Project Life, Week 7 of 2019
Lots of pictures this week because, omg snow!! So much snow! Also related, snow plows and trading in the van for a Suburban! And Valentines Day.
Project Life, Week 6 of 2019
Snow, snow, more snow, orthodontics, random fevers, a secret gift for someone, Top Gun team challenge, and Hannah seeing snow!
Snow day memories
Some day, I'll get around to finishing the story of our epic 3 week long road trip from 6 months ago... But today, we have snow. And no school. And neighborhood kids building igloos in the front yard. And hot chocolate. And sleds and shovels and a rack in front of the fireplace that's literally dripping with hats and gloves and snow pants.
I like the snow, in case you can't tell.
Actually, I love the snow. Like L O V E the snow.
It used to be, that when snow was predicted, I would glue myself to the tv, watching all 3 or 4 channels of local news, morning and evening. (This is significant because I am not a news-watcher. I actually hate the news.) Now that the way we watch tv has turned into something completely different, and we don't even subscribe to any channels, I'm glued to my weather app (or apps, actually), watching, days in advance to see if that snowflake still stays on that day. What % chance is it? How much accumulation? Is there an advisory? A warning?
I'm going to stop here for a second and explain a few things about this crazy, vigilant, obsessive behavior I've just described. 1. I live in western Washington. 2. Snow here is infrequent. Maybe once or twice a year. 3. When snow is predicted, it doesn't mean it's actually going to snow. Our mild, coastal weather patterns mean that, even when it does snow, the temperature is usually hovering somewhere between 32-37 degrees. Usually, when it's actually cold enough to snow, it's because there is no cloud cover keeping things temperate. So having clouds, with moisture, and temps low enough for that moisture to be snow requires a very magical combination that doesn't often happen. And even when it does, as soon as it does snow, it generally starts melting almost immediately, resulting in a very disappointing wet, sloppy slush situation that can really crush a kid's soul.
Anyway. So everything that needed to happen last night, happened. The prediction was for about 1 inch of accumulation. This morning at around 8, I measured 7 inches on my garbage can.
The call that school was closed came at 5:02am.
Since I work at the school, I was just as excited as the kids about this news.
There is something about snow that makes me feel very nostalgic. Most of my favorite childhood memories are set in the snow. Snowball fights with neighborhood kids in my front yard, using the lids from those old, metal trash cans as shields. Sledding for hours and hours on our hill. How kids we didn't even know lived there would just show up and everyone played like we were best friends. The time our across-the-street neighbor got his station wagon stuck at the bottom of the hill and a tow truck came to tow it out, and my friend's little brother went sledding down the hill, right under the tow truck, miraculously not hurting himself, but tore open the back of his green snow pants. He had to walk back up the hill, dragging his sled, crying, while we all laughed about the stuffing that was flying out of the rips in his pants. (Yes, that's cruel. I know. But we were young and stupid and had no idea that what he had just done was dangerous, not just stupid, and he was someone's annoying little brother. Stop judging. It was the 80s.)
My most vivid snow day memories, however, center around my parents. Mostly my mom. This is not to discount the time my dad laid down on our old wooden metal runner sled and I laid down on his back and we slid down our hill, continued down the hill in the neighborhood below, took a left at the bottom and continued around the corner and UP the incline on that street about 5 or 6 houses before we finally stopped. It was epic, and I'm pretty sure we set a world record, were there anyone there to document that sort of thing. Also, it was a very long walk back to the top of our hill.
But my mom loved snow more than anyone I knew. She would wake me up in the middle of the night if it started snowing after I'd gone to bed. We would sit in the dark in the living room and watch the snow fall outside. She taught me the fine art of making snow angels, AND getting up out of them without messing them up. She taught me that, although daytime snow was great, night snow was the best thing ever. Something about being out after dark, in the snow, under the streetlights, with nobody else around. It's amazing.
One night, in particular, stands out in my memory with such vividness, it could have happened yesterday, although it was easily 34 or 35 years ago. We went sledding. At night. Just my mom and I. And it was her idea. All that is significant enough, but the one thing that made this event especially memorable was the fact that we went sledding on the OTHER hill. My house was at the top of this hill. Smack dab in the middle. The one hill ("the big hill") was the one we used for sledding. It was steeper, longer, and ended continuing into a neighborhood. The other hill was also of decent size, but it ended by intersecting with a rather busy road. Nobody went sledding there, for obvious reasons. I have no idea why she chose that hill. Maybe the snow was better, having not had a million kids using it all day. The traffic issue was non-existent since it was late and the road conditions were obviously terrible. We slid over and over again down that hill. It's one of the happiest memories I have.
