Still snowing...

It's been over a week since this "deep freeze" started. Many thought the snow previously pictured from Sunday would be the worst of it... Not quite. It has been snowing and between 18-25 degrees Fahrenheit ever since. We have up to 15" built up in some areas around the house. When Columbia hasn't been closed, Scott has driven me to work, and he's managed to make it in everyday at least long enough to get his laptop and work from home.

Church has been cancelled two weeks in a row and we were sick the week before that, so I believe that makes us almost inactive :). We still have power and heat, no broken tree limbs, although a couple out front look suspicious. Large clusters of ice stalagtites hang from the eaves.

We had 8-9" piled up in the backyard by Saturday evening, then that night the freezing rain came. That added a layer of ice a little over a quarter inch thick on top of the snow, and this morning we've gotten another 3" or so on top of that. The first 9" were dry and powdery and thus has created large snow drifts in the roads and some yards where the snow just blew around and collected in mounds. All routes to the coast are closed, I think, and chains are required all around the Portland metro area.

This is me in the snow before the ice came...


The layer of ice that rested on top of the snow...


And today after the new snow fell:

*Severe Winter Weather*

It began snowing at 7:30 this morning in Portland, and continues...
We received an email and two phone calls notifying us that all church meetings were cancelled due to the weather. So instead of sitting at home and watching it, we bundled up and ventured out, Brindy leading the way.
We went to the tennis courts near our house so Brindy could run free while we tried to make a snowman with all the fresh snow (our yard has "land mines" we chose not to play with). It turns out the snow was a little too dry to make more than a snowball. After running around for a while, we came back to the house and drove over to Emily and Chris' to see the nieces and Byron and let them play with Brindy.

Our backyard around lunchtime:



Our backyard again at 4:00pm:



Also, yesterday we put the tile mopboard up in bathroom and I'm so excited with how good it looks! Now it needs grouting and sealing then the "amenities" can go in (toilet, vanity, etc).

Windows, Christmas tree, and Braces...

Over Thanksgiving weekend I bought new windows for the house. My Dad also had the day after Thanksgiving off so we spent that Friday and Saturday putting them in. The outside is mostly trimmed up but the inside still needs some work. We replaced single pane aluminum sliders with double pane vinyl windows.

The inside that still needs trim. You can see me and our Christmas tree in the reflection.


The outside all done.


Here is our Christmas tree. We went this last Saturday with my family to a U-Cut lot. We left with 4 trees. (Only one for us) My nieces and Nephew were having a blast crunching up the ice on the ground.



My awesome self portrait...

Yesterday I got braces put on. Today my teeth hurt! We had a lot of money left over in my FSA this year so I figured now was a good time to finally get straight teeth. It is supposed to take 18 months. I can only eat soft foods right now because chewing hurts. My Coworkers only teased me a little bit today. We had our work "Holiday Luncheon" today so I had to mush salmon up with my tongue. I was so glad they had mashed potatoes.