Blizzard of '15 "JUNO"

Still don't quite understand why they are now naming blizzards. Or, maybe they always did, but we didn't have The Weather Channel on 24/7 to tell us the name 247 times. 


We are now in our second winter in New England. We thought it would be very wintery here and we weren't really wrong last year. My last patch of snow melted in April (not kidding) but the snow kind of came in fits and starts. We got around 3 feet in the month of January. A lot, and with much frustration on my part because Matt was gone most of the month, but it's what we expected.  What we did NOT expect was to get 3 feet of snow IN ONE DAY.  Last Saturday we got around 6" of snow. A decent snow fall. We got it all cleared out and heard a storm might be coming for Tuesday.  Pretty soon we heard we might get between 20"-30" of snow on Tuesday. Then we heard it would be blizzard conditions. I went to the store, we put our shovels, snowblowers and gas in the garage and we waited.  

At 11pm Monday night we went to bed with it just spitting a bit of snow at us. We woke up to around 15" of snow. Holy what?! It continued to snow the rest of the day at a rate of around 2" an hour.  When all was said and done, by around midnight Tuesday night into Wednesday we had received 33.8 inches of snow (on top of the 6 we had). Wow. It is a LOT of snow.  Matt is very paranoid about water getting into the basement- so we have been clearing it like crazy- from around the base of the house, off of the roof, and of course the driveway and walks, as well as patio. (The worst roof gets raked onto the patio so we have to keep that clear to keep pulling snow off of the roof).  After around 6 hours each yesterday and 3-4 more hours today I think we are done.   Below are pictures- I am trying to post in chronological order- so the first ones from Tuesday morning and the last ones from Wednesday morning.  Happy viewing!  

And, oh, yeah, heard there is a foot more coming Monday.  HELLLLLPPPPPP!

Pre blizzard

This is around 9am

Standard height garden flag

Believe it or not, this is the top of our driveway

Good height perspective. This was around 10 am Tuesday

Declan's fort in the woods. Held up pretty well

path we created to walk to part of the yard

We had so much that matt went on the roof and shoveled and then I raked it off with the roof rake

Notice that the fence is almost covered. Those are not piles created by us- that's the  height of the snow

After clearing path Wednesday morning. All the rest of the pictures are after all the snow fell.

You can see a tiny bit of our wall. It's at least 3 feet tall- and there is a slope away from it at the bottom.

Notice the pile of snow to the left of the deck- is as high as the railing

Try to look at the height of the snow as compared to the door/window on the shed

Again, piled to top of rail

That is a standard 3 ft fence. Snow is to top of it- not piled- just fallen

A good perspective shot. 

This is the path and spot we shoveled for the dog

Our Fall at a Glance

Well, as it goes- time is flying by. I post regularly on FB- but need to be better about posting on here- for one thing, so non FB family can see it, and for another, so I "always" have it.  

The kids are doing great- In PreK, 4th and 6th grades. Amelia finished her first term with high honors, Declan is doing well (really needs to work on his writing!) and Finn has really come a long way!

Field Hockey took up Amelia's fall along with playing the trumpet in 4 bands (6th grade, 7th grade, jazz band and the All Town Wind Ensemble- i.e. ATWE). Declan is in the 4th grade chorus as well and had the chance to sing at the statehouse along with his concert.  

Declan spent his fall, however, in a local production of High School Musical, Jr. He played a basketball player and we loved watching him! His Mimi and Pap even came to visit to watch!!

Finn continues to take swim lessons and it's still the highlight of his week. He can swim the length of the pool freestyle with pretty good form. Impressive to me! 

The holidays came and went (I'm a bit delayed in writing this) and we stayed home and did some stay-cation types of things. Visited the big tree in Boston,  Drove around and saw some Christmas lights, went to the movies, the Science Center (or as Finn calls it, the Museum of the Science), visited with some friends, etc.  It was sad to miss our families but so nice to be here hanging out together. (We played a LOT of tenzie!) 

The kids continue to amaze me with their talent (since I have none). Amelia's ATWE band was chosen to sing The National Anthem at a Boston Red Sox's game in April. Declan was chosen as one of just 200 kids (out of over 500) to sing in an all state elementary chorus. He still plays the piano as well, but no honors for that. :)  And Finn, well, he continues to make us laugh.

The other day Finn tried a piece of pepperoni for the first time. After he had it he says to me. " I LOVE pepperoni! WHY haven't I been CONSIDERING IT for ALL OF THIS TIME?" I don't know, Finn, I don't know.

Much love to you all! 

Below are links to Amelia's ATWE concert and Finn making the spotlight on music for preschool (around 20 mins in his class starts). January concerts aren't posted yet.

http://vp.telvue.com/preview?id=T01497&video=221082

http://vp.telvue.com/preview?id=T01497&video=214071

Of course we had to dress the part!

Look at that form!

He had to get in on the action some how... :)

He's a Decade!

Happy 10th to my older little man- Run DMH (my new name for him). We had an awesome time at Tee-Pee Archery in Acton. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a cool b-day party place, or even a summer camp option.  

School got off without too much trouble, and we are in full swing with Field Hockey, Drama, Fall Ball and music lessons. Never a dull moment here! 

Still plan to blog more of our summer adventures, but thought I better get this bday boy posted before the other turns... omg... FIVE. Holy cow!!

Happy Fall!!

