Let the Music Move You

Everything Is Awesome

We had another snow day today. Or rather, we had a snow-now-covered-in-freezing-rain-which-has-created-an-ice-skating-rink-of-the-streets day. Church was even canceled yesterday. Instead, we watched past General Conference talks at home and stayed warm. Things have begun to thaw and life will return to normal tomorrow.

On Saturday morning, after the snow and before the freezing rain, Bryan and the boys made the normally six minute (now twenty minute) drive to the movie theater and partook of the great father-son bonding that is The Lego Movie.

The girls and I stayed home. For the record, Phoebe did not stay home because she is a girl, she stayed home because she refused to do the few chores required to get her to the movie. She was invited to go, just like the boys were. Also for the record, she really didn't care that she missed it.

All three of the boys loved it. They've been talking about it ever since they got back. And they've all been singing the theme song.

The movie fun on Saturday has led to even more Lego play than usual. Peter took this picture to document the ship he built. Awesome.

The Weather Outside Is Frightful

Wednesday night I got a Winter Storm Warning alert on my phone. It's only snowed once since we've been here, and there wasn't much of the white stuff. I didn't worry a great deal.

Thursday morning I had another warning pop-up on my phone and I realized it would be snowing during our drive to and from Kung Fu. I don't love that drive in good weather, so I started debating if we would go or not.

Then, as I dropped the boys off at school, I got a call telling me that Kung Fu would be canceled for that night. Excellent, they made the choice for me. Less than an hour after getting home from the morning drop off, I got a call telling me that school would be letting out three hours early and that all evening activities in the district were canceled.

And then I got an email from Phoebe's dance studio telling me that all classes were canceled for the day.

It felt like the whole town was shutting down.

Bryan called and told me he would watch the weather and the traffic and might come home early. He did, as did many of his co-workers. 

Why the huge reaction to the estimated four to eight inches of snow? In Utah life would continue uninterrupted with that much snowfall. Snowplows really do make a difference. So does having a driving population that knows how to handle snowy conditions. The lack of both make travel treacherous here. Bryan said he saw fifteen or twenty people that had slid off the road during his drive home and at least two accidents.

I wasn't surprised when school was cancelled for today as well.

This is what our backyard looked like today. See that wide span of largely untouched snow on the other side of the fence? There's a road under that. According to Bryan (who braved the roads to go to Costco and Walmart, both of which are two minutes from our house), all of the roads looked like that.

I was content to stay in our warm house, out of the cold.

Improvising

We wouldn't buy him electronics, so he made some of his own.

You're looking at two laptops (he made one for a friend), a mouse, and a cell phone. He actually spent time sitting at them and typing. He told me he left the screens blank because they were "imagination computers."

Look, They're Not Quite as Blurry This Time!

Taming the Beast

The laundry was growing unruly. The piles were reaching such heights I feared we might lose something important in them, like a shoe or a child. But between the hours spent feeding Sophie and the (much fewer) hours spent sleeping, I had lost hope of conquering the clothing.

Then I had an epiphany. In a short forty-minute period I had the laundry taken care of and the loft free of the offending material. What was my amazing solution, you ask? It's quite simple actually.

I didn't fold anything.

I sorted the clothes based on who they belonged to, put each person's clothing in their own laundry basket, and instructed them to put away their own stuff. Everything gets unfolded when small hands put it away in drawers, so why not save a step?

When Peter came for his basket he paused and asked, 'Um Mom, you know you forgot to fold this, right?"

Focus

My phone has been taking lousy pictures lately, so I asked Bryan to take a look at it and see if he could fix the problem. I handed it to him for repair yesterday after church. A few minutes ago I was looking through my pictures, searching for something to post tonight. I found this.

I regularly find surprise pictures because Peter has whisked away my phone without my knowledge. It's not often that Bryan is the man behind the camera.

What you can't see is that I'm holding her hand.

Smiles

Nature's Highlights

I found a white hair yesterday. If my count is correct, this brings my total up to three, possibly four. And they're definitely white, not silver or gray. They also stick straight up, which is the only thing that really bugs me about them.

Phoebe was near when I discovered the newest one. She actually got really excited about it.

Me: Well, I've got a new white hair.

Phoebe: Another one?

Me: Yup.

Phoebe: Just like Anna!

Now, according to Phoebe, I have both the voice and the hair of a Disney princess. Nice.

Look-a-Likes

Yes, it's kind of blurry (it's hard getting a picture of these active girls), but it's still sweet.