Happy Spring

During recent travel for me, the kids had a legitimate snow day off school...

Legitimate for the South, at least.

Dorian

The evening before Dorian, beautiful. 

The day of the storm: school canceled.

The day after the storm: school canceled. 

Essentially, following Labor Day, the kids had a two day school week. 

Monday the following week.

The children arrive home from school defeated.

And forlorn at a full week of school ahead. 

The Weather Here in May

It rolls in fast and big.

And this was welcome water for the new yard.

 

But it was intense. 

Those are not frosted glass windows.

There it is: hail.

We will not escape frozen weather yet, it seems.

Sledding

The good thing about the North, they just cordon off places and accept that the kids are going to wreck the place during the winter.

 

Ben wasn't happy that I told him to just wear my snow pants when his from last year wouldn't fit any more.  But I'll be he didn't mind when his super long legs didn't get snow on them.

 

It's a little more formal than our backyard, homegrown launching pad, but not much.

When Life Gives You Snow

Make a snow hill of your own for sledding.

 

Then double up the fun.

 

Flashback Friday

February 2015

Tank tops and T shirts around the fire in Alabama.

 

Wetumpka was hit by a freak January tornado last Saturday, and they are all in our prayers.  The church across the street from ours was destroyed during the event, and we know the people of that town will pull together and get through it.

 

Ben's opinion: Maybe God just wanted more of those people to go to our church.

 

Not quite the same sort of situation during a Chicago February in early 2019.

Rumor has it, we're headed back to a less snowy climate in 2019, and we're pretty excited.

Snow Day: Day 3

And then the mayor declared a state of emergency; Patric found a flight out of here; and I watched the temperature reach nearly 50 as we went through snow day number 3.

So when they asked if they could decorate their white T-shirts with permanent markers, it seemed like a great idea to me...

Snow Day: Day 2

There was actual snow.

And excitement took over. As Patric's flight for Wednesday was canceled; he worked from home; I prepared for travel of my own this week. And the children asked for food they then wouldn't eat.

Snow Day: Day 1

br/> Snuggled, watching movies. Beautiful

Three Days Today

Happiness is...

Three snow days in a row in Alabama.
Happiness for the children at least. This Northerner is a bit confused.

It's So Cold

Accepting that the weather would never dip below 80 here, I dressed them in their shorts and t-shirts for school the other day.

When they hit the chilly 74 degrees outside, I heard:

"Moooooom!"

"It's SO cold!  I'm freezing to death."

"We need jackets!"

and my favorite

"You should have never put us in shorts mom!"

Brother.

Elaine is in a 2T jacket there because it was all I could dig up on such short notice.

They are adjusting a little better than I.

What A Long, Strange Trip

We sold one house!
But we packed up and left it before we did that on May 20, 2011.
We closed on the old house June 30.
And in that period of a little over a month, we have been more than busy.


We had a new house to get to.

But first Patric and I lived here for a week while I started my new job.

Funny, it was still nicer than our first place in Missouri all those years ago.

And the kids went to Grandma and Grandpa airplane's for two weeks in there so that Patric and I could buy the house, receive our stuff, and even unpack a few things. And we don't think we could have done it without grandma and grandpa airplane's help, and I think they had a bit of fun with the kids too.

And then we learned how to find the bathrooms and the bedrooms in this new house.

And about two weeks later, Nicholas told me he was getting used to sleeping here.

And they walked into their new preschool with confidence, and we figured out the routine quickly.

And the very first morning the kids were here, they were in their swimsuits at 8:00 in the morning, ready for the pool across the street. They had a long two hour wait until it opened at 10:00.

But they thought it was well worth it.

And Brian and Lori came with Noah for a visit, and we went on a walk near the river in our neighborhood.

And we got a shot of five cousins together.

Then Patric took off for a week to graduate in Vermont from his masters program.

His connecting flight was canceled from Memphis to Houston on the way home.

So he rented a car and got out of there because it was beginning to feel like we would never break free from there. Although we did accept an offer on the Memphis house while he was in Vermont without internet, and I was at home with only an iPhone.

He got back the next day, and while we were returning the rental, I rear-ended him and smashed up both cars. We were mini-vanless for two weeks (which I secretly loved).

And we went without a fridge for a little over three weeks, six delivery attempts, one I didn't like, one the delivery men wrecked, three missed appointments, and half off the price. Maybe it was the malnutrician that gave Patric and I both summer colds to suffer through in turn about this time.

And finally, after three different services and four installation attempts--we got the Internet!

And while we seem to have moved to a place that is experiencing the worst drought it's seen in half a century, and the state is on fire, and the temperatures neared or beat records every day of our first month here, I think we're going to like it.

Bubbles

Sunday afternoon, as the storms rolled in.

And Then

On Saturday we opened the windows and the doors and flew outside.

In our Christmas dresses with cowboy boots and umbrellas.
I love three-year-olds.

Two Out of Four Agree

The Stubers love snow days.

These two were pouting because they got snow on their pants walking from the car to the house. I got distressed girl duty.

Bleh

Took nearly 3 hours to get back to these cute people from work last night due to ice.

I'm Sure They Don't Think So

but enough already with the snow.

We're Southerners, yet we're on winter storm warning today.

It's Already Time

For Spring fever.

As grandma and grandpa raced back through Memphis on their way home from North Carolina to beat perhaps more than 15 inches of snow, we ambled outside to enjoy a beautiful weekend. Even daddy had to take a break from school to come out and enjoy the weather this past weekend. It was one of those days that you grab the camera, take a quick picture, and then put it down so you can just play.

We've had a little taste of Spring here and we've had enough snow now. So, it'll surely get cold again, dashing our hopes for more days like these in the near future.

Gone Now

But fun while it lasted.

Much Like Christmas Morning

Pretty

Messy