A Little Bit Of Winter

I am way behind on posts, so with some free time during our break, I am going to try to catch up a bit. In Feb we got surprised with a late snow storm that put down enough snow to bring everything to a screeching halt for about 2 days. It was hardly anything, but here they dont know what to do with any severe weather. They put gravel down on top of the ice, and add to the hazards rather than decreasing them. All the schools close. It was heavy, wet snow, but it was all just about gone the same day it snowed. It was fun while it lasted. It was interesting that even with it snowing, all the kids chose to stay inside and watch it vs going out in it. Maybe if it had snowed hard enough to stay, they might have gone out to play....

This last image was taken with my telephoto lens from our back porch. That is the roof of a neighbor's house. There was one big crow and LOTS of starlings flitting around. That crow sat on the peak of the roof as if he were in charge of everyone else. It was unusual to watch them. It was fun to be able to see them through my lens and not disturb them at all. Great lens!

January Snow Day I

Midway through the afternoon yesterday it started "snowing" - you know that light powdered sugar sprinkly stuff. Not a whole lot to get all worked up about, except that you forget we live in Oregon where 1/8" drops on the ground and everything comes to a screeching halt, and the kids come out of the woodwork from all directions screaming that they just HAVE to go outside....
It took awhile, but the snow did change to the big, fat, wet flakes that are something to get worked up about, for all of about 10 minutes, before it turned back into ice and then back into rain...

Even a small sprinkling makes for pretty pictures...

The boys were the first to be out the door, and you notice that Colton finally remembered that snow is COLD, and shortly after that made a beeline for the door and inside to get his jacket. They stayed outside for longer than I thought they would, and enjoyed their winter adventure.

January Snow Day II

The kids were chomping at the bit to be outside, no matter what. Kels was esp anxious to be out there and gave no thought to a coat, long pants, shoes, etc. until she had been out there a few minutes and realized that snow is cold... then she and Colton decided it might be a good idea to add some layers if they were going to stay outside.
Caiden was the first to start gathering the bit of snow wherever he could. He came to me with this "Slushman".

Kaeli gathered the more fluffy snow from the hood of the beast and put this little cute guy together.

Ky & Kels thought Kaeli's little snoman was cute and not sure what happened exactly, but it set Kaeli off into laughter - so nice to have the camera in the right place at the right time...

January Snow Day III

I love this pict of the girls. It just shows how much Kels adores "her Kaeli" and how much Kaeli enjoys playing and spending time with her.
This is Ky doing his best impression of a penguin...

Do you notice how 2 girls are NOT dressed for 30 degree weather, but just had to be out there anyway?

Caiden had gathered up a big chunk of snow and probably would have tossed it at Ceana if given the chance...

"It's raining, it's pouring, the old man ..."

Someone mentioned to me yesterday that "When it rains, it pours." We're in a bit of a drizzle right now. Just when we'd decided to purchase a white noise generator to try to help Rory sleep and maybe help Ceana concentrate when doing homework, my PDA died. And my cell phone has been acting strangely. OK, so Santa is going to deliver some electronics to the Baxter parents a bit early. Then on my way home from work late last night, I got a flat. I'm talking a blown-out sidewall jobbie that Mr. Schwab isn't going to be able to fix. Too bad it happened way after dark, on a rural highway with no lights or shoulder, in the rain, and I found I didn't have an adequate flashlight in the truck. Thankfully I was close enough to home that Rory drove out with the van to shine some light on the situation. I was trying to clench one of those keychain LED lights in my teeth while placing the tire jack under the truck frame, while at the same time dodging cars since I was laying in the traffic lane.

So I find myself still at home this morning, waiting for the local tire shop to open. Not looking forward to the sticker shock when the tires (which were nearing the end of their useful life anyway) get replaced. I'm guessing Santa will be about tapped out this year, and it's not even Thanksgiving yet.

At least it didn't rain ON the Veterans' Day parade yesterday. And actually, it didn't start raining on the early-morning memorial ceremony until just when the 21-gun salute started (quite appropriate). And when I went to bed at 11pm last night after helping Ceana with math, then got up at 4:45 to head to the gym, Ceana was STILL UP DOING HOMEWORK - she REALLY wanted to get caught up so she could regain her GMAIL / Facebook / friend party / high school football game priviledges. Yes, she made it.

Are we having fun yet?

SNOWED IN FOR GOOD?

We woke up to big fat flakes of snow on Sunday morning - which kept lots of families from getting anywhere and resulted in cancelling church - THAT is very rare. The way things look this week with continued nasty weather and water lines freezing and bursting in the building may keep us away again this week....

