It’s blustery and snowing out there today, and it feels more like winter.
But look at the pictures I took just last week. I wore a windbreaker instead of my winter coat yesterday. It’s been my favorite Iowa winter so far.
I’m not sure I want to see what’s in store for us in May.
Yeah. Good thing we put up the swings.
Yay.
It seems to take forever for spring to get here. Slowly but surely, though, the signs of spring are increasing.
Robins everywhere.
Climbing the apple tree.
Last of the snow. (This was last weekend. It’s all gone now. Yay!)
Tilling the garden.
Daffodils.
Lilies.
Stormy sky.
We had stormy weather last night, with two tornado warnings and tornado watches all night. We took the kids downstairs for the first warning (got them out of bed and tucked them in bed in the basement). Thought we might might be fine, so hauled them back up to their beds upstairs. Only to hear about another warning and a tornado spotted just south of us. So I trotted them all back downstairs for the night.
We’re expecting more monster storms tonight. I figure we’ll just head straight for the basement at bedtime, if not before, whenever the tornadoes decide to start dancing across Iowa again.
Sure signs … putting up the swings and checking out the birdhouses. Spring has to be right around the corner. Right?
Our lights flickered for several hours yesterday. Then they went out. And stayed out. We pulled out the sofa-sleeper, opened up the recliners and camped out in the living room, where the fireplace is. I read by candlelight for a while, then made sure everyone was tucked in, blew out the candles and found a spot under the covers. I’d say I slept, but that didn’t really happen. I was up again at 2 a.m., when the power came back, turning things off again. This morning, we cleared downed branches. We’d heard the trees cracking under the ice all night.
The first blizzard of 2011 is howling and prowling outside my home right now. My husband is on the interstate somewhere, and I’m hoping he’ll make it home tonight. How many blizzards did we have last year … 10? 12? I lost count. While I’ve driven in low-visibility conditions before, wow. I can’t say it’s ever been as bad as it was today.
This? Is the school parking lot. They started pulling schoolchildren off the school buses and kept them at school because it wasn’t safe to send the buses out … on the streets. It was bad.
This was our visibility on the way home. I drove 20 miles per hour.
The kids helped watch for the house, which we never saw.
We could barely see the mailbox.
But, hey. There’s the sun. Whee.
I got sparkles for my birthday.
Santa was in town today, but my kids would rather do this.
And this.
And this.
And this.
And this.
It’s great they had fun in the snow. (And we had hot chocolate afterward.) But it makes me wonder … they got videos from Santa. Was that enough for them? Or did it scare them? Or did something else scare them about Santa? Hmm.
Ah well. In any case. It was a great day.
9/2011
