2nd snow

On Feb 10, we got our second snow break. We were predicted to get at least an inch of snow, in at least two rounds of the white stuff. After the scare in January, schools were canceled on Tuesday. Nothing happened, no snow. The second round was supposed to come sometime Wednesday, so they canceled school again. Still, nothing happened. Late Wednesday night (around 9 pm), it did finally start to snow. School was canceled again on Thursday.

On Thursday morning, we woke up to this.

Tball evaluations

Troy went to t-ball evaluations today. Brian took him and said he did great. Brian has really been worried that he wasn't ready to play, but honestly, what three year old is? Troy got to hit twice, field the ball twice and run the bases. I asked Troy what his favorite part was and he said hitting the ball. I can't wait for the season to start

Snow Days - the good stuff

It was beautiful! Troy liked playing in the snow, Kaylee, not so much. Tuesday afternoon, we went out in it immediately, and probably stayed out about 45 minutes before the kids got too cold. We tried to make a snowman, but it would not pack at all. We walked around in it, ran in it and just played in it. I took them out again right before dark to play in it.

The next morning, we went back out in and our neighbors were out, so we walked to their house. Troy had fun riding down their little hill and Kaylee had fun on their swing.

When Brian got home, we went out again and tried to get them to slide in a pool float. That didn't work very well, so I pulled them in a laundry basket. They thought that was fun until Brian started pulling the basket and went too fast and dumped them both out. Kaylee wouldn't have anything to do with the basket or snow after that. She was done.

This is the crash that made Troy and Kaylee not trust Brian anymore.

The third morning before Brian went to work, we took the kids out one more time. For a little bit, Kaylee refused to come outside. We went to the top of our yard, and I went down the "hill" a couple of times, and Troy went down once.

and then we had to say goodbye to the snow.

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Snow Days - the bad stuff

We have had an extremely cold winter. Here in the south, we are not used to cold temperatures. We've even had a few late starts at school when the temperature got as cold as 12 degrees. On Tuesday, our state was blindsided. During the weekend, there was a prediction of snow south of Montgomery. Monday night, the weathermen still predicted 1-4 inches of snow for South Alabama (which is very rare) for Tuesday night. The Birmingham area was predicted to only get a "light dusting" with no travel problems. I desparately wanted snow. I even took Kaylee's picture Monday night and put her in her snowman towel and posted on social media that we were waiting on the snow. I knew I would be disappointed again, because we rarely get snow. Tuesday morning, I checked the weather again before we went to school. It was the same forecast, South Alabama below Montgomery was supposed to get 1-4 inches and we were to get a light dusting, 1/10 of an inch. Everyone went to work as normal. Brian emailed me about 9:30 to say that it was starting to snow in downtown. I got a couple of emails from friends who have windows in their classrooms to tell me that it was snowing. In between classes, I would walk up to the office to get a sneak peak. At 9:45ish, we got an email from our principal that said county officials were going to meet at 10:00ish to make a decision about schools (at this time, we were still predicted to only get that light dusting). Then at 10:30 when the snow had not slacked up, the county officials decided to dismiss school at 11:30. When I left school, it was snowing, hard! I left in a hurry to get my kids and get ahead of the traffic because I knew our high school road would be crazy with everyone trying to leave at the same time. I actually slid on the road in front of daycare and missed my turn and had to circle the block. I drove extremely slow on the way home unaware of what was going on everywhere else. It took me an hour and a half to get home (normally it's a 25 commute). I saw one wreck and slid several times, but I had no idea what was going on everywhere else. I tried to call Brian and the phones were out. When I got home, and checked social media sites, I realized, we were not getting a "light dustng". We were getting an inch of ice, with snow on top of that. I finally talked to Brian, and we decided that he would not drive in it. In fact, he had to park his work truck and walk miles back to the office. I started texting and calling my friends to see if they had made it home. I was one of the lucky ones. It took my friends HOURS to get home. I was even on the phone with one friend when she got hit when a car slid into her. Several of my coworkers stayed at school until all the students made it home safely. Some coworkers had to stay with others because it was unsafe to drive. Brian never did make it home that day (he and 4 others stayed at their office), my mother wound up being stranded at her office for two days, Brian's mother was stranded at her office and Brian's sister was stranded at her office. It was crazy! That night, I read stories and stories of people's adventures to get home, and some never made it home that night. They slept in their cars, they slept in stores, and some I'm sure didn't sleep at all. I could not quit reading about the snow/ice storm. Children were stranded at school because parents could not get to them. Teachers and administrators stayed with them. That part of me felt guilty, because I rushed out to get my own kids. We wound up having three and half snow days. Alabama governor declared a state of emergency because of how bad the situation was. People abandoned their cars just to get to warmth. One thing I never read were bad stories...I never read about any violence or any one taken advantage of, and for that I'm so grateful. Instead, I saw a community pull together southern hospitality. Major food chains were giving free food to the stranded, major stores and malls stayed open to provide shelter. This even is something I will never forget. These are not my pictures, but I wanted to keep a record of how bad it was after our "light dusting."

Bad hair day

I can't make this stuff up, and I would have never achieved this look if I tried!

Happy new year!

We brought in the new year playing Candy Land.