Wow.  What a weekend!  It was so fun, exciting, and very eventful.  The snow started on Friday afternoon.  The library closed at 5pm, allowing me to go home early (woohoo!).  It snowed, and snowed, and snowed.  By the time we went to bed on Friday night, there were already several inches of snow on the ground.  Sometime during the night we lost power (it was sometime before 3:30am).  The wind howled and the worst of the blizzard came during the night.  Saturday was gloomy and cold.  It snowed all day.  We went to the parents house in the afternoon for some nice chicken and dumplings and showers. :)  We also deposited the entire contents of our freezer into one of their freezers. Our milk didn’t go bad as we kept it outside in the snow during the day, and filled the refrigerator with cups of snow  at night.

When we arrived home from the parents’ a few hours later (still snowing), our house had filled with smoke.  Sigh.  So, in the middle of the blowing snowstorm, we had to open our windows to dissipate the smoke.  Brrrr!!  Because  of the wind associated with the storm and a fire that wasn’t quite hot enough, we got a back draft, thus successfully filling our house with smoke.  It was so bad in the house that my eyes were watering.  I had to wait outside for a while (for my scientific husband to figure out how to stop the back draft) and I was freezing by the time I could go back inside.  The  only thing that bothered me about this was that since we didn’t have any power, I couldn’t  wash my clothes, so we smelled very strongly of smoke.  Yuck.

Saturday night was also eventful and fun.  We still didn’t have power so we lit our candles and oil lamps, and hunkered down for the night.  It was super fun and a little weird to cook dinner on our wood stove.  We had a delicious dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and ramen noodle soup.  It took a little longer than normal for the water to boil, but otherwise everything was great! 

Church was canceled on Sunday and the majority of the day was spent digging out of our driveway.  It took us all morning.  First, the Jeep got stuck in our own driveway!  The snow was so deep that it would get under the Jeep and lift it up so that the tires were no longer touching the ground.  Matt spent a good hour digging it out.  We finally got it dug out and headed over to the parents for lunch and…you guessed it!….showers.  We did a little exploring around town afterwards and even stopped by to say hello to the Kramlichs.  On the way home, we took the back roads (as we always  do after a storm) to see how bad they were.   Yep.  They were really bad.  It was  also a bad decision!  We got stuck…again.  The ruts in the road just pushed us right off half way into a ditch.  So, out came the shovels and we started digging out.  We would have been there for hours, but thankfully a man driving a huge John Deere came  up the road and pulled us out….Only for us to get stuck again on the road!  That nice man was still behind us, so he drove in front of us and pulled us to the end of the road.  Thank  the Lord that he sent along that man when he did as it was getting dark and we would have never made it home.  :)  It sure was kinda fun though!

We finally got our power back on Monday morning.  It was such a relief!  I immediately did some laundry (gotta get rid of the smoky smell) and ran the dishwasher, vacuumed the floors, and other such stuff. Other exciting news involving the storm is that Wal-Mart’s roof collapsed from the weight of the snow, so it has been closed.  In the end, we got around 24 inches of snow from this blizzard.   Also, we are supposed to get another rather large storm tonight into tomorrow that is predicted to bring us another 12 inches (and this is the conservative prediction)!  So, this morning I did more laundry, refilled the water pitchers and buckets, and checked on groceries.  I did do some shopping yesterday after throwing out almost the entire contents of my refrigerator,  but I didn’t buy much that needed refrigeration because I knew another storm was coming. 

Of course, there has been no school since this storm, and the library was closed yesterday.   We have very short hours today and we’re playing tomorrow by ear.  Matt  is pretty sure that there won’t be school for this entire week.  I have pretty much been living in my snow boots since I wouldn’t dare walk out of the house without them on.  Best purchase of the year…almost.    After that loss of power, the wood stove might be the best purchase as it kept us nice and warm even when we were without power. 

For blizzard pictures, click here.

I guess we are supposed to get a blizzard this weekend.  While I am super excited about the prospect, the Delawareans are going crazy!  lol  The library was doubly busy today with people stocking up on books and movies for the weekend.  I heard that Wal-Mart was a madhouse and do not go there if you value your life.  I was planning on grocery shopping tomorrow morning, but….maybe I changed my mind.  lol  Regardless of the panic, I’m looking forward to yet more snow.  This has been the most exciting winter that I’ve had in a really long time!  Loving the excitement and having so much fun giving Michelle a hard time as she complains so loudly every time it snows!  lol  So, if you don’t hear from me for a few days, don’t panic.  I’m probably just enjoying the snow!

Just in case any of you care….    Remember that Mohawk hat I was going to make for an order?  Well, I finished it – minus the mohawk part.  I know, I know…disappointing.  However, I did still have the order and I made it in Vikings team colors.  It turned out pretty good, if I must say so myself.  I posted about it on my Warming the Heart blog.  Click here for the post!

