here comes the sun... but where's the heat?!

Its been quite an interesting 24 hours. And not just for us, but for most of our area! 
If any of you think this amount of snow is normal for the 
Puget Sound area in Washington... you guessed wrong! 
This would be like the Bay Area {California} getting this much snow, 
all of a sudden, the week of Thanksgiving. 
Unexpected & Unprepared are the best words to use. 
Northern Washington gets snow, Canada gets snow, Idaho gets snow and 
Oregon gets a lot of snow. This area doesn't. 
So the city had some awkward adjustments to make last night. 
I-5 was literally a parking lot from about 3pm-2am this morning. 
I kid you not. 
Our friend Nate took a bus to work and ended up being stuck on the freeway,
 on the bus, for more than 8 hours last night. I think he got home around 
2+AM this morning. 
Craziness! 
Drivers were caught off guard, people weren't prepared, cars were sliding into one another, spinning out, pulling over and just waiting to see if conditions improved. 
It was insane
Like being in California after a ton of rain = PANIC :) 
And this is where I should probably say these people up here do not know traffic the way 
some other states know traffic. They think they do... so I try not to spoil it for them. 
But their version of "bad traffic" makes Jason and I laugh. 
We just try to laugh and make fun when they're not looking ;-p 

We had to drive my sister home last night 
{she spent the day with us at our place} 
and putting chains on the van tires was quite the experience for Jason and me! 
I think it took us about an hour, in the 23 degree weather, without snow pants. 
I felt like an ice cubed human when we were done. 
We drove her home {s-l-o-w-l-y} and then came back home, only to find out our 
heater had completely stopped working. Completely
So we bundled the kids up for bed, grabbed all the extra blankets we could find, 
covered their windows with thick blankets and hoped for the best. 
I went to bed with Jason's very nice, insulated ski coat and was still freezing
I keep trying to find ways to have this be a learning experience; 
"how can we be thankful, even in this situation?" and I think I'm struggling 
with it more than my family. I'm the complainer :( 
The kids haven't mentioned the cold, at all. They had pancakes this morning, then asked if they could play the wii {they were shocked and thrilled when I said yes} and now they're 
happily playing Mario Kart. Kara is barefoot... and no matter what I do, she won't leave 
socks on her feet. She's our hillbilly. 
Jason is in the office, bundled up, working. Hasn't said a word about the cold. 
And the room he's in is the coldest. 

I decided I can be thankful that we even have a home to live in! 
Can you imagine having this kind of weather and not having any shelter? 
We have hot running water. 
we have a stove and oven that can be turned on, simply to heat up a room in the house. 
we have blankets. 
we have gloves, jackets, pants, socks, etc... 
we have a fireplace. 
Being a fake gas one it puts out very little heat, but still. 
we have the heater guy on his way over to fix the problem :) 
we have good landlords who have been calling/emailing, trying to help us find 
temporary remedies to help us be comfortable while we wait. 
I'm holding a hot cup of coffee. 
and the #1 thing I'm giving thanks for ... 
this situation is temporary. We're usually quite comfortable in our home.

In the meantime, the views are gorgeous, the sun is out in rare form 
and the snow on the ground is glistening. 
Rachel keeps announcing "God sprinkled glitter in it for ME!" 


The snow is beginning to melt, but we are expecting a bit more today/tonight. 
The highs today are a low 23 degrees, so I think we'll probably see some more snow. 
The rest of the week is supposed to be cold, sunny and clear. 
Perfect for Thanksgiving :) 


Comments

Gina said…
See, you found plenty of things to be thankful for in this situstion! :-) The pictures are beautiful and I love Rachel's glitter comment. :-)
Krista said…
BEAUTIFUL! How fun for snow, not so much fun with lack of heat. Hopefully it gets fixed quickly!
Stef said…
Jason's fixed the heater!!!!!! The house is slowly warming up :)
Melissa Joy said…
I was needing some good, cold glitter on the ground too, so I am desperately thankful for our fluffy five inches of it. :) Our high is 20, our low is about negative 5 tonight. We love this!! We're excited for our White Thanksgiving, and the sledding it will bring. :)
Enjoy! Have fun with the glitter! ;)
Carrie said…
How crazy was Monday's I-5 commute? It took Rian 5 1/2 hours to get home! Did you guys get stuck in any of that?
Stef said…
I was thinking about you, Carrie! Sorry to hear about Rian's yucky commute :(
The kids and I didn't leave the house all day and Jason went out once to pick up my sister, but it was before the heavy snow fall.
We drove her home around 10pm and that was it! :)
Carrie said…
How crazy was Monday's I-5 commute? It took Rian 5 1/2 hours to get home! Did you guys get stuck in any of that?
Melissa Joy said…
I was needing some good, cold glitter on the ground too, so I am desperately thankful for our fluffy five inches of it. :) Our high is 20, our low is about negative 5 tonight. We love this!! We're excited for our White Thanksgiving, and the sledding it will bring. :)
Enjoy! Have fun with the glitter! ;)

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