SNOW!!!

I'M LIKE A KID IN A CANDY STORE!!!!!

(Shell is not thrilled)

snow! that's right - I said SNOW!

 I interrupt my usual Monday morning twaddle-filled post to bring fun news!

--------------> WE GOT SNOW! <--------------- 

It's true! Snow right here in stupid southern California!

It's been super cold here lately - LOVE IT - and rainy on and off.

This afternoon the conditions were just right, and *POOF* it started snowing!

We were all so excited, we ran outside in our bare feet! LOL!

 It started out falling fairly slow, and of course was too wet to stick...

 But then it started coming down harder and faster

 "HELP! WE'RE FREEZING!"

 Ever the mischief maker, Daniel starts making and throwing snowballs!

 The wheels are turning in the Mouse's head. He's got an idea.

He's on a mission which began when he made this massive "snowball"

 Now the snow is finally starting to stick. This is outside my bedroom window

 Matthew's "snowball" has evolved into this monstrosity!

You get a star on your forehead if you can guess which one is the snowman!

Angel has to check it out just a little more...

she's squinting her eyes to keep out the snow :)

 How CUTE is that Mouse with his finished snowman! 

Luna was not ready for her close-up :/

Awww :)

It's all fun and games.......... 

Until Davy chucks a snowball and breaks a window! :-0

!@#$%^&*!@#$%^&*!

Oh Davy, Davy, Davy...... how YOU of you! LOL! :D

~

 HUGE, beautiful snowflakes started coming down hard,

and the snow eventually stuck and turned everything white!

It's forecasted to continue through the night, but I guess we'll see...

It hasn't snowed here for 22 years - I'd be delighted for it to stay a bit! 

sandpoint snow

Ahhhhhh :) Please forgive me, but we've been suffering through a nasty heat wave this week, so for my Sandpoint Friday photos, I went directly to the SNOW! The first snow of the fall season, to be exact - the fall of 2004 that is.

I don't know how time flies that fast, because I remember it like it was maybe a year ago! We were so thrilled because it has been years and years since we had seen snow. It was raining, and all of the sudden the rain turned to snow, and we were like little kids - hardly able to get our sweatshirts on and run outside fast enough!

It wasn't a huge storm - only a few inches of snow - but enough to turn everything white and beautiful :) And it stuck around long enough for the kids to come home from school, and Daniel to come home from work, so we could all play around and have some fun! 

Of course, they said it was really WILD for them to look out the window during school and see snow start to fall!

Our back yard looked pretty wonderful to me :)

Ah, here are the Mouse and Daniel having some fun :)

one of my favorite little trees, looking so awesome all dressed in white

Look at that Mouse! He had just barely turned 9 years old!

........ and Davy was only 13 years old - gadzooks!

Ah, this is one of my favorite photos :)

Hey, no laughing - we had never made one before! I think he's cute :)

~

Well I feel *much* better now from having visited Sandpoint and from enjoying some snow. Time to gear up for the day and try not to be a weenie about the heat. As long as it's not 116 again :/ But I've got diet Coke on ice and I'm not afraid to use it. So HAPPY FRIDAY and ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND! And come on back if you need to chill :)

Sandpoint Snow

This is one of my favorite photos. The first time it snowed up in Sandpoint Idaho, way up at the top of the Idaho panhandle by Canada, where we lived on top of a mountain, John and I reacted as if we were kids. It had been cold and raining, the boys were all at school, and we were in different part of the house. We must have looked out the windows at the same time though, and realized the rain had suddenly turned to snow. I hardly believed my eyes at first. I still remember the smile of wonder on my face. We instantly pulled on sweatshirts and ran outside to greet the falling powder. It was a magical moment I'll never forget.

I'll be back ASAP - my hard drive crashed and it's given me much distress! But I have lots to share - stay tuned!

Reflection: Autumn in Sandpoint, Idaho

Around this time of year, I find myself reflecting back on the three very short months we lived in Sandpoint Idaho. Now, that is a reeeeeeeeealy long story in and of itself, so I will spare you the details. We've been back in California for four years now and Sandpoint seems like a dream sequence. 

Sandpoint is in northern Idaho, waaaaaaaay up at the top of the pan handle on Lake Pend O'Reille, about an hour south of Canada. Yes. That Canada. I had never seen such scenic beauty in my entire life as I did in northern Idaho. I'm not sure I ever will again (okay the Swiss Alps came close). It is only now, four years later, that I have finally been able to start looking at my photographs. As comforting as it was to come back to California and the people we love and left behind, it was excruciating to leave Sandpoint. We just closed our front door, and drove away.

So. Anyway. Autumn is my very, very, very, most favorite season. And let me just say that California STINKS at Autumn. At least where I live. Case in point: we are at the end of October and it's still in the 90's. The poor trees try so hard to do what they were meant to do - to turn into breathtaking, brilliant reds and yellows - to put on a fashion show like only nature can. And it's just sad to watch. I feel like posting apology notes on each and every tree. Oh sure, we'll have our autumn all right. It will last for about 48 hours sometime in November before we get some ridiculous heat spell and find ourselves once again putting up Christmas decorations in the blazing sun. But my jaded views of life in California is yet another fun topic you can look forward to another time. Back to Sandpoint.

 

When the temperature started dropping, and the trees in Sandpoint started turning all kinds of fiery colors, I felt like I was living in a painting. Around every curve and down every road there were more and more paintings to experience. I found myself pulling off the road a LOT. For the first time in my life, it wasn't just a picture I was looking at. I was IN it. Even now I can hear water lazily lapping, coots quacking, leaves rustling. Twilight silent and calm, smoke appearing up above the trees from chimneys here and there, sunsets making the yellows and reds glow orange and pink like magic. Ah, Sandpoint.

 

Then on Halloween day the most amazing thing happened. SNOW! Real snow. The kind that comes from the sky when you least expect it and you think this can't possibly be real because I can't even remember the last time I experienced snow and I don't even know what to do except dance around in it and thank God for it and feel like a kid opening the best Christmas present ever and smile until my cheeks hurt and take pictures so that moment in time is captured forever and ever and ever and ever.