Sigh, No Snow, at least at my house

So, we were all geared up for some snow - some good go out and have some fun in it snow. What we woke up to was barely what we could even call snow. It barely covered the ground - not even good for a snowball. So, we got up - looked out the window first (no sense in taking a shower if we could just go back to bed) and grumbled, then got into our going to work mode. I will tell you now, I should have stayed home. News said roads were okay, but schools still closed (gotta love it). I headed to work, which is 45 minutes away and to the east. Very important to know I work EAST of where I live. Most of my travel is via back roads. First one was okay, within 1/8 of a mile on the second there was a truck flipped over in a field. I could see the fireman by the side of the road, and i could tell he had his hand out - just couldn't see what the hand was doing. (it was dark out) by the time i could see he was saying stop, let's just say the layer of ice on the road prevented me from doing so. I drove the rest of the way hoping I stayed on the road. I will say another animal prayer now - for the poor squirrel that i thought was a leaf blowing into the road, but know I am happy I didnt know it was a squirrel - cuz i would have hit the brakes or swerved, and well, remember the icy road? Poor squirrel. By the time i made it to work, i was truly regretting the drive. the 485 interstate loop was snow covered and treacherous. NO nice roads for me. Most of the snow hit EAST of charlotte, where my jobsite is. Raleigh got even more. Thankfully, this is the south, and while the snow remained on the ground at my jobsite for days, on the trip home, once I got on I-85, there was not a flake to be seen. It had already melted away. At home, my kids were excited to find just a small patch of snow/ice mix left behind in a shady spot.

We'll hope for more snow next time.

Wishing for a Snow Day

I'll admit, I don't necessarily NEED to see snow tomorrow. I saw plenty of it on our Christmas trip to NY. The four hours of driving in white out conditions is still fresh in my mind. SO, while I don't need to see it,I sure wouldn't mind. Since moving to the south, I've come to be one of the people that actually HOPES it snows. Snow of 1 in in Buffalo isn't even really considered accumulation. Snow of an inch here? It's a valid reason to close schools, government and businesses, and send everyone in a rush to the store days in advance to stock up on Milk and bread. (i'm never sure why, since the snow is usually gone in a day and shouldn't you already have that stuff in your house?) So I'm hoping for snow tomorrow. My three day weekend could turn into 4 and I'm not against that at all. To help me with my snow thoughts, I've grabbed some pictures from about this time last year. It was our first, and ONLY snow, and I think it was gone by the afternoon - although tomorrow, if it does snow, should stick around a little while longer since it's only supposed to get to a high of 32. Our first born, Kavik, doesn't care that there is snow on the ground, he just wants you to throw his purple ball (yes, he knows his are purple, we color coded back in the days when Gabriel wanted to imitate his older brother. Gabriel was Yellow, later on Delaney was Pink and Kavik is purple. And yes, this included carrying it around in his mouth - drinking out of the pool, and attempting to lift his leg.)

There are my monsters, all dressed to play in the snow.

Just a cool picture of some cold trees on our street. It's just one of those pictures I really like.

A Small Country Town

The road to Perry is a long one, at least when you are traveling from North Carolina. We were headed to Mom's and the countryside always amazes me - fields, farms, just very picturesque to me. This is route 39 coming in to Perry. Just in ths picture there are two farms. While Perry does have a bookstore now, and a Subway, and let's remember the chinese restaurant, it's still very small town. (please note it had NONE of these during my childhood there and McDonalds is still in the next town over, and there is no Burger King, or Pizza Hut unless you travel to Geneseo)

I love this picture because you can see some o the patchwork fields in the distance - the hills and valley are just wonderful. While I am glad I live in the south, I don't mind visiting during the snowy winters.....it can be beautiful....

Sledding for the FIRST TIME

We had the chance on Christmas eve to go sledding in Rochester. It was a great day for it - it had warmed up in the mid 40's. My kind of weather. Randy and I even got in on it. I was just glad I had the camera - so the only shot of us is safely at the bottom of the hill.....

It took Delaney a few trips down with me and a few with Dad before she warmed up to the idea of sledding on her own. She was a trooer though, and had a great time - the only part that was tough was walking back UP the hill.

Gabriel, he was in heaven. I finally had to ask though why he kept making himself wipe out, rather than enjoy the ride down the hill (he'd grab one side and lean so he'd tip over). Well, he's not so dumb. He figured out after one trip down that once there, you had to WALK all the way back up, and the walking was not fun, so he'd tip himself over about halfway down. Being a boy, he got the best of both - sledding and wiping out. Kids, gotta love em.