Last night we got a couple inches of snow.  It didn’t stop snowing until this morning, which meant the roads weren’t plowed yet and so Matt got another snow day as a result and I had a two-hour delay at work!  This is especially nice since most days I go to work around 11am and get off at 7pm.  However, it is Wednesday and my schedule was different.  So, I came to work at 11am and still get to go home at 5pm!  Gotta love the snow.  I even got my normal lunch break.  I took a few pics of the snow this morning and uploaded them here, but they look very similar to the last “fluffy” snow pictures that I took. 

To top things off, we are supposed to get another large snowstorm this weekend.  Something about the possibility of 6-9 inches!  Wow.  Of course, we won’t know more until the storm is a little closer, but just the possibility excites me.  If the current predictions are correct, then I might get off work early on Friday night.  But that’s still up in the air (pun intended).  I’ll have to wait and see, I guess.  And not get my hopes up. 

Yay!  I love, love, love snow!  We got 8 inches on Saturday.  Everything is a beautiful white again today.  We only had the 11am service at church (no evening service because of re-freezing), and so yesterday was way more relaxing than most Sundays.  Matt didn’t have school today, but of course, I still had work.  Hoping for more snow before the winter is over!

I’ll try to post a few pics tomorrow. 

This is a random post, but I love the feeling of perfection.  Don’t you?  I mean, I know that nobody is or ever will be perfect (with the exception of God/Jesus), but there are little things in which we can achieve absolute perfection.  Now I could totally make this post about attempting to achieve perfection in our Christian life, but I’m actually talking about something totally unrelated to godly living.  This is the perfection I am talking about:

Notice (if you can read it) that little message box says, "No Writing Errors Were Found."

 Isn’t that wonderful?  I love that feeling!  Woohoo!  My English teacher would have been proud.  Ummm…my college english professor would have been proud, since a high school english teacher was non-existent for me.

Amanda and I with our matching hats.

My hair is getting so long!  In fact, I think it might be the longest it has ever been.  I straightened it for Winter Retreat and it was almost to my waist.  People say that I look different with straight hair.  People at church on Sunday told me they were doing double takes to see who I was! 

It's so long! Notice the 23 on the ruler....

Winter Retreat was a blast.  We took a total of 26 teens and 4 chaperones.  There was no snow, but having no snow is a normal Winter Retreat occurence.    I’m getting a little old!  I just can’t handle the late nights like I used to.  I mean, I can handle the late nights just fine…it’s the next morning that is the problem.  lol  I also am way out of shape.  Walking up that gigantic hill numerous times and playing several games of volleyball, not to mention the late night triangle push-ups….let’s just say I was pretty sore on Sunday.    Our volleyball team, “Cup ‘O Dirt,” came in second, again!  This is the second year in a row that we made it to the championship game and lost.    Sigh.  Next year. 

There were numerous events and phrases that completely cracked me up throughout the weekend, but the thing that blew my mind were the few teens that didn’t even bring a sweatshirt!  lol  It was in the 20s!  FREEZING.  They survived by either toughing it out or borrowing from others.  Teens crack me up completely.

Anyways, we had a ton of fun and now I’m just catching up on sleep!  I was bummed that we forgot to get our traditional group pic though.  Sadness.

For pics of the Winter Retreat, click here.

Since Warming the Heart has been doing so well, I thought it was about time I started a blog specifically for it.  I do crochet often and if I didn’t think it would bore my normal readers, I would have many posts on this blog about my projects and new techniques I’ve learned.  Also, I couldn’t get wordpress to allow the pages on my blog to be searchable through search engines, so Warming the Heart was not generating any hits besides those from my faithful readers.  I’m already plenty busy without receiving more orders, but at the same time I could squeeze and order or two or three in if need be.  

Check out my new site and tell me what you think (working on getting the header less pixellated looking). http://warmingtheheart.wordpress.com.

Before – Old Wood Stove

We got a new wood stove this weekend and it has greatly improved our home!  It is really pretty compared to our old one.  Saturday we drove up to Philadelphia and met up with Amanda and Andy for lunch (and to celebrate Amanda’s birthday) and then headed over to pick it up our new wood stove.  The men had a wonderful time loading it  (At least, I’m pretty sure they were having fun.  lol) and I had my hands full taking pictures.  lol lol

When we got home, Matt and I spent our entire evening getting the old stove and old platform out of our house.  That little stove was so heavy!  I can’t even imagine trying to lift the new one.  We scrounged up some help (since our original help was unavailable) and they got the new stove into the house.  Thankfully, it wasn’t super cold on Saturday or Sunday since the stove wasn’t ready for a fire until Sunday night. 

After - New Wood Stove!

Loving the new stove!   It looks so pretty in my house and it so warm!  When the glass is all cleaned, the fire can be seen and I love it.  It also has a blower that comes on when the stove is hot and it circulates the warm air.  So warm and cozy now.  Yay!  A special thanks to all the men who helped us:  Mario, Dad, Andy, Lenny J., Jimmy, and Larry.  Thanks so much!

For pictures of the process of getting my new wood stove, click here.

I also got a new dress coat.  I really enjoyed wearing it on Sunday.  (Sorry Jen, no pic of me in the jacket on the stove.  I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t feel like posing for a pic and then it was too hot).

New Coat - it looks a little big on me in this pic, but it was 50 degrees that day and I wasn't bundled up like normal.