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 :)