Post-Interview

It was hard waiting until 3pm for Jesse's job interview on Monday!  He initially scheduled it for the afternoon because he was thinking that Melinda had school in the morning... but it is Spring Break this week, so he totally could have gone in the morning.

Oh well.  He did need to pick up his suit Monday morning, anyway (it had to be altered at the store).  He did some more thinking preparation and printing off of references (and tried calling a couple to forewarn them), etc.  Then we just had to wait for a little while.

He finally ended up leaving the same time I did, at 2pm.  Yes, it was early.  The kids and I were walking over to a friend's house to play while it was sunny and oh-so-warm (too warm, at times...).  Jesse drove off in the van.  It was a 20-minute drive, and then he sat in the van until it was time to go in.

By the way, doesn't he look very handsome in his new suit?  It's a dark gray, and it's got a stripe to it, if you can't tell in the picture.  The stripes alternate a blue and yellow color, actually.

Jesse finally called me, on his way home, at almost 5pm.  He was in that interview for almost 2 hours!!  He was sort of expecting a somewhat casual phone-interview type of meeting (in person, since he's local).  What he got was a 2-hour interview with the whole engineering team (at once!), and with a company only 13 people big, that included a VP, CTO, etc. 

He says it went pretty well.  Not "knock their socks off!" sort of great, but nothing to complain about.  He could tell that they might be a little concerned about his lack of design experience, but he's confident he can do it anyway.  He's done design (including CAD) in college, and had played around with various CAD programs since then.  The program they would use is what he considers the easiest and most intuitive.  And Jesse just has a way with being able to imagine things in 3 dimensions, anyway.  Half the time I don't think I'd be able to wrap my head around sewing projects without his help figuring out how the shapes need to fit together, and he just always does a really great job at taking that same ability to figure out how mechanical parts need to fit together.  That was the only thing he personally felt concerned about in the interview, but he's sure that if they call his references (and we already sent off thank-you letter - which gave me a headache trying to help him compose! - which encouraged them to do exactly that), because his references are about 100 times better at talking up all of Jesse's great points than Jesse is himself.  In fact, Jesse tells me that his most recent boss, Frank, seems to think that Jesse is capable of anything. Doesn't that say a lot, coming from a boss you directly reported to?

Anyway.  It was long and exhausting for him, but went well enough.  Unfortunately, this company just got some brand new funding and are having to decide their moving-forward path.  They plan to double the size of the company this year, but they really have to nail down exactly what they want and need, so it's going to be a whole 3 weeks before we hear from them.  Urgh.  Not a fun wait.  The good news is that they're looking to replace their mechanical engineer first, as their current one is heading out to pursue robotics.  So if they do want Jesse, we'll know it sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, we keep plugging along!  Trying to get the most fun out of our Spring Break as possible.  Which is challenging.... because we had snow Friday night.  By Sunday it was melting pretty good.  Monday was sunny, as I said earlier, and a little too warm at times.  Today?  It's a blizzard out there!  We went swimming this morning, and it was fine and dry outside.  Partly sunny even.  At 3pm we started chore time, and it was starting to snow.  At 4pm I went to the grocery store, and it was sticking to the grass, but the roads and pavement were still just wet.  At 5pm when I got out of the grocery store, there was a good 2 inches of snow plus slush on the ground of the parking lot, and I had to sweep off the car before I could drive away.  Heavy, wet snow.  Windshield wipers didn't like a big pile of it too much!  And then we had the missionaries over for dinner, and when Jesse drove them home at 7pm, he said it looked like there was probably already 7 inches of snow!  Looks like we might get anywhere between 1-2 feet before it all stops tomorrow.  In the middle of our spring break.  But you know, it'll all melt within a few days, I bet.  It'll be back up to 50's/60's and sunny in just a few more days.  But you know... it's Spring Break for crying out loud!  Let us have some nice days to enjoy!

All whining aside, I really do get a kick out of this yo-yo sort of spring weather.  Never knowing quite what to expect... and it definitely makes me appreciate the warm, beautiful days more fully.  But I think if I live here for any big chunk of years, I can see myself getting sick of it and just wanting it to stop.  For now, I'm still happy to enjoy it, and laugh about it.

And that's where we're at!  We hope you'll keep thinking of Jesse's job search, and praying for him.  And we'll certainly keep you posted with any new information!

Marvelous March Weekend

You just can't beat today's weather.  70 degrees!  In March!  Obviously, we weren't the only ones itching to get outside and soak it all up this weekend.  After the late winter snowstorm earlier this week (we only got about 5 inches, maybe, but it was more than we had all winter long!), this was a very welcome change.  Melinda really wanted to just go to the neighborhood playground, but Jesse didn't.  He gets bored at playgrounds.  And I'll be honest and admit that I do, too.  But Jesse was the decision maker this time around, and he decided we'd all go out to Meadowood park again.  Nice open space, paved walk, big fields, and a playground. 

Everyone and their dog was there.  Literally- most families did have a dog with them... or two.  Joggers were out in droves, dogs were every couple feet, and the amount of kids?  Well, let's just say there was a 10-minute line to get onto one of the 4 available swings.  We spent most of our time out on the fields, though, kicking around soccer balls, throwing our hula hoop up in the air, blowing bubbles, and even just enjoying the ability to let Alex roam free without worrying about his feet getting wet.  Although we did have to pick a relatively mud-free spot on the field, since melting snow doesn't tend to leave dry ground, after all! 

Jacob had a fun time running with a ball to each of the nearby sports nets (they were kind of small to be soccer nets, so I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that they were lacrosse nets), Daddy tagging along.  Eventually he picked up a stick and started hitting invisible monsters.  He got so much energy out!  He always gets into trouble when he picks up anything stick-like at home, because invariably, he winds up whacking someone and starts a big cry-fest.  But out in an open field, he could swing that stick as wildly as he wanted to!

Alex spent most of his time picking up clumps of dirt from the recently aerated ground, trying to eat every single one.  Lovely.  But when he wasn't doing that, he was climbing up into the stroller seat.  Because, ever since he figured out how to get up that chair (from the video I shared earlier this week), he's been climbing up chairs non stop.   I turn my back for two seconds and he'll steal my computer chair, even!  And of course, the new found prowess at climbing chairs also comes with an increased confidence in his ability to climb down, so he's also fully capable of getting off my bed, the couch, and any chair he climbs into.  I kind of miss being able to plop him on my bed and running to the bathroom alone, knowing he'll be "trapped" there.  Now he just slides on down like it was never a challenge.  Amazing what a couple days can do.

Melinda seemed a little bored outside today, unfortunately.  While we were at the fields she kept begging to move on to the playground.  We put it off as long as we could, since it was so crowded, but finally acquiesced.  And then she spent most of her playground time (well, aside from waiting in the line for swings) trying to get random girls to play with her.  My heart broke a little, watching so many girls just dash on away, barely acknowledging that she was there, but she was persistant.  She came to me a little glum, saying that the girls weren't playing with her, and I explained that things were so busy that they probably didn't realize she was trying to get them to play with her.  She seemed okay with that explanation.  But I know a lot of kids can be overwhelmed by her in-your-face eagerness to be friends, too.  I never know how to react to things like that, since my nature is to be so much more withdrawn.  I don't know whether to encourage her or try to tone her down. 

