SNOKLAHOMA

SnOklahoma.  That's what people are calling it.

Two weeks ago, Hannah and I sat on a blanket in the backyard soaking up the unusually warm temps in the 70s.  Three days later, we were bracing ourselves for a monster winter storm headed toward Oklahoma.  I made my usual trip to the grocery store just before the storm hit.  Later that evening, Joey asked if I picked up extra milk.  I told him I didn't think we needed milk because we had about three-fourths of a gallon at home.  He didn't seem to agree with me so I let him go to the store to get another gallon.  He arrived at Reasor's about 9:30 pm and found the store was void of any shoppers.  Proudly walking to the back where the milk is stored, he thought "Boy, I must be the only one thinking about stocking up for this storm.  The store is hardly busy at all."  Then he found the milk isle and saw this:

Right.  Awesome.  That's why the store was empty.  Everyone else got their milk, bread and eggs earlier in the day and they are now safely hiding out at home waiting for the storm to hit.  It's like the shelves were shouting back at us "No milk for you!"

The next morning, we woke up to blankets of snow.  Record snowfall, I think.  Only a few brave people with four wheel drive ventured beyond their own driveways.  It was beautiful and scary at the same time.  The danger of 12-18" of snow, even higher snow drifts and the serious lack of snowplows in the state of Oklahoma led to the shutting down of pretty much everything.  Schools.  Churches.  Stores.  Malls.  Everything shut down for a few days. A friend accurately portrayed Oklahoma by changing her facebook profile picture to this:

So true.  We were all very stuck in our houses with no place to go.  It was a forced "staycation" for sure.  But we made the best of it.  Here are a few of the things that happened at the teach and tickle home over the past week:

the making of food

the eating of food

the watching of cartoons

the inventing of fictitious perilous situations

the solving of said fictitious perilous situations (this usually involved some form of superhero costume)

the making of stop-motion videos

the making of food

the eating of food

the playing of the xbox

the sitting down to tea parties

the putting on of snowsuits, gloves, hats and boots

the playing in snow

the taking off of snowsuits, gloves, hats and boots

the cleaning up of snowsuits, gloves, hats and boots

(repeat the previous four about 38 more times)

*sigh*

the sledding down hills

the making of food

the eating of food

the sleeping in cozy beds

the not getting much done but feeling pretty okay about it

This post wouldn't be complete without a few photos to share.  So here goes..

That's our mailbox right next to Jonah's feet.  Granted, much of that snow was shoveled there from our driveway, but still a fun hill for a little boy to conquer.  The next day, the kids dug a tunnel all the way around the post of the mailbox.  It's been their hideout ever since.

Jonah's "throne."  Notice Hannah in the window behind.  Hannah and I last approximately 12.4 seconds outside.  Possibly 12.4 minutes depending on the amount of snow we can keep out of our boots and gloves.   

Grammy and Papa invited us over to their house to play in the snow.  Grammy built two cute snowmen on the teeter-totter but the second snowman committed suicide and jumped off.  My (I'm not gonna tell you how old) grandma lives with my parents now and she really wanted to play in the snow too.  She's a kid a heart.  She made her own snowman, a snow bird, a snow angel and a message in the snow that said "I love you!" (a Valentine message to grandpa in heaven maybe? I bet that makes him smile.) 

Joey spent his time at my parent's house making a giant snow tooth.  That's right.  A snow tooth.  Do you think he missed going to work this past week?