Still not yet (but we did have snow).

The Monday workday has come and gone, and there was no TA for us today. I watched them roll in for about seven eight more folks on RQ this afternoon, while three two of us are still waiting. Tomorrow is Travel Guy's day off, so I don't have much hope for then either.

Thanks to those of you who have called/emailed/fb'd your encouragement.

In other news, I was up all night with two Very Sick little boys (and I hadn't even cleaned the bathroom - what's up with that?). Thankfully, they both feel better now, and for bonus points it was a snow day. They actually don't like missing school for illness, so they were happy to have a day to watch movies and play in the snow. Would anyone mind if I sleep through tomorrow?

Booooooored

My kids have been out of school since Tuesday because of snow. This is on top of the week or so they missed before Christmas for snow. Our roads have been fairly clear (i.e., we aren't entirely trapped in our home), but I am still starting to go a little stir crazy, and I'm not the only one. Yesterday, if my children merely bumped into each other, it resulted in much weeping and gnashing of teeth. We are all pretty sick of looking at each other.

So this morning I called a dear friend who works in the school system. He and his wife don't have kids yet, and he offered to hang out with my kids in the event that I needed a little break. I am definitely there. Break, please!

While I was talking to him, he said that he was glad I had called because he was starting to get a little bored. When I hear people say this it always makes me smile a little.

Bored. I hear that word a lot from my kids, and it rarely produces a smile. Usually when they come in with that whiny voice, declaring, "I'm booooooored.....I don't know what to dooooooooo....." I just want to hit someone. But I refrain. Instead, I launch into my pre-manufactured speech:

Oh, you're bored? Poor thing. I feel like this is my fault. I let you watch entirely too much TV yesterday. If I hadn't let you watch television, you wouldn't have forgotten how to entertain yourself, and you wouldn't be bored now. So, tell you what, I won't let you watch TV anymore since it apparently steals your creativity. Also, feel free to go clean your room, fold the towels, or wash the dishes if you are out of things to do. And then we can bag up all of your "boring" toys and give them to a family whose kids would enjoy them more. What do you think about that?

You can imagine the eye rolling that occurs after this. I think Will was the youngest person I ever met capable of recognizing sarcasm. When he was about four years old he would cock his head to the side and say, "Mommy, was that a sarcasm?" Yes, baby, very good.

Anyway, I remember boredom. In college or when Tim and I were newlyweds, I can remember saying things like, I'm bored. Let's go into town and rent a movie or go out to eat or go the mall or whatever I thought sounded like a good solution to not having anything to do.

I don't think I have been bored one second since Ben was born. I'm not saying that my children are entertaining. They are, but that isn't my point. My point is that there is always something to do - change a diaper, prepare a meal, clean the floors... I could go on here, but you get the idea. When I actually do have a free moment, I am more than happy to sit with my nothingness and just veg. Not that I actually remember that happening in the last 8 years.

I wonder if boredom returns after the children fly the coop. (Today it feels more like a coop than a nest.) Not that I want to be bored again. I just want the freedom to be bored if I feel like it.

More Winter

I am soooo over winter.

I think it has snowed weekly since like August (ok, I like to exaggerate). Seriously though, I have never seen so much snow in my life. The kids ended up missing 4 days of school last week, in addition to the gazillion already missed. We ended up spending one of those days sledding. Well, some of us went sledding. Kate started snowball fights with everyone. She thinks she is sooo funny.

We spent another day working with the youth of our church to shovel sidewalks and driveways for those needing a little help. Well, some of us shoveled. Some of us built tiny snowmen. Or started snowball fights. Kate's favorite thing was to hand me snowballs and tell me to throw them at Matt, who is one of her grown-up buddies.

And I won't even tell you about the day that the kids broke one of the beds, and I had a temper tantrum. It wasn't pretty.

I have had enough.

And tonight, they are calling for more snow. I swear, if they call off school one more day, you might find me on my way to Florida. I have had it.

Checking in

There really isn't much going on around here, but I felt the need to check in with everyone. I am starting to get out of the habit of blogging, but I am trying to reverse that. Beware of the randomness of this post.

We have had a week of trying to play catch up with all that went wrong in the previous few weeks. I still have piles of laundry, piles of dust, and piles of junk. Once I get behind, I have a hard time getting anything done. That's where I am now.

I spent the weekend on winter retreat with 29 of our church's teenagers. Tim is a youth pastor, and so I get recruited for these events. It seems fair to me, since I completely refuse to chaperon a lock-in or summer camp. The kids were great, the sessions were awesome (well done, Tim), and I got to spend some time with good friends who also work with the youth. It was a really great retreat.

The kids spent the weekend with Daddy John and Jee and also had a great time. When I called they said they were watching movies and eating popcorn. Sounds like an awesome way to spend a weekend to me.

We woke up to several inches of snow this morning, enough for Ben not to have school. Once again, I am having a lazy day with the kids, trying to ignore those piles I mentioned earlier. I'm not sure how much longer I can do that though.

Snow!

On Tuesday we woke up to just enough snow for them to cancel school. The kids were dying to get out into it, even though it didn't even cover the grass. They ended up just playing on the swing set. Will's favorite part is always sliding down the slide to clean it off.

But today, we woke up to serious snow. Well, serious for our southern state, anyway. The kids got sleds for Christmas this year, so all I heard all day long was, "Is there enough snow now?" Finally, at about 3pm, we decided there was enough. We loaded up and headed over to our friends' house, where there is an amazing hill. Whoohoo!

At first, Will was not crazy about it. He kept getting it in his face and gloves.

Kate tried it a couple times, but she decided she liked pushing us better than going down herself.

Her favorite part was when we pulled her over flat areas.

It turns out Ben is my dare devil.

He could've done it all day long! And he was much better than his mommy. I love to sled, but I am terrible at steering. I wiped out more times than not, and I have the bruises to prove it.

Thanks, Brad and Laura! We had a great day!

Celebrate..Part 2

Just thought I would share some pics of Kate's celebration meal tonight. I fixed chicken pot pie (the softest meal I could think of), and she had seconds:)

And here of some pics of the ice from last week. This was after it had started to melt, but you can still see the tree bent over into our yard. Normally this doesn't even come over the fence at all. Thankfully we never lost power like so many people did. Tim's brother's family lost theirs, and last I heard they are still waiting. It's been over a week now, bless their hearts.