Anyway, we had a lovely day outside.  It was a little humid and sticky, but we got out in short sleeves, no jackets - Jacob even wore shorts (laundry day... no clean pants!).  And we were all perfectly comfortable.  And when we got home, we opened up all of our windows and let things air out.  That has to be one of my favorite parts about spring - the fresh air in my home.  Can't do it in summertime without giving up the air-conditioned comfort.  But spring is perfect for fresh, new air.  And in fact, here it is almost 10pm and most of the windows are still open.  It's heaven, I tell you!

Another side effect of springtime:  We cut hair.  Warmer weather means Jacob's head gets sticky with sweat.  He's always been a sweaty kid, but I think his super thick hair just amplifies the problem.  Doesn't take more than a couple laps around the front room, and his hair is soaked.  And obviously, we did a lot more than hop around indoors today.  So, it got buzzed.  I took the opportunity to go ahead and trim Alex's hair, as well  It's been getting long on the sides and back, and not looking too great.  I always hesistate to cut my babies' hair for the first time, and this time was no different, but I had been mulling it over for a good 2 or 3 weeks now, so I was ready.  While Jesse buzzed Jacob's hair, I had Alex in the high chair and took a pair of scissors to his hair.  He was so good, too!  He kept trying to look at the scissors, of course, but he behaved very nicely and calmly as I snipped away at his hair.  And now he's neatly trimmed, and I think I did a fantastic job for my first time ever attempting to trim boy's hair by hand.  One side is a bit shorter around the ear, but I doubt anyone but me would notice it unless I pointed it out.  Jesse said it doesn't even really look like he got a haircut - and that's a good thing!  I didn't want him to look buzzed or anything, just neater.  He doesn't have as much hair as Melinda and Jacob did at this age, anyway.  And with it being blonde, it looks like even less.  I was just going for a nice trim, and I accomplished it.  Yay!  (And I only pinched his neck with the scissors once!!)

Oooh, and Melinda did her bath all by herself for the first time today!  Well, I filled up the water for her - she was stubbornly insisting that she wouldn't be able to get the right temperature.  But she did all her own washing and rinsing, and did a great job.  She's getting more responsible by the minute!  She even helped Jesse scrub the toilets this past Thursday night.  I had asked Jesse, while Melinda was in earshot, "Jesse, do you think Melinda's big enough to clean the toilets yet?"  While Jesse was hemming and hawing about it, Melinda was jumping up and down, almost dying of eagerness, whining about how she really wanted to scrub the toilets!!  Boy... if only I could bottle up that enthusiasm for when she's a teenager, huh??

Midnight Mouse Massacre

A few weeks ago, after noticing some mouse droppings in the kitchen, we bought some mouse traps.  (Side note:  I'm really beginning to wonder, at this point, if mouse-free apartment living is even possible.)  The first night we set them out, one trap caught a mouse. 

Then a few weeks passed, and nothing was getting caught.  I took a closer look at the traps, and wouldn't you know it - all the bait had been cleanly removed, but none of the traps had triggered.  So we rebaited them.  Put them in all the spots I know those mice are going.  BUT, it was the same story the next day.  Every single trap was clean, not a single mouse caught.  Now I was starting to get a bit furious!!  How dare those mice outsmart the traps!!!  I don't want to feed them free handouts, I want to catch them and get them out of my home!!!

Now, I just have to say, for the record, that I am not a huge fan of live traps.  I don't want to have to drive these house-invading mice and drop them off in a field somewhere.  I just want them gone.  It does make me a bit sad that I'm killing them when they get caught in my traps, and it makes me feel a bit guilty when I see them dead, (because they *do* look so cute and innocent...when they're not actively streaking across my house) but overall, I'm okay with the traps that kill mice. 

We bought a different style of trap, since the others obviously weren't cutting it, put bait on the indicated spot, set them up exactly as instructed.  Next day, licked clean again. 
GRRRRrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRR!!! 

So Jesse tried something else - he put the bait waaaay back in the trap, so they wouldn't be able to reach it from the sides or anything.  And then he pushed the trigger plate about halfway down - just before it reached the trigger point.  Because, you know, mice are small and lightweight.  We had to put more pressure on them ourselves to get them to set off than we thought a mouse would put on it with its entire body. 

After they were set and put in place, we went to bed.  Not 10 minutes later, we heard a bit of a clatter.  We ran off to the kitchen, and there was a dead mouse, caught in the trap.  Hooray!!!  Success!!  We re-set it and went back to bed.  A bit later, another clatter.  Another dead mouse!

And you know, we caught four mice in the same trap, in the same spot in our kitchen, within 1.5 hours.  No more in the morning, though.  Maybe that was all of them?  Those four plus the one from a few weeks earlier?  I'm not holding my breath, though.  I know enough about mice reproduction that I don't doubt the possibility of a lot more.  Especially with the cold weather outside.  And the neighbors upstairs who leave piles of trash out on their porch for weeks at a time.  But it's nice to finally see some good results with our traps. 

And speaking of cold weather - we got a big snowstorm last night!  And actually, it's still snowing right now.  Why do we always seem to get the really good storms right before spring starts?  When I'm so tired of cold weather and so anxious for spring, and not really feeling up to the idea of venturing outdoors to really enjoy it?  But March has definitely come in like a lion.  I'm anxioulsy looking forward to seeing it go out like a lamb.  We've had a few days recently with mild temperatures and a nice mild, perhaps even warm breeze, and it just feels heavenly.  I want more of that!  And the blossoming trees, the green grass, the budding flowers!  Oh, I can't wait for spring.  Going outside without spending half an hour bundling up three kids.  Basking in sunshine.  Even if I have to wait a few weeks, I was reminded of some fantastic news this week - Daylight Saving Time begins on March 8th!!  I can't wait for the lighter evenings, starting just next weekend!!

One Crisis After Another

Yes, I realize it's been 9 days since my last post.  I'm certainly not doing a good job at keeping up with my posting, lately.  Reminds me of my journal just after I was married.  Except, back then, I often didn't even finish an entry - it would be left in the middle of the sentence, only for me to find it still incomplete 2 months later.

Anyway... I could blame my infrequent posts on a lot of things.  But suffice it to say that I'm sorry if you've been checking regularly, only to be disappointed!  I'm having a hard time, these days, finding a time where I'm ready and able to dedicate a good chunk of time to writing about my life.  ;)

The past week has been full of a lot of little (and some not-so-little) crises.  Shall I tell you about them?

Our good weather streak lasted a good long time.  Wednesday was the last day we were supposed to get really great weather, so we took ourselves out to the playground, which was now soft and muddy from the melted snow and ice.  The weather was so great, in fact, that Jacob didn't wear a jacket, and was just running around in his t-shirt.  I wore a sweater jacket, because I tend to get chilly no matter what, but I ended up feeling much too warm and a bit sweaty even in just that!

