There's a first time for everything!

Thankfully my sister Kysa called me early this morning asking if we had a snow day today. I told her that they never have snow days here, but decided that I should maybe get up and check! I think everyone else happened to be checking the KXMB web-site this morning as well, because I couldn't get it to load. I decided to try the television and I was shocked to see that all Bismarck Public Schools were cancelled today! There's a first time for everything! In the 6 years that we've lived here, I don't think there has been a day off due to weather? I know for sure in the past 3 years there haven't been! That's one of the great things about working at the school, when the kids are off, so am I! If Kysa hadn't called us this morning, we would have been dressed and ready for school and wondered where in the heck everyone was after we tromped through 9 inches of snow to get there! I never have the radio on and I rarely get on the computer before I take the kids to school and rarely watch television in the morning because we're usually too busy trying to get ready and out the door. Since I've never seen them cancel school before, I wouldn't have thought they would've today either! Thanks Kysa! Thanks to you I was even able to get a few extra minutes (45 of them) of peace and quiet since I hadn't gotten the kids out of bed before you called!

I was all prepared last night for a busy morning of getting all 3 of us ready for school. I had a list made of things not to forget and all of their snow clothes laid out on the couch to wear on our walk to school! Kysa told me that she was going to feel bad for Gage and Emma if I made them walk to school in that much snow! We would have walked this morning, but even if I had wanted to drive, I wouldn't have been able to get the car out of the garage. We had so much snow that had drifted in front of the garage door that I don't think I could have driven over it. I was thankful that I didn't have to worry about it and that we could spend the day at home.

Since Scott was gone, I figured I better get my butt outside and start attempting to shovel the snow from the driveway. I didn't run out to the grocery store like I'm sure every other Bismarck resident did to stock up on groceries because I didn't really believe we would get the blizzard they were talking about. Boy was I wrong! (There's a first time for everything! HA!)
I figured that I would have to be able to get to the store before our 5 day weekend was over, so I best get to work on the driveway. Around 9am, the kids and I bundled up to head outside to tackle the snow.


Gage and Emma were quite excited with how deep the snow was! I, on the other hand, wasn't that excited once I started shoveling it and realized how wet and HEAVY it was!

Oh, and I was quite thrilled that I had to trudge through the deep snow to the shed in the backyard to get the shovels because we hadn't gotten them out yet. I wasn't too happy when I realized that Scott had put the bicycles away for the winter and the shovels were clear to the back behind all of the bikes. I'm not sure why he didn't think to pull them out since it's pretty much inevitable that we will end up using the dumb things before the winter is over? NICE!



The snow had drifted up high enough in front of the front door that we couldn't open it from inside. Gage and Emma thought that was "COOL!"

The kids were having fun making snow angels while I was hard at work. I had my camera in my pocket just in case I needed it!

Emma wasn't out too long before she was freezing to death because she had gotten snow inside her mittens, inside her coat and inside her boots. I think we may have to get some bigger snow pants? Actually, it would probably be smarter to get Gage the new, bigger pants and let Emma have his, since his are about too small also!

After this snow angel, Emma headed indoors. She didn't last long.

I, on the other hand, was outside for 2 hours shoveling snow and only had a path big enough for the mailman and possibly wide enough to get the car out of the garage if I needed to. It was wet, heavy and there was ALOT of it! I actually enjoy shoveling snow, but not the "heart attack kind!!!" I'll bet there were many people in the emergency room today with chest pains! During those LONG 2 hours, I had a lot time to think. I was cussing Scott like there was no tomorrow, wondering why in the heck he wouldn't stay home in weather like this. I also thought it might have been nice of him to offer to get us a few groceries last night when he went to the store to get stuff to take to Tuttle. I guess I should just thank my lucky stars that he brought us home a pizza like I asked for supper last night. Thankfully we had enough milk and bread to make it through today and maybe tomorrow. There were many more ugly thoughts running through my head, but I guess I probably should keep them to myself.

It was a long day. It would have been easier had we gone to school!

I never did get back outside to finish shoveling the snow. My back is already sore and my deltoid muscles are killing me. It was quite a workout trying to launch that heavy crap up over the mountain I had created along the edge of the driveway.

