So This Is "Spring Break"

We have had a spell of trecherous* weather that has resulted in like nine days of missed school, and they haven't officially announced how/when we will make it up, but I'm assuming we just enjoyed our "spring break" of sorts (fine by me, we have no spring break plans over actual spring break, we are taking ours later anyway to go to the beach with my dad like we do every year).

(*The NC version of trecherous = some legit snow, some legit ice, and a lot of days - A LOT of days - waiting for all the icy patches to melt on even the smallest of shady no-light back roads, so the buses can safely drive, because we ain't got no snowplows, etc etc etc.)

The first day it snowed, the kids wanted nothing to do with it. They stood inside and watched it and were glad for a day off school, but I couldn't even beg them into the yard to play. I think they were traumatized. Their last snow experience was something else. (It was a sheet of ice and no fun for playing that day anyway, not that it stopped everyone else in the county, according to my instagram feed.)

Once we had some real snow, I went out and walked around in it (enchanted like a proper southerner) and eventually the kids joined me.

Some pictures of the snow, because it's still novel enough (or so we claim? even though it has happened several years in a row now?) that it warrants photographing.

Our backyard:

Across our front yard, at the last snow which was really heavy and wet:

By the time Mark and the kids were building a snowman in the front yard, it was super warm out and Mark was in a t-shirt. Yes, it took baring the grass to get enough snow for even that tiny snowman. This is... so North Carolina:

Snow selfie:

Also, find me something more delightful than a five-year-old who is delighted by swinging in the snow. Go ahead. Find it. (It doesn't exist. This is the most delightful.)


Oh! And! I bought new snow boots back in the fall (for no good reason, they were just there at TJ Maxx and impossibly cute) and I was not ashamed about feeling glad for an excuse to wear them.

In related news, I had a whole rant ready about how annoyed I am at moms (parents) (but mostly I see moms) who complain about having their kids home for days on end. I mean, yes, I get it. We all get stir crazy. Especially when the roads really aren't safe. (I'm not taking chances with that again.) But! There are people who have to miss work when their kids miss school, and therefore miss pay when their kids miss school, and some of those are the same people who need their kids at school for free and reduced lunches, and backpack buddies for weekend groceries, and the like. Having extra mouths to feed for extra meals a day when you're suddenly with a lower paycheck? Sucks. But those are not the people who I see complaining online, it's the white rich ladies and I just want them to shut up, or do it with nuance, or something, Everyone has feelings and I get that, but. Don't be gross. Don't be a dick. That's all.

(This is the short version of my rant because it's snowing and I am still enchanted.)

(Also I've been getting to sleep later, because no school! And Ali hasn't been coming since her parents are off work. And sleeping til 8 makes me a better mom, TRUE STORY. Thanks, snow.)

The New Year: Minus Eighteen

Minnesota, take three: the one where I laugh at myself because I thought it was frigid cold when it snowed in the middle of November last fall, but that was before we showed up to visit Another Nathan in January and it was EIGHTEEN BELOW.

What I'm saying is, Mark and I have a new record for cold under our belts. We don't have to live in it all the time, therefore we can laugh about it. And also totally brag about how hardy* we are. (*Not that hardy. We were wide-eyed and mostly horrified. Ask  me if I remembered to pack a hat and gloves. Go ahead, ask me.)

Anyway, we had some air miles, a free place to stay, and free coverage for the kids (thanks Ashley! and Grandma!) so after several of the worst and most chaotic days of 2014 (seriously the van broke and the washing machine broke at the same time, and it was also the day my sister's kids were visiting, and that is a LOT of repairmen and rides to juggle with six children you have no way of transporting, but that's a sob story that is long over now), we happily boarded a plane at the ass-crack of dawn so we could have a grownup getaway for New Year's Eve weekend.

We had a fancy NYE (slash Mr. David's birthday) dinner at a trendy foodie place in downtown Minneapolis. (If you're reading this in MN, go to Coup D'Etat - it is a cool space with a great bar and a delicious menu, and we loved it.) We ate some crazy ridiculous tasty food and had some Kir Royales and other fun champagne cocktails.

