Weird freezing cold week and school cancelations

It is -11 as I type right now.  Brrr!!!!

This has been an odd week.  Saturday night the 26th there was forecasted freezing rain.  Sunday morning the 27th, freezing rain hit hard.  Church was called off for the whole day....so we hung out in the house ALL DAY.  It was a fun pajama day.  They went outside to slide down the driveway wearing boots.  Monday, school was called off because the ice was still slick.  Monday evening was lightning and thunderstorms, warmer temps, and down pouring rain.  This melted all the ice, so Tuesday was the only full day of school from 8-3.  Temps fell again and got very cold and 4 inches of snow fell Tuesday night, so Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all 2 hr delays starting school because of the excess snow and frigid temps.  Thursday morning we had women's Bible study, and we couldn't get into the church parking lot since it hadn't been plowed yet, so we met at Trisha's house a mile away.

There have been a lot of "I have major cabin fever" moments.  But the time to just stay put and not run around places was a nice break too.  

Violet had inspiration from a Backyardigans episode she saw that involved a jungle with a pizza shop it it, so I helped her create a "backdrop" for a play they wanted to put on for us.  We drew and colored for hours one day and they dressed up in their halloween costumes and danced around to music infront of the backdrop one night.  It was pretty funny!

Calvin hasn't had preschool all week, all 3 days (M, W, and F) were canceled.  He has been enjoying the snow so much though!!

This post has me wondering how to officially spell "cancelled".  Is it "cancelled" or "canceled"?

Dave took Calvin and Violet out to Cup of Joe for jazz night on Thursday.  It started at 8pm.  They went to get cookies and play games.  They think its pretty awesome to go with dad there.  Dave texted me a couple pictures of them and I showed the pics to Vanessa.  She wanted to show them the book she was currently reading.  Dave said the pic of Vanessa made V and C laugh a lot.  About as much as they get upset with her for wrecking what they're doing, they also are enamored with her "cuteness" at times and fall into fits of giggles over things she says. 

Last night at dinner, we were all eating a baked ziti dish with meatballs and broccoli.  Vanessa had already snacked on some trail mix an hour before supper so wasn't all that hungry, Dave said, "Vanessa, you eat like a bird!" and Vanessa immediately brought both arms up and started flapping like a little bird.  I think Violet and Calvin laughed for 5 minutes.

Another fun part of these late mornings is Violet being able to play with Eli.  He is most cheerful in the mornings.  I had gotten up with him a couple times in the night and brought him downstairs this morning at 6:45 am to change his diaper - and Violet came down the stairs and saw just myself and Eli downstairs.  She cuddled up to him and snuggled him - then when he had had enough of that - she brought him to the floor and played with him.  She said she didn't want anybody else to wake up, she must have been enjoying playing with her baby brother.  She thinks he's the cutest thing ever and laughs when she makes him do his little gruntle-laugh.  She was excited to see him crawl on his own and notice he could pull up to standing position on the bounce and spin zebra.  She even grabbed the camera and snapped a few pics of him.

Violet told me Thursday morning before she left for school (Teresa took her) that she almost cried saying goodbye to me, she wanted to stay.  I think she's a quality time kind of girl.  Her "love tank" is all filled up when she's home.  And to have a late start to her school day and be the only kid to leave was kind of hard, even Thursday morning.  I told her when I dropped her off that we would go home, have lunch in a little bit, put Vanessa down for a nap, and come get her.  The "shortness" of all that seemed to help her.

Tomorrow morning Dave is heading to Florida for a night.  A long-time co-worker of his died suddenly at the age of 54 from a massive heart attack.  The man who died was a believer, so knowing that is something to take comfort in.  This man who died was an important part of Calix and a very well respected father-figure to one of the guys on Dave's work team, so Dave felt it was important to make the effort to go to the funeral.  It is tomorrow afternoon.  He leaves early Sat morning and comes back Sunday around 1pm.  He was able to redeem frequent flier miles, hotel points, and a reward from car rentals to make our out-of-cost expense a whole $19 for his trip down there.  A blessing to redeem those since we don't have any travel $ in the budget right now.