Hours of entertainment

So we just discovered Photo Booth on the mac. And it has provided hours of entertainment! Here's a few of my favorite shots from the "booth"...can you identify my little cuties?

And the blog gets forgotten...

Okay, I have to admit. For the past 3 weeks I have forgotten that I have a blog. Kind of like I forget that there is laundry to do...or beds to make...or lizards to feed. Luckily, I have not yet forgotten that I have children. They somehow remind me on a regular basis that they are there, making their presence known in a variety of ways. So, since I sometimes run out of clean clothes, the lizard starts climbing the walls of his tank, and the kids start complaining of hunger, the one thing that doesn't make itself known (the blog) gets forgotten. Perhaps there is an automatic email reminder that can be sent..."hello, this is your blog. Did you forget me?"

Truthfully though, the real stressor consuming my life so far in 2009 is my lovely car. Yes...car trouble. I hate car trouble. And even worse, I hate car trouble that only causes ME trouble. Nobody can seem to figure out what is wrong with it. I've taken my car in to be looked at 6 times now! I have a new battery and a new starter. And still, I have car trouble. It won't start. But it's random. Actually, not so random...its favorite place to NOT START is right after I've filled it with gas and there are 3 cars behind me waiting for me to get out of the way so they can get gas. That seems to be a surefire time that it won't start. Or if I have somewhere that I REALLY need to be. Like Zach's LAST soccer game of the season. Then, the car won't start. Some days it takes 5-10 minutes to get it started. One day it took 2 hours.

So today I took my car back in AGAIN to be looked at. Actually, took it in yesterday, but got it back today. They said everything checks out and it runs fine. Can't find anything wrong with it. I should bring it back when it is having trouble so they can see what's going on. Um...did I mention the problem is that it won't start??? Yah, I'll be sure and bring it in the next time it won't start. That'll work.

So I leave the service department today and stop to do an errand on my way home. Come back out 5 minutes later and yes...the car WON'T START! It's been about 30 minutes since the "yah, it runs fine" speech at the service dept. It won't start! So I decide, I'm calling them on the phone and making them listen to me sitting here struggling to get my car to start. Oh, is my luck just perfect or what...I called 3 times and NOBODY answered! Lunch hour! Are you kidding me???

So, tonight I am surfing the net, car shopping. I've gone from loving my car to loathing it. And I'm finding lots of things I could definitely give my car love to...oh, if only their price tags loved me, too. :)

It all comes down to snowplows

So, some of you may have heard about "Snowmageddon 2008" in Portland. Seriously, that is what they called it in the newspaper the other day. After living through the last two weeks in Portland, I've realized it all comes down to snowplows. I like snow. I like sledding. I like snowmen. I like bundling up to go outside. I like white Christmases. And I like snowplows. But, that's the only thing that has been missing in the past two weeks...the snowplows.

The Portland metro area is home to 2 million people. Portland itself owns 50 snowplows. Fifty! I think there were more than 50 snowplows within a square mile radius of our apartment when we lived in Vermont. And half the neighbors had plows attached to the front of their own personal vehicles! It took at least a foot of snow in 24 hours to slow you down there, and then it was only for a matter of a few hours, maybe a two-hour school delay. Seriously...when you got the school supply list each year, they reminded you that your child's backpack should be big enough to hold their snowpants, gloves, scarves, and a change of shoes (they wore their boots to school) because they would be going out to recess regardless of the snow level!

Prior to Vermont, living in Utah and Idaho, we still were no strangers to snow. I like snow. Did I mention that? But again, Utah and Idaho like snowplows. Oh, and they like salt. Vermont likes salt, too. Portland does not like salt. Salt, they say, is unfriendly to the environment. Salt, while it could quickly de-ice many roads and help clear the snow, is unsafe to use because it hurts the environment. I mean, really, can you imagine if that salt got into the lakes and streams and made its way to the Pacific Ocean? Then what would we do? Don't mind the countless car accidents that could have been prevented, the boost to the Portland economy during the peak holiday shopping season had people actually been able to get out, the quicker service of downed powerlines and the people who would not have had to sit without power as long had the roads been clearer to get utility workers into where they needed to be, etc. The environmental savings of NOT using salt during the past two weeks was probably more substantial. Right?

