Snow Angel

The kids are going to be home again tomorrow.  Who knows if they'll have school on Friday.  I seriously need some alone time.  I feel like it's summer vacation, only there's no sunshine or swimming.  Instead, I have bored kids who bug me and eat everything in the house. 

Please, mother nature, give me a break.  Send some serious sunshine my way to melt all this ice and snow.  Preferably by Friday morning so the buses will run and take these little monsters I call my kids back to school where they belong. 

Thank you very much.

Dreams Of Warmer Weather

We woke up yesterday morning to snowfall.  By early afternoon, we had a little over five inches of the white stuff covering everything in sight.  The kids couldn't wait to get outside to play in it.  I, on the other hand, being from New York and sick as a dog, didn't want to leave the warmth of my computer chair.  But, being the awesome mom I am, I bundled everyone up and we headed out for about thirty minutes of fun.

After coming back inside and thawing out, I started looking forward to summer.  I long for warm weather and lounging in the pool.  I miss the time we were spending at my mom's house, cooking out and spending time together, eating hot dogs and hamburgers while sitting on brightly colored patio cushions.  

I know I have several months before the hot weather will make an appearance again.  Living in South Carolina, I am sure it will be warm again by next week, and all the snow will melt away.  For now though, I am going to sit here and imagine that the bathrobe keeping me warm is a towel that I just wrapped around myself after getting out of the pool.

Is There A Song To Make The Snow Go Away?

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of AccuWeather. All opinions are 100% mine.

The kids were sent home from school yesterday at noon, and they had a two hour delay this morning. Why, you ask? Because it snowed. Again. In South Carolina. For the fourth time this winter.

Enough already!

Yesterday's snow wasn't too bad though, because an hour after it finished falling, it was gone. The schools were delayed this morning because of icy roads, not snowy ones. I am a strong believer in the "better safe than sorry" philosophy, so erring on the side of caution is okay with me.

By 8:30 this morning, when we headed to the bus stop, the roads were fine and the sun was shining. In fact, I think we are supposed to get up to about 50 degrees today. We were 50 on Monday, too. Mother Nature's mood swings are really starting to drive me nuts. Junior is starting to drive me nuts, too.

Everyone was home by 2 o'clock, and the snow was falling. Brandi was napping, because she has been sick and stayed out of school Monday and Tuesday. Ryan and Kasi were in their rooms, and I was sitting here, at the computer. Junior was watching television, and at every commercial, he would switch to a weather channel. I told him he needed to just check occasionally, but no. He needed to know every five minutes if the storm started moving slower or faster. He drove me nuts!

I prefer to check the weather online, and AccuWeather tells me everything I need to know in one place. I can type in any location, and find out the weather. This comes in handy when traveling, too. My sister was able to know the weather in all the states she drove through when she left here last week, and was able to anticipate where the rain was going to be. It made traveling a lot less stressful for them, as they were able to plan their stops according to the weather.

I don't think they will be planning another trip down in February, either. The weather down here that week was just as bad as it was in NY.

Today's Fun Brought To You By Snow

This afternoon, Brandi's BFF Faith ventured over with her dad. They live right across the highway from us, and were tired of being stuck inside, so they walked over. Faith's mom is my friend Nicole, the one who just had a baby last Monday. (I did get the spelling wrong. It's Anzleigh, not Ansley) My kids had been out earlier in the day, and they were sledding down our little hill. When Faith got here, most of the snow on our little hill had turned to mud, so they had to figure out something else to do. This is where Ryan came in handy.
Our yard is still a sheet of ice, so the sled was sliding nicely on it. The only problem was that the kids were having to run and jump on the sled to get it to go across the yard. At first Chad (Faith's daddy) was pushing them to get them started, but he tired out pretty quick. Ryan decided to tie a rope to the sled and pull the kids around. He's young, so he had a lot of energy. His biggest problem was that it was slippery, and he kept falling as he tried to run.

It was pretty funny.

