Proud Moment

I know that my husband did want this posted, but there are no pictures. But Drew managed to have his first need for the plunger last night. I must record all important moments to remind him when he gets married!

Dirt Cake

Scoggins - we haven't forgot you or your dirt cake. Dirt cake was good and only lasted one day.

Ally wants to know if Trip has learned about boyfriends because she is about ready to move on, but we want her to stick with a "good" boy!

Snow - Enough

I know that my blogging has been sparse lately, but my head hurts, school is crazy, there is tooooo much snow and it is cold!

We have only had 6 FULL days of school this month - 5 no school days, and a couple late starts or early releases. You can imagine what the indians are like in the classroom! We haven't been in school this week due to another 8 inches on top of the 10-12 that we had (and didn't melt yet). There is snow everywhere. Piles and piles and you can't even see around the corners. The stupid weatherman is predicting more snow, but hopefully this will be light. He did say we were in for another batch early next week with some ice to start it off again. There is already 2 inches on ice on the road. My van doesn't stop or start the way it is.

Soapbox: Supposedly the county, city, state whoever is "out" of snow removal money. This seems to happen every winter about the begining of February. HUMMMMM I see a pattern - put more money in your budget. So their solution - only work during the day and take over 2 days to get to some of the roads. Which doesn't allow us to have school since the big yellow bus can't get down the gravel roads. I think they have only been through our subdivision 3 times since Sunday. ARGHHHHHH

Valentine's day was filled with antipication of you guessed it - more snow - not much though. We enjoyed our heart shaped pizza, jello and brownies. The junior high kids at church set up a FREE babysitting night on Friday which we took full advantage of. Ally and Drew loved it too. (This was our Valentine's picture at supper but I missed the heart when setting up the camera.)


Conferences tomorrow night, wedding coming up, stuff to buy and stuff to get done - pray that we will keep God in the center through the business of our life!

My Princess (and the Muskateer)

It has been a crazy weekend with just business and not much news. We did take the kids to the Veggie Tales movie this weekend. It was pretty scary. Our kids watch several Disney movies with "bad men" in it. They usually just have to close their eyes for a second, but this seemed to be a little too much for them. Drew kept telling us afterwards that it had scary rock men.

Rachel's wedding is coming up fast. I pulled out Ally's dress to check for any alterations that might need to be done. I actually had to have her breathe in to zip it - ribs in just one spot!

Drew is insane and wakes and sleeps "muskateer." This boy has quite the imagination. I picked up a Mickey Mouse - Three Muskateer video last week. Now we have "sword" fights with the bats. We save princesses (or stuffed cows).

Ally has been dancing and loves to dance with her Daddy.

I Want to Cry

Today was looking to be a great day - 2 hour late start! That typically means that we can take our time getting ready. I like to get to school a little bit early so I can get some stuff done. Well that didn't happen.

I got the kids ready. We even got a good breakfast! The van was pack full of backpacks, snowpants, boots, extra shoes for me, my bag, lunches, purses, cell phone, etc. I got in to start and pull out - no such luck. Click, click, click... Jason had just called and was close, so I tried him but he couldn't get to me for half an hour then I notice the low tire as I am walking to the neighbors to hope that Ryan was still home. Nope, I try Jeff, nope. Then Stu answers and comes over immediately, but it still won't start.

I guess I am trying to dig out the truck in my skirt from underneathe the 13 inches of snow on top of it with a good layer of ice. Ryan comes back home and backs it out for me since it was buried in - who thought when we bought it we would have really needed the 4-wheel drive???? We got it out and Jason was finally home. Then he noticed the that window wasn't quite up and he couldn't get it to stay up - what?!?!?!

SO in the end we decided to put the kids in his car and he would take us to school. Carseats out of the trunk, buckled in, kids in, truck unloaded and my stuff moved for the thrid time. Getting into the car, my cell phone rings and tears come to my eyes - Graf.

You got to be kidding - stay home the secondary roads are too bad - school is canceled. Kids out and stuff unloaded (for the 4th time) to the house to stay. Jason is off to work.

