Scrapperblog

Snow Day!!!

I'll bet you are getting really sick of me blogging about the snow we've had this winter. I know I'm sick of getting it. Last night I was up at 1 am coughing (yes, I'm still sick and have no voice) and noticed that there was a nice coating of ice on the deck, but that was it. At 4 am, the deck is covered in about 2 inches of white stuff. Frack!!

Of course I don't think we're going to cancel. Maybe Polo R-7; they close all the time. We've had maybe half a dozen snow/ice events this winter and we've closed early one day and used 1 snow day. The rest of the schools in the area are talking about extending the year into June, but we are sitting pretty with several days left because our interim superintendent is a hardy soul. :-)

I'm up, I'm showered, I'm dressed. I'm ready to go. But I just got an email from channel 9 telling me that my district showed up on the School Closing List. I haven't seen it on any other television channel (and I'm watching for it) and I haven't gotten a call from the calling tree (the Gold Standard for School Closures). So I sit.

{I just saw my district listed as closed on a second television channel. I really hope my phone rings soon because I was going to leave the house in about 20 minutes. DH says there is ice on the windshields under the snow and I really don't want to do the ice scraper dance.}

DH was up late last night, talking on the webcam with his friend in Australia. Mikey thought it was really fun, showing her his Aussie hat and thanking her "in person" for the nice things she sent. It's so strange, seeing out her window, bright sunshine streaming through the blinds. And we sit here buried under snow that will not go away.

{Phone call- yep it's official. Let the Snow Day Festivities begin!!}

Update on the little baby in the hospital. I talked to Mrs. E yesterday and she says he's doing well. He got out of ICU on Saturday and should be home from the hospital yesterday or today. The only lingering effect of this is that he's clingy and whimpery and doesn't understand what is going on around him. Poor thing.

The kids were kind of wild yesterday and it was all I could do to keep them under control. One little boy has some behavior issues and since there was a sub in the other room, he was in fine form. Yelling out, wandering the room, being disrespectful... you name it. The other kids were feeding off him and at one point it was so crazy that it sounded like a zoo in there.

Well, this one boy came into my room for math and I just gave him my best talking to. I threatened to put him in the time out room for a really long time if he acted like that in my room. I guess my "Don't fuck with me" look was enough to calm him down and he was really well-behaved in my room for the rest of the class.

Of course the rest of my group was pretty restless and after going through a science demo lesson with flashlights and glass lenses, I called it a day and let them work on their Valentine's Day bags. We pulled out the glue and paper and scissors and went for it. I drew the line at glitter. I'm not a big fan of glitter in the classroom. <grin> I did have some glitter glue from last Christmas and let them use that.

Can you believe it's already going to be Valentine's Day tomorrow? Why do these holidays keep sneaking up on me?? The plan was supposed to be dinner out tomorrow night, but if the roads aren't clear, I'm not going. The city got 4-6 inches of snow, but they tend to be better about clearing their roads.

Ackkk..... I really wish spring would come so I could complain about my allergies instead of the snow. At least it would be different.

Actually, an attitude adjustment is in order here.

I am actually thankful for this season full of snow, because it's the first year that Mikey has really understood the idea of snow and snowmen and shoveling and he's decided that it's his favorite thing. Imagine how put out he would have been this year if we'd only gotten one snowfall like we did last year. See? I can be a positive person. :-)

Now I'll just have to decide if Mikey is well enough to go outside for some snow play at some point in the morning. If he's coughing and sick, then it's going to drive him bananas having to stay inside.

Other than that, we're having a Snow Day! :-)

Just a Dusting???

 

When I left for work yesterday the weather forecasters were confidently saying that this was going to be a very mild event. A dusting of snow, maybe an inch if we were lucky. The photo in the upper left corner is what I drove home in. Mikey thought it was great fun, playing in the snow again. He was catching flakes on his tongue and shoveling off the snow while I took pictures and grumbled about it all. At 4:15 we already had at least an inch on the ground. This morning, we have easily 3-4 inches and I have to I get to drive to work in it.

