could get 6 more inches tonight. 

I'll take an unexpected day at home with my peeps. On the agenda: Movies. Hot cocoa/coffee. Reading. Baking cookies. Pajamas. Laziness.

The gift of a lazy family day in late April is priceless.  Peace out, peeps.

(If we get out later, I'll take/post some pics.)

What We've Been Up To...

Wow, I didn't mean to go four days without blogging. It just sorta happened, I guess. We've been enjoying

this week. Though I'm not sure Winter got the memo that it's actually spring now. More on that in a minute.

Here's a little of what we've been doing this week. 

                                                  

Miss Abbey [our baby] turned EIGHT years old on Monday. She requested an art party and she found this idea for a birthday cake in her American Girl cookbook and asked me to make it for her. I love making my kids' birthday cakes. This one was fun (and super easy) and if you look closely you'll realize that I'm not a perfectionist.

Abbey had some friends come over and they spent the afternoon and evening making crafty stuff: tie-dye shirts/pillowcases, Hama bead creations, peace-sign necklaces, painted flowers/pots, etc. She was in her happy place. 

We said "yes" to her request for a sleepover (I was reminded around 10pm why I despise sleepovers) and no one got much sleep. But again, Abbey loved it and I love seeing her happy!

Monday was John's birthday too. We knew Monday would be all about Abbey so we had a family dinner and party on Sunday night. I've said it before, but he really is such a great sport to share his special day with Abbey.

So...what else have we been up to this week? Well...we've been 

 

So far, we've had two.

We started Spring Break with one last Friday, and we had a doozy of one blow in on Tuesday night and last through most of Wednesday. I think we've had about 18 inches of snow between these two storms. And guess what? More is on the way. [oh joy]. We were planning to go to Denver tomorrow afternoon and do some shopping but I don't think we'll be able to beat the storm so our plans are once again in flux. 

The kids played outside in it yesterday (once the sun came out). They made a fun obstacle course in the front yard, including a sledding run on our front steps. 

This pic of the three of them [above] was taken on the trampoline. Of course you might not be able to tell because it was covered in snow. That makes me laugh because it was beautiful here on Monday and the kids were out jumping in shorts and t-shirts. See?

Sarah has had a cold since before spring break. So have I. We just keep relapsing. UGH. Abbey is sneezing and coughing too, and I'm so ready for everyone to be healthy again. I suppose it's a good thing that they haven't had to miss school, and that we've had plenty of time to rest this week, but who wants to be sick on spring break?

I'm a fan of lazy! And I have no problem admitting it! Snow days are the best lazy days of all. Before the snow blew in, we went to the library and got plenty of books, and we went to Blockbuster and got several movies. All we did yesterday was lay around in our pjs while reading and watching movies. I felt a little bit sorry for my kids, but honestly, they enjoy it. I asked them if they were disappointed that they were getting snow on spring break and all three of them said: NO! We love lazy days! 



We had planned to go to Denver yesterday to meet a blog friend [Becca] but the weather and my concern over my "sickies" made us both decide to wait for health and warmer temps. [Becca was snowed in too!] Becca, I hate it worked out this way, but it will be so much nicer when it's not frigid outside! Right?


Some of our favorite Arkansas friends are trekking down from Winter Park where they've been skiing and tubing and snowmobiling, and later today we're going to hang out with them for a bit. They've never been to FiveGuys, and evidently I talk about that place enough to make them want to try it out so we're going to meet up with them there. I'm looking forward to it very much! 




Alrighty. The sun is shining [though it's still pretty cold today] and we're going to get out and enjoy the day. 

PS: Wedded Wednesday will be back next week. 

We're up to our eyeballs...

We're up to our eyeballs...
...in SNOW!!!

Here's the progressive view from my front door.

Yesterday morning...
Yesterday afternoon...

And this morning...

We have over a foot by now, with drifts even larger.
It's CRAZY.

I opened the door this morning to discover that one of my neighbors had shoveled our driveway and sidewalk for me. Have I mentioned how much we love our neighbors? I was going to have to get bundled up and shovel since John will need to get in the driveway when he arrives home from the airport. My neighbor knew he was out of town and shoveled for me. HOW GREAT IS THAT? (Of course, it's still snowing and I shoveled again, but it was much easier shoveling the second time!)

See?

Sorry I don't have more pictures. It was only outside for a little while and it was so cold. Plus, it was snowing sideways and I could barely open my eyes! The kids enjoyed it though...

Playing in the snow is fun, but I hate the mess! All of these clothes, hats, gloves are in the dryer right now in preparation for Round 2.

So...I told you we were crafty yesterday. Here's one of the ghost garlands we made...SUPER cute! Abbey is wearing Will's Davy Crockett coonskin hat--that cracks me UP!