Since the ground was so muddy and gross, I didn't feel too keen on the idea of letting Alex just wander around.  So I put him up on the playground equipment.  I did my typical thing, where I let him go where he wanted to go, and just guarded the exit areas from the ground, so he couldn't fall off.  Well, that worked fine, until he crossed the equipment all the way to tall spiral slide.  Melinda was right with him, so I didn't get concerned, foolishly.  I just watched from the ground, ready to get him as he went down the slide.  I feel so stupid that I even thought it was a good idea.  You would think that I would be past these sorts of mistakes by my third child, wouldn't you?  At any rate, it wasn't a good idea.  Alex was having such a good time walking on the playground equipment, that he just kept right on walking when he got to the edge of the slide.  Probably because he's not terribly familiar with slides yet, and doesn't treat them like stairs, which he's generally wary of.  All I could do was watch with horror as he stumbled down towards the first curve of the slide, which was as tall as my upstretched hands.  As soon as his hips collided with the edge, the momentum carried him headfirst over the edge of the slide, hurdling towards the ground.  I yelled in horror and dashed to that side of the slide as fast as I could, instinctively hoping I could catch him.  But of course, I'm not that fast.  I watched him, almost in slow motion, tumble through the air towards the ground, my reaching arms being too far away to afford any help.  After he flipped headfirst off the side of the slide, his legs sort of cartwheeled over his head, and he ended up landing with a low thump on the soggy woodchips in quite possibly the best position one could hope for, after falling from such a height: He landed completely horizontal to the ground, partially on his side, so that it at least looked like his shoulder, hips, feet, and head all connected with the ground at the same time.  He started crying instantly, and I scooped him up just a split second later, clutching him close to me and then inspecting him.

There was not a single scratch anywhere on him, not even a mark from any of the woodchips.  No bruises.  Nothing.  It was the luckiest fall I've ever seen in my life.  But of course, Alex was pretty scared, after falling a good 7 feet down to the ground.  Holding him tight and rocking him wasn't helping him calm down.  I was so glad I had the ultimate baby-calming weapon:  Nursing.  As soon as he started sucking, he was quiet and calm, even if his eyes still looked spooked.  And I just sat, trying to calm myself down, too, feeling stupid and foolish for letting my 10-month old navigate the playground on his own.  Guilty as I feel about it, you can probably bet that he won't set foot on a playground without me holding his hand the entire way until he's almost 3!

After we were finished playing at the playground, we headed home.  I practically had to rip them away, even though their only playmate was a little boy who barely spoke a word of English.  They were having so much fun having anyone to play with at all!  It seems to rare that we run into other children while we're out.  But we were expecting a UPS package, and they tend to arrive right around 5pm, and I didn't want to miss it.  As we neared our building, though, I saw that there was a UPS truck parked in front.  And then I saw the UPS delivery man go back into his truck with a rather large package in hand.  I knew it was mine.  So the kids and I totally booked it down the sidewalk, trying to catch him before he left.  Melinda thought it was great! Jacob, not so much.  He collapsed crying on the sidewalk about 100 feet from me, screeching that he was too tired to run (why is that never the case indoors?!?).  And of course, since he was collapsed, that meant he wasn't walking towards me, either.  So the whole time I'm there talking to the UPS guy and signing for the package, he's wailing on the sidewalk refusing to move another step.  Finally Melinda convinced him I wasn't running anymore, and he joined us, face red and streaked with tears.  And we got our package!  (I've never had to practically chase down a delivery guy before!)

We had done our taxes and got our returns back that week, and Jesse and I decided to buy Guitar Hero: World Tour (the band kit) for something fun to do with our money.  Most of our tax returns is going into savings, some of it is paying for car parts and repairs that we needed, but this one little thing, we're having some fun with.  And this package that I hounded the UPS man for was it!  We were so excited to get it, we didn't want to wait another day.

We've been enjoying our Guitar Hero fun since then.  Jacob took immediately to loving the drum set, and Melinda wasn't far after.  Jesse and I have fun teaming up to do guitar/drums on all sorts of different songs.  Even Alex has joined in the fun, and if he's down on the ground playing anywhere near the drums, he'll reach up and hit them with his hands.  I've played around with singing with some songs with the microphone, but for most of them, I'm just not familiar enough with them to attempt the singing.  At any rate, it's been a lot of fun, and a purchase we've really enjoyed.

On Thursday, the weather changed sharply.  A lot of strong winds blew through and brought cold air.  We visited a friend, and two houses down from her, a tree had fallen over, leaning on the power lines.  We didn't lose power or have any ill effects ourselves, though!  But we did feel sad, saying goodbye to the beautiful spring-like weather.

Saturday was Valentine's Day, of course. The kids really loved getting their own little mini-tin of four chocolates, and a Valentine card from Mommy and Daddy.  Jacob is still hanging onto his, even taking it to bed with him, despite it getting bent and a bit crumpled.  He has asked us to read it to him several times.  It has a picture of a monkey on the front, and I wrote "our little monkey Jacob" on the inside.  He giggles at that a lot. ;)  Jesse and I just exchanged boxes of chocolate.... maybe next year I'll suggest we just go to the store together and pick out our own favorites, hehe!  We don't tend to make a big deal out of this particular holiday.  We decided to go out to the Golden Corral buffet for dinner on Saturday.  It was full of really delicious food, as always.  I stuffed myself with too many good main course types of foods, and didn't have enough room in me to enjoy dessert, which made me really sad.  :(  But it is one of my favorite places to have dinner, with all the choices to pick and choose from.  And I really love their steaks!

Jacob had started sounding funny on Friday: His voice was just off enough that it seemed like a good throat-clearing would fix things.  But he started getting a runny nose and a cough just a couple days later, and felt a bit warm by Sunday night.  By Monday he was sounding pretty bad, with a hacking, phlegmy cough.  And Alex followed quickly behind him, with his own profusely runny nose, phlegmy cough and fever.  In fact, he was very hot on Monday night.  I'm guessing he probably had a fever around 102 to 103, though I never brought out the thermometer.  Despite his near-constant waking, he was in a fairly good mood for being so hot, so I wasn't too concerned.  He was pretty wide-awake at about 6am, so I changed his diaper (nursing constantly throughout the night has a way of filling those things up quickly!) and took him into Jacob and Melinda's room, since they had both migrated to our room during the middle of the night.  We laid on the bottom bunk - so that if I fell asleep and Alex was awake, he'd be able to wander around on the floor without being in any danger.  And when I set him down on his back next to me, he just laid still and "talked" to me for 10 minutes or so, pointing at my face, "honking" my nose, and eventually playing peek-a-boo behind a stuffed animal.  He had a smile plastered on his face the whole time.  So he couldn't be feeling too badly, could he?  He eventually talked himself back to sleep, which was entertaining to watch - usually he really fights sleep.  But neither of us got much sleep at all that night.  Poor little guy just couldn't stay asleep after every cough woke him up.   And if he wasn't nursing, he was coughing.  And for whatever reason, I just couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep through nursing for most of the night.

Today, Jacob still has a cough, but is looking better otherwise.  Alex sounds about the same, but wasn't so hot last night (and the fever was essentially gone during the day, and again during daylight hours today).  Unfortunately, my throat started tickling yesterday, and today I woke up with a headache, and I'm starting to have a productive cough, too.  Jesse feels about the same.  I've heard Melinda cough a few times, but somehow she has this amazing ability to skip most of the illnesses that circulate in our house.  I won't be surprised if she never coughs more than a few times total, you know?  So we're all sort of house-bound this week, besides doing the grocery shopping that couldn't be put off another minute, back on Monday.  Jacob is driving me absolutely up the wall.  He's throwing, hitting, pushing, and screaming almost constantly.  And Melinda is doing her part in teasing him and egging him on.  And I'm just too tired to deal with it to the best of my ability, anyway.  I'm lucky that I got them all down for a nap today, though Jacob was really fighting hard against it.  It took him 20 minutes to stop thrashing around constantly and just twitch or kick occasionally, to finally just slipping off into sleep.  And I doubt he'll go to sleep easily tonight.  I think we got spoiled with so much outdoor time last week, that these few days of being house-bound s really getting to him.

