You know there's been too much snow when...

• It's no longer "shovel, throw, shovel, throw" but "shovel, walk, throw, walk back".
• You wish you'd bought a snow blower when you moved in 8 years ago.
• Your property begins to remind you of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.
• You begin to question the sanity of people who live even further north who get even more snow every year (they must have bought a snow blower when they moved in).
• Your dad starts to call every time there's a snow storm to remind you that he does not even own a snow shovel or an ice scraper where he lives. Thanks Dad.
• You hope they'll start the Olympic sport of Snow Flinging because your sure you'd make the US Team.
• You wish were living in a dwelling where you were not the landlord responsible for keeping the drive way and walks clear.
  
• The only thing keeping you from hiring someone else to do it is pride - all the neighbors around you shovel their own driveways.
• You try thinking of shoveling as water resistance training - part of your New Year's resolution to get into better shape.
• You wished your house had a two car garage used for parking the vehicles in, and you owned a snow blower.
  
• You've been shoveling long enough to think up all of these reasons it's been snowing too much.
  

More December 2008 Snow Pictures

Ben (left) and Will (right) helping me clear the walk.


Will and me.


Ben


Will


Ellie


So much snow (for us).


Ellie inspecting my work.

Blog Glob, 12/22/08

• It looks like we will have a white Christmas this year. Over the weekend, we probably got around a foot of snow. On Christmas Eve we are supposed to get some rain/snow mix, but I doubt there will be enough rain to melt all of that snow by Christmas Day. Christmas is supposed to be fairly warm, around 50, with no snow fall predicted. However, I think having the ground covered with it counts as having a white Christmas.
• I'm now sore and tired as a result of the first bullet point. There was a lot of shoveling to be done. I also started construction on our own sledding slope in the backyard, backed up to the climber, but that is still a work in progress as it is taking a lot more snow than I thought it would.
  
• I'm going for my annual eye exam tomorrow. Yippee (said in a monotone, with no enthusiasm).
• I'm on vacation all this week and am only work the first three days of next week. Yeah (said with a lot of enthusiasm and pitch fluctuation)!!
• I bought myself a new computer game to play with the boys, specifically Will. It's called Crazy Machines 2 and does not involve any violence to living creatures, just to some inanimate objects. I decided to do this because Will really likes computer games, but seems to get obsessed with the ones that have fighting in them, like Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle Earth II and Age of Empires III. He seems to like this one (so do I) and has not been talking about shooting guns or arrows as a result. Ben likes it too, which I knew he would, since it's about solving a problem (or puzzle) with various parts to make something do a specific task(s).
• My parents are coming next week for a visit. It will be nice to see them.
• I am in the process of reading "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens to the family (which means Will and Stephanie, with Ben and Ellie occasionally listening in). After that, we are planning on watching a cinematic version of it, the one by the Muppets :-).
• I watched Superman, The Movie, a couple of nights ago. It's still a great movie in my opinion. The next night, I let the kids watch a "making of Superman" with me. That resulted in Ben "flying" off the couches and beds.
• Can you believe that Christmas is only 3 days away? I've still got presents to wrap!
  

The First Snow, 2008

About 6:30 this morning Ben came into our room to inform us that it was snowing. I mumbled a less than sincere thanks. To be fair, we had looked at the forecast yesterday which had forecast snow, so Ben was on the look out for it. Both boys were hoping that there was a parking ban in Providence, which would mean that there was no church, which would mean that they could go out and play. In fact, they wanted to get suited up and go out prior to breakfast, that's how excited they were.

I checked a couple of web sites and even called and left a message for our pastor to check to see if there was a parking ban. So the snow would have to wait until we got home from church. As soon as we got home, the kids headed out to the backyard to play. About the time I decided to go out with the camera, Ellie had decided to come in because her clothes were wet from having jumped in a puddle that had formed in front of the bulk head. Enjoy the pictures below. Some are a little fuzzy or off center because they were taken while I was the target of snowballs from both boys. At one point I was forced to put away the camera and defend myself :-).

Will was not happy to have snow down his coat.










Ben was not happy to have fallen face first in the snow.

I mentioned that Ellie had come in as I went out, right? Well, Stephanie was in our bedroom feeding Sam, so Ellie was unsupervised. Below is the result.

She's sucking on the lid of the toothpaste tube.

Of Snow and Snowmen

We did it. We built a snowman. I use 'we' loosely because it was mostly me. Will did help with making the middle snowball. The snow was not nice and sticky. It took a lot of work and a long time to build up the snowballs to make up the pitiful looking snowman below. I probably spent an hour doing it. We had gotten some freezing rain during the night, so there was a nice crust of ice over the top of the snow. You either had to crush the ice into powder to use or just pull off the crust and use the snow below it. Despite the hard work, it was worth it because the kids are really happy with it. They don't care that it's small and misshapen. The hard work was broken up by some sporadic snowball throwing. For my part it was always a defensive action in reaction to an attack, of course :).

The boys are "helping" me form the second snowball for the snowman.


The kids and the snowman.
The hat came from a birthday part that the boys attended for a friend. The eyes, nose, pipe, buttons and scarf came from a snowman kit we got from Lands End years ago. It has served us well.


Stephanie, the kids and the snowman.
Because the snowballs were pack so tight to get them to stick, I had a hard time getting the eyes, nose, etc. stuck into them without causing the snowballs to break. That's why some of them may not appear in quite the right position - I had to try multiple locations for some of them.


Me, the kids and the snowman.


Here's Ellie sitting in the toy truck that lives in the back yard. Love that smile.

It's Snowing, It's Flaking, The Old Man is Shoveling

In case you didn't get it, the title is a variation on the old kid's song, "It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring".

It is indeed snowing here. It's pretty much snowed all day. But it's been relatively light most of the time so there's not been much accumulation. I shoveled this morning before going to work. I'll have to shovel again tomorrow.

The good news is that, based on the forecast, the snow will not be melting away tomorrow and so the boys and I will get to make a snowman. I've made one so far this winter but have not had the chance to make one with the boys. It should be fun. Hopefully the snow will stick together well enough for the building. Will wants to make a snow house (I think he means igloo) but I told him there was not enough snow for that. I'll see if some pictures can be taken to be posted.