but, really that is all that I have! I mean come on, no malls or other noteworthy stores, one theater (that is totally overpriced, so we go rarely), no good chain restaurants, and no friends. So really, all we have to break the monotony is the weather. And boy is it crazy.
Today, our high was -6, with a windchill of cold as shit. There was an advisory today for "blowing snow" - I had no idea what that meant. Now I do. Apparently, since this is such a flat, barren landscape, there is nothing to break the wind when it blows. And boy does it blow! Since there is so much snow on the ground and the wind is so strong, the visibility was like, 0, and then the snow was sticking and immediately freezing on the finally almost back to normal roads. What a mess!!
Tonight they are calling for much the same, with a few flurries. But tomorrow afternoon to evening, another snow advisory! They are calling for another 4-8 inches!! Can you believe it? I have never seen anything like this in my life! We may even get to squeak another snow day out of this...
Everyone keeps saying this is the worst winter they have had in years. Is it just our bad luck? I am telling you, my southern blood can barely take this cold! But I do love the snow!!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Snow Day Number 2!!
Well, we got another snow day today. We knew we were in for a big storm - it was far reaching all the way from Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas on up. It began at 6:00 Tuesday evening and is due to end tonight (Wednesday) at midnight. The snowfall total is not in yet, but I have heard 14-18". The reason we actually got off of school is because the snow was coming so fast (and blowing around so hard) that the plows could not keep up with it. I imagine they will get the roads cleared tonight and all will return to normal tomorrow.
Casualties of snow storms at the Bennett/Jackson's:
The trash has not been taken out in three weeks - our pickup day has happened to fall on the blizzard days each time!
The mailbox is completely buried after today's storm. Since Bryan is out of the country, I guess I will have to dig it out tomorrow morning before work. :(
The driveway is piled high and our snow plower we hired has not come by. Since Bryan is out of the country, I guess I will have to shovel it myself tomorrow - NOT! I guess I will have to drive up and down the driveway several times to pack it down to a driveable surface. Let me warn you, however, that this is not a Wisconsin advisable tactic as then the packed slush will turn to ice which will then cause a huge mess and can only be plowed by a professional.
My patio furniture (new this fall - too late in the season to actually use it, but at a great bargain!) is now completely covered by the snow drifts (for the 3 time this season). One chair has actually blown somewhere into the yard, so once the snow melts some, I guess I will have to brave the frozen tundra to retrieve it.
On another note, I suppose my family in Michigan probably had a snow day today due to the same storm. Not sure how much snow they got, but...
My family in St. Louis is probably also digging themselves out.
I saw where my family in Nashville had to battle Tornadoes.
All I can say is what a storm!!!
Casualties of snow storms at the Bennett/Jackson's:
The trash has not been taken out in three weeks - our pickup day has happened to fall on the blizzard days each time!
The mailbox is completely buried after today's storm. Since Bryan is out of the country, I guess I will have to dig it out tomorrow morning before work. :(
The driveway is piled high and our snow plower we hired has not come by. Since Bryan is out of the country, I guess I will have to shovel it myself tomorrow - NOT! I guess I will have to drive up and down the driveway several times to pack it down to a driveable surface. Let me warn you, however, that this is not a Wisconsin advisable tactic as then the packed slush will turn to ice which will then cause a huge mess and can only be plowed by a professional.
My patio furniture (new this fall - too late in the season to actually use it, but at a great bargain!) is now completely covered by the snow drifts (for the 3 time this season). One chair has actually blown somewhere into the yard, so once the snow melts some, I guess I will have to brave the frozen tundra to retrieve it.
On another note, I suppose my family in Michigan probably had a snow day today due to the same storm. Not sure how much snow they got, but...
My family in St. Louis is probably also digging themselves out.
I saw where my family in Nashville had to battle Tornadoes.
All I can say is what a storm!!!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Bragging Blogger
My family had such a good week, I just had to share:
Jordan and Morgan got their report cards this week. Both made the gold honor roll - the highest honor roll at school!
Brantley made it a whole week with all smiley faces. This is quite an accomplishment as the last month she has had several straight faces and even a couple of frowny faces!
Bryan was rated "Above Expectations" on his performance review. They are putting him on the fast track. They are creating a position below him so that he can have a direct report. He needs this in order to be promoted to the next tier - which we hope will be this summer or fall.
