Baby it's Cold Outside!

I went on a youth group retreat with my two oldest girls this weekend and it was such a great time! We went to Leavenworth (no, not the Federal prison. It's a small Bavarian village in Central Washington.) where it was covered in a beautiful, thick blanket of snow. Everyone was thrilled because we haven't gotten ANY snow this year! We played outside, had snowball fights, sledding, and a very cold and wet game of capture the flag. Camp Camrec was the name of our facility, and it was a wonderful experience. Right before we were ready to board our bus and head home on Sunday, we heard that our town got over a foot of snow! At that point there was a grumble spreading through the crowd of kids. I think they were wanting to be done with the snow :)

This was my son's reaction to our epic snowfall. I think that he was pretty excited to finally have some of that powdery white stuff to jump around in.

My ladies in the hen house, however, are not nearly as overjoyed. I found an egg in their coop that was completely frozen solid. We decided to peel it and see what a frozen egg looked like.

That first photo is kind of blurry, but it was really weird. It almost looked like a hard boiled egg, but it was solid and slimy. Pretty gross!

My dog is also not enjoying herself. She didn't understand what the snow was. There was so much of it that it was even with the porch. So she stepped off the porch into the snow, and poof! She sunk right down into it and it scared her. Honestly, it was pretty hysterical. We got her in right away and warmed her up.

This is after the jump. You can see that big dip in the snow on the right.

I have some sewing to do to keep me busy while it's too cold and wet to do much outside. One thing I'd like to complete before spring comes is my Chicopee quilt. I have the top finished and all sandwiched together with the batting and backing fabric.

I made this using the Jelly Roll Race Method. It is so fast and fun! I added borders to my top since this particular jelly roll came with much less than the normal 42 strips of fabric.

I'm hoping the snow melts before too long, but we'll enjoy it while it's here and use it as an excuse to get some things done inside.

Settling In

We moved into our new home 3 weeks ago and we are settling in very well. It has been so great to spend time with friends and family. I have gotten to spend a lot more time with my husband too, since he isn't spending 2 hours a day commuting. His work is now less than 10 minutes from our house. The sun shines here, even when it's cold. The sky is a color of blue I haven't seen in a very long time.

This was the weather on moving day. If I ever move again, will someone please remind me that winter is not a good time to do it?

The kids and the dog were pretty cozy in the car though. The bad weather didn't seem to bother them too much. Of course, they just had to ride along.

It took a few hours to get over the mountains and into central Washington. When we left Puyallup the skies were grey and dreary. As soon as we got over the pass, the sky became blue and there was a huge bright ball of light in the sky.

This is what the sky looks like everyday where we live now. It was the kids' first day of school here and there was a rainbow! Can you spot it? Can you spot the cute little boy too?

My favorite room in the new house is the living room. It is so bright and cozy. I love sitting on the couch in the morning with my coffee.

There really has been a lot to do here so I need to get back on a blogging schedule. I have been sewing so much! My new sewing room/closet has been getting quite a bit of use. Everything is organized and has it's place. It kind of has to be that way when you have a smaller space. But it makes it more enjoyable to sew because I'm not spending half an hour looking for a specific fabric or a pair of scissors before I can start making something. I share my sewing space with my clothes and that's okay because I don't have many of those.

The next post will be FULL of tons of sewing and knitting stuff! I promise! No more talk about moving. Let's get back to the making =)

Snow Times

You may have heard (ALL OVER NATIONAL NEWS) that western WA got some snow. It was really great! The kids loved playing in it and they built these cute little snowmen in our front yard. School was cancelled and they got to play outside all day, with hot cocoa breaks in between.

The snow kept coming down all day long. I had heard it was supposed to be quite a lot. Before it got too dark that night to take a photo, I snapped this one out my front door:

For us, this is an incredible amount of snow. It wasn't so bad. I can handle snow, and it looks so beautiful and peaceful out there. Then the freezing rain started. I woke up to this:

Our massive trees around here were already heavy with snow. We had freezing rain coming down on top of that for an entire day which made a good half inch coating of ice over everything. Trees started snapping. You could literally hear them creaking under the weight of the snow and ice. Branches began crashing down everywhere. Fences were broken down, power lines snapped. It was horrible. Luckily we don't have any trees in our yard. But I felt horrible for all my neighbors because they have tons! We were all without power and it was cold, cold, cold...

Everything is back to normal now. All of our snow has melted and we're back to our usual rain. We've been watching for flooding, but it hasn't happened yet, so I don't think it will.

What kind of wacky weather have you been having?