The Untitled Title Page » Snow

Yesterday

Emily — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:52:07 +0000

Here’s the story of our yesterday…

Morgan and I took Adrian’s parents to the airport. They’ve been with us since we got back from California and I finally took a picture of all of them. I excused myself due to lack of shower. We had a nice and pretty relaxed week. They went to visit Adrian’s grandma in Idaho one day, and on Saturday we went to Sam’s Club and then dinner at Cheesecake Factory. But other than that, I didn’t leave the house all week (which is exactly what I wanted… I was exhausted after the weekend in CA!) and we mostly hung out and they cooked and cleaned for us. This is good because I still don’t feel any inspiration to cook anything.

Anyway, Morgan slept on the way to the airport and part of the way back, thank goodness. Poor kid really doesn’t like the car. Sometimes it’ll lull her to sleep, but if she wakes up she’s very unhappy. Well, the car or the car seat I don’t know, but anyway. So we only had a few minutes of sadness when I was already back close to home. I feel like she’s six weeks now and I feel up for going out more now, generally, but it’s just not worth it when she gets so upset. Plus it’s hard to feed her when we’re out, etc. So it’s simpler to just stay home it seems.

When we got back home, the snow really kicked up. It was good that we got home when we did.

Sleepy girl! I love it. I left her snuggled on the couch and told Toby to watch her so I could run outside to take some pictures…

That’s our driveway and street. I thought this was supposed to be March, and I thought we lived somewhere it doesn’t snow! HMM. Actually, I like snow because it’s so pretty, but winter does sort of start weighing on you around this time. The time change has infinitely improved my feelings about it all, though. That extra hour of light at the end of the day is really really refreshing.

I love how branches look with snow on them. These have evidence of spring’s impending approach, though, because you can see the buds. Come on, spring!

Later the sun came out and the snow started melting. I put Morgan in the wrap so we could go take more pictures outside, but then got distracted by her cuteness with the hat on. She, in turn, was adorably distracted by staring out the window at the light and snow.

She was a little less sure about being out in all that coldness, though. Hehe. She was still patient and let me take lots of pictures.

Ice and water droplet! I was exploring playing with my camera, and was pleased with myself.

This one is probably my favorite because of the contrast with the blue sky. There was just a little patch of it, so I had to line up the shot just right.

I was feeling all snazzy and pleased with myself for taking such fun pictures, so I came inside to upload them and was super excited to show Adrian. I brought myself back down by spilling nail polish remover, which I was using to clean the keyboard, over the top of the desk, which of course took off the top layer of seal and paint underneath. Yeah, I felt great, and it was hard to move these giant pieces to make sure I dried it all while Morgan was asleep in the wrap on my chest. But I did it, at least, though it was much too late to save much on the desk. So instead of getting to show off my pictures, I got to show Adrian all the damage I’d done to our lovely new desk when he got home.

Alas. I AM still pleased with the pictures.

Playing in the Snow

Emily — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:38:00 +0000

These pictures are really old now, but I had uploaded them to the ftp site so I might as well go ahead and post them. This was from the first day of our rather large snowfall. It was still new and exciting at that point. After a week of being intermittently stuck at home it had lost its charm. Hehe.

Incidentally, who knows what’s up with the crazy weather here. The snow has now all melted, which the rain helped to accomplish in the end, but now we’re getting so much rain that some areas are flooding. If anyone saw that in the news (it was the main story on cnn.com last night), don’t be alarmed for us. We’re not in that area that’s been evacuated. Still pretty wild, though.

Toby couldn’t run fast, so we didn’t bother to leash him, but he was quite curious about this dad pulling his kids on the sled thing. Actually, it was hilarious to watch Toby because he sort of had to jump with every step.

Toby practically buried in the snow. Good thing we had that sweater for him, but honestly it didn’t do much good because so much snow got stuck in his hair. So we dried him off and left him inside while we went down the street to play.

Me, looking lovely and making a snow angel. This was in the street in front of our house. Recognize the pants, Melissa? (Melissa left them at our house when they took care of the pets, and we found them but apparently they were too big for her so she said she didn’t need them… and they fit me nicely at the time so we kept them, but not so much now. I couldn’t zip them at all, but it was better than nothing for traipsing through snow.)