This is my neice Ashley who just turned 13 on Monday. She had a great time too and I have a great picture of one of her wipe outs that I'll have to post. I"m sure she'll love me for it.

All in all it was a great time. Three of the 5 cars at this hill sledding were from the south. I thought that was funny. I'm glad we did get our days to play in the snow since by Christmas day it was warm and raining again.......

A Winter Wonderland

I had to put on this picture of Gabriel,it's just a good shot of him having fun out in the snow. it was COLD out there and the snow was deep. The kids didn't care as much as the adults did...

This was our view, or lack of, for four hours of driving - Fredonia to Rochester NY. Of course, it's not normally a 4 hour drive, but well, not being able to see put a big dent in how fast we could go. Shortly after we made it through they closed it down, partially due to the oh, 8 different vehicles that were off the road in less than a quarter of a mile stretch. Now that we live in the south, we just aren't used to this kind of weather and driving -but we made it through, while reciting to ourselves "slow and steady" and "no sudden moves" About 10 miles outside of Rochester we had sun and blue sky.

It took a lot of convincing to get Delaney out in the snow and cold - but she seemed to have fun once we got there. She's getting ready to throw snow at me. THankfully it was not good packing snow so snowballs weren't an option.

The kids out in the snow - boy were we all cold when we got back in.

Toys for Tots is a Success!

The company I work for is very involved in giving back to the community. They do walks for the American Heart Association - Cancer Association, Habitat for Humanity - Operation Pillowcase and at this time of year it's Toys for Tots. Since my "office" is in Charlotte - any toys we gather here stay here in the Charlotte Region rather than go to Raleigh. Our Raleigh goal this year was 250 toys. Well, we did 135 toys just here in Charlotte and almost two thousand in cash. I am taking it to the local Marines office in just a little bit. Our subs here in Charlotte are so amazing in their help. With only an office of 8 people, well, even at three toys a piece that doesn't amount to a whole lot. So, with the help of other people we work with here in Charlotte, our toy drive was an amazing success. With the economy this year, it's truly amazing. I hope all those kids wake up and have a GREAT time opening gifts this holiday.

My immediate dislike for the Grey Heron

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't blame them all, I mean, it was just ONE bird, but well, he made me mad. Randy was home with a sick Delaney on Monday and I ended up working late, so it was dark by the time I made it home. In the middle of our a discussion, he goes, OH, there was a PELICAN in your pond today. He went out, scared him away, scooped two fish back into the pond (Randy did, not the pelican) and then came back inside. There was a quick description of the bird and it was decided it was a grey heron, not a pelican - something i've never seen around our lake norman. Herons yes, Pelican's, not so much. Thankfully it was getting dark so said bird left for the night. I was heartbroken. It sounds silly but I am very attached to my fish. Those poor fish, all nice and fat and ready for winter hibernation - and never having a predator near them ever before - they didn't stand a chance. Well, I grabbed the flashlight and went to see if I could get a fish count. I counted 6. My heart went back to normal - sort of. I could deal with half, it was better than none. The next morning as i am leaving to take Gabriel to school, in swoops the bird. I stormed in one door and back out the other to scare it away and told Randy he was not to MOVE from his bird watch point until I got back. As i left, i noticed the oh so lovely bird perched on our roof, scoping out his breakfast. When I got back, we searched for something suitable to put over the pond to protect my beloved fish. We settled on the screen from our gazebo - it was torn at the bottom and bound for the trash can - but it was an instant winner in the keep the heron away from the bird job. So, we draped and secured and watched and waited. A short time later I saw the heron up on our shed - just looking down as if to try and figure out how to get by the new protection. Thankfully he gave up and left. I am hoping he doesn't come back. As a post script - I was out checking on the pond tonight and it looks like I need to go out and scoop one out - one of the big ones that Randy scooped back in from where the bird had dragged it out :o( Poor thing - we tried.

As for me, I used to think of these birds as magestic, even pretty, now, well, if it wasn't for the fact that someone mentioned a very large fine, I'd be tempted to at least do in one of them.

On the flip side - Gabriel will be happy to get a large group of new feeder fish for his tank. We go and "save" some feeder fish - put them in his tank until they get some size on them - and then they go out into our pond - helps keep our population steady as some of my fish have started to age, and well, now we have this. And Gabriel will be happy - his orange and white one made it.