Also by Sunday, I was freaking out pretty badly about another potential crisis.  If you're afraid of "too much information", stop reading now.

Really, you've been warned.   I'm going into major girl-territory here.

After Alex was born, my cycles came back at only 4 months postpartum, despite my exclusive breastfeeding.  (And, as a side note, I always felt rather bitter and robbed because of that!  I got 15 months out of Jacob, but only 4 out of Alex, and over a month of that time included typical postpartum bleeding!!)  I had been keeping careful track of my cycles this time around, and though for a while they were rather unpredictable, I eventually evened out to a regular 26-day cycle.  Now, this was fairly short for me.  Pre-Alex, my cycles had always been 30 or 31 days.  Even back when I was a teenager, and even between pregnancies.  So this whole 26-day thing was a bit new to me, but I got used to the regularity.  So, Thursday was when I was expecting my next cycle to start.

By Saturday, still nothing had happened, and I was getting really concerned.  But it still wasn't on my mind constantly.  By Sunday, when we were home and had little else to do, I really was freaking out.  But I still hadn't worked up enough courage to take a pregnancy test.  In my mind, it was better to not be sure about anything, than to know for sure that I was pregnant with another surprise baby, only 10 months after Alex was born.  I wasn't ready to deal with that sort of reality, so I settled for just worrying endlessly about the possibility.  By Monday morning, I had had enough of torturing myself with guessing games, so I took the only test I had in the house.  But not until after I had a good quiet one-on-one pleading session with the Lord, where I both begged to not have a pregnancy yet, or to at least be able to accept His will for me, somehow.  Because while I don't think I would terribly mind a 4th baby in the house, even if it wasn't what I wanted right then, the thought of another pregnancy, at least at this point in time, absolutely was sending me into a panic.  There was just no way of thinking about it that made it sound like even a remotely good thing.  I just couldn't imagine carrying, nursing, and caring for a 10-month-old, super-active child while growing a giant, uncomfortable belly....among many, many other negatives that I thought of over the course of the previous few days.

I shook the whole time I waited for the results of that test.  It was a nice clear, strong negative, though, and I felt a little lighter.  Unfortunately, that particular test was also a year past it's expiration date.  And so I couldn't trust it completely, even though most of my Google searches told me that expired tests generally gave either ambiguous or false positive results, instead of false negatives.  I had to go grocery shopping on Monday, anyway, so I picked up a new pack of tests at the store, and took another test later that night.  I didn't shake quite so much, that time. 

Again, it was negative.  A nice, clear, strong negative.  I was happy, and so relieved!!!  But what the heck was going on with my body??  I felt like I couldn't be 100% sure about the results, despite how much I trust that brand of pregnancy tests, until my cycle showed up.  And so I waited, a bit anxiously

Finally, late last night, things started up again.  I don't think I've ever been so happy about it in my life!  I'm also not sure exactly what held things up, though.  Was it stress-related?  Or perhaps all those short cycles were anovulatory, and this time, ovulation started again, lengthening my cycles back out to my previous normal length?  Or maybe even a combination of both?  I'm not sure what to expect next month.  Sheesh!!

Now, see, I *have* to update more regularly than this!  This post was ridiculously long!!!

"Snow" Day

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, it seems like snow days were few and far between. Usually, if it did manage to snow, it would melt as soon as it hit the ground, and the roads would be covered in ice. And that was the problem. Our area simply didn't have maintenance equipment like snowplows and salt trucks. And much of the area is very hilly, so the ice could really be a problem for school busses. So more often than not, when school was cancelled, it was due to the condition of the roads. Even still, cancellation was pretty rare, if my memory is right. More likely, school would be delayed a couple hours - long enough for things to warm up enough to turn everything back into slush.

In Rexburg, Idaho, where Jesse and I both attended college, it's snowy all winter long. Frigid, nose-hair-freezing cold, horrific biting winds, and lots and lots of snow. I can't remember anything being canceled in Idaho. Even when the roads were covered in at least 4 good inches of solid ice, the show went on.

Then we moved to Colorado. Oh, the snow! It really has a tendency to dump in large quantities (especially as spring approaches) right there next to the base of the Rockies. Still, they had plows ready for the occasion, because they know it's going to snow frequently. And they didn't salt - they used gravel, and sometimes a liquid de-icer. But it seemed like snow was hardly an inconvenience, most of the time, because all that snow equipment would be out there taking care of it in a very timely manner. And of course, most often, the sun comes out the very next day and melts everything. Man, I miss Colorado weather.

So it was quite a surprise when we moved to Maryland. Here I was, thinking - Hey! Northeast! They get snow all the time! And when we drove our moving truck closer to our first apartment, we kept noticing these odd signs: "Snow Emergency Route". What did that mean, we wondered? Did they really get that much snow in Maryland?

Well, soon we figured it all out. Yes, Maryland does have snow plows. And they salt their roads (much too liberally, in my opinion). But they do NOT know how to function when it snows. Not. One. Bit. We watched the local news stations with incredulity when the first snow of the season was forecasted, our first winter here. "Oh no, look out! There's snow in the forecast! We might get a whole inch!!!!" Grocery stores were innundated, shelves made bare. Schools were cancelled based on the forecast. No bothering to wait until morning to see what would actually happen. And that snow forecast was turned into a warning on the TV screen, bleeping an annoying sound every so often, reminding us of the impending danger: Snow. TV shows were interrupted so the weatherman could spend another 5 minutes explaining exactly when snow would be coming, which counties would be hit. It was like a hurricane was coming... only it was just an inch of snow. Maybe. And the whole point of those Snow Emergency Signs? Those are the roads that take priority with the plows.

We quickly learned that for us, snow is no big deal here in Maryland. We wait for it anxiously every winter, go through annoying amounts of rain or sleet before we get to it, and rarely get enough accumulation to write home about. Or enough to even play in, for that matter. It seems that Maryland is right on the border of all the good weather - our friends in the York, Pennsylvania (less than 1hr north) area often get a good amount of snow when all we get is rain. It makes us very, very sad. Still, while the snow is no big deal for us, it seems like the natives here just don't know what to do with themselves. Well, maybe they do know: They go into a full-scale panic.

At any rate, we got some snow yesterday. It was so lovely to see the pretty, fluffy whiteness covering everything. But, as with every other snow we've had this year, the rain soon followed. The snow changed over to a wintry mix last night, with a possibility of freezing rain (which, granted, is a big mess) for overnight/this morning. But in the 5 1/2 years we've lived here, we still haven't adjusted our attitudes. Jesse got up for work just like normal, drove to work with a mere single half-slip as he turned a tight corner, and showed up to a nearly empty office. He looked at his phone - it was blinking. There was a message. Work had been cancelled. He caught up with the other lone co-worker there and told him the news, since he had obviously missed the message, too. And then he went back out to the roads, grabbed some donuts from the grocery store, and came home.

And I, who had not yet dragged myself out of bed, was pleasantly surprised by extra morning snuggles and yummy chocolate donuts. The kids barely reacted, they simple exclaimed "surprise!" when he walked through the door. As if they were surprising him. Which they do every time he comes home.

