We all had a rough night, so when I startled myself out of a dead sleep at 730a. I laid there and debated if I was going to get Keree up and take her to school. When my eyes finally focused, I noticed that the ground outside was white. I had to do
a double take since they weren't predicting snow, we were suppose to get a little bit of rain and thats it. I sat up and pulled back the curtain and it was coming down so heavy that I couldn't see the tree line. I flipped on the news and they were advising people not to drive unless they had to, so that meant a self-appointed snow day for Keree. Keree actually ended up sleeping in till almost 8a, so it was nice to have a little quiet time just watc
hing the snow fall. So after some breakfast and getting dressed, the snowflakes that were falling were huge and some puffy looking. So we decided to put on our winter coats and head outside. It was such a slushy mess that we didn't move off of the sidewalk but it was so pretty. Keree spent part of her time trying to catch the huge snowflakes on her tongue. It was pretty funny watching her, with her eyes closed 
and her tongue out. Once we headed inside, I checked my email before heading upstairs. I was excited to open an email entitled "singles allowed to adopt from Chin@." How exciting that the country is open again to Singles who choose to adopt from the special focus program. I have to admit that I did take a peek at a few of the kiddos on the list and some totally melted my heart. I'm just so happy that it's an optio
n again for so many singles out there. After the mail was checked, we headed upstairs to work. Well in Keree's case play, she spent her morning playing in her play kitchen. I don't know how many times she served me poison soup, sandwich or drink. We headed downstairs for lunch and since it's Monday that meant Muffin Tin. I decided that since this week is St. Patrick's day that would be a perfect them
e. So in my first cup is half of an whole wheat english muffin, I used edible markers to draw a rainbow on it. Our next cup is Key Lime flavored fluffy yogurt, I then used some green apple licorice to make a clover on top. Then I added a raspberry milano cookie and again used the edible markers to write Happy St. Pat's day on it. The last cu
p of the top row has two marshmallows, again I used edible markers and drew clovers on them. The next row, the first cup has some cucumbers coins, I really wanted to make them gold for the money at the end of the rainbow but couldn't come up with a way. Next is some cornbeef hash, I used canned because I haven't had time to make homemade. Finally, the last cup is some green olives which Keree loves any type of olives. As for the rest of our day, I did get Keree to lay down for a short nap. It was less than an hour, so I'm hoping that she's exhausted tonight and will go to
sleep early. Otherwise, we checked on my Grandparents because my Grandpa had doc appts today. Luckily, they made it safely to and from even in the snow. My Aunt V sent us a package, inside was both Keree and I's birthday presents. I got a gorgeous 2.75 ct garnet ring (which is my birthstone) and Keree got a Rapunzel pillo
wcase and some Rapunzel hair ties. So we called my Aunt and thanked her for our gifts. We also got to talk to my Brother for a short time while he was driving home from Pennsylvania. He had been there for a wedding and then took a few more days off to see a few sites with his girlfriend. Keree was suppose to have our final cheer practice this evening but when she woke up from her nap, she had a low grade fever again. Since there has been all kinds of stuff going around, I choose to keep her home and not chance anything. Keree spent the rest of the evening working in some workbooks and drawing. 
This morning, we woke to it snowing, yet again. The weather people last night said it would be maybe nothing to a dusting. Well when I opened my eyes and checked outside, we already had 7" and it was still snowing heavily. Keree spent her morning watching Saturday morning cartoons and I watched the snow fall outside the window. I was pretty sure that they would be calling off the games today and it took till almost 945am for the Coach to call and say it was canceled. I told her that I had already assumed it was because how much snow we had and how it hadn't stopped. What I didn't say was and you guys cancel even at the mention of bad weather, when it's still perfectly nice outside. Needless to say, it continued to snow all day. We pretty much stayed in our pajamas all day long. We watched movies, worked in some workbooks, read a few books and just relaxed. Heck, I didn't even take any pictures today. Even though I enjoyed today getting to cuddle with my Keree, I really am looking forward to some warmer weather.
