Snowmageddons and Ice-pocalypses

Arkansans are no strangers to crazy weather. It can be a balmy 70 degrees one morning and by nightfall, below freezing. We have wild storms and extreme heat waves, recently resulting in major flooding and horrific drought conditions all in the same month. Needless to say, ALL of those conditions adversely affected my garden for 2013. It was sad. That is not the topic of this post, however. Since Thanksgiving, we have already accumulated 4.5 inclement weather days in my school district. That is usually a high number of 'snow' days for our area. It's only the first week of January. I foresee several more coming.

The first round of 'snowmageddon' was three days after our Thanksgiving break, on December 5, 6, and 9. It was more of a slushmageddon around here, but alas, it was enough to keep us home. A long, long time.

See the Cardinal in the tree? I love the splashes of red!

Sled parking.

  

  

This was on Tuesday morning on my way to work; it was what was leftover from the five days of winter weather.

My area was lucky and dodged a bullet over the weekend. Another round of the cold, white, fluffy stuff hit the northern half of the state, stopping just two counties away from us. There are several school districts that now have to make up nine or more days already. And they definitely will get more. Our luck stopped yesterday though. I was gathering papers from my students and happened to glance out the window and was shocked when I saw huge flakes falling. Within 5 minutes, it had dusted the concrete outside the doors.

The local schools (in the upper half of the state) waited a bit late to let students go. Several schools announced that buses would not be able to run and students would be welcome to stay overnight if parents could not come to get them. I think I would have been traumatized. Our school waited too late to close, and our resource officers and local police drove the stranded students home. I had to leave prior to the dismissal, because I live thirty minutes away on a clear day. The resource officer advised me to stay at school, but I wasn't about to do that and risk not being at home with my family. Good thing I left, since school was cancelled for today! I had to drive 20 mph or less the entire way and saw three rollover accidents (one truck was lodged in the treetops), two less severe accidents, and one two-car accident that tore the front ends off of both vehicles (near head-on). I think they didn't drive as slow as me. Thank the Lord my angels were driving and guiding me and my tires didn't slip or slide at all the entire HOUR AND A HALF and nine bridges that it took me to drive the 30 miles to get home. Today, I was a little less rattled than I was yesterday, but was bound and determined to stay home. After the little twenty minute dusting yesterday, everything that fell was ICE. Boo.

 

  

Meteorologists report that we only had .05" of ice. This is what it looks like. That little bit sure caused a lot of trouble!

Chris tried to go to work this morning and just got to the top of the drive before he started to slide...stopped just that short (2 feet) of the bricked mailbox. He got stuck and came back inside. It was after 3 before he was able to leave to check the rest of the neighborhood.

Three schools around us have already cancelled classes for tomorrow. I think we will be going. At this point it is a waiting game. Waiting on the call/not call...and the next round of snowmageddon or ice-pocalypse.

Shiver Me Timbers!!!

Y'all. It's been cold. Real cold. We've been having horribly cold weather conditions for the last week. You never really know what the weather will be like in Arkansas. It changes drastically by the day, sometimes by the hour. So two weeks ago, we had 79 degrees...in December! Then last week the forecasters began calling for snow and ice. Huh. Wednesday night it was rather misty, but not near cold enough for what they were saying was coming. However, if anyone mentions snow or ice in Arkansas, everyone and their grandpa's uncle goes to the store to buy bread and milk. Seriously. The shelves and refrigerators in ALL stores are bare...

and usually there is no inclement weather.

Such was not the case this time. They were right. The weather got bad. My school (30 minutes away from my home) was cancelled for Thursday, even though it didn't start precipitating until late Thursday afternoon. Once it started though...sheesh.

So in our hometown, Lefty and Boo missed 2 and a half days of school. My school was out for three days. In Northwest Arkansas (about 2 hours away), schools were out for 5 - 7 days! That's just crazy around here. We don't normally get more than an inch or two at a time...this time, totals were from 2 - 10 inches around the state. Our area was mostly ice, with a few inches of snow on top of it. It was just enough to make the world stand still for a few blissful days! And now, they are calling for another "Arctic Blast" a week from today! It hasn't been above 40 degrees in over 10 days, next week is expected to be in the 60s, finishing up the week with temperatures in the teens and single digits. Brrrrr.

Wordless Wednesday, Why Not?

Expect the Unexpected

Snow...er ice...no, uh rain...errrrr some kind of day that we get to be home from school due to nasty weather. The area weather guys have been saying for several days that we would be having some form of winter weather this week. The local weathermen are never rarely right when predicting snow and/or ice for our area. Well, this time they sort of did. On Wednesday morning around 9:15, I thought I saw flurries outside of my classroom window. Hmm. Well okay. An hour later, it began to rain. Gross. At 11ish, it started to snow. Now, snow around here usually just swirls around and never touches the ground, but lo and behold, we get an announcement that our district will be dismissing at noon. Guess I'll take that without too much complaint. It meant that I would be able to be the one present for a major milestone for Lefty, when I really wasn't expecting to be. I have to wait until tomorrow to post about that though. Lefty says so.

