A Whale of a time....

Last night we took the kids to Winterush to see the ice and snow exhibit. Yes, in Maine, we love our snow and ice.

The big attraction by far is the ginormous humpback whale and her calf... the largest ever carved in maine and the 2nd largest anywhere - ever. It was phenomenal. The use of lighting and sound effects made it kind of surreal. We also had the place to ourself (one of the benefits of being willing to be out in the 15degree temps) to really explore.

The girls loved each and every exhibit and had a blast watching them do ice sculptures with a chainsaw.

I of course loved the huge yellow submarine.

Busy...

As my lovely mother has pointed out - it's been a while.

I was working some big hours before Christmas.

We had a fabulous Christmas. Cookies were baked and decorated, songs were sung, shopping, trees decorated, presents wrapped, presents unwrapped, playing with toys - lots of kid time.

We took the decorations down the day after Christmas (except the tree - because of course we have to do a birthday tree!) and they are already put away in our attic.

Did I mention our attic has about an inch of mold... nice!

Then more hours were worked.... then we had a little neighborhood party for Julia and her neighbor friends (a homemade peppermint ice cream cake that was delicious, and 18 people shoved into a tiny house with hyper kids!!).

On her birthday Julia had a fabulous surprise - my parents came from Arizona to visit!

We had another little birthday party at the pool at my parents hotel. More fun was had.

We had a great week with my parents with lots of good food. The kids had fun and loved every minute of time with them.

Since then we have whiny kids that miss their grandparents, more work, back to school, some sledding, a snow day (not out of school until at least 6/19 now!!) some really cold weather and now a big storm on the way...

Fun as always!

Snow Day!

So - the kids did end up having today off - but schools on for tomorrow. They start Christmas break on Wednesday. We have a total of about 20 inches, 15 or so from last night and 5 from the last 2 little bouts of snow fall.

The girls had a blast sledding, fort building and snow shoeing today. We had blue sunny skies and it was a great winter day!

We're expected to be clear again tomorrow with more snow heading our way on Wednesday and then again next weekend.

Funny note - the UPS trucks are having a hard time getting around because of the large snowbanks along driveways so our UPS driver told me today that they are being mostly dispatched in UPS minivans. :)

Our neighbor had a refrigerator delivered this afternoon and the store delivery truck for that could get no where near the house - so the truck parked on the street and the unloaded the fridge onto a dolly and wheeled it down the street and up the driveway to their door.

It's still coming!

The wind has abated for a while - but the snow keeps on a coming! This was the midnight picture... the photo of the snow at our sliding door fails to impress because we turned the heater on and it's actually melting agains the door. :) So - swing pictures it is. Dan and I went out and shoveled and we easily have 14 inches right now - and the snow started at 11am! The weather report says we could see another 2-4 inches... school hasn't been cancelled yet.

It's kind of a storm...

Apparently we're having a thundersnowstorm - with freezing fog too. The snow started here at about 11am and at 7pm I'd say we have about a foot of snow. No sign of slowing yet either...

The pictures on the left are from 5pm and the pictures on the right are from 7pm...

Finally.......

We have snow people!

I woke up this morning to three little girls squealing that there was snow on the ground and it was still SNOWING!

Emma is by far the most excited mostly because I don't think she remembers snow - and certainly doesn't appear to remember how much she hated it last year.

So today begins my insane work schedule so if possible you will see me even less than before... or maybe more if I need a brain vent outlet.

I will sit up in my toasty office (this is by far the coldest room in the house and Dan bought me a little room heater for under my desk!) and plug away... watching big puffy snowflakes fall...

I have something to admit.

I like snow.

The icy, slippery stuff is annoying, but other than that, I like winter.

I'm not counting the days till Spring, I'm not frustrated by rumors of more white stuff.

I can't believe it. Me, who loved those balmy winter days in Arizona is in love with cold weather and snow.

I think part of my ability to stomach this weather is that for the most part, we have blue skies and sun most of the time here. Gray, overcast days are fewer and far between than the Michigan winter days of my youth.

I will say here though, that this rain in February stuff is a load of crap. Crap, I tell ya.

Last week while Dan was out of town we had way too much fun here.