Well this morning, we woke up to find 3 more inches of ice and almost 8" of snow on the ground. I couldn't believe it. I was also thankful that when I woke up 
this morning at 4am, that Keree pre-school was listed as being canceled. So after we all got up, I sat out to find some super warm clothes for all of us. I headed outside to try and scrap off some of the ice on our sidewalk and to try and start the car. Even though I told Keree to stay inside the warmer rooms, she decided to watch from the door. So before heading back in, I grabbed Keree and snapped this quick photo outside. Of course because of the weather, we spent the entire day inside. Keree spent her day 
either playing with Rapunzel, doing work books or drawing in her notebook. Right when it hit noon, it suddenly started snowing 
again. What was ironic about it all, was the Weather guy goes "all the snow and ice has moved out of our region and we are all clear." It was so funny because the snow that started at noon, added an additional 7" to our totals. Once it finally stopped snowing, I headed ou
tside to walk our entire property. I wanted to make sure there was no damage and of course I wanted to take a few more pictures. I couldn't believe how cold it was outside. By the time I reached the half-way mark around the acreage, I was 
frozen. I couldn't believe how cold my feet was. Once I was back inside, I spent my evening working on bows. I can't believe how many bows types I sold last weekend and I really need to build up my inventory again. Also since it was Wednesday, we finished our evening with tv.
For the past 3 days all they have talked about was the incoming Blizzard. The news had people convinced that they were going to lose power, wouldn't be able to get out of their houses for days and of course starve to death. There was bare store shelf's because people seemed to be preparing for the end of the world. Now, I did head out in the craziness but we 
truly needed groceries. When the storm finally arrived today, 80% of the area saw little to nothing. Then there was people like us that got almost 5" of sleet, along with almost 2" of ice. I am thankful for once that Keree's school did close, so she had her 2nd snowday of the year. We are lucky to have never lost power, so far. We did lose our tv for about 9 hrs and internet for about 4 hrs. Because I 
wasn't sure if we were going to lose our power and I'm still not so sure, I decided not to waste our wood and start a fire, since we could stay warm with space heaters. We ended up spending the majority of our day in the bedroom. I dragged Keree's Rapunzel table in here, along with her Rapunzel mini tower and all the Rapunze
l guys she got at Christmas. So, she spent almost her entire day playing with her toys. When she finally did get bored, which was after her nap and dinner, she drew pictures and wrote stories. Since, I didn't really feel like cooking, I had decided while shopping yesterday that I was going to
fix a couple crock-pot recipes over the next couple of days. You see, the night I found out my Grandma had passed away, I couldn't sleep. So, I spent my entire night and into the next morning, reading and researching recipes. I saved the ones that sounded tasty and I was extremely excited
to try Butter Steak. So, since I've also been in a funk, I decided to try the Tried-it Tuesday. So here is the recipe for Butter Steak. You take 3 lbs of stew meat, I used a lean trimmed stew meat, 4 sticks of butter and 2 envelopes of dry onion soup mix. I combined that all in my crock pot and set it to high. I decided to cook at high (4hrs) instead of low for 8 hrs because of the thought we may lose power and this way it would be done by lunchtime. So, when lunch rolled around and we still had power, I dropped the crock pot setting to low and just let it keep slowly cookin
g until 4p. Before serving, I cooked up a package of medium egg noodles. Drained them and then added them to the crock pot. Stirred it all up and served. It was amazing. Now, I did add some weber chicago steak seasoning because I thought it need a little kick. Keree ate a huge bowl of it, with no extras and so did my Mom. It was
such a hit that this is now going to be a regular meal in our house. Plus there was plenty of leftovers for lunch and dinner tomorrow. As for me, I spent my day working on korker bows. I had made up a ton of korked ribbon almost a year ago and I lost the box it was in. A few weeks ago, I re-found the box, so I'm trying to get a whole bunch made up for upcoming s
hows. And as soon as I post this, I'm headed to bed. I'm so exhausted. I was trying to stay up to see if Keree's school was called off tomorrow. They are advising us to stay off the roads because we will have bad weather till 1p or later tomorrow. All the other schools are closed already in the two counties but not Keree's. I bet 10 to 1, that they will go against common sense and still have school instead of thinking about safety.
