Getting Dumped On

January hasn't been the greatest month for me. I've got this nagging sickness that just won't go away and it's been that way since Thanksgiving. I've done all but beg for some antibiotics to get rid of this lingering sinus irritation, but the doctors apparently think it's normal to have congestion for 2.5 months. Kids keep getting sick, I'm feeling run down, and Steve has been busy getting things together for a few interviews he has upcoming (yay for interviews!), but he's been gone a lot. All I was missing was one big fat blizzard.

Steve had headed out to Pennsylvania for a job interview Sunday and was supposed to come home Tuesday, but instead got stuck in Pittsburgh during what apparently is a historic storm that you may see once every 50 years. He's coming home Thursday late at night (cross fingers!), but it's been hard having him gone for so long. Especially since he'll be leaving again on Monday. Not to mention the fact that we have been stuck inside for almost all of the last 2 weeks because the kids and I have had colds and ear infections flaring up again. Thank goodness for friends who got us out of the house a couple times and brought us milk when we were running low! I think I would have gone insane otherwise.

The storm didn't drop as much snow as I expected and the proposed power outages and tornado warnings didn't come to fruition, but it was pretty severe. While walking one block over to my friend's house, I felt like my face had frozen the wind chill was that bad. First there was the freezing rain that encased everything in ice, then the hail, and then snow. The wind gusts were pretty serious and you could hear ice hitting the windows most of the night. Nadia woke up at 4am from it. Rowan was supposed to start preschool on Tuesday, but it was canceled two days in a row. Essentially, I'm ready to pass on my bad luck on to someone else and I'm ready for winter to be over.

The kids went out and played for a little while this morning. They were so desperate to get out of the house, the wind chill didn't get to them for almost 20 minutes.

The snow may not seem that deep, but that's mostly because there's such a hard layer of ice. One of our sleds was so buried under the snow that it took some poking around to find it and then pry it loose from the ground. I was afraid it would shatter from the effort.


Nadia was the last one to come back inside and that was only because I bribed her with a bowl of snow. She plopped herself down and ate snow the whole time she was out there. Perhaps I shouldn't ask myself why we keep getting sick, but it's a whole lot cleaner than the snow she sneaks off the tires of the car and my shoes. The girl loves snow.


Later we took the sleds over to the community toy room to get some wiggles out with friends. They LOVE getting pulled around in these things.

(Rowan's grimace is from the sun- he really was happy in this picture)

I hope February is kinder to us. I'm ready for some good news! And on that note, I hear someone crying when they should be sleeping. Christmas pics will have to wait!