We have watched the snow and ice come down and the wind blow. We have also watched the school district online calendar for posts about closures. Sure enough Mon, Tues & Wed have been cancelled because of weather conditions. I am guessing we are done for the week as we have continued to get cancellation phone calls about school and community events we were supposed to participate in. It also has kept us from doing any traveling which also resulted in no dentist or ortho appts we have had scheduled for the last 6 months. The kids arent so upset about the appointments as they are about our tradition of going out to lunch as a family afterward (the kids get great restaurant certificates for good check ups).

Soooo, here we are on day FOUR of being here at home. I can say that the weather has been a blessing for our family. Our week was supposed to be bezerk while Preston is away and instead we have had every day here at home to sleep, play, cook, and just downshift (something we have all needed badly). Because of all the cancellations Preston is not missing any of the kids' recitals or awards ceremonies, he is not missing our family appts. He is also not missing the nasty weather - Chicago has been about 5 degrees with yucky snow and winds.

We have tried hard to enjoy our time together. The kids have had a ton of fun playing outside in the snow - I have taken some great picts! They have enjoyed having extra time to play with their friends - they even did a play and made their own video of it! They loved that!

The kids have spent lots of time playing games. They have had fun making treats and baking bread(which I didnt get picts of). They have had fun taking naps (which I did get picts of). They have also enjoyed helping me train the dogs to be in the house more. They have a little pen they usually stay in but with everyone home we have let them branch out and I have been pleasantly surprised that they have done really well and havent had any accidents in the house or chewed up anything.
Kels is slowly warming up to the idea of the dogs being in her space - she screamed hysterically yesterday anytime the dogs got anywhere near her! she would only stop screaming if one of us was holding her up away from them. It was funny and not. She is doing much better today and was even on the floor with them. She wasnt too thrilled when LJ gave her kisses though. I am hoping that as the dogs do better and Kels gets bigger that they will grow to really enjoy each other. It will mean lots of adventures for all of them:)

I have been using my time to work on photography. The change in weather has given amazing opportunities for taking outdoor picts. It has also given me time to work on Lightroom and Photoshop and get picts cleaned up and out to clients. I am still working on one set of picts that I am having some challenges with. My monitor says they look great - my laptop not so much - and my prints are way off. The weather has kept me away from the print store to figure out how to make corrections and why my monitor and the prints are so different. A previous set of prints were great - so we are guessing it was a lab mistake. I have to have these set of picts completely done and printed in the next 2 weeks or less though, so it is making me a bit nervous.

The weather has also given me time to stew and worry about a new CERT position I have been asked to take on. With everyone home I have been in "mom" mode 24-7 for everyone and havent had the time to make phone calls without multiple interruptions. I need to just make myself do it - even though it terrifies me. I feel so unqualified and yet others are waiting on me to get things going. I am very torn as to what to do. My people skills are more than horrible when my mouth has to do all the work. When I can get behind the camera it is completely different - my eye is doing all the hard work, not always my mouth, and it is playtime. When I am needing to talk and interact with others, esp in a leadership position, or needing to request assistance or represent others besides myself it is a HUGE challenge. I just know I am going to mess up and mis-represent our program because when I get nervous my mouth makes even more mistakes. I just need to "bite the bullet" and get the phone calls over with. It is a hard decision.

Well, guess that is our update for now. I have tons of picts I will be posting here and also on my photo blog - so watch for those soon!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

All week we have had unusual weather and we have not been able to enjoy the warm, beautiful days of "Autumn in Utah" as we had hoped...
A few days ago they started forcasting SNOW - yes, I know it is only the 1st week of october - but yesterday morning there it was - fluffy white stuff falling from the sky. It melted away as fast as it came though so we thought we were in the clear - boy were we WRONG!
Today we woke up to snow on the ground and everywhere....





This afternoon we went from this....


and this....


to this in 30 minutes! It was snowing so hard I felt like I was inside of a snowglobe someone had just shaken hard...

It was heavy, wet snow in huge flakes or bunches of flakes falling from a gray-black sky. The clouds were so thick that the mountains that were only minutes away were completely hidden. It was so unbelievable to be watching it snow so hard & knowing that weather like this should still be weeks away. The weather the last 2 days has broken state records for earliest snowfall by more than a week. People here who didnt listen to weather reports have completely lost garden produce, and even those who did listen still lost some with the unexpected drop in temps.

All of the beautiful Fall leaves and colors that were just emerging on the mountains are now completely gone and the mountains have been dumped with heavy snow in some places.

The big kids thought the snow was fabulous and had a blast running outside and tried to catch the huge flakes on their tongues. Ky wasnt too impressed with the cold and wet - although he had just woken up from his nap and was more cranky than excited. The big kids loved every minute I would let them be outside and it was a special treat for them to be able to enjoy playing in the snow at such an odd time of the year. It was definately an unexpected adventure.