Mark ordered bone marrow, proving he's the only actual foodie amongst us, but we all tried it, so HEY ADD THAT TO THE NEW THINGS WE DID IN 2014 LIST (yes we made a list).

(Bone marrow not pictured. You're welcome.)

And then we went to a really fun symphony concert with delightful music, which afterwards had a party with more champagne and there were light-up tambourines and a free vuvuzela (there is almost nothing in life that Marky loves more than an unnecessary vuvuzela) (and let's be honest, they are allll unnecessary) and two stories' worth of crowds cheering in fun glow-stick type lighting, and Sylvia McNair singing "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" and it was just all.. so fun. Laughing fancy fun.

And not because we all buzzed that vuvuzela on each other in any inappropriate ways or anything. We are for sure too classy for that. Ahem.

Our very favorite people for ringing in a new year, true story.

After our fancy night out, we had some easy slow days at Another Nathan's house. Exactly the kind of cozy and lazy you want when you're kid-free with no agenda except to hang out and recharge. We slept laaaaate every day. (Mark slept more than he has in literally months.)

This is thirty.
(Read: thirty-four.)
(It's not 2015 til I creep on naptime with phone pics.)

We ventured out for a few lunches and dinners. We listened to Nathan practice at church. We made a fondue dinner together. We had winter cocktails by the fire.

One afternoon the boys all went to see the Hobbit movie (zzzzzz amiright?) (Mark and Another Nathan have seen all of them together, so it's some sort of tradition for them) while I stayed home and read in his bathtub which is a thousand percent better than our kiddie-bathroom non-garden tub here at home.

We wandered around St. Olaf since Mark had never been there, and it's so lovely in the snow. We went to church with Another Nathan and heard THE St. Olaf choir sing in his worship service (his church founded the college and choir, so it's an annual tradition to have them sing there) and it was stunning.

And! We went to Sarah's tiny town and got to see her again. Two times in two months!

This time I got to meet her husband and she got to meet Mark, and y'all! Like internet friends turned real-life friends aren't great enough, meeting each other's spouses is even better. We had a double date at this little restaurant on a lake, except it's MINNESOTA IN JANUARY so the lake is totally FROZEN and you can WALK ON IT.

(Okay, all ye people of the winter, who just shrugged -- all the southerners just read that and gasped, I promise.)

We thought it was the coolest thing, and I wasn't even that nervous* except at first (*bold-faced lie).

Oh! Here is another awesome Northfield thing. One night we went downtown for drinks (and popcorn! best, right?) and I somehow left my phone in the bar all night. When I when I went back for it the next day, not only did the owner see me through the window and open up the closed bar for me, and know exactly what I was there for, he had also called Nathan's church to say they found it (someone there saw him and thought someone said he worked at that church), and, AND! They had charged it all night. Charged my lost phone for me! SMALL TOWNS, MAN. Delightful.

Almost delightful enough to make up for that thing where it's minus eighteen degrees in broad daylight.

Nathan, David, Sarah: I would like to put each of your faces in this cartoon:

So. Good trip. Happy New Year, y'all.

Minnesota, Take Two: The Cold Version

Hey, I went to Minnesota to see Another Nathan! He's still pretty super.

If you're reading in this corner of the internet, it's because you want to know my opinions, right? Just in general? So here are some of my opinions on some Minnesota things.

1.) The snow. I was there for their first snow! And yeah, I'll say it: it was delightful. Well, after Nathan and I got past our initial trepidation about driving in the snow (the last time either of us did that was this bad day), it was delightful. Lovely and pretty and even though that is some effed up kind of something, to have snow in November, knowing it isn't MY winter staring me down for the next five months made it totally enjoyable and pretty.

(My kids are very taken with pictures of Nathan's backyard. Christmas trees! Ha.)

That being said, the weather, except for the prettiness of the snow, was way too freaking cold for me. Just no, Minnesota. Come south for winter, all ye weary cold people of the midwest.