Of course, there are no pictures of this event. No videos, no Facebook posts or Instagram stories. She and I were the only ones with this memory. And now it's only me.
And thus, I write it. I put it here to share with you. I don't know if it matters if anyone else knows about this. Probably not.
I wonder what memories my kids will have of snow days. Probably the friends and the igloos and the snowmen. Maybe Shane using the lawn mower to pull Layla and Micah around on a sled. Maybe Micah trying to get the dog to pull his saucer sled, although I'm pretty sure that actually happened in the summer.
This lengthy retrospective indulgence has alerted me to one major issue of neglect on my part. My children have yet to experience night snow.
That must be remedied.
I like the snow, in case you can't tell.
Actually, I love the snow. Like L O V E the snow.
It used to be, that when snow was predicted, I would glue myself to the tv, watching all 3 or 4 channels of local news, morning and evening. (This is significant because I am not a news-watcher. I actually hate the news.) Now that the way we watch tv has turned into something completely different, and we don't even subscribe to any channels, I'm glued to my weather app (or apps, actually), watching, days in advance to see if that snowflake still stays on that day. What % chance is it? How much accumulation? Is there an advisory? A warning?
I'm going to stop here for a second and explain a few things about this crazy, vigilant, obsessive behavior I've just described. 1. I live in western Washington. 2. Snow here is infrequent. Maybe once or twice a year. 3. When snow is predicted, it doesn't mean it's actually going to snow. Our mild, coastal weather patterns mean that, even when it does snow, the temperature is usually hovering somewhere between 32-37 degrees. Usually, when it's actually cold enough to snow, it's because there is no cloud cover keeping things temperate. So having clouds, with moisture, and temps low enough for that moisture to be snow requires a very magical combination that doesn't often happen. And even when it does, as soon as it does snow, it generally starts melting almost immediately, resulting in a very disappointing wet, sloppy slush situation that can really crush a kid's soul.
Anyway. So everything that needed to happen last night, happened. The prediction was for about 1 inch of accumulation. This morning at around 8, I measured 7 inches on my garbage can.
The call that school was closed came at 5:02am.
Since I work at the school, I was just as excited as the kids about this news.
There is something about snow that makes me feel very nostalgic. Most of my favorite childhood memories are set in the snow. Snowball fights with neighborhood kids in my front yard, using the lids from those old, metal trash cans as shields. Sledding for hours and hours on our hill. How kids we didn't even know lived there would just show up and everyone played like we were best friends. The time our across-the-street neighbor got his station wagon stuck at the bottom of the hill and a tow truck came to tow it out, and my friend's little brother went sledding down the hill, right under the tow truck, miraculously not hurting himself, but tore open the back of his green snow pants. He had to walk back up the hill, dragging his sled, crying, while we all laughed about the stuffing that was flying out of the rips in his pants. (Yes, that's cruel. I know. But we were young and stupid and had no idea that what he had just done was dangerous, not just stupid, and he was someone's annoying little brother. Stop judging. It was the 80s.)
My most vivid snow day memories, however, center around my parents. Mostly my mom. This is not to discount the time my dad laid down on our old wooden metal runner sled and I laid down on his back and we slid down our hill, continued down the hill in the neighborhood below, took a left at the bottom and continued around the corner and UP the incline on that street about 5 or 6 houses before we finally stopped. It was epic, and I'm pretty sure we set a world record, were there anyone there to document that sort of thing. Also, it was a very long walk back to the top of our hill.
But my mom loved snow more than anyone I knew. She would wake me up in the middle of the night if it started snowing after I'd gone to bed. We would sit in the dark in the living room and watch the snow fall outside. She taught me the fine art of making snow angels, AND getting up out of them without messing them up. She taught me that, although daytime snow was great, night snow was the best thing ever. Something about being out after dark, in the snow, under the streetlights, with nobody else around. It's amazing.