Tonight when I was sitting on the couch watching television I thought I could hear a motor running. I was thinking that poor old man that shovels all of the older people's driveways on our street was still out working! I went to open the front door and look and it was my neighbor Dave, snowblowing MY DRIVEWAY! I put my jacket on and went outside to tell him THANK YOU! I told him I could almost kiss him for that! He got all of the driveway done and then started into the sloped area where the driveway meets the road. That was some nasty wet snow that kept plugging up his snowblower. He wasn't able to do much more and I told him that was okay because I was just grateful that he had done the rest of the driveway for me! I told him I would get it and then he said he would help me. I ran back inside to get my boots and gloves.

Dave hard at work at 9:30 tonight! I am SO THANKFUL he helped me out. I can always count on Dave. You know you have great neighbors when they're out snowblowing your driveway in the dark! I'm sure he has saved me a trip to the chiropractor! I shouldn't speak too soon because I'll probably be lucky if I can get my sore, sorry butt out of bed in the morning!

Blizzard conditions

At noon I went to Corpus Christi to start my work day in the library. I had plenty of warnings that I might be in serious need of cold adult beverages around 3pm. It was a very interesting day to say the least. It did go by fairly quickly, as every Kindergarten class (5 of them) has library on Thursday afternoon. The fun started at 12:30 and every half an hour we had a different group of kids. I'd say that every class has an unfortunate high number of kids who don't listen! One of the little boys was sent out into the hall and while I was standing out there with him he continued to mess around despite me repeatedly asking him to be quiet and to stand in the corner, etc etc. Thankfully each of the classes only have 30 minutes of library time. Emma was very excited to see me and she obviously forgot our conversation the evening before about not calling me "Mom" at school. Oh well. At least she's not getting sent out into the hallway! Despite the fact that I had one kid burst out crying because I wouldn't let him take any books (he had 2 at home overdue) and several who couldn't tell me their last names (because they don't know them) so I could get their account pulled up onto the computer screen and a whole bunch of speech impediments, I didn't need to break into the adult beverages once I arrived home. I'm not sure about Mrs. Hocking though! :-)

Speaking of arriving home, that was quite a challenge as well. When I left home to go to the school, it was just starting to do a little misting. They have been calling for a blizzard, but I have been let down many times when nothing comes our way. I suppose because I only wore a light fleece jacket on my walk to school, is the reason why it cut loose this afternoon. It snowed like crazy all afternoon, causing the school to postpone parent-teacher conferences that were to be held tonight. Unfortunately we were amongst the group of parents who have to wait until next week to get the reports. They are supposed to be at the same time next week, which falls on the day we have our Daisy Scout meeting and right at the same time. Hopefully I can get our conferences rescheduled for another time slot.

Anyway, back to our walk home. I had told Gage to come to Corpus Christi when he got out of school as I would be in the library. I was actually able to leave at 3pm, so Emma and I went out to walk towards Northridge to meet up with Gage. He was walking down the hill as we got to the crosswalk so we just waited for him. It was UGLY out! It was even worse when we turned around to walk home because we were headed right into the blowing snow. If you have ever seen the Little House on the Prairie episode when Laura has to walk home in the blizzard, well, that was Gage, Emma and I this afternoon. We seriously could not look forward because of the blowing snow. We had our heads down and every so often I would peek up to make sure we weren't going to run into anything! It was painful to look up! And, since I didn't dress appropriately, that means I didn't have a hat on and my ears were freezing. I had to take hold of both Gage and Emma's hands and drag them along so we could get home as quick as we could. Thankfully we don't have that long of a walk, but with the weather like it was, it felt like forever! We were all thankful to get home. My hair was sopping wet, as if I had just gotten out of the shower and our shoes were wet with wet socks and the fronts of our pants were all wet. The kids wanted to know right away if we would be going back out into it and I assured them that we were home for the evening. They both went right down to their bedrooms and put on their p.j.'s. They did end up changing back into warm clothes since they saw the neighbors outside playing. I let them go back outside, but they weren't out for too long. It's much better watching the weather from inside!

After I describe the weather conditions and tell you that they have shut down I-94 east of Mandan all the way to Dickinson and Highway 83 going north to Minot, you'll probably NOT be shocked to hear that Scott left this evening to go hunting. If you remember, back during the rainy day of the CROP Walk, he told me "I don't even hunt in conditions like this!" That's right, because he waits until they are worse! What a dip****! He's gone through the weekend and hopefully they don't get stuck in a snowdrift. He tells me the water is going to lock up from the freezing temperatures and the season will be done. I wasn't born yesterday Scott! I know better than that. He may not be able to hunt ducks because they are smart and headed south, but there are other species that stick around in this weather that he will continue to stalk.

