yucky snow storm

We had our first snow of the winter this past week. Of course, school was canceled, so the girls got an extra week off from school. My parents left on tuesday morning, and then Ben went out of town wednesday morning. He saw his flight was delayed, which was going to make him miss his connecting flight, so we ended up getting him moved up to an earlier flight, and had to rush out of the house and over to seatac for him to make it. We got to the airport fine, but on the way home, the girls and I slid down what is normally a very busy street. Luckily the snow kept traffic away, and I was free to slide across the oncoming lanes, tap the guard rail, and then slide back over to my side of the road. It was kinda scary, but we were all fine. When we got home, I just could not get into the garage. Ben had shoveled the driveway before we left, but it had continued snowing, and my car got totally stuck in the street. A neighbor tried to help shovel me out, but we eventually gave up, and I left the car parked on the street in front of my driveway. Later that night, the power went out. It wasn't too bad the first night, as it went out after the girls were in bed asleep, but it started getting pretty cold the next day. I thought I would use the grill to make dinner, but I found it frozen shut, because after the snow, we had a freezing rain, and then more snow.

The freeze rain did look kinda pretty on the trees, but it also caused Seatac airport to be closed the night Ben was supposed to come home. So he got stuck in Salt Lake for the night. Luckily, my sister in Eagle mountain was able to let him spend the night at her house. I was really glad that is where he got stuck for the night. Thanks again Shelly and Troy!

All of the trees in our yard ended up breaking:(

I put candles all over the house, and also used a little LED lantern we got from Ben's old boss a few years ago for Christmas. The girls each have their own little princess flashlights, that I found for them, but they kept going into the dark rooms without them, which resulted in a Kiersten/Evie crash in the hall. Kiersten got a bloodied lip.

The girls kept telling me to take pictures, because they liked when the camera flash lit up the room for a moment. But I didn't want it to die, so I just took a few. Since we couldn't cook anything for dinner, and every pizza place either didn't pick up, or was a busy signal, we had cheese and crackers for dinner, and some raw veggies. yum! I did lose about 4 lbs in 3 days, so I guess that's the upside. In the future I will think more about keeping food in the pantry that doesn't need to be cooked. Once it got dark, and the girls were pretty bored, they just kept asking for snacks every 10 minutes.

Kara thought this picture would be so cool.

the girls all brought their pillows and blankets to my bed, and we kept each other warm all night. When I went to bed, it was around 52°. when we woke up it was 48°!

The girls thought it was kinda funny to be all bundled up inside the house. By the end of the day, they were also in coats and scarves.

Ben made it home on friday morning. I had gone out early to try to dig out my car and shovel the driveway. The whole car was encased in at least an inch of solid ice. So I started chipping away at the door handles so I could get it open. I pulled a pretty large piece off the driver's door, and it pulled a chunk off of the window as well. A few minutes later, as i was trying to get the back door out, the driver's window shattered into a million little pieces, all over me, the snow, and the seat. I didn't know what to do for a minute, and then just went in to get a towel to cover it. I had the tires mostly dug out, so I decided to see if I could get it out of the snow before I brought the girls out. I ended up sliding back down the street in front of my neighbor's house, into a spot, that I couldn't go forward or backward. the tires just spun. So I tried to call ben to tell him to take a cab, but he didn't answer. so I called his boss, to see if someone could just get him, but she said they didn't have many people there. So I told her if he couldn't get a cab, he'd call in to see if anyone was able to get him. I tried calling him after his plane was supposed to have landed, but his phone was dead. So he got a ride with the guy he sat by on the plane. He got dropped off near our street, and just walked home. I was so happy to see him! the neighbor was trying to dig out our car again, so Ben went out and helped him. He was able to get it out. Then he went and got food for us, and got plexiglass put in the car window until it could be repaired the next day. Then he had to go to work, which was hard to have him leave again. but he did help me get a fire going before he left. After work that night, we stayed at a friend's house, and it was so nice to be warm! Saturday was Kara's birthday party, and afterward, we stopped by our house to get some clothes, and the power was back on! Ben and I were so happy, running around turning on lights, and making sure everything was okay. I'm super glad that storm is over, and hopefully we wont have another one for a while.