Adrian wanted to make a snowman, but sadly the snow was too wet or fresh or something to compact very well. So we took this picture where you can’t really see the scale. It was small.

I love to eat freshly fallen snow. My roommate at BYU Noelle taught me to make slushies out of fresh snow, so we’d go outside with bowls and spoons and collect the fresh (i.e., not dirty) stuff.

Laying in them middle of the street… just because we could. There wasn’t a whole lot of traffic.

Somewhere in here there was supposed to be a picture of Adrian’s very nice face he drew in the snow, but I think it didn’t upload right, and I am not going to further delay posting this by messing with it.

Adrian made this snowball as we walked around the street, so it got slowly compacted and bigger.

I like trees with snow on them. I just think it’s really pretty. My first year at BYU I walked around taking so many pictures. I was fascinated.

Take that, stop sign! It was such a large snowball that it still held form after a few good throws.

Approaching the Final Stretch

Emily — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:33:00 +0000

We took this last week, day after Christmas. First, the obvious: the baby’s getting bigger, which is making me bigger, too. It’s 36 weeks now, so the way I figure it could be any time in the next 6 weeks or so. It’s a big waiting game. Life is good, she wiggles around and appears to be doing perfectly, my hips still hurt when I sleep but other than that feel great–just tired. At my appointment on Monday she’s still head down, which she has been for months (thank you, thank you baby!), and apparently she’s already nice and deep in my pelvis so that takes some worry off.

Now for the background details of this picture. You can see how much snow we had gotten by looking at how much of Adrian’s car is buried. I know he already posted a picture, but anyway it’s funny. We haven’t touched his car in weeks and just let it get buried in the driveway and therefore didn’t shovel the driveway at all or anything. Also, it’s still snowing in this picture. And there are trash cans out… they skipped a week in the pickup for obvious reasons so half the street just left them on the “curb” for the whole week just in case. Hehe. We didn’t even bother when they DID come this week because it just wasn’t worth dragging the things through the snow. But we’re lazy snow people, so there you go.

One more thing: this is the 200th post on our blog. Nifty. I wanted to come up with something really fun to do, but we have stuff that needs to be posted. A big belly is a nice 200th post shot, I think. It definitely forebodes big changes!

Plow!

Emily — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:23:00 +0000

Tonight around 8 we heard a large truck drive down the street. Today IS trash day, so I thought perhaps it was the yard waste/compost truck or something random. (Yes, they have things like a special pickup for that up here. Yes, we live in Seattle.) Seemed a little odd, seeing as it was so late at night.

As it drove back down the street, I looked out the window and saw that it was, in fact, a snow plow. It is evidence of the lack of snow-related infrastructure in place that our street got plowed ten days after the heavy snow started. In the meantime, we’ve spent days stuck in the house because there was snow up to our bumpers and we figured it wasn’t bright to drive in that. And then starting about three days ago the temperature went above freezing and the blessed rain came back (who’d have thought we’d say that, eh?) and started to turn all that snow into slush, which made it possible to drive carefully.

It was just a “huh” moment.

I still do have pictures of us enjoying the aforementioned snow, and of course we have had some holiday fun I could post about. So don’t fret, dear readership. I’ll get to posting eventually. Lots to do, you know. I’ve been working on baby laundry and figuring out where to put all that.

Baby laundry? Does that mean there actually might be a baby coming in the next month-ish? Yikes.

Let me go take a picture for you…

Adrian — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:30:00 +0000

I had a conversation with my good friend Navid today. It went something like this:

Navid: Do you have snow?
Adrian: Are you asking if it is currently snowing? I am unsure what you are asking.
Navid: Is there snow outside?
Adrian: Ah. Let me go take a picture for you.

Navid: HAHAHAHA!
Adrian:

So yes, not only was it currently snowing, but I’ll also be able to drive my car again in April…hopefully.

