A little warm outside...

Ice, ice baby...

Let's review.  I was born in this town.  I went to college ~30 miles away.  I got married, got a job, and bought a house in a town four miles away from where I went to college and 25ish miles away from the house I lived in growing up.  All these places are in the South.  OK, picky people -- Southeast.

We have one or two winter events a year.  On average there's a fun snow (4-6 inches) and another something.  Sometimes that's snow and sometimes it sleet or ice.  To date this season, we have had six (6) winter events since December 1: dustings of snow, nicely measurable snow, and now sneetice. I'm not complaining; I'm just sayin'.

So as I sit home for the third wintry weather unplanned vacation-from-schwork day, I'm working up motivation to peel more wallpaper ("Mom, when are you going to finish our bathroom?  It's hard not having anywhere to hang towels.") or run on the treadmill (Couch to 5k still under consideration). I am going to get on those things... right after I watch a weather-related Robert Van Winkle video on YouTube. 

Seven inches of snow = snow cream without sticks and leaves...

Can you believe that I've never made snow cream before?  I had such great memories of my mom's and my Grandma B's snow cream that I didn't dare try.

But the local bigtime TV station tweeted a link to recipes, and I thought:  surely I can't screw it up THAT badly. So I made it, and it was awesome.

Here's the recipe I started with, and then I just kept adding more and more of each ingredient until I had enough snow cream for six. (Kelsey's BFF got snowed in with us.)

1  cup milk/cream
1/2  cup sugar
1  tsp vanilla extract
5-6 quarts of snow

So far we've built a snow bug, had a snowball fight, and made snow cream.  Time for a snow nap.

Snow in Southtown...

On the second day of Christmas... all is calm, all is white...

Confession...

Snow day here.  Hooray!

The first thing I always think when the power goes out is:  Hey, let's watch movies in the dark.

The first thing I thought when I found out school was canceled today:  Hey, now I can run to the mall and finish up Christmas shopping. 

This being the South, I'm about as likely to get in a car and drive somewhere during a "wintry mix event" as I would be to get the TV to work during a power outage.

I love flawed logic.  It usually means I'm going to get to take a nap.

Hope...

Target sure is optimistic about the amount of snow our little South Town will be getting this year. I wonder if they know something we don't know...

So... yeah... Earl...

Just another manic Snow Day...

Snow... almost!

Kelsey's anticipation picture.

It did snow... about 1/4". The Old Farmer's Almanac has us getting three pretty good-sized snowfalls during Winter '10. I'll take it.

5 Things that Scare Away Snow...

I have lived in this area of the fabled rain-snow-line my entire life. After years of "The Snow is Coming! The Snow is Coming!"only to be followed by a little jig we call "Oops We Missed It Again," I've discovered five things that scare away an impending snow storm. I'm going to take a gamble in sharing these secrets, as people I know ... in my own family even (MOM!) ... don't like snow. I trust you will use your newfound knowledge for good (snow) and not evil (no snow).

1. Parking your car in a different spot than you normally park. Parking facing out (if you normally pull in headlights first) = Strike 1. Parking at the end of the driveway, facing the street = Strike 2. Parking on the street, facing whatever direction you drive to get out of the neighborhood = Strike 3. We're out of the running for some good snow.

2. Failing to purchase bread, milk, and/or eggs within 48 hours of the predicted snow. They are staples. We can't risk running out of them. And once again, for our friends who have been transplanted from other parts to our lovely area... no... we don't make french toast every time it snows. It's just a coincidence that our must-have-staples are the ingredients for a yummy breakfast.

3. Not doing homework. OK kids... do you want snow or not? If so... get that homework done!!!

4. Bringing home extra work from the office/school so that you will have something to work on while you're stuck at home until it's safe to drive.*

5. Getting snow stuff out of storage before it starts to snow. "Stuff" includes ski pants, sleds, shovels, skis, snowboards, snow boots, etc. If it helps you have fun in the snow, it MUST remain in storage until YOU are ready to walk out in the snow and play.

You see... evidently southern snow is very, very shy. Or sneaky. At any rate, if you act like you know it's coming, you'll scare it away for certain. (The only exception is the grocery store trip. Just don't buy something obviously snow-related like hot chocolate mix or marshmallows. Stick to the staples.) So, for the love of all things cold and flaky and wet, PLEASE be good and let the snow fall without fear.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

*When is it safe to drive after a snow? It is safe to drive after a snow when ALL the snow is gone. Do not even think about using four-wheel drive or chains or any of those anti-snow gadgets to get around on the roads. You may have done it a million times before if you're from another area like, say, the North or the Midwest. But people here don't know how to drive in the snow. We hardly ever get any because folks are always doing ridiculous things like parking cars in the street, not going to the grocery store, skipping homework, planning to be out of work, and unpacking snow equipment early. So it doesn't matter how great a snow-driver you are if everyone else on the road is clueless, does it? If you do go out, be patient and stop saying bad things about southern drivers. Remember, a southern driver warned you to stay off the road in the snow.

