My hero!

Fred's not normally the wuss - he works out diligently 3-4 days a week and I sit on my butt - but he's stayed inside since the snow began, other than a couple trips to the mailbox and I'm the one that's traipsing around and having a ball. So I was surprised when he said he was going out to shovel snow. And we don't even have a proper snow shovel. He wanted to be sure UPS or the mail carrier could get to the door with packages. (How did he know I have fabric coming today or tomorrow? He doesn't know I went a bit nuts ordering but it will probably be hard to hide it when it arrives since he's out of school LOL!) He came in for awhile - I thought he was finished - but he's back out there again. I've been whining about running out of toilet paper but he's working on the walk to the front door - that's not going to help us get to the Costco!

I talked to Rick this morning and he said he made it to Fred Meyer successfully yesterday, and that the CRV drove beautifully in this stuff. Good to hear as we need to venture the mile and a half to Costco very soon - we have only 6 rolls left! I can make do if we run out of many things but not that!

Tangled Threads is supposed to meet today at Kathi's, but she emailed all of us this morning and said we east town girls shouldn't try coming over to their side of town. She and Ted drove around their neighborhood and slid even with 4-wheel drive and slow speed.

Only two more sleeps until Christmas!

Equal time for Sophie!

Chelsea sent some great pictures this evening. They are an hour away to the southwest and apparently got the worst of the storm. An additional 7 1/2" arrived last night and today, giving them a total of 16 1/2"! And no - her nose isn't red from the cold - rather from a tumble she took before today.

Sorry, but I'm breaking my promise!

I know - I promised I wouldn't talk about the weather - but I just can't help it! When it comes to snow I'm just a child at heart. This is only the third time in 34 years that we've had snow like this. Usually when we have any at all it's about two or three inches followed by freezing rain. All I want to do is sit and look at it, and walk in it, and run in it, and catch snowflakes with my tongue. I'm going to make a snow angel this afternoon and have Fred take my picture!

We now have over 10". I walked to Starbucks again this morning - a great workout. The only place to walk was on the street - the snow beside the road was knee deep and hard to walk in because there is a layer of ice with snow on top and below. Sometimes I broke through and sometimes I didn't - that plays havoc with balance!

I did fall once - when I plowed through to the side of the overpass so I could take this picture for the blog - of course! I was too close to the freeway sign - it filled a bunch of the screen so I stepped backwards so I could move the the right. Picture this now - my right foot broke through the ice so I'm stuck to my knee, while the left foot is on top of the ice and about 10" higher. Sat right down on my fanny and couldn't get up. Managed to turn over but couldn't get to my knees because one was way higher than the other. Of course by now I'm laughing hysterically trying to stand up. Must have been quite an amusing picture for the few cars that went by! Finally managed to get to my feet but it took a few minutes.


Here is a picture of the surface of one of the major north-south aterials - and this is after the snow plow has been through a few times! All the roads looked like this - or worse. The freeway wasn't much better. Only a little traffic out and about. Good thing - the only place to walk was in the street - everywhere else the snow was just WAY too deep.

The coffee was so good it was really worth it. Figured I got enough of a workout I had a Venti 2% Peppermint Mocha Twist - probably half my daily points allowance. Oh well - I don't think we'll get to WW on Christmas Eve morning to weigh in anyway! When I got home I decided to make a snow angel - would you believe I've never done that? Fred thought it was extremely silly and stupid but I didn't care. And here I thought I was smiling - I guess I was just too cold! - and once again had to struggle to stand up, even with Fred's help LOL! You can tell how excited he was to have his picture taken!

More snow pictures - I just can't help myself. I love, love, love this! Though it's certainly playing havoc with travelers - the airport has been closed for 3 days now and hundreds of people are stranded. We may very well be celebrating Christmas with our kids sometime later in the week.

Catching up - thanks to the snow!

Not only am I behind with my blog reading, I'm also way behind with my posting. Hopefully that will change today. I have a bunch of posts in my head and a bunch of photos waiting in a folder called "temporary", where I store photos for the blog until I use them in posts. Lots easier than trying to remember which folders I put them all into. (I learned not to end a sentence with a preposition - I bet you did too - but I don't seem to care any more. Do you?)

It snowed all day yesterday from early morning to late evening. I walked to Starbucks again to meet Kim - I've been eating so much I needed to build up exercise points LOL! (Right now I've used my extra points for the week with three more days to go, plus the 11 exercise points I earned, and I'm two points in the red. Not a good way to lose weight - but at least I'm back to tracking!) When I returned I finished the rest of the Christmas decorating and then plunked myself on the couch to read blogs and watch the snow. What a pleasant way to spend a beautiful afternoon and evening! Fred measured for the last time a little after 9:00 p.m. -we had nine inches then. We had some freezing rain in the night, and now there is a crust of ice on top of the 9" of snow. We aren't going ANYWHERE today!

