It's almost like being in Michigan

If you read the blogs of any other Virginians, you'll know this already, but we're the lucky recipients of a TON of snow this year, and we're all hunkered down for another storm right now.

I've been really really enjoying the snow this year, but not so much the effects on the greater DC area.  You Northerners may scoff all you want, but 2" of snow can really shut things down around these parts!  We don't have the same response teams and manpower available for clearing roads and parking lots.

...however, I digress.

This weekend brings us the second storm of the year that is supposed to drop more than a foot of snow.  THE SECOND!  The first was way back in aught nine :) just before Christmas, December 19, 2009.

Sunrise, Dec 20

Jimmy went hunting, and brought back this beauty.

All told, our yard held about 16" of snow, but the official number for our county was 21", I think.  I hadn't seen that much snow since 1998, when we got a blizzard right in the middle of a work day.  (It was such a bizarre experience that I even wrote a short story about it for one of my college courses.)

The December storm was amazing.  It was beautiful!  We took our friends sledding, and found out it was the first time they'd ever been.  That surprised me, but hey -- we are in the South, right?  I enjoyed every minute of that snow before we left for our trip to Michigan to see family.  It almost felt like "the old days"!  (haha)

I was sad when it melted.  In fact, there were a few days in January when it was so warm I didn't even need my coat!  

Then -- Winter returned.

Last weekend, just after exams ended: it snowed.  We had one church service Sunday for those who could make it, but no school Monday or Tuesday.  Tuesday night:  more snow.  No school Wednesday and a 2hr delay on Thursday.  Thursday afternoon, the superintendent decided not to take a chance with our incoming storm for this weekend, and he canceled today's classes, too.  

The kids and I celebrated by going shopping and eating lunch at Wendy's, but now the snow is starting to fall.  It's pretty, I have nowhere to be, and my exams are all graded.  It's really beautiful.  I keep telling myself that it's going to get nasty later, but for now:  for now, it's just pretty.  Who cares if NOAA says we could get more than 2 feet of snow by morning?!  It's pretty and I'm ready for it.

I took a few pictures of my favorite branch in the front yard:

 

Glistening droplets

The snow begins to stick

I'll let you know how much snow we actually get, but what's really interesting about this is that it's supposed to snow again next Tuesday and Wednesday.  AND - as if that's not enough - there's another 4 systems lined up after that one that could bring us even more snow.

I may never get to teach again until Spring at this rate!  

I love the snow.  It makes it feel as if it's really winter and 

not just a "dead" season around here.  Let it fall!

Sledding

First off, I have to give a shout out to my buddy Erica for her first(?) sledding go-round. She's from Louisiana and was super excited about sledding and snow and everything. She told me - a bit sheepishly - that she had to use a laundry basket because there was nowhere to buy a sled, but I find no shame in that. Around here, I've seen sleds, toboggans, sheets of cardboard in bags, inner tubes, trashcan lids, all kinds of things. I say, who cares? If it slides, it's good!

Here are a couple more pics and videos of our sledding adventures. Enjoy!

Video of Jimmy and Annie trying out a new jump.

Video of a toboggan run from the front "seat".

Snow Days in March

Snow Days are lovely fun, and now that I live in near-tropical (-snort!-) Virginia, any snow is a good reason for the school district to take the day off. Today is a lovely, cold, snow-white day. The roads are fine by now (10AM), I'm sure, as I can see administrators and such showing up for work at the school behind my house. Teachers and students, however, have today off.

Yesterday I did not post as promised because I was busy with sledding trips and grading papers, but here is what I woke up to on Monday:

The snow, still gently falling, a hush over the whole neighborhood...

The kids ate breakfast in triple layered clothing and bolted out the door as soon as they were done.

This beautiful, serene scene was ravaged by snowball fights, dog tracks, whitewashings, and the like moments later.

Daisy wanted no part of the festivities and, when I tried to get her to go outside, went straight to bed instead.

Can't blame her, really, she's so short the snow was all the way up to her belly. When we got to this snow drift up against a small rise between the playing fields, she completely disappeared! The kids are standing in it in this photo below. The snow had piled up against the hill in such a way that we didn't realize there wasn't a hill there until it was too late. Daisy leaped for the hill and -poof!- gone. Jim tossed her to the top, and when she landed - on her belly, or course - she disappeared again. It was a great day for her, once we convinced her to go out.

The kids were pretty pleased with the snow drift, too. They had no idea such a thing was possible. The wind was blowing the top layers of snow all over the place, and they just loved it. They said it looked like mist and fog and sand and all sorts of things. Jimmy wanted to know: If the wind blew hard enough, could we have a sandstorm made of snow?

More pics of the sledding trips later, but here's a shot of the hill, the track, and the football field where we sled. It's the last glimpse of sun from the top of the sledding hill yesterday:


Beautiful.

