Why didn't I think of this sooner?

Here's my last ditch effort to keep what's left of my garden from frying.  Nothing is really producing except for the jalapenos, but last year the tomato plants had a lot of new growth and fruit in the fall, so maybe they're worth saving.  Even when it's blazing hot out there, the umbrella makes it sort of nice.  If I could find some that I could hook a hose up to and have them serve as a sprinkler too, they might be a permanent fixture.

Looks like things are going to be cooling down!!

SNOMG make it stop!

We're iced/snowed in again today...no school.  There was rain/sleet at about 5am followed by snow that will continue until noon they say.  They snow amounts are much less the predicted though, which is good and bad....it'll be gone sooner, but there's nothing to sled on.  Not that Parker would last long in 14 degrees and 25mph winds.  Brrrrrr.  

Some random pictures for your amusement:  

Buddy's fish tank setup - We settled on the name Buddy.  His color really shows up will with the camera flash...he's really not quite that brilliant in person.  He seems to love having plants, so I got him lots.  I cleaned/rearranged his tank yesterday and he had a busy day checking it all out.  Note to Paula - he won't eat the Betta burgers (pellets), they're too big for him.  He's medium on the fish flakes too unless we really crumble them up, but as of yesterday, he's been enjoying freeze dried bloodworms. 

Good snow day activity:  Making each Valentine's Day card by hand.  I do have a few packages of the little preprinted kind (shhh, don't tell), but I'm not getting those out until we've milked this for all the time killing it's worth.

My first double layer cake - made for Bob's birthday.  The cake part is a Devil's Food mix...I had no room for error so I used a mix, but I made the chocolate ganache frosting from scratch.  I'm not excited about trapped indoors with this big yummy cake today.

Snow Fun

Once again, last night at bedtime we were expecting an inch or so of snow.  We got 6 or 7.  I'm sure it's quite a blessing for a lot of folks who have had kids stuck in the house since Monday.  Parker's had a blast sledding and building her snowman.

Gigi is still stuck here.  Luckily she brought a ton of craft project with her, like Harvey here.  You see a bunny too, right?

Warming up under the electric blanket after being outside

 

Snowman on top of the mailbox

Ice pics

My sister request that I post snow pics, so here are some.  Although actually, there isn't really much snow.  Our issue is the inch of ice that's covering most of the roadways and the parking lots.
This is the ice on the patio.  The driveway looks the same, but our neighborhood roads are mainly dry.

Parker's keeping herself amused with unlimited computer. I just saw on the news website that her school is closed again tomorrow.  If this means summer will be shorter, I'm ok with it. 

Claudette is cross stitching.  She's stuck here until the roads are a little safer.

Bob is on a conference call.  He's such a professional that he dresses up just to talk on the phone.

In case you're wondering....

...here's an update on us.  Bob and I went skiing to Steamboat Springs CO earlier this week.  It was super nice, but the last 2 days were super super cold there.  Tuesday we skied in sub-zero temps, and it was 20 below yesterday when we left.
Miraculously our flight wasn't canceled with all the weather drama in the rest of the country, so we made it back, just delayed a bit.
But then, we had to make it back from the airport with the roads covered in ice.  Luckily, we rode with Bob's boss, who has a big 4wheel drive truck, and grew up in Iowa, but it was still pretty dicey.  There is literally a thick thick layer of ice on every paved surface, and we saw very little sand/salt.  I guess they're saving it all to coat the path to the Cowboy's stadium?

Ski pic.  I'm honestly not sure if this is from this year, or 2 years ago.  Ski pictures all look the same unless you get a new outfit.  We had 3 great days of skiing...there was a ton of snow and 2 of the days were sunny and beautiful, although cold. 

Parker is on day 3 of no school.  Her district shuts down fairly quickly, but even the Dallas isd is closed for the 3rd day, which has never happened before.  She doesn't seem too terribly stir crazy....her Gigi has been her entertaining her.  She was very happy to see us and the gifts we brought her.  All along she's been asking "how awesome is my present?". 

snowy day!

Last night when I went up to check on Parker, she was all snuggled up underneath all her covers - VERY strange for her.  Normally her donkey feet would have kicked everything off.  I told Bob about it and he said "yes, she was very concerned about the cold front coming in". 

She was right to be concerned.  The temps have been dropping and dropping and this morning's rain finally turned to snow around noon.  It didn't take long at all to cover the ground - big thick wet flakes.

After I took this picture, Parker's friend made a snowball too, and it took me nearly too long to figure out who they were going to throw them at.....I got out of the way just in time. 

Hurricane, hurricane go away.

We've had a super rainy day today, I think they said 6 inches fell in a 24 hour period at the airport, but I bet we got more than that out here.  During dinner time, it get very tornado-y around the Dallas area, but it all fell apart before it got to us, thankfully.

Snow Pictures

Before I do anything else, let me TIME/DATE STAMP this blog entry.
3/21/10 9:40 PM
Nothing like putting away your tank tops for a day and dragging all your snow gear back out. The snow we got back in February was very fun, but from what I could tell from the lack of people out playing in it, everyone is over snow and ready for spring.

Here's Parker, showing the snow depth:

Bob wins the Parent of the Day award for sledding and snowman building:

More rain pics

This picture was just too cute not to post. This another one i took on Friday when she was playing in the puddles and enjoying her umbrella.

You know it's wet when ducks start to visit. A duck couple strolled through the yard today during lunch. I think they mistook our neighbor's backyard for the lake.

Rainy Day

We've been getting some much needed rain the past few days. I think we're up to 4 inches. And it's cold too, I don't think it's been over 40 since Wednesday. Nasty weather, but it's worth it for free water.
Parker has been a total grump this week, I have no idea why. Maybe the time change has thrown her off....there has been lots of fits and sassiness and attitude and tantrums and crying and attempts to overthrow the ruling party. Not the kind of behavior I was hoping for with spring break coming up. It might be a LONG week next week.
I was done battling over little things, so today she played in the puddles with her umbrella (in 40 degree weather) and then came in and had a nice hot swim in the big bathtub, and then wore her pajamas over to her friends house to play. And we all had a lovely afternoon that hopefully won't result in pneumonia.

Iced in...somewhat

The rain and sleet left enough ice on the roadways to cancel all the schools around here, so we're stuck at home today. The sun is out, but it's still 23F outside. Bob made it into work and said it wasn't really a big deal, but I guess we're going to stay in as long as we can stand it. I bet the library closed anyway. I wonder if we could make it to Sonic.....

Since we have a LOT of time on our hands today, we took the opportunity to do complicated hair. She must have been SUPER motivated for this hairstyle to stand still long enough for me to fix it. Introducing, for the first time ever, braided pigtails. I did a side view so you couldn't see how crooked her part is. The rest of the art direction is by Parker ("take a picture of me looking at Elizabeth!").