Monday

Today I realized that Isaac has really red hands compared to me.  Joshua's hands are also on the red side, but not as red as Isaac's.  Apparently this is a normal for him.

Saturday: rock climbing

Isaac had a rock climbing competition today.  This one was for the community, so the feel is much more laid back than the USAC ones.  He got 6/9 routes, which was a huge improvement from last time.  He got a few right away or within a few tries, worked on one for a good half hour, and then got another one easily that he originally had problems with.  Oh!  There were also a bunch of Christmas lights that had been strung for the finals in the evening.  Isaac asked...I wonder how they got those up there.  I replied with a ladder.  "Oh yeah.  I forget about ladders when I'm climbing."  Hilarious and understandable all at the same time.

Some of the holds are still new and they tore up his hands.  It meant he didn't try one route more than a few times because it was pretty much like rubbing his hands with sand paper as he fell off.

Tornado cuddled with him in the afternoon.  Right up by his head, because that's where Tornado likes to sit.

Friday: snow day

I went out to snow blow this morning and didn't find it all that cold.  (Cold, yes.  Just not that cold.)  But it turns out that I had gone out while there was a wind break.  Five minutes later I was almost done with the driveway and the wind picked up and I decided that was good enough.  I was now cold.

It was a relatively normal day.  Chores, games, stuff.  Joshua and I took a picture of Tornado and then printed it out four times.  He then drew Tornado into a bunch of monsters.  Tornado watched to make sure Joshua made them..regal...enough.

Tornado has also taken to napping on my chair.  Most of the time this is nice because he keeps it warm and is willing to sit on my lap if I do need to sit there.  Sometimes it's annoying if I just have a few minutes of work and so I try not to disturb him at all.

During my second snow blowing session I misjudged the wind direction.  (Or!!  The wind changed after I had started.)  By the time I realized it, I was committed.  By the time I finished, I decided that I shouldn't have been so committed as I really couldn't see anything.  A fine layer of snow coated my glasses.

Thursday: Snow day #3

Well, I woke up to a phone call at 5:45am saying school was canceled for the day!  I did some of my work at home in the morning and by the time I went in to work the roads were fine.  I've heard it was much worse in other places though, especially if there was any wind.  The snow is light and fluffy and blows easily.

Isaac's math class was completely canceled too, which is rather exciting.  I assume the kids did fine home alone today - the chores were finished by the time I got home and no one seemed to be going too crazy.  Isaac and I went rock climbing for a little bit and Joshua had piano, so everyone was able to get out of the house.

I've been expecting a snow day on Friday for the last week.  Everyone has been expecting a snow day on Friday - we had a meeting with a school admin scheduled for tomorrow that was moved around noon because we all expected the snow day.  Then 5:30 rolled around - no announcement from any local schools.  6:00.  7:00.  7:30.  Were they really going to make us wait until the morning?  Finally at 7:40 the notification came through that there is no school tomorrow either.  It'll be too cold and, if possible, people are hunkering down.

Wednesday: snow day

We did end up with a snow day today!  I had to go out several times today and the roads really weren't very good.  They also seemed to be worse this evening as they were icy near intersections.  I'm expecting school tomorrow (and most forecasts say a low chance of a closure), but wouldn't be overly surprised if there isn't school.  I don't think anyone is expecting school on Friday due to cold, so it'll be a really short week.

Anyway, Ben stayed home so that was nice.  I had an easier day than otherwise, but still had work and errands that needed to be done.  

One errand included a vet appointment, and it seemed like this vet was telling me very different things than previous vets.  Last year Horizon's weight had stayed the same and the vet was happy enough with that.  This year he lost a little (very little) weight and the vet was quite sure that he needed to lose quite a bit of weight.  We also have a cat that regularly throws up.  We mention it every year, and have tried a few things to combat it but nothing seems to change.  In the past it has just been ok.  This year she was very worried about it.  She wanted the cats to have a complete blood panel workup and said that she suggests doing this every year with older cats...which would over triple today's vet bill.  Um...no.  She also suggested a few other things to change that involve buying some products, but at $30 it might be something we do.  So after this annoying appointment I got home and the plow had gone through and I was rather grumpy.

I did enjoy Joshua's message to me on his math work from yesterday though.  I read somewhere that adults killed 6-7, and I'm not sad about it.  (Please ignore the wrong answer.)

Tuesday: snow day (#1?)

One of the kids' chores today was to shovel the end of the driveway after the plow came through.  So what happens?  The plow came through at 7am and I was able snow blow it away.  It was still light and fluffy so it worked well.  The kids went sledding after I got home from work, so they still got outside even though it's rather cold.

I got a text with this picture while at work.  The kids didn't get into too many shenanigans, but definitely some.

I'm really tired.

There's a high chance of a snow day tomorrow.  I personally think there's a high chance on Friday too.  We'll see!

Monday: snow storm

It was an interesting snow storm today.

The kids had ortho appointments this morning.  I was a bit annoyed at myself for making the appointments, but in a non-snowstorm it would have been the right choice.  Anyway, based on appointment times and whatnot I expected to be there for about 1.5hrs.

Twenty minutes later, we were leaving.  They got both kids in at the same time and Isaac's appointment didn't take an hour as I was told.  It was rather exciting.

The roads weren't as bad as I thought, but there weren't many people out.  There was one gust of wind that caused very white out conditions, but it passed quickly.  (The highways were much, much worse.  Due to accidents, they were closed for a significant portion of the day.)

The original plan had been to have Ben take my car to work after the ortho appointments, but he managed to move all of his meetings on-line.  Most people took the "do not travel" advisory seriously and worked from home.

At 5pm, all the local schools EXCEPT OURS had been canceled.  It's a situation where you know the school will cancel, but they haven't yet.  What if they decide not to!?!  They did cancel.  Phew.

The day as a whole was nice.  The kids played some, read some, worked some.  I actually got many of my normal chores completed since the kids were well occupied.

I made naan for dinner, but didn't decide to do so until 3pm.  Usually I take Brad out of the refrigerator in the morning so it has some time to wake up.  Instead I made the naan dough and had it cuddle between Isaac's legs and under some blankets to warm up just a little.  I didn't need it to warm up much, but sitting on the counter would be cold.