Snowmeageddon 2024, Valley of Vex

 

The Treasure Valley had another snowmeageddon, it beat the 2017 record of 21.5 inches at 22.1 inches total so far. The snowiest winter on record was back in 1929 at 27 inches. The winter was terribly mild until the skiff of snow we had when Jared came to visit 2 weeks ago. Mostly temperate days, cold in the mornings but not too bad. It snowed about 1.5 inches overnight on Jan 9th, the roads were super slippery! Most schools districts had a snow day except for Nampa, I hear Eagle and Star got quite a bit more snow. As it melted on Thursday the blacktop was iced over so the students could not play on the blacktop, only the grass. Most teachers cancelled outside recess…I let the 5th graders go outside since indoor recess is about the worst. The kids had fun playing in the snow until the clouds delivered a swift dose of wind, hail, and snow all at the same time. We quickly ran for cover, the hail stung our cheeks something fierce. Josie made Mrs Harp laugh as she was making her way outside for sidewalk duty. Josie paused, bowed, and said, “Madam, I hope you stay waaaaaarm!” In her best British accent of course. She is a character. 

There is a funny “spicy” weather forecaster on FB that is quickly gaining a following. Kody is quite the character, always cancelling the haters and folks who bring up “but my weather app said….” He was spot on with his prediction of snow, arctic temperatures, and blizzard conditions. Over 9 inches of snow fell Thursday January 11th, we woke up to the most gorgeous blanket of pristine snow on Friday…AND a snow day! Yippee! I woke up at 5:45 to check the weather and for school alerts. Indeed there was a school cancellation notice. I let the older kids know they could sleep in then went back to bed. I nearly had another full “night” of sleep. I woke up thinking it was 9 am…my watch told me it was actually 11:30 am. I felt pretty darn energized after a double dose of sleep. The kids spent hours outside playing in the snow. Carson invited Everett to ride on a sled pulled by the Ostler’s car. Once the other kids heard about that there was a close mutiny. It sounded like fun, so I tied our largest sled to the back of the van for over two hours of fun pulling kids around the neighborhood. The kids got permission to use Justin’s motorcycle helmet, mostly to keep the snow off their faces. It was frigidly cold outside and still snowing. Soon those not sledding took turns riding on top of the van! I got to work on my snow driving skills, that was quite entertaining for me. The laundry room is now a massive pile of snow gear. We kept the dryer constantly running to dry out gloves, pants, coats, and hats. Friday night Josie took Jellybean (her build-a-bear rabbit) outside to experience snow for the first time. She had an umbrella to keep the snow off her stuffy. I was so amused watching her touch the snow here, run inside for a ruler to measure the snow depth here and there, then dance to some wild snow song only she could hear. It was magical. 

Saturday was more snow. Amelia, with her glorious ideas, set up a snow cone station outside where folks could grab fresh snow and make a yummy treat with flavored syrups and condensed milk. The kids wanted to build a snow fort, they started clearing out a large circle of snow. The temperatures were so cold (between 0-18 degrees) that the snow was quite icy and sandy. Justin decided to join the kids outside, after much prodding from me, with a blowtorch in true Justin style. He used the torch to melt the snow a bit so it would support more height. He had all the kids outside piling snow and digging. Fergus kept us all entertained with his snow antics. Fergus was not tall enough to clear the snow so he hopped around until he made a path. He plowed through the snow like it was the best experience of his life. We all laughed at the dingle-berries he collected on his belly and fur pants. That dog is hilarious. My main goal for the afternoon was getting all the Christmas stuff boxed up and put away. The kids pitched in and helped me get it all into piles and sorted into the storage boxes. It took me the rest of the day to get the dining room area back to order. I wanted to change up the walls, was tired of looking at the same arrangement. As fate would dictate, putting the large rooster board painting in a “new” location was not new at all. It went in exactly the same spot as it was when we first moved in. It’s a bugger to hang, so there it stays. I need to move the series of “ordinance” photos to a new area since Josie’s baptism photos will not fit along the hallway. I am relocating them all to the piano room. Needless to say, the house was an organized disaster area for 2 days while I worked through the switches. 

