Blizzard of 2011

Snow this deep is not fun!

We were running out of places to put the snow!

Below zero wind chills prompted mommy to bring the snow inside.

4 foot drift on our back patio

Luci said forget this, I'm peeing on the porch! At one point we looked in the pack hard and could see nothing but her bottom sticking out of the snow. Her head was completely buried in 2 foot snow for a couple of minutes and then out she came with bone in her mouth. It was pretty comical! There is no match for a basset hounds sniffer.

It was pretty.

All bundled up!

I remember the first time it snowed after moving to Oklahoma in high school. You see, in the south if there was any sign of snow flurries, school was cancelled. Southerners just don't know how to handle the snow because it doesn't happen much and when it does it's usually minimal. So upon waking up to my first snow in Oklahoma, I thought "Wahoo, snow day!" There were 3-4 inches of snow on top of about an inch of ice so I thought I could go back to bed and now have to return to school for at least a week. But oh no, much to my dismay we went right on to school that morning. I remember being angry and asking, "how could they do this to us?, what if we die? We should sue!"

After moving back to Tennessee I had a greater appreciation for the milder climate, not too hot in the summer, not too cold in the winter and the rare (maybe once per year) 1-2 inches of snow that shuts down the whole city until all signs of the white stuff have disappeared.

Then after following the love of my life back to Oklahoma, I once again had to endure the shock of snowy weather during our first year of marriage. I remember waking up to snow and being shocked when Michael would still go into work. Pretty sure he thought he'd married an overprotective, basketcase there for a while.

Anyway...I say all that to say this, now this wintery weather is old news to me. It becomes more of an annoyance than a stressor and instead of worrying about if my hubby will get buried in an avalanche on his way to the office, I usually just go on about my normal routine but just take it a little slower while driving.

But this snow storm was different! It started snowing in the evening and we went to bed as usual (9PM, we go to bed like old people) and the next morning we woke up to about 10-12 inches and it was still falling. Michael already had an e-mail from his boss telling him to stay home (Thank God!) and we watched the snow continue to fall throughout the day. When it finally stopped, we had a total 21 inches. It was definately the most snow either of us had ever seen. We took the kids out to play but the snow was so deep it was too hard for them to walk in!

We took it all in stride and enjoyed our little minivacation at home. It wasn't all fun though, Michael spent HOURS shoveling our driveway and helping neighbors get thiers cleared off as well.

It kinda made me feel like I was back home in the south as the entire city was shut down a for a couple of days. Except instead of 2 inches of snow there was nearly 2 feet.