Snowmageddon (Yeah, I know. Not original. Whatev.)

This morning felt so different from other mornings. With a fresh thick quilt of snow outside, there is a certain kind of quiet you can feel, even from inside the house.

A couple weeks ago, we got our first accumulating snow. We may have had a dusting prior but this was the first for the winter that we could play in. Two or so inches were expected on a Tue
sday and so got all ramped up and excited.

Let me stop here and explain something about snow in NC. It's a really big deal! I mean, I always hears it was but now I know. I feel like snow is something to talk about anyway, even in NY. But when it happens so infrequently, it's a really really big deal. So it's talked up all over the place. For days!

So we were already excited about snow on Sunday and Monday. We had even done all the silly bread and milk errands I used to tease about. (Oh please. How can you not have the necessities already and why bread and milk? Why do you need these to survive? Eggs. Butter. Wine. Yes. Well now I have kids and I get it. It's reminiscent of my days in LA when they were always waiting for "the big one". The big one here would be an ice storm though, not an earthquake. And no amount of milk and eggs could save you from that.) So Monday we watched the weather. And waited. No flakes. The schools watched and waited. No flakes. The weather channel, the news stations....no flakes. Aw heck, let's just close school tomorrow anyway. What?!

Yeah, so Tuesday was closed and no flakes. Until about 7p that night! Grrr...A full day of plans gone to waste.

The snow finally fell through the night and on Wednesday had a nice little two inches to play in. Good old Cutright was busy with sledders when we got there the next morning, lots of families, extra sleds. This is why we love our neighborhood!

Thursday, the snow lingered. Friday it was pretty much gone. Saturday it was a distant memory. But still, schools were closed through the week. And when you go to year-round school, you have to make up your days  - on the WEEKEND! Then, even the Saturday make up sessions were closed!

I am still confused about all the closures. They jumped the gun for sure. Then again, if you don't, you have an Atlanta situation on your hands. People got stuck on the roads for hours, abandoning their cars and walking home. Ha! How could this happen?!

Then came Winter Storm Pax. Yeah, this one had a name. Exactly two weeks later, we were told to expect snow. Like the boy who cried wolf, I don't think anyone expected it to come. The schools were open on Tuesday, some even for a bit on Wednesday. Then it actually started. Around 12:30 it started to fall hard and I was completely taken back to NY winter days. The light, frantic flurry of snow in all directions. Piling up in a hurry, hiding the grass in a few hours. It was awesome!

But we were snuggly and warm in our house (with a lot of milk and bread), and out there were so many husbands who got stuck. Within a very short time, the roads got bad (no plows en force here, remember). Suddenly, we were looking a lot like Atlanta. D'oh! I wondered how this could happen again. The traffic maps showed all roadways in red. At least one friend did say via FB, "walking home is punishment enough so I don't have to say I told you so." People finally arrived home after hours on the roads, some had to stay overnight in various odd places.

But the snow itself? Awesome! About 5" or so. Deep and fluffy and wonderful. Leo and I are in heaven when it snows like this. We got the kids all dressed up to go out in it after dinner. They cried their eyes out. Southern Sissies. Nathan is very head strong these days and continues to do what he wants most of the time. When he will end up suffering and possibly learning something from the experience, I'll let him. For some reason, he is not appreciating the magic of layers when you go out to play. And Benny....gloves, mittens? No ma'am. I think I will just stick my hands in the snow then cry bloody murder over how cold they are for the next 30 minutes!

Despite that 15 minute adventure, we did end up going out again. We went up to neighbor Kate's house of course. If the party isn't here, it's there. We hung out for a little while before stomping through our own tracks down the hill back home to bed.

Today, we hope to get some sledding in. Or as Leo put it, Woodlawn Double Luge Competition. It may be possible - we were supposed to be hit with ice too. Our fluffy snow layers have been weighted down with it overnight and icicles hang from the outdoor furniture. We all all home, have power, water and lots of milk and bread, so I'm prepared for whatever this fun snow day brings.