The blizzard warnings are in effect until 6am and we could end up with a foot of snow. I don't know how much we have right now, but I know it's going to be a back breaking hour of shoveling the driveway after school tomorrow. I am working at the school tomorrow from 9:30a-3p, so I will have to wait until after school to shovel the walk, unless I wake up early and am so rested I just pop right out of bed and head out to do it first thing in the morning. I highly doubt that's going to happen, so I will apologize to the mailman right now. I suppose I could walk home and spend the hour from the time I drop the kids off, til the time I have to go back to the school shoveling, but I'm sure Mrs. Hocking and the rest of the kids who will be coming to the library wouldn't appreciate me smelling like a sweaty pig! I hope Mrs. Schmidt enjoys her week in sunny Florida at Disneyworld! (I should have hopped into her suitcase!) Actually, you know I love this kind of weather, but as I said earlier, I like it more when I can enjoy it from inside!

First day at work

On Tuesday I got a call from the Bismarck Public School office and they told me my background check came back clear! I could have saved them $45 and told them that in the first place. I went down to the office and filled out a few more papers and I'm ready to go! Tomorrow will actually be my first day "on the job"! I will go in at 12:15pm and will be at Corpus Christi with subbing with Mrs. Hocking as Mrs. Schmidt will be leaving town on vacation. It will be quite interesting, because Emma has library tomorrow. We had a talk before supper about me working in the library at her school tomorrow and she was all excited about it. I told her, "Now Emma, you know that when I am working at the school, you can't call me Mom. You'll have to call me Mrs. Stephens." She wanted to know why, so I told her that it was a form of respect and it worked the same way with Juanita, that when they are at school, she has to call her Mrs. Hocking. She understood that, but still had questions about it. Then I asked her if her friend Emily Just at school, calls her teacher Mom, or Mrs. Just?" She smirked and said, "Mrs. Just." I told her it would be the same way for her. We'll see what happens. Many times when she sees me at the school she acts all silly and talks in a type of baby talk, so I'm hoping she doesn't do that tomorrow. I will find out soon enough.

We are in a blizzard warning until tomorrow morning. It has been raining since after we got home from school and with the temperature dropping, it could turn into dangerous driving conditions. I'm ready so bring it on

Election Day

THANK GOD this election day is nearly over. Can I get away with just posting that statement for the day? It's been a long one and I don't even have the energy to go into details about anything else.

Rocket Launch video

As I promised, here is a video of Gage launching his model rocket yesterday. It's kind of funny. I like it when they all take off running after the rocket.

This morning when I was walking the kids to school, I was stopped by the president of the PTO asking for my help. Every year for Parent-Teacher conferences the PTO arranges for volunteers to bring in supper for the teachers. This year, it was a little different since they have Northridge and Corpus Christi. This lady asked if I would help her out today because she wasn't sure how she was going to set stuff up at both places. I told her I would help. Of course I will! I'll always help! If ever you are in need of something, just call me! :-) I had to go to the school this afternoon to get things set up, which I really didn't have to do too much because the lady that runs the office had pretty much done all of it. Then I had to go back tonight to help clean it up. It was crazy how much food they had for 5 teachers. There were 4 crockpots full of soup, a huge meat and cheese tray, a huge vegetable tray, break, rolls, a bag of apples, a bag of oranges, a case of water and some pop. Seriously, who would even think that 5 teachers, with 4 of them being smaller women, would eat this much food? I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the 4 crockpots full of soup because they have 2 very small, dorm room-sized refrigerators in their breakroom. I had several ziploc containers, but only 1/2 the number of lids I needed. I had myself pictured carrying a few containers of soup with no lids on my walk home. Thankfully she showed up with the extra lids I needed and helped me finish up. There was a reason I didn't volunteer to help with this project from the get-go! Oh well, I have 2 containers of Knoephla (sp?) soup in the refrigerator for tomorrow night's supper! I'm always excited when I don't have to fix supper.