One night, in particular, stands out in my memory with such vividness, it could have happened yesterday, although it was easily 34 or 35 years ago. We went sledding. At night. Just my mom and I. And it was her idea. All that is significant enough, but the one thing that made this event especially memorable was the fact that we went sledding on the OTHER hill. My house was at the top of this hill. Smack dab in the middle. The one hill ("the big hill") was the one we used for sledding. It was steeper, longer, and ended continuing into a neighborhood. The other hill was also of decent size, but it ended by intersecting with a rather busy road. Nobody went sledding there, for obvious reasons. I have no idea why she chose that hill. Maybe the snow was better, having not had a million kids using it all day. The traffic issue was non-existent since it was late and the road conditions were obviously terrible. We slid over and over again down that hill. It's one of the happiest memories I have.
Of course, there are no pictures of this event. No videos, no Facebook posts or Instagram stories. She and I were the only ones with this memory. And now it's only me.
And thus, I write it. I put it here to share with you. I don't know if it matters if anyone else knows about this. Probably not.
I wonder what memories my kids will have of snow days. Probably the friends and the igloos and the snowmen. Maybe Shane using the lawn mower to pull Layla and Micah around on a sled. Maybe Micah trying to get the dog to pull his saucer sled, although I'm pretty sure that actually happened in the summer.
This lengthy retrospective indulgence has alerted me to one major issue of neglect on my part. My children have yet to experience night snow.
That must be remedied.
Project Life, Week 5 of 2019
Swimmimg, sunrise, traffic, Marimba, and living room tenting on a 3 day weekend. 
Project Life, Week 4 of 2019
Crossover, troop meeting, more swimming, ball-winding, high school band, and Freedom Invitational.
Project Life, Week 3 of 2019
Disk golf, honor band, Battle in Bellevue, and getting ready for crossover. 
Project Life, Week 2 of 2019
Back to swimming lessons, haircuts, and Christmas tree removal highlight week 2.
Project Life, Week 1 of 2019
The first week of the year is done! We traveled home from CA on Wednesday. It was awesome to still have 4 days left of break to get our wits about us before heading back to school. I decided to use the time to do a huge batch of freezer meals.
I am absolutely loving the Cinnamon Edition. I've been eyeing this one for awhile.
Road Trip Day 15
We managed to escape further storms overnight, but stuff was still very wet: beds, towels, bathing suits from swimming in Nashville on Friday.... we needed to dry out and the weather wasn't cooperating. We all woke up grumpy on Sunday morning. Things didn't improve when Layla and I went to take showers. The shower heads just sprayed everywhere. There was no way to turn them on or adjust them at all without getting totally soaked. And so my pajamas and my Birkenstocks were drenched before I even got in. I also had to stand the entire time on my tip toes to keep from getting fully sprayed in the face the whole time. It did not improve my mood.We did, however, get torn down and loaded up earlier than planned!! We wanted to leave by 9, since we were going to church in the city at 10, and knew we would have to find street parking that would accommodate our van and trailer. We pulled out at 8:45. A true miracle. We drove in and immediately found parking. We were ready at 9:05. And then we discovered that church didn't actually start until 10:15. So we decided to walk around a little and see some of the cool buildings and other old churches in the neighborhood.
When we finally went to church, it was awesome. We had done a little research before the trip. Since we were going to be finding ourselves in St. Louis on a Sunday, I wanted to find a super old, super traditional Lutheran church to attend. This one, Historic Trinity Lutheran Church in Soulard, fit the bill. A bonus was the massive pipe organ.
Everyone was very friendly, and worshiping there was a great way to re-start our day. Our after-church, pre-departure plan was to visit Grant's Farm to see the Clydesdales. It was stiflingly hot, but we had a good time. You have to pay for parking, but otherwise it's free. It is a large piece of land that, at one time, belonged to President Ulysses S. Grant, but now belongs to the Busch family (of Anheuser-Busch) and is used as a zoo/farm/sanctuary for many animals, including several of the famous Budweiser Clydesdales.
We had some snow cones to cool down and wandered the gift shop before hitting the road. From there we drove to Kansas City where we set up camp and discovered the door of the refrigerator in the trailer had popped open at some point during the day and all of our food was warmish. So after sending most of our food to the dumpster, Dave left to go get some new groceries and pick up some BBQ for dinner, the kids went to the pool, and I hit the laundry facilities. By the time we went to bed, we had washed 8 loads of clothes, towels, bedding, bathing suits, and Dave's sweaty cycling stuff. We filled the washers and dryers, plus hung stuff outside and inside the trailer to dry.
So happy to have ALL the clothes clean and the towels all dry and no nasty bathing suits. Also, dry beds! License plate stats: still looking for Delaware and Hawaii; 6 provinces.States visited: 16.