So we had a lazy day around the house this morning. Jesse took a mid-morning nap. We made shrinkeydinks. Then we decided to grab some paper supplies for some crafts, and get our tax software and a new Norton Antivirus. The roads were all perfectly fine. The parking area right next to our van, in front of our apartment, was interesting, though. In the parking spots where plows can't reach but cars hadn't been parked, there was a layer of snow topped with a layer of ice. Jacob managed to slip on it despite being as careful as a 3-year-old can be. He slid onto his bum, and giggled. And that was the height of the danger today. But oh, you bet, work was cancelled, schools were cancelled, the whole shebang! Because here in the mid-Atlantic, weather is SCARY. Apparently. Though, I think anyone who isn't native really wonders what all the fuss is about.

Our new President even agrees with me. ;)

WASHINGTON – You call this bad weather? President Barack Obama, steeled by many snowy Chicago winters, expressed disbelief Wednesday when his daughters woke up to find that their classes had been canceled for the day.

Schools in Washington and the surrounding suburbs either opened late or scrapped all their classes because of icy conditions.

"Can I make a comment that is unrelated to the economy very quickly?" the new president told reporters at a gathering with business leaders. "And it has to do with Washington. My children's school was canceled today. Because of, what? Some ice?"

The president said he wasn't the only one who was incredulous.

"As my children pointed out, in Chicago, school is never canceled," Obama said to laughter. "In fact, my 7-year-old pointed out that you'd go outside for recess. You wouldn't even stay indoors. So, I don't know. We're going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness."

Asked if he meant the people of the national's capital are wimps, Obama said: "I'm saying, when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things."

DISCLAIMER: To my local, perhaps native friends reading this blog: I don't count you among the insane. You all know better than to follow weatherman-induced, lemming-like panic. ;) And I love you for it!

What a Day!

You know, I'm tired. 
I haven't managed to get caught up from picking Jesse up from the airport, yet.

His plane was delayed about an hour, so instead of leaving here at 10:45pm, I left at 11:45pm.  I had nursed Alex, given him a fresh diaper, and into his jammies/jacket/shoes & socks, and he fell asleep at about 11:15.  I got the other two kids ready, and then we headed out the door.  As soon as I picked up Alex, he woke back up.  And the second his bottom hit the car seat, he started crying.  At first, it wasn't too bad - it was the kind of crying that led me to believe he'd be asleep before we even got to the freeway.

I was wrong by a long shot.  A very, very LONG shot.  He cried the entire way to the Dulles airport.  An hour and a half, folks.  And I could do nothing to stop it.  I kept thinking to myself, "Surely he'll fall asleep before we reach I-70", and a million other variations of that.  I tried to soothe him as best as I could. But by the time we reached I-95 over half an hour later and ran across a rest stop, he was still screaming, only a million times worse, and I was in tears, too.  So when I saw that rest stop exit, I jumped across three lanes of traffic to take it.  Once parked, I bolted out of my seat and ran back to the side of Alex's seat to try and soothe him again. I thought for sure he must want to nurse, since nothing else was calming him.  But I was wrong.  He wouldn't even try to latch on, and I tried a good 5 minutes!!  I was at a loss. No nursing, no pacifier, no diaper change needed.  All I could think is that he was dead tired.  He had managed to stay awake from about 3:45pm until he fell asleep at 11:15 before we left, and of course, then he only slept that half hour before I picked him up.  So I concluded that he was simply overtired, accepted that there was nothing I could do for him, and started back on our drive, thinking he would hopefully fall asleep soon.

But as we kept driving, he kept screaming.  Poor soul, I prayed so hard that he would be soothed and just fall asleep, but it took so much longer than I ever imagined it would.  When we passed the temple on I-495, almost an hour into the trip, he was starting to have small breaks between crying, like he was about to fall asleep.  But he would always start back up again with renewed vigor.  It was simply tortuous.  Finally, finally, he fell asleep within sight of the airport.  Almost a full hour and a half later.  Just two minutes before Jesse called me to tell me he had arrived. 

Luckily, Melinda and Jacob didn't cause a fuss.  They stayed amazingly awake, too, and fell asleep only minutes before Alex did.  All three of them stayed asleep the whole drive home. 

Jesse joined us in the car around 1:30am, and we started the drive back home.  We missed the exit back to 495 (poorly marked - it gave me trouble on the way home from dropping him off, too, but it was daylight then), and had to go a few miles on a different highway, then backtrack, before we could resume our journey.  We got home just about 3am, and had to transfer all the kids into their beds.  Melinda freaked out (she doesn't do well at this sort of situation) and couldn't/wouldn't walk.  I had to carry Alex, of course, and Jesse was going to carry Jacob, but it turns out that he was perfectly fine with walking, though he should have been more out of sorts than Melinda.  And so Melinda was carried in.  Funnily enough, Jacob fell back asleep almost instantly, despite the walking in the cold and back inside, up the stairs, but Melinda had some trouble.

After getting Alex back to sleep, too, I got myself ready for bed as quickly as humanly possible, and laid down on my pillow at promptly 3:21am.  Much too late for grown, aging people like myself!  And even then, it took me a while to fall asleep, just like it always does, even when I'm extremely tired.  Luckily, since the kids stayed up so late, too, they slept in for us.  I'm actually not sure when they did get up, but I think it was somewhere around 10am.  I personally stayed in bed until almost 11, but it still wasn't enough.

On Monday, Jesse took the day off, sensibly.  He needed the sleep, too, after all.  We actually got snow on Monday, FINALLY!  We enjoyed watching it fall most of the day, on and off, but it still only accumulated barely enough to cover the grass.  It was kind of humorous, there was a group of children across the way that were at the top of the hill with their sleds when the grass was only half-covered.  I'm not even sure how well their sledding attempt could work.  If that doesn't give you and idea of how long it seems like we've been waiting for snow, I don't know what could. 

We decided to cut the kids' hair while Jesse was home.  Melinda was way overdue for a trimming of her bangs (since she doesn't want to just grow them out), and Jacob was looking more and more like a big ball of hair than a little boy.  Jesse just trimmed the back and sides of his hair, and a teeeeny bit of his bangs, so he looks more presentable now.  I did a fairly good job with Melinda's bangs, if I do say so myself, and got them just the right length and almost perfectly straight on the first pass with scissors.  Jesse re-buzzed his hair just before his trip.  Now I'm the only one in desperate need of a haircut.

After they had their hair cut and a good long soak in a bath to get the itchy pieces of hair off, the snow was coming down pretty good again.  And we realized that if we weren't going to completely fail at parenting, we needed to get them out in the snow to play while it was here.  Because if we've learned anything this winter, it's that we aren't getting much snow at all.  And kids love snow, of course.  It just was too bad for us that we were so tired and didn't really want to go out in the snow...

So, we rushed around, getting them dry and in two layers of clothes, mittens and coats on, and Jesse took them out to try and catch a few snowflakes before they stopped again.  I ran around trying to find a bunting to put Alex in.  I hadn't really bothered looking earlier in the winter, since we weren't getting any snow.  And after a few minutes of looking, I was only seeing a rather small one, but I gave up and squeezed it into him, anyway.  Poor kid could hardly move in it, and fell down and could only pretty much lay there while I got my shoes and coat on.