2.) Another Nathan's new house. Since I was there in August, Nathan bought a house! And moved. Again. (!!) So, this is what he looks like in his new house. (He looks the same.)

The house is beautiful and bright and big and has lots of rooms and a pretty office and good windows and a fun open kitchen, and a giant bathtub with a jets, where I got to sit and soak and watch the snow fall and read my book and nobody (NOBODY) came in to ask me for a snack or to help them wipe. I KNOW.

3.) His church. Still lovely. Also, look how pretty it is in the snow!

Anyway the people are so warm, and the service is really nice, and I got to sing in his choir, which was an oddly displacing thing -- a thing I know so well, yet in a new place with new people, oddly familiar and strange at the same time. (Also his choir people apparently asked him if I had ever seen snow before, zomg adorbz.) Also oddly familiar yet strange: me, flopped on a pew, reading my phone and waiting for him to practice. (Horizontal on a row of choir chairs, hence the angle.)

I love to hear him play, and it's fun to see him be in charge of his own program and kinda kick ass at it. Also, the part where we go to lunch and overthink/overtalk everything from worship is freaking fantastic too.

4.) Nadia Bolz-Weber. So you might remember that part of the reason we picked that particular reason for my trip is that Nadia Bolz-Weber, who is a sassy and brilliant Lutheran pastor, was speaking in Minneapolis (at Mr. David's church, actually!) - and I very much wanted to see her in real life. And we did!

I'm not super good at paparazzo pics in these situations.

She was full of really smart and lovely ideas -- which she presented in a random mish-mash of an order, maaaaaybe just sort of as they occurred to her? which I'm sure was frustrating for the people planning the event -- but for me, I was glad to sit in the pew and just listen and think. I thought she was great. I will buy any book she writes in a hot minute, and I would love to hear her actually preach in worship sometime too.

5.) The Mississippi River. I still have an odd fascination with this river, and praise be to Mr. David for knowing that and walking us an extra block to go see it even though it was ridiculously cold and windy. (It was like 15, with the wind chill. That's nothing for Minnesota. How Another Nathan will get through this winter I don't even know.)

It turns out I cannot take a pic in the cold without *looking* really cold.
Southern blood, y'all.

6.) The Mall of America. Excellent. Beautiful. Way less overwhelming/crowded/chaotic/tacky than I was picturing. And shopping is always fun.

Also! They were only at the verrrrry beginning of their Christmas decorations. Two big trees had just gone up, but no decorations or anything else. For a giant mall who could have (and many did) start this crap before Halloween, I am super pleased that they didn't. Good job, Mall of America. *emoji applause*

Also the lego store was insane slash awesome LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL WALL OF LEGOS.

(If anyone tells you that when they become a parent, they will be immune to learning to love the things that their kids love, just roll your eyes at them and walk away, okay? Legos are aweome. Ditto dinosaurs and rainbows and Daniel Tiger toysies.)

7.) Tinytown Sarah. Hey so here's a random thing. Another Nathan moves to a tiny town in Minnesota, and it's actually not very far from Sarah's own tiny town, and that means we got to see each other! And I got to see baby Olive! Who is one of the very best babies on the internet. We had coffee and we chatted and we laughed and we braved the wind chill to take selfies and she didn't even call me a wimp about the weather or anything! And she is just as kind and funny and lovely to talk to as I remembered from the first time I met her. Internet friends turned real life friends who live close in the midwestern wilderness to your other real life friends: RECOMMEND.

8.) The Dundas Target. A++ for a clean bright shiny neat Target existing in the snowy vastness of small town Minnesota. In Target was one of the handful of times Another Nathan and I lost our bearings for a sec and thought we were in Raleigh and nothing had changed, and we had to shake ourselves, like hahaaaaaomg no we are somehow walking around his college town in MinneEFFINGsota. Target makes it feel like our friendship still manifests exactly as it always has, except (even though we don't love admitting it), it of course doesn't.

But then, nothing's existence manifests exactly as it always has. Friendships, and parenting relationships, and how we feel about God and books and celebrities and life and our spouses and ourselves -- it's all always in flux, isn't it? I don't know what to say about that, because I don't know if the notion terrifies or comforts me, but yeah there it is.

