Going Through Life One Blog Post at a Time
The packing has begun for our trip to New Orleans. Tonight, the kids helped pick out their clothes, toys, movies, etc. to take with us. Andy will pack his clothes tonight as well and then I’ll pack tomorrow. We hope to leave here tomorrow as soon as Laura is off the bus from school. Collierville, Tennessee, will be our first stop to stay with some great friends! Then, it’s on to New Orleans and lots of wedding fun. Let the trip begin!
So, we now have a lot of snow on the ground. The difference between the snow today and the snow from last Thursday is that today’s snow is sticking to everything. It’s wet and heavy. Perfect snowman snow, but not particularly perfect for anything else. There are power outages this time. We are fortunate with no loss of power… Yet. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Another difference is that the University of Missouri is in full shutdown. Last Thursday, they did not do the shutdown until 1 pm, which caused much more of a mess. Too many drivers on the road made for hazardous driving conditions and caused delays in snow removal. Today, we all enjoyed our snow day with absolutely no reason to travel anywhere. We relaxed and hung out with some great neighbors. It was a nice break in an otherwise very busy week. Andy still had to shovel, but it didn’t take him too long and he even helped out our neighbors.
While the snow days are fun, I must admit that I am ready for the snow to stop! Twenty inches of the white stuff is enough…
Shock! We have yet another snow day. This time, the University of Missouri cancelled everything for tomorrow *before* Columbia Public Schools. Even John’s preschool is closed tomorrow. Snow predictions are anywhere from 6 inches all the way to 15+ inches. This on top of the 10+ inches we received last Thursday. Even though Andy and I are adults, let it *NEVER* be said that we still don’t enjoy a good snow day. It’s not like we were celebrating tonight or anything…
…that kids do goofy things? I wandered into my bedroom today to discover Laura like this. When I asked why, she said, “Because I can.” Well, ok… I shouldn’t have expected anything more than that as an answer. Maybe I just shouldn’t ask next time…
Andy’s big project for today was to install the new headrest/DVD monitors in our truck. He needed to get this done this weekend because we leave on Thursday for New Orleans for Ian and Amanda’s wedding. It took him about six hours, but the kids now have the ability to watch movies in the truck. I think it’s going to make this 12-hour trip much more enjoyable for them *AND* us!
One advantage to living in Columbia is the ability to go to all kinds of sporting events at the University of Missouri. The Women’s Basketball team was supposed to play Louisiana State University (LSU) last night, but the game was rescheduled for today at 1 pm due to the snow. Also, the MU Women’s Gymnastics team had a meet scheduled against the Georgia Bulldogs. Thanks to all the snow, MU made both events free and that set into motion our day of MU sports. We ate an early lunch and then headed for Mizzou Arena. We had a great time watching the women play basketball! I had hoped for a photo of both kids with Truman the Tiger, but I settled for just Laura. While John loves to see Truman, he prefers to love him from afar. Although, he did give Truman a high five, so I’m thinking that’s some progress.
It was a great game that went into overtime. We really thought the women might beat LSU, but I think they got some really questionable foul calls in overtime that led to a Tiger loss. The women did have a lot of turnovers and that certainly contributed to the loss, but you can’t win when you are fighting both questionable foul calls and turnovers. In any event, it was great to cheer on the Tigers and the kids had a great time!
After a quick trip to Home Depot and Best Buy, we had dinner at Pizza Hut to use Laura’s reading certificate for the BookIt! program. Then, it was off to the Hearnes Center for MU Women’s Gymnastics! The first 1,000 fans received lighted wands to wave during the meet.
The kids had a good time with these (even making sure that they held them while they fell asleep for the night) along with waving their arms like crazy any time the cheerleaders threw anything into the stands. Both of our kids are now proud owners of Tiger Beanie Babies. Mizzou did not win the meet, but it was still fun to watch all the routines. Laura was more interested in the gymnastics than John, but he was also pretty tired. We arrived home about 8:30 pm and put the kids straight to bed. I was pretty wiped out myself, but it was worth it. What a fun day of Mizzou sports!
The snow started just a little after 8 am. What a snow it was! It snowed very hard and consistently until about 3 pm. Overall snow totals were somewhere between 10 and 11 inches. It wasn’t quite as much as the 2011 blizzard, but it snowed just as hard as it did then. It just didn’t snow as long as in 2011. It snowed so hard that I-70 was actually closed for a while and travel was treacherous at best. One of our neighbors went to work in the morning and it took her 2 1/2 hours to drive the five miles home. I started taking pictures almost as soon as the snow started and continued on until the snow was over and Andy was actually outside and shoveling snow. Yes, I was crazy and ran across the street in the driving snow to take this photo.
We spent most of the day cozy in the house. Because Laura didn’t have school, we just kept John home as well. Also, Andy stayed home and he made us some really great French Onion Soup. I did a bit of cleaning and relaxed. The kids played and watched television and were fascinated by the amount of snow.
Andy finally managed to get outside about 3 pm to begin shoveling our driveway. We had a drift that was roughly 18+ inches in front of our garage thanks to all the blowing snow. After about an hour of shoveling, a man on a tractor with a snow blower attachment drove up our street and said he would clear our driveway for $30. Needless to say, Andy jumped on it because he wasn’t even to the first seam at that point. Our driveway was clear in less than 10 minutes. Andy said, “Worth every *bit* of that $30.” I’m just glad that Andy’s back got a shoveling break. Made for a much happier husband tonight. As for tomorrow, the University of Missouri, Columbia Public Schools, and John’s Preschool are all closed. Snow Day #2 here we come!