1/1/11

Since the rest of the world is sleeping off a late night party, we've made it a tradition to go sledding at Ski Round Top on New Year's morning. Here are all the grandkids (minus baby Landon) with grandma getting ready to receive their Christmas present: a 2-hour sled pass!
No snow in PA? No problem. Thank goodness for snow machines. Everyone remembers that big blizzard that hit New York City a couple days ago. Well, we got a dusting. The boys were so disappointed.

Harrison posing in front of the slopes.

Super-excited Zane.

Ewan chillin' on his tube at the kiddie hill.

Next year, buddy, you can try the real hill.

Abric making snow angels.

Keith and Lindsey taking their shift at the kiddie hill with the little ones.

Andy coming in off the hill.

The temp started to get up in the low 50s, so the snow was melting.

It became slush.

Slush is very slow.

Grandma coming in after a run down the hill.

Andy and the boys waiting to go up the lift.

Until next year! Hopefully it will be a little colder.

After sledding, we always go to Aunt Brenda's house for

the Pennsylvania Dutch traditionally

New Year's Day 'good-luck' fare of

pork and sauerkraut.

It sounded weird to me at first.

Now, I just can't get enough!

Happy New Year!

Got Snow?

After a doozy of a snowstorm last weekend, we got hit again! This blizzard was much worse because of the wind. We didn't go outside at all yesterday. It was lethal out there. Andy took this picture around noon-time on Wednesday.
Our backyard around 7pm last night. The gusts had slowed down a little bit, but you can still see the snow coming down. If the boys want to go over to the neighbors, I guess I don't have to worry about them ripping the seats out of their pants on the fence. They can just walk right over it.
My sweet husband shoveled last night for three hours from 7-10pm. He wanted to get a jump on those piles of snow in case it froze. I took this shot from the attic bedroom window.

He simply amazes me.

Seriously, look at the snow blowing across the picture.

Now for today. . . around 9am Andy looked out the window and then ran to get his snow gear on. Turns out some neighbors across the street were dumping the snow back on the pile in front of our van, which was therefore enclosing our van again. (I don't think they meant to be rude. There just isn't room for the snow, but I still think they could pile a little bit more on their side of the road.)

"Mr. Plow, that's my name. That name again is Mr. Plow."

Shoveling the sidewalk.

Our road.

Shoveled sidewalk.

Yet another picture of our backyard. Notice the swings and the wind carvings.

Anyone planning on grilling today? I didn't think so.

Abric at his favorite perch.

As a side note, Andy and I are just laughing at the fact that we have to try and move in the middle of all this. Our closing was scheduled for today, but we still don't have the Certificate of Occupancy--- the builder hasn't been able to get anyone out to inspect the house due to the weather. Our closing has been tentatively post-poned for Tuesday, with the holiday on Monday. The funniest part, when I was calling around moving trucks, one lady wouldn't even rent one of their trucks to us. She said, "These are our business trucks and we can't risk them getting into an accident."

We just keep telling ourselves that we will get through this! (I just can't wait until it is over!)

I had to call all the utilities and have the service start/stop dates changed. The schools are all closed, but I need to call them to let them know that the boys' transfer dates will be changed. Ay yay yay!

On-Street Parking

Having on-street parking is always an adventure. My favorite thing in the whole-wide world is coming home, usually from a trip to the grocery store, and finding that someone is in our parking spot in front of our house. Not that we actually own the road in front of our house, but it should be an understood thing. Parking gets even more exciting during a snow storm.
After the plows come through, you have to spend about 3 hours digging your vehicle out of a snowbank. You can be sure all the plastic chairs, laundry baskets, etc, will be coming out in full force to call 'dibbs' on that parking space.

Yours truly, included.

The Day After...

Sunday was a beautiful, cold winter's day. See how blue the sky was? That is a rarity in these parts. Because of the blizzard on Saturday, the entire city was basically shut down. Church was cancelled. We were able to just hang out at home, eat good food, pack some boxes. . .