I'm dreaming of a white random-day-in-march!?

WHAT?!?

This my friends is what we call a surprise storm. Yes, we are under a winter storm warning - 6-10 inches forecast. It's amazing! The snow didn't start to stick until the sun went down, but it's beginning to pile up. I can't wait to see what we wake up to in the AM! I'll put up some pictures for you.



On a side note, go wish my mom a happy anniversary! She and my absolutely great step-dad have been married 17 years now, but only 4 real anniversaries. (They got married on leap year!)

Jealous

Oh, yes. Yes, we do. We have a two hour school delay for this:

Lookee here, all you critics! I don't care if you DO have the backing of the President! That white stuff is dangerous! It just falls from the sky and sticks to things! What if it's diseased? What if it's radioactive? What if it's something toxic that fell out of an airplane?

We. Could. All. Die.

I mean it! REALLY!! Just LOOK at the road in front of my house! It's trouble waiting to happen. It is.


You're just mad 'cause you're jealous.

I still remember how I had to walk to school in two feet of snow. And it really WAS uphill both ways. Ask anybody from Leslie. They know.

FINALLY!

The joyous day has finally arrived, and is celebrated in true boy-style.

Well, my white-random-day-in-January is finally here!

I was starting to think that it would NEVER arrive. There's this odd little shield around my county: snow comes straight for us, and then --POOF-- goes around to the north AND south and then joins together again on the east side of the county. I blame Quantico. I really think sometimes that they're testing some bizarre weather shield....

Anyway, it started snowing about 6:30, and it hasn't stopped. This is the back yard around 7:30 or so... (once it was light enough to photograph):The kids went out to play and the dogs, too. As you can see, there wasn't much to speak of, but it was enough for them. They've been waiting 2 years for this, after all! The snow continued to fall, and filled in their tracks quickly. They cleared that table three times, and it's buried once again. Later, we'll probably go sledding, but for now, it's nice to sit, toasty and warm, and watch the flakes flutter by. This is the front yard around 11 o'clock or so. The flakes are still steadily falling, sometimes big and fluffy, sometimes, little bitty ones, but steady, none-the-less.

Tonight, it's supposed to ice, so I'll probably get the day off tomorrow, too. (The kids already have it off.) The flakes are fat and fluffy and beautiful! I just can't get enough of them!

Meet the buzz kill

Me: It's supposed to snow!

Him: Yeah. Too bad you've already got the day off.

Me: Yeah, but it's better than never!

Him: But you've already got the day off.

Me: Yeah.... But we're supposed to get like a whole inch! I love snow.

Him: It's an inch of "slush".

Me: "slushy SNOW"

Him: Slush doesn't seem worth getting excited over.


--sigh--


WORK WITH ME, PEOPLE!!!!!!

We have not had a good snow in my town for TWO WHOLE FREAKING YEARS! I don't care if the snow comes down orange with purple spots! If it resembles snow, I WILL, repeat, WILL be excited about it!!!!

AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME!


--humph--

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

I grew up in Michigan, right abooouut... here! (points to middle of hand) and we used to get loads of snow! Oodles of snow! Snow like you've never seen!

(That ought to get a good corrective comment from my mom! teehee)

Well, there is this one picture I've seen of tiny me on grandma and grandpa's sidewalk between two walls of snow several feet deep. And once, there was a blizzard: 20" of snow. And I remember sledding, and snow on Halloween, and waking up to find that three inches was not enough to close school. I love snow. More than I love peeps!

Then I moved away...

1. I lived in Florida: no snow.
2. I lived in Missouri: just ice. (whee!)
3. I lived in Seattle: the Emerald city. (well, there was that one freak snowstorm during the 3 years we lived there)
4. I live in Virginia now: totally unpredictable.

In 06-07, we had a forecast for 1/4" of ice. We got this:

Yup, that's 7" of ice and snow that we woke up to. Some 1/4", huh?

We had no school for 3 days-ish.

The kids built these to show the three developmental stages of the snowman. (Yes, they're weird, and yes, I'm proud of it.)

The 07-08 school year came and went without a single snow day or snow photo to show for it. We did have one day of snow: it started around 10 and was done by 2. And melted by 2. No frolicking was to be found. I don't know who was more sad: me or my (high school) students! You never saw so many pouty faces as on that day!

Now, it's 08-09 and time for more snow. Everybody says so. It's supposed to be a real good year for it. It even snowed in November! Twice! (maybe thrice! depends on who you talk to.) And here is our exciting December snow to date:

yup.

On the bright side, there's snow and ice just 50 miles away right now, so keep hoping! Wear your jammies inside out, flush some cubes, and do your favorite snow dance in our honor!

I'm hoping and dreaming for that most joyous of joys: the white Christmas.