Saturday, February 22, 2014

Saturday's Scribbles

Good Saturday to you from our corner of the world, where the weather has been crazy the past week. Early on we had temperatures in the 40's, then Thursday morning we had rain, which turned to snow. Heavy wet snow and thunder snow came down throughout the day.  Thursday night we continued under blizzard warnings with sustained winds up to 40mph and gusts over 50mph that shook the house, closed interstates, and left us with 8 inches of fresh snow. ice, and downed branches to deal with.  Joel was out with the snow blower and shovel and when he finished here he headed over to my sister's since her hubby was out of town.  This morning he raked the back roof to try to avoid an ice jam when it melts.  Interstates are still covered with choppy thick ice and I heard just north of us the MN Highway Patrol are saying it has not been this bad in 25 yrs.  No travel advised!

Speaking of the snow, I am sharing a few pictures with you all.  Even with it's destruction, it is beautiful, but really, we are so ready for  Spring!!  Friday we watched deer crossing the frozen river~ expect they were having a good time.....I know our neighbor dog loved it, she was out romping around with a big smile on her face.  Yep, I am sure it was a smile!






Early in the storm, a small town of 2,000 about 25 minutes from us had to be evacuated after an explosion at a storage facility.  Seems sulfuric acid was one of the chemicals released in the explosion so all emergency agencies within an hour were on the scene to get people to safety.  Challenging for nursing home facilities, but they used school buses, etc. and by today all are back home safe and sound.  I expect the air quality will be tested for awhile. 

Speaking of air quality, when it was so nice this week I turned off the furnace one day and opened the windows and doors to get some fresh air in here.  Ugh....it gets so stale in the winter.  It smelled so good!!

We have been running our water 24/7 in two places to keep our water pipes from freezing like 4 of our neighbors and several homes in the city.  But this morning we woke up to the sewer backing up!  Again.  Joel called three different guys who deal with sewer and of course because it is a weekend they are unavailable...None thought the sewer was frozen, though.  BUT we cannot run water now with the sewer plugged so it will take a divine intervention to keep our pipes from freezing.  That is what we are standing on right now, God's intervention....ask and ye shall receive......and running to the church today to use the bathroom and also showering over at my sister and BIL's.  The past 4 months we have had a water crisis...every single month.....November, December, January, February.  Enough, already!

Have you been watching the Olympics this week?  We have taken in the Ice Skating, some ski jumping and the women's Hockey final between Canada and the USA.  That went into overtime and was quite exciting.  We don't usually watch hockey so knew very little about what was going on but enjoyed it.....I prefer women's sports because they are less aggressive most of the time.  Notice I said most of the time.

Last Sunday our son Mark celebrated a birthday!  We welcomed him home when he was 5 months old....he was so beautiful that we kept his middle birth name...it is rare so I won't share it here, but it means "beautiful" in Tagalog....the language of the Philippines where he was born.  We really learned few Filipino words when we lived there....most everyone spoke English. 

Mark and grandson Noah last Labor Day weekend when
we went with them to their church...great fun!

I am still re-reading Heidi Baker's book, Birthing the Miraculous, and also Ann Voskamp's book "The Greatest Gift".  Have listened to a few teachings, lots of praise music, and watched the Olympics. Downton Abbey was really good this past week.  Did you see it?  What are you up to?

Until next time............

1 comment:

Kim said...

Renee, it's always so much fun to see a peek into your life on Saturdays. I have to admit, I'm jealous of all the snow even though it sounds like it's been so disruptive and I don't wish anyone trouble with it. We've had our worst winter here, too, but the city makes sure it doesn't affect or interrupt day to day operations. I can't imagine what the snow removal budget must be, but this year I'm sure it's breaking the bank!

Your water woes sure are crazy. I hope they're fixed soon and will have to pray about that.

And I'm so behind on Downton but now I'm thinking I need to catch up. The women's ice skating was wonderful, wasn't it? They're like ballerinas on ice... such a gift.

Hugs, friend.