Once again, I am very grateful the storm did not hit until after we were home.  The one inch of snow and 3-4 inches of freezing rain we received, turned into a solid sheet of ice last night.  Everyone is stranded.  Church was canceled.  Almost everything is closed. 

In other places, where they are used to this type of weather, it may not seem like a big deal – send out the plows and salt the roads.  Here, there are no plows.  Here, there are no salt trucks.  Here, everything shuts down.  And so here we are on this Sunday afternoon, stranded in our own home.  And what have we done to fight the cabin fever?  Let's see . . .

*I attempted to sleep in, only to have Derek decide that this it was not in the cards, since he didn't want to "sleep" or "play in his room."  Luckily, Kevin slept through all of this, and was actually able to get some much needed rest – he came home with a bad cold and sleep deprivation.

*We managed to read scriptures as a family, which was especially nice, since we won't be at church today.

*I have spent quite a bit of time on the computer.  First, I was just checking out food blogs and succeeding in making myself very hungry.  (Nothing a little leftover Bacon Chowder couldn't cure though.)  But Bakerella mentioned something about the "Bloggies," which led me to countless other cool blogs.  I even ended up voting for the winners of the Tenth Annual Weblog awards, although I didn't vote in every category.  (Did anybody know that these awards actually existed??  I thought it was pretty funny, and even more so that I actually took the time to vote.)

*The kids decided to chase each other around our house like crazy people, that is, until Kevin mentioned them going outside to burn off that energy.  Suddenly, Lily dropped to the floor and "just couldn't move because she was so tired."  Really?

*Kevin took about 50 pitchers of hot water outside to defrost the 2 inches of solid ice off all his car  windows, so that he won't have to worry about it tomorrow.

*Seeing their dad outside made the kids change their mind, and soon they were bundled up and playing in the "snow."  I use that term loosely, as it was really just very thick ice.  In fact, I was a little worried about their (Derek's) safety, as our back yard was more like an ice-rink.  They had a blast though, poking holes in the ice, chipping off hunks of ice and trying to eat it, and just trying to stand up straight.  They came in soaking wet and a little bruised, but loved it anyway.

*The kids got warm baths and we all had hot cocoa to get us warm again.

*I have also spent a good deal of time with a prayer in my heart that the crazy weather did not kill all my newly emerging bulbs.  I even tried to cover them up with dirt before the storm hit, but I don't know if it was good enough to save them.  (Curse the random spring weather in January that tricked them into popping out early in the first place.)

*Now, Kevin is playing Star Wars Lego's on the Wii to "keep the kids happy."  He is pretty genius to have trained them to love watching him play video games :).

*And I am on the computer again. 

I don't know if I can do another day stranded, so I am hoping things melt enough today for school to be in session tomorrow.  That, and I really don't want to cancel our preschool field trip to the fire station.  That, and I just really hate cold, icy weather :).  If we are stuck here again, I am thinking, deep clean the house.  Sounds like a plan. 

Also on the agenda for today: a movie, a Laker's game, Chicken Fried Steak for dinner, and keeping my kids from going crazy.  Now, I think I will get off the computer and read a book :).