Happy Year of the Horse
As I have mentioned in the past, most of my co-workers are Chinese. This year for Chinese New Year our boss ran a little dumpling making clinic. It was so cool. I like that not only are these opportunities available but that everyone jumps right in. In the center you can see my friend George about to create pork dumplings for our lunch potluck. That was Monday. A day of snow but in which nearly everyone made it into work.
This is Tuesday, a day of ice and no power. Our trees made me nervous all night as I heard branches breaking in the woods out back. The driveway was hazardous and of course work was open. I would like to blame the imperious Teutonic overlords for this but I know the decision to open is made at the local level. I disagreed strongly with the decision to open. We spent the first day without power pretty well. I went to ihop in town to pick up a warm breakfast for mom and the kids and we all expected that the power would be back by noon.
The power was not back by noon. By the evening the house was pretty cold so I packed the kids off to my dads place to sleep in the warmth.
They had a good time playing around but slept very poorly in a new environment and sharing a bed for the first time. Still we were a ton warmer than poor mom and David back home. Double poor David because he ended up driving the hour and a half down to my dads place to bring my medication and Megan's, that I forgot in our rush out the door, and then went back home to take care of things.
On Wednesday morning Megan had a follow up to check her MRSA. We made it in time. She got a clean bill of health.We still had no power at home so I took the kids to Scearces for a day in the warm. Then I had a Dr.s appointment. Then I called mom to check on her and discovered that she was stuck (literally) in the house. I went back to Mount Airy to break her free and gave her a little bit of a treat day. It was too late to get back to work usefully anyway and she surely deserved a treat after all the cold she had endured.
That morning while we were at the Dr.'s with Megan our first tree estimator came by and slid down our hill. He gave us a surprisingly good estimate. Our plan is, and has been for a great while, to use our tax returns and our bonus' to take down trees that are too near the house. There are several by Megan's room and I just keep thinking about those horrible stories on the news about toddlers crushed to death in their cribs.
The swamp oak in front of Kiernan's room was taken out last summer by my dad. We are therefore making good progress on freeing the yard of the dangerous trees. After that we will work on the trees that are just taking up all the light and stopping the grass and garden from doing what we want them too.
We love trees. We are going to replace the trees we are cutting down but we will replace them with trees that are smaller and less potentially hazardous to the house...also possibly trees that give us delicious treats.
This whole while my teeth have been bothering me as they heal up. This constant reminder has prompted Megan to become Megan-girl-dentist. Ha! Do not go near this girl with your mouth open thats all I can say.
The power finally came on late Thursday and we were able to get back home with the kids.
They were wiped. Kiernan was so tired he would just crawl into any chair available and stare into space or play tablet games. He had quite a few naps. Megan was fussy and clingy as only she can be. There were early bedtimes and the pushing of hydration for everyone.
On Friday it warmed up to above freezing and we splurged for some tex-mex food at California Tortilla. The kids surprised me by actually trying and liking some of the millions of hot sauces available (The Wall of Flame they call it).
When we got home I handed them baseball bats and grabbed a shovel for myself. I banged on the ice in the driveway until it cracked and then scooped the chunks off and away. This was a bit back breaking and it made my teeth throb but it was so good to be able to finally get rid of some of it.
I didn't go to work Friday evening. I was too tired from the shoveling and the clingy Megan and my head was falling off and my teeth were killing me. We sat around and watched the Olympics coverage and were asleep by 9.
On Saturday/Sabbath we went to church. I was so please to see how much better Kiernan's class is now. It has been a while since I have been. Many of the kids that were challenging have moved up a grade and many of the kids that were from his class before have caught up with Kiernan. Also his old teacher moved up with them, Her granddaughter is in his age group again.
I love this woman. She is engaging and kind and enthusiastic. She had them measuring off the length of Noah's Ark this week. Kiernan got to hold a tape measure and run across a gymnasium. Not only did he enjoy his class a ton more than I have seen him do for ages, he really got the lesson. He kept telling me "Wow that ark was really BIG mom!".
After naps we went over to Uncle Chris and Aunt Pammy's place. I think this is the last time we will see them before Kaleb is born. Aunt Pammy has hit that phase. Us girls checked out the nursery and Megan tested the super cool chalk wall. The guys played with Nerf guns. Uncle Chris got Kiernan a gun that doesn't need to be manually cocked. This has improved Kiernan's game so much. The others were just a little too hard for him to pull back without assistance. There was more yelling and banging and devious ambush in one afternoon than any boy could possibly hope for.
He fell asleep as soon as we got home and didn't stir until an hour later than normal the next morning. He was a very very happy boy.
Sunday dawned cold and ready to snow again and we hit our to-do list with a vengeance. The kids were ready for some down time after our usual pancake breakfast, and good thing too because mommy and daddy were all business for most of the rest of the day, but the Olympics were on an the house was warm and there was plenty of food
David got out the shop-vac and pulled the downstairs toilet for some hardcore snaking. This job stinks in every way imaginable and worse than you are imagining. He got the darn thing working again though and probably saved us a couple hundred bucks doing it.
Then he created a cable for the generator so that next time the power goes out we will be able to have our own source of electricity and be less at the mercy of the elements. I am completely dazzled by his ability to make a cable. I know that he dose this at work for various computer things but I am completely in the dark about how he dose it or even what is involved. Then he went out and cleared the driveway the rest of the way.
I did laundry and cleaned the kitchen and baked piroshki and made notBorcht and did some gocery shopping and made a pumpkin pie and mulled cider. Then it started snowing again and we all worried about mom who was out seeing patients. She slipped and slid down the hill at 8 o'clock with some more groceries and almost immediately got a death call on another patient and went back out and down to Bethesda. David God bless him went out into the cold dark night and cleared a path for her so that when she got home around 10:30 or 11 she was able to safely traverse the hill to the house.
This morning before work while clearing the rest of the drive I found this.
Spring...
I can't wait.
A special addendum here to note that my fabulous and long-suffering best friend Kathryn has just been offered and accepted a great new job as Curriculum Creator and English lecturer for Teikyo University!!!
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