our week so far

Or the other title I wanted to use but was too long: My snow shoveling muscles hurt and I can't remember what day it is today.

Our school district had a teacher in service day on Tuesday, which meant we were scheduled to have back to back 4 day weeks of school.  Which is fine for me because a) I don't work outside the house and b) I enjoy having my kids home with me.  So on Tuesday Luke, John and I went to Luke's gym class at our health club.  John was allowed to play his DSi for the entire hour so I could talk to my friends.  I randomly signed Luke up for this class and have been really blessed to get to know two women from our church a lot better due to our 'therapy sessions' in the hall.  After gym glass, since Mark was working from home and could get Grace off her van, the boys swam in the pool and I read my book watched them.

When we got home, I read Grace's daily report from school and they circled 'fussy' and wrote very next too it.  Which is concerning because Grace is never fussy at school, okay maybe once before, but not often.  She has never been very fussy.  Additionally, she did not eat breakfast or lunch.  I knew that meant she was fighting something, typically a head cold that causes her throat to hurt and a stuffy nose.  

The weather forcaster people were calling for ice, then sleet, then rain and finally snow for Wednesday night into Thursday.  We were pretty sure if all this stuff came, we would have at least a 2 hour delay.  Well, they got it all wrong and we woke up to about 6 inches of snow Wednesday and no school.  The boys were pumped.

The boys wanted to go play in the snow and I decided to shovel the driveway, so Mark could get his car out later to go deliver Formula II (shameless plug for THE best over the counter, all purpose skin care cream on the market.  And it was developed by a really cute pharmacist!).  I did not realize what I was getting myself into and 2 hours later finished the driveway.  The boys had fun playing while I shoveled and they each built a snowman.  Which I'm sure, if analyzed by a professional, would tell us something about their personalities or future careers.

Luke built his snowman on a patio chair, I have no idea why but it's cute...

Kinda like he is;

Here is John's snowman, we got a kit from our neighbors that included all the stuff you need to build a snowman (the hat, mittens, pipe, eyes, and mouth) and he used it all.

So after lunch we just hung out watching movies and doing lots of this,

Grace was definitely fighting something because did not eat or drink anything for almost 24 hours.  I was starting to get concerned when her diaper was dry in the morning (about 14 hours).  However, her brothers knocked her down shortly after I decided to worry and she cried tears, so we knew she wasn't completely dehydrated.  She also did start eating after that and acting like herself again.

The forecast for today was for either 6-10 or 4-8 more inches of snow after a period of sleet.  Well, that got it right because once the sleet turned over to snow it started accumulating again.  We woke up this morning to John saying 'dad the electricity is out'.  It went out about 4:30ish and John never did go back to sleep.  Poor thing is terrified of the dark and the fire alarm.  We also woke up to about 10-12 more inches of snow, of course since we had no power we couldn't watch the news to find out the exact amount.

It was really pretty to see all the snow.  This is the view out my back window.

You can see just how much snow we got.  But it was so much heavier than yesterdays snow.

John built himself a snow chair and watched us shovel.  I almost asked him how that was going to free slaves for IJM, but then our neighbor came over to help us.  Because I clearly wasn't pulling my weight today, but my snow shoveling muscles were really hurting...

And Luke just ate the snow and climbed up the huge piles of snow so he could jump off them.

Grace was very warm in her new to her snowsuit and walked around supervising for hours.

Our power finally came back on about noon.  I was just starting to think about plan B since the power company recording stated we may not get power back until 6:00pm.  Thankfully, we were nice and warm the rest of the day.  So now my snow shoveling muscles ache and I can't believe it is Friday tomorrow because this has felt like a weekend to me.  John is praying for more snow tomorrow so he can stay home again.  I wouldn't mind more snow but I am done with shoveling it for a while now...