When we finally went to church, it was awesome. We had done a little research before the trip. Since we were going to be finding ourselves in St. Louis on a Sunday, I wanted to find a super old, super traditional Lutheran church to attend. This one, Historic Trinity Lutheran Church in Soulard, fit the bill. A bonus was the massive pipe organ.
Everyone was very friendly, and worshiping there was a great way to re-start our day. Our after-church, pre-departure plan was to visit Grant's Farm to see the Clydesdales. It was stiflingly hot, but we had a good time. You have to pay for parking, but otherwise it's free. It is a large piece of land that, at one time, belonged to President Ulysses S. Grant, but now belongs to the Busch family (of Anheuser-Busch) and is used as a zoo/farm/sanctuary for many animals, including several of the famous Budweiser Clydesdales.
We had some snow cones to cool down and wandered the gift shop before hitting the road. From there we drove to Kansas City where we set up camp and discovered the door of the refrigerator in the trailer had popped open at some point during the day and all of our food was warmish. So after sending most of our food to the dumpster, Dave left to go get some new groceries and pick up some BBQ for dinner, the kids went to the pool, and I hit the laundry facilities. By the time we went to bed, we had washed 8 loads of clothes, towels, bedding, bathing suits, and Dave's sweaty cycling stuff. We filled the washers and dryers, plus hung stuff outside and inside the trailer to dry.
So happy to have ALL the clothes clean and the towels all dry and no nasty bathing suits. Also, dry beds! License plate stats: still looking for Delaware and Hawaii; 6 provinces.States visited: 16.
Road Trip Day 14
Saturday morning, we checked out of our hotel room and loaded everything back in the van and got hooked up. Apparently, our trailer left a dent in the parking lot. Not sure what that was about. 
We had breakfast at Starbucks and then drove to our campground just outside of St. Louis, in Granite City, Illinois. We got things set up just as a storm was rolling in. We decided to hope that the storm had already been through St. Louis, so we headed into the city. The drive there was a little sketchy and we had to pull over a couple of times because it was raining so hard we couldn't see.
But, when we got there, it seemed to be done raining and we were able to park and do some sight seeing. We went to visit the Arch.
We weren't able to go up in it because it was sold out for the day, but we went downstairs to check out the free museum. It was really awesome. Lots of interesting displays and information about the history of the area. Layla did some conditioning and Micah paddled a canoe and got run over by a train.
At that point, we decided to leave because we were pretty hungry. When we got upstairs, the lobby was packed and nobody was able to leave because of another storm.
We were under a severe thunderstorm warning, so we were stuck there for about another 45 minutes, starving and freezing because of the air conditioning. We finally were able to leave and we went to Walmart to buy some stuff for dinner. When we got back to our campground, we discovered that the whole place was filled with huge puddles from all the rain and the corners of both of the beds in our trailers were very wet. It continued to rain off and on all evening, and by the time we wanted to go to bed, we decided to all pile in the van and drive to the bathrooms to brush our teeth.License plate stats: STILL 48 states and 6 provinces. States visited: 15.
We had breakfast at Starbucks and then drove to our campground just outside of St. Louis, in Granite City, Illinois. We got things set up just as a storm was rolling in. We decided to hope that the storm had already been through St. Louis, so we headed into the city. The drive there was a little sketchy and we had to pull over a couple of times because it was raining so hard we couldn't see.
But, when we got there, it seemed to be done raining and we were able to park and do some sight seeing. We went to visit the Arch.
We weren't able to go up in it because it was sold out for the day, but we went downstairs to check out the free museum. It was really awesome. Lots of interesting displays and information about the history of the area. Layla did some conditioning and Micah paddled a canoe and got run over by a train.
At that point, we decided to leave because we were pretty hungry. When we got upstairs, the lobby was packed and nobody was able to leave because of another storm.
We were under a severe thunderstorm warning, so we were stuck there for about another 45 minutes, starving and freezing because of the air conditioning. We finally were able to leave and we went to Walmart to buy some stuff for dinner. When we got back to our campground, we discovered that the whole place was filled with huge puddles from all the rain and the corners of both of the beds in our trailers were very wet. It continued to rain off and on all evening, and by the time we wanted to go to bed, we decided to all pile in the van and drive to the bathrooms to brush our teeth.License plate stats: STILL 48 states and 6 provinces. States visited: 15.
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