Half

Emily — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:34:00 +0000

Well, hello from snowy Seattle (area). We still probably have 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground and haven’t been able to drive anywhere for a few days. Luckily we have everything we really need, but I was hoping to get to a store before Christmas so I can make the food I wanted and we’re not stuck eating whatever fancy thing I come up with from the cupboards. Anyhow, more on that later. I’m using my phone to write this so for once am actually going to write a short post.

My question is this: why do I only like doing half the laundry job? I actually really enjoy sorting and washing and all that, but then when it comes to hanging and folding I just don’t like it. So we end up with piles and baskets of clean clothes everywhere. Admittedly this is way better than piles of dirty clothes everywhere, but I still get really annoyed with myself when I have to toss a pile of clean stuff to the floor or across the footboard just to get in bed. Anyone else have this issue? I guess the solution here is to stop writing blog posts about it and just DO it.

Snow Day!

Emily — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:25:00 +0000

I KNOW that before we moved up here we heard from multiple people that it snows occasionally, but it doesn’t usually stick or it’s just a couple days a year… etc. Yeah, well, we’re apparently getting the winter storm of the century, then. Hehe. Actually, it seems like there is bizarre weather up the whole West coast, from snow in Vegas to crazy rain at home in Orange County.

Yesterday they cancelled school and everything expecting the snow to start, but it never really did. It was a bit of a letdown. Even when we went to bed it hadn’t started yet, so there was just a little bit still on the ground from last week. This morning we woke up and I opened the blinds to see this:
Woo snow! Adrian thought I was nuts but I went to get the camera, opened the window and took off the screen so I could get some good shots from our room. So this is looking one way down the street…
…And this is looking the other way. There were already kids outside in snow gear playing, and there were a few tire tracks. They must have all wheel drive.

Adrian’s car under a serious blanket.

The trees above the houses across the street. It’s fuzzy because the snow was still coming down pretty strongly.

I figured Toby at least needed to go out and take care of business. He was a good sport but only went as far as that tree and then came back. Notice how far it goes up his little legs.

And a shot from out the back door to the back yard.

I measured how much snow had accumulated on our patio table and we were at 5 inches. But it was still coming. Seeing as they really don’t normally get this much snow here, the systems aren’t in place to deal with it. This means the roads do not get plowed. A neighbor told us our street will not get plowed, and the main one we’re off of will get plowed in a day or two. So I guess that means we stay home. Every neighbor on the street seems to have that same idea–no one left for work. We put on our snow gear and went out to play. We’ll put up pictures of that later. When we got back from playing I measured the table again, and we were at 7 inches. But that was over an hour ago, and it hasn’t stopped yet.

Better to drive today when it’s mega powdery than tomorrow when it likely will ice over a bit, so we’ll see if we totally hole up or get out at all.

Enough already…this is getting REDONKULOUS!!!

Adrian — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:35:00 +0000

You know when you go to the gas station, they almost always have some paper towels and the blue bin with water and a squeegie for your windows.

No, it’s not a Slurpee (only found at 7-11, which conveniently was about 50′ away).

Do you ever have those thoughts where you wonder how you would react to being in certain situations? Well, I had one of those today. I will try to use the softest language possible (ala Michelle Duggar).

(ahem) I am not the biggest fan of being very cold.

My children won’t be going to BYU. Do you know why? Because I won’t go and visit them for a good 5 months of the year! They have one choice, BYU Hawaii. 12 month visitation with that one! So maybe they DO want to go to Provo…

I always said if I had to choose one, I would rather be hot than cold. However, I just assumed that would hold true even though I never lived anywhere cold enough to really know. Consider that one tested and verified.

UPDATE: Storm Watch 2000!!!

Adrian — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:50:00 +0000

The roads now are completely iced over. I could not drive any faster than 25mph in Emily’s car (if you think I am taking my car out is this you are nutso…plus I want to increase the snow accumulation as much as possible) on the way home from Church. Took Toby for another walk, the super coldness didn’t seem to bother him at all. I won’t say if it’s bothering me or not, but those of you who do know me probably have a good gauge at where that answer would be leaning. ;)

Funny thing…the link to StormWatch.com is actually for the city of Overland Park, Kansas…um, I was born in Kansas City, Kansas. Creepy!

