Snow Day!

Today was officially a snow day. The overnight snow wasn't too bad, but when I got up this morning it was snowing good and the forecast called for about 5 more inches and blowing and drifting, and for once this year I decided to be smart and just stay home. I have stuffed and folded diapers, put them away, did laundry, did some dishes, ate breakfast and lunch, portioned out cheese and lunchmeat for the freezer, cleaned 50% of my scrapbook table, and played with Ardyn, fed her, and put her down for her two naps. Its so nice to be home!

About 20 minutes ago I tried to put the dogs out to go potty and they (Hadley) purely resisted. He sat down and refused to step outside, attempting to dig his claws into the hardwood floor. I pushed his ass out and he stood on the stoop and scratched at the door. Silly dog. The wind has really picked up now and I just heard that they took the plows off the roads now. Sounds like they can't keep up anymore. Evan had a Dr's appointment and has been at Wal-Mart for almost an hour getting a prescription filled. He never should have gone to Wal-Mart (Kirby-Henning is SO much better and quicker) but he never gets prescriptions so he doesn't really know any better. That's just one of those tidbits of information that wife has stored in her head along with miles and miles of other research and marketing information.

Well, Ardyn is just waking up again, I can hear her squealing nad playing her her crib. Sounds like she's just gonna take a thousand mini-naps today. She figured out just today how to shake her head (as in "no-no") and she has been doing it all morning long.

Guess we will go take a mom-baby bath. Sounds like fun. Add a little Burts Bee's Apricot Oil to the tub and some toys, and we will be set to relax and play.

2008

Well, of course, Happy 2008. I wonder how many posts I begin with the word "Well"? Too many. But I already have a resolution, so I guess I can keep up with that behavior all year if I want.

Last night was an okay night. I had chili in the crock pot, and taco dip with rice and hamburger in another crock pot. I also made 4-mini loaves of corn bread from scratch. I got to try out the Organic Corn Meal that I bought at the Amish Country Lane Market outside Tampico. It was DELICIOUS! This is not your jiffy mix cornbread, that's for darn sure! Sweet and crumbly. Yum.

So Evan and I ate and the beebs sat in her high chair at the table with us. We sang silly songs. Then we watched TV. Grandpa and Grandma Rodgers popped in for a visit. Grandpa ate chili and cornbread and used the internet, while Grandma held Ardyn and chatted with her. Then Grandma ate taco dip and cornbread. Eventually it was time for Ardyn's bed, so grandma and grandpa left. By that time Evan was napping in bed. I watched some TV and read the new issue of Mothering magazine. Then Evan woke up, and I pumped milk and went to bed myself. I saw the ball drop at 11pm CST, and poor Old Dick Clark doing his best to keep up with the countdown and trying to speak as clearly as possible. Evan gave me a kiss and said happy new year when I climbed into bed, and then I was out like a light.

Ardyn woke up at 3:30 and wouldn't go back to sleep. I was trying to let her play until she was tired, and Evan said "Do you want me to go get her and bring her to you?" and I said "If you go get her, she's all yours. I am too tired and I am not getting up." He didn't like that plan, so he went back to sleep, and eventually her playing turned to crying and so I gave her a pacifier and she slept till 4:30. Then I went back and got her, and changed her, and fed her, and lay her in bed with me and we slept till about 9:20 this morning. Thank god.

