Forecast gone wrong; very, very wrong.

Last night we went to bed knowing that we would wake up to a dusting of snow. The forecast called for light snow, followed by mid-morning rain. By 8am, we knew the forecast was wrong, but we had no idea how wrong it was. It snowed all day, finally ending around 5pm. When it was over, we had about 6 inches of snow. So much for the "dusting" they called for.

Taken about 11am. This is our front yard and the road.

Definitely more than a dusting!

The poor tulips! I hope they still bloom.

Ice and water on some tulip shoots.

Robins mean spring right? Not so much.

I cut these daffodils from our flower bed on Saturday. I like how they looked in front of the window with the snow falling outside.

Because it was spring snow, it was perfect for making a snowman!

Duck lips!

Ouch!

It was bound to happen sooner or later. The wood stove claimed me as its first victim this week. Thankfully, the burn isn't too bad. My arm BARELY brushed the stove and I got to cold water right away. It will probably leave a scar though, so I should come up with a cool story about how I got it. Any ideas? Oh, and don't worry, it won't happen again (I hope).

Little house on the prairie?

The house we moved into has a wood burning stove. We absolutely love it! It heats up the house quite well on the cold, cold nights, thereby cutting down our use of the heat pump. We often joke about hauling the wood to the fill the wood box, saying we are living like they did in Little House on the Prairie.Well, except for the fact that we have electricity and our bathroom is inside the house! A common refrain around our place is "I'll get the wood, and then I'll milk the cow and churn the butter." We have both become very proficient in building fires. That old boy and girl scout knowledge is coming in handy!

Husband doing the hard labour bringing wood in from the wood pile.

Feb. Catch up

One of my goals for this year was to post on this blog twice a month. Well, as you can see, I've already failed at that! I guess I shouldn't have such lofty and unachievable goals! Haha!

This month has been a busy one for us. Our biggest news is that we have moved to a different place within the same city. A retired couple in my church left this month for a 23 month mission in the Philippines. We are renting their house while they are gone. It has been an absolute blessing to us. We went from just over 800 sq. feet of space to just over 1900 sq feet. It is a beautiful home in a nice, quiet neighbourhood. We love it! Moving was a hassle (as always) but we had great help this time so everything was loaded and unloaded in less than an hour.

We also enjoyed a huge snow storm this month. One Wednesday it dumped 8 inches of snow in just over 18 hours. It was the most snow in this area in 4 years. We didn't get our street plowed until around midnight Friday morning! We were stuck at home for almost 36 hours. That was fine with us. We used the time to unpack and get settled in. We also took the opportunity to meet our new neighbours as we were all out shoveling together. I had 2 snow days off of work, plus it happened right before a long weekend, so I enjoyed an unexpected 5 day break from work. Can't complain about that!

 This is our road! Not much was getting through that snow.

 Husband shoveled, and shoveled, and shoveled. Poor guy!

 Our snow covered backyard. 

This month also marked 7 years since Husband and I met and started dating. To celebrate the occasion, Husband sent me this gorgeous bouquet at work. It made my day!

Compliment Jar

It was my employer's birthday last week and I wanted to have her daughters give her a present that would be meaningful and that she would enjoy. I wanted it to be something that they made themselves (for those of you who don't know, I work as a nanny). I searched pinterest for "mother's day gift ideas" and saw some great things, many of which were outside of my crafting ability. But when I saw this compliment jar, I knew it would be perfect. I had each girl write out things they liked about their mother or things that their mother did that they were thankful for. The idea was that when she was having a rough day, she could pull out a stick and be cheered up! She loved it and the girls loved doing it. They asked me this week if they could add more sticks to the jar!  Of course I said "yes".

My birthday!

I wasn't going to make a post about my birthday, but I got a request from one of my two readers so I figured if 50% of my audience wants to hear about my birthday, I should comply! For my birthday we spent the afternoon in Roanoke. There is a place there called Center in the Square. It has museums, aquariums, and a rooftop garden. We didn't go to any of the museums, but we did look at the aquariums and the garden (not much of a garden in the winter, but the view of the city and the Blue Ridge Mountains was amazing). After the Center in the Square, we walked along the Rail Walk, where we also saw some cool art made out of pipe cleaners hanging on the fence.

Happy New Year!

Over the past year we have been writing down things that have happened and placing these memories in a jar. On New Year's Eve, we dumped the slips of paper out and read through the things we had recorded. Some were major life events, like Husband graduating with his Master of Divinity. Others were little things that made us smile at the time, like when the 6 year old daughter of a friend told us she loved us. Some were sad, like when our friend WVL left for a year to teach in China. Some had to do with world events, like the Alberta flood. We had so much fun reading through our memories that we are doing it again this year. I can't wait for New Year's Eve!