You'd think that people in our area would be used to driving in snow by now. But no... by 1pm there was a 35 car pile up on the major interstate running through town. I am not kidding. Luckily only one person was seriously injured. I can't even wrap my mind around the image of 35 cars bumping around like that.

Of course there are no delays or cancellations this morning so I'll be headed into work as usual. The roads in town are not so bad. I even noticed that there was fresh sand on the hill by 4pm. Of course as I crossed over the line into my little village, none of the streets were treated. See how white the streets were? Click on the set of pictures to see them bigger.

I am not going to let this little thing ruin my week of positive thoughts. We had a good day yesterday, even while the snow was falling. The kids kept looking outside but they kept on working really hard for me, most of the day. I even felt generous enough to let them play chess the last 15 minutes of the day, so I could straighten my desk and get ready to make a quick exit.

Besides, tonight is Grey's Night. And it's chili and cinnamon roll day at lunch. How can anyone be less than euphoric about that?

Have a great day. :-)

Things I Get To Do

Weather: 11 degrees (wind chill 0) expecting an inch of snow today
Mood: Frustrated
Netflix Queue: The Guardian
                               Open Season
                               The Justice League Season 1 Disc 4
Listening to: My Faves Playlist on iTunes

Right now I'm digging this new song by Blue Country. It's called "I Get To." I love the message of this song. It's about how this guy used to have to do things like go to church and hang out with his dad, but now he has a new attitude and these are things he gets to do. I totally live this ideal, most of the time.

My mom and I did not always get along, but these days we get to see each other infrequently so we try to make the most of our time together. Yeah, she drove me crazy at Christmas, but in a good way, right? Instead of feeling like I'm obligated to seeing her, I feel glad that I have more time because I know the time is not unlimited.

I get to wake up early. I get to go to work.
There's a lot of things I don't have to do.
I get to.

I get to work with children and I get to see the fruits of my labor. I get to look at test results and see the things I need to teach. I get to make a difference, some of the time.

When it comes to Michael, it just gets better. With him I get a second chance at being the parent I should have been when my older kids were little. I am really lucky that way.

And don't even get me started with the joys of being able to be a real partner to my DH. There isn't a day that I don't realize all over again why we chose to make this life together. I read somewhere that when you find the person who is right for you, you just know it and you spend the rest of your life discovering all the reasons. That's how it is for me and DH.

(The frustration for me comes with some of the adults I work with. I'm not able to go into details, but let's just say that by the end of the day I was ready to spit nails. And today I will take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again).

Other than that fly in my ointment, yesterday was a pretty good day. And I get to have three more just like it before the weekend. Lucky me. :-)

Look What We Made

Look What We Made

You knew it was coming, right? More snow pictures. Check out my Flickr page for more.

We probably got about 3-4 inches of snow last night. It started around 2 in the afternoon and was still flurrying this morning when we got up. Convincing Mikey that we needed to wait until after breakfast to play was really difficult.

The whole family got out there, shoveling off the deck and clearing snow from the vehicles. We threw snowballs at each other and had a blast. We finally got to use the Snowman Kit I got last fall and made us a cute little snow guy in the back yard.

This afternoon we're probably going to play video games, watch a movie and I'm going to scrap more snow layouts. I'm going to be so glad to see spring again, just so I can scrap a different type of page.

Speaking of snow layouts, here's one that I did last night.

Credits: Paper and title from Carrie Stephens' Wonderful One kit at fishscraps.com. Cardboard is from Linda Gil Billad at Scrap Artist. Tag is from Robin Carlton at Sweet Shoppe Designs. Felt ribbon and frame from Gina Miller. Notepaper, bow, and pin from Linda Gil Billad's Stationer's kit. Font is Vaguely Repulsive. The drop shadow under the ribbon is from Angela Barton at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

We did get our errands done yesterday before the snow came. We got Mikey's hair cut and he looks awesome with shorter hair. We got the web cam and I even got to try it out with my friend Maddie last night. And the house is stocked with lots of good food for the week.