This is the most snow we've had in 5 years come January - could you hear me squealing and happy dancing? I'm sure you are sick of hearing about the weather but I can't resist - I adore snow and see it so seldom.

So I promise not to mention it again. I'll really try not too! But I can't resist posting a few more pictures, including some cute grandkid pics!

Still here!

We are still getting snow - it's so pretty! There was so much this morning that the roads were pretty treacherous. So I walked to Starbucks and earned myself several Weight Watcher activity points. (Good thing - weigh-in's the last two weeks have not been great - I've gained a total of .6 pounds.) In the second picture - taken of the golf course between us and Starbucks - you can see big clumps of snow falling.

The main roads were clear by mid- morning, so I went shopping after lunch. Each day the snow has been pretty much gone by mid-afternoon.
We're supposed to get more tonight, and then tomorrow through Sunday there is a possibility of 6-10" more, plus freezing rain on top of that. I guess the fact that it's melting each day isn't a bad thing. It's really iffy if we will head to Oregon tomorrow for a belated celebration of our daughter-in-law's birthday. That may have to wait until after Christmas!

Snow!

Not a great picture from my phone - and the amount of snow will look very puny to those of you who get snow every winter. For us snow lovers, however, this is enough to thrill us. Seems like we get even this much only once in every 3-5 years. It's still falling - I can hear my mother saying "ol' Mother Nature is shaking her feather bed!"

The "S" word!

The weather folks have been telling us for at least 5 days that we were to get more snow. Everyone around us got lots - several inches at our son's house and enough in the school district where DH works that he's had no school since Tuesday. But all we had was VERY low temperatures for us - the high teens in the day time and low teens at night. We got snow - tiny little pellets that looked like that pellet ice cream and blew away almost as fast as it fell. I was SO disappointed.

Then yesterday the temperature started to rise. It got above freezing for the first time in almost a week. And this morning about 6:30 a.m., as I was heading to Starbucks and then to watch Joseph, it really started to snow. It's still above freezing - 34 - so finally the flakes a huge and feathery and it's piling up on the ground and trees. I'm ecstatic! Fred is home so I called him, told him how to use the camera, and asked that he take pictures for my blog. He hardly ever takes pictures so hopefully he got some good ones that I can post when I get home! In the meantime I'm going to try taking some with my cell phone.

Stay tuned!

Rats and double rats!

They've removed the "S" word from our weather forecast. Now Friday is supposed to be windy and sunny with a high of 32 degrees. Apparently something is either holding the warm moist air off the coast of causing it to go to the north or south of us.

They promise me snow at least 2-3 times a winter but it hardly ever happens. Rats and double rats!

I guess the plants will be happier. :-)

The "S" word

Here in the Pacific Northwest we hardly ever hear the "S" word - at least along the west side of the mountains. Being in Vancouver we can get very cold east winds through the Columbia River gorge, but they are usually accompanied by crisp blue skies and cold temperatures. If by any chance they meet a moist low pressure system coming in from the ocean the precipitation almost always falls as freezing rain. Every winter I have "snow envy" of all my friends around the country who see the beautiful white stuff every winter. I can almost count on one hand the times we've had a good snow that lasted more than a couple hours in the almost 32 years we've lived in this house.

A couple January's ago we got such a snowfall - so bad that they even closed the credit union where I work for two days. We got 8-10 inches of snow, which was immediately followed by freezing rain. Of course my hubby always gets it off - as soon as the bad weather starts school is cancelled. I've posted a few pictures of that time. It's so rare I run around like a idiot snapping pictures to save for posterity. The bushes and trees were all covered with a thick layer of ice, and we had icicles 8-10" long hanging all around our roofline.

Well . . . the weather forecasters are using the "S" word now. Biggest chance is for Friday. I'll believe it when I see it. Often when snow is promised us nothing happens. But I've got my fingers crossed. You'll know if it actually happens - you'll be able to hear me singing and doing a happy dance. Unfortunately there will be plant damage if it gets really cold and stays for awhile, but it's highly unlikely that will happen. Our forsythia is bursting into bloom and the early crocus and snowdrops by the front walk have been blooming for a week. Most everyone around here hates snow - no one knows how to drive in it and with lots and lots of hills it makes getting around difficult. But I don't care - I'll shout it to the rooftops - I LOVE SNOW!