Conquering Mt Garrett

God Bless Aaron Smith and his brother. Brother Smith we’ll call him. Cause I don’t know his name. What I do know is that I am indebted. All this snow was in my driveway.

And so was all this snow.

And all of this snow.

I would have been here til June waiting for it all to melt. Who am I kidding. I’m only here til June regardless!

At least someone is enjoying the snow.

The kids are lovin’ it! No school. And a winter wonderland to play in.

Just be glad that wherever you are…it’s not HERE!!

Love you all!

It Ain’t ALL Pretty…

I know ya’ll are tired of hearing it…but believe you me…I’d rather not have any complaints right now!!! It is STILL snowing. Like it will never stop. So, Jon and I decided this morning to start getting the house ready to sell. That is IT! I am DONE!! We are SELLING!!!

I have a lovely stone bench under this apple tree. I do, really. Promise.

 

There are actually 5 steps that come down from the sliding glass door. Really, I promise.

Sure hope this little shed is built for that much snow. Well, for the sake of whoever buys this house in God forsaken Ohio…if it collapses it makes no matter to me. I’m selling!!

I can’t take much more…but I’ll have to. It is currently still snowing and we have another storm bearing down on us. We are only 4 inches short of the snowiest February on record in Ohio. We’re going to hit it. No problem. Or BIG problem depending on whether you’re stuck in it or not!!!

Break out the spring flowers North/South Carolina…I’m packin’!

Love you all!

Hate the snow!!

God Forsaken Ohio

That is where I live.

I really have had enough of the snow. Really, truly.

Early this afternoon, we took Jon to the airport and dropped him off. We had approximately 8 inches of snow bearing down on us and he thought he’d rather wait at the airport than have us out on the roads during the heaviest part of the snowfall. That plan backfired on us in a number of ways. The most quickly obvious was that we did NOT beat the snow.

It started in heavily as we were on our way to Columbus and  did not stop or slow down in the least all the way there or back. I have the luxury of being a housewife. So, I rarely venture out of the house when we have big snowfalls. No need to. Honestly, therefore, I cannot remember the last time I had to go out and drive on snow. Well, I mean snow like that. The kind where 4 inches falls in 2 hours. The kind of snowfall in which the road is completely covered 5 minutes after the road warriors have plowed. Add to the snow on the roads quarter mile visibility. The snow was falling that hard and fast. AND my windshield wipers kept freezing up. For a good 30 miles on the way back I had to slouch to peer through a 2 inch strip of clean windshield. It got so bad that I had to navigate to the berm (which had not been plowed AT ALL) to clean off my wipers. I pulled over on I-71 near 36…and let me tell you…God was with me. Less than an hour after I stopped there there was a HUGE accident near there. According to CBS news (local) there are dozens of cars involved. I believe the accident is on southbound and I was on northbound ~ so my point is the roads…they are BAD.

But, that is not enough. It’s not that easy. About 40 minutes into our nearly 2 hour trip home, the text messages started coming from Jon. His flight was delayed…the runways were temporarily closed…talk of shutting down the airport…and finally, his flight was cancelled. What is a good wife to do???

I’ll never know if I made the right call or not…but I continued home with my precious cargo. I was close to home and scared and stressed out and I’d been driving for 25 miles an hour for, well, for an hour. I debated dropping the kids off somewhere and going after him…briefly. In the end, I decided I’m of more use to all of them alive than dead and dead is a distinct possibility on those roads. Then, I told him to get a hotel room near the airport if he could find transportation. They did have something running snowbound passengers to local hotels. So, that is where my honey is right now. At some seedy hotel near Port Columbus. He’s been rescheduled to a flight tomorrow at 11:20 am. Frankly, I have serious doubts about that flight making it out too. And I’ve already given up ANY hope the kids will have school tomorrow.

If it doesn’t stop snowing soon, like really soon, I am going to cry. Cry and blubber and flip my finger over my lips like a babbling crazy person. You would think God is trying to chase me out of Ohio or something.

For every pretty picture, there’s a road that can’t be traversed.

Or even seen for that matter.

And I’m not feelin’ the love right now!

Except for you all, of course.

My Honey Is Home (and other stuff)

After a 150 minute delay, due to inclement weather, USAir finally saw fit to deliver my man into my arms last night. Well, into my van anyway. I cannot remember the last time I was so happy to see my husband. It had been 3 weeks!!! That is a long time! The first thing we did when we got home was celebrate his birthday. His birthday was actually Thursday, but we didn’t get to see him then…so we waited…and made up for it on Friday!

I got him an MP3 player. Which I loaded our song on. Which I thought was a nice little “Valentine’s Day” touch. The kids got him Halo, for the computer…a greatest hits Lynard Skynard cd and a wall charger. He seemed to really like all his gifts and of course, all the fuss. My honey is ALL about the fuss on his birthday!

And THIS…

This is a dadgum shame and I know it. You can’t see me, but I’m hanging my head in shame.

Today, was Liam’s first basketball game. I have one word for you, well more than one…the one is B-O-R-I-N-G!!! The other words would be…is it almost baseball season yet???

You can’t tell it by looking outside right now, but it is! I signed Liam up today!!! The light around the court-ner.

I have some misgivings about signing the boys up this year. I’m afraid we won’t be here…or worse we will be stuck here because they are playing baseball. But, both boys LOVE playing and I cannot with hold that fun from them or ask them to put their lives on hold. So, we’re going ahead.

Liam signed up with Highland again, hopefully sticking with the same coaching team he had last year. Sam wants to play for Marengo this year.

My best news today is this…

Motivated by my embarrassment to be seen with him at Liam’s game this morning, we took Sam for a haircut!

I love you all!!      

Sam Vs. The World

Sam shared his world with me this afternoon. And I was struck with how small it really is. After school today he asked if he could play Wii in the living room. I begrudgingly told him he had 30 minutes. And that whatever he played had better entertain me. He did not disappoint! Of course, I also told him he needs to get his arse off my table. That apparently went unheard.

He has renewed his love affair with his Wii since we got wireless internet. And I can certainly see why. I told him 30 minutes about an hour ago and I have yet to put my foot down. I am endlessly entertained. Cheering him on as he faces players from all over the world. Literally all over the world. That is just amazing to me. I grew up watching my brothers play mario. Let me tell you something…it’s a whole new world on the game scene. Most of you probably already KNEW this! But, I live in a bubble.

  So, I am somewhat in awe of the genius involved behind the scenes of my son sitting in our living room racing against mimi. Mimi showed on the map somewhere in northern Europe. It didn’t show us where fabian bon was…but my imagination puts them near the Eiffel Tower. Bonjour Fabian, shall we race??

I mean really. How cool is that? And poor cook, God bless her soul. I don’t know where or who she is, but Sam didn’t like her a bit this afternoon. How funny is it when Sam yells, “COOK ~ I just recently hate her” when she beats him for the second time in a row.

Yes, his 30 minutes is up. I most likely should make him go do his homework. Instead, I think I will cheer him on to victory in this small, small, very small world he lives in!

I love you all!