It Hasn't Been All Bad...

The end of February and beginning of March were tough to get through.  This past winter was the most miserable I can remember experiencing in, well, ever!  I thought the cold and snow would never end.  I felt like everyone in our neighborhood was hibernating (my family included).

Stir-crazy, cabin-fever, whatever you want to call it; we had it!

I made an appointment for haircuts.  Reagan, Cohen, and I had trims.  Elsa has still not had a pair of scissors touch her hair, and it may yet be a while before she does!  So, at least we looked presentable, even though there was no one to look good for. 

My carpet cleaner was working massive overtime!  Not only was it doing "the usual" cleaning of the carpet due to dirt/snow being tracked in the house... But it also did stints cleaning up (on multiple occasions): Reagan's throw-up, "accidents" from (STILL) trying to potty-train Elsa, and milk that spilled on the upholstery in my car (OK, fortunately that was only a one-time thing).  One morning, in early March, things started to warm up; and all of the snow was rapidly melting.  The drain in the outside stairwell filled up very quickly, and then, so did the stairwell itself!  To prevent our basement from flooding, Nick hooked some plastic tubing up to my carpet cleaner, and started suctioning water from the drain.  He and I took turns "bailing".  We were at it for hours!  Boy, was the snow thawing at a rate equal to our water removal!  In the end, Nick and I figure we moved about 200 Gallons out of that stairwell drain.  It took a lot of work, but at least our basement stayed dry!

The hardest event of the past month was having one of my best friends, move.   Emily, and her wonderful family moved back to Washington State.  Emily was my next-door-neighbor when Nick and I lived in South Ogden.  So, Reagan has known Connor (Emily's son) since she was 6 months old.  They are a month apart in age.  And they have grown in to such good friends.  Emily moved to Kaysville right before we moved to Fruit Heights.  And for a while now, she has been only a two-minute drive from me.  We did a lot together.  I miss her deeply.  Of course, we still chat on a regular basis; and we'll always be friends.  But it is different now that I can't call her on a moments-notice, to hang out.

And these pictures illustrate the kind of relationship Reagan and Connor had.  One minute they loved each other:

 And the next they were rough-housing.  Typical.

Since we couldn't venture outside, I took the kids to a lot of indoor play places.

By mid-March it was plain that the winter had made us all a little nutty!  Elsa was taking her socks off, in the car, and using them as gloves.

 And all of the stickers we acquired, on a trip to Trader Joe's, ended up in the oddest places.

Yessireeeeee, everyone in our household is dying for spring to come!