Relatedly (and I feel sheepish admitting this now, because it seems dumb and naive in hindsight), I think I thought that the Transition part would be the here part, the saying bye and watching my best friend move away -- but it turns out the Transition persists. That in some ways I am still grieving our old Raleigh life while feel also excited and proud for him in his new one, and there are days when having those two things side by side, existing in tension with each other, feels complicated. I think maybe I just needed to see that with my own eyes, up there in his new life, and name it, so that I can feel okay about the days that still feel off or floundery.

But it's lovely for us to know (still be learning?) that the meat of our friendship, what makes us, us -- is still there, totally. And that sitting in a comfy chair in a coffee shop together and dreaming big dreams about each other's families and careers, honest confessions about parenting and relationships and job fears -- those are things you just want and need your best friend for, and sometimes no one else will do.

So I think what we have learned here today is that thinking about the Dundas Target makes me be all bloggy existential about life and friendship? Okay then! Good times!

So, yeah. We had a good visit. Dear friends are just.. great.

Snow Aventure

Hey remember that time we got stranded in a sudden snow and had to abandon the car and WALK to try to get home, with ALL THREE KIDS?

Yeah.

The sun is shining now and spring feels dangerously close, which means I finally, a month later, can tell this story without panic rising back up into my throat and tears hovering behind my eyes.

I have no idea where to start. Okay. I will start at noon. (All these times are approximate, obviously, based on texts and my phone log.)

11:45 - All three kids are home since we have a snow day off school, so we decide to pick up Another Nathan at church for lunch before the snow starts (predicted about noonish) (the last snow day, we waited til 7pm for what was predicted at noon. #context).

12:13 - I sit in the van and let the big kids run up to the sanctuary to pull Another Nathan away from practicing (gently! with walking feet! and whisper voices!) (I remind them every time, but HA) and it has juuuust started snowing. I take a picture in my snow! day! excitement! to text to Liz in Utah and show her our second NC snow of the year. This is that picture:

Adorable, right? YOU CANNOT EVEN SEE THE SNOW.

12:20 - We arrive at Zaxby's, we eat chicken and grilled cheese and, with some mounting concern, we watch the parking lot turn pretty white pretty fast. We order a milkshake to share on the way home, and decide to leave. In a fit of smarts, seeing how slowly traffic is moving outside, I take the big kids to go potty before we get back in the car. Anneliese says she only has to poop but not pee. Who does that??? No one goes poop and not pee! No one! (Stay tuned, this will be relevant later.) (You can already see it coming, right?)

1pm - There is enough snow we have to legit scrape off the van before we can drive away. Uh-oh. That was... fast.

1:05 - The roads are very freaking slippery. I wish to not be driving on them. Why is there no salt? Is this snow or ice? It is very slick. It takes me only several hundred yards to haaaaaate it, and start worrying. We go several blocks and get to the top of a hill, on a main busy road, that no one is going down, because they can't get back up. Suddenly there is snow everywhere and no one can get where they want and we get very wide eyes. This doesn't happen in Raleigh! We turn around, FOR THE FIRST TIME.

1:10 - Another Nathan gets out and pushes the van over an incline, FOR THE FIRST TIME.

1:15 - Back on less-gridlocked residential streets, a car in front of us makes it over a slight slope only to careen directly into a ditch on the decline.

1:16 - We panic, FOR THE FIRST TIME.

1:17 - Mark texts from work (where he is in panic mode himself, ice on power lines is no joke) to say that traffic throughout the city is gridlocking, and checking to make sure we are safe at home. Ummm.

1:20 - We are in the hilliest neighborhood in Raleigh. (I HAVE NEVER NOTICED ALL THESE HILLS BEFORE) and no matter which way we try to go, we are caught either behind someone who is stuck, or at the bottom of a hill we can't get up ourselves. We turn on a movie in the back of the van and Another Nathan and I try to breathe deeply and talk to each other in low soothing voices about how we can not freak out, because then the kids will freak out (we have ALL! THREE! KIDS! omg).