Oh yeah, and this happened . . . .

Catching up with 2014

January gone and I've written nothing. How can I when there is always so much going on? Even as I sit down to write this I'm interrupted by a little person begging for food as if dinner wasn't an hour ago . . .

Where was I? Oh yeah, picking up where I left off. This is a pretty good representation of how things go most days.

Christmas was a lot of fun. Although we missed the family in NY, we were really glad to have stayed home. The traffic reports were awful on the roads and staying put allowed us a lot of time to just be together without running around the whole time, as NY visits tend to be. It felt like three long weeks of relaxing and being together. We had Tim and Jen around for a visit, as well as G'pa Truck. A few days of a lull then Matt and Joey were here. It was nice to have the both of them around for a couple nights, including new years. We planned on staying in but after some guitar hero and a dance party to start us off we went to neighbor Kate's for the rest of the night. The kids made it until 10:30p! Matt & Joe hung out there. I was opened one eye for half a second at midnight. Otherwise I was done! Joey stayed for a week and submersed himself into our craziness. We don't get to spend that time together so to have so much was a treat. To see all the brothers within a short period was definitely MY Christmas gift!

After the break we were ready to dive into work and school (well, I was!). We've been going non-stop since. I went away for another Nature's Pearl weekend in Advance, NC and have been sharing it with so many people. I love having this thing that is growing. That is fun and helpful and has so much potential. There are another few weekends of training coming in the next few months.

Nathan is registered for Kindergarten. He will start in July, but we aren't sure when exactly yet. They have tracks down here for the year round schools. It's a weird option but people say they really love it and our base school is the best around so we'll take it. It will be weird to have Nathan in school from 8a - 3p. But I think he will enjoy it when we get into the groove of it. Benny will begin Preschool late August for two days a week. I still can't imagine my little buddy going so young. But it will help him with his talking and socializing, and me with my sanity!

Benny has been quite the little talked though. He suddenly blossomed and has barely shut up since! We will go about our day, all of us talking about whatever, and Benny will copy every word. More like the syllables and some sounds, always leaving off the first consonant. So poop and soup sound the same. You can imagine how this can be confusing. He communicates better but there is often lots of guessing going on still. But we work with him to get it right. He's making progress.

Also, Nathan and Benny play together a lot. Benny goes where Nathan goes. If Nathan wants to do the bouncy house, Benny wants to do the "ouncy ouse." If Nathan jumps across the couch cushions, Benny follows. If it's playtime under the blankets in the bedroom, book reading, flash lights, music, etc - Benny wants in too. Nathan even seems to miss him during nap time. I can't imagine how it will be when school starts. They will have so much less time together. That actually makes me sad. I'm often thinking about how nice it will be for me to have a break or for each of them to have something new. But when it comes to their relationship with each other . . . I wonder if they will be closer because they will miss each other, or further apart because they will be into different things.

Leo is the same, working away upstairs. He's had some good luck playing around in the stock market. I don't understand it all. But he seems to have fun following it and making some extra money here and there. He and I recently went to the movies and then another night out for dinner and a stop at a beer/wine store where they have weekly tastings. We swap babysitting with friends, each of us getting one date night a month. Sometimes, we don't know what to do with our night out- we see each other so often as it is! But it's good to force us to do it, to spend time kid-free.

Benny turned two this past week. TWO! He such a happy, talkative, loving little guy. He is still big into snuggles and makes his way into our bed every so often. I don't sleep much those nights, but I lay there thinking about how I'm happy to have his warm little body next to me. We went to Red Robin for dinner to celebrate, Gigi and Grandpa bringing cake pops for the occasion. Tomorrow is the Super Bowl and we decided to do a joint Super Bowl/ Benny's Birthday party. We said we would keep it small. Apparently we don't know how to do that. We are expecting somewhere close to 40 people. We cleared the playroom for playing and bouncing and we will have enough food for all. I'm looking forward to being surrounded by friends and their families. We are so lucky to have such a big group of close friends we simply couldn't celebrate without.