Results are In!

If I were to guess about how much we got, I would say about 12+. The picture below is Jason blowing it out the 3rd time. The snow plow had just come by giving us a 3 foot drift in front of our driveway. We got another 5 inches after he did this. It stopped snowing about 3:00. I think the snow blower was our wisest purchase this year!


The kids headed out with the neighbor kids while their mom and I talked - watching her husband clear snow out. Drew wasn't being very cooperative in getting his picture taken. He was more interested in putting the snow where I didn't want it.

And to top the day off - I just got a call for a late start tomorrow. The county pulled their snowplows at 4:00 and won't be out until 4:00 a.m. We are expected to get some good winds tonight to blow it all back in the roads. Our snowplow hasn't been back since 8:00 this morning.

Snow Day Activities

Aunt Jane would be very pleased! During snow day #1, Ally was messing around on the piano when I decided to get the lesson books. We talked about how to sit at the piano and how to hold a bubble in our hand. We talked about space and line notes, high and low keys, black and white keys.

We learned where F and G were on the piano and on the staff. She worked on her first song - not a real exciting one, but she can do it by herself. You can hear her throughout the day go over and play her song.

I wish I knew how to teach my own daughter effectively - any tips? I will be so much cheaper than finding another teacher!

Start the Snowblower Up!

When the weather guy says that you will see about 10 inches of snow, but somewhere close to us could get up to 20 inches - you know it's gonna be fun! I hate all these 2-3 inch snows! I finally got the big one that puts us at home except for the crazies that have to go to work!

Jason blew the driveway last night with less than 2 inches on it. The big snow was comeing after midnight and produced a little less than an inch an hour. He worked on the driveway about 5:30 and by the time he got in there was another 1/2 inch on it. He just left for a meeting at the hospital and there was a solid 2 more on it. Will the trash guys come today?

We are suppose to get it steady until this afternoon which then I will pull out the ruler and see our totals! I haven't seen a snow like this since my senior year of high school or maybe I just don't remember it since Iowa State wouldn't have canceled classes for it!

Super Bowl with an Added Bonus

You would think that winter was never going to end around here. We can't seem to get a BIG snow, but these 2-3 inches pop up about every other day it seems. Another storm surprised us on Saturday morning. The kids were thrilled since it was perfect to play outside in with Ethan. The fun stopped ebruptly when Drew got a snowball in the face.

It was fun to see my cousin Matt and girlyfriend Ashley. Ashley was a hit with Ally since she pretended to be princess Jasmine with her. She let Ally put make-up on her and paint with her new glitter pens. On Sunday Ally wished that she could call Ashley and tell her that she could come over anytime and play with her - let Ashley know Lou!

Sunday night we got a really big surprise snow storm. In some places they got 12 inches of snow in about 4 hours - we only got about 4. It was insane but didn't stop our Super Bowl fun! We got a babysitter and her awesome Dad dropped her off so that I didn't have to trek out in the crazy snow. We made it to our friends house and enjoyed a good game and good food! I could have cared less about it but wanted Manning to win. I was just excited to not have to worry about my kids running around destroying things!

Just as I walked in the door, I got a call about a 2 hour late start! YES. About 7 this morning they called it off all together. I know that many of you have to still go to work when it is snowing, but this is one of the few perks of being a teacher. About mid-morning our neighbor Val called and asked if the kids could come over and play. I have gotten so much done - taxes, check book, picked up, laundry. The kids had fun and were angels not even bothering Val!

Now it is nap time and I hear were are one for some more snow on Tuesday night with chances (only chances) for significant accumulation! At this point in February we will not have a complete week of school - conferences and professional development on several days!

Early Training

On Saturday morning Ally decided to help me out and asked - yes asked - to wash the dishes. I am not crazy and decided I would take the help even though there was more water on the counter and floor than in the sink. She is very proud of her accomplishments! I hope we can continue this streak until she is 18 but I don't have high expectations for it!