March! Still Looks Like February!

This February was the coldest ever, on record. I'm not sure we had any days above freezing! We've had several days off just because of the cold. When the temp plus wind chill get to -25 they start cancelling school. That's too cold for the kids to wait at the bus stop. Too cold to sit on a bus if the bus breaks down.

A couple good things have happened in February. I got a badly needed new camera. During our summer vacation mine was really acting up and most of the pictures came out blurry. This one also has a much greater zoom which is awesome!

Another good thing is that I had a little break around President's Day so I got to fly to VA to visit!

Someone (Anon) had a really big celebration the first night I arrived! After 7 years and many, many, many hours of hard work, he became a partner!!

Much celebrating followed!! For days!!

Quinn and Berit have probably had as many, or maybe more, snow days than I have this year. Mama has not been happy!

Berit doesn't have snow boots so she hasn't been out in the snow much but they improvised and found her some rain boots instead. Not sure she's having that much fun! But she looks adorable!!

We had our Leadership Day last Thursday. It was no easy feat because we had had so many days off due to cold we didn't have much time to get organized, practice and set up for the day. We pulled it off though and the day turned out great!

We did have one medical emergency. While I was in VA Tyler called me to say that Zoe had some blood coming from her rear end. Things seemed ok for a day or so and then he noticed it again. When I got home Tuesday night I didn't notice anything. But on Wednesday, when I got home from work, there was quite a bit of blood so I called the vet, he got us right in and it was discovered that Zoe had an absessed anal gland. It had already ruptured, which apparently was a good thing. She was put on an antibiotic, pain meds and I had to wash the area with epson salt water. In just a few short days she was already on the mend and now, almost two weeks later, you can't even see where it was!

So now on to March. Hopefully we won't have any (or at least not too many) days off. In just another month we'll have a week off for Spring break and I'm so looking forward to going somewhere warmer. This has been a tough winter. Even with the cold though we have had our deer visitors on the pond most days. Sometimes it's just 2 and on a few days we've had 4! Today I noticed a Mom and her older baby. She was giving him quite the face washing! So cute!

We've also had lots of birds, as long as I keep the feeders full.

And don't forget the squirrels. They didn't bother to hibernate this year. They knew the Mitchell Cafe was open!

So that's it for February. Hopefully March will be uneventful and maybe a little warm up? That would be so appreciated!

Brrrrrrrrrrr, Baby It's Cold Outside!!

It's been chilly and gray. Quite depressing really. We had a little bit of snow, enough for the kids to need the pond cleared off so they could play hockey

It's been quiet. Charlie and Zoe got a new bed.

But for some reason they didn't want to sleep in it.

And then Charlie decided he liked it after all.

And Zoe thought it was ok too.

But she has other favorite spots too.

Howard painted the new guest room. It's all ready for guests!!

Pretty quiet around here. One morning I was sitting at my desk thinking that I hadn't even seen a single deer yet this winter when not 10 minutes later I look out the window and there was a deer across the street in the neighbors yard. She sprinted across the street, followed by two friends and back onto the frozen pond.

Last Thursday was our Leader in Me Parent's Night. I was worried that the weather would force us to cancel but we only got a small amount of snow so the night went on without problems. Another good turn out this year so everyone was happy!

Then things started getting exciting! This happened!!

Meet Murphy, my new Grand Dog!! So precious. We went down to see him on Saturday. He's a golden retreiver and very sweet. Scott and Emily definitely have their hands full, especially in the middle of winter!!

Today was our first snow day of the school year! It started Saturday night and didn't stop until this morning! We got over 12" of snow. Today on the back deck it was up to my knees!!

These two would love to get out and enjoy it!!

But that won't be happening any time soon. On Saturday I took them up to the high school to stretch their legs. They sniffed around for a few minutes and then Charlie headed across the field, straight for the woods. Zoe followed but she soon returned to me when I called. Charlie didn't. Zoe and I had both gotten back into the car and were waiting for a few minutes and then Charlie finally returned. We won't be doing that again any time soon!

So that's it for exciting news. Just got word there's another snow day tomorrow. Guess the back roads are still difficult to manuver. Snow that deep has to be moved out of the way, you can't go through it!

And they are predicting more snow for tomorrow night, though not much, just 1-3 inches.