Three Snow Days in a row

Last week, on Thursday, the weatherman on the local news was asking, “Will we get snow tomorrow?” And, boy, did we ever! The kids already had no school on Friday, but it ended up being a “snow day” for them. We sure got an awful lot of snow! I was not happy about all the snow, even though the kids went crazy over it. I was pretty much bummed because all that snow meant no driving for me! I cannot drive on snowy or icy streets very well, even if there are chains on the tires. It’s just not something I would be willing to do again. (I DID survive driving on the snow before, but I really just don’t want to do it.) So I have been stuck at home ever since Friday. GAH!!

But so have the kids. Monday was declared a Snow Day by the Eugene School District. So were Tuesday and today! THREE Snow Days in a row! Holy cow!

They did have good reason for it, though. While the snow finally stopped coming down, we have had some frigid temperatures. It has been VERY cold! The other day, for one hour, it was –7!! It’s been icy and very chilly outside. There have been people riding their snow vehicles and even their skis on the street! And, of course, kids being pulled on sleds and toboggans.

So, yes, we are trying to just focus on the happy side of this wintry weather. Jesse LOVES playing in the snow; Jennifer is more interested in just trekking around through it in the backyard. We have been enjoying the Snow Days by watching Christmas movies, playing games and having some family time. Jennifer has even started writing another book! Miraculously, I have also still managed to find time to write. I am working on two books and I’m almost finished with both of them. Yay!

Still, the kids miss school. They are NOT happy they can’t be at school. They LIKE school! And if it was possible for me to drive them, they’d be at my friend’s preschool or even “snow day activities” planned in the city.

And while I have taken advantage of Snow Days by watching movies late at night, sleeping in until 8 and staying in my jammies until 11, I also miss the structure of a schedule on school days. And I miss getting out of the house. I DO go outside some of the time but hurry back in when the cold gets to be too much.

Up until now, we have been informed if the next day will be a Snow Day, but we won’t find out if we’re in for a 4th Snow Day until tomorrow morning. Next week is the last week of school the kids have until Winter Break and I’m just wondering if there will be any other days of this week they’ll be in school, too. If the snow is still here by tomorrow morning, I probably won’t drive them to the school or bus stop but will still make arrangements to send them off if tomorrow is indeed a day for the kids to be back in school.

More snow day pictures

The kids had another snow day today. Later in the day, a lot of the snow was melting away and I started to see some green again. The newspaper, however, reports that we may yet get more snow tomorrow, but not as much as before.

These pictures were taken yesterday. Tomorrow I will post pics of the snowman Jennifer made today.

Whoops! The basketball was left outside -- and got covered up with snow.

Jennifer's handprint in the snow.

Oh, no! Snow!

This week, we welcomed the first day of spring. That’s what it says on the calendar: “First Day of Spring.” Yet it would seem that Old Man Winter is not ready to leave us just yet.

I woke up shortly after 4 a.m. because of a bad dream. I decided that, while I was awake, I would let the dog out. Boy, was I in for a surprise when I did that! As soon as I opened the blinds and pulled them back, I was greeted with the sight of my backyard covered with snow! I thought we were done with snow! But, nope. Apparently not!

And they say to be careful what you wish for. The other day, I was thinking we didn’t get much snow this winter. A little, sure. But not a whole lot.

Well, today, we got a whole lot! Quite a bit of snow, in fact!

Because of the snow, I did what I always do on such days: I turned on the local news to find out if the school would be closed. Didn’t get that information until 6:30. Yep, school was closed. Today was a snow day!

I took a lot of pictures of the snow. Later, Jennifer went over to her friend’s house to play in the snow with her. Then she played outside with Jesse. They also managed to build a little snowman and I thought it was really cute.

My dog was NOT happy about the snow (he was born and raised in the desert, after all!) so he tried to avoid going outside as much as possible. Every time I told him it was time to go outside, he looked up at me from his little doggy bed as if saying, “But I’m all nice and warm and comfy here!” Heh.

Here are some of my pictures. I will post more until I have shared all of them. (Gotta get the important ones from today on here first!)

The snow at 4:30 a.m.!

This is one of my favorite pictures. I love pictures of snow-covered trees and I took A LOT of those. Will be posting more soon!

Me with my dog, Chewbacca (who turned 18 two weeks ago)

I actually went outside to see how deep my hand went into the snow. Hm, quite a hole!

Snow day

"Cover your eyes," I told Jennifer this morning, as I had my hand on the door handle.

Smiling, she obeyed, standing in front of the closed door with anticipation.

When I opened the door, I smiled at her and said, "Open them!"

She removed her hands, got all wide-eyed and excited at the snowy landscape that was our front yard, then excitedly jumped up and down. "Christmas is coming!"

Oh, yeah. One thing kids think of when they see snow: Christmas. And snow balls and snowmen. Snow angels and sledding.

And, let us not forget: Snow days!

That's what she had today. Last night, it snowed and snowed and snowed. I was in shock at how much snow we got. (Heck, I haven't lived here in the Northwest long enough to get used to seeing snow. ANY snow makes me shocked! Haha. It's been too long since I have lived back East.) Last year, we got NO SNOW before Christmas. I am hopeful that this means this year, we'll finally have a "white Christmas." I didn't think the school would declare today a snow day, but that's exactly what they did. Jennifer was sooo excited to go outside and play in the snow. The problem was, she could only find her old snow boots, not the ones that fit her. But she still went out to play in her regular shoes. My husband, of course, saw snow and thought "work." He had to scrape snow and ice off of both our cars. NO. FUN. Ugh! Kids see snow and think "fun." Lucky them.

Jennifer had some difficulty figuring out how to make a snowball. I haven't lived in snowy cities for too long and can't remember too well how to make them. I just stood on the porch, freezing my tail off, trying to instruct her on how to pat the snow into a ball, roll it in the snow to make it bigger and sort of "squeeze" it real gently to keep it in a ball shape. But despite my best efforts, she couldn't figure it out. But she tried her best to make some kind of creations with the snow. (Not much luck on a snowman, either.)

Later in the day, though, she started feeling sick again. She sort of caught Jesse's virus and her temperature has been going up and down since Saturday. So she wasn't able to go out to play in the snow much more after that set in, but at least she had some snow fun in the morning.

Update on Jesse: His breathing is still a little bad. This morning, it was pretty raspy. Looks like it's another round of the antibiotics the doctor prescribed, since it's been the 3-day-wait they told us to monitor his breathing. I am hoping this second dose will make the swelling go down some more. Fortunately, he has been acting a lot better.