"For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace"



Wednesday, February 2, 2011

documents of a snow day.

I love anticipation for things. Such as the impending blizzard that we started hearing about monday. At work, I had many patients tell me the projected inches of snow we were to be slammed with. Of course I had a lot of resistance to believing we were going to get up to 20" of snow due to the simple fact this is central IL and our weather changes hourly. However, deep inside I was thrilled at the thought of a blizzard. Just this weekend Seth & I were discussing how we thought it would be great to have one last big snow storm before spring came. So patient after patient warned me to "be careful" & "stock up". I just smiled and said "you too", though secretly hoping this was the real deal!! As I got home from work and turned on the news I found out that these rumors I'd been hearing were true! We were about to be under a BLIZZARD warning. So from the moment I got home, that's all that the radio, news, internet was talking about. Cancelations started being announced and schools were canceled the night before. Seth came home from work early on tuesday, after it started snowing, and we spent the day literally starring out the window at the tremendously powerful storm playing forth in front of our eyes. It was beautiful, powerful, unbelievable. The winds were raging and the snow was diving to earth in large increments & accumulations. I think the anticipation of what was going to result of this storm was almost as fun as the storm itself! We had so much fun being "snowed in" and watching the furiousity of this brilliant storm. It just shows us a glimpse of the enormous might & power of our God.

Please enjoy the documentary of our snow day(s) below!!

 Seth & I decided to "see how the roads were" in goodfield on tuesday evening around 5:30ish.
We bundled up in all our snow garb & headed out into the blizzard! (obviously not the smartest idea, we realize, but the inner kid in us wanted to see it)

                                                              Seth all bundled up!

    Here's what 117 looked like around 5:30pm tuesday evening. We went over the interstate and it was empty. It was very strange because normally i'm coming home from work at this time on I-74 and it's packed!


     This morning my fabulous in house chef made up some delicious omlettes to start our official snow day.


Seth went out to attempt scooping our driveway. The end of our driveway consisted of snow at least 30" deep & would have taken at least a few hours to clear....however a super nice snow plow'er from the village of goodfield came and with a few scoops of his huge tractor, cleared our drive! What an awesome blessing!

           We actually have a covered front porch, not that this pictures draws you to think so though.


 We made some banana bread....for some reason I feel all betty crocker during snow days and feel this compulsion to bake. so I made cookies too.


 I can't tell you the last time I scrapbooked...but it's on my list of "things to do before we move". So I set up camp and started on our hawaii album from over a year ago...oh how it makes us wish we were there!



                                     Mid-afternoon snack.....a snow day MUST....Hot Chocolate!


                                                     Just a view of our front walk/porch.


 I still can't get over this. This is our across the street neighbors. I'm not sure if this picture does it justice, but their door is literally snowed shut in at least 4' of snow. There is no way in the world that door is opening any time soon!


Seth had to keep checking the furnace exhaust to make sure our furnace would stay running & to calm my fear of somehow getting carbon monoxide poisoning (though he assured me at least 15 times we are going to get killed by poison monoxide). It was actually behind this huge drift of snow. This pile was so big, he was taller than the roof!


This afternoon we were getting a little "stir crazy" so we decided to take a treacherous drive through the path of the storm. We decided it would be a great idea to try out the "country" roads. This is what we came upon. Yes this is a "T" in the road, meaning that there is supposed to be a road going right as well. 


                                 Another view...yes this is supposed to be a road straight ahead!!


We tried to go to the park to actually play in the snow but not 2 minutes after we took this picture we were right back in the truck....the wind was freeeeezing.

                                                           Picnic tables at the park, it's crazy!!


Seth was my workout buddy today. We did a workout video...i'm not sure if we got more exercise from laughing at eachother or actually attempting the aerobics!


We also had some much needed time with Jesus.

So to sum it up- I love snow days. I think it's great how sometimes God just gives us a huge blizzard so we're able to spend quality time with Him or with precious people or just relaxing. Think of it as a surprise present in the middle of a cold winter.
oh and p.s. Gertie the groundhog did not see her shadow, so the news is that spring is on the way :).

absolutely blessed (birthday!).

Okay, so not going to lie, I love birthdays. I love the anticipation and the "specialness" feeling of the day. I love that it is a day to celebrate the life of an individual that God created. I love celebrating birthdays!! I hope I always have this feeling & don't dread "getting older" (you can ask me about this as the years go on!)(though 24 means i'm now in my mid 20's!!). Also, thanks to facebook, you get lots more messages of love & blessings. I had the best birthday this year!! Seth took the day off (it was last wednesday) and I also had off work. It was an absolute blast & I was completely pampered :)! Here's the agenda of events:

Tuesday night:
- I come home from work to find a letter mailed to me with an itinerary of the "Braker Bed & Breakfast" :).
- A vase of flowers on the table ( I love flowers, esp in the cold dreary winter )
-A delicious meal of salmon & veggies
-movie of my choice (yes he was very willing to watch a chick flick for me).

Wednesday:
-breakfast in bed (veggie omlette, fruit, piping hot coffee)
-lazy morning (actually we decided to look at ordered wedding pictures---yes 2.5 years later we still have no wedding pictures ordered)
-get ready & head to bloomington
-go to a state park & play a tony cd he made for me
-head to starbucks and spend quality time talking & sipping delicious drinks
-he took me shopping & said I could pick out whatever I wanted (within reason :)). We actually got killer sales...$2 shirts, $10 jeans.....I love a good deal!
-head back home to freshen up & head to One World (one of my most favorite restaurants!!)
-come back for presents! (he got us tickets to a Bebo Norman dinner concert in Kentucky!)

All in all, I was amazingly blessed & soaked in every moment! It was just a reminder to me of how God delights in us. He loves us tremendously & deeply & is delighted to bless us with joy & truly fun times. I can just picture him smiling down on his children when they are giddy with joy that  comes from Him!!

Here's a few pictures of the evening:


                                           The fresh flowers from my boy!                                   



The unbelievably amazing beautiful delicious carmel walnut apple pie al la mode. oh yum!