Snow days = less summer days

We are home again for snow--no school for us today! SEVEN total snow days since January! WOW. I think this is a record for Kentukiana, no wait, I know it is a record! The news people have stated it about a billion times lately! Funny.

J-Bird and I built an igloo. We went sledding. We got muddy. We snow-cleaned carpets. Obe Wan played Minecraft. Sigh. J-Bird asked if I could use my Mommy power and get Obe Wan off the computer. Another large sigh. Some times it just isn't worth the fight....

About the carpets---so, I was looking up ways to clean area rugs since we have so many around here...and crazy enough, but the ladies in Scandanavia, take full advantage of their snow. You take your carpets out into the elements--let them adjust to the temperature--cover them with a fine, powdery white snow, sweep on, let set for 15 minutes. The ammonia in the snow and the wet, freezing temperatures set into the carpet without getting them wet. Shake them up and bring them in your house. WOW. They actually smell nice and all the stains are gone?!?! Honest Abe. It worked. A score for Pinterest today! (If I would have looked this up in two-three more days I couldn't have done it. And who says there isn't a God??? That was a God-thing! Woo-Hoo Pinterest and the Lord!

Picture blast:

This really captures the amount of snow we got!

Yep, that ended up hitting Obe Wan!

Thank goodness for John Deere. Now, I will be buying snow attachment for our
JD tractor---this will ensure NO snow like this ever again!

Trying out the sled Mimi & Papa bought them years ago!

In his Igloo house!

This is J-Bird on the top of the RED mound of dirt. 

He built his own Igloo garage.

J-Bird on top of his own Mt. Everest

Be Good My Friends. We will be in KS in 18 days! 

SNOW APOCALYPSE!!!

Remember my picture from March 3--two days ago???

The view from my walkout basement door
(The Superman changing room door)

It was simply wonderful to see the snow gone!! Unfortunately, it was short lived. The boys were sent home from school two hours early--and not a moment too soon--within an hour of their return the rain (which had been nonstop since Tuesday) turned to sleet and into beautiful flakes. I didn't think there was any chance it would stick to the warm, wet ground. FAMOUS last words.

Around 6 p.m. on March 4

I tried to take pictures, but got distracted trying to get bowls established for snow ice cream. We all have priorities...

Around 9 a.m. on March 5
Notice: Bowl is BURIED.

SIX INCHES in the back!

It continued to snow through the night and into the wee hours of the morning. When we woke up--the view was amazing. It was like the snow had never gone away. AND this is even more snow than moving day. Who would have thought?

I have to go shovel, sled and build an igloo. I will post more tomorrow--when hopefully, the Jedi Knights will go back to school

ps--My little one doesn't want his name to be Luke Skywalker on the Blog. He wants to be J-Bird. (My gym boyfriend gave him this nickname and he likes it. Go figure....)

Move In Day!

February 16 (going back in time. Making sure we are all clear on this....) 

By 8 a.m. the snow was already pouring down and our KS truck driver was informed that ALL moving crews had shut down for the day and were not coming out to help unload the semi!!! WHAT?!?!!? This is when I became a mover! We lead the truck up the hill and we (Two guys and ME!) unloaded the entire semitruck. We started at 9:30 a.m. and ended our day at 11:21 p.m. I drove them down the hill and was at the rental getting my plants at 12:30 A.M. By the end of the day, we were all frozen cold and the nephew was wasted. 

The scrapbooker was not taking pictures!!! Thankfully Wichita Sister DID!!!

 Here is a picture from my walkout basement on the evening of Monday, February 16.

Here is the same picture on Tuesday, March 3. See how much snow we had land on the Knob?

Snow My Goodness!

We got us some snow around these parts!!! As if we didn't get enough the boys are getting dismissed TWO hours early today because we are supposed to have 8-12" MORE tonight/tomorrow. Seriously over winter!!

We have some great hills in our back yard!

Living on the Knob means killer sledding!

Moving before the storm

Wichita Sister

As promised, I am going back in time to Saturday, February 14th--the day of Love-- We left a day earlier than anticipated because MIL saw the forecast was going to take a MAJOR down turn. I looked at the radar and saw nothing, but I have always joked if you want to know the weather ask my FIL, the tree farmer! He seems to have a knack for knowing the weather! We packed up, said good-bye (again) and kidnapped Wichita Sister and the nephew! It was not a bed drive considering I had a 21 month old with me! :) Amazing what technology can do for a long trip!

The nephew

Off we went for 12 hours back to Indiana to move into the KNOB house!

We got there around 1 in the morning and all crashed. I knew I had a LOT to do the next day to get the rental property ready for the moving truck for Monday morning. Needless to say, the moving truck decided it would be best if the truck was loaded on Sunday afternoon by the two guys from Kansas! Yippee!

We managed to get the rental property packed onto the truck and put our beds at the back. Prince Charming suggested Get A Move ON head up to the Knob and unhitch the rig and leave the trailer there over night. (WAY TO GO! AS THE STORM WAS COMING!!! This ended up being a COMPLETE blessing in disguise!) I had to lead the way in the ol' rockin' van as GPS shows a way that would cause a semi to Jack KNIFE!!! So, onward and upward!

