Winter...

So, I look out my kitchen window and this is what I see... Luckily my half-monkey children are pretty good with stuff like this, and really, even if they fall, do you see how much snow there is at my house??? I did have to encourage my littlest one to move back towards the center of the beam because I was just a little concerned that if he fell by the "A" frame, he would hit it on the way down  :)

As you can see, it's definitely winter in Michigan. We didn't have really ANY snow until just a few weeks ago. Lake Michigan gave us a run for our money with the Lake Effect a couple of times and before I knew it, we had quite a few inches on the ground. Actually, I would say that for the last 2 1/2 to 3 weeks, the weather has been simply awful.

We had a few winter storms that dumped at least 8-10 inches at my house. Then the temperature shot up into the 50's (for real!!) and everything melted, but there was SO MUCH FOG that you almost couldn't drive in it. This was about 2 or 3 days in a row. The White River up here has actually been at flood stage because all the melting snow raised the water level so much!! The temps fell again and we got more snow. Like 6-8 inches in just a couple of days. So, everything we lost, we got right back again. School was canceled for my boys three separate times in a two week span! 

To keep things super interesting, we have another Winter Storm Warning going into effect at noon tomorrow. It's supposed to start snowing tonight and get really bad tomorrow. They're predicting the possibility of a snowfall rate of 1 inch/hr!! Oh, and that's for 12 hours. So, if conditions are right, we're looking at a chance for another 12" of snow ON TOP of what we already have on the ground! Probably won't happen, but yikes!

My boys (and dogs!) are loving it. Rick has been plowing all the snow in the driveway into a hill in the front yard, so they've been out there every day sledding. Every time we shovel off the deck for the dogs, we're piling all that snow up to the edge of the deck and they've got a mini sledding hill there too.

I'm sure towing companies and commercial snow plow drivers are happy to have stuff to do (we really haven't had decent snowfall for the last two winters). I honestly don't mind it, as long as my commute to work and home again isn't treacherous!!! I'm not a fan of my 25 minute drive taking 45 minutes each way. I will say, though, that I'm very happy with how my car handles! I was a little nervous because I just got it in June, so this is the first winter I've had it, but I definitely feel like it's deserving of the high safety ratings!!

Hubby's not a fan of the traction control (he'd rather have the control himself), but lucky for him, there's a button you can push to turn that off  :)