Summer time.... and the livin' is busy!

Our summer started out with our amazing photographer, Melinda, stopping by!

So, the summer fly right by with no blog posts- but not because there was nothing to blog about!!

Our summer included trips to the Lowell Spinners, several trips to Boston, the beach, the pool, the pond, softball, track, t-ball.... oh my!! Lots to share and never enough time to share it.

The highlight of our summer, of course was our trip back to Ohio and Pennsylvania. Lots of cousins and friends to see along with grandparents!! Kennywood and the Columbus Zoo were probably our biggest hits!

We've had several visitors and enjoyed our visits immensely.

People ask if we like it here and I can honestly say we love it. Aside from being sooooo far away from friends and family, which is super hard, we love the area and all that is here.  With that said, there are still adjustments begin made. Lots of "cultural" differences. Just when I think we have things figured out- another wrench. But, I think that can happen anywhere, any time. So, back to school, new teachers, new opportunities, new adjustments, but we can do it!

Much love to all of you. More updates and photos soon!!

xoxo

One Year

Holy Crap- we have lived here for a year! It is so hard to believe and still seems so surreal at times.
I want to start by thanking all of the people in our lives who have made this transition easier for us. From the awesome going away party to family and friends visiting, notes and texts (I LOVE getting random texts) to new friends who have showed us around, showed us the ropes and given us oodles of great advice.

I can't exactly say that we are becoming New Englanders, but we are becoming comfortable.  As much as we've had issues with this house (and believe me, we've had issues galore!) we still love it and it feels like home. For those of you who have seen it, I'm sure you will agree it's very "us".

We really miss our friends and family back in the mid-west- and it is very challenging living so far away- however, we really are enjoying our time here and trying to make the most of it.  We've added some more sight-seeing to our list like taking the train to NYC,  Portsmouth, NH (a true gem) a pizza tour of the North End, a Red Sox game, some local college sports and more.  I've found an exercise class that I love (Go Jazzercise!) and have become involved in PTO and the local mother's club.

The kids are well into their spring/summer sports now. Finn is playing instructional t-ball (which is as adorable as it sounds), Declan is finding his niche and doing track and field (he's a 400 and long jump guy- jumped 8'10 last week) and Amelia is coming off of a very interesting season of rec softball. Luckily for all of us she's starting her new season of summer ball this week (the same league that we started with last year).

We are looking forward to exploring more of New England this summer- on our list for day trips are coastal Maine, Vermont and Providence, RI.  We will also be meeting some friends at Niagara Falls, Canada, and making the trip back "home".

Much love to everyone and keep looking on the blog for exciting adventures!!

Uncle

This is our patio. The green thing in the middle is the umbrella for our table.

View from garage towards patio. 

The woods behind our house. Hard to tell how tall the snow is, but it's about my height from being plowed/blown.

Okay, Okay Mother Nature. I get it. You win. UNCLE.  

Since I last posted we have received at my estimate  over 40" of snow. Oh, it hasn't fallen all at once, but the vast majority is still on the ground (and our roof). I'm done. I'm calling Uncle. You can stop any time now, "Mom" before I start calling you names!

Other than the snow (which we have had a lot of fun with, as well as some grumbling by us adults) things have been moving along here. The big kids are both in Basketball. Amelia has practice once a week and games once a week, and Declan has 1.5 hour combo practice/games once a week.  Finn keeps taking swimming lessons and it's almost always his favorite part of the week.  We've also gotten to go to a local college game as well as a couple of HS games.  

I think all of her game pictures are on my "real" camera. Too lazy to look right now.

In addition to Basketball we've been skiing a few times. Amelia tried snowboarding once and skiing once, and the boys both have skied twice (lessons, I "lodged" it).  In addition Amelia and I went X-Country skiing with some good friends. It was a great workout but I didn't find it as challenging as downhill. Whew!

We did travel to both Jeannette and Newark for the holidays and I was able to catch up with some girlfriends in Westerville. It was a complete whirlwind trip and everyone (and I mean everyone) got the stomach bug so it was rather interesting as well!  We loved seeing all of the cousins, though- as always. It's hard to be away and know that everyone is growing up without you. We were grateful we got to see as many people as we did, albeit briefly.


I received a super surprise birthday gift from two very dear friends- they decided to brave the elements and come visit me.  We had an awesome time exploring Boston. It's actually the first time I've been in the city without the kids with me- so it was fun to take in some of the shops, etc. We could also walk a lot further, faster.  We topped off the night with a trip to Rino's Place, which was featured on Diners Drive ins and Dives. While the food (and company) was excellent, I wouldn't recommend it- as the wait and the seating policy were both terrible. Luckily we hunkered down at the bar across the street and chatted away!

We are currently on Winter Break- so we are all getting a bit stir- crazy, but we are doing the best we can. We were able to get out for a bit today which was great, and we had a hallway basketball tournament on Monday. :)  We'll find a few more things to do and projects to tackle the rest of the week. 

  The following is what our yard/drive looks like as of today 2/19.  We actually got around 3 more inches this afternoon- but you get the idea.

View from back patio towards driveway 

View from back of house

Trees that used to have bottoms

View of fence to see how deep it's getting

Those are my knees not my ankles

Side of driveway. Snowblower for height perspective

From Laundry room door looking towards driveway

As always we love and miss everyone and would love visitors any time!