Which is why I am embarrassed that I actually put him down on his feet once we got outside, expecting him to be just fine.  What can I say?  Can I blame sleep deprivation?  But yes, within one second of me putting him down, he fell forward and face planted right into the snow.  Oh, I felt so terrible!!  Even for someone who knows what snow feels like, it's an absolute shock to get snow in the face.  But Alex didn't even know what was coming!  I wiped off the icy wetness as quickly as I could, but his face turned so red.  I was lucky that he was too curious about all the snow to complain very long.  I sat him down to explore it a little, and he could still hardly move around. 

Melinda and Jacob were having fun, too.  Jacob was almost exclusively trying (and succeeding, despite our warnings) to eat the snow, while Melinda spent her time almost exclusively throwing handfuls of snow up into the air.  We didn't venture far from our apartment, and we don't have a sled this year, so we ended up not staying outside very long. 

I took dinner to a woman that night, so I got to drive in the snow. Only our parking lot was bad, the streets were well-salted.  But I admit to having a little too much fun doing a little fish-tail around a parking lot corner.  ;) 

We got the kids into bed as soon as possible that night.  It was obvious that they were very tired - they complained of being hungry but wouldn't even touch their dinner.  They fell asleep quickly, which was nice, and Jesse and I watched a movie.  And went to bed early.

And here it is Tuesday now, and I still feel like I crossed a few time zones instead of just picked up my husband from the airport. 

Alex is cranky, he's definitely teething.  Whether that's the source of his runny nose or not, I don't know.  But he's got a 7th little tooth just barely poking out of his gums.  It will be his 3rd one on the bottom. 

I watched the inauguration on TV today.  Well, as much as I could.  It was hard to hear more than a few sentences at a time coherently, with Jacob and Melinda literally bouncing all over me.  On Sunday, I summarized what Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is all about for Melinda, since she was curious.  It felt very meaningful to be celebrating that specific holiday just before today's inauguration.  I didn't vote for Obama, I voted for Chuck Baldwin, who represents my overall views better, but I still think Obama will make a good president.  And I won't deny that his speeches are very moving.  I'm hopeful that perhaps there will be some good changes made in our country.  And I'm certainly proud of step that the country has taken.  As he said in his speech,

"This is the meaning of [America's] liberty and our creed: why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath," the president noted.
"So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled," he said.

 It's certainly a day worth remembering, the day our 44th president took office.   I saw a link to a slideshow of American presidents today, and it sort of shocked me - I have essentially lived through only 4 presidents before this.  Reagan took office before I was 1.  George H.W. Bush was president when I was 9-13.  Clinton was elected and took office when I was 13 until 21, and George W. Bush was obviously president from then until now.  It's a little humbling to think I really know so little of American presidential elections... I only have a solid memory of 4 changes of power, if you include this most recent one with Obama, and you can hardly count when George H.W. Bush took office.  I was hardly concious of the political world at age 9, after all!

Anyway.  A new week.  My husband's home.  Our country's president is new.  What a day.  :)

Coming Full Circle

As I prepared to write this post, I realized a happy thing: My blog has come full circle.

The very first post I ever put up on my blog, weeks before I told anyone I was, in fact, starting to keep a blog, I posted about our first snow.

And here we are again: Our first snow of the year.

Now, of course, there are some major differences. One, there wasn't so much snow that we could run out and make snow angels. Two, this first snow is a few weeks earlier than last year's first snow. Three, I'm a terrible mommy and don't even know where my children's mittens and snow hats are, exactly, and the winter coats still need to be washed from last winter. Ugh.

They were all excited to see the snow. Even Jesse came home, giddy as a school child, about the snow he got to see during the day. But he also predictably complained that it wasn't a snowstorm. I know, dear, I thought, we don't live in Colorado right now. We can't expect snowstorms in November. I did let Melinda and Jacob venture outside on the porch to play in the snowflakes, but I'm afraid that was as much energy as I could summon for the event. Otherwise, I happily watched from the warm front room. And just to show how not energetic I've been for the past week... this snow happened on Friday. And it's now Tuesday night. I didn't want to put the effort into plugging in my camera, uploading my pictures to the computer, and then typing a really easy post. Wow, that sounds sad.

Jacob was just too funny... he kept grabbing Alex by the cheeks, and exclaiming, "It's SNOW, Alex, Look, it's SNOW!!!" Over and over and over. Melinda was practically bouncing off the walls, just thrilled with it all. (How did she know that snow would start in November, anyway??) And after they had finished playing outside (the snow finally stopped, and it didn't stick around on the porch long enough to be much fun, either), they came inside and warmed their hands with rice socks that I had thrown in the microwave for them.

And so there you have it. I haven't been blogging for quite a full year, but I've gone from one first snow of the winter season to the next first snow of the new season. It's all quite perfect timing, really, because I've been putting together my blog in book form through blurb.com, and I really wanted to sort of wrap it up in a meaningful way. What better way than coming full circle?

Here's to another magical and adventurous winter, spring, summer and fall ahead of me!

In the Wake of Hanna

Tropical Storm Hanna really didn't seem too tropical from our perspective. It came and went over the course of the afternoon. It made for getting completely soaked while we did some shopping yesterday, and there was some standing water on the roads (read: we got great big splashes while we drove!!), but otherwise, it was pretty tame. It wasn't windy at all for the longest time, and once the wind did come, it still wasn't as bad as some of the typical summertime thunderstorms that roll through.

By evening, the sun was coming out. There was a very pretty sunset, and the air left behind was so nice and fresh, completely countering the stuffy humidity we had during the storm. There were maybe a few random, very small branches on the ground, and more leaves than normal, but by evening, the roads were already looking dry, like nothing ever even happened. I was just thinking that Hanna did absolutely no damage in our area at all, when I was proven wrong. All the years we've driven to church, we've passed one house on a corner that has what we've called "the Moose tree". It's a nice tall tree, but only has a couple large branches at the top, that stick out and look like antlers. And the rest of the tree is covered in typical Maryland tree-smothering vines, so that once the vines get their leaves in the summer, this tree looks like one giant moose head. I've been meaning to take a picture of it for something like the last year, that's how much of a landmark it seems to our family. Every time we drive by - Look! There's the Moose Tree!! So you can imagine how much my heart fell when we came down the hill and saw that the storm did in fact do damage - the Moose Tree fell. That was the only tree in our 10-15 minute drive that had fallen. There were a few branches that broke from other trees, but typically pretty small branches.

ONE tree fell down that I saw, and it was the ONE tree our family just loves to look at and admire - the ONE tree I've been meaning to take a picture of for the last year or so, just so we could remember it after we're gone.

And it fell down before I ever got around to it.

I briefly considered writing a poem, "Lament of the Moose Tree" (for truly, our hearts lament!) Though I'm not sure I have enough words for it. So I settled for making a rough drawing in Photoshop, instead.

We'll miss you, fair Moose Tree.

Feeling the heat

We're in the middle of a pre-summer heat wave out here in Maryland. Not just hot, but oh so humid. Right now at 8:21pm, it is 92 degrees with 47% humidity, according to weather.com. That makes for a heat index of 96 degrees. At almost 8:30pm. Almost 2 weeks before summer even officially starts.

Every year as summer approaches, I try to hold off on turning on the air conditioning. It's just a huge electricity guzzler. Our electricity bill can easily double just by trying to keep the indoor temperature comfortable. I figure that if I wait to turn the A/C on, my body will get more used to the hotter temperatures, and then two things will happen: I will feel slightly more comfortable outdoors in the heat, and I won't need the A/C to be on quite so much. But it's so hard to resist the A/C when it's so humid! The air gets so moist that it feels hard to breath. Every single piece of your clothing sticks to your skin. And carrying around a 14+ pound baby to try to get him to sleep is nearly like walking into a sauna.