The hour of misery: We are in a blur of icy street after icy street, snow piling up faster than it ever does around here, and no one knows how to drive in it, and basically everyone in the city is just stuck. This happened nine years ago and it took like eight hours to get home, and I hit a school bus in the process, and had to walk a few miles. This cannot be happening again. With kids. No no no no.

We are arguing about which way to try next, weighing which roads would take us back closer to church or to our house, which ones are too hilly to try, which ones are flat but would make us backtrack. We try many turns, most of which fail us and we need to turn around, which almost always involves more pushing. Another Nathan and I are crying at different intervals (never at the same time, thank goodness), giving up on one road after another after another, meanwhile more and more cars are stuck and hard to get around, and the snow is falling faster, and the roads are slicker and slicker, and we are basically driving in circles around several small blocks. The kids have gotten very quiet in the back of the van.

1:55 - I call my Montreat friend Amy who lives somewhat nearby, halfway knowing we might need to walk to her house, and halfway hoping she will have some smart ideas for a route to try. She knows the neighborhood well, and tells us the least hilly streets that will get us closest to church. Another Nathan hates it because it involves some backtracking, but I am panicky-insistent that we have to try something, and now, so we decide to take her advice. Several times, Another Nathan (sometimes alone, sometimes with the help of strangers) has to get out and push, but mostly the route works. (Until later when it doesn't.)

2:10 - The movie we put on in the back of the van is just playing an endless loop of previews, and the kids are officially now more aware of us than the stuck dvd player. They are scared. Nathan is weepy. Anneliese is whiny. Charlotte is wide-eyed. We are still trying, slowly, block by block, to make progress towards home.

2:15 - We are in an intersection of two tiny streets in a residential neighborhood, and every direction goes up. But the van will not go up. With all the other cars waiting to cross when we got to this cross street, we couldn't get enough momentum to get down the hill and back up, so now we are stuck. I shed a few tears. Other cars are making it! Why can't we make it? I am furious at the other people who deigned to be on the road in the same intersection at the same time as me and my own snow problems, who made it impossible for me to careen on through, and now I am stuck and I HATE ALL OF HUMANITY AND EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE.

2:15 - A nice man helps push for a while and then convinces Another Nathan (who convinces me) that we are definitely not getting up the hill, so we should pull to the side of the road and stop trying. We sit for a moment and stare at each other, and he talks to Mark on the phone about what to do, and my head is spinning and I am only vaguely aware of what they were talking about, only vaguely aware of where we even are. I do not want to walk but I do not want to stay in the car with all the kids.

2:20 - I stop panicking and crying for the moment, and Another Nathan starts. He does not want to stay but he does not want to walk with all the kids.

2:21 - But if we are going to try to make it somewhere on foot (WHERE???) we need go. Now.

2:22 - I check google maps and tell a careful white lie about exactly how far we are from church. (I tell him it is just under a mile. It is... about twice that. Fine for just us, miserable with three poorly-attired young children.) But I convince Another Nathan if we can just make it to church, we'd have food and heat and diapers and bathrooms, and we could camp there for the night if we had to. He has keys. We would be warm. We would be safe. We just have to make it to church. We make the decision to walk.

2:23 - But before we can set out on foot, Anneliese says she has to pee. (BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T GO WHEN SHE POOPED REMEMBER?) So I do what I have no choice but to do, pick a random house, and ring the doorbell.

And Y'ALL. This could be a blog post all its own. The owners of the house have clearly been enjoying some sexaaay playtime, in the living room (one answered the door in a waist towel, the other was on the couch under a blanket, both seemingly otherwise naked), everything smelled like weed, and they were all chatty about how beeeeeautiful the snow day was.

