Snowed In and Loving It

Since yesterday morning at 7am, we have now received over 9" of snow at the Sloan Homestead.

Merry Christmas to us!

We were up and at 'em this morning sledding with neighbors down a "luge run" that ended with a pretty solid jump at the end. The kids had a blast all morning and were sad when their fingers and faces were freezing off.

The only person not uncomfortable was the abominable camo man that was their dad.

About a year ago we discovered that Matt's snowbibs had disappeared and have not replaced them. So he now uses his waders. No one thinks we're rednecks AT ALL.

Lucy decided that she wanted a photoshoot all of her own on the walk back home today. I happily obliged.

We spent the rest of the day making forts, drinking hot chocolate, watching football and other boxing day tasks. It was fantastic.

If I Ever Find That Groundhog...

Last week, my kids were out of school several days thanks to snow storms. Then on Thursday night/Friday/Saturday we had another snow storm and we have YET another one coming tonight and still another coming potentially this weekend.

Our kids school celebrated "Groundhog Day" on the one day that they were actually in session last week and it got me thinking:

Has Spring ever ACTUALLY arrived on March 1st? I mean, anywhere but in Columbia, SC (the hottest location on the planet?)

I have never seen it arrive here in Asheville regardless of Pauxatawny Phil or Nibbles the Groundhog from the WNC Nature Center. Stop it already.

Just stop providing hope of Spring being just 26 days away.

It will get warm when it gets warm.

In April. And even then, it could still snow. Blurgh.

Yes, Virginia...It Snowed the Crap Out of this Weekend

Everyone and their mom has a "Snow Spectacular of 2009" story. Mine is this:

Amy Noll left to go home on Thursday.

Matt was in a wedding this weekend, so he had arranged to have three college boys watch our kids all weekend so that we could have a weekend away together.

We saw the forecast on Wednesday night calling for snow-serious snow on Friday night.

Called off the babysitter.

Amy left town.

Ben was not going to be babysitting or staying here.

Matt left town to go be in the wedding.

Instead of a weekend away with my husband,

I had my kids all to myself.

Get this-

for the first time since October.

I know that seems outrageous.

To me too.

To be honest, it did not go so smoothly.

I just wanted them to entertain themselves all weekend.

It didn't exactly work out; what with losing power for several hours on Friday night, 10 inches of snow, no Ben or Amy around to play with them.

I had to get over myself and relearn how to play and enjoy time with them.

Hard to look at myself and be honest about it. But, that's the truth.

Since I work during part of the week and we have people living with us all the time, it's not often that I have to do that much playing.

We live a crazy full life with lots of people around and to some, it can be too much and not enough at all the same time. There are benefits and detriments to people living with you and people coming over everyday. You just never know what they are until it jumps up and surprises you at how dependent you've grown upon it.

I mean, I know it sounds like I'm some kind of snob-"Oh no! I was in charge of MY OWN children." Ugh. But, it's been a while. And they can be a handful. Especially since they are used to a constant stream of people to play and hang out with.

But the good news is it turned out to be great.

We had a really fun time-AFTER Friday night.

But first we had to come to an understanding if you know that I mean. (And I think that you do)

Getting snowed in was probably the best thing for our relationship to get kicked off on the right foot again (that sounds so weird) and now everything is pretty solid around the house. Take a look at what we experienced.

This was in the middle of the snow storm.

Our lawn chairs are not excited about this.

This is my Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Shot.

You're welcome.

The morning after.

Our porch the morning after. Take a look at all that snow!

I posted this for the special few people who understand that one of our neighbors is a professional motorcross rider. He got up early on Saturday and chopped up our road with his dirt bike.

Our road that WAS perfect for sledding, was now made perfect for falling down and crying.

Adorable little snowman.

Who can resist this precious thing?

Not her brother.

Cause that is his bottom on her face, with her face being smooshed into the snow

But I'm innocent. SEEEEEEEEEE????

Whoops! I couldn't resist!

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Who cares about the naughty list?

Guess who loves a good joke? And putting a snowball in someone's face?

Wait. Are you serious about that whole Naughty List thing?

Lucy didn't want me to get any pictures of her, so she was hiding the whole time I had the camera out. This was the best I could do.

Until I managed to snap this one.
Lucy walks the lonely road. The only one she's ever known.

Looks like I'm about to get a snowball right in the expensive camera.
Perhaps a lumberjack came home from the wedding just in time to rescue me?

She couldn't hurt a fly.

Except that is a giant hunk of ice.

Glad we have an "understanding" now.

Dupont Forest 12k

Yesterday morning, I got up and drove an hour to Brevard, NC to run in the Dupont Forest 12k. One of my friends was supposed to run it with me, but came down with the flu this week, so I made the trek alone.
It was 35 degrees, a wind advisory and two minutes from the start of the race; it began to snow. Perfect running weather!

I ended up finding a few people that I knew at the race (the former Robin Raulerson and a woman whose daughter is in school with Asher) and so it wasn't such a lonely affair.

About 200 people showed up to endure the race and as we crossed the start line, we realized that the last week of rain was going to make this an interesting trail run as the single track turned into a mud bog and the entire first mile needed to be taken as a walk rather than a run. I tried to avoid the puddles, but near the end of mile one, I stepped full into a puddle. With that under my belt, I was freed up to forget avoiding getting wet and just going for it.

I felt really good for most of the race. I warmed up quickly and settled into my pace. But I was not familiar with the trail and had no idea how challenging the slope of the hills would be. Around the 6th mile, we pretty much just had a steady uphill climb for the remainder of the race and my legs were beat.
I managed to push through and it started to REALLY snow on the final mile.
I finished the race at 1:09:30. I wanted to be under one hour so I am a tad disappointed with my results. I am trying to convince myself that the first mile went so slow that I could have probably finished in that time range had I been at the front of the pack. But what are you going to do? I did well and finished and had a great time. It was a great race and now I am looking for my next one!

