My Snow Boy.

I have to share this picture of my snow boy, Noah. This was after our first 3 or 4 inches. The 15 more inches were still to come!

This and That

Check out Jen's blog. She's got some great new picture additions taking us back in time . . . See them here!

And then, yesterday, it was announced that the University of Illinois are getting rid of "The Chief". Here is a short synopsis of the history of the Chief. It is all quite sad. If your daddy went to college at the U of I and you grew up watching him perform at Illini games, your memories of that Indian guy are quite strong. I for one, will really miss him. Here's Michelle's story at her blog. Check it out. And this is what led up to the dismissal of the Chief. And here is a report by CBS news on the U of I saying "goodbye". It's pretty big news for the college world.

And our big news. We have more snow. Uh-huh, yep, you heard it right. We have 4 more inches of that fluffy white stuff. It is quite pretty this morning the way it's covering up the already 12 inches of snow. It looks like this gigantic never-ending blanket. I need to get out and take some pictures but I'm still in my pj's, so that won't happen anytime soon.

And then I love Corie's blog about Random Acts of Kindness. I think we all need a little reminding of this from time to time. So please take a look and then go out and do something today that makes a difference - no matter how small - because as long as it produces a smile, it will touch someone's life.

And then a little home building decision update - - - I think we are probably going to go with Builder #2. We have the plans, so maybe I'll scan those today and share them with you? Stay tuned! And thank you all for helping aid in our decision. Neil was thinking what all of you were thinking the whole time - that we should go with higher quality because most likely we will spend the biggest majority of our life in this new home.

And to end it off, I have to share this picture that I saw over at Cute Overload.

Snow, snow, SNOW!

What a fun Valentine's Day present. I think.

We got hit hard! 10 inches right in my front yard! Enough to close all schools and city buildings. Even the U of I is closed! That is a rarity. So, of course I wanted to share some pictures. Just a few I snapped through the windows or while still standing inside in the warmth. It's freeeeeeeezing out. Around 10 degrees, I think. This snow will be here for a while and to think we might be getting more in a few days. I can actually say I am ready for spring now. Bring on my blooming bulbs, please!

So this was last night, before anything was plowed. Looks pretty deep!

After Neil scooped our sidewalk. At least one foot deep! Wowzers.

Noah could not stand watching from the window any longer. He begged to go outside with daddy. So this was before he headed out into the cold winter white.

Playing in the drive. Neil is scooping snow, and Frankie is having a hay-day, too.

So now I wait on Neil. Yesterday he had to park our car on the street behind us because he could not get down ours. Apparently this morning, the snow plow trucks literally buried the car in snow. So, he is working on that right now. Took some sand over there to assist. I think he's in for a lot of work. I hope some nice people come out to help him (Heidi, Jase . . . are you home??!). He says he is going to work still. We shall see!

Update . . . he got it out. Yay.

Making the most of it

When our power was out the first day, we tried to make the most of it. It was cold in the house, so we may as well have been outside. Our little neighbor friend, Chloe, was outside sledding. Noah kept saying "I want to snowball with Chloe". It was so cute. So I had Neil (who was already outside cutting tree limbs) go ask if it was ok if he came out to play. Of course Vickie (Chloe's mama) said "Sure!" and so I bundled Noah up to go out and play. Maia and I stayed inside by the fire that we had going in the fire place, and Vickie came over and got Noah. So here are some pictures of him getting all bundled up (reminded me of "The Christmas Story"), Noah waving "Bye" to me and then the kids playing.



I caught Vickie even havin' a little fun! Look, she put Noah to work! *giggle*


They all had so much fun! Noah's cheeks are still rosey!

Ice Ice Baby

I have never seen so much ice in my life. It's everywhere. And while it's really pretty with the sunlight glaring off of it, it's created a huge mess in our town. Huge. Take a look at the pictures below.

This is our street - see Neil's car - possibly damaged pretty good





It started yesterday morning with just rain. That rain went into freezing rain and then into snow. By about 5:00 we knew we were in for a mess when it continued to freeze rain and build up pretty thick. By the time it was our kids' bedtime, it was still freezing rain and we were starting to wonder if we should even stick them in their beds just in case the power went off. We did go ahead and put Noah in his bed, but put Maia in our bed because we had a feeling the power was going to go off as tree branches were constantly snapping. And where the electricity connects to the house is right outside Maia's window, which is right beside her crib. And I am incredibly thankful that we did put her there.