And I lost 2 pounds last week and have done amazing on my diet this week, so hope to add another 2 to that!
Go Bennett-Jackson's!!
Jordan and Morgan got their report cards this week. Both made the gold honor roll - the highest honor roll at school!
Brantley made it a whole week with all smiley faces. This is quite an accomplishment as the last month she has had several straight faces and even a couple of frowny faces!
Bryan was rated "Above Expectations" on his performance review. They are putting him on the fast track. They are creating a position below him so that he can have a direct report. He needs this in order to be promoted to the next tier - which we hope will be this summer or fall.
And I lost 2 pounds last week and have done amazing on my diet this week, so hope to add another 2 to that!
Go Bennett-Jackson's!!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Finally a Snow Day!!
But let me tell you how bad things have to be to actually get this day off:
A blizzard came in last night
-11 temperature with a windchill of -35
Freezing rain that coated all the streets and then 2" of snow on top of that (Apparently the plows are defenseless against the ice- HAH!)
Wind speeds of 65 mph with gusts up to 80 mph
So I ask you, is it even worth it to have to deal with this crap just for a day off school?
ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are scheduled to have another winter storm system this evening and more snow for the rest of the week. Maybe we can milk this one day off into the rest of the week!
The only downside - I have a laptop and access to work stuff, so technically should be working from home. Oh, yeah, and we are out of milk.
A blizzard came in last night
-11 temperature with a windchill of -35
Freezing rain that coated all the streets and then 2" of snow on top of that (Apparently the plows are defenseless against the ice- HAH!)
Wind speeds of 65 mph with gusts up to 80 mph
So I ask you, is it even worth it to have to deal with this crap just for a day off school?
ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are scheduled to have another winter storm system this evening and more snow for the rest of the week. Maybe we can milk this one day off into the rest of the week!
The only downside - I have a laptop and access to work stuff, so technically should be working from home. Oh, yeah, and we are out of milk.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Home Alone!
For the first time in 7 months I am absolutely, positively by myself!! The girls are in Nashville and Bryan has gone to Asia. So that leaves me home alone for 36 hours. I never realized how much I enjoyed the time I had to myself before. Now, I am married and have the kids on a full time basis (a novelty for a divorced woman)! It's not that I don't like my family - I love them. But I like me time too! So what did I do today and will I do tomorrow with all that time you may ask?
The sad reality is that I did exactly what I would do if they were here! I did laundry, straightened up the house, paid the bills, etc... The difference is that I also squeezed in the nap of the century, I finally got to see "Hairspray", I lingered in bed with coffee and my book, and I got to play as long as I wanted in my crop room! Life is good.
Although I must mention that when I dropped the girls off at the airport on Thursday, I cried! I haven't been without them in so long. And I never even got out of bed when Bryan left. Just a kiss and a nod back to sweet sleep!
The sad reality is that I did exactly what I would do if they were here! I did laundry, straightened up the house, paid the bills, etc... The difference is that I also squeezed in the nap of the century, I finally got to see "Hairspray", I lingered in bed with coffee and my book, and I got to play as long as I wanted in my crop room! Life is good.
Although I must mention that when I dropped the girls off at the airport on Thursday, I cried! I haven't been without them in so long. And I never even got out of bed when Bryan left. Just a kiss and a nod back to sweet sleep!
Friday, January 4, 2008
Why don't people in WI use trash cans?
This was a question that I studiously pondered when we moved here. No one uses trash cans. All trash is placed on the street in clear bags. That's it - no cans at all. Well, being civilized from the big city and all, I was having none of that. I went to Walmart and bought a huge trash can. Trash is collected once a week. So, we keep the can in the garage, fill it up (no messy bags littering my garage floor), and dutifully wheel it out to the curb on pick-up day.
The first week we did this, I could tell the trash persons were not happy about it. I came home to find the can thrown haphazardly on the driveway, and the lid was gone. I guess they were too lazy to remove the lid, dump the trash, then replace the lid. My guess was that they just tossed the lid in with the load. No biggie, the can is the important part anyways, right? (I did later that week find the lid about 1/2 a mile from our house on the side of the road, flat as a pancake. I was too embarrassed to admit it was mine, so I just left it there!)