To make the ghosts, we modified these instructions a little bit. We made several to hang on the banister as well! Cute.
I brought our pumpkins in on Tuesday night when it started snowing so they wouldn't turn to mush. Jack-the-beagle won't leave them alone. He's almost gnawed the stems off of two of them. Grrrrr..... I think we're going to carve them tonight!

My very creative friend, Jen, made this pumpkin bowling set. She let me borrow it for Abbey's party at school tomorrow. We're also going to do an eyeball relay--hence the eyeball picture at the top of the post. Ever tried bowling with a "ball" that isn't round? It's hysterical.
I'm going to make some caramel apples for Abbey's book club that meets tomorrow after school, and I still need to bake a few things for our neighborhood Halloween carnival on Saturday. I wish I had taken a picture of my black/orange stripey pretzels. They turned out super cute!

And I (finally) finished everyone's Halloween costumes. The girls changed their minds umpteen bajillion times, but they're pleased with the final results and I am too!
Abbey is a veterinarian (click on the pic and read her name tag. Will is a gnome (still trying to talk him into letting me make him some bushy eyebrows), and Sarah is a hippie. I think they look GREAT!

Just got a text from John. He's about 25 miles from home. Those last 25 miles are probably the most treacherous though. So ready to see him. I'll be back tomorrow with the last of my Anniversary Week Giveaways!

Anniversary Week: Giveaway #4

Well, it's been snowy here in Colorado this week. We had a snow day yesterday, and I'm hoping our delay this morning is soon upgraded to a closure as well I just found out that schools are closed again today! Woohoo--back-to-back snow days! Snow days are so wonderful--even in October!

I always say that snow days are a gift because they force us to slow down and rest. Yesterday the kids and I stayed in our pjs, read, watched movies, drank lots of coffee and hot chocolate, made some crafty stuff for Halloween (hope to post pics this afternoon) and baked Snickerdoodles. I tried to get someone to play Farkle with me but couldn't get any takers. Sigh. The only thing that would have made our day perfect was if John were at home with us too. He's been out of town this week but should arrive home this afternoon. Woohoo!

Anyway, I'm rambling. Sorry.

Today's giveaway is what I'm calling my Snow Day Necessities Giveaway. It includes the following:

$10 Starbucks card (for hot, tasty beverages)

$1 to rent a Redbox movie (what's a snow day without a movie?)

Your choice of one of the following games: Farkle, LCR, or Scrabble Slam (Hopefully you can find someone to play with you.)

Leave me a comment and tell me what you'd do if you had a snow day today and you'll be entered in the Snow Day Necessities Giveaway.

And by the way, I feel compelled to draw your attention to the ads on my right sidebar. Those nice people pay me a little bit of money each month to display their ads on my blog. I don't make a ton of money, but it's nice to have some "mad money" to feed my Starbucks addiction or to go out for lunch with friends. This month, I'm using my earnings to pay for these fun prizes!!!

The fine print: Giveaway will close at 10pm on Saturday, October 31. Winners will be chosen at random and posted on Sunday, November 1. Contest is open to US and international residents. You don't have to have a blog to enter, but you must leave a way to be contacted should you win.

Staggering Stats

Alternate Title: Evidently this is a weather blog

Alternate Title: I Kid You Not

Alternate Title: Spring? Yeah right.

Alternate Title: Thinking of moving to_______, CO? I might know of a house for sale.

If you've read my blog anytime during the month of April, you know that it was a snowy month. It's weird, but it's normal. 

I just came in from checking the mail. Given my OCD tendencies, it's surprising that I'm not a check-the-mail-every-day kind of girl, but I'm not. Anyway, I spotted the May edition of our local community newspaper in the stack of mail and I anxiously flipped through it until I found my favorite part--the monthly weather wrap feature. A local meteorologist writes an article listing all the weather statistics from the previous month, and I find it highly interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I thought I'd share it here.

Ready for these April stats?

High temp (April 23): 73 degrees 

Low temp (April 6): 2 degrees (that's quite a span, huh?)

Monthly snowfall: 54.9 inches

Let me say that again. 54.9 inches. In April.

Our snow is measured from July 1-June 30. Our season to date snowfall is 131.9 inches which means that more than thirty percent of that snow fell in APRIL. 

Isn't that crazy??????????

A Broken Record

I haven't blogged in two days. That's rare for me.

No, I haven't contracted the over-hyped swine flu (thanks for asking though, B) I just haven't had anything interesting to say. 

Do I ever have anything interesting to say? 

Shhhh. That is a rhetorical question.

This isn't a weather blog, so I didn't feel like telling you about the snow we got on Monday. Or how soupy and cold it was here yesterday. However, I did take this pic (while driving) for our third grade friends in AR. Flat Stanley was the only one at our house loving the late April snow. 

I also didn't feel like telling ya'll that I'm having another crazy-busy week. It seems like almost every blog post in April has been about me being busy or about weird spring snow. I'm like a broken record.

Here are some snippets of a few things going on in between snow and busy-ness.

