Winter Storm Pax/Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I love Valentine's Day!!!  I love the extra hugs and kisses it brings!!!  I love the romantic gestures that Mike gives to me!!!  I love him so much!!!

We had a special night planned out for us on Wednesday.  We received a card through the mail the other week saying that we are to attend a special night out with just husband and wife.  We were told the time but not the place.  We were immediately excited because we love events like these!!!  We didn't have a clue was planning the night.  The card also said that there will be prizes, entertainment and fun!!!  We knew that whoever was planning this ... we didn't want to miss out. 

My first human response was to take a picture of the card and send a text to Mike right away and I asked him if he knew anything about it?  He didn't.  We made a few guesses with who we thought it might be.  I didn't start calling around and ask who else got an invite because clearly the person planning it wanted it to be a surprise.

On Monday, my mom and Jody stopped in and we talked about their Florida trip that they had just returned from.  Jody left and then I remembered about the card.  I asked mom if she got a card?  "No, but I didn't go through all my mail yet," it what she said.  She also said that Jody got a card too.  She made a comment about her and dad never receiving cards like this and that she hoped they would get invited too!  Well, I called Jody right away and we both started to think of who would be planning this.  No solution.

I found out the next day that my whole family got invited.  Mom called and said that she got a card too the next day.  We were all excited but still had no clue who was planning this fun event!  Well, on Wednesday I was expecting a call to tell us where to meet.  The call came and I didn't recognize the number or voice.  I put out another guess of who I thought it might be but could only wait and find out. 

Three of my siblings all met at church at 6:30.  A van pulled in and the driver said that she was picking up three couples.  Well ... that must be us!!!  Two other cousins with their lovers sat in the back of the van.  We now knew that it had something to do with the "Riehl's".

The driver drove us down to my Aunt and Uncles house.  The whole place was lite up with lights and we knew then that the dinner must be at Mose's.  We walked in through the front door and there were candles and rose petals directing us to the basement steps.  You know what???  MY MOM and Aunt Nance were the ones behind this all!!!  Mom is too much!!!  She was so, so happy that they pulled this over us!!!  All my cousins and their lovers were also invited!!! 

We were told to go to the basement.  There was a table of shrimp appetizers and cheese and crackers and punch and flowers and candles!!!  It was all decked out!!!  After appetizers, we sat down in family groups and ate a full cooked meal with fine china.  All my Aunts and Uncles on the Riehl's side came and served us!  The whole night was full of surprises and love!!!

We ate turkey in shapes of hearts, X's and O's.  We had individual salads.  We had crab stuffed mushrooms, bang bang shrimp, mashed potatoes, veggies, Coke's and Orange soda bottles, coffee and an all out dessert table.  A chocolate fountain with fresh fruit.  Cake, pies, ice cream!!!

Then we played some games!  Mike and I won a prize for getting the most answers right!  We played the candy bar love story game and both came home with candy.  All the games we played, Mike and I did great with!!!  I guess being married 13 years really shows how much you know each other!  :)  We were also entertained with cousin Maylon's love song he sang to his wife!!!  Daudy Riehl yowled for us!  We laughed and had such a great time!!!  Our driver came back for us at 10 PM and took us back to church for our vehicle's!!!  It was nice to be escorted too!!!  They didn't miss a thing!

Thanks so much Mom and Nance for the fun night!!!  We loved all of it!!!!

+++++++++++++++++++++

The snow storm did come.  "Winter Storm Pax" gave us a ton more snow!!!  We had no school yesterday again.  I have no idea how we are going to make up all these off days!?!?!  School is squeezing as many days in as possible!!!  We got out  yesterday after I got the house cleaned.  Mike was picking up his dad to go to the shop so the rest of us rode along.  We hung out at Dad Lapps for the afternoon.  The kids went sledding.  The almost foot of snow made it difficult to walk through.  We ate supper there too and played some settlers.  We didn't make it a late night.