It snowed and froze overnight. We got a notice late Saturday night that church was cancelled, the roads were quite perilous. We all rejoiced to stay home. Justin watched several Muppets movies. I worked on finishing the messy process of reorganizing wall art. The boys put the Christmas bins away by the end of the afternoon! Success! We had a lengthy Temple Table lesson on Lehi’s Dream. I love studying Lehi’s dream. The tree of life with the fruit that gives us true happiness and peace, the iron rod that leads us to the tree, a reliable unchanging path we can trust. The great building that offers an imitation of happiness. The way between the tree is blocked by a river that sweeps us into sin, mist that obscures the love of God, those who leave the tree never make it to the building. How is the building populated? By those who are not baptized or choose Christ? There are three ways to leave the path of the iron rod or the tree: forbidden, strange, or broad. How many religions have some sort of tree of life story? Numerous! Brother Dunford connected the dream to the First Israelite Temple. I loved the idea of the Ulam (the first room of the temple) that represents the open, spacious Temple forecourt. Lehi says the field is as big as the world, or the Ulam (field) is as big as an olam (world). 

We had Monday and Tuesday school holidays to celebrate Martin Luther King Day then a teacher workday. I was excited to get my editing plate cleared, got caught up by Wednesday! Evelyn complained last week about her tooth hurting, I looked and saw a bit of tooth missing with a brownish color. I invited over her friend Sophia for a few hours in the morning. Amelia invited Jocelyn over for a few hours of entertainment. They made sushi for a diversion snack. The girls begged for sled rides around the neighborhood before all the snow melted. I actually towed the girls to Sophia’s home when it was time to end the playdate. Evelyn went to the dentist at 2:30, she did not know until an hour beforehand. Turns out one of her previous fillings had popped out and filled with numerous bits of food. She about fainted when the dentist numbed her tooth, the dentist said there tooth cavity was packed with food, took him 5 minutes to flush it all out before filling it again. The boys spent a few hours at EVMS prepping for their Robotics competition Tuesday morning. They helped set up tables, chairs, and the competition arenas. Amelia and Everett are now taking piano lessons from Becky. I pulled Evelyn from lesson at the Christmas Break. She gets to uptight about playing her instruments. Everett graduated to level 3a so was ready for a more experienced teacher. 

Tuesday was a crazy day! The boys had to be at EVMS by 7:30 am for a full day of competitions. I went over a few times throughout the day to watch some matches. I caught the first qualification match which F.R.E.D (673F) won by 10 points. They lost the middle 4 matches, because they said their bot was competing against pusher bots that shoved the point balls under their net. Their other teammates kept getting stuck so were no help. They did win their last match by 35 points. The Valley of Vex is the largest competition of the year in the valley. There were three times the teams and students as the previous matches. Their ending score was rank 36 out of 48 teams, last competition they ranked #4! It was awesome to see the boys take their scores in stride and adjust their bot after each match to accommodate other team’s strengths. Next up is the State Competition, this could be their last competition of the season if they don’t make it to the top 3 (in the school). The top 3 teams are headed to Texas for the world competition. I wonder how the boys will adjust their bot between now and then. The gym had a peculiar smell that only pre-teen boys and girls can make, add in a mix of nerd smell, and robot parts…it was interesting. 

Between the boy’s matches the girls all got hair trims at Kymra’s salon. Evelyn was in quite a peppy mood, annoying Amelia to distraction. Her good mood was very contagious! Fergus also got a fur cut at 2:30, he was not pleased with his situation in life. He is quite a dapper dog after grooming. He came home rushed the gauntlet of hands that wanted to pet him, made his way outside to roll in the snow and mud. All better. 

