Snow Day!

We knew it was coming. The weatherman warned us. But we live in Wisconsin and we expect a little snow now and then so we weren't too concerned. It started snowing a little bit yesterday in the morning. Of course, the boys were begging to go out and play in it. We haven't had any measurable snow yet this season and the first snow is always so exciting. I told them they had to wait until the snow covered the grass before I'd let them out.

After lunch I let them out. The snow had finally covered the grass. But it still wasn't too deep. In fact, the boys complained there wasn't enough. They got out the shovel to try and make bigger piles. They had a good time and stayed out there a surprisingly long time. They were under strict orders to go to the bathroom before leaving the house and the first person to come to the door complaining would come inside.

The first snow of the season!!

Justus is happy!!

A nice snowfall. You can just barely see the grass.

AWANA (at church) was canceled. The snow kept on coming. Jerry got home from without too much trouble. The snow we had gotten at that point wasn't too bad. but the first snow is always dangerous to drive in just because people forget how to drive in it over the warmer months. It's a bit more slippery just because there is no residual salt on the roads to help melt the snow either.

Jerry set his alarm to get up to snowblow before work and headed to bed. When I got up once in the middle of the night, I peeked out the window and could see we had gotten quite a bit. They had already canceled school, not that it makes a difference for us! Jerry got up, did the driveway, and came in to get ready for work. Even if school is canceled people still have to go to work.

Just before seven he gave me a kiss and headed out the door. A few minutes after seven I heard the garage door open. When I looked out I saw the car on the street in front of the house. Jerry had made it just a few feet past the mailbox. Oh the joys of living on a low plowing priority cul-de-sac! The neighbor came out to help him and I figured he'd be on his way in a few minutes.

At 7:15am they were still working at it. And 7:30am. And 7:45am. It took two men, shovels, salt, rugs, blocks of wood, and the snowblower to free the car. At a few minutes after 8:00am the car was back in the garage and Jerry was home for the day. When he called work they said the phones were going crazy and many were missing.

The governor declared a state of emergency and told everyone to just stay home. It was even a snow day for the UW students. When we went to orientation at UWEC this past summer I had asked about that and the professor at our table said it had only happened once in all his many years of teaching. Guess today will make the second time!

With all members of our family safe and dry we settled into a normal day. Breakfast. School. Wesley was disappointed to hear that homeschoolers still have school when the public schools are canceled. Buck didn't appreciate the snow accumulation. He normally doesn't care but the snow was so deep he couldn't even walk through it. He finally gave up and just did his business on the porch. This is what it looked like when I opened the door to let him out:

We let the boys go out to play before lunch. They had a great time. It's not really that cold... just below freezing... which means the snow is wet and HEAVY. Good snowman building snow. When Wesley walked out he sank up past his knees, but Hayden was light enough to mostly walk on top of the snow!
J.D. was sad that he had to stay in but I was afraid we'd lose him if he went out there. The total at that point was about 14 inches... so about to his neck! It's not shocking to have 14 inches of snow on the ground in early December. It is shocking to have it all come at once during the first snow fall! I can hardly believe the grass was showing yesterday!

We had a pretty uneventful day. Jerry decided to just wait to snowblow again. The neighbor keeps clearing his driveway only to have it buried again a few minutes later. The plow finally made a sorry attempt down our street but just made matters worse. So much worse that the mail lady got stuck. Several neighborhood men when out to help her dig out.
When she was free she just zoomed down the street and didn't even stop to give us our mail!! Hope there was nothing good in that truck for me! I guess I can quit worrying about having a white Christmas now!!