It started out onWednesday, my first day covering the office for one of my clients. We had 7 inches of snow. Did I mention Dan was out of town? Yes. Julia is off school for a snow day. I head out to shovel out the van and then head back inside to dry off and get everyone up, dressed and ready to head out the door. We spend the next 8 hours cooped up inside the office and watching the snow turn to an actual pouring rain. It rained all day. Getting home we walked through 6" of puddled water because the 2 foot snow banks on the sidewalk wasn't letting the water go anywhere.

After finishing dinner our neighbor calls and asks if we were flooding. "No, thank God!" was my answer. After two more minutes of conversation I promptly respond again with, "Oh shit, we are flooding!" I notice the carpet in the dining room is wet.

The next three hours are a blur of moving furniture and rugs and trying to minimize damage.

Then as I get ready for bed I realize that the hallway is wet too. The storage closet was also flooding and the water was coming in that way too. More furniture moving, more fun.

Here it is 5 days later and my dining room table is still pushed against the other wall with chairs on top. The giant fans are gone and replaced by a giant dehumidifier.

So, it's raining again today, and so far, so good.

I say, bring on the snow!

Snow and more snow...

We have had some snow in the last couple of weeks. Quite a bit. It's crazy. The girls are having the best time.

Things are crazy here. As in C R A Z Y.

I'm going to fess up. I failed my test AGAIN. By one point. yes. one point folks. So - I'm just a little bit of a failure. :) I'm going to take it again soon - I'm just not sure when.

Why?

Because we leave tomorrow morning for 2 weeks in Arizona. I can't wait. We had a huge storm here this weekend and have about a foot of snow on the ground. I love the snow and it does so much for my holiday spirit - but it will be here when we get back.

Thursday was a suckfest. I failed my test. Then it snowed and snowed - we ended up with about 4 inches. Then later that evening I was walking over to my neighbors house and literally fell upon her doorstep. I was carrying Em and so I had to do some serious contorsions to avoid falling on her and landed directly on my elbow. OUCH. Em was fine but I ended up at the doctor. They were going to send me for Xrays on Friday - but when I woke up I could move it - so I chose to skip the Xrays. My entire body is sore, and Friday was a litle scary since I was dealing with extreme dizziness but I'm on the mend.

We had our family Christmas here Saturday night. It was nice - the girls loved their presents and we spent all night singing to High School Musical Sing It. Holy hell that's fun.

So, we're getting ready to leave. I have about 10 loads of laundry to catch up on since Thursday and packing and cleaning. We're so lucky to have such great neighbors as they will be watching our place and taking care of the cat.

Well - I have to get back to work. Kids are screaming, laundry needs washing and folding and there has to be some sort of packing going on soon!

SNOW DAY!

It snowed.

Boring picture I know, but insomnia keeps me from being inspired.

Julia is home from school today and her choir concert for tonight is cancelled. 4-6 more inches expected through the day.

Maybe I'll muster up the energy to suit up the kids and head out into the elements for some snow time.

FUN!

So we had snow

Dan called the other morning and asked if I was excited about the snow.

"Oh. There's snow?"

I looked outside and a faint dust of white was on the grass.

"Oh. There's snow."

It's on. Bring it winter.

The post where I get to use the word hunker....