I woke up at 5:30 Wednesday morning to check the school alerts, school was cancelled again. I peeked outside, yep, 3 fresh inches of snow covered the ground. It was a mess outside. The neighborhood streets are not plowed so the 12 inches of snow made quite a mess. Amelia had a Dr appointment that was NOT cancelled at 2:30 with the OBGYN for her painful periods. The 3 month pill cycles never worked for her, she’s had a period without fail, and lately getting more and more painful. We are going to try a different dose and brand with the 3-mth cycle again before moving to the next step, which would be an MRI scan or a scope to diagnose endometriosis. The snow waited for our appointment before starting up again. The drive was near whiteout conditions! Good thing I had 3-4 hours of practice under by belt from towing kids around the neighborhood. All activities were cancelled because of ice and snow. The previous snow started to melt before freezing with the new storm and layer of snow. Thankfully, school was cancelled again per threat of freezing rain and more snow Thursday morning. MCO was also cancelled for the same reason. I convinced Josie with a burrito bribe to go out and take some Baptism photos in the snow. She loves burritos more than candy lately. Evelyn found Josie’s embossed BofM in the church bag. Josie’s baptism dress is getting tailored right now so she wore Evelyn’s dress with a long-sleeved white shirt. I thrifted a long-sleeved white dress in size 10-12 for $5 two weeks ago, finding a warm dress was nearly impossible without dropping $100 or more. Josie’s violin teacher also is an impressive tailor. She knew exactly how to adjust the dress. I dropped off Amelia at Jocelyn’s home for a hang out sesh. Later I picked up the girls to come over and “vibe” at our home. The snow was starting to melt…so we made the most of the streets deep in snow. The kids decided it was better to sled behind the van than Steamboat Gulch. They did not have to climb up the hills! I had a great time slaloming the van and kids for 3 hours of fun. The van roof was prime real estate, the sled the best seat ever. Our circus act attracted more folks to rev up their engines and join the fun. Josie and Chloe were the last two kiddos to get rides. Oh how they screamed with delight! 

Friday? Blech. School day. It felt pointless to attend school for one day. I pulled on my big-girl panties and made it to school like an adult. I let the students do stem activities and play on Reagan lab for the entire day. I needed prep time to get the rest of the assignments uploaded for my upcoming Microsoft 365 boot camp. I finished uploading the last assignments by 3 pm. Hooray. This will be interesting. Principal Obert declared indoor recess per unhealthy inversion outside. Double blech. Phillip was a HUGE help setting up my studio paper and light. He did most of the set up without me asking for help. The kids got their chores completed in record time too. I photographed a large family of 11 people and a dog. I am NOT looking forward to editing the photos since the paper was not wide enough to fit everyone. Josie was awarded the best babysitter, she kept the 3 little entertained with candy and toys. 

I came home from grocery shopping early Saturday morning to a wonderful sight! Justin had the kids working hard. Phillip was sweeping water off the garage floor and Everett and Evelyn were elbow deep cleaning the garage fridge. All the milk and Justin’s soda all froze during the coldest hours, half of the soda cans exploded inside the fridge. It was a horror scene. Amelia and Josie were busy inside cleaning the kitchen. Warm my heart. We have a sketchy situation in our Master closet. The entire shelving system ripped off the walls. Apparently, the unit was nailed to the walls and not screwed or properly installed. Granted we did have a LOT of items hung and stored, so that did not help the situation. I’m not looking forward to dropping $1,000 on a new closet…I’d rather get a couch that fits the family. The little girls are thrilled I found a clearance Princess Lego set. They were anxious for something to do!

Josie is busy planning her birthday, apparently birthday season starts 01 January for her. She is constantly bringing me lists of gift ideas, party plans, and her favorite activities. Jellybean is now her favorite stuffy since she got her last year on her birthday. Jellybean now has a cubby all her own, decorated for a birthday party. Josie begged for a Walmart trip to Build-a-bear to get Jellybean a birthday crown, good thing the store also had a sash and a koala shirt…gasp. Josie wanted something to report on Monday at school, so she convinced me to face paint her a Miraculous themed mask. Saturday she wanted just ladybugs crawling on her face. 

The older kids had youth conference from 3-9 pm. Everett was a really good sport, he played several games with the girls. A new favorite game comes from the book Candyshop Wars. Each person has 3 powers they can throw. Josie had rainbow distraction, teleportation, sticky footprints. Everertt had lemon head (blinded for 5 sec), snackter beam, and tickle bomb. Evelyn had rainbow farts and invisibility. Everett had the girls running and playing for a good 30 minutes. Then he good-naturedly allowed the girls to paint his back. He laughed/giggled the entire time, soooo ticklish! 

Ward Conference was today. The adult meeting was wonderful. We giggled when Moroni walked in wearing a kilt, sword, et al. The giggles quickly abated when he started reading the last chapter of the Book of Mormon. It was powerful to see and hear Moroni’s words delivered with such fervor and testimony. President Hansen then admonished the adults to teach our youth how to bear a testimony. After the world youth testimony meeting, President Hansen became concerned that our youth don’t know how to testify. Most testimonies were about seminary, friends, the temple, and experiences, Christ was missing from the equation. Our charge is to teach, like Moroni admonished, to learn about Christ and testify of Him.