In like a lion, out like a lamb.

 Here I am freezing at Martha's Vineyard. This was the race I wrote about in my last post that was awful and cold. About a mile or two before this, I grabbed a cup of water on the course and the top layer of it was frozen into ice. I still tried to drink it and ended up spilling water down my chest and legs. The water froze on my jacket and froze my zipper into place. It was so miserable; my next race is the Upton 15K in less than two weeks and I'm hoping the weather is more agreeable. After that, it's the Boston Marathon! I've been training hard and am really excited to run!

A few weeks ago Scott was getting a little sick of living in the city. He was suffering withdrawals from the outdoors and wanted to go camping, but I reminded him that it was still officially winter and in the 30s at night (that wouldn't stop him, but it stops me!). Another problem was that there are only a few campgrounds that are open this time of year. Thankfully, I found one that was open - but only for cabins! Perfect! The cabin was nice and big and had a pellet stove, so we stayed warm all night long. It was nice to not have to pack and unpack the tent and sleeping pads and such. We came up after work on a Friday night, so it was nice to get there and make a fire for s'mores instead of setting up the tent while the kids froze. Success. In the photo above, you can see Oliver hiding under the bunk bed in the morning. We played around the cabin, chucked stones into a nearby pond, played with sticks, went for a short hike, made pancakes on our camp stove, and then went for a longer hike. 

 We hiked through Breakheart Reservation. Bruce and Phoebe found a few grass snakes and used teamwork to chase one of them into Bruce's hands.

 Phoebe was quite proud of herself for carrying a snake around. She asked if I wanted to hold it and when I said no, she exclaimed, "You're just not brave enough."

 We snapped a photo for a couple hiking through and they offered to take our picture. Since we rarely get us all in one shot, here we are as awkward as ever. No selfie stick needed.

 This is Phoebe being Phoebe. She was changing in the locker room before taekwondo and ran into a door, smashing her glasses into her face. She got a gash to her eyebrow that was pretty deep, but she wanted to patch it up with band-aids so she wouldn't miss taekwondo class. I consulted with Dr. Dad and he concluded that a scar to the eyebrow was preferable to dealing with a grouchy girl about to get stitches.

This is my friend Aimee. She is one of my dearest friends here in Boston and she is moving back home to England next week after being here for almost a decade. I was assigned as her visiting teacher six years ago and she became one of my besties. Aimee has been like a mom to my kids, a wonderful teacher herself, a talented singer, an encyclopedia of children's rhymes. I have been lucky enough to be a part of her spiritual growth and journey, and I am so sad to see her go. I know the move will make her happy though, so I will just have to plan a trip across the pond soon.

Last week we had the missionaries over for dinner. It happened to be this elder's birthday, so I asked him what he wanted to eat. Pepperoni pizza and funfetti cake for his 20th birthday. Sometimes I forget that missionaries are still kids too. Yes, that's Oliver licking off the candles. At one point Phoebe and Oliver tried to lick each other's tongues during dinner. The kids really know how to step it up a notch when the missionaries come for dinner.

News boring and not so boring, but mostly boring

Somewhere in January, our washing machine busted. The door wouldn't close (so thus would not wash). The striker had broken off and the latch was chipped, so I ordered new parts and tried to fix it myself. I fixed those problems enough for the door to close, but it made a loud buzzing noise the whole time and smelled like an electrical fire (always a good sign!). I finally called in a pro, who checked my work and said that looked good then dug deeper and found two tiny plastic tabs that broke off the door joint. Because these fingernail sized pieces of plastic broke, I would have to order a whole new door (another $200), so instead we got a new washing machine. This time, a top-loading one that won't have door issues! This is super lame news, but it was about three weeks without laundry, so it was big news when I caught up on the pile.

One day I found Phoebe hanging this sign on the bathroom door. She said her plan was to tie her tooth to the bathroom door and close it. I told her that never worked well (how exactly does all that tiny tying happen?) and to just give it time. She still kept tugging at it and a few days later wrestled the tooth out of her mouth. All. By. Herself. She did not want help this time around.

Oliver continues to be my shadow most days. While Bruce and Phoebe are at school, we do all kinds of domestic tasks (above, baking an apple pie for Bruce's best friend's birthday)...

...and we have a lot of fun too. Oliver loves his pajamas and loves it when I pull the snowsuit over them and he can wear them to school. 

This winter has been fairly mild, but we have had a couple wintry days. We've had normal snowfall and only a few days of extreme cold - nothing like last February.

We went to a birthday party for Miss J's little brother. Miss J now goes to the same school as Phoebe; although J is a year younger, they have lunch together and still see lots of each other. So we celebrated J's brother's birthday with them. While all the older kids played and the adults chattered, Phoebe sidled up to him and read him a book. For all her craziness, she has a few brilliant moments.

