Snow!!

Yes indeed, the Northwest has SNOW!! And a LOT of it. (For us anyway, this is a pretty big deal. I realize many areas get far more than we have!)

Since I've gotten comments and e-mails and so many of you thoughtful people asking how we're doing, rather than repeat myself, I thought I'd post a copy of the e-mail I just sent to my cousin who's originally from North Dakota, but enjoying the Holidays in North Carolina:

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Donnie, enjoy your warm weather and have a great time down there!!
Thanks for thinking of us!! Yes, I'm surviving just fine.

The girls are in Oregon with their Dad. His mother passed away and the memorial service is today. Keep them in your prayers, they have a long, scary, icy drive home tonight. I'm hoping and praying he gets them home to me safely - maybe they'll wait 'till tomorrow, the roads are crazy.

As you know, we're practically in the foothills of Mt. Rainier here, so we sometimes get more severe weather than, say, Tacoma or Seattle.

You'll love this, (I was getting ready to e-mail you anyway) - Little Sprout made a snowman in the yard and named him Donnie (true story) "because he has a hat and looked like he was smiling" (who knows how the mind of a nine-year-old works)... I'll try to get a picture, but unfortunately Donnie-the-snowman is buried under yet MORE snow and the batteries are gone on my camera. We didn't have any carrots, so he has an orange-Popsicle nose and a
Starbucks cup for his hat..

School was cancelled Wed - Fri. which was nice, but now it's just getting a little boring stuck at home. I read a couple books, wasted time on my computer, alphabetized my spice drawer and my cookbooks; made bread, pie, cookies, muffins, apple butter and späetzle 'till I ran out of ingredients; played Scrabble online, WAXED my kitchen floor (which I think I've done once in my life) and cleaned out 4 closets. I even watched TV!

We did drive around some before the last snow hit. But then I got a %#$%@# parking ticket for parking in a handicapped spot that I couldn't even see. Seriously! Everyone was parking every which way, NO lines were visible. Who gives out parking tickets in THOSE conditions anyway!! Grrr. THAT put a damper on my driving-in-the-snow experience!!
Then it snowed heavily last night. Today at our house, snow is about to the top of the tires on my van, and there's a heavy crust of ice over top of the snow. I heard tree limbs snapping and crashing down in our back yard early this morning from the weight of the snow/ice. Scary loud like shotguns!

The poor dog won't go outside to do his doggy business because he breaks thru the ice and is buried in the snow somewhere and then I have to go crunching out to rescue him. Neither of us like that whole lot. So I tried carrying him out and we BOTH fell on our backsides and slid down the hill into the shed. Didn't like THAT particularly either.

I'd have been a failure as a Dakota farmer!!

But yes, we're OK, thanks for asking.
Needless to say, I'm not going to attempt
driving anywhere, I haven't heard a single car go by on the main road so far today and it's usually a busy road!

I am just so thankful we have power, water and heat!
I'm sure there are many who don't.

Love you all,
have a Happy (warm!!) Holiday.