This morning we decided that we were going to trek to grandma's to help her with her computer and her new iPod. Well, it took FOREVER to get going. I was ready by 10am. Then I decided to call Anya. She wasn't home so I waited a while. Then I worked on my computer. Then we took new year's pics of Ardyn. Then I decided we were just going to go. As we were getting ready, Evan went to put gas in the SUV so I could take it, and grandpa Bob showed up with the 4-wheeler to kindly plow our driveway! About this time Ardyn was SO tired and SO fussy she was driving me bonkers. Once the driveway was done, we just decided to take off. Route 6 wasn't bad. When we got to Route 40 I was delighted to see that it was clear! This wasn't going to be so bad! Then about a quarter of a mile later, 40 turned to a nightmare. The usual blowing snow, white-out conditions, and drifts covering the entire southbound lane. Ugh. I got all the way down route 40 to Manlius, and then saw that Manlius township wasn't plowed, and that the white out was twice as bad because it was an east-west road and all open country. It was terrible. I realized that I might make it to mom and dad's, but we would never make it back. We could only stay a couple of hours if that because it would be getting dark before long, and because it appeared that route 40 would be down to one lane or completely closed very soon due to the snow. I called mom. I was sad. But Ardyn and I turned around and drift busted all the way home. Bummer.

So that was our New Year's Day... and now I am cleaning up all the dishes from last night, running the dishwasher, and sterilizing bottles and breast pumps for tomorrow. Ugh. It would have been smarter to stay home, but I had been home all weekend and on New Year's Eve, and it just felt like a day to get out of the house. Well... we did, but not for long.

The house was spotless yesterday when I got home- the cleaning people had been here and I had everything picked up. Now it looks terrible after making all that food and hanging out being lazy. Ardyn is napping and I am beginning to terribly regret that I am not napping with her. Sleepy!

Blogging On The Edge

Don't you love blogging when you know you shouldn't be? Like in the morning when you will be late for work, or when you SHOULD be getting ready for something else or cleaning your house, or letting the dogs outside? It's like "wow I need to clean this place.... Let me just blog for a sec....." and then time flies by. Today I just woke up. Yes I know it's noon. I like it that way. I went to Anya's last night and Ryan and Emy came over and we played lots of games.... Cranium, Imaginiff, Boxers or Briefs, and Scattergories. It was good fun. I got home around 2:30ish. I was so tired. I washed my face. I pulled back my hair. I brushed my teeth. I didn't even get my clothes all off, or do my nightly face soak. I was lying in bed, using the zeno and I was falling asleep... but it beeps so it kept waking me up. I remember (barely) sitting up and taking off the black lacy push up bra and then deciding to keep on the black tank top and the red Pirate Love Shirt and my red underwear. That was all. I was asleep in seconds. I slept right through husband coming home AND getting into bed with me, he was just THERE sometime in the morning, complaining of a stiff neck and drinking lots of bottles water. I was so tired! I didn't do a WHOLE lot yesterday, although I did get the lights and ornaments on the tree, and the santa and reindeer assembled.... And I shoveled a little bit of snow and traipsed through some snowbanks. And I made a pizza. That's all.

Today I am supposed to have an altered clipboard class at the Printer's Box but the streets in Princeton still aren't plowed completely and there is no way to park because of it. So We have decided that if another class member arrives, They will call me and we will have the class... Otherwise I will stay here and pick up and vacuum. Tonight I will watch Ava for a little while, I don't know what else is going on.

Hadley tried to escape this morning... apparently he wanted to poop in the freshly plowed STREET. You see he never leaves the yard, but apparently the snow had him all "Little House On The Prairie" where he was disoriented. I didn't realize that he COULD Leave, because we were so snowed in that the snow was too high for him to get through. What I Didn't realize is that sometime during my morning slumber, the plow guy showed up and we are all plowed out. SO when I was standing in my underwear and let Hadley outside, I didn't even GLANCE at the escape route that he had. Never even noticed it in the world of white. Then I looked outside like 2 minutes later and he is NOT in the yard, and in the street at a busy intersection. There are cars going by, and he is taking a shit in the middle of the road. Dumb Ass Dog. So I yell at him and he doesn't come TO me but goes AWAY from me so i run inside and get my pants on and I am doing that "running while putting on pants" thing that cheating husbands perfect so well, and then cramming my feet into boots and wearing a sweatshirt with no bra, my hair all sticking up, and he walks BACK into the yard and finds a clear spot to poop more. Then as a big diesel truck pulling a trailer decides to round the corner, he takes one look at it and decides to walk in FRONT of it. All the while I am screaming at him. Finally the trailer makes a noise and he takes of running with his tail between his legs like someone was chasing him, and goes right through a big drift and into the house. Dumb Dog.