What is this White Christmas they talk about (aka. Where are my palm trees?)

Adrian — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 12:00:00 +0000

You know the old saying about not being from Kansas anymore? Well, I was born in Kansas. So I suppose that makes the comment more apropos or something. Heading into work Friday, we were on STORM WATCH 2000! It was supposed to snow, or at least get near/below freezing, and with the total absence of rain ever present (what?) here in the Northwest, that means craziness. Everybody from Southern California knows exactly what I am talking about. That first time every year when the rain storms hit, and your lawn chairs get blown over, and people drive 35mph on the 5, SHEER PANDEMONIUM!

Well, from what I heard, it was supposed to be like that starting Friday. People forget how to drive (that is assuming they knew how to in the first place), work shuts down, people scream about the apocalypse. Then it got called off.

But we live in a place called Redmond Ridge. It’s a little higher elevation than the surrounding area. You know what that means? Driving back from dinner on Friday (good ole Red Robin) with Emily, we’re in her car and right about when we turn onto our street, the rain starts looking “bigger” and I shout “I think it’s snowing!”

Yep. It sure was. But just flurries. Nothing to write home (Kansas) about. Still pretty cool nonetheless. Fast forward to Saturday…

Emily is flying out to her parent’s house in Ladera Ranch right now. Why? Babysitting. It’s her parent’s 30th anniversary tomorrow (Monday) so her mom flew her in as a surprise so that they (Ken and Pam) could go out and Emily could stay home with the kiddies (yes Sarah, you are still a kiddie, it has been decreed, ask Emily about my decrees). My car is still unmoved, I want it to accumulate as much snow as possible. I’m sure it being a SoCal car, it is crying on the inside. I take her to the airport, go out and run a few errands, and now it’s snowing more than just flurries. Still not really sticking to the road though. When I get back, I decide to take Toby for a walk. It’s been a long time since he’s been in the snow (it snowed in Las Vegas once, about 7 years ago when he was still staying with my parents), but he was never outside while it was actively snowing. It was pretty cute and sad at the same time. After our walk, he was covered in snow! Even when he shook it all didn’t come off. I couldn’t find the camera though! Emily usually leaves it in her purse, and with her being in Ladera, that really didn’t work. So by the time I could take a picture with my phone, it was melted off.

Now, it’s not like he was just a sheet of white, just some specks. Before I head off to sleep, I decide to take a picture of my car, even if it’s not a great quality, just so I have something and to text to Manuel since he gets no snow out in the 909/951.

It’s hard to see, but you can tell in the background that the roads are just wet, and not covered in snow. My car has a nice light top-coat as well, but nothing to serious.

Going into the night, I knew it was supposed to get and stay below freezing. We were also supposed to get from 1-3″ of snow, from what I was told. We had to assign a few families at Church the opportunity to head over early and lay some de-icer down and make sure the walkways were as safe as possible.

Sunday morning arrives…so Toby and I decide to take our morning walk.

Looks like a little more snow cover to me. The road has a nice icey glow that crunches under your feet. I was hoping it wouldn’t be too cold on Toby’s paws, but he didn’t seem to mind one bit.

Yep…that’s more alright. Just a very odd thing to look at when you grow up and live where I have lived. Just complete whiteness. Grass, bushes, everything. Just a nice thin icey layer of crunch.

I think Toby was having a tough time distinguishing where the sidewalk/driveway ends and where the road begins since it all looks the same now!

His ears are extra perked up because there was a father pulling his son along the sidewalk in a sled. Toby decided to walk around the previously grassly/mulchy/dirty area amongst the bushes to take a short-cut.

So no Toby, we’re not in Kansas anymore. It’s all about new experiences, right? Well, this sure is new. You know it’s Christmas in Rancho Santa Margarita when they Light the Palms. Hopefully it’ll still be around when Emily comes back Tuesday afternoon. It should be, the forecast is calling for more snow and sub-freezing temperatures all the way through.