Snow Day(s)!

Whew!  What a week we've had here!  We got hit with some interesting weather.  The kind of weather I would have expected if we were still living in Chicago, but for the desert?  I think the whole state was caught off guard too when an arctic blast came over the area.  As a result, we had our first snow days ever for the Paxtonians.  I never really thought this would happen in the desert, I mean, it's supposed to be warmer here, right?  It also doesn't help that we just moved from Chicago where in the whole 3 years that we lived there, school was not canceled once.  We would walk to school in single digit weather, and even below single digit weather.  I wore that like a badge on my chest for 3 years.  To be honest, we're a little sad about missing the record breaking storm that hit Chicago.

 

We had a storm this week that brought more snow and cold than I ever imagined here and school was canceled for 4 days.  The first day I wasn't prepared for it, I was really hoping it was just going to be a delay.  Wally drove the car to work since biking wasn't an option so I was home all day with all the kids.  Which isn't that abnormal or anything, but usually by the time Saturday comes around, I'm ready for it!  We managed to make it through the day unharmed and without too many incidentals between the kids.  They even went sledding together with a new friend in the neighborhood and had a great time.

When they canceled school again the next day, I was a little more prepared.  We declared it a pajama day and played games, made homemade cookies (which if you know me, that's a huge thing!), made some Valentine's, had a few Lego battles and just had fun together.  By day three and four, it was starting to get old.  We tried to make the most of it though and still had fun together.  Wally even ended up home from work because we were put on a natural gas ration all over the city so thermostats were turned waaaaaaay down and it was cold.  It's a sad, sad thing to not have heat keeping you warm when it's only a few degrees above zero outside.  We did our part at home and turned off our heat during the day (thank goodness for lots of windows and the sun!) and turned it down to 55* through the night.  I'm not going to lie, it was a cold night with temperatures dropping below zero outside.  The hardest part was keeping little Isaac warm throughout the night.  Every time I would check on him, his hands were freezing!  He ended up in bed between us to stay warm.  Because of the extreme cold around here, pipes all over the city were freezing and bursting, including one in Wally's building at work and also at our church.

It turns out that having a snow day (or four) isn't so bad after all.  I just hope it doesn't become a regular thing around here.  Brandon, especially, is getting a little too comfortable with the whole idea of a snow day.  He may be a little disappointed when Monday rolls around and things have (hopefully) gotten back to normal!