Tuesday, February 21, 2012

ice Storm

So we had a great vacation in sunny Florida. On our way back we stopped in Dallas and the airlines were cancelling flights to Seattle. We had no idea why. I looked at the weather and it looked like there was a major snow storm heading towards home! We almost didn't make it back home, but luckly we were able to get the last flight, and got home early the next morning.

We got in just as the snow started.

Doug and I both grew up in Vermont. So we know how to handle snow and ice. We know how to handle a lot of it. This major storm did have a decent amount of snow, but nothing we weren't used to. I think our house got 4-5 inches. By Vermont standards those are flurries. However the difference between Seattle and Vermont are this: Washingtonians do not know how to handle snow. They do not have snow plows, salt trucks, studded tires or chaines on their tires. They do not know how to drive in the snow, because it is very rare that they get snow.

Mia getting warm in the car.

Doug and I stayed in during the snow storm. Which was very nice. We napped, watched netflix and ate what I was able to make from the freezer. Doug's work was cancelled, which was nice, so he was home with us. Its been a long time since we had a snow day.

The next day is when it got bad. The night of the storm everything turned to ice. I don't care how used to winter any place is, and ice storm is awful. At one point I went to the car and there was an inch, AN INCH, of ice on my car. It was completely incased. That morning our power went out about 5am. It ended up being out for more than 48 hours. It was awful. Times like this make me wish I had a wood stove. Our house got so cold. We managed the first day to stay at home. We lit candles at night and huddled under the blankets. Mia was such a trooper. The next day I went downstairs to see that the temp in our house was 40. It was too cold. We packed up Mia and Burrito and headed out to get a hotel. Thank goodness for Doug's mom who booked a room for us, we couldn't access the internet or get through on the phone. I went to work while Doug went to a friends house who had power. Him, Mia and Burrito stayed there the day and once they picked me up from work we headed to the hotel. Doug ended up having to work that night (bummer), but Mia, Burrito and I stayed at the hotel, took a warm shower, and snuggled in the huge King size bed ( I am getting one!). After Doug got out of work he went up to the house to check on it and the power was on! It came back on early morning. Thank goodness. He came and picked us up and we went home! Poor Doug was up for about 28 hours, so Mia and I let him sleep!

Thank goodness for power.

Florida








We headed to Florida to visit my family for a week back in January. It was a very nice trip. It was very much needed. Doug and I have been in the same rut with our schedules and it was nice to have over a week of no work.


Mia did so well on the flight. She does get fussy, but it is usually a very quick fix. Either she is hungry, or tired. Usually she will even fall asleep while eating, so we didn't really have a problem. On the way back she was a little upset for about the first half hour of the flight, but once we got her to sleep she slept the rest of the way!

Unfortunately, we got to Florida on probably the worst week weather wise. It was still very nice for some days, but we had a 2-3 day stretch with chilly weather. My dad and I went for a walk once morning and the temperature was 34 degrees. In Florida. That is too cold.


We did have some nice weather though, in the 70s and 80s, which was a nice change from what it has been in Washington. In a perfect world I would like in a place where it didn't get below 65 degrees outside. I do not like the cold! More, I do not like snow and ice, which I will talk about later.


We did lots of fun things in Florida, and I think Mia really enjoyed it. It took a day or so for her to warm up to my parents, you could tell she recognized their voices from skype, but didn't really want to go to them at first. But she got over it and went to them easily. She is so clingy to me! Even when she was with someone she always had her eye on me, which I am totally OK with! There is going to be a time when she doesn't want me as much, so I am going to soak it up while I can. She did well meeting new people. She met my brother, grandparents and my aunt. She wouldn't go to them for very long, and I was happy that they handed her back to me when she started fussing! She also met a lot of my parents neighbors and friends. She did so well!

I took walks with my dad every morning, sometimes with Mia, and that was nice. The area my parents live in is so beautiful ! The sunrises are spectacular. I love the picture I got of the sun coming up with the palm tree. I LOVE palm trees. They are so beautiful.

We did a lot of eating out, walking around and going to the pool or beach. The only water I went into was the hot tub though. I am not a fan of colder water, even a heated pool was too cold for me.

We went to the beach twice. Once it was such a windy day that it was very cold outside. It was still nice to get some sun though. The water was surprisingly warm. But we still didn't go in:) Mia LOVED sticking her toes in the sand! She thought it was pretty funny. Back at the pool we put her toes in the water, and she thought that was pretty cool too.

During our trip we saw lots of pelicans, alligators and I even saw a dolphin on our last morning there. We also ate a lot of Moe's. Doug and I went there three days in a row, and that was OK.

It was very sad leaving, I wish we could have stayed longer. Hopefully Mia and I will be able to make another trip down there if not this year, early next (before she turns 2 and needs to pay for a ticket!). My parents are coming here this summer, so that will help! Hopefully this summer we will have better weather than we did last time they were here!

Now we have nothing coming up in our near future, which is OK by me. We have some projects we are trying to do around the house. I am still trying to find work closer to where we live, and boy is that hard. My job is moving in April/May, so I have until then to find something. I wish so much I could just be home with Mia. Maybe in a perfect world! I just hope and pray that I can find something that works best for Mia.

We don't have many plans this year, yay. My parents are coming sometime in August, and we are trying to make plans to go to New England in June/July. Other than that we are going to stay home. Hopefully next year we will be able to take a family vacation with just the three of us! I would love to go to Hawaii or on a cruise somewhere with Mia and Doug. The three of us need a vacation. We have thought about just going to Portland or the coast sometime this year for the weekend, we will have to see what happens.