Well, I'm off to make some lunch before I scrap and enjoy my last day off this weekend. Tonight is Battlestar Galactica's return, so I want to be well rested. :-)

Blogging from the Office

I'm actually sitting at the office computer writing this, rather than the laptop. Mikey is sleeping on the couch and I don't want to wake him by sitting there with the laptop. I don't know why he's asleep on the couch. He was just there this morning when I got up. Another mystery of life that I don't want to get involved in.

Yesterday I stayed home sick. I don't know if I picked up Mikey's stomach bug or if I ate some bad potato salad at the luncheon, but ugh, I was a sick sally. Mike and I stayed home and everytime DH called to check on me, Mikey said, "Mommy's in the bathroom."

Okay, enough of that.

We got lucky with this storm. We didn't lose power and we didn't get that thick, glazing kind of ice. DH's sister in Springfield has been without power since Friday. (yikes!) Yes, driving to work on Monday was a bitch, but it wasn't impossible.

It took me over an hour to scrape my windshield and in the middle of it my scraper broke. I had to hold the head of the scraper in my hand to get the rest of the ice off. And yes, I let my car defrost before I went out there. Even after an hour it was still iced over. Is it spring yet???

This morning it's freezing out there. Like zero degrees freezing. Several districts are out due to the cold and ice, but of course we're going in. We like to be known as the district that flies in the face of adversity or something like that.

Anyway, I spent yesterday on the couch alternately sleeping and surfing the message boards. There are some really wacko people on some of those boards. At one site I actually logged out so I wouldn't be tempted to leave another post there because people who post get flamed quite often. Of course if I could figure out what the cool kids are thinking and agree with them, then I'd probably avoid most of the flames. Better yet, I could post a la Rodney King about how we should just get along and sing Kumbaya. Or I could post something totally off topic and humorous in an attempt to diffuse the thread, like tuna hot dog casserole or something. It's situations like this when I'm glad I work during the day so I don't have the time to sit around and soak up the drama.

Maybe tonight I'll update this with pictures from my ice scraping adventure and the new layout I got done for ScrapKitchen on Monday. Until then, I have to get to work, which means preheating the car. See ya.

Edited later: Okay, here's the layout. I'm really digging the new ScrapKitchen Hearts kit.

Credits: Hearts kit from ScrapKitchen. Word art from Carrie Stephens. Ric rac corners from Michelle Coleman. Scallops from Shabby Princess. Lace from Bette Duganitz, I think. Trapezoid layout idea from Jessica Sprague.

Let It Snow, Err Sleet

Okay, this is what it looked like when I drove home last night. This is not snow, it's ice. More like ice pellets. It's the weirdest thing, listening to the ice hitting the window all night. This morning there is more white, but it's still not snow. Try explaining that to Mikey, who woke us up very early this morning to tell us about the snow. He wants to go outside and play in it, but it's more like a slushie and it's not that deep (maybe an inch or two).

I did let him shovel it off the deck last night so I could get some pictures and he could get it out of his system. Getting out of his system didn't really work.

We dismissed school early yesterday. It was crazy. Our principal and several teachers and aides didn't make it due to the ice. Several aides went home early. We were missing a bunch of kids because parents didn't want to send them. (I don't blame them). And our poor secretary fielded calls all day from irate parents wondering why we were having school at all. The bus people were encouraging an early dismissal as well, but our new superintendent held fast until 2:30, letting us out an hour early.

In the meantime parents were coming and picking up their children. We didn't have enough kids in fifth grade to make teaching worthwhile so I resorted to showing a movie, which we didn't get to finish because we dismissed early. The whole day was pretty much a waste.

Getting everyone out the door and where they needed to be was a team effort, but we managed to get all the kids on their way by 3:15 or so. I defrosted the SUV and scraped and put it in four wheel drive because it acted more like snow than ice on the roads. Woo hoo for having four wheel drive again. We didn't have any trouble getting home and even DH was safely home by 5 or so.

Now we're snuggled in and toasty warm and ready for the next waves of the storm. A lready it's starting to sleet again. I'm going to start the pot roast in the slow cooker as soon as I finish this blog entry. And we have Glory Road and You, Me & Dupree to watch. Yes, life is good.

