Before and After

Well our weather is still cold and snowy. We might even get more of the white stuff tomorrow - as if we don't have enough already! It's supposed to be clear today so this is our chance to finish all our Christmas stuff.

Here is the progression of snow at our house. The first picture is Sunday the 14th, we got 3 inches. Then is Satuday the 20th we got 6 inches. The last was taken Monday night. We now have a total of 17 inches on the back deck!


Same thing with the view of the front yard. Sunday the 14th, Saturday the 20th, Monday the 22nd.

Winter Wonderland

OK, I'm running out of clever titles for all these snow posts, but it sounds like I better come up with more since we don't sound like we are coming out of a deep freeze any time soon. Today we were only supposed to get at most 2 inches of snow. At least that's what the weatherman said this morning before we lost satellite reception and power. I measured the snow on the BBQ when I got up around 6 and it was 3.5 inches (above the ice layer). Tonight it reads 9 inches! Which means we got over 6 inches of snow today! We now have a total of 17 inches on the back deck. It's incredible!



I did not make it into work today. We had no chains for the truck, which are a requirement around here. Plus with the snow we were getting it just didn't seem like a good idea to me. So we played in the snow, went and got boots for Mom, oh yeah, and got chains for the truck. The snow was so powdery we can't build a snowman in it, but it's still fun to trek around in and the kids enjoyed playing:




Yes, they tried to ride their bikes in over 15 inches of snow! Didn't work out so well for them. Fun to watch though!

Ginger was NOT happy about being in the snow. Bryan thought she might want to check it out, but she definitely did not!

They are now saying we might get even MORE snow for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. At least we get a break for the next day or so before the next storm comes in. Once again it depends on how it comes in, but I guess they are saying chances are it will bring more snow for us for Christmas. As nice as that would be, I'm just about done with this stuff. We have lost power 3 times today and our satellite is half buried on the roof so we won't be getting any TV reception until we thaw. At least the video store was opened!

Ice Storm

So we woke up this morning to lots of snow still and about half an inch of ice on top of it! We lost power at 6:30 this morning and finally got it back at about noon. Unfortunately we could not make it to Eugene today for Family Christmas due to the ice and freezing rain forcast, as well as the chain requirements for all highways in the Portland Area. While we do have a couple of 4x4's we do not have chains for them. Who would have thought you need chains for a 4x4?

We did make it out to Shari's to eat breakfast. Hard to cook with no power! We then snapped a couple of photos of the ice. It was so beautiful and thick!

Apparently we might be getting our white Christmas after all. Apparently with 6+ inches of snow on the ground we aren't going to be thawing out any time soon! Plus we are now supposed to get another 2-4 inches of SNOW tonight! This is crazy! As I'm writing this it is actully snowing again! Harder than it did all day yesterday. It is beautiful, but I don't see this ending anytime soon. I might actually not make it into work tomorrow. My car hasn't moved since last Saturday and doesn't look like it's going to be moving anytime in the near future either!

But at least we have heat again, we are all together and have everything we need. There are many people at the airport and bus stations and even stuck in their cars waiting for a break in the storm. We were so lucky Mom and Dad were able to get in when they did, otherwise they might not have made it until AFTER Christmas. Our hearts go out to all the stranded travellers.

Snow Snow and MORE Snow!

So it is 8:30PM on Saturday night and we have gotten over 6 inches of snow today and it is STILL snowing! No end in sight. I can't ever remember seeing this much snow in Oregon that wasn't in the mountains of course!

They say the freezing rain should start after midnight tonight, but our temperatures keep dropping and the rain doesn't seem to be getting any closer. It is 23.9 degrees outside at our house right now, it was 30 degrees this morning when I got up.

Luckily my parents were able to make it in to town this morning. The airport started cancelling flights not long after they arrived. My parents' comment when they arrived was it looks like Iowa here. But at least our snow will disappear before April! My parents will be here for the remainder of the year and go back home just before the kids go back to school. Hopefully we won't be snowbound the entire time they are here!

I'll leave you with some updated photos of the snow in our backyard taken at 8:30PM.

My favorite things about snow

Since we have so much snow here today here is my list of favorite things about the snow.