So December 2008 is going down on record as the snowiest December in history in Portland. And the 2nd snowiest month on record ever in Portland. We had 19 inches. Nineteen inches of snow blanketing the rolling hills of the westside of Portland. And without a snowplow in sight, we have waited for Mother Nature to melt the beautiful snow so we could get anywhere. We missed 5 days of school, the last two weeks of church, and we haven't had trash pickup in almost three weeks or mail in over a week (my Christmas cards have been sitting in the mailbox waiting to be picked up this whole time). Finally, today, we are seeing the normal Portland winter weather returning...today was 45 degrees, gray, and raining. And we can actually see the pavement again. Ah, a welcome sight.

That's what I get for complaining...

I chose to rant and rave about the measly 3 inches of snow we got and the following 5 DAYS of no school because of it. I whined every day about all the things I had hoped to get done while the kids were supposed to be at school. And what did that get me? TWELVE NEW INCHES OF SNOW! Yep! Finally, when we had to consent to the fact that winter break came a week early for the kids, on Saturday it hauled off and dumped 12 new inches of snow. Then, for the icing on the cake, Mother Nature threw down a 1/2 inch of freezing rain on top of it. So we have yet another week of canceled church, and I'm sure were it not winter break, school would have been canceled again. Doug had no choice but to go out in it--it's his weekend to take care of the babies. So with his big truck and tire chains, and after spending 30 minutes or so de-icing his truck so he could actually get in it, he's been out. The rest of us are hunkered down for a while. In some ways it is really nice--we've made Christmas cookies, played games, listened to music, got the Christmas cards ready (finally), and watched Christmas cartoons. Actually, that will probably be the agenda for most of the week.

Three Inches of Snow

3 inches of snow...3 inches!! That's all it takes to shut down Portland. Yes, you heard me right. In a metro area where snow is rare and the entire 2 million population shares about 50 snowplows, it doesn't take much. We got 3 inches of snow Sunday morning and church was cancelled, school was cancelled today, and it is cancelled again tomorrow. Combine 3 inches of snow with lots and lots of hills, and well, we aren't going anywhere! The streets have become sheets of ice because it is too cold to melt and between the cars that have had to get out and the kids on sleds, it's a nicely packed slippery slope out there.

I realize what whimps we have become since leaving Vermont as well. It's only been 5 years, yet here we are complaining about the bitter 20 degree weather we are experiencing like it is going to kill us (that was a lovely winter day in VT!!!).So, today has involved putting on snow clothes, pulling off snow clothes, putting on snow clothes, pulling off snow clothes, and several servings of hot chocolate in between each wardrobe change. It's been nice to stay home, but there's more snow in the forecast and no break in the temp for a few days. And so my fear is that winter break from school has already begun. We shall see.

What I really don't understand though is this...every time the news reporters come on to update on the weather (which honestly is every 5 minutes it seems because this is BIG NEWS!!!) they talk about how the city is putting down de-icer but it doesn't do much good because the de-icers don't work well at this cold of temps. WHAT??? What good is a de-icer that only works between 20-32 degrees??? Hello!!!

So, I shall sit and watch out my dining room window as cars slip and slide up and down the hill behind our house. I'll sip hot chocolate and try not to yell at my kids as they pick at each other for the 14th time because "there is absolutely nothing to do, mom!" Oh the joy of 3 inches of snow.

**Update on 12/27: school was canceled all week. Check out the photo of the snowfall at our house that kept us from going anywhere. And my trash can hasn't moved for almost 3 weeks--they still haven't been to pick it up nearly 3 weeks later.