And yet, we've managed to keep the air conditioning off so far. (Well, except on one evening, when Jesse came home from the air-conditioned work office, to me using a stovetop burner and the oven at the same time, with nothing more than a fan running.) Today we've mostly avoided cooking hot food, or turning on the lights, and we've kept the blinds closed and the fans turned on, and cold water readily available. And at about 5pm, I remarked to Jesse how surprised I was that I felt fairly comfortable in our 80+ degree, humid apartment.

Now it almost feels like a challenge - when everyone else in the surrounding area has their A/C running full blast, how long can I keep mine off?? How well can I avoid that huge jump in my electricity bill?

At times like this, I seriously miss the Colorado heat. Sure, it'd get to 100 degrees in the summer, but it was dry heat. You don't stick to yourself in dry heat, you only feel like you're baking. That's a lot different from melting! (And, arguably, more comfortable?) Also, the very best part, it actually cools off after the sun goes down. Once it's dark, you can set up fans in your windows to circulate the air through the house, sucking out all the hot air and letting in all the cool air. If you do it all night, you'll actually need your blankets, because it gets down in the 60's, consistently! But here in Maryland? Tonight, we can look forward to a lovely 75 degrees with 67% humidity.... which is bad enough, but that won't happen until 4:00am!!! It's still going to be in the 80's through the 3 o'clock hour. Yikes. Not much potential for cooling off, there. I'm learning to sleep without covers, and with a fan blowing directly on me. Both would otherwise normally really bother me.

I know, I know, I *could* turn on the air conditioning to be comfortable at night. But that would just set up a pattern. If I get used to cool, dry air, I'll need it that much more! If a fan works, use it, I say!

As for my other goal of avoiding sweets, well, I've done really well, I think. I didn't freeze the birthday cake, though, and I've allowed myself to eat a piece every day since my birthday so far. Maybe I'll go ahead and send the rest of it with Jesse to work tomorrow, huh? But avoiding the sugar has really helped. I'm feeling much more strong against my cravings, now, and I'm feeling the cravings much less frequently already! So I didn't have a perfect week of no sweets, but I'm feeling much better about where I'm at. I lasted all the way from last Sunday until my birthday on Friday, and I've moderated myself since then. And I've snacked on a lot more fruits and veggies, yay! I'll try and keep up the pattern this week. Jesse's requested a pie instead of a cake for his birthday, so that'll be a lot less temptation in the house this week, too. I feel like I deserve a small pat on the back, at least, don't you? :)

Trader Joe's and Puddles

On Tuesday I decided to take the kids out to Trader Joe's. In hindsight, I probably should have avoided the store, since they have the most awesome snacks ever, and a million different kinds of them, but it's fun to go, and it tested my will power. I didn't buy any sugary snacks. Trader Joe's is one store I really wish they had back west, because I know I'll really miss it when we finally get around to relocating! If nothing else, you can always go and get a yummy sample. And Tuesday was no exception! They were giving out samples of pre-seasoned Mahi-Mahi fish, and lime-flavored rice on the side. I loved it so much I bought some for dinner. And after eating it for dinner, I wished very much that I had bought 2 packages of the Mahi-Mahi. We really need to eat more fish than we do. But I've never been much of a seafood person (sorry, Seattle upbringing, I have failed you!), and Jesse is just as bad.

And speaking of Jesse, the same guy who 2 days ago was rolling his eyes at me for eating pudding because it had sugar in it just handed me a spatula covered in melted white chocolate to lick. He's making my birthday cake. Oh well, a few licks won't hurt.

I managed to somehow forget my purse at Trader Joes. It also had my cell phone in it. I got up on Wednesday, intending to get ready and go to the MVA to renew my driver's license. Which is practically another story in itself - Jesse and I both renewed our licenses by mail this year, on the same day, and he got his 2 weeks ago, and there was no sign of mine. I called up the MVA and they said their system showed that it was out in the mail. I figured it was probably lost, but the very next day, I got a letter saying that for whatever reason, they were unable to create a new license for me, and that I needed to come in to the office and get a new one in person. I have no idea what happened, really, because they didn't need anything from me at all at the MVA office- they just snapped a new photo while I was there and sent me off on my merry way. Anyway, so I was just at the computer printing directions to the MVA, when I checked my email real quick, and saw a note from Jesse telling me about my purse's fate. I had *no clue* until then that it was missing. So Jesse drove all the way to Trader Joe's during his lunch break to bring it home to me. I'm happy to say that everything was still inside... I'm glad for honest Trader Joe's employees!

And what Melinda and Jacob love most about Trader Joe's are the balloons you get at the checkout counter. Unfortunately, Jacob's came loose from its string on our way to the car, and it floated away in the sky. I was surprised, though, that he didn't make much of a fuss about it. And Melinda shared her purple balloon very nicely. Even Alex had a good time with it!
After the whole MVA fun of Wednesday, we stopped at Target and grabbed a few things we needed. At the end of the trip, as I was browsing near the front of the store, Jacob started saying, "Look mommy, it's bed-night time! See? Bed-night time!" And I turned around and looked out the door, and sure enough, it was looking pretty dark outside. And it was only about 3:45pm. When we walked out to our car, it was already raining. When we were less than 200 feet from our apartment, the rain suddenly got so heavy that I could hardly see through the windshield. I haven't seen a torrent like that since one particular storm in Colorado, when I was driving home from work and the rain practically made rushing rivers through the streets. I love a good thunderstorm! But I didn't especially like the idea of taking three kids out of the car and into the house, along with a diaper bag and a few bags from Target, all in the pouring rain. So I decided to wait out the heaviest of it inside the car. We sat there for a couple of seconds, and talked about how cool it was that the rain on the car windows looked like we were going through a car wash. And then I decided to turn on the radio, and sure enough, there was a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, and it always seems like there are Tornado Watches in effect with those, out here. (The first time that happened, with the whole beeping alert on the TV and everything, I ended up a bawling bag of adrenaline locked inside our apartment bathroom, with a 10-month old Melinda with me, and I was sure we were going to die. I've learned my lesson about the Tornado Watches since then.) Anyway, the alert said that car shelter wasn't sufficient, and you should seek out indoor cover. And while I severely doubted the chances of a tornado striking us, even with as heavy as the rain was, I decided that I would never forgive myself if anything *did* happen, just because I wanted to avoid getting wet. So out of the car we went, and into the house. It took all of about .5 seconds for my Crocs-clad feet to be completely and utterly soaked.

Unfortunately I think I scared Melinda in the process of getting into the house, because I mentioned tornadoes, and then she had to ask what tornadoes are, and then I explained it perhaps a little too well for a 4-year-old, and she spent the next half hour bouncing between the in-motion weather radar on the TV, and cowering on the couch because of the thunder. "Why does Heavenly Father have to make tornadoes???" she demanded. And "Why does Heavenly Father have to make lightning that hits trees???" Well, *I* know why the weather works the way it does, but I had a really hard time trying to explain it to her without getting to technical, or too philosophical. I eventually ended up just trying to tell her about the fun parts of storms, and the good way they make rain that the earth needs. And don't forget the puddles!! I reminded her that thunderstorms are just as good at making big puddles as they are tornadoes and lightning. So she asked if she could go play in the puddle after the thunderstorm, and I promised her that she could. I almost forgot!! But she reminded me. So Jacob and Melinda went out back and got to stomp around in the puddle until Jesse got home and I needed to make dinner. They had fun! And Alex had fun watching.

