I had good intentions of cranking out some blog posts this past week. I had four topics lined up in my head and everything. But then we had the craziest weather week EVER and I got sidetracked and didn't get them done. So instead, here's a recap of this bizarre week.
Last Saturday, the weather was glorious! After too much cold weather, the sun was finally out and it was warm enough to actually enjoy being outside. Matt was not feeling well so Katie Wynn and I left him alone and spent every single minute of the afternoon outside. We got out the garden cart she got for her birthday and she pushed that thing around EVERYWHERE!
She worked hard on repotting all of her plants, stopping only to watch the "choo-choos!" as they went by.
She also spent some time doing some serious coloring. The only thing I had for her to color on was a scrap piece of beaded board! Sad, isn't it? She doesn't know any different though...
Sunday after church we had a very lazy day at home. Had I known we were about to be cooped up in the house for a few more days, I would've made sure we got out of the house for a while! Instead, we bummed around and did laundry and watched movies and played all day.
We knew that bad weather was in the forecast but we honestly didn't think twice about it. We've had bad weather in the forecast every other week, it seems like. Sunday evening, the sleet started coming, though, and it piled up quick! We went about our nighttime routine, laid our clothes out for work the next day, and got in bed. Shortly after 10pm, our power went out. It's amazing how quiet it is in your house when nothing is on, no humming or buzzing or anything! I could not sleep at all; I just kept listening to branches popping outside from the ice and worrying about whether or not Katie Wynn was warm enough.
Around 3:00 am, after a freezing cold bathroom break, I decided to get Katie Wynn out of her bed and put her in between us to try to keep her warm. At 6:20 in the morning, I got the automated call from my office announcing that it was closed. It was about 58 degrees in our house and I was freezing! After four unanswered phone calls, my mom finally picked up her phone and we found out they had power. Hallelujah! We hit the road as fast as we could.
As we drove to my parents' house, we found the reason for the power outage. We knew pretty much immediately that the power wouldn't be on any time soon.
Obviously we were extremely grateful that my parents let us spend the icy/snowy day with them! I think we had about 4 inches of ice with an inch or so of snow on top of it. On Monday, Matt braved the roads a couple times to go check on our house and, even with a fire burning, it got down to 43 degrees! Around 5 in the afternoon, I went with him to pack our bags and I could see my breath in our living room. Not ideal!
Do you think any of us got a little stir crazy staying in the house all day? That's three adults, one toddler, two dogs, and a million toys all on the same couch.
Our power did end up coming on late Monday evening, but we were already putting KW to bed at my parents' so we stayed the night. The plan was for Matt to leave early Tuesday morning to test out the roads, and then I was going to hitch a ride into work with my Dad. Matt left before 6am and, after a looong, slow drive, finally made it to work. Dad and I were not so lucky. We left after 8am and never even made it onto the interstate. The roads were really backed up and we didn't want to get stuck in a standstill! That meant I got to spend another day hanging out with my girl (and my friend Emily and her twins who were now without power).
Wednesday morning I was going to work, no matter what! Matt got up early and took KW to daycare and then came back so I could follow him on the icy roads. Day three of the Ice-capades and this was still the view from our garage. You should be able to see two roads intersecting out there, but instead it was all covered in ice and snow!
It was a white-knuckles-gripping-the-steering-wheel kind of drive, but we made it to the interstate and then on to work. I'll be honest, after three straight days of staying in the house, I was kind of glad to be at work!
But then I was glad to see my favorite girl later that evening!
I saw on Facebook where one of my friends had let her kids go sledding in laundry baskets. Brilliant idea! I hadn't even taken Katie Wynn out to play in the snow yet, but I figured we could at least do that. So we joined her Daddy on his way to check the mail and got in a few rides before dinnertime.
She did NOT want to go back inside; she loved sledding! You can see in the picture above on the left that Matt was still in his suit and his foot is completely covered in the snow. We weren't able to stay out for too long.
One good thing about the two snow days this week is that Mom and I were able to make several new outfits for Katie bug! (Mostly her, I just did the appliques.) Here's our little model in her new hedgehog outfit before daycare. She looks so old to me in this picture!
Thursday and Friday were pretty much back to normal. The snow and ice have slowly started to melt away, though there is still a good bit of it in our flower beds. Go figure that today, Saturday, the sunshine was back out and we were treated with another great day of weather! A complete repeat of last Saturday.
Katie Wynn is so full of personality these days. She started her day today by insisting her pjs come off, putting her shoes on the wrong feet, and hanging out in Lolli's bed. You know, like you do.
We enjoyed a delicious breakfast with friends this morning and then ran lots of errands. This afternoon we were able to do yardwork and even walk to the park to play for a little while. And Katie Wynn took Lolli for a walk. Or Lolli took Katie Wynn for a walk. I'm really not sure.
Let's all pray that this nicer weather sticks around for a while. I'm so over the cold! And, we get to spring forward tonight. Aww yeah! I'm sure we'll have a rough day or two to recover from the lost hour, but it will be so nice to have more daylight hours after work. Finally!