Emma has gymnastics tomorrow evening and we have Gage's den meeting tomorrow night at the school. It will probably be a little crazy there since the school is one of the places people come to vote. I will be really glad when all of this is over. My phone was ringing off the hook today with both parties calling to make sure we vote tomorrow. I've been plagued with political emails as well. It is also nice that all of the signs have to be removed from people's yards tonight before tomorrow's election.

3.........2.......1.........blast off!

We have had such nice weather the past several days. It is quite unusual for it to be so nice this time of year. We will be getting some colder, rainy weather this week according to the weatherman.

Today Gage was determined to get a rocket built so that we could launch it this afternoon. He has had a model rocket kit that he got for Christmas a couple of years ago that he found and wanted to put together so Scott and the kids worked on building the rocket for a little while this afternoon, then we headed to the capital grounds to launch it. It was a dud. The launcher wasn't working right so we ended up going home. After we got home, Scott figured out why it didn't work, so we went back and had 2 successful launches. Gage named it Apollo 18. Ever since they started studying the moon and planets in science class, he has been obsessed with space. We have read books about the Challenger, Apollo 11 and Apollo 13, hence the name Apollo 18. He was very excited when his rocket finally took off! I did get some video, but it takes so long to download that I decided I will do that tomorrow.

Even though we had an extra hour of sleep through the night, I don't feel any more rested. We got up and went to the 9am church service and I was just as tired this morning as I was yesterday morning so I'm headed to bed early tonight!


Scott and the kids getting ready to launch their rocket.

Apollo 18 ready for take off!

Spooooghetti Supper

Last night Scott decided he was going to take Emma hunting with him this morning. Emma has been begging Scott to take her grouse hunting. Why? I'm not sure? So, he took her out with him this morning to hunt pheasants. Anyone who has ever hunted upland birds with Scott, knows that he is quite difficult to keep up with. Scott recognized that this was going to be a problem, so he had an idea to fix it.


Scott decided to take Emma in the backpack. Uh, yeah, these are made for kids under 3.

Emma is nearly 45 pounds, which I'm sure is WAY over the weight limit on this thing! The shoulder harness to keep Emma from falling out was out of the question.

Scott and Emma ready to leave for Emma's first pheasant hunt.

Just in case you were wondering, these were the items that were left in the little zippered pouch from the last time we used the backpack. LOL!

Believe it or not, they even shot a pheasant!! Scott said he was able to carry her around okay, but he just didn't last as long as he normally would. Hmmm...........I wonder why? I made sure to tell Scott to give her some earplugs since she was going to be so close to the gun when fired. Emma came home and happily told me, "I'm not death Mom!" :-)

Later this afternoon the kids got all dressed up in their Halloween costumes for the annual Spooooghetti Supper at Northridge. We look forward to this event every year. This is where the kids are allowed to wear their uniforms with all of their classmates, so there is usually a pretty good turn out. I'm sure that's partly because it's a supper that Moms don't have to cook! (Unless of course you are nice enough to volunteer!) Can you believe one of those volunteers was NOT me?

Commander Rex was a popular costume this year!! Gage is in the middle and 2 of his classmate/friends are on either side of him. There were even more of them wandering around the school!

Here's a whole family of Star Wars characters! The little Darth Vader and Padme, to the right, are siblings to the Rex standing next to Gage. That's a pretty cute threesome! When I saw them, I just had to get them rounded up for a group picture. (Actually I made Scott do that!)

I didn't want to be left out this year. I love Halloween and love dressing up; however, I'm too cheap to buy myself a costume. So, I made my own this year.

After I got out of the bathtub, I had the bright idea to dress up like Scott. When I came downstairs he wondered what the heck I was doing in his clothes. I told him I was going as him. Next thing I know he comes downstairs in my clothes, and then completes the getup with my purse. LOL! The pants were a little too short, but for the most part, that is me. He even wore his slippers to the school. I think people thought we were nuts. Only the people who really know me, understood Scott's costume. I'm sure everyone else just thought he was a fruitcake. I decided maybe I should change my look. I look like a slob! :-)

After the Spoooghetti Supper we went home, changed into our p.j.'s, popped come popcorn and snuggled up on the couch (all 4 of us) to have movie night. We watched An American Girl movie named Kitt Kittredge. We all enjoyed it.

We all had fun today.