Just Humor Me A Little Longer

Then I'll get off the Whiny-Baby-Express about how cold and icy and nasty it is here. My poor kids, who haven't seen snow in over six years, can't quite figure it out. They run outside to play, shrieking with glee about the snowball fights they want to have, and the igloos they want to build, and the sledding and tobogganing that must be done, only to discover the "snow" is nothing more than a solid sheet of ice, covering every surface visible to the eye. And probably a few even not visible to the eye. Just ice, ice, everywhere.



This is the view of our driveway. Considering our neighbor's tree is lying right across the power lines, I assume it's a miracle we still have electricity. My sister, needless to say, who lives out in the country, with a big ole propane fireplace, and a back up generator, is hosting an impromptu slumber party tonight with good friends of theirs who are without power, as are a good number of people in the city. My mother is without cable. For me, no cable service would also mean no phone and no computer. Hmmmmm, power -- or cable. Tough choice. If I could only have one or the other, which would I choose? Keeping my children warm on the one hand ...... not being able to connect with the Internet on the other. I don't know; that's a tough one. Can I get back to you on that?



The kids and I got out and took a drive. It might be too slickery to get to school, but by golly, we'll manage a little sightseeing jaunt and a trip to Sonic, won't we? (Yes, seriously. I wanted onion rings for lunch. So shoot me.) This was one of the many branches down in our neighborhood.



I don't know whose tree this is, I just thought it was pretty with the ice on the branches. The heck with auto accidents and power outages and fires and burst water pipes --- it's all about the photo opportunities, baby.



This is the mailbox at our rental property. The rental property that Blaine and I spent Friday morning ripping all the old carpet out of. And if climbing over frozen piles of icy carpet on the back porch to get inside the house, to make sure the kitchen and bathroom sinks are left dripping, to make sure the pipes don't freeze, isn't your idea of good-time mountain climbing, then I sure don't know what is. (Remind me again why we've moved back home to Oklahoma?)



And here, a sad little tree in the backyard of our rental house. It wasn't large and manly to begin with, but it's even more pathetic now. The two trees in the front are beat all to hell, also. One is a weeping willow, so I'm hopeful it will finish weeping and bounce back up in a few days when the ice melts. The other is going to need some major branch clean up, which clearly violates the "NO Manual Labor" clause of my marriage contract, so I'm not sure how Blaine is going to handle that one.

Until then, school has been cancelled again tomorrow. Which judging by how today went, means I'll have seventeen more loads of wet laundry to do, constant mopping of hardwood floors because heaven forbid I remember to buy a door mat at Target, a dog who will choose to poop behind the kitchen table rather than go outside on the frozen ice with his dainty little paws, and the very clear realization that whatever romantic notion I might ever have had about homeschooling, about the warm and fuzzy idea of keeping my children with me 24/7, holding them close to my bosoms at all times ---- yeah, **THAT** retarded idea will fly right out the window before 9am tomorrow. If I was guessing, that is.