A Georgia Snowman

Day two and we are still homebound from the snow here in Georgia. The sled got a hole in it yesterday from the multitude of children using it so today was all about just playing in the snow. Destiny fancied herself creative and built her first snowman.

Destiny and "her man" (he almost resembles Flat Stanley)

Good Snow Day

I love a good snowstorm and the subsequent good snow day. I remember growing up in Pennsylvania and how eagerly I would anticipate snow. Standing in the living room watching out the picture window to see if the snow was still falling and hoping that school would be cancelled the next day. My dad used to take Eric and I to this great sledding hill near his house and we would sled for hours. My favorite memory is him taking me late at night to the snow packed road behind his house and having me lay on his back while he pushed off and we coasted for what felt like a mile.

I recognized that when we left Ohio and moved to Georgia that I was giving snowstorms and snow days up for more reasonable temperatures year round. This past Thursday however, the forecasters here started predicting a "Major Winter Storm." It's hard to get excited because here in Georgia "Major"is an inch or two and several times after predictions, we haven't even gotten that much. In the North, we would laugh at all this build up. Bud and I drove from Pa. to Ohio in 14 inches of snow one Valentines Day. However, as my Southern husband pointed out, this is the South where there are not big silos of salt or plows just waiting for winter weather or people that know how to drive in it.

The television coverage begin in earnest two days ago and has continued almost unabated since then. We were truly surprised to see the flakes start to fall last night and keep falling. The girls school was cancelled last evening (good call) and I knew that I wouldn't be heading into work at 7 am this morning. When we woke up, we had five inches in our backyard and a 1/4" inch of freezing rain that had fallen on top of that. We were not only not leaving early to get to work, we were not going in at all.

The afternoon was spent playing outside, shoveling the driveway (so glad we didn't get rid of the shovel when we left Ohio) and playing with the girls. We were the only ones in the neighborhood with a sled so we worked on a great sledding path that went along the side of our street down the big hill. It took a bit of coaching to get the girls to understand that you can't walk back up the middle of the sledding path, drag your feet behind you while you are sledding or let the inner tube slide across the asphalt and even more work to teach the neighbor kids the same thing but we persisted and a great time was had by all.

Tonight we will watch more coverage on the storm, eat crab legs and baked potatoes by the fire and play Apples To Apples. What a great snowstorm and great snow day.

The view from our driveway

The front of our house

Maddie Grace

Abby (after taking a header on her first trip down the hill)

Destiny using one of our improvised "snow tubes" from the pool

Turns out it was good he kept his shovel and he still knows how to use it!!

The gang

Our big tree

View from out side yard

Hiking up the hill

Destiny sliding down on our sled path

Maddie always slid the furthest on the slide

Winter Storm 2009

When Bud and I lived in Ohio snow was a part of winter. You didn't necessarily like it but you knew that it was coming sometime during the winter. It is what you got used to.

This is our old house in Ohio. I still miss our friends and neighbors there.

View from our sledding hill

Abby was 3 1/2 in this picture. We got 2 feet of snow right before Christmas and I still managed to get to work the very next day at the hospital.

Now we live in the South and in the South snow is a very BIG deal. Even when 1-3 inches are predicted. I laughed when I turned on the TV and heard "Winter Storm 2009" with almost continuous coverage of the impending "storm." We left for church and I realized that the snow was a big deal down here because NO ONE knows how to drive in the stuff. I found myself getting very cranky and yelling which probably isn't the most Christlike action, especially when you are headed to church and three sets of impressionable ears are in the back seat. The girls were so excited when we left church and there was an inch on the ground and the parking lot was slushy, never mind that not a bit was laying on the roadways. By the time we got home, the snow had turned to rain and the kids never did get to play in it beyond the few snowballs they threw at each other in the church parking lot. We never got more than that inch in our neck of the woods (don't I sound very Southern?) but we had a good time pretending that it was coming down as we ate our soup and grilled cheese sandwiches next to the fire.

The girls and I in front of our church

Bud and the girls in front of the church

The girls with their obligatory funny picture

Oh well, there is always 2010!

P.S. Mom,
I only let the girls wear jeans to church because the weather was so miserable!!!