So this goes on for a couple of weeks - can is always thrown somewhere on our property. Now, as the snow begins to pick up, it is not always a fun job to retrieve the can, but still, I am not giving in to them!
I have also realized that the wind in our neck of the woods is close to hurricane proportions, which means that sometimes the can is blown halfway down the block by the time I get home to put it away. I am sure the neighbors are not happy, but none have yet to return it to our drive (and since we are the only ones with a can, they have to know it is ours!) But this week we hit a new "high".
The morning of trash day we set out the can along with several boxes from the Christmas holidays. When we got home, the can was nowhere in sight. I figured that the trash persons had finally had it and had just chucked the can along with the boxes. So they win, I guess. But not quite.
Two days later, I spotted our trash can several houses down in an empty lot, half full of trash, half full of snow. This time, I stopped the car, dumped the contents on the lot, and took the can home. I will not give in!! Civilized cultures use trash cans! Note, however, that in my diligence to stay clean and civilized I have now littered twice!
I have, however uncovered the mystery of why no one in WI uses trash cans -
1. The trash persons have no respect for the receptacle
and
2. Between the wind and the snow, it will not stay in place anyways!!
Just between you and I, if I "lose" it again, I will not search for it and I will not claim it from the neighbors. I will leave my trash can where it lays. I will simply do as the romans and drag my trash to the curb sans can!!!
The first week we did this, I could tell the trash persons were not happy about it. I came home to find the can thrown haphazardly on the driveway, and the lid was gone. I guess they were too lazy to remove the lid, dump the trash, then replace the lid. My guess was that they just tossed the lid in with the load. No biggie, the can is the important part anyways, right? (I did later that week find the lid about 1/2 a mile from our house on the side of the road, flat as a pancake. I was too embarrassed to admit it was mine, so I just left it there!)
So this goes on for a couple of weeks - can is always thrown somewhere on our property. Now, as the snow begins to pick up, it is not always a fun job to retrieve the can, but still, I am not giving in to them!
I have also realized that the wind in our neck of the woods is close to hurricane proportions, which means that sometimes the can is blown halfway down the block by the time I get home to put it away. I am sure the neighbors are not happy, but none have yet to return it to our drive (and since we are the only ones with a can, they have to know it is ours!) But this week we hit a new "high".
The morning of trash day we set out the can along with several boxes from the Christmas holidays. When we got home, the can was nowhere in sight. I figured that the trash persons had finally had it and had just chucked the can along with the boxes. So they win, I guess. But not quite.
Two days later, I spotted our trash can several houses down in an empty lot, half full of trash, half full of snow. This time, I stopped the car, dumped the contents on the lot, and took the can home. I will not give in!! Civilized cultures use trash cans! Note, however, that in my diligence to stay clean and civilized I have now littered twice!
I have, however uncovered the mystery of why no one in WI uses trash cans -
1. The trash persons have no respect for the receptacle
and
2. Between the wind and the snow, it will not stay in place anyways!!
Just between you and I, if I "lose" it again, I will not search for it and I will not claim it from the neighbors. I will leave my trash can where it lays. I will simply do as the romans and drag my trash to the curb sans can!!!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Timber!!!!!
And it's down! The tree, that is. Well, actually it is back up now, but it was down. Fully decorated and boom - on the floor. It started out much less auspiciously...
This year we decided to go to one of those cut-your-own Christmas tree lots. It was very fun. Jordan was sick, so she couldn't go, but the rest of us bundled up to search for the perfect tree. We were very cold, but that did not stop us from meticulously walking up and down every row of trees among the 86 acres to find the tree that was meant to be ours. We immediately set out for the biggies (since we have ceilings open to the second story) knowing that we wanted a tall tree. It's funny how they don't look all that big in the forest. Our first indication that we had selected a "really big one" was that Bryan and I together had a difficult time dragging the thing to the ailse where the wagon would pick us up. Actually, now that I am thinking about it, we should have known when the hand saw was taking forever to cut through the trunk. At any rate, once we climbed on the wagon, our tree precariously teetering on the edge, the customers around started making comments, specifically, "Wow, that's a big one!" The owners of the farm said they would not be able to "shake and wrap" the tree as it was so large. Nevertheless, it was our tree and it was perfect.
