Happy Valentine's Day!!

What a perfect time for a fun holiday - right in the middle of a dreary, slushy, gray winter week. I don't work today so I'm happily cleaning the house (okay, maybe not so happily...) and getting ready to make dinner. Tonight's menu - heart shaped cookies (yum!), roasted Cornish game hens, baked potatoes, salad, and dinner rolls. I'm even thinking about making it a candlelight dinner - that might amuse the kids.

Third worst commute...

Ever! And that includes three long winters with lake effect snow in NE Ohio.

So Tuesday morning we wake up to about 3 maybe 4 inches of snow and it is still snowing heavily. My husband agrees to drive since he is much calmer in treacherous road conditions and far, far less prone to panicking. The roads are horrible! Per the news, the city of Columbus, in its infinite wisdom, decided it was "too dangerous" to send out the snow plows and ice tracks. Therefore, NO roads - not even the highway - have been touched. The entire city looks like the parking lot behind our apartment. I mostly kept my eyes closed for the ride and he later told me he nearly spun out three times (I only felt one). But due to the horrid conditions, the other drivers actually are driving sensibly and slowly. We only arrive 7 minutes late to work which is amazing. More importantly, we arrive safely.

The conditions continued to worsen throughout the morning with the snow changing to freezing rain and sleet. And at 11:30 we get the shocking news - work is closing! Immediately! The managers walk through the departments telling us to finish what we are doing and GET OUT. And - even better - they are paying us for the entire 8 hours! Woo-hoo!

My husband drives us to pick up the little ones early - even better news because this only counts as a half day and we save $40!!!! I feel giddy - I don't think our work has ever sent us home early with pay. The roads are still very poor and becoming icy so my husband doesn't drive on the highways, instead we creep through downtown Columbus which is strangely quiet and abandoned for a weekday afternoon. We arrive home about an hour after our dismissal and I heat us up a frozen pizza for lunch. We spend the rest of our snow day just relaxing (and occasionally laughing that the big kids had school ALL DAY.)

Long weekend

Sadly, my husband's grandfather passed away on Feb. 2nd. We drove up to his hometown last Friday morning at 6 AM. We had planned to go up the night before but I lost my debit card and after spending about 45 frenzied minutes looking for it we decided to just leave the next day as it was 10 pm by then. (I cancelled the debit card - never did find it)

The funeral service was very touching and the little kids behaved quite well. Little PJ was introducing himself to far-flung relatives and family friends - not shy at all. At the grave site there were full military honors including a 21 gun salute and a bugle. The guns terrified poor Lorene, she didn't stop crying until she was safely back in the minivan.

On Saturday, Aunt Kathy and Aunt Anna took PJ shopping and stocked up on clearance winter clothes, underwear, socks, and Easter clothes for both little kids - including a hat and gloves for Lorene. Unfortunately on Saturday afternoon, nearly everyone became sick - my husband, his sisters, both aunts... and they were all bedridden through Monday. We couldn't leave when we planned so I spent the next two days in the big house with no internet and no books - with weather too cold and icy to kick the kids out to play. We all had a bit of cabin fever, that's for sure!

Monday afternoon my husband felt well enough to handle the nearly 3 hour ride home. Aunt Kathy loaded us down with food leftover from the luncheon after the funeral - including a half ham. She also gave us food that Grandpa had bought for himself that she knew she wouldn't eat - such as 4 12 packs of diet Coke and a dozen corn dogs.

We got home Monday afternoon - it was an uneventful ride home. The weather drama would happen Tuesday!