Snowmageddon 2021

 

What a week! I'm happy to report no one lost their eye sight or fainted this week. Josie did cut a hank of hair off her head during devotional on Tuesday. She took a bath so had cute brushed hair. Little stinker sat on my lap when I noticed a large chuck of hair falling over her eyebrows. She cut a length of 5 inches, nearly half her hair length. It mostly blends in! She denied cutting her hair even after we found the evidence. I'm at least grateful she did not cut her hair down to the scalp! 

The kids enjoyed the new Jeep toy car this past week. Amelia made all the kids Driver's Licenses using silly photos and information. Josie loves to drive around the block, she takes the walkie talkie so I can monitor where she is at. She was complaining to me from the garage that her car was stuck and she didn't have the muscles to move it. I replied, "maybe if you ate your lettuce, you would be stronger!" Josie replied, "Mom! DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT LETTUCE!" Her quick response it still making me laugh. She was chatting about a bird while on her drive, it was random words about birds and flying. She came home with a "leopard" feather she found on the ground. Amelia is wondering if driving the Minnie car counts as Driver's Ed hours. Ha ha ha. NO. The hoverboards were attached to the car already for a load of fun. The weather was amazing until Thursday!

Wednesday I organized a fun Valentine's party for homeschoolers and others in our ward who wanted to participate. That morning we took time out of our school to make Valentines and pick some cards up at Walmart. Everett fell in love with a largish sloth he claimed with his allowance money. Now he has a sloth suit, sloth socks, and a sloth buddy named Mr Cuddles. The kids practiced writing their names 16-20 times which was excellent for Josie and Evelyn. Amelia and I gathered lots of art supplies to decorate Valentine bags at the party. We used part of the gym for our activity. The kids brought scooters, hover boards, cute stuffed animals, and balls to play with. The kids could decorate a bag if they did not make a box/container beforehand. I manned the glue gun for the kids wanting gems, pom-poms, and doilies glued on. We made so much noise! It was a happy, joyous noise. Half way through the kids lined up their bags/boxes so they could deliver their Valentines and candy to each other. Josie was so excited she forgot to deliver her cards! She did her best after the fact. Sara brought her fun parachute as an extra activity. Amelia was quite hesitant to attend but she later reported that the activity was SO MUCH FUN! Yay! It's hard to impress a teenager sometimes. Phillip went to his first combined activity...he reported it was strange to have girls around. The kids decorated cupcakes and ate a ton of sugar. Amelia said she was acting crazy with her friend Jocelyn, Ambree and Phillip were completely ignoring them and refusing to play around. 

Thursday I hosted Activity Day girls. We practiced our song we're singing on the 21st, Josie made a video of the girls singing...they sound so amazing!!! The girls decorated sugar cookies using copious amounts of frosting and sprinkles. After washing hands the girls decorated three plates of cookies for three members of our ward who need some cheering up. The girls made a happy picture as we trooped across the yard to Sister Titus' home with her plate of cookies. We thoroughly enjoyed her gratitude and smiles.  

The snow started coming down on Thursday with no accumulation until after 8 pm. Friday morning we woke up to a lovely spread of 3 inches. The kids went though all the gloves, boots, scarves, and hats we own as they played outside. Josie once again had the tummy flu so was not feeling up to going outside in the morning. It was warm enough that the sidewalks and driveways stayed relatively clear. Sara and I braved the roads early Friday morning for swim lessons. Josie was beyond distraught she had to stay home, she ended up throwing up several times while we were gone. Evelyn is doing well in lessons. She is learning to float and use her arm strokes. The Goldfish swim center had quite the set up! They have showers to rinse off right away with shampoo. Dressing rooms, hair dryers, and swim suit wringers as well. Fancy, fancy...no wonder it costs both my arms. I finally persuaded Josie to try sledding with Evelyn. She still had her swimsuit on under her snow clothes. The snow was so wet and heavy our saucer sleds did not slide well down the hill. Instead Josie enjoyed swimming in the snow and making a snow fort with snowballs to throw. The kids started making an igloo. 