As long as the power doesn't go out. :-)

Happy Christmas 2006

It's already Christmas. It's come whether I was ready for it or not. And it's not bad.

Yesterday it started snowing again so we went outside and played in it. The kids had a blast throwing snow at each other. Mikey even got into it. I'm so thankful that he is feeling better now. After he threw up his fever broke and he's been much livelier since.

Bryan brought his new toy, his MacBook. I really like it. It's like an iPod on steroids or something. It's so pretty and white and as a computer it's quite intuitive. Jenny and I picked it up rather quickly. The Photobooth app is killer. That sealed it for me right there. My next laptop will be a MacBook. You want to see the photos from our photobooth session? Here they are. We laughed like hyenas making the pictures. Tears were streaming down our faces. Truly.

After all the hilarity we went to church. It was still snowing and the roads were getting bad. Thankfully it was a short drive to the church. Still, my dad's van was sliding on the ice and we saw a couple of cars bumping in the parking lot. I calmed myself by remembering that it was Christmas Eve. You can't have anything bad happen to you on the way to church on Christmas Eve, right? Besides, it wasn't my car...

We are totally having a White Christmas this year. :-) 

The mass was okay. I usually go to mass with my mom when I'm in town. Usually I feel better afterwards, but I have to confess that I wasn't as moved by this service as I usually am. I had trouble following the sermon because of all the dark feelings that are in my heart. I still believe the basic idea behind Christianity- the birth of God's son as an act of salvation for the world, including myself. But I'm not really sold on the community worship idea or the power of prayer. Bad stuff happens to people all the time, even to good people. Good stuff happens to bad people. I don't see God controlling anything in anyone's lives. He's handed over the free will and people have been allowed to experience the bad and good. So why pray?

Maybe I have the idea of prayer mixed up. Prayer can be just talking to God. But most people when they say, "I'll pray for you" imply that they will ask God a favor on your behalf. I don't think that works.

Anyway, there is still a part of my heart that is very dark and very sad today that all of my family is not with me. I'm still not feeling terribly Christmas-y and joyous. I hope to be able to enjoy my little boy having his Christmas and to enjoy the family that is around me. That has to be enough for now.

I've already made a resolution for next year. I don't really make resolutions; I set goals. So one of my goals for next year is to travel less. I'm tired of trying to make it all work out and I just want to cocoon myself for a while.

I hope that everyone who reads this blog enjoys a merry time with their family and friends. I hope that everyone gets what they were wishing for and that everyone is safe and sound with loved ones. Peace. :-)

brotherly love

brotherly love
Originally uploaded by DebiH.

It has started snowing here in Colorado. Big fluffy flakes snow. Of course the kids wanted to go outside. Mikey seems to be feeling better so we let him go out too. Jenny and Bryan had a fun snowball fight. I think Jenny got the worse end of it. :-)

Snow Angel

Check it out... Mikey was making snow angels in the backyard yesterday. I also got some layouts done and posted to my Flickr site.

Credits: Holly Jolly kit by Nancie Rowe Janitz at Scrap Artist. Fonts: Digs My Heart and Editor.

Credits: Frost N Flakes kit by Mary Fran at Nitwit Collections. Font: Pea Amy.

Credits: Frost N Flakes quick page by Kay Miller with Mary Fran's kit at Nitwit Collections.

Credits: Merry Christmas kit #6 by Jen Wilson. Font is Pea Amy.

Credits: Holly Days kit by Mary Fran at Nitwit Collections. See? Not all my layouts were snow pictures today. :-)

Winter Wonderland 2006

We've had such a good time playing in the snow. We went out again today. The deal I made with Mikey was that there were two rules: first, when I say it's time to come in it's time to come in. Second, I get to take all the pictures I want and he'll look at the camera when I tell him to. The deal worked out pretty well, since I'm really not all that excited about playing in the snow, but I do love taking pictures of it. I stuck the camera in snow mode and went to town. This is what we ended up with...

Click HERE to check out the individual photos in this Flickr set. (I added more this morning).