That's some giant snowflakes right there!

While I was waiting for Lefty, it began to snow really hard. I just felt like I needed to go pick Boo up from school, which had not been dismissed early (I teach in a different district than the one they attend in). I went ahead and left to get her, and when we all got home, those dang snowflakes looked like snowballs falling from the sky! Boo thought she needed to attack them, but one pegged her in the eye. Dork.

No, she doesn't have a coat on. She had spent the night at her dad's and apparently he didn't think she needed to know it was supposed to snow. Genius.

Now, what you have to understand is that my school district doesn't just dismiss randomly for the possibility that the pretty white stuff swirling around might stick. Last month, it got bad enough that I couldn't drive my 2wd SUV home and had to have Chris drive the 30 minutes to pick me up with the 4wd. School never did dismiss; I had to use a half of a personal day. There were lots of accidents that day, so maybe that is why the decision was made early. Anyway, thank God that we were let out. It was only by His grace that I was able to follow my intuition and pick Boo up early. This is what happened to her school bus about 15 minutes away from our house.

Some of the girlies friends were on it when it happened. Seven children, aged 10 - 15, and the bus driver were involved. Three of those kids and the driver were transported to the ER for treatment of minor injuries. Lefty's best friend and best friend's brother were both transported, one with a deeply bruised shoulder and the other with a sprained/possibly fractured ankle. The other child treated had facial lacerations and the bus driver was complaining of back pain. Boo's very close friend blacked out at some point in the accident and has no recollection of the accident itself, but her parents declined treatment for her. All were released from the ER within  4 hours of transport, so the injuries were truly minor...at least the physical ones were. Why don't school buses have seatbelts for students? Why don't schools dismiss before the weather gets this treacherous? It was obviously getting nasty out there 2 hours before the accident occurred. I don't get it. The school released student drivers 30 minutes early, and all others 15 minutes before the final bell. Making up a partial day or even two or three full days is so trivial compared to what did happen and what could have happened. Needless to say, we are all home today. I guess in order to 'make up' for the lack of proactive choices yesterday, the girls' school district was the first in the state to cancel for today.

Thank God that He had His hand on my family and our friends yesterday. He has a plan for them. And He gave us another day to share together today and to enjoy these gorgeous (cold) sights...

It's Been Awhile...A LONG While!!!

Life is so crazy around here these days. With both girls cheering at different schools and the bonus kids in a different town that is close enough to go watch some of their activities (but too far to be convenient), we seem to be using our house as a pit stop. Really. I have missed being here. I have missed journaling my life. It would be great if I could be sure that I could be here with more regularity. I don't see that happening, but I am hoping to blog more often than I have, which shouldn't be hard (at least more than five times a year).

I am thinking that this weekend I would like to 're-vamp' the blog. It has to be on the weekend, because it tends to take me forever to get it just right. I have been in a mode of change...we changed the color scheme in the living room, will be re-doing the kitchen completely this summer, changing my self (yes, a new diet...which is working this time), so why not change the blog too? Okay, I just talked me into it.

Today, Chris had to come get me from work because of winter weather. Now, you Northerners don't laugh...I don't have 4-wheel drive on my SUV, and I have anxiety about driving when the weather is good...so when we had two inches on the ground, covering the roads...I began to panic. Hard. Core. My school is 25 minutes away from my home. It would only get worse. He closed up the business and headed to rescue me. It took us an hour to get home. The interstate was shut down because of so many accidents; apparently it was a solid sheet of ice. The highway wasn't too bad, just patchy. Tomorrow morning will be a nightmare. I am hoping for no school...maybe I will be able to get the blog all dolled up before the weekend! *Think positive, think  positive*

I've been on a...

blogging vacation. I can't believe it has been almost a month since I last posted! I don't really have any excuse, other than I just haven't felt the urge to blog like I usually do. There have been plenty of blogable moments, just no 'oomph' to get to actually blogging them! So, in a quick run-down, here's what has been going on during my time off...

I forgot to push the door all the way closed on the freezer. It froze over. We lost some food.

I've been crafting. A lot. J's Jingle Jangles is quickly building up stock and needing to make some more sales!

Lefty had All-Region Band and All-Region Jazz Band. She did terrific, as always.

Boo went to a masquerade party for a friend's 'Sweet 13' birthday. I don't have pics of her in her dress because she was at her dad's that night, but this was her gorgeous hair...

Today was a snow day. I know, I could've spent the day blogging and checking out all of the blogs that I have neglected visiting lately, but I didn't. I cooked 'freezer foods,' did laundry, tidied up a bit around the house, and that's about it.