**This is a picture from the actual race, I was just ahead of these people. On the official race tally, I finished 5th in my age group, #123 overall.

Remind Me Again

Why I love snow days? Because now they are complete torture to me.
We can't go anywhere. The kids hate going in the snow. So we are stuck inside while they destroy the house around me. I can't go out and enjoy the weather because I can't leave them behind. Cabin fever is setting in and it is about to make me crazy.

It's like I can't look around my house without noticing all of the crap (i.e. toys, clothes, dishes) and all that I have to do, but I can't get anything done!

Oh and Lucy is running a fever again and hasn't stopped crying for most of today. I am so glad that school got cancelled today.

Oh the Weather Outside Is Frightful...

We got home late last night (more on THAT later and we had been warned that the roads were bad due to a snowstorm that hit Asheville yesterday. We came home to about two inches of snow, which was really fun to see since we had just left a snowfilled wonderland. We also felt very confident since we spent the whole week driving around in snow and ice covered dirt roads.

It was fun to see all of the snow, but it was not a major storm in the least. Our local news LOVES to make a big deal out of minor weather disturbances. Another local blog, Ashevegas loves to make fun of our local news station. Here is his coverage of their coverage:


What's in the news: Freaking out over a snowstorm that delivers an inch of snow

The local teevee news report had "team coverage" of our winter storm, and you'd think it was a blizzard the way they described it (see below) and the way it sent people running to the store and shut down Ashvegas. Businesses closed early and schools didn't even bother to open. Schools closed again Thursday. All because we received .7 inches of snow. The world ended for an official recorded snowfall of .7 inches of snow. Sure a few places got an inch or two more of that, but that's still not much.

What are we going to do when it really snows around here? The world clearly came to an end over a mere inch or two, so what's going to happen when we actually get a real snow of 6 inches? God help us.

Anyway, here we go:

The blustery winter blast that brought bone-chilling cold and walloped the mountains, holding us in an icy grip while winter's wrath pelted WNC with a mixed bag of precipitation and wind-chills
Did we use up all the cliches? Let me know, because I'd really like to get them out of the way. We've still got a lot of winter left.

Sheraldo and his Indiana Jones hat (now back in fashion what with the new moving coming out and all) posted his report from Madison County, noting that a "blinding snowfall pelted future I-26" early Tuesday, making it rough going for snow plows. "Blinding," Sheraldo? Really? Sheraldo said cars packed some snow down into a slick sheet of ice. He talked to a woman who might have had a frozen pipe under her trailer.

Larry Blunt, wearing some odd girl-glasses, noted that many churches didn't have services. He said the Blue Ridge Parkway closed. Then Mike Cuevas in the weather center said it would be windy and the wind chill at midnight would be below zero. Anybody out at midnight would have to be crazy.

Back outside, John Le followed around a guy in a wheelchair and gave us a lot of nat sound to help us feel how cold and brutal nd blizzard like the storm really was. The "extreme conditions" made downtown Ashvegas "ground-sub-zero," Le said. Give. Me. A. Fracking. Break. Le, wearing a Sherlock Holmes cap, talked to people waiting for the bus. One woman said she lived in Alaska and this weather was worse than that, while a dude from Connecticut made fun of all us Southerners for being weather wimps.

Keeping with the team coverage, Charu told us how DOT prioritizes which roads are cleared first - the main roads first, then the secondary roads. She said Long Shoals Road (close to WLOS studios) and Tunnel Road were not top priority roads for DOT, but she didn't really explain why roads like Long Shoals and Tunnel weren't top priorities.

In other news...
A tree fell in Arden and hit a house on Forest Ridge Drive. No injuries.

Back on the team weather report...
WLOSers, midway through their weather report, told us that Haywood County out west actually got the most snow from the "storm" and that there were triple the number of emergency calls to dispatchers. Shouldn't that have been the lead story? Heather Graf, who said he car wouldn't start Wednesday morning, said most wrecks were on Interstate 40, and were caused by people driving too fast.


Oh how it feels so good to be home! The one disappointment is that since there was SO MUCH (ugh) snow, they cancelled the kids Mothers Morning Out which I was totally counting on. Guess I have to take care of them today.

Winter is Coming?

Living in a part of the world where folklore is also known as fact brought to light the "Woolley Worm Festival" that took place last weekend in Boone, NC.

This is from woollyworm.com
"Eleven-year-old Olivia King of Raleigh, NC and her father Tom are the proud owners/winners of Armstrong, the woolly worm who outpaced 1,400 other caterpillars Saturday for the honor of proclaiming the official winter weather forecast at the 30th annual Woolly Worm Festival in Banner Elk.

Mountain folk use the brown and black stripes on the woolly worm to predict the severity of the coming winter.

According to Armstrong, the first four weeks of winter will be cold and snowy. The 5th and 6th weeks will be cold, while weeks 7 and 8 will be cold with light snow. Armstrong says to expect a mild spell during weeks 10 and 11 with a cold an snowy close to the winter in weeks 12 and 13.

The winter weather forecast is an important subject for the people of Banner Elk, a one-stop-light village nestled between the three largest ski slopes in the High South. For 30 years they have raced the black and brown striped worms to determine which one worm deserves the honor of making the winter weather forecast. Tradition says that the black stripes predict cold and snowy weather while brown stripes point toward milder conditions. Over thirty years, the woolly worm has been all or mostly correct eighty-five percent of the time."

woohoo! Last winter was so warm here that Asher never even got to play in the snow! I would love it if we could have a reason to celebrate the cold rathe than curse it!