polar vortex 2014

This whole Blizzard 2014 thing must be documented. It's crazy.

First of all, let the record show that before this last big snow, I SHOVELED THE DRIVEWAY LAST WEEK. This is almost unheard of around these parts.

Husband was pleased.

Anyway, the weatherman had been forecasting this huge snowfall and bitterly cold temps all week. Most of the time this kind of thing doesn't actually end up occurring, but I figured I'd head to the store anyway, just in case. I just have to say that I don't think I've ever seen that many people in the grocery store at one time. It was like Black Friday in the frozen foods section. I had to wait in line just to get a stinkin' cart! And then I had to fight my way down the aisles to get food. It was nuts. But apparently worth it, because later on it snowed for pretty much 24 hours straight.

Once all the snow was said and done, we woke up to this spectacular sunrise. It was the first time it had been sunny in quite some time, and it was gorgeous. 

(Can you believe we didn't grill out for dinner?)

Unfortunately, with the lovely sunrise came some INSANELY frigid temps.

Check out that windchill! This wasn't even the coldest.

So when it's THAT cold, this is what Ty looks like before he goes outside to shovel a spot for the dog:

He was outside less than a minute before a layer of frost collected on his glasses.

And this is what your beautiful front doors look like once your husband discovers a tiny gap that's letting in a LARGE amount of that frigid air.

That's janky. The garage door looks even worse.

And this is what you do when there's a travel ban and you can't/don't want to leave the house: You play games. We had a lot of fun and have decided that the two of us need to do this more often. So if you have any two-player games you'd like to send us, please feel free. 

Excuse the no-makeup look. What's the point when you can't leave the house?

I woke up this morning completely expecting this to be my last day of Christmas Break. I got out the laptop and decided to take advantage of a little extra plan time. Then I got an email saying that school would be closed YET AGAIN tomorrow! So I promptly put the laptop away and lounged on the couch again. 

For the record: that will be THREE snow days in a row, and a 2 1/2 week Christmas Break. It's pretty glorious.

And it couldn't have happened during a better year. I think God knows I needed as much time away from my crazy students as possible. Every day that I have off, I get a little more rejuvenated to go back. 

I PROMISE I'll be ready on Thursday...perhaps.

xoxo, wife.