This is from my good friends at WCSH6 NBC here in Maine -


Weather Notes: WEAK HIGH PRESSURE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NICE WEATHER BREAK ACROSS PARTS OF NEW ENGLAND THIS AFTERNOON. WE WILL KEEP THE FAIR CONDITIONS GOING INTO THE NIGHTIME HOURS... BUT CLOUDS ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE AS A LARGE STORM MOVING ACROSS THE SOUTHEASTERN STATES TRACKS OUR WAY TONIGHT. PRECIPITATION WILL GET UNDER WAY SUNDAY MORNING GENERALLY... IN THE FORM OF RAIN AND SNOW. EAST WINDS DEVELOP OVER THE REGION AS WELL. COASTAL AREAS WILL GO OVER THE RAIN FIRST... BUT EVENTUALLY ALL AREAS AWAY FROM THE MOUNTAINS WILL SEE THE SNOW GO OVER THE RAIN AS WELL. A MIX OF SNOW AND RAIN IS FORECAST OVER THE HIGHER BY LATE SUNDAY NIGHT. PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS WITH THIS INTENSE WEATHER SYSTEM WILL APPROACH 2 TO 4 INCHES OR MORE BY THE TIME IT MOVES AWAY. COMPLICATIONS FROM THIS EVENT WILL INCLUDE HEAVY WET SNOW ON BUILDINGS... POWER LINES AND TREES AT FIRST... AND THEN AS THE SNOW CHANGES OVER TO RAIN WE WILL START TO SEE A SHIFT TO FLOODING PROBLEMS. ADDITIONALLY... THE STRONG EASTERLY WINDS THAT ARE FORECAST AS THIS WEATHER SYSTEM NEARS SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND WILL PRODUCE COASTAL FLOODING AND EROSION... ESPECIALLY AT HIGH TIDE. THIS WILL BE A SLOW MOVING STORM. WE ARE GOING TO BE DEALING WITH ITS EFFECTS FROM SUNDAY EVENING THROUGH MONDAY. THE STORM WILL EVENTUALLY MOVE SLOWLY AWAY FROM THE REGION TUESDAY... SLOWLY EASING ITS IMPACT ON OUR REGION THROUGH WEDNESDAY. MOST AREAS WILL SEE DRIER WEATHER BY LATE THURSDAY... AS SHOWERS FINALLY TAPER OFF. DAYTIME TEMPERATURES DURING THE STORM ARE GOING TO STAY BELOW NORMAL... BUT A SLOW WARMING TREND GETS UNDER WAY AT MIDWEEK WITH MUCH IMPROVED WEATHER FORECAST BY FRIDAY. (NWS/GYX)


Fun to live at the beach. We're pretty prepared, but hoping for no flooding. The tides are at their highest this time of year because of the astronomical pulls... so it could be ugly. The neighborhood coalition went around and warned us to be prepared. So, we'll be hunkering down! Hope we still get to go to our open house tomorrow.

April Fools!!

After a deceptively warm week - with Spring clothes and bike riding - we're back to shoveling snow. At least it's pretty.

I took a walk down to the beach and spent some time with brown dog 1 (brown dog 2 wasn't interested today). He apparently found a tennis ball in the snow and we played catch for a bit. He then followed me home. After realizing that his tennis ball time was at an end, he trotted back down the road to the beach. I love the brown dogs. They are my favorite part of living at the beach.

SNOW DAY - Take 2

Well - the storm hit as predicted. More accurately, the storm is hitting as predicted. We have a couple inches of snow with no sign of slowing. We're looking at about 8-12 inches by the time all is said and done. I just hope the sleet that has been suggested as a possibility, doesn't make an appearance.

Julia doesn't have school today. I'm hoping Dan gets out early so he can come home and take Julia and Anna out to play. I'd love to, but Emma is congested and coughing again, so I'd rather not drag her outside.

There is something magical about a snowfall. (Especially when you aren't expected to go out and drive in it.) It covers everything in a blanket of white, hiding the piles of dog poop, the trash cans and mudpiles, giving the yard a clean slate. At least until it melts. :)

SNOW DAY!

Julia has her first snow day today.

We are in for one heck of a storm. We have a couple inches on the ground - and about half a foot to a foot more to come. Later this afternoon we're expecting 70+ mph winds too. WOW.

We woke up... enjoyed our Valentine's Day presents... had some breakfast and now lots of fun. Maybe later we'll end up outside sledding.

SNOW DAY!

The saddest little snowman...

The big girls went out and played in the snow this morning and had fun. Anna decided she indeed likes the snow and stayed out for a while.

They made snow angels and a sad little snowman.

Oh, did I mention???

WE HAVE SNOW???????? As in - lots of snow? Flurries were predicted - but some areas right around here ended up with 5 inches or more... we got about an inch or so.

Julia was excited to get suited up in he snow suit and boots (mandatory for school).

This afternoon when the sun came out - I bundled Anna up in her snowsuit and Emma in hers (which she has already grown out of!!!) and took them outside. Anna was very specific about her feelings on the snow, "Momma, yet's go inside. I do NOT yike this snow."

She lasted 10 minutes, which was 8 minutes longer than I expected!

So ... it begins...