With this much snow, you get a teeny tiny taste of how it must have been on the prairie with snow that disorients you. If you look down and don't pay attention to the landmarks, you end up off course. You spend so much time concentrating on walking through the snow that you don't watch where you are. It's difficult to gauge how deep the snow is until you step into it. Even though it is 3/4 of the way up the picket fence over there, it might be much deeper here due to drifting. And with everything being so blindingly white, it's not always easy to tell. Canyou imagine the snow being so high that you would have to use your upstairs window as a door? That you would have to tie a rope between the house and barn? I know. Insane. And to think that's what Illinois was once like. Prairie affected by global warming?

So that's it for today folks. Have a great weekend!

15 inches of snow in less than 12 hours!

Looks like it finally stopped snowing. We have gotten 15 inches of snow here in less than 12 hours. Everyone is home today, snowbound. All morning guys spent time pulling out people on main street who thought they were going somewhere. My sister works 3rd shift and got snowed in at work, when she tried to leave, the whole front end of her car got buried and she had to dig it out by hand and go back to the parking garage. Evan and I stayed up till 4am, and by that time the Wyanet-Walnut Blacktop was completely closed, and the drifts were about waist high. It's just before noon and we officially have 15 inches of snow. I guess that means today was meant to pick up this messy house and put the lights and ornaments on that tree that's been looking at me all week. I tried to let the dogs outside but the snow was so deep they couldn't walk. So I had to bundle up and go get the shovel, and dig them a square where they could pee. I also picked up the lawn furniture so that it was out of the way for when the plow guy shows up. The picture of the snowdrift in front of the door is taken from INSIDE the house, that's what the back porch looked like this morning when I woke up.

The neighborhood just started to start officially digging out around 10:30. The best thing about being in small town, everyone knows everyone and everyone helps each other out. Whoever hsa a 4 wheeler with a plow, a truck with a plow, or a bobcat, goes around helping whoever doesn't, and they pull each other out when they get stuck. And Believe me, there have been lots of stuck folks this morning. I heard that a state plow truck overturned on 251 and that it was loaded with salt. I heard that 6 state plow trucks from the Bureau County Region are stuck alongside the road somewhere and unable to plow. Around 11, a plow truck came through and plowed one lane open on the Wyanet-Walnut Blacktop.

Yesterday was Evan's birthday, and I had two doctor's appointments. One at the Dermatologist, in which I was told my acne is 30% better, and given (okay, sold. It was $225.00) a Zeno. I have been trying it out to see if it works for me, it has a 30 day money back guarantee. The second appointment was at an Oral Surgeon's, where they had me watch a horror movie about wisdom tooth extraction. Then they decided that all 3 need to come out and that we will do that on January 26th. For someone has never even been hospitalized, has never had a broken bone besides toes and fingers, hates needles, and has never been put under anesthetic.... this should be a frightening adventure. I am less worried about my teeth than being knocked out. Husband is super supportive, having been under several times, and he will be there to take my home and feed me soup and pain pills.

After those two Doctor's appointments, we ate at Ruby Tuesday's in Peoria and then went through Circuit City and Guitar Center. Then we came home and watched Nacho Libre, which was okay. Funny. Not exceptional. We watched You Me and Dupree on Wednesday night, and totally loved it. They are due back tonight but we might not be able to get to Princeton, although now that it has stopped snowing they should get the roads cleared this afternoon. I think we are going to Anya's tonight for pizza and Game night with Ryan and Emy. That should be fun.

Well, SOMEONE Needs to clean this pig pen, so I had better get going.

Oh and I made TWO of Leanne's snowballs, and mine are not nearly as cute as hers, but since I am snowed in and I have 6 more started, I should get better with practice. Check them out...