Today, we have another no school day because we got more snow during the night last night!  More than we did the night before!!!  We are now totally snowed in!!!  Mike went to leave for work this morning and I wondered how he was even going to get out!???  He smiled and said, "Oh, I'll get out!!!"  Well, he did but not after a lot of shoveling and digging.  His truck got stuck half way down the lane!  Matt Lapp swung by to help and gave Mike a ride out to Matt and Lena for the skid loader.  Mike came back and scrapped tons of snow.  Then a neighbor man, Wayne, stopped to help.  He had a chain and tried to pull Mike's truck out.  Because they didn't have the right hook, it didn't work.  Then ... friend Eli Ebersol stopped in!!!  (Believe me, I was being entertained by all this!!!  :)  )  He too had a chain and the right hook up and pulled Mike out of the foot plus snow!!  Leon also went past and that time Mike was on the skid loader.  Leon had to stop because Mike was on the road.  Mike made a nice gesture and dumped his load of snow right on the road in front of Leon's vehicle!!!  :)  Too much!!!  He rescrapped it and left Leon drive on by!  Mike finished plowing the driveway and then took the skid loader back to Matt's.  Everything looks so pretty and is completely snow covered!!!

Here's the bird bath this morning.  The sun is coming up!

 Mike stuck ...

 The barn ...

 Trying to get out!!!  We opened the back door and there was snow above the door!

 Matt Lapp stopping to help!  He gave Mike a ride for the skid loader!

 Ginger watching Mike scrap more snow!

 Wayne helping ... Eli helping!!!

 Pulling ...

 He's out!!!

Matthew is busy working ahead on his school work!  These two days off is giving him extra time to work ahead!

 

Well, we still plan on heading for the south.  The warmer tempts sound so lovely!!!  I hope the next time I post, it will be sand pictures!!!

Preparing for another snow storm!!!

I'm not kidding when I say, "This Winter sure is bringing us WINTER weather!!!"  It's been years since we had one snow after the next.  And, we have it in the forecast once again.  This time they are saying, "Heavy snow starting tonight and into all day tomorrow.  12 - 16 inches expected."  I wish I could say that I am totally into this but then I wouldn't be honest.  I usually do like the snow.  The getting snowed in with friends.  The lazy day it usually brings.  The warm drinks tastes better when it's snowing outside.  But, this snow storm is not bringing those emotions inside of me.  Here's why ...

We have a family vacation coming up and it will be in the sunny south!!!  I have most of our bags packed and ready for the long road trip.  I am packing swimsuits, sunglasses, short sleeve shirts, sandals, sun tan lotion, sand toys ... everything we will need for a warm vacation!!!  My mind is already thinking "let's get somewhere warm"!!!

I hope the snow storm won't interfere with our traveling plans!!!  We are all super excited about the trip and so being delayed because of snow would not be 'so cool'.  (Yes, pun intended there!!!)  We are also aware that this big storm is coming from the south so please pray that we will have safe travels!!!  We hope that by the time we actually head south, those roads and weather will all be good to go!!!

With all the joys and fun moments that come with vacations, it does take a bit of organization before actually leaving.  I will probably have the kids full help tomorrow if all the snow that is predicted comes!  With that much snow being forecasted, there probably won't be any school.?.  If that happens, it will give the kids the perfect opportunity to work on their school lessons that they will need to take with on vacation.  This could also get interesting with three children wanting to help zip up bags and clean up the house!  :)

Ashlyn keeps talking about our upcoming trip.  She is seeing me pack her summer things and has for days now walked around the house in her flips.  Today her comment was, "I can get snow in Florida."  My response to that was, "No, there won't be any snow there."  (I sure hope not!!!  :)  )  She looked at me wide eyed and said, "What then?  Dirt?"  She is so cute!!!  I smiled and said, "Sand!!!!"  I can't wait to watch her play in the sun and get her small toes feeling the white beach sand!  I know she will look darling with the golden tans that comes along with vacationing in the warm south!!!

Reality is ... that we will still be in town when this big snow storm shows up!!!  I have bread, eggs, milk and water on hand.  It will be exciting to see how much we do actually get!!! 

Enjoy the snow storm.  Be safe.  Stay warm.  And if you are like us ... keep thinking warm weather thoughts!  :)

"Chillin'" ...