This morning, we woke up to 13.5" of snow on the ground and it was still snowing. When I woke up, I sat there and watched tv to see if Keree's preschool and homeschool coop was canceled or not. I already had made the decision to keep Keree home because I knew our roads weren't going to be clear but it was nice to know she wasn't missing anything. It took us awhile to get bundled 
up to head outside but once we did, it was beautiful outside. Even though I hate shoveling snow, we got a nice path cleared off. Keree in the meantime was mesmorized with all the snow. She either ate it or threw it up into the air. She tried to make a snow angel but the snow was still falling, so she refused to open up her eyes while she made it. So all my pictures ofin snow and ice, I do appreciate how gorgeous it makes our world look. As for Keree, she had a hard time walking through the deep snow. I can't even count how many times she fell face first into the snow. She spent the majority of her time her
Well this morning, we woke up to about 6" of snow on the ground. So, before waking Keree up, I sat there and watched the school closings on the bottom of the tv screen. I watched it go completely thru 3 times because I couldn't believe that Keree'
s school wasn't closed. The elementary and high schools were closed in the area but not the pre-school. Seriously, my road hadn't even been touched by the plows yet and I was pretty sure that most other country road hadn't been either. I wasn't willing to risk crashing or sliding off the road into the ravine with a creek at the bottom, so Keree stayed home. So with every snow, all Keree has been wanting to do was go sledding. And honestly it hasn't worked out for us to go sledding, so today was the day. We have a small inclined hill behind our pine trees, so I dug Keree's sled out of the garage and we walked the 1/2 acre or so to arrive at our
small hill. I told Keree that I would give her a push from the top of the hill but she was in charge of dragging the sled back up the hill once she came to a stop. After, about her 20th time sledding down the hill, my Mom finally joined us. So that meant I got to stand at the bottom of the hill and try to catch some cute pictures. I lost count after awhile how many ti
mes Keree drug her sled up the hill and then sledded down. Finally, it was getting colder and Keree's hands were getting super cold, so we headed closer to the house. Of course, she had to throw a few handful of snows before heading inside. Once we were inside, we spent the rest of the day staying warm. We worked on a few workbooks, drew a few pictures and played. We kept a look-out also for the snowplows but even at 10p at night, they still haven't cleaned off our roads. I'm thinking there's a good chance I will be keeping Keree home tomorrow from school also. 
This morning after dropping Keere off at school, I ran to the store to pick up a few food items since we are suppose to have a snow storm moving in super late tonight. When I came to pick Keree up, the summary said that they worked on making a paper mache snowman and talked about how to make a snowman. When Keree came out, she said that the Teacher called her up front of class and they read what her shirt said. Who would have thought I would pick out the perfect shirt for today. 
Keree was also excited because she drew a baseball snowman for Uncle. After a low-key afternoon, Keree put herself down for a nap and actually fell asleep by herself. While she was sleeping, her Cheer coach called around 4p and they canceled practice this evening because of the weather. WTH, the bad weather isn't even suppose to move in till after 10p tonight. I couldn't believe it, when Keree woke up, I told her practice was canceled and she was beyond disappointed. This evening, I made do is yourself 
pizzas. I used harvest wheat thin bread for the crust and we weren't disappointed. I love the taste of their bread and I love that it's so freakin' skinny, Keree will eat it. We ended our night by going outside because the Weatherpeople said it was beginning to snow, so Keree and I was going to catch a few snowflakes on our tongues before bed. When we got outside it was sleeting instead of snowing and frigid cold, so we didn't stay out long, because we didn't have our coats on. With 5+" of snow coming, I'm thinking snow day for tomorrow. 
We woke up this morning, to blizzard conditions.
The snow was coming down so fast, the wind was blowing at 60 + mph and it was below zero. But I had promised Keree she could go outside and play in the snow for awhile. So I bundled her up, bundled myself up, grabbed the camera and headed outside. Needless to say we weren't even outside for 10 minutes, before Keree exclaimed, "let's go in." But she did 
spend her time outside having some fun, she made a snow angel, tromped through the snow and even threw a few 
snowballs. When we headed inside,we spent our day upstairs watching movies and working on Christmas gifts. My Mom had to embroider letters on to Robes and Covers that my Grandma is giving to various family members. Keree got to open up her advent calendar and she spent some time playing with all the LPS toys that she has gotten so far. The snow continued to fall the entire day and the roads are pretty much impassable. 