Okay so I try not to see anything around me (so! dirty! messy! I can't even!) and we beeline for the bathroom where Anneliese pees and I looked all around and I am surrounded by... wait for it, this is the weirdest part of the day... FINGERS. Wax fingers. (Another Nathan has since corrected me, saying they weren't likely wax but maybe... latex? rubber? Something. Anyway, they looked like wax.) Here are the ones in the soap dish:

(That is the only picture I got of the whole adventure. That's it. Those fingers. Enjoy.) (That soap dish cleanliness is indicative of the whole house.) (I am saying this in a kind voice. Thank you, kind sirs who let my kid pee when we were stranded!)

2:27 - We traipse back to the parked van but of course I left my phone in The House, so I have to go back and knock on their door again, (and then again! when I can't find it the first time I go back), until I finally find it on the towel bar in the bathroom (it was the only place to set it down, since everywhere else in there was full of fingers!) (Another Nathan: "dammit why did you even take it out of your pocket??" WELL, TO TAKE A PICTURE OF THE FINGERS, NATHAN.)

2:30 - Back outside at the van, Nathan and Charlotte have been fortified with milkshake sips (yep, Zaxby's milkshake, still in the car) and assured that no, buddy, it isn't that all the people are mean and no one wants to help us, it is the snow, not mean people (haaaaaaa poor boy) and I insist on trying one more time to drive us up out of that crossroads.

2:34 - Attempt is tear-filled and futile. We are officially abandoning the van and walking. It has come to this.

2:35 - We lock up the non-essentials (including my purse, and Hattie) (!!) and take only what we need: the kids, a few diapers stuffed in jackets, our phones (Nathan's is basically dead by now), keys and a credit card, and we start walking. With three kids. In blinding white wind-in-our-face snow OH MY GEEEESH.

2:35 to 3:45 - The second hour of misery: walking in a winter wonderland MY ASS. The kids are in tennis shoes, no gloves, no hats. The wind is blowing snow into our faces. We take turns carrying Charlotte, whom we cannot convince to turn her face against the wind, and as a result her coat hood will not stay on, and it only takes a few minutes for her wispy hair to freeze into icicles around her face (in hindsight I cannot believe I have no picture of this, but it was the hardest part of our day, so).

Another Nathan has the big kids put their hands in their sleeves and look at the ground and walk as fast and carefully as they can. We make jokes about the Von Trapps. ("If they can climb over that mountain to Switzerland, we can make it to Oberlin Road!" "Wait wasn't that in summer though?" "Snowflakes that stay on my noses and eyelashes THAT IS NO ONE'S FAVORITE THING.") (Snowflakes were totally frozen to both Anneliese and Another Nathan's eyelashes.) (No pictures, GAH.) We sing songs. We talk about things people should invent to make snow better. We are freaking the eff out inside, but we are chatty and smiling underneath making Worried Eyes at each other, and it mostly keeps the kids in good spirits. Mostly. It is cold and it is wet and it feels like forever. It takes us about an hour to go the first mile.

3:45 - We make it to a shopping center with a restaurant that for some reason seems to be open. We go inside to pee and thaw out for a minute, and then we continue our trek. There is already enough snow on the ground that we can't tell road, from sidewalks, from green areas. Very weird for us.

3:55 - Since this road is busier and every car is basically heading right for our church, I get hopeful we can flag someone down to drive us the rest of the way. And we do: a nice man who works for the post office and suddenly whoa wait OMG we are hitchiking! with no car seats! Another Nathan in the backseat with both girls in his lap, me in the front with Nathan and the driver. Wuuuuut is our day turning into.

4:00 - The nice man brought us the last (long) few blocks to church, which has saved us. I have never been so glad to see our church parking lot, ever.

4:05 - Another Nathan goes all business on us, all Iowa, all midwestern snow survivor. Okay! Everybody inside, take off your coats! Wet coats inside feel colder than no coats! Here kids, stay right here, don't move, read these board books about communion! Erin please go upstairs and find my phone charger! I am going to get a shovel to dig my car out etc etc etc! and OH MAN I am glad he is taking charge because at this point I am DONE.

