Old Man Winter is giving me gray hair

Dear Mr. Al Gore,

I know you partially won a Nobel Prize for your movie "An Inconvenient Truth" about global warming. However I would like to show you my inconvenient truth.

It's continuing to pile up in my front yard. And on my roof.

At the rate of an inch per hour.

I would love it if you could get on our roof and remove some of the snow. It might give you a little better perspective on global warming for us near the 49th parallel.

Unless you're too busy sunning yourself, er I mean measuring erosion off the coast of Mexico.

Or creating something better and equally as cool as the internet.

Then I totally understand.

Sincerely,
Kelly

Welcome 2009 & welcome snow

I truly thought 2009 would be a little different. Yesterday we experienced some melting and even saw the sun! We even started to get some puddles. I would say we lost probably 6 or so inches in the melt. It was a glorious New Year's Eve.

To celebrate the melting, N and I had some mongolian for dinner and saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I highly recommend it.

Our 2009 started with some sleeping in and some snow fall. By the time I went outside to shovel at 10:30 we had about 4 inches.

Since 5 feet of snow is hard to comprehend, we decided to take some pictures of our house for reference.

Below N is holding his tape measure and we have a solid 61 inches lining our driveway.

The outhouse across the street is not really functional right now.

N waving from our driveway. It's like playing Where's Waldo!

The view from across the street. We still have some Christmas trees with lights by the front window, but you can't see them anymore.

The Lady Shoveler of the house enjoying her throne. Those Narnia kids would be totally jealous. It's a bit chilly, but when you can't feel your muscles after a good shoveling you don't really notice it.

Happy New Year. May 2009 be full of many blessings, less snow and your very own snowed-in outhouse.

More from the Trinity Baptist Snow Disaster '08

You know when you get devastating news it takes time to sink in. When it finally does it's all you can think about. All this snow has caused me much thought. First off, I will begin thinking more about public transportation than ever. These roads are horrible.

I realize you can try to imagine 66 inches of snow, but it's not something that is easily done. Imagine a 4 lane road going down to 3. On each side of the road where sidewalks used to be, you now have 6 foot concrete walls. Apparently not everyone can see them because they're still trying to make an additional lane. In the process, forcing you into the concrete retaining wall of snow. Forget coming out of parking lots without a light telling you when to go. You have to do the gun-it-and-pray hoping you've timed the turn right. Then if you time it wrong, you're stuck. Either in the snow or in an accident. It's insane.

In addition to all the driving conditions, I thought I would post some more pictures from our Trinity Baptist Snow Disaster '08. A lady in our congregation took these. Let me narrate.

This is the view from the parking lot. Where there used to be a wall, also used to be an overhang we would stand under when it rained. I even have a wedding photo taken from that very spot.

My favorite part of this picture is the handicap parking sign. As the wall came down on it, it pierced right through. I think it's the same material as those black boxes on planes.

The view from the south and a bit of the remaning wall.


From the inside area of the gym. The scoreboard is the center of the picture.

More of the same.

This picture was taken from the doors leading into the gym. All that white stuff on the ground isn't snow, it's mainly insulation.

I'm not sure how far the insulation shot, but it's covering the ground behind where that handicapped sign was.

It even sprayed the roof of the sanctuary. Those marks you see on the roof are made from insulation and the wind caused by the collapse. It's not snowballs. In person, the roof of the sanctuary looks grayish like the snow behind the caution tape at the bottom of this picture.

I love this shot. This rainbow was in the sky the morning of the Snow Disaster '08. God's promise. I know He will definitely use this for His glory.

Happy New Year's Eve.

It is the start of something new.

We don't stop, we keep it on and on

I think the snow has been listening to a few too many Beastie Boys songs. We got another foot or so at our house yesterday. In 5 hours. This makes a total of 66 inches at our house. I'm 66 inches tall. That's not math that's in my favor.

It's safe to say at the end of this season if I never see another shovel I'll be happy.

This is the view from our living room. There is a chair against the window that is made for a little child. Those Disney Princesses are probably cold! The mound in the middle is our BBQ. It's safe to say we haven't been doing much grilling lately.

While our shoveling is difficult and our backs sore, our spirit took a hit this morning. Because of the massive amounts of snow we've been getting, business are having problems with roofs collapsing. Many businesses have flat roofs and they just can't handle the weight of 5 feet of snow and ice.