Valentine's Day was pretty exciting this year. A few weeks ago we made valentines for veterans as part of a community service project. That got me thinking about people who could use valentines and a little extra love. I was walking through my neighborhood a week or so later and it had just snowed. I was pushing Oliver in the stroller and someone offered to help me pick up the stroller to go over a couple snowy stairs. A few minutes later we walked down the street and saw a homeless man pushing a shopping cart across the street. The crosswalk was snowy and the small wheels on the cart were stuck in the snow. It was rush hour and dozens of people had just exited a nearby train station and were streaming past him. No one stopped to help him. No one seemed to look at him. It was sad. So i decided I was going to make valentines for the homeless in my neighborhood. I contacted the Salvation Army the next day and offered to put small valentines packages together for them to distribute (they offer a free lunch every day so it is a major gathering place for the homeless). They said they'd never done anything like that before, but would love to. I asked how many packages I should prepare and they said 100. I had two weeks to get everything together and I was a little worried! I gathered donations of valentines candies, warm socks, gloves and hats and scarves, hand warmers, chapsticks, and granola bars and puddings and snacks from church members, Facebook friends, family, school friends, and neighbors. 

I had a bunch of kids (and a few other people too) make valentines at church. This was one of Phoebe's. They were all hand-written, which I'm pretty proud of. I wanted each of the 100 bags to have a personal touch, something the homeless rarely get.

I originally thought the packages would be in lunch sacks, but I collected so much stuff that I had to get bigger bags! A grocery store kindly donated the bags, I recruited a crew of Relief Society members to fill them, and we delivered them to the Salvation Army. Valentine's Day was the coldest day of the year so far in Boston - below zero for part of the day and through the night - but I'm hoping the homeless enjoyed some warmth that day.

The day after dropping all those off, I ran the Martha's Vineyard 20-miler. Except this time it was 15.4 miles. The day before the race, the directors moved the course because of bad weather (very cold, extreme wind chills, some snow). Instead of running 10 miles along the shore of an island in -10 degrees and windchill, we ran inland. It turned into one of those survival races - where no one is racing the pace they want, and everyone just wants to finish and doesn't care much about anything else. The last five miles were uphill and into a headwind, so it was miserable. I finished second place, changed into dry clothes, and headed home (which involved a shuttle bus to a ferry to another shuttle bus to my parked car and then a 1.5-hour drive home). I love Martha's Vineyard, but there's a reason tourism isn't booming in February.

This week is February vacation. Scott is working and we don't have any amazing plans, so we are making plans. Yesterday we hung out with friends and the kids painted fingernails and toenails (and just about everywhere else). 

Last night we had a potluck and music jam with neighbors. Our downstairs neighbors are cello prodigies; we love hearing them practice through the floor, but it was even nicer to see it in person.

Today we went to the Boston Common to go ice skating. I held Oliver's hands and we slowly made our way around the ice. Bruce refused to go and read a book on the sidelines instead. Phoebe held onto the side for half a lap, then zoomed in circles until it was time to go.

Worst. Winter. Ever.

 We've seen some crappy New England winters, but this one has been the worst ever. Technically, second worst ever. February was the snowiest month ever recorded in Boston, and the second coldest ever. We are five inches from the all-time snowiest winter ever, and another snowstorm is headed our way tomorrow night that is expected to bring 3-6 inches. Bruce really wants the all-time record to go down. I feel nauseated every time I see a snowflake fall from the sky.

 The crappy weather has affected everything we do: when we go grocery shopping, how we get around, etc. We are up to six snow days so far this year. When the kids do have school, it has been rough getting there. The sidewalks are surrounded by tall snowbanks, so visibility is tricky at crosswalks in particular. Homeowners often shovel a skinny path big enough to put one foot in front of the other, but not big enough for a stroller to get through. I have been carrying Oliver to and from school in a hiking backpack for the past two months; it is killing me and he isn't even that heavy! Oh yes, and watch out for icicles along the way. Phoebe and Bruce like to collect them, but they are a bit dangerous. A friend of ours said one shattered her windshield.

 The playground at school is buried in snow. It is usually much taller looking than this. I'm convinced that the snow will still be in huge piles until May. There is just so much of it. There is so much that the City has been hauling truckloads of it away during the night.

 I think the City is losing money on the parking meters. No one can get to them. Parking here is crazy. Snow replaced a lot of parking, and the spaces that people dug out for themselves are occupied with "space savers" when cars aren't there. Some people haven't moved their cars for months and have let them get piled in snow; you can just see a side mirror poking out here or there. Often, the snowplows take those off, scratch up the sides, and shear the bumper off.

 There have been several epic blizzards where we have been stuck indoors. We watched a lot of TV and library DVDs...

 ...and we put together a 500-piece puzzle...

 ...and we have been getting out toys new and old.

 We have made a zillion art projects...