About 15 minutes after we put her to bed, a huge limb fell on the house. Shook the whole thing. Shortly after that, our power went out. Another limb fell on the power line, bringing it totally down and creating the biggest firework scene I have ever seen or heard. I screamed and cried and just wanted to get out as quickly as I could. I think Neil was even scared.

Neil called his dad and they still had power. So we decided we were going over there. It took us about 20 minutes to quickly pack a couple bags, get their sippy cups filled, get the dog and cats ready to have to stay alone and then have to get the kids out of the house asleep. It was frightening even to leave the house. Huge limbs were just snapping and dropping out of trees. But we did leave and arrive safely to the in-laws around 11 pm. We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw what we did driving 15 minutes to their house. It was unbelievable.

We woke up in the in-laws house to no power there as well. The only thing we could think about was what kind of mess our house was in. So Neil and I left the kids at his dad's house and attempted to drive home. And there were surprisingly quite a few cars out, but all probably for the same reason as us, or perhaps to get out to see the damage or to just find a place to eat or a place to stay warm.

Our street again - pretty, yet absolutely disasterous

We found Neil's windshield wiper on the ground - the branch came down that hard - we're lucky it didn't go through the window

We arrive home (of course after a trip through the drive-thru at Starbucks which was actually open to our surprise) and found twice as much damage as when we left. It really did look like a tornado went through town and hit every single block. Ours especially was bad because we live in one of the oldest sections of town so there are a lot of gigantic old fragile trees. We pull up to our street and the first thing we see is our neighbor's truck with a tree on top of it. We then drive down 4 houses to ours and there is a tree across the street right in front of our house and then look over and there is part of a tree on Neil's car. I documented it with pictures for insurance purposes and document the rest of the yard too. You never know what kind of damage is hidden under all that.

So Neil spends the next half hour with our neighbors cutting down the trees and removing branches from the street and Neil's car. Then we let the doggie out to pee-pee and feed the animals. Then we are off again, back to Starbucks to pick up coffee for my in-laws and the to go check on Grandma Barb at her house (also without power). She was fine and dandy as always. That was good.

We spend the rest of the day at home. Neil cut up branches. He only got done about a third of the front yard. Haven't even touched the back yard and it's probably 3 times as bad. Noah played with our neighbors in the snow (no one worked today and every single school was out). Maia and I stayed inside and tried cleaning up the house some and packing for another few nights knowing we would at least be gone from home one more night. And that's where I write in my blog from tonight.

Neil's dad got us an apartment with their company. Who knows how long we will have to be here. Tonight it's suppose to be 10 degrees out. So our house will probably literally be freezing tomorrow. I pray our pipes don't freeze. I also pray that our power gets restored soon. It's been announced that a nearby town won't have their power back on for 5-7 days so I don't anticipate it will be anytime soon for us. It really stinks. But I have to be thankful that we are all ok. It was quite a scary night last night, for thousands of people. This apartment is really nice. So many people probably do not have anyplace to go. We're really lucky we do. We're warm and comfy and that's what truly matters. But I do hope we get power back soon because I know the longer it's out, the more problems we face when we get back. And we have to keep going back and forth to take care of the animals. And when we are back, we have thousands of branches to cut through and clean up. Wish us luck. It's going to be a long haul.

Cerella who lives near me is probably dealing with the same things and she reads my blog regularly. So I want to send out some "let's-hope-for-power-soon" vibes and say that I hope you're staying warm with hubby and your furry friends. What a memory we will have from this one. It's crazy, but at least we're all ok. Good luck, girlfriend!

Here is the power line down in our back yard. We drove over probably a half dozen of them yesterday. They are down all over town. We blocked off our backyard so no one can get near the live wire.

This is one of the trees in our back yard. Notice most of the tree is gone. Those are some of the branches (parts of trees, limbs, whatever you want to call them!) down in our yards, part of this tree fell on our house.

And we just learned from Neil's father that their power just went off. Pure craziness!