Baby it's cold outside

I'm 35 years old and still get giddy at Winter weather advisories. Even though we seem to be getting more rainy cold weather than actual snow. Each year I can't help but hope we will get that big snow and can actually take the kids sledding. I think about 4" is the most snow we have had in awhile. We still try to make the most of it.

How exciting is it to wake up in the morning and look out the window to see a fresh blanket of white snow covering everything. And then check the news to see if they have canceled school yet or not. And in my kid's cases, probably not. More than likely there will be school, but occasionally they may get a snow day. We will be thankful for that in the summer no doubt.

This last bit of weather included what they call a Polar vortex. It gave us below temps for the first time in years.

The bad weather started Sunday, January 5, 2014.  Which also happens to be Amelia's birthday.  I will do a separate blog for her for that though.

We had church Sunday night at 5 instead of 6 because it was supposed to get bad that evening.  It was hard to believe the weather was going to get bad though because Sunday was such a warm and pretty day.  After lunch we went to the grocery store because we were in desperate need of food anyway, but especially knowing the weather was gonna get bad.  I couldn't believe how bare the shelves were.  I mean they were ridiculously empty.

Sunday night I kept looking out the window.  In 15 minutes our yard and vehicles were completely covered in snow.  The wind was awful.  It was so scary yet exciting at the same time. 

Monday morning weather

Monday morning, I got a text from my friend Sarah letting me know that school had been canceled and that I could go back to bed.  And that's exactly what I did.  Except I did pray for awhile for everyone's safety that had to be out working and driving in this mess.  Especially Maynard that had to drive a fed ex truck.  I felt so sorry for him working out in that cold, bitter weather.  But I must not have worried or prayed too long because soon I was snoozing away.  We had a very lazy day and we enjoyed it to it's fullest.  We had gotten a day's extension on Christmas break and it was wonderful.

Tuesday morning we woke up to this.

Tuesday morning temperature

Keep in mind that -4 is the actual weather, but the wind chill was worse than that.  Even more amazing is that the kids had school Tuesday.  A 2 hour delay of course so Titus didn't have school, but Josiah did.  I'm sure the 2 hr delay helped some.  Not sure it made a whole lot of difference for us.  The roads were pretty bad including the school parking lot.  This Momma was thankful that Maynard had an unexpected day off from work and was able to drive Josiah to school.

This cartoon cracked me up.

 Since the weather was so freezing cold we tried a few experiments.  Once was where you throw boiling water outside and watch it turn to vapor.  It was pretty neat.  I took a video of that  so I'm gonna try to post the link so you can watch it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_myDKrVDdo

We also made water balloons and added food coloring to make frozen marbles.  They turned out pretty neat.

Our Marbles.

The weather finally warmed up by Thursday and everything was beginning to thaw out.  I managed to get the kids to school and back the rest of the week with only a couple of scares.  Wednesday morning Titus forgot his back pack after he already went in.  Before I drove off I happened to look back and see it in the van.  I drove back up and set it inside the office, but almost fell as I was coming back out.  Then as I was going down the driveway my van started sliding.  I slammed on the brakes and nothing was helping and I was terrified.  I was fixing to slide into the main road.  As soon as my tires hit the main road though I finally stopped.  I was also thankful there were no cars coming at the time.  I can't help but think that maybe the reason Titus left his back pack was God allowed that to happen to give me a few more minutes to wait for clear traffic because I was gonna slide into the highway.  Maybe?  Maybe not?  All I know is I'm very thankful for God's protection.

The weather is in the 50's right now, but the forecast doesn't seem to be done with us yet.  Here's hoping for some more snow next week!!!!!!!!!!!