1. Watching the snow fall from the warmth and comfort of my living room.

2. Warm fires burning inside while the snow falls outside.

3. Hot Chocolate

4. Building snowmen. (Unfortunately our snow is too powdery today)

5. Sledding down the steep hills

6. Snowball fights!

7. The pure beauty of the snow on the trees and ground.

8. Catching big fat fluffy flakes in your mouth.

9. Making snow angels

10. Watching the kids enjoy the rare occasion of snow in their front yard.

It has been snowing non-stop since about 6:00 this morning. At almost 3PM we have 3 inches of snow so far. Yesterday we had no snow at all and now it's all back and then some! Unfortunately it's not supposed to last through the weekend, but who knows!

More snow

Well, the kids are off school once again! We got another inch of snow last night plus lots of ice so they cancelled school again. The kids were happy of course! Now they are predicting 6-10 inches of snow on the ground this weekend, followed by freezing rain. Hopefully it doesn't hit until after my parents make it in or the holidays tomorrow morning! Then it looks like we will be hunkering down for the weekend!

The drive in to work was beautiful this morning with the dusting of snow on all the trees and roads. I love the snow when it's all pretty like that. Can't wait to see what it looks like with half a foot of snow around here! It's been quite a bout of wintery weather recently. If this is any indication of what our winter will be like it should be interesting, since winter doesn't officially begin until Sunday!

Back to school!!

Yeah! The kids are finally going back to school today. Our temperatures warmed up yesterday and so while it did snow most of the day it was too warm to really stick so most of our snow has melted. However the cold weather is coming back today and it might snow more today and then freeze tonight. Yea winter. 

Yesterday the kids had no school and this snowman was their project yesterday. They spent most of the day building him and did a really good job! I took the picture when I got home from work, and NO, Nick was not dressed like that all day, he just went out with me to take the picture. At least I'm pretty sure he was all bundled up!

On Tuesday my brother took the kids sledding on a steep hill before he left to go back home, so the other pictures are ones he took. (I stole them from his Facebook profile!) They had a lot of fun playing with him. I'm glad they have an uncle that will take them and do crazy things with them that their mom would never let them do. Snowboarding on a plastic sled is a little crazy I think! But that's what uncles are for I think! I'm just glad everyone made it back in one piece! Nick does have good form I must admit! 

       

Cold, Cold, Cold!

Will it ever end? It's amazing how much a little cold weather and snow can consume your life! So this is Day 3 in the great "Arctic Blast" as the news channels like to call it. It is about 22 degrees today and sunny. The snow is still around, as is the ice! I drove to work today by myself with no problems. Probably because I wasn't able to go fast enough to get into trouble because there were so many chickens on the road! Drive pavement and still people were actually driving with chains on! Silly.

The kids are still off of school. I think they will be all week since we are supposed to get more snow tomorrow and the freezing temperatures are supposed to stick around through the weekend. I just hope Mom and Dad are able to make it in on Saturday! So far the weather is supposed to be OK early saturday, turning to crap again Saturday night and Sunday. Not sure we will be able to make it down to Eugene on Sunday, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens. 

Part of me hopes this all sticks around until Christmas for a white Christmas, but then again, it's a really long time to be frozen! At least 95% of my shopping and Christmas preparations are completed already! I think I need more hot chocolate though for the kids!

More winter wonderland!

So the snow is still around, and the temperatures are FREEZING! The warmest it has been in the past 24 hours is 35 and that was at 7:00 yesterday morning before the snow hit. This morning it is 22 degrees! But the sun is out and it's going to be a beautiful white day. I had Bryan take me to work because I didn't want to drive in the ice. The highways aren't bad, but the streets around work especially are pretty icy still. They cancelled school for the kids last night so Nick spent the night at a friend's house so they could get to their sledding nice and early. We didn't see much of them yesterday, and I expect they will be out playing for most of today as well. 

We are supposed to get more snow on Wednesday and then more again on Sunday. We will see what actually happens. The freezing temperatures are supposed to hang around into next week.  The highest temperature I've seen so far for next week is supposed to be next Sunday when it should get to 30. Oh boy! Guess that's way to welcome in winter!