More snow on the way

We are under another winter weather advisory here...the county in which my husband teaches is actually under a winter storm warning. I had to work in the fourth grade today, and the teachers at the kids' school were all functioning under the assumption that tomorrow would, at best, be a short a day, and possibly not a school day at all. In some regards it would work out best if my husband didn't have school tomorrow, as he is currently feeling pretty lousy. I wouldn't mind having everyone in school, as long as I can run around and get errands done. If it's icky out though and I don't want to be out and about, I would just as soon have everyone at home with me. It's supposed to start in about six hours...guess we'll see what the morning brings!

Br-r-r-r-r-r

I love living with seasons. I even love the extremes of seasons. And yes, I still prefer bitterly cold to August heat. But don't get me wrong. It's way beyond freezing here. Tonight the low is supposed to be 6 degrees, with wind chills below zero. Everyone was in school today, but got to stay home for an extra two hours before getting there. Last night was actually warmer than tonight, so I'm not going to be surprised if there is another two hour delay in the morning. I'm not going to mind either...sleeping in is always a nice treat!

Snow day!

As it turns out, we did have a snow day today! It's fine here in town now, but I can only imagine what the township roads are like. I'm cautiously optimistic that everyone will be back in school tomorrow.

We've been spending our day trying to get a little ahead in homework and also wrapping some Christmas presents for the grandparents and other relatives. We are also on the search for some Christmas cookie cutters so we can make some Christmas cookies. We are basically just enjoying the gift of time!

Delayed!

School is already on a two hour delay for tomorrow. The weather advisory doesn't end until late tomorrow morning, so I'm not even a little bit optimistic that there will be school tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it though. I wasn't scheduled to work anyway, so no big loss there, and I've got things out to make sugar cookies with the kids. It was a tradition that we did every year with my grandmother when I was a kid, but I've never done it with my kids. Part of it is that our schedules have always been insane, and part of it is because I'm not really into baking. I'm ready to give it a go though, and I'm looking forward to (maybe) starting a new tradition with the kids!

Blog change

I've gone with a new color for the blog...the color is supposed to represent the temperature here. It's been unseasonably cold this past week, and in a couple of days our high temp is supposed to be 16 degrees. And for those of you who are wondering, yes, I still like it better than the hot days of August.

We are also expecting 2 - 4" of snow here overnight with wind gusts of over 40 mph. I believe that makes the term "blowing snow" an understatement. Given the extremely poor condition of the back roads around here, I'm less than optimistic about school tomorrow. I guess we shall see how it all pans out!

Home today

I'm so grateful to not be working today. I'm sitting here right now enjoying the peace and quiet that is the silence of my house. I even have 2-1/2 hours until the kids come home from school! I've been running around this morning trying to get some shopping finished up. I got a good amount done, but still have some things to finish. As is the case every year, JC proves to be the biggest challenge. She's getting a lot of clothes this year, and I know she'll like that. In fact, our entire Christmas is going to be mostly toy-free. Even our youngest this year, with the exception of a few John Deere's, isn't getting many toys. I guess we are transitioning to the next phase in life!

Not sure where to begin

I am still here, and certainly never intended to go this long between posts. But, many of my intentions in the last two weeks have not panned out, and that is just life. First of all, I've been working A LOT. Again, I'm grateful for this opportunity, and it turns out that I LOVE being a substitute teacher. Sometimes though, I wish I could allow myself to say no. I want this to be a part-time job, but I'm not allowing myself the freedom to keep it part-time hours. Anyway, that has occupied most of the days since I've last written. Friday morning I awoke to JC and vomiting. I was supposed to spend the day at the hospital with family because my grandmother was having her hip replaced. Instead, I was home with a sick kid. I knew my grandma was in good hands and my sister was with the family to help my dad get around, so I allowed myself to see the "upside" that having a sick kid also meant that I was home and able to get some cleaning and Christmas chores accomplished. It also worked out well that I was able to be home when the call came from my in-laws that my brother-in-law was in the hospital and they were planning surgery that evening. I was able to contact my husband, and after much discussion it was decided that he did not need to make the long drive, but they would be in touch in case things changed. THANK GOODNESS he didn't go, because Saturday morning JC took a definite turn for the worse. While she had not vomited a great deal on Friday, she hadn't eaten anything since Thursday evening, and by Saturday morning was complaining of severe abdominal pain. My husband took her to Children's urgent care and after some anti-nausea medicine she began to feel better. She had a popsicle and they sent her home. The popsicle came back up as soon as she was home, and she was crying about the pain. My girl has a really high pain tolerance so we took no chances and off to Children's e/r we went. After some blood work and a urinalysis they determined it was still just the stomach virus, and she felt so much better by the time she got home that evening. The next morning she woke up feeling great and called several relatives so that they could hear her voice and hear for themselves how much better she felt. Unfortunately, after making those calls the pain began to return, and after an hour I was calling my husband home from church so we could go back to the e/r. This time many more tests were run, and more iv's were given. After everything, it still seemed to be nothing more than a stomach virus, and that does indeed seem to have been the case. They even mentioned that several additional cases had come into the e/r with similar symptoms. She got back home late Sunday evening, and we were all pretty exhausted. We kept her home from school Monday, and I've worked every day since then. As far as the rest of the family, my grandmother has been moved to rehab and will be there another nine days. She is really doing great! My brother-in-law has also been released from the hospital and is back at his house. We are very grateful that about two months ago he moved to within blocks of my in-laws, instead of being two hours away from them. And, with the exception of being exhausted after her long ordeal over the weekend, JC has felt normal again. I'm still trying to get caught up on the things that didn't get done while JC was so sick, but although it was dramatic for awhile, we are very blessed!