Four glorious days.

We had plenty of warning. For days, our friendly neighborhood meteorologists had been telling us about the extreme cold and freezing rain we could expect at the end of the week. But we'd heard it all before; just a week ago, we'd gotten our hopes up, and all that we got was this:

Yep. That was our "winter weather event."

So this time around, we took the necessary precautions, but we weren't quite buying what the weather guys were selling. Sure, it COULD be a real deep freeze (that would "entomb" the Metroplex, as one prognosticator put it), but it could also be one big ratings ploy.

But Thursday afternoon, the temps started dropping and wet stuff was falling. Surprisingly, our school districts didn't even need to wait until morning to call off school for Friday. Turns out, that was a smart move. Around 3:30 Friday morning, I looked out our front door to see this:

Everything was covered in at least half an inch of ice.

And just like in 2011, it was like we'd pressed PAUSE right in the middle of our busy lives. No school. No alarm clocks. That bowling tournament in Huntsville? Nope. The SAT Ryan was scheduled to take Saturday morning? Postponed. All our plans were put on hold. On Sunday, I even had the day off from the job I do for free. Dangerous driving conditions extended our mini-vacay through today (Monday), too.

So what did we do? Lots of things! We had chili, cinnamon rolls, enchiladas, lots of coffee/hot chocolate, and cozy time spent by the fire:

And we ventured outside a time or two:

One of our neighbors has a sled that he was kind enough to let us use:

And of course, we just enjoyed our icy world:

Inside, we kept our pups warm:

We also paid bills, cleaned house, decorated three out of our four Christmas trees, and watched movies and football. (I also spent plenty of time on a heating pad since my lower back is NOT a fan of the cold.)

Throughout these four days, I've noticed that there are basically two kinds of people: those who relish cocooning in their homes and those who just HAVE to get out. All weekend I was stunned to see my Facebook friends talking about their various excursions into the frozen tundra just for grins: trips to the movies, shopping excursions, dinners out on the town. I was already worried sick about my friends who had to travel for work. I couldn't handle the stress of knowing others were "slip-slidin' away" by choice! But you know, some folks just have to get out of the house. Now if you recall my ever-present wanderlust, you'd think I'd fall in that category. But when the travel is treacherous, I'm the homebodiest homebody you've ever seen! Besides, I have so much respect for the first-responders who have to be on the roads, rescuing the stranded. The best way I can convey that respect is by not being someone in need of rescue.

So tomorrow we will finally push PLAY, and all our busy-ness will resume. But what a great four days we've had! And hey, it's not even winter yet. Maybe we'll have a few more ice days before spring? (Please?!)

Snowpocalypse 2011.

Unlike thousands of Metroplex schoolchildren, I went to bed on Jan. 31 hoping against hope that we'd have school the next day. Because my classes had computer lab time scheduled for that Tuesday and Wednesday, I did NOT want a snow day. As rare as snow in Texas may be, time in the computer lab is almost as hard to come by.

See, the senior research paper was supposed to be due that Wednesday, Feb. 2. Because the paper my seniors write will be revised before the end of our trimester, I knew we desperately needed to have school that week so those papers could be turned in and I could have time to grade them all.

But then I awoke that Tuesday morning to see this: ...and we all hit the PAUSE button.


It didn't take me long to get past my school angst. It's always fun to see sleet and snow in our corner of the world.

Since we get maybe one or two good icings a year, it's quite novel for us to get a true "winter wonderland."

Not that this was a "good snow." Unlike last February when we had a decent accumulation that yielded lots of snowpeople around the neighborhood, this one barely gave us a good snowball.

But that didn't stop us from trying to throw 'em! (Notice Ryan's cold weather gear.) By the way, Ryan was THRILLED to have the time away from school. Katie was happy to have a break, but she wasn't so crazy about being away from her friends for so long.

Frisco had a little separation anxiety, too. Her favorite toy ended up being frozen in the water dish on the back porch!

When the rolling blackouts hit on Wednesday, we realized we should figure out how to turn on the gas logs in our fireplace—just in case.It took me a bit, but we finally got to have our first fire in our new house!

During one of the blackouts, we huddled in the living room to get into some trouble. Make that Star Wars Trouble.

Speaking of trouble, Katie had a little mishap on Tuesday, Day 1 of our iceventure. While trying to carve a mini skateboard out of wood, she cut her index finger pretty badly. Since we were iced in, we had to make the call: Would it be worse to brave the icy roads or not get her finger stitched? We opted to stay home and watch the finger. By Wednesday, the cut still didn't look good, so Brett's amazing sister, Kelly, paid us a house call. She agreed that it really didn't need stitches, so she cleaned it up and bandaged it for her. Awesome!

We were prepared to brave the roads to get to Care Now if we needed to, but it was so nice to avoid the ice altogether! We were so impressed that Kelly came over so nonchalantly. (Watching her slide out of our driveway told us we were lucky to get to stay home, however.)


Being housebound led to all kinds of improvising, like baking a Halloween cake in a Christmas tree pan!

By Thursday we were all suffering from cabin fever, and the appointments we'd been rescheduling for three days really couldn't wait any longer.

For much of the drive, we had a lane with good ruts to drive in.

On some of the hilly stretches, we saw evidence of sanding. Although some areas were still solid ice, most of the well-traveled streets weren't bad. But just as we started to think we might have school on Friday, we passed a high school.

One look at the skating-rink-like parking lot and we knew we'd miss Friday, too.

As it turned out, it snowed early Friday morning anyway.

Apparently we had a little visitor early that morning!

Friday morning we played in the snow with Frisco. At least one of our "kids" was willing to play with us! (For the record, Katie walked to the swings that morning, but she wasn't hip to hangin' with the 'rents.)









The snow was pretty, but with every step we were reminded that there was still a layer of ice underneath.

Every foray outside meant wet footwear!

By Friday afternoon, the sidewalks were much clearer as the temps started to approach freezing.

Brett and I headed to the trails to explore. The streets by that point were really slushy since snow had been dumped on top of the ice.

Here are a ton of pix from our little field trip:



As we walked deeper into the park, we could hear all kinds of commotion. Eventually we found the party:
It was the neighborhood's sledding hill!

We stood there a good while, just watching people slide in their sundry contraptions.







One part of the park had this vast expanse of glittering, pristine snow,

which Brett felt compelled to spoil!

"This is the closest I'll ever come to anarchy!" he said as he put his mark on that section of snow.


We spent more than an hour exploring our park that afternoon. It was cold but the sun kept us from freezing, and all that natural beauty enticed us to keep walking just a little bit farther.Craziness at school ensued once our snowcation was over, but for those four freezing days, it was nice to trade our busy-ness for coziness!