Bring on SNOW

(was supposed to post 1-4-2014)You know what they say about when God gives you lemon, he wants you to make lemonade? Well, I'm ready for my lemonade version of this snowstorm that is coming. I will note right now, I NEVER asked for the subzero temps and we all know it can snow just fine at 32° but the snow, I can handle. We grew up with this stuff people! IF you are not from around here, that's one thing but man, I have missed the winters we had when I was a kid. I still am very concerned about people getting around, having to go to work, etc. I figure when Monday morning comes, if we get what we are supposed to, there is a high likeliness that I will not have to go to work, there is a moderate likeliness that Andrew will not have to go. Robert is the one who will more than likely have to go to work. His bosses told him today that if he felt like it was too bad to not come, but Robert is his parents' child--if you are supposed to be at work, you will be at work. So, we worry about that when it gets here.

I have bought stuff to make a batch of Crispix mix and have board games for us to play, just to change things up a bit, should we be home, all day. I also hope that a couple of honeydos that need done around here can get done, like my garage door fixed (can be done from inside the garage) and two light switches in the front part of the house changed out. I also think I will lay out steaks to thaw, we could have steaks for lunch just to celebrate being home. I really, really don't mind a good snowday when I know everyone is safe and sound at home.

Ready for Chicago, taking this so we could see that we were out the door BEFORE 6AM. (Does Robert look Russian?, lol)
 

Wednesday, Robert and I got a preview on our trip to Chicago. Some call us crazy, I think we called ourselves crazy a couple of times on our way home but we made it, got what we went for and had a really great day! We started seeing snow basically at Chicago, but making the way around the west side and then north turned into a real trip in itself. I was listening to the traffic on Sirius and it kept saying the tollways were clear; then all of the sudden we slow down to about 10 and they say, "We are seeing some problems on the Tri-State", guess where we were?

It has never stopped us before, and wasn't going to stop us then. We went to IKEA, was there three hours, got everything I went for, plus Robert got tons of ideas for his kitchen, some we will buy, some he and his dad will make. When we left, our plans were to go to the Cheesecake Factory at Woodfield Mall, first off, the parking lot was atrocious, and then it was still snowing really hard. Robert had never ate at the Cheesecake Factory and I had multiple times so I didn't want to be the one to nix it. About the time I was thinking that, he asked if it was really worth it, well, to me, on that day, the answer would be no. I said let's drive south a little before we stop and eat. So, then I decided we ought to head south as quickly as possible and worry about getting east when we got out of town. I told Robert to tell his phone to get us to Pontiac, and we headed down 55. We stopped in Diamond at the Whistle Stop for supper. Hole in the wall, but a great place, we only ate breakfast and supper so the fact that it was still more food than either one of us could eat was really nice. One of those places we will probably never see again, but glad we did this time.

Robert drove from Diamond to Bloomington and we were bringing the snow right along with us, by the time we got to Bloomington, the roads were horrid again. My turn to drive. I can't even count the number of cars we saw in ditches, it wasn't pretty. The worst we saw was just south of Champaign, multiple fire trucks, ambulances and police cars, I told Robert not to gasp or anything, to just calmly tell me about it later because the people in front of me, that I had been trying to "maintain a safe distance" away from suddenly all had to slow down to gawk at what was going on. Pet peeve, let me tell you. We finally got ahead of the storm just north of Mattoon and made it home with 10 minutes to spare of the projected arrival in Newton. Robert ran to get gas and to the bank and it truly did start in at 9:00.

So, I went back to work this week too. Thanks to a post on facebook, my office was nicely "decorated" for my return.

I really am wanting to take a week off that is not centered around holidays. I mentioned it to my boss and she totally agreed, so probably February, I am planning a non-holiday vacation, though I was looking at either the week with Lincoln's birthday or President's Day, but it's not like Christmas. I'm conservative with my vacation days, eventhough I have a ton, if I took one of these weeks off, I would be using 4 vaca days instead of 5.

Tonight, Robert and I went to see the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It was very good. I was impressed and it is a "makes you think about your life" movie.  I have realized I have one Saturday a month that Robert is off at noon and Andrew has to close which means, no farm; and there is one Saturday a month that Andrew is off all day and Robert is off at noon, which means Andrew could handle not going to the farm until 1. I have captured these two days as mine. An afternoon with Robert, a morning with Andrew.

So, we are all snuggled in and ready for the snow.....Bring it on!!!!