Aunt Nancy hosted a really fun girl's weekend to celebrate Denise's birthday! All the sisters (and laws) gathered with the teenagers in tow. I dropped Amelia off to Esther's so she could hang out with Clare. I had a pile of editing work I HAD to get done over the weekend. We woke up to a blizzard! Holy heck it was snowing so thickly it was hard to see more than 15 feet in any direction. I put on my big girl pants and drove out to Nancy's in the truck. I am a good driver, even in the snow...not worried about that...I am worried about the other crazy drivers. The freeway had 2-3 inches of snowy slush that made the drive quite tense. I turned on some music to help keep the tension down. Evelyn's playlist was on by default. At the thick of the storm "Let it Go" started playing. As cars were spinning off the road the the song Dynamite and Squishmallows played. After I got off the freeway we had to stop because of an accident...ironically Beep, Beep I'm a Sheep started playing.  The comic relief from the well-timed songs made me laugh. I arrived safely thanks to 4 wheel drive. I think 6 inches of snow fell in less than 3 hours that morning. Amelia was very excited to tell me that the girl's went to a steak house slash saloon the night before for dancing! She was asked to dance by a couple of polite boys just for the fun of it! The girls enjoyed a couple hours of country music and dancing! Amelia saw drunk folks for the first time, the girl tossing her cookies in a trash can made an impression. The snowstorm thinned out an hour after I arrived. Denise wanted to do some shopping so we headed back to Nampa to shop at Savers, DI, Target, and Costco. We stopped for lunch at Costa Vida. Amelia and I left after Savers and lunch to head home. I found a darling pink coat at Savers I wanted to use for photos of Evelyn. She kindly agreed to brave the snow and cold. That was fun for me. Everett spent several hours outside forming a snow cave. He made the cave large enough to fit two kids inside. The kids shoveled Sister Titus' driveway just for fun. 

Sunday was Valentine's Day. I had plans to put out my Valentine gifts the night before. Yep, didn't happen. I got up extra early to fix masses of hair (curl Amelia's, heart hair for Evelyn, and a bow for Josie). The boys left early to shovel the walks at the church building. Josie was super whiney all day. She refused to attend Primary unless I went with her. The kids cleaned the school room while I arranged my Valentines. That was a stroke of genius. So many delighted squeals over the newest squishmallows! Amelia got Otter the Seal, Phillip got a dragon he named Celebrant, Everett got a taco named taco, Evelyn got a bee she named Buttercup, and Josie a koala named Blueberry. In their buckets the kids got a Japanese soda, chocolates, and a couple cute favors. Justin got European chocolates! Yum. Justin picked up carnations for all the girls and roses for me. He had the boys surprise the little girls with bouquets of flowers after dinner on Friday. My eyes were burning something fierce so I rested my eyes for a bit after lunch. Amelia rallied the troops into making an igloo complex all afternoon. The kids were outside playing for 6 hours. Amelia was a task master only allowing 10 minute breaks to get snacks and dry gloves. I kept the dryer running so the kids had dry clothes. By evening Everett's cave turned into a large complex with two tunnel entrances, two sets of stairs, a sledding hill, and a main bunker! Phillip manned the shovels and wheel barrows to schlep snow from the other side of the driveway. Amelia had Carson, Ambree, Everett, Phillip, and Evelyn all busy as bees. By dinner Amelia's leg hurt so badly she could hardly walk! We enjoyed a candle light dinner of grilled steak, parsley potatoes, and green beans. Thanks to Justin for grilling outside in the snow! Josie was absent from our dinner, she ended up having tummy barfs again from dinner until 11 pm. Poor kid fell asleep on the bathroom floor on her koala after barfing before dinner. 

I am not sure what is happening with poor Josie. Justin was sick all week with digestion issues and terrible nausea. He worked from home the entire week. Sunday marked the 5th time Josie had the "stomach flu" since late November. Usually she is the only one who gets sick. I felt sick Saturday after eating pizza for Josie's birthday, nausea, diarrhea, etc. supposed it came from food poisoning. Justin had leftovers on Sunday which made him sick the rest of the week. It is so hard to determine if Josie is suffering from the flu or an entirely different issue like allergies, Krohn's, etc. Now I am unsure if she really had the stomach flu this time because Evelyn came down with a terrible bout of diarrhea and vomiting between 12:30 am and 6:30 am this morning (Tuesday the 16th). Poor kid was vomiting so hard she pooped her pants. I gave her three showers during the night. She is not a graceful sickie! Josie just uses her bowl and is fine. Evelyn explodes...everywhere except the bowl. So much laundry today, so many carpet spots to scrub and clean. Josie was so tired she slept through me turning on the light and removing the bed clothes at 1 am. 

I planned a trip to Utah this week since we have Winter Break from school. It snowed again quite a bit yesterday so we delayed our trip. We had everything packed to leave this morning. Except BARF. Hopefully, we are in the clear. Here we are another day spent burning our brains out watching TV and being completely bored.