Literally ... we are chilling out this winter!  It's still very cold here in our area.  Mostly in the 20's.  Just this morning, I said to Mike that it's hard to believe that we actually have AC in this house for other seasons.  It's been so cold and we are so blessed to have a warm house!!!  I was so surprised at how the tree's and ice are still hanging on thick down in my parents neighborhood!  I went to Walmart for a few things and wanted to make a stop at mom's to check if they had their electric back yet on Friday.  No electric ... still.  Driving up the road and getting on top of the hill, I just couldn't believe it how the ice was still just hanging on to each struggling branch.  Lot's of people have branches and tree's down.  The ice looked beautiful but I can't imagine how much Spring clean up it will take from this ice storm.  (Psst ... it is only 6 more weeks till Spring!!!  Happy dance!!!)  There are still so many people in that area that are out of electric.

Friday night we had three extra children in our house.  Ryan, Tyler & Morgan came for supper and for the night.  Our children always have so much fun with them and we enjoyed having them here!  Because we are Olympic fans, we watched some of that later in the evening.  Amazing talents going on there in Sochi!

Saturday was a day at home preparing food for our host family on Sunday and getting the group of hungry kids food all day long.  :)  The homemade waffles got eaten up pretty fast.  Mike & I worked together outside a bit in the afternoon cleaning up branches that fell from our trees.  Too many pine branches are down!  We have lots of pine trees in the back yard but my favorite are the soft needle kind.  Those are the ones that seemed to break off because the snow/ice hung on to the longer needles.  It did feel good to do something outside though!  That night Mike's parents came over for more games of Settlers.  I wish I could say that I won at least one game ... but no.  Sigh.

Sunday was a good day at church.  The kids decorated Valentine cookies in their class.  Then we had a surprise 70th birthday party for HK after Sunday School.  Some of their children came to surprise them and that was so much fun seeing them again and chatting.  We missed those that couldn't be there!  :)  Eating cake and ice cream and drinking tea and lemonade is not something we do often before lunch, but hey, it is was offered and it was a treat!

We came home to quickly heat up a big pot of potato soup and finish fixing my large sandwich rings that I baked.  We were host family and really had a great time with the families that came for lunch!  Matt and Lena ended up staying for the whole day and after beating them with the bully in Rook, they left at 11 last night.  It was fun!

We were surprised when we looked out the window last evening and saw it snowing again.  (Not sure why that should be much of a surprise this winter, but it was.  :)  )  We got another fresh snow that brought two more inches.

The kids are in school today.  I have laundry going.  The house is cleaned up from our weekend events.  Mom and Jody and the twins made a drop in and it was good to catch up on their fun trip to Florida last week.  The kids will be delighted when they see the strawberries that Jody gave us from Florida!!!  Thanks!  Celine and Sophia are here and playing with Ashlyn! 

Looking ahead at my week, I hope it flies by quickly!!!  We have a family vacation on our minds and are really looking forward to it!!!  It will be hair cut appointments, a basketball game, and even a surprise Valentine Dinner to go to.  (Which by the way we are thrilled about!  I don't know who is planning it or even where we are going.  We got a card through the mail with the invitation.  We were told in the card that we will be notified the place sometime before Wednesday.  I love these type of surprises and gifts!!!  I have no idea who will be there but we will be have a dinner and games and prizes.  Fun!!!)  We will also be packing up and heading for warmer weather by the weekend!

Think Spring if you are feeling house bound.  It really is only 6 weeks away!  I can't wait to dig in the dirt.  Plant the garden.  Feel the Spring weather!  Be outside!  Go yard saleing!!!  And say good bye to Winter!  But ... for today I will be staying warm inside.  I will drink something hot.  I will enjoy leftover warm soup.  I will squint my eyes when I look outside because the frozen snow is so bright!

Enjoy today.

More sledding!!!

