Thus it begins...

Sunday the 14th, I woke up to get ready for church at 9am. I looked out the window...nothing. I thought we were supposed to have snow or something. We were all ready to go and around 8:15 the snow started to fall. No biggie. It wasn't enough to keep us from church. Only contagious illnesses and the Sunday after having a baby will keep me from church. And even then, I'm usually home against my will. I hate missing my Sunday meetings!

So we left. But the snow kept falling and in big flakes. I was happy to see, though, that the weather didn't deter everyone. We still filled the chapel and overflow area and many of our ward members who live in the country were there before 9am. By the time church started the snow was really coming down. And then came the let down. Under the Stake Presidency's direction, and they know best....they were sending us home after Sacrament meeting. What a disappointment. I had already missed the Sunday before. Jake had thrown up in the middle of the night Saturday and Jared was out of town. I had no choice, but to stay home. It was a drag then, too.

But that was only the beginning of my Sunday sadness.

The long awaited stake Messiah performance complete with choir, soloists and orchestra (that I've been working painstakingly on since October) was also cancelled. We had invited friends and school teachers and neighbors for the big event. I even made a worksheet for the boys to do while they listened telling them about Handel and how he came to compose the oratorio and things to listen or watch for during each song the choir sings, in addition to rating each song. The performance has been tentatively postponed til Sunday, Dec. 28th, but STILL.....(can you hear the high pitched whining in my voice yet?)

So Sunday was slow going...an all around bummer day.
But it got "better".
School was closed Monday.

I had a lot to do on Monday, Dec. 15th...6 loads of laundry, make a payday treat for the office, take the treat to the office, pick up the pager for Jared while I was there, take the pager to Jared at the Urgent Care, and then get the kids some gloves because Cooper went out in the freezing temperatures that morning to make a snowball and came back inside ten minutes later with frostbite on his hands. We have no snow gear in this house and discovered we are very unprepared in the way of clothing for this weather. But I have a hard time investing in something that we may or may not use from year to year. With that said, however, I may just have to suck it up.

But before doing any of the above, except making the treat, I called my neighbor and ward member, Matt McReynolds. He had sent out an email over the weekend giving everyone suggestions for preparing for the arctic blast and snow. Our internet was down Friday through late Sat. afternoon, so I didn't get a chance to ask him about it. We had our water spigots covered already, but I didn't know it was a good thing to cover your foundation vents. So I called him up Monday morning to see what we needed to do.

I was ashamed to say, I couldn't give him the number of vents we had. What kind of uninformed homeowner am I? I'd seen a couple over this past year while working in the yard, but never thought to take inventory. Before I knew it, that good man came over with his wife Margaret and he counted our vents, in the FREEZING BITING wind. There were eight and I never would have guessed. Then Matt and his wife went back to their house, and using some of his own plywood and saw, custom cut the wood to size for our vents, and without announcing their return, they both worked to put those wood pieces in each of our vent spaces. And then they were gone. I noticed them back out there and made some hot chocolate to warm them up, but they were off before I could give it to them. I cannot believe the pure charity they showed to us that morning...of all mornings. Jared and I are still touched by their sweet service. So we're going to try and get them something special to show our appreciation and gratitude. This went beyond a baked-good thank you.

After that and after a neighbor and her daughter came to deliver us yummy treats and visit for a few minutes, we had lunch and then ran our aforementioned errands.

Jared was home around 5:00 because the Urgent Care closed down early because the roads were starting to get slick. And we were in for another long day...school was closed Tuesday.