4:25 - I have procured kid-sized backup socks, sweatshirts and hats from the lost and found. I cannot find the phone charger. I also cannot find Another Nathan's boss, whose car is still buried in the parking lot but doesn't seem to have gone home with anyone else. I make lots of phone calls to track him down, leave a marker note for him on the whiteboard in the choir room because we are making a break for our house, we don't want to leave him stranded. Being stuck in a snowstorm makes everyone feel VERY CARING AND TEAM TOGETHERY, YO. True story. (It turns out he had brought good winter gear, and walked like four miles home on his own, tired and cold but perfectly safe.) So I am just finishing all of that when Another Nathan bursts in and says his car is cleared, and up on the road, and he is brisk-clapping us to get bundled and get going again.

4:30 - The kids are buckled in a row across the backseat of Another Nathan's little civic (we have car seats for the girls this time; *praise hands* for never remembering to take them out of his car) and they all three look wide-eyed and shellshocked. Finally I am not driving, finally home seems attainable, I am starting to feel okay, yet still I do not think to take a picture.

4:35 - We make it through the only trecherous intersection between church and my house, and we breathe a sigh of relief. We can walk from here if we need to. Home is within reach! We know we will make it! Nathan and I both have giddy-relief tears right behind our eyes.

4:37 - Some dumb van is stopped in the middle of the road (for no reason, waiting for another car to go?) and is blocking any good path for other cars to get through. I have to get out and navigate Another Nathan through it. I exchange Words with the driver of the van. He is not nice. (Very Caring Team Togethery FAIL, dude.) I do not need to push the car while I am out there, which strikes little Nathan as patently unfair, and when he recounts the story later, he consistently tells the part where I didn't push Another Nathan's car but Another Nathan pushed our van and mommy didn't even help him. So.

4:45 - We can see our house! We make one attempt to get into the driveway, fail miserably, and gladly just park across the street. We fairly jump up and down cheering as we muck through the snowy yard, our exhausted wet cold victory lap. HOME.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOME.


*********
(Those are snowflakes, not asterisks. Just go with it.)

And then we spent the next five hours trying to unwind, which was not easy. We felt anxious basically all night. We hung our socks by the fireplace to dry, I made dinner, no one played outside in the snow like last time, and Another Nathan spent the night in the guest house before making it home safely the next day -- after almost getting run over by a snowplow while scraping his car on our street (he had to jump inside for cover) (it broke his side mirror) (I had never seen one before; I had no idea how fast they go!) (in related news I am officially now terrified of snowplows).

And then the day after THAT things were finally melted enough to go back for the van, which was right where we left it. A tree had fallen right behind it (!!!!) but not on it, thank goodness. And even on the third day, it was hard to wrestle the van up that incline and dislodge it from the ice.

(Scraping ice off the car you recently abandoned, while wearing shorts? On Valentine's day? You might live in North Carolina.)

Oh, and then, AND THEN, I couldn't find my keys. HAHAHA OF COURSE. (A certain oddly observant friend had a flash memory of them on the desk at church two days before, and indeed there they were.)

Oh y'all. I know many people had it  much, much worse in this icy traffic fiasco, but for us with the kids, THIS WAS TERRIBLE. Like, legit stressful, probably will never forget it, terrible. And I don't know what much more to say about it besides thank goodness it is over, thank goodness that despite how scared we felt in the moment, it was not as bad as it could have been, and thank goodness spring is looming.

And that's the story of why we never did finish our Zaxby's milkshake.

Our House! In the Snow!

We have had more snow adventures in the last 24 hours than I am currently able to articulate and recount, so for now -- just look at my pretty house in the pretty snow! (I only find it pretty because I am writing this safe and warm at home. Even at that, lovely thoughts about snow are... difficult.)

This is day two of falling snow, on the second snowy week this year. That's unusual for us; we still aren't used to seeing our (new? ish) house like this:

That's after we shoveled ("we" hahahahaha) the first round off the sidewalk, then it rained some and froze ice on it, so that we had a perfect storm of winter mess waiting for the new snow to fall on. Sarcastic yay!