Inaugural snow...

Hossna...

Yeah... we don't know what it means either. Other than Zack tells us that hossna is snow in the fall. When he was four, he announced that the biggest planet in space is Aurtro. It's a giant white planet. There is life on that planet. Scientists sent a probe. He was so very convinced that we ended up googling Aurtro... you know... just in case there might be an invasion. Wanted to make sure Will Smith was available to kick some alien tushy if needed.

Anyway... what we have here is a picture of the Hossna ball: the first snowball of the season, born in the fall; therefore NOT a snowball. It's a hossna ball.

If he ever finds out about Festivus, we're in trouble.

Enough for a snowball fight...

11/21/08
5:57am

Mom, are you awake?
Not yet.
Mom, it's snowing.
Where?
Outside my window.
Here?
Yes.
Are you sure you're not dreaming?
Yes. I got up to see if it daytime yet and it was snowing.
Seriously?
Yes!

Looking out the window @ 5:59am...

Dressed... little dawn light...
Wow! It IS snowing!

6:40am-

Is school canceled?
Are you kidding me?
Do we have to go?
Yes.
Can we have a snowball fight before we go?
Sure! Let's start the car so it can be warming up...

To Do List - 11/22/08
1. Winterize the pool

Oops.

Snowball fight!

Splat!

Loading up for one more round @ 6:58am...

7:05am ... off to school!

What a nice way to wrap up a LONG fall stretch without a break...

Non-Event... Yay!

Sometimes when we get all geared up for the Weather Event and go buy bottled water and batteries and peanut butter, we get a little bummed when the event turns out to be pretty much nothing.

Not this time.

Oh, it was pretty much nothing. We went to bed in our own beds on the second floor of our house that is surrounded by massive oak trees. We heard rain outside. Maybe wind. To be honest, I never heard a howl at all. Not like Fran.

We woke up to the sound of rain and the rustling of leaves in the trees more akin to a fall breeze than even a summer thunderstorm. It was actually kind of nice.

The power didn't even flicker enough to make the digital clocks flash. The candles are still in their cupboard. The flashlights are ... well, I'll have to get back to you on that one - Zack's been playing with the flashlights, so I can't honestly tell you where they are. The extra gas Jimmy bought for the generator can eventually go into the lawnmower.

Kelsey and I were supposed to volunteer to work at a volleyball tournament at school this weekend, but they canceled it because the visiting teams didn't want to travel in the storm. Jimmy, Zane and Zack had some yard-projects lined up, but they can't work on them because it's too wet and muddy.

So here we sit, the five of us (and Pepper who has made a splendid recovery from her tummy bug, thankfully), in a house fully-stocked for 3-5 days of not being able to go anywhere, with no projects to do and no events scheduled on our calendar. Ah, how nice!

Thanks for passing through, Hanna! In our busiest season of the whole year, you have been a very welcome visitor!

P.S. If you're curious what happened at the NC coast... especially at our own Carolina Beach ... here's a video made by one of the residents. I guess when you're shooting toppled planters and blowing paper in the height of the storm, it's not too bad!

CB during Hanna

Waiting for Hanna

Well... here we are again. I love weather. I love weather that's out of the ordinary. Hurricanes. Thunderstorms. Snow storms. I love it.

Of course, I do not like the destructive effects of severe weather one bit. But I do stand in awe of the power of our God when I see how fierce weather can be and I think that He is so much bigger than it all. I know it's odd, but in some weird way, big weather events are very comforting to me.

I have been manic in preparing for extraordinary weather events pretty much all my life. So rest assured that our household has bottled water and batteries and even a crank-handle NOAA weather radio. We have pretzels and peanut butter and bread and tuna. But seriously, who in this house would actually eat tuna without mayonnaise and salad cubes? No one. Yet, we have it. And all our important documents are on hand. And extra meds and bandages.

I have no idea how a community water system functions in a storm. City water was slam-dunk easy, though, in Fran and Floyd. I mentioned to Jimmy that we might need to run water for bathing and he, bless his heart, pointed out that we have pool and don't really need to bathe inside. We can just take soap to the pool.

OK... Ewww...

So... all systems are "go" and as of 5:30 this afternoon, we'll all be sitting in the house, waiting for Hanna to pass through.