COLD

The cold snap that hit most of the US was miserable.  We stayed home for a week, curled up in blankets with hot tea and hot chocolate.  But to have a little science fun, we took one of the coldest days and sprinkled some boiling water on it.  It was 12* with the wind chill putting us in the negatives.

When you toss the water into the air, it creates a larger surface area, turning the water into small droplets.  If it's cold enough, the droplets freeze, turning them into a cloud of crystals before hitting the ground.  Pretty cool, huh?

The week

We're finally starting to thaw out here. The snow was fun, but I'm glad to see it go. The ice was not so fun. It was a literal pain in my ass and I have decided to move farther south. My hip is healing. The pain has been significant - my whole left side has hurt and I looked like an old woman hobbling through the house. I'm feeling much better today. I still have a nice bruise on my hip...quite colorful.

Cody and I had been home ALL week, so while Bobby was off work on Sunday, we went to Books A Million and TJ Maxx to look around. Cody bought himself a couple books and Brit is saving up her money so she can purchase the new Maximum Ride book when it comes out on Valentine's Day. Man, that kid is excited about that book:)

I called Heather to see if they would like to hang out Sunday evening, so we ended up at her house and spent hours talking, laughing and eating. The kids had so much fun playing games.
After dinner, we watched Guardians of Ga'hoole. It was such a visually pleasing movie...very pretty. We really enjoyed it and now we want to read the book series. Great night with some of our bestest buddies:)

I won a giveaway on Gretta's blog and received a free copy of Soaring with Spelling for Cody. He LOVES it! He is excited about doing his lesson for the day. It's so awesome to find something he likes this much. Plus it has helped his confidence with his reading in other areas. Happy!


I've starting a new blog just for my photography: g m lackey photography
I've joined Esther in a fun weekly photo challenge...Project 52.


Let's see...what else? Oh, we've made homemade biscuits twice this week. Not just any biscuits. No...these biscuits actually taste great and don't resemble hockey pucks like my usual attempts. Seriously, I haven't been able to make biscuits...EVER. They've always been horrible. Not anymore! I'll post the recipe.

Ice is...slippery

and bricks and concrete are hard.

I need a moment to whine...please.

I went out to feed Logan at 5:00 yesterday evening. I stepped down the stairs to get the bowl, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground, trying to breathe and not throw up. I've jumped off horses before. Dropping to the ground because of your choosing is like slow motion. But this...this was so fast I literally had to figure out what happened.

I slipped on the ice on the step, smacked my hip/side on the brick step and landed on my ass on the concrete patio. I couldn't breathe...dear God that hurt. With me sitting on the ground, Logan thought I wanted to play, so I was yelling at him to get off of me. I couldn't move. I just sat on the ice and froze for a while. That was fun. I finally got up, got the dogs fed, took a handful of Ibuprofen and a hot bath.

This morning, my whole left side is hurting. I am VERY sore and bruised, but thankful I didn't whack my head or break something. It was just me and Cody at home, so if I had knocked myself out, there's no telling how long I would have been out there. Not that Cody wouldn't have helped me if he had noticed I was missing. I'm just not sure he would have noticed.

Ugh...I'm ready for Spring.

Snowzilla 2011

It started snowing around 8:00 Sunday night!

I could not sleep! I was so excited for the kids and worried about Bobby going to work the next day. I was not worried about his driving at all. He has lived up north and has driven in these conditions numerous times. I was worried about everyone else's driving.

While everyone else was in bed, I snapped pictures through the window. Everything was just so beautiful and bright.

I decided to try to go to sleep around midnight. Before I went to bed, I let Cassie out in the backyard.

She is not a fan of snow!

We were out there for maybe 5 minutes and she was covered with snow. At this point we had about 5".

I woke up at 3:00, and again at 4:45 while Bobby was getting ready for work.

Bobby leaving for work. He could barely get out of the driveway!

I just stayed awake after Bobby left. I was excited and I promised to wake the kids up early. Except they didn't mean 5 am early, so I had some time to kill.

Finally...DAYLIGHT!

I woke the kids up at 7:00 and we started playing at 8:00. Cody jumped off the porch first, did a face plant and just sprawled out in the snow...soaking it all in. Brit pretty much did the same thing:)

Poor Cassie

Completely tuckered out!

We were outside for about 2 hours when we decided it was time to go in. Cody had to come in once to thaw out while Brit and I played.
Before we headed in, we made our very first batch EVER of snow cream. It was GOOD!
Thanks for the recipe, Gretta:)

Along with their snow cream, the kids had hot chocolate and omelets for breakfast. Mmmmm.

Unlike Cassie, Logan LOVES the snow!

We went back out for another round of play around 1:00 and got to work building our snowman.

Of course, we played in the street, too. It's icy and slushy and perfect for sliding:)

Logan was barking his head off, so I looked and there were a couple guys in the alley rolling this HUGE snow...wheel. I let Logan know I saw them and it was okay. He started barking again. His mad "I'm gonna get you" bark. I told the kids about it so we went to the alley to see what was going on. Those guys had thrown snowballs at the fence...just to piss Logan off! WHY would you make a German Shepherd mad, people? Next time, I'll let him out...

The view of the alley

Back to the front yard...

Cody adding the carrot nose to our snowman, Frosty Maurice.

Round 2 kicked my hiney. By yesterday evening, I felt awful. I could not get warm. I was achy and sore. I was flushed and felt feverish. BLAH!

Bobby got home from work safely last night and back to work safely this morning. I pray that trend continues. I am better today. Not 100% but better. I can't make myself go back outside though. Thankfully the kids don't seem to mind.

All in all, this has been an amazing experience. We got about 8" at our house! It was the third largest snowfall ever recorded in our area! It has been the most snow the kids have ever seen. Only I've seen more snow than this once or twice. Pretty awesome:)

Sunset, Snow & Ice