Once we got it home, we realized that our meager tree stand was no match for our glorious tree. Since we were in the middle of a major winter storm (that gave us six inches of snow that has not only not melted, but has now grown to about 10 due to more snow) we couldn't get the tree stand that night. We went to Home Depot (the only store in Sheboygan) and purchased the largest stand they had. Once home, we managed to get the tree in the stand (don't ask me how!) and filled it with water. We noticed that it was leaning a little, so we even weighted it down on one side. On to the decorating.
Wouldn't you know it, we had no ladder tall enough to decorate the darn thing! Off to Home Depot again. Largest reasonably priced ladder purchased. Still not tall enough, but we decided to make do. Morgan and I did all the decorating of the tree. We used 20 strands of lights, had to climb on the bookshelf, incorporated some incredible acrobatic team-work, but we did it. It took us 3 hours, and the tree was magnificent (if I do say so myself). Even Jordan who is usually negative about everything said how pretty it was. We enjoyed our beautiful creation for just 2 days before it all came crashing down. Literally.
The story from here on out is typical. I am sure that many of you have had this experience. The mess, the broken ornaments, and a party in 3 days...and of course it happened at 9:30 at night! Long story short, we ended up bungeeing the tree to the bookshelf! The good news is that you can't see the bungee, so the tree will look nice for the party. The bad news is that I still haven't "fixed" the tree (lights and ornaments) and the party is in 2 days! So maybe it won't be pretty for the party after all! I was going to take pictures of the tree per my mom and Sandy's request, but it just doesn't look the same, so forget that!
All I can say is that this Clark Griswold moment has been way too much work!! But anyone getting gifts from me, no worries, no presents were harmed in the incident!!
This year we decided to go to one of those cut-your-own Christmas tree lots. It was very fun. Jordan was sick, so she couldn't go, but the rest of us bundled up to search for the perfect tree. We were very cold, but that did not stop us from meticulously walking up and down every row of trees among the 86 acres to find the tree that was meant to be ours. We immediately set out for the biggies (since we have ceilings open to the second story) knowing that we wanted a tall tree. It's funny how they don't look all that big in the forest. Our first indication that we had selected a "really big one" was that Bryan and I together had a difficult time dragging the thing to the ailse where the wagon would pick us up. Actually, now that I am thinking about it, we should have known when the hand saw was taking forever to cut through the trunk. At any rate, once we climbed on the wagon, our tree precariously teetering on the edge, the customers around started making comments, specifically, "Wow, that's a big one!" The owners of the farm said they would not be able to "shake and wrap" the tree as it was so large. Nevertheless, it was our tree and it was perfect.
Once we got it home, we realized that our meager tree stand was no match for our glorious tree. Since we were in the middle of a major winter storm (that gave us six inches of snow that has not only not melted, but has now grown to about 10 due to more snow) we couldn't get the tree stand that night. We went to Home Depot (the only store in Sheboygan) and purchased the largest stand they had. Once home, we managed to get the tree in the stand (don't ask me how!) and filled it with water. We noticed that it was leaning a little, so we even weighted it down on one side. On to the decorating.
Wouldn't you know it, we had no ladder tall enough to decorate the darn thing! Off to Home Depot again. Largest reasonably priced ladder purchased. Still not tall enough, but we decided to make do. Morgan and I did all the decorating of the tree. We used 20 strands of lights, had to climb on the bookshelf, incorporated some incredible acrobatic team-work, but we did it. It took us 3 hours, and the tree was magnificent (if I do say so myself). Even Jordan who is usually negative about everything said how pretty it was. We enjoyed our beautiful creation for just 2 days before it all came crashing down. Literally.
The story from here on out is typical. I am sure that many of you have had this experience. The mess, the broken ornaments, and a party in 3 days...and of course it happened at 9:30 at night! Long story short, we ended up bungeeing the tree to the bookshelf! The good news is that you can't see the bungee, so the tree will look nice for the party. The bad news is that I still haven't "fixed" the tree (lights and ornaments) and the party is in 2 days! So maybe it won't be pretty for the party after all! I was going to take pictures of the tree per my mom and Sandy's request, but it just doesn't look the same, so forget that!
All I can say is that this Clark Griswold moment has been way too much work!! But anyone getting gifts from me, no worries, no presents were harmed in the incident!!
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