More snow

We woke up to more snow this morning.  It snowed most of the late afternoon and overnight.  Luckily it didn't amount to more than a couple extra inches.  However, there's more snow/rain coming for tomorrow.  It sill says 65-70 for the weekend, and a few 70 degree days next week too.  I'll believe it when I see it, the kids are still wearing snow pants at school for goodness sake.

 

Here's a fresh picture out our front window this morning.

 

And of course, the boys.

Happy Birthday John!!

It's John's birthday today!!!  The kids have been preparing gifts and cards for about 2 weeks.  Will has written out a "plan" for the day which includes decorations and a cake.  I have a feeling he's got it under control.

John got to shovel for his birthday.  The pictures from yesterday don't quite capture how much we got because they were taken at about 4:00 pm....and it continued to snow overnight.  Even our neighbors with snow blowers haven't been out.  It's like everyone has just said - screw it, we're done. 

Happy Birthday John!

May is less than 2 weeks away.....

April 18, 2013

 

It might not seem like a lot of snow in the pictures....ugh, but it is.  I've shoveled three times today, trying to catch it before it gets too terribly heavy to lift.  It's murder on the back, very heavy wet, mushy snow.  And then the snow plow finally went by at about 3:50 (for the first time all day) and holy hell, was there a crap load at the end of the driveway.  There was no way John's car was going to get through it so I spent a good 30 minutes picking at it bit by bit until it was clear. 

 

And it's still coming down quite a bit.  Luckily there are hints of 50 degree weather next week.  I'll let you know if the tractor gets broken out across the street again.

Quite an example of love, courage and strength

I've only been following this blog for a couple of days.  A friend brought it to my attention last week and I thought I would share it with you.  WARNING:  Reading this WILL cause tears.....sobs even. 

I'm watching coverage of the Boston Marathon explosions too - this is crazy.  Also putting me on more of an emotional edge.  I can listen to it....but if I go watch it, I get too upset. 

Here's a link to this mother's blog. 
http://www.kateleong.com/

Her name is Kate.  Her son Gavin has had many health struggles including contracting botulism and being diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. However, he has overcome many obstacles that the medical community deemed impossible. 
Her son, Gavin, passed away yesterday and this mother (it also happened to be her birthday) has the strength to write about it and share her son with others.  Literally.  Gavin's organs are being donated, and they've found a match for his liver already - a 3 year old boy in Texas. 

Anyway, read if you can - even if it's only for a few minutes.  Yeah, I got about 2 minutes in and had to take a break.  It's very powerful.

New Neighbors

We have new neighbors across the street.  It's an "older" couple and they just moved in Tuesday.  In fact, I don't even think they've moved much in yet or are staying there at night yet - I haven't seen a moving truck, just their blackish/bluish truck in the driveway now and then. 

As I was shoveling the sidewalks this morning (John had already done the driveway), I thought "Oh man, an older couple shoveling this heavy snow?  I'll have to watch out the window and make sure they don't need some help." 

Yeah, they got this covered.

 

 

Now that's a tractor, by our suburb definition, anyway.  We have another neighbor across the street who has a tractor, but he also has a farm.  I bet this is also how we'll see them mowing the lawn too.  So will he be willing to expand his "acreage" and plow our driveway too? :)  As he was plowing, the wife was sitting in their big truck in the street.  She communicated with him through annoyingly loud honkings of the horn. 

 

Oh, and he pulled it right into the garage when he was done.  They closed the garage door, and off both of them went.



Catching up

Spring break is over.  We were off school last week, and it seems spring has somewhat started.  Our snow is mostly gone.  Our yard is always the first to be totally without snow - well, ours and our next door neighbors.  We get lots of morning sun in the front yard, and afternoon sun in the backyard.  I still see big piles across the street. 

The Easter bunny brought Lego sets for each Katie and Will and most of the day Sunday was spent putting those together.  We also got new baseballs and a new bat for the spring, which we finally got to use outside yesterday.  I'm on a mission to get Katie, Will and myself gloves over the next few weeks. 

Last week we took a little trip to Wisconsin Dells to do some family waterpark stuff.  I would say our family vacations are getting more and more adventurous.  It's no longer 1 parent taking 1 child to do something so that the other parent can stay with the "little one."  Now it's 1 parent taking one child to do something crazy and wild, while the other parent does the same thing, just in a different direction. 

We stayed at Great Wolf Lodge - which was awesome.  It was big enough that it had stuff to keep us busy over 3 days, yet small enough that we all knew our way around.  Will really enjoyed playing MagiQuest - which is like an electronic scavenger hunt with a wand, and Katie liked the arcade and wave pool in the water park.  We also checked out the Tommy Bartlett Science Experience, which was also pretty interesting. 

I wasn't able to take pictures in the waterpark because I was afraid the moisture would wreck my camera and I've lost too many cameras on other vacations.

Obligatory stop at a WI historic site

Will defeating his dragon.

Raising our hairs

On the way home with our wolf.

Too much fun.