Eventually he tied the rope around his waist, and was able to pull both girls at the same time. They were having a ball! After a while the girls decided they wanted to pull Ryan, but he was a little too heavy. He didn't think it was quite fair that after all his hard work he didn't get a ride, but I told him now that he is getting older, he will be able to do things that the girls can't, like going to Boating School or riding the tube on the lake come summer time. That seemed to lift his spirits, and he went back to pulling the girls around the yard. By the time they were all wore out, Brandi was soaking wet and freezing, which is what I was trying to avoid with her because she has been so sick. As soon as I got her back in the house, she took a shower and warmed up pretty quick, and hasn't started back to coughing, so hopefully she'll be alright.

Every school district, except ours, has closed school tomorrow. Our district is on a 2 hour delay, but I think I am going to let them stay home. If the roads are too bad for buses at 6:30am, I don't see them being much better by 8:30am. I would rather be safe than risk my kids getting hurt in an accident. My only worry is that Brandi has missed so much school already, and I am afraid that we will be called in for an intervention like we were with Ryan.

If it comes to that, I will tell them that I was only being a good mother. They can't fault me for that, can they?

Ice, Ice, And More Ice

Can you see the sleet falling? This is what my yard looked like around 3pm today. Luckily, the kids had half a day, so they were home before the ice really began to accumulate.

When I went to get Brandi off the bus at 11am, I stood in a sleet storm. It's was so cold! She got off the bus and we ran for the apartment. It didn't help that my yard is still one huge mud puddle, but we made it.

Colleen picked up Brandi and I for cookie day at moms, so Junior just went there straight from work. I was glad that we came home when we did, because by 8pm, our yard was covered in ice. The news is saying that there are thousands of people without power already, and I hope that we make it through the night with ours.

Winter Vacation

Now that the kids are back in school, vacations are over for the year. This doesn't mean that I can't start planning for next year, though. In fact, that is probably a good idea, since it will take me a while to save up the money to take advantage of Family Vacation Packages . I want to do something a little different next summer. Camping was fun, and we will probably go again, but I want to make a trip up north. I want to visit my sisters, and there are a few new friends I would love to hang out with. Junior would love for me to check into Romantic Getaways, but I am not sure I want to spend money on that. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband. I just think that we can have a romantic time right here at home, and with the kids the age they are, I want to spend vacations doing things as a family. I could plan a Wedding Vermont since we never have walked down the aisle, but I want to do that on our 20th anniversary, which is in 6 years.

I think a ski vacation at the Green Mountain Inn is just perfect. We could get away during the kids winter break from school. Although we have never skied before, I think it would be fun to learn. Plus, my kids have never really experienced real snow. Sure, we have winter storms here in the South, but it can snow all night and melt by noon. I want my kids to have fun in snow that is deep enough to fall into.

Melt Already!

I just took these two pictures. The first one is looking to the left outside my front door. Notice...there is no snow on the other side of the rail fence.

Check out this picture. This is of my yard.

I am so tired of the snow and mud! My yard doesn't get much sun, so it is taking forever for the snow to melt and the ground to dry up. I will be so happy to see 70 degree weather this weekend. Maybe after that I will not be mopping mud off my floor continuously.

Snow + Trees = This

This is the road right at the end of our driveway. A HUGE tree fell, and luckily all we lost was cable/internet/phone. Our power never went out, and for that I am thankful. You can see our power line hanging. We did venture out to my moms so I could get online for a little while, and the roads were pretty clear. They have already canceled school for tomorrow because all the wet roads are going to freeze with our 18 degree weather tonight. The good news is by this weekend, we will be back in the 70's. This weather is crazy!

This is from the other side of the road. Our driveway is on the left, on the other side of the tree.

This is the road in front of our driveway, which is on the right.

It is still just like that, because power crews and DOT crews have more important things to take care of before they get to us. They told us to hold tight, they would get to us eventually.

On a side note...the fire department put out reflector cones to warn traffic, and someone stole them. We had to call them back out to put more down. Seriously, what is wrong with people?

It Snowed!

I took this picture about 5:30 this morning.
All the districts in our county closed except two.
Ours was one of the two that had a two hour delay.
I let the kids stay home anyway.

I took this picture about five minutes ago.
The kids are dressing in layers...heading outside.
I guess I need to go take more pictures!