Devil's Butt Crack--the 10 seconds of silence stretch of Knob Road

 We were successful at parking the rig, unhitching the trailer and getting our beds off the truck! YEAH! We had a HUGE empty house and didn't know where anything was as we were thrown off guard by packing/loading and moving on Sunday.

The boys had a blast playing in the empty house! I'm so 

glad we ended up parking the rig because the S-N-0-W was coming. We agreed to meet the semi on Monday morning at the bottom of the Knob at the McDonald's. Wichita Sister and I decided we needed to make a fast Wal-Mart run to get milk and a few things. B-I-G mistake. This is Wal-Mart when you say the F-O-U-R letter word in Kentukiana....

The line took 45 MINUTES to get through and EVERY bag of salad was gone. I'm not kidding. Every bag was gone. Milk and bread were scarce, but the salads MIA. WOW. I'll tell you what....if a Zombie Apocalypse comes, you can only IMAGINE the last thing I will be grabbing is a bag of salad?!@?! Who does that? 

Here is what starts falling in the middle of the night....

Superman's Changing ROOM!

Isn't this door horribly boring and WHITE? Only one door opens, but it is a French door. Can it be called a French door if only one side opens? (I will have to Google that...) In my quest for the perfect Superhero playroom, I discovered Superman's Telephone booth. We are not huge fans of the Man of Steel around here, but this discovery was sensational! I had the perfect doorway to make into a telephone booth. Now, Prince Charming, has a problem with painting beautiful, factory made doors RED. He and I don't exactly see "eye to eye" on home projects. AS IT SO HAPPENED---he left town. OOPS! The door became RED. Thanks to my awesome Silhouette I was able to cut out perfect "TELEPHONE" letters. Pretty impressed!

Superman's Telephone booth

Now, the problem is what to do with the other side? Make two telephone booths side by side. TACKY. I will figure something out. Please feel free to leave me some comments on what you think I should do. I can only spend three hours a day on Pinterest before I start feeling guilty.

The Bat Wall has turned out pretty spiffy. I like the two saying I made using some digital skills with Publisher. Thanks to Walgreens I was able to print my saved .jpg images and even get cash back through Ebates. LOVE THAT WEBSITE! 

The room that made me start Gotham City was my storage room. I actually have two storage rooms and a panic room. (I have yet to make it a Panic Room, but I will. We must prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse! I will make sure to post that in the blog. To Be Continued on that one....) Here is what I did yesterday!!! 

Storage Room Hell

 Can you believe this mess? You can see why I would turn around and walk back out. Since it was only two guys, a truck and me who did ALL the moving, many things were not put where they should have been. (OH WAIT, I haven't told you about that part of the move yet, have I??? Tomorrow I will have to go back in time....) There were so many boxes in this room that needed to go TWO flights up to my scrapbooking room. There wasn't enough alcohol for me to work on this room. SIGH....

So, I made two pitchers of Margaritas, had two bottles of wine chilled and beers prepared for the Beer HELMET I was going to wear to while undertaking this room. I hired the two short, midget, movers again-- MUCH TO MY CHAGRIN. (These were the two who helped us move from KS with the Penske truck. They are also my two sons....) We managed to turn the above nightmare into this--

Photo Bombing!!!

I can't say I was drunk by the alcohol, as I gave it up for Lent, but I was drunk with happiness on the results of a Sunday afternoon! No rest for the weary. I believe I will try to get the scrapbook room in order this week. Gotham City has too many toys in it for me to figure out what to do with it. I believe I am going to have to sneak the toys out in the middle of the night. 

Have a Happy Monday! 

-Ms. America

Bricks and MiniFigs!

I'm blessed and cursed to have a large family. I think we put the "FUN" in dysfunctional at times, but as we get older and have our own lives, we cherish our time together. (It may be all in my own head, but I like to think we are close....)

I have had the opportunity to spend one on one time with every sibling these past three weeks and it has been amazing! We are all so different, but our pasts connect us in ways no one else can share.

Ok, out of sappyland....The two Jedi Knights LOVE Legos. While Portland Sister was here she took the two young Jedi's to a store we discovered in Louisville---Bricks and MiniFigs. It is a Lego Junkie's DREAM.

Look at ALL the Legos!

So, this isn't Bricks & Minifigs, but it is the only picture I could find of the Jedi Knights with Portland Sister!

Luke Skywalker is thinking a birthday party here this year!

Josh is standing next to the classroom where they host parties and classes. Maybe when we know people here we can have a birthday party?!? Both boys are getting excited as their birthdays are right around the corner! Oh happy day.

After unpacking more of the playroom yesterday I discovered my Jedi Knights do NOT need anymore Legos, but I will say Bricks and Minifigs is putting on a stop animation camp this summer that would benefit my boys. (Just an idea for a birthday present.....)