snow day

The enormous cold front that swept across the country this last week dipped down into Austin to give us a taste of what most of the rest of the country endures every winter.  It got COLD!  Monday evening at the grocery store, I noticed it was really busy.  All the handicapped parking places were taken!  All the bananas were gone!  I commented on it to the kid helping me out with my groceries and he said, "It's probably everybody getting groceries before the freeze comes."  That was the first I had heard of it (life is more interesting when you never hear a weather report), but he wasn't kidding.  It dropped about 40 degrees that night, and stayed cold all week. 
On Wednesday after the boys' art class, they went across the street where a small creek runs-- it was frozen completely over and was totally thrilling.  I started hearing rumors of snow (again, no weather report = never knowing what's coming), and Joseph started getting excited.  I could tell he was excited because he kept saying, "I bet it won't snow."  "I'm sure there won't be any snow."  "Mom, it's not going to snow, but if it does, will you wake me up?"  He's like me.  He tries vainly to stave off disappointment by trying to pretend he doesn't care.  It doesn't work. 
Well, it DID snow (although I had already gone to sleep, so I didn't wake Joseph up), and on Friday morning everything was covered in about 2 inches of snow.  When I got up and saw the blanket of white outside, I called upstairs, "Hey guys!  Get up and look at the snow!"  The boys have NEVER popped up out of bed as quickly and willingly on a school morning.  I'm tempted to try that again sometime, but it would probably only work once more, and I doubt they'd find it amusing.  :-)  Joseph was the first one dressed and downstairs and out the front door to be the first one to mark is footprints on our front walkway. 

It wasn't much snow, but enough to cancel school and work and pretty much bring the entire city of Austin to a stand-still.  I don't think it was the snow, per se, but the combination of snow, 20 degree temperatures, and no snow plows or road salt.  I scoffed, but at 8:00 AM when I got in the van with Brigham to drive over to his piano teacher's house where he had left his coat, I suddenly got it.  The 7.6 mile round trip took us an hour.  It had been well below freezing for 4 days and the road surface was very cold, and so the snow had not melted in the slightest.  In making a turn, the van started sliding and spun around 180 degrees.  It was scary!!  Luckily there was no one on the road (I only saw about 5 other cars as foolish as I was out that morning), so no harm done.  I was also happy to see that, in spite of being a completely inexperienced snow-driver, I did remember about steering into the turn and not fighting it.  Brigham was quite delighted, actually, but my heart was going about 180 beats a minute and I was petrified the entire rest of the drive.  But, we retrieved his coat, and he got to spend the rest of the morning playing in the snow with his brothers.
Joseph was really disappointed to find that he could not make snowballs!  The snow was too powdery to stick together.  But they had fun tramping around in it, standing on the ice that covered the surface of the pool, and a little later when the sun came out, the snow started melting enough to stick and a big snowball fight ensued which ended in 2 of the 3 boys stomping in the house in tears, so I guess it was a big success.  :-)  They also discovered the success of their little "experiment" with an egg which they left outside to freeze.  Yep, it cracked!

Brigham also initiated the building of a snowman.  He used a rake to gather up a big pile of snow from the basketball court and they made a very decent snowman!
I can't get back to that part of the backyard in my wheelchair, so I sent the boys out with my camera to take a few pictures.  Pretty good, huh?

After a while, Mosey came in, freezing.  I've never seen his cheeks as bright red as they were-- hives were even popping up on his cheeks!  I didn't know that could happen with cold, and I worried he was getting sick, but they disappeared once he warmed up.  This picture doesn't do justice to how bright red his cheeks were.

His poor little hands, totally inadequately insulated with his Target dollar-spot lime-green mittens which got soaked almost immediately, got so red and swollen, he couldn't even unzip his jacket.  Look at his CTR ring cutting into his poor little finger!

 I didn't bother trying to do any lessons with the boys until after lunch when they were pretty much snowed-out, and even then it was pretty much a wash.  Ah, well, no harm done.
It's warmed back up today.  The high was 67 or something like that.  That is what I love about Austin weather.  You get to enjoy a fun few days of freezing weather and snow, but there's no time to get sick of it before it bumps back up to perfectly pleasant spring-time weather. 
So, there you have it!  The excitement for the week.