Also, it is hard to get a picture of snow while it is falling. It's a skill I am lacking as a southerner, I think. Or maybe not as a southerner, but as a person who mostly just takes pictures on my phone. Anyway I put my camera on "snow" setting (yes really, feel free to laugh at me) and this is what I got. So, okay.

Tomorrow will be the SEVENTH day of missed school for snow this year. What? WHAT. Where are we anyway? Is this North Carolina? (Not just this year, but seven missed days out of the last three weeks. Eight for Nathan, since he had a pukey morning on Monday and got sent home.)

But the good news is that since school canceled for tomorrow, the preschool valentine party isn't happening tomorrow, which means there were preschool valentine cupcakes for lunch today.

So at least there's that.

January Unblogged

I'm not sure I did a great job at blogging through January (hence the catchup now) (actually I take that back, I am a fantastic blogger, and I blogged exactly the right amount and will continue to do so), but here are some things that I did when I wasn't blogging then, because I am blogging now, which is exactly the right thing:

1.) Mark and I always look and act nice at other people's birthday dinners:

2.) Charlotte and Anneliese did some shopping with their babies, and then took a break to make some calls:

3.) I dyed some burp cloths for Nick and Barbara's baby, our new niece who will be here in just a tiny few more weeks!

4.) Nathan had one really great hair day:

5.) Charlotte wore this outfit and yes, she got a million hugs:

6.) Anneliese got a haircut. It was her first time getting her hair washed and dried in a haircut place, and she loved it. "It feels nice and my eyes want to close!" Um, yep.

7.) She also got new shoes. The beloved colorful plaid shoes that we made her save until the day we left for St. Croix (and oh how she remembered that morning, in the wee hours before we got on the plane) are finally done. She chose new tennis shoes that are mostly gray with rainbow laces that "tie" with velcro. It's what I want, it's what she wants, SOLD.

8.) I did some nap creeping, of course:

9.) Nathan brought his toy spinosaurus to church and ended up sitting at the organ. It has only been a few weeks and I already don't remember the circumstances that led to this, but it's not every day you get to see a happy child pretending to play the organ with a spinosaurus, so here you go:

10.) I went on a retreat with the confirmation class from my church, and it was Something. Mostly it was really cold. Like, really cold. And it turns out NC eighth graders do not know how to dress for weather in the teens when they need to be outside (leggings are not pants! what do you mean you did not bring a coat?) but hey the train cars we slept in were mostly warm, so there's that?

11.) We rounded out the month with a snowless snow day, which required a pizza picnic on the living room floor by the fire. We don't need actual snowflakes do up a snow day right.

(The snow totally started while we were eating.)

Happy January!

Snowme Day!

It snowed in Raleigh!

Like, for real snowed.

It is our first real snow in about four years, which means Nathan and Anneliese (last time, two and an infant) didn't really remember it, and this was Charlotte's very first. She spent the whole day saying snowme day! wook! I found it! in a very classic-Charlotte way. I found it! might be her trademark phrase. (Snowme day is her pronunciation of "snowflake day," which is an episode of Daniel Tiger, and is apparently not only her word for snowflake, but also snowman and snow day and well, just snow in general.) (Is adorable.)

Normally snow isn't my favorite, but with school canceled and Mark just happening to be off work, we didn't need to go anywhere. So it ended up being really fun and sweet.

I will stop teasing my mom for buying us snowpants now.

They didn't know what to make of it. so they ran in circles. all four of them.

Three snowy babies in a sled!

And then they took turns doing this while Mark and I melted.

This is also basically all he does... at the beach. 

Also, we built our kids' first snowman! (Alltogethernow: "do you want to build a snowmaaaaan?") (If you're not singing, you're doing it wrong.) Like everyone else in America, we named our snowman Olaf. He is tiny. 

Presenting... Olaf Goettsch. He is a tiny snowman. 

For perspective, here is Olaf with the kids. See? Tiny.

Snow makes things too bright to smile pretty.

Unless you're Anneliese. In which case there are no objects to pretty smiles.

Look! We are southerners with pictures of our kids in the snow! Is it too soon to order next year's Christmas cards?

Happy snowme day!