 ...and we have gotten plenty of use on our Children's Museum pass. Ok, so this photo is in front of the Boston Tea Party Museum next door to the Children's Museum. Bruce and Phoebe liked the Sam Adams photo opp with the icicle.

 And they wanted a photo next to the snowbank by the museum.

 We eventually made it into the museum, where Bruce and Phoebe starred in "The Three Little Pigs."

 Oliver has learned how to say, "Two, Uhhh, Pssshhhhhh!" (countdown and blast-off noise)

 We have seen a lot of these bobcats moving snow and Oliver has become quite obsessed with the beeping noise when they back up. One night there were some snow removal operations going on in our neighborhood and he was up with his nose to the window at 2 a.m. looking for the trucks and machines. When Oliver saw this at the Children's Museum, he sat in it for almost 20 minutes (an eternity for a 21-month-old) and threw a huge fit when I finally climbed in to get him out.

 The large amount of snow (102 inches so far) and long-lasting cold has caused so many problems in our neighborhood and in our condo building. Being the condo association president, all problems make their way to me. Pictured above is our neighborhood's water main break that left us without water for 24 hours. We have had dozens of frozen and cracked pipes. We are sooooo over-budget on snow removal that it is disturbing. We have had to shovel our flat roof off because there was concern that the weight of so much snow would cause it to collapse. The roof drains froze and cracked, causing a three-story waterfall through the wall of the common area hallway. We haven't had to file an insurance claim yet, but this is going to be the year. We are $50k and counting in damages.

 Only 21 days until spring. I don't think we are going to see the crocuses pop out of the snow this year!

Boston Blizzard

On Friday morning, I went for a nice quiet run. School had already been cancelled and the streets were quiet as everyone prepared for the coming storm. Around noon, light snow started to fall. The wind picked up a little. Soon there was a dusting on the street. (Excuse the ugly photos, but this lovely parking garage/ office building is the scenic view I get when looking out my living room window - nice)

 The wind steadily picked up until it was howling and gusting into a full blizzard (sustained 30+ mph winds with 70+ mph gusts) by the evening. The snow stuck to the windows and blew sideways and every which way. When we went to bed, there were 3-4 inches of snow on the ground.

 When we woke up, there was nearly 2 feet of snow on the ground. Scott still had to be at work by 7 a.m., so he woke up early, dug out the parking garage entrance, packed his shovel and emergency supplies into the car, and ventured off. There was a state-wide ban on driving so as to avoid this situation (from the 1978 blizzard)...

...but the ban didn't apply to healthcare and emergency workers. So Scott set off, took a few detours to avoid big drifts, stuck to streets that had been somewhat plowed, and made it to the hospital without getting stuck.

 It snowed another couple inches on Saturday morning, the wind quieted down a bit, and the kids and I watched lots of plows and construction vehicles roll by.

 We ventured out onto the sidewalk. Someone had shoveled a small path by our building, but once it ended we either waded through waist-high drifts or walked right on the road. People were cross-country skiing down the usually busy streets; it was surreal.

 We found a pile of snow that didn't have a car under it and tried to go sledding, but the snow was so fluffy that we sunk down faster than we could get to the bottom of the tiny pile.

By Saturday afternoon, snow shovels were in demand as people were digging their cars out of the mess. Bruce and our neighbor found a tunnel someone dug and played in it for a long time. Phoebe happily ate the snow and was pulled around in the snow, but had a hard time walking through it. In the end, we got 25 inches of snow, with drifts up to 6 feet in places. This is a storm the kids will remember.

The Calm before the Storm

I was going to get some before and after shots of the latest snow storm to hit town, but the snow started early. We've had 1-2 major storms each week for the past few weeks, and now the snow is piled high. Today and tomorrow we will get another 16 inches added to the pile.
These are my "before" pictures. Notice the parking meters are barely peeking out of the snow and that poor car is probably stuck there until spring comes.
The sidewalks and ramps are so snowy (and skinny since not everyone shovels with a nice wide jogging stroller in mind) that I can't push a stroller through them. To get Bruce to school, I've been putting Phoebe in a hiking backpack. I'll be glad when the snow melts - someday.
Check back in a day or two for "after" pictures of this latest storm. Should be crazy.

Happy Snow Day

There was a big blizzard last week that dumped a foot of snow on us. Bruce had the day off school, so we watched too much PBS Kids and went outside for a few minutes for a snowball fight.
We did the usual: played Uno, played with Transformers/Legos/K'Nex/Batman. Phoebe has a new hobby of squeezing herself into small spaces. Here she is behind the couch. You can also find her in the cupboards and under the table. Phoebe has some attachment issues: she has a few blankies that she drags around the house when tired, and she loves her bottle of milk. She had a well-child visit with the doctor this morning though, and it's time to phase the bottle out. Wish us luck!