Booooo Winter!

This just in: It is SNOWING in ALABAMA.

Did hell just freeze over?

Now, some people see snow as a happy thing, a thing to celebrate. "YAY Snow!!!" they say. Not me. I HATE snow. I mean, it's pretty to look at. But I can look at a picture of snow and be more than happy. It doesn't have to actually BE here. But it is :(

I know I sound like a big ol' Scrooge, but seriously. Here is why I hate it so much:

1) Snow is the epitome of winter. I hate winter.

2) Snow is cold. It has to be cold outside for snow to even happen. It is wet, and it gives you frostbite and makes your fingers and toes numb.

3) Snow covers up everything green and alive, and kills them.

4) One of the main reasons that I think people actually like snow is for the snow days. I get NO snow days. In fact, when it's really bad, I don't even get to leave work - I have to sleep at the hospital. And when it's REALLY bad, and no replacements can come in for you - you just have to stay. That happened at my old unit during the blizzard of '93 - some of the nurses were at the hospital for like four days in a row, and never left - they had to take turns sleeping and taking care of patients. This does NOT make me happy.

5) There is NOTHING fun about playing in the snow. See #2 about the frostbite and numb fingers.

So, what makes me even more upset about this whole situation, is that I'm supposed to go into work at like 3:30/4 today for one of the girls, so she can go to a concert tonight. Normally that would not be a big deal, 3.5 hours is nothing. But, I have to pack a bag in case it gets worse and I don't think I can make it into work tonight. In fact, depending on how things look in a couple hours, I may pack clothes for the entire weekend, because if it's really bad, I'll be at the hospital all freaking weekend long. And that makes April VERY upset.

In fact, the only thing(s) good about today? My sweet hubby, and the sweet potato pie I got from Publix. I love that stuff...

Rescued!

Happy report: we are off the mountain! (And have been since Saturday night, actually... I'm a bad updater.)

Saturday afternoon, we were rescued by a super nice man in a pickup truck with 4-wheel drive! He literally towed our car up the icy part of the mountain (the part that made us stuck) and then drove down to the safer part to make sure we were home free. Thank you, thank you, thank you! So we got back to Birmingham, safe and sound, by about 8:30 or 9 that night.

One last set of pictures, this time from when Kelly came to visit!

She came on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and we hung out that afternoon, and then her boyfriend, Colton, came over for dinner and to meet us for the first time. I loooove him!! He's so sweet :) And totally perfect for Kelly - they're all artsy and cool and precious together, and Mark and I are just old and dorky and nerdy. But that's okay :)

So then, the next day, we all went to see Avatar (which is FANTASTIC, by the way), and then went to Colton's house for dinner with his family. (Which is HUGE.) (His family AND his house, actually.) Dinner was yummy, and then we played telephone pictionary which is a really awesome large-group game to play, and then we played rockband for a while.

So now come the pictures.

New Year's Eve: That afternoon we went shopping, and I got my very first pair of skinny jeans EVER. Only because of Kelly. I always think I look stupid in them - but Kelly says I look good in them, so I got them. (They were cheap-cheap at Plato's Closet, woo!)

Then that night was a party at Colton's house. Here's Kelly, looking awesome as usual, right before we left.



Love my sister!!


So the party was fun, and we headed back early to hang out with Andy and Suzie for New Year's, and I promptly drank a cocktail and fell asleep. I'm old. And boring.

The next morning (ish) Kelly and I played an awesome game of Scrabble.

She was not happy about her hand.



And then she showed me why. Ew, right?

I mean, seriously, that sucks.

But the game was awesome anyway.



And Kelly ended up winning (by 3 points), despite her hand from Hades!!

She always does the best victory dances :)

Seesters!!!1



After our Scrabble extravaganza, Colton invited us to go bowling with him and some of his and Kelly's college friends and his sister, so we did!


I got completely OWNED because I am the worst bowler ever to exist. Seriously. We played two games: I scored a 37 and a 58, consecutively. Not kidding. When I say I'm bad at something, and it's sports-related, you should believe me.

But everybody was super nice about it, so it was okay :)

And here's Kelly and her boy - they are so cute!



So that was two weeks ago, and then we went to (and got stuck in) Gatlinburg, and here I am now :) Cooking and working and doing laundry this week - and after that, hopefully I can just chill and maybe scrapbook some for a bit. I'm tired of traveling.

I've got to go fix dinner now (which I'm actually excited about - roasted veggies and chicken in a marinade of olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, sage, and garlic - yum!!) Hope everybody stays warm!

Trying Again...

In several ways.

This morning dawned Day Two of being Snowed In. I looked out the window, and there are icicles on our car. Not exactly the best sign ... but maybe the sun will come out and it will warm up, or there will be some Patron Saint of Snow Chains that passes our way. Either way, I desperately want to get off this mountain today.

I need to be more optimistic.

So I figured I'd at least try to post some more pictures to pass the time...

We're here!! This was the first night that we got here, and we went to our cabin, unloaded the car, and headed back out to the Old Mill Restaurant. It had really good Southern food, and we basically gorged ourselves :)



Andy and Suzie too!



That night, it snowed! Not a lot, just enough to dust the ground with maybe a half inch of white powder. It was FREEZING though, obviously :)



Our pretty snow-covered cabin!



The view from our back porch



Emma joins in the fun - she liked to eat the snow



Emma and her Daddy play inside where it's nice and warm.


That afternoon, we went into Gatlinburg. First stop: the Apple Barn (and its surrounding shops) to eat lunch and shop a bit.

Kisses for my hubby!



Andy tries to tell Mark he loves him too - but Mark isn't wanting it. :)



We posed in front of a frozen waterfall...



the girls!!



And finally took one of those Old-Time pictures. We'd never done it before, and I never realized how gross it would be to put on those clothes - but I think the picture turned out pretty well :)
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So now, the goal is to get home. We're going to run out of food again if we stay here much longer...

Pray for the roads to clear!!

Stuck.

Okay, so this is the third time I've tried to post, and I'm just giving up on posting more photos than this. I always crash my internet connection when I try. So we're going to just go from here.

We are stuck. Earlier today, around 10:30 or 11, we tried to leave. We slippy-slid our way out of the driveway, which should have been a red flag, but then just kept going. We went a ways down the road, and then got totally stuck/slid whenever we tried to go again. Not good. So Suzie had to drive backwards down the road (that worked better for some reason...) back to somebody's driveway, and then we walked the rest of the way back to the cabin.

Main problem: we had no food. Because we thought we would be fine to leave, we cleaned out the fridge, and really didn't have that much to eat to begin with, because we'd eaten it all in anticipation of leaving today. So - stuck in our cabin, with no chains to put on our tires, and no way to get food. So poor Mark and Andy had to walk 3 MILES in the snow to a convenience store. They would have had to walk the three miles back had they not run into some very kind strangers, who gave them a ride in their enormous truck. Thank you, nice people!! So now we have some food, and we're staying at a discounted rate tonight. Hopefully we can get back tomorrow.

Here's some pictures from the last couple days. I'll post more when we get home.


From our day in Gatlinburg, our little $3 photo-booth session. So cute. I love these :)



After we got back from Gatlinburg, we enjoyed some time in the hot tub. Snow was falling, and obviously we were steaming a bit. It was a fun time :)



The next day, we participated in a very short snowball fight. Andy's about to make his attack...



...And Mark and Suzie retaliate :)



Our cabin this morning, covered in snow :) So pretty!



Me, on the back porch.



Emma loves the snow! (And the new sweater that Suzie knitted for her!)