We have this little hill out by the front lawn.  It's been the perfect little spot for the kids to sled down.  The other day when Lena and Hunter stopped in to take a few sled rides, Lena said that she needs to bring over her little saucer.  So, yesterday afternoon when the kids got home from school, Lena and Hunter came over again.  I am tickled that Hunter was happier at our house than his!!!  Lena said that he was being grouchy (getting teeth is no fun for babies!!!) and thought he would like a sled ride.  He did!  He loved it!  Actually, everyone loved it!

 

The weather was 28 degrees but with the sun shining it didn't feel bad at all!!!  We are starting to think that the upper 20's is on the warmer side!!!  :)  I can't wait to actually feel 70 - 80 degree weather! 

 

Having fun in the snow/ice is exciting!!!  Take another look at the sledding fun!

 

Here Lena & Hunter are taking a ride and then Hadassah giving Hunter a turn with her!

Cutie pie!!!

Hadassah and Ashlyn taking a spin.  Then Matthew and Hunter.

This is so typical!!!  The two oldest being crazy fun and Ginger right beside them.

Sisters ...

 

Going down on their belly's.

It was my turn.  I think one big reason that I am not a winter gal is because I don't have the proper winter attire!  I own a pair of boots that Hadassah and I share.  I own a thick jacket that I needed to wash again because Hadassah was wearing it and it got dirty.  :)  I own only a pair of long socks and leggings but no snow suit (or what Ashlyn calls a swimsuit!!!  :) ).  So, my outdoor play is limited.  I choose to have it this way.  But, yesterday, I decided to take a turn after everyone was telling me to go.  Ashlyn and I went for a ride.  No gloves, no hat ... but a cold ride.  It only lasted for a few seconds, so it was perfect!!!  Here we go!!!  I ended up on my back.

We made it!

 Ginger and Hadassah went for a ride together.

 Having a blast!  They tried to see who could get to the road.  We made sure there were no cars coming and stopped before it got dangerous. 

 

You always need a favorite winter portrait for the family album!  This might be it!!!  Totally loving the ride and Ginger running right behind them!!!  See, winter can be fun!!!  :)

We got to enjoy some Florida strawberry pie and peanut butter pie last night with Mike's family.  Can't wait to feel that Florida sunshine ourselves!!!

More snow might be on it's way for the weekend!?!  Stay cozy!!!

Ice with snow!

It happened once again.  Another dose of some snow and along with it came tons of ice.  Another 'no school' day was written in my personal calendar.  The kids were home yesterday, again, from school because the weather was frightful outside.  The snow we got Monday night is still covering the ground.  Then on Tuesday night we got another few inches along with ice. 

The kids smile when they hear a "two hour delay" from school but it quickly goes to a frown when we get the second call saying "no school".  It's crazy really!  This is only February 6th and we have had six days off of school because of the weather so far.  I am trying to really be upbeat about it all though because there is really nothing we can do about it.  God is blessing us with lots of cold, snow and winter here in the East.  As much as I try to keep a smile on my face about the weather, yesterday was a challenge.  I was feeling house bond.  The kids being home again was fine but we keep remembering that we will have to make these missed days of school up sometime and we wish not to in the Spring!

The kids made the best of their day at home!  Matthew loves the snow and always adventures out into it.  Hadassah eventually follows.  Ashlyn is in the cold fun for only a few minutes.  Take a look!

Giving her a ride on his snow board.

The icy trees.

They did this over and over again! 

Hadassah taking a ride!

Cold and fun!

He really does a good job at this boarding thing!

Beautiful!

On these 'no school' days, we stay in our pj's and have terrible hair do's all day.

Trying the runner sled.

We babysat Hunter awhile in the afternoon and so he got a quick ride too!!!

So cute!!!

Waving to Hunter as he goes back home with his momma.

 Loving the fun but ready to come inside.

While they were snow boarding outside, I was inside baking waffle whoopies.  They went great for a snack after our TAT Meeting here last night!  Yum!

Today the kids did have school after a two hour delay.  We are grateful for the electric that we do have because so many around us are out.  We are grateful for warm/hot water!  We have a warm home!  We have food!  We have health!  We also have snow and the ice here at our house did melt a bit!  It's winter ... it's cold!