. . . and play in our snow cave

(Zane and his friend, Ethan)

Some of us didn't like the snow cave as much.

(But Abric kept taking his mittens off and it was cold!)

This kid was ready to go in the house for a sippy cup of warm 'hot' chocolate.

Counting down the days when we don't have to shovel the alley between our house and the neighbor's house in order to prevent water in the basement during the thaw.

Snow heaps on our street.

Sledding down the snow heaps, head first onto the sidewalk.

Ewan tried to intimidate me with his giant snowball.

Abric decided he wasn't quite ready to go in the house, now that he was out of the cave.

More sledding on the heaps of snow in our front yard.

We then went to Andy's parents' house to celebrate Keith's birthday and to watch the Super Bowl. Cindy gave me this heated wrap for my back that has been HEAVENLY! It is so much more convenient than a heating pad and it has really been helping the muscles in my back relax. I can actually stand up straight now! That's progress!

The Blizzard of '10 !!!

We'd been listening to the forecast for days. On Wednesday and Thursday, the milk, bread, eggs, and toilet paper disappeared from the grocery store's shelves. We knew that a big one was a-comin'. Andy and I went to bed around 11PM to a couple inches of snow and we woke up to

this:

and this.... good thing our neighbors didn't have plans today.

We couldn't even see out of our bedroom window. Andy had to crawl onto the roof above our porch to clear the snow off of it as well as our satellite dish. (The thought of no TV all weekend .... gasp!)
Along with this storm came some nice wind gusts that caused some major drifting action. (I had a nice view from inside the house.)
We are talking almost three feet of snow on top of our roof. We think it all blew over from the neighbors across the street since there wasn't any on their porch roofs. The official count on the news this morning was 24 inches for Red Lion.

Zane was ready for a snowy adventure. He spent the most time outside today, came in twice for a glove-exchange, then went to his friend E's house for a playdate.

That wind was pretty wicked

Honey, I'm so sorry you had to shovel all that by yourself!

Ewan finally decided that he was ready to head out, too. . .

. . . until he got stuck. When you are only 3 feet tall, 2 feet of snow is a lot to handle! Harrison helped Ewan get inside. Harrison also helped Andy with a lot of the shoveling.
Abric and I were stuck inside. He was wishing he were out there and I was feeling helpless because I threw my back out ... again. ("Suckiest suck that ever sucked" kind of feeling.) We're only moving in one week and have two rental properties to get ready by the end of the month. No, I'm not stressed at all.
I'm just taking it one day at a time. That's all I can do. I have an amazing husband and 4 amazing boys, the two older ones who are really starting to pull their weight in this family. They've been unloading the dishwasher, carrying laundry, making runs up and downstairs for diapers, etc. My boys are taking great care of me.

As for today, we are taking a family snow day. I'm going to make this amazing bread recipe to go along with a big ol' pot of this soup. After dinner we'll pack some boxes. We have all day tomorrow to just be together and to pack a couple more boxes. Church has already been cancelled so we're not going anywhere.

Two-hour Delay

What do you do when you have a two-hour delay for school and your child gets a little mouthy?

Put him to work!

And make him put that energy toward something constructive.

2010- A Snowtube Odyssey

Here is the gang, all bundled up and ready for our traditional day of tubing at Ski Roundtop. (Thanks, Grandma and Pappy for the awesome Christmas gift of taking us all!)
Ewan and Abric hung out at the kiddie hill. They really had a blast, but by the time this picture was taken, they were both cold and wet.
Brie (in light blue), Harrison (in camo), and Zane (in black w/ the aqua tube) after a 3-man train ride down the slope.

The slopes.

After a day in the cold, we all headed to Aunt Brenda's house for the New Year's pork and sauerkraut. (I'm thinking it has to be a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition???) It sounds weird, but it is actually really good!

Happy New Year everyone!