• Still waiting for my new debit/credit cards. I hate writing checks. But I hate carrying cash even more because if I have it, I spend it. Hoping my replacement cards come soon.
• Seeing some light at the end of my project tunnel. My deadline is Friday. I feel like I might have a life again after that.
• LOVED my alone time on Sunday afternoon. Did a little eating (Pei Wei), did a little shopping (TJMaxx, Whole Foods), and did a little driving/exploring. Wasn't gone too long, but it was quiet and it was perfect. 
• Sent my kids to school in shorts and capris in anticipation of 70 degrees later today. They were thrilled. I'm afraid to tell them I heard the "s" word again for Friday. There I go with that broken record thing again. Sorry.
• Counting down the remaining school days. Including today, we have 16 more fun-filled and jam-packed days. I'm giddy about that. I LOVE summer and I am SO ready to have days where I have absolutely nowhere to be. I mandate rest for the first week of summer, because after the whirlwind finish, the kids and I are exhausted.
• Been embracing my inner curly girl and letting my hair do it's own thing. Yesterday was the first time in 10 days I dried and straightened it. I still prefer it straight, but the curls are growing on me. What I'm really loving is how quickly I can get ready in the mornings when I go curly.

That's all I have time for today! My to-do list is calling. Bye, peeps.

When Spring Gives You SNOW...

Get outside and enjoy it!

Sitting inside watching it stack up will only make you grumpy and want to eat (trust me, I've got the snow cave plan down really well), but getting outside and laughing with your family while pelting each other with snowballs and building a snowman and making snow angels will change your attitude in a heartbeat!















Obviously, it was still snowing when we took these pictures yesterday afternoon. It finally tapered off around 8pm last night and we ended up with over 2 feet of snow. CRAZY. It was wet, heavy snow (great for snowballs and snowmen) and should start melting quickly. In fact, the sun is shining now and the great meltdown has already begun! Now we get to look forward to lots of mud. Ugh.

I'm a bit of a weather geek and so I want to share two geeky things with you.

1. Until I lived in Colorado, I just assumed that any massive snowfall was a blizzard. NOT so. A blizzard is a combination of wind (35mph+) and heavy snow accumulation. The snow that we got this weekend was a winter storm. At times the wind was blowing and creating blizzard conditions, but technically, it wasn't blowing hard enough to deem it a blizzard.

2. Snow totals are strongly dependent on elevation. Without being too location specific I'll tell you that we live somewhere between Denver and Colorado Springs. We also live on what is called the Palmer Divide, which is an east-west ridge that extends from the Front Range out towards Kansas. Because we live on this ridge our elevation is HIGHER than Denver (about 1500 feet) and HIGHER than Colorado Springs (about 1000 feet) and that difference in elevation often results in WAY more snow in the winter and cooler temperatures in the summer!

Case in point: We went to Co Springs to eat dinner last night. It was still snowing when we left our town, but when we got about 6 miles down the road it was sunny, dry, and there was absolutely NO SNOW. I was stunned--you saw my pictures of our snow--we'd been getting pounded all day long!!!

Last month, John and I were in Seattle when our area got slammed with a blizzard. We noticed as we were driving home from the airport that Denver's snow had already melted, but as we left Denver and climbed up in elevation, the snow was still piled up everywhere. Seriously, it is CRAZY the difference in elevation makes.

That's your topography lesson for the day. If you ever consider moving to Colorado and want to live where you'll be assured of getting snow and LOTS of it, give me a call. I know just the town for you.

Hola!

Greetings from the North Pole.

Seriously, it has been snowing pretty much non-stop since late Thursday night. We are getting slammed. Our weather forecasters hit it on the nose this time. 

We had two short breaks from the snow yesterday, and the sun even popped out for an hour yesterday afternoon, but then it started pounding us again. 

I'm in my pjs (again) today. I just get up, take a shower, and put a clean pair back on. Why bother getting dressed if I'm not getting out in this mess?

I actually did get out for Bunco last night. The beauty of a neighborhood Bunco group is that your plans cannot be deterred by a winter storm. We all just put our snow boots and parkas on over our pjs (Pajama Bunco--yeah!) and walked down to our neighbor's house. We had a blast...and I so needed a fun night out! Evidently a winter storm can deter prom though. One of the high schools in our town had to cancel theirs. How sad for those kids.

Here are a few pics for those of you (and there are a few of you) who are enjoying this spring snowstorm vicariously.

Poor Jack. I feel so sorry for him when he has to go outside.

This is all fresh snow. I cleared about 8 inches off this bench yesterday afternoon.

I took this pic from inside my garage while I was watching John shovel. The piles on the side of my driveway are pretty impressive.

My front steps are buried under all that snow.

Poor John. I think he's shoveled four times since this all started, and he'll be out there again when it finally stops pouring down (hopefully) later this evening.

So...who wants to come visit next April???