Really, I can't blame them. It's a heavy burden to bare.

So far 19 businesses have reported their roof collapsing. A church even caught on fire when their roof came in.

This morning it hit a little closer to home. Our church made the local news. The roof to our gym caved in at 4 o'clock this morning. It didn't just make the news because it's another one, but because it's the worst one. When the roof came in, the force of everything blew out two walls. There is insulation spewed clear onto the steeple roof at least 30 feet away. The steel doors to the gym have been bent.

I drove by on my way to work this morning and just started crying. Here's the sight from the parking lot. Imagine a full-size basketball court. That black thing on the wall in the upper left corner is the scoreboard. Just below it to the right is a white void. That used to be a basketball hoop. The small black square just right of the center of the picture is a window looking into the gym from the second story of the building.

Our church has been going through some trials recently. When our pastor retired in April it seems that we started to flounder. Which is normal with a transition like this. However this transition has caused much tension and some division in our church body. It's been a rough year for us all. When I saw this on the news this morning my spirit broke.

As I talked with the deacons in the parking lot this morning I was filled with hope. Hope that God will use this to bring Him glory and to unify our church family. No matter how we have all felt with the transition and the search for a new pastor, this is our home. This is our place of worship. It's a time we band together to fix our home. I pray we can fix our family in the process as well.

We won't stop. We'll keep it on and on.

With God's hand.

The jokester

Zoe is learning words almost as quickly as the snow is accumulating in our yard. I think she comes up with a new word every day.

The word of the day is "nah." She used to be known to shake her head no rather than say it. She would answer with "yeah" or "kay" if she wanted something. Now she has a new word and loves to use it. She doesn't say it like it's one syllable, she draws out that "ah" part. It's more like "naaaah." Here are some excerpts from the weekend:

Driving on our way to do a little shopping with N in the car behind us:
Me: That intersection was slick. Do you think daddy's going to make it?
Zoe: naaaah

N trying to put Zoe down for a nap yesterday:
Zoe: singing some tune
N: Are you even sleepy?
Zoe: naaaah.

While I was changing her diaper yesterday morning:
Me: You are a wild girl today, did you take your wild pills for breakfast?
Zoe: naaaah mom!

On the phone with grandma:
Grandma: Are you chasing daddy?
Zoe: naaaah.
Gma: Are you baking cookies?
Zoe: naaaah.
Gma: Are you having a good day?
Zoe: giggling - naaaah.

She uses it for everything.

It totally makes me smile.

The arctic tundra

I know I've been talking quite a bit about snow and winter. Honestly, i've never seen it look like this before. We've had a record 47 inches in the month of December. That was as of yesteday morning. It was snowing yesterday afternoon, so we've probably added to that total.

I seriously feel like we live on the North Pole. Without polar bears, penguins and severe negative temperatures. But still, it's close!

N & our neighbor got on the roof yesterday and pushed some of the snow off. Buildings are collapsing under this snow. We lost two businesses yesterday and a nursery earlier in the week. Today it's rainy and things are melting. That means it's getting heavier. Hopefully we won't lose anymore houses or businesses.

Here are some pictures from our back door. Because our heating vents are in the ceiling, we get some wicked icescicles. Like roof to ground ones!

Happy winter from the tundra.

Christmas Guests and Smelling Good

It was a big Christmas for us. We got to spend the day with D & E, despite being snowed in for the remainder of the day.

To top it off, I cooked Christmas dinner. My first turkey turned out great. We invited the neighbors over for some dinner and fellowship. It was a perfect holiday.

What made the day all the better was Zoe's new perfume. Apparently Tigger and Pooh have created a perfume store in the Hundred Acre Wood. It comes in natural scent. It was a great find by Grammie and Grandpa. Since they live near the Hundred Acre Wood and all.



If the Tigger and Pooh perfume wasn't a great surprise, our special guests were. I had no idea they were coming! We were a little unprepared for having a celebrity at our house, let alone two of them.

Hannah E. Montana and Hannah D. Montana came to celebrate with us.



We even got a special concert in the afternoon, after their microphones arrived from Texas.

It was such a special treat to have the Hannah Montanas with us. We hope they come back next year.