In this first picture, Jacob has a stick that they found near the tree, and he's starting to swing it downwards, with a loud "HA!" sound-effect.

And this is the result he's after- I nice big splash!!

It didn't take long for Melinda to start kicking the water, either! This picture is very similar to the one I took in late May of last year, after a thunderstorm!!
And then they started pretending to play wolves, which is a new favorite of theirs, since they like to watch Jesse play Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii. The main character goes back and forth between "human" (or elf, I'm really not sure which, but it has pointy ears) and wolf, in this Zelda incarnation. So they pretend to be wolves.

And of course, they both got completely drenched and muddy, but it's all fun!! You can't beat a good bath after puddle-stomping!!I have a really hard time not remembering summers in Arizona, when I let the kids play out in puddles like this. It seems like we would always be in Arizona visiting my grandparents during monsoon season, and what great thunderstorms they would have there! I remember being at my Uncle Gary's house, specifically, and going out with my cousins during a storm or two, running down the curbs of the streets, and dragging one foot through the rivers of water that collected by the curbs. I remember how much fun it was to run around in the pouring, warm rain in the middle of a very hot summer. Of course, I'm not sure why I was allowed to run outside during an active thunderstorm (I think I know a little too much about lightning safety after my college Meteorology class), but I loved it all the same.

Winter didn't get the Memo

Winter is for snow!!! Right?!? Apparently, not around here. Last year, we got hardly any snow. I had all this snow gear for Melinda, ready to go, and it snowed less than a handful of times. This year, we've gotten all of 2 snows so far. It's been freezing cold since the last snow, but what happens in the last day or two? The weather warms up. Just in time for the clouds to roll in, and be too warm to snow. Definitely not snowing. Today it's a downpour of a rain. The last time it rained this much, it was a spring thunderstorm, and the kids splashed in the puddles. Like this:






































Now, here we are on the very first day of February. The day before Groundhog Day. And look what I see outside!! Just look!!
This is NOT snow!! This puddle is BIGGER than the puddle made by the spring thunderstorm that we splashed in last year! And this puddle is still growing!! It's still a downpour out there! No stopping in sight! Can you just imagine how much snow we would have right now if it were 8 degrees cooler?? Surely at least 4 or 5 feet! Oh the fun that would be, a good dumping of snow! But instead we get gray, wet, sloppy rain. *sigh*

Notice in this picture, you can even see the carrot in the foreground, the same carrot that was in our leaning snowman. The snowman that only finally melted, completely, a couple days ago. Because it was just that cold, even with days and days of sunshine. It was that cold, until a couple days ago, when, like I said, it suddenly decided to warm up enough to turn any potential precipitation into rain instead of snow. Bleh! It's enough rain to warrant a weather alert. And to close 21 schools and/or businesses in the area.

It's not that I *just love* going out in the snow. Or having my kids beg tirelessly to have me let them go out in the snow to play. Or even the cold that goes along with snow, or the scraping of car windows, or the slippery roads, or the ridiculous amounts of salt they cover the roads with at the first hint of snow. I just think it's pretty. And can be fun, if I'm in the right mood. But I just don't like rain that much. A good thunderstorm, sure! Love a good storm! But rain... gray, sloppy, wet, depressing rain.... Snow is so much better than that. Any day.

The leaning snowman

Today, we had the second snow of the season. It's been a while, hasn't it! I wasn't feeling that great today, but Melinda's incessant begging caused me to finally force myself to get everyone bundled up to go outside and play. It was the perfect snow for snowballs and snowmen. So, we went ahead and built a snowman. He was standing up so nice and straight when we built him. It was the first thing we did outside. We stayed out for about an hour, also playing with snowballs, and sledding down the hill again (thank goodness both kids were fine with walking back up after the ride down, I was happy to stay perched up on the sidewalk at the top of the hill!). When we came in, the kids had a nice "warming up" bath. When they were dressed again, we wandered back toward the front room and looked out the window - and the snowman was now leaning to the side. A couple hours later, it was getting dark, and the snowman was leaning even further over. We all thought he would fall down any second! Kinda looks impossible in the picture, doesn't it? When Jesse finally got home, he went outside to try and fix it. His attempt resulted in the beheading of Mr. Snowman! (But oh, the kids got a good laugh out of that!!). He quickly made a replacement head, but Melinda wasn't happy that it was smaller than the head he originally had.

Not that it really matters - the snow has already changed over to rain, and it's supposed to rain most of the night and be warmer tomorrow, so the snowman probably won't survive anyway.

Oh, and yes, the snowman has too many sticks. Melinda did the arms, but Jacob wanted to help too, so he gave the snowman a tail. There's also one sticking straight forward out of the bottom snowball... Melinda says that one is a belly button. Of course!

The First Snow

Ever since it got cold, Jesse hasn't been able to stop talking about snow. He just *loves* snow, he says! Can't wait for it to snow! Wants a long, snow-filled winter! Well, today it happened. We got SNOW! It basically snowed non-stop from 9am to 8pm, and we got about 3 inches or so total. The kids and I went outside to play in the white wonderland at about 2pm. Melinda was asking all morning when we could go out, but I wanted to wait until we had a decent amount on the ground, first.

The snow wasn't sticky enough to do fun things like build a huge snowman, but we did manage to squeeze snow together into balls to make a mini-snowman that is now sitting on the brick retaining wall next to our porch. He is complete with a mini carrot nose, tiny pebble eyes and mouth, and little stick arms. We've also had the sled out on our porch all year long, and it didn't take Melinda long at all to realize, HEY! I can go grab it myself! And she did. And poor pregnant mom, in her boots that are a full size too small (yeah, I bought them in college, waaay before pregnancy made my feet grow), then had to pull a combined weight of somewhere around 70 pounds around on the sled. The hike over to the hill was NOT fun. But we made it. And the kids sledded down the hill. It was great fun! Mostly for them, though. I still like snow, but playing in it hasn't seemed too attractive for a few years now.

Both kids could use some snowpants, and we could *all* use some snow boots. Melinda at least has boots that zip up and cover her thighs, so she wasn't in danger of snow getting in her shoes, but there isn't any insulation and no room for layers of socks, so her feet got really cold. Jacob only has one pair of shoes, since his feet are so darned thick (wide, by shoe standards) that it's hard to find shoes that will fit him and we always end up buying $40 shoes for him. I'm hoping winter boots, if I can still find any (because you KNOW the stores around here stop selling winter clothes before Christmas even rolls around, right? Time for swimsuits now!), will manage to fit him. I had to throw his shoes in the dryer when we were done so that he'd be able to wear them again when we left the house that evening. And of course his socks got totally wet and cold, too, not that he complained at all. And then there's me, with feet that barely fit into my boots. Oh, were my feet aching by the time we were done!

But it looks like warmer weather and rain are on the way later in the week, so we enjoyed the snow while we could. Even if Jacob insists on calling it "snowmen" (which sounds a lot like "it's opened") instead of "snow". And even if all they wanted to do was constantly eat the snow. Who cares if the neighborhood dogs might have done their business right there? Not them!