Have A Little Faith in We

It was one week ago when we were batten-ing down the hatches for Storm Jonas 2016! All week the storm was looming. Each day it felt like the forecast was changing… it would be a whole lotta something and then it would be a whole lotta nothing…..as we all wondered who really knew! Wednesday night we saw a decent snow dusting – but not enough to stop the presses, so for Thursday I had a board meeting that went on as planned, but you could tell everyone was refreshing those phones to see the weather updates. By early afternoon flights were being cancelled and the true signs were starting – this thing was coming!

As we got home Thursday night schools were being cancelled, the temperatures were dropping BIG TIME and there was no doubt that the storm had escalated. Danny had spent Thursday running around trying to get groceries, stopping by the pharmacy, but at every turn he was finding a lack of supplies! Poor guy was exhausted by all his effort for such limited return and I was exhausted by the week of meeting flurry. We both got home that night frustrated and tired…. and knowing we might be locked in for a few days we did the best survival prep we could think of….we went to the movies!!

The storm was not set to hit until Friday mid-day so we figured we had time on Friday morning to get prepared. We made the plan – I would go to work and Danny would try to finish our last efforts of snow prep. Well 6:30AM came and I found that my office was going to be closed at noon – with the option of working at home until the close. Well this brainiac did not bring home my stuff the night before – so I raced to the office to grab it and Danny ran to Home Depot and the grocery store for final prep. A little Starbucks…. a stop at Petco…. and we all made it home, worked until noon and then cleaned the house like gang busters! If we were going to be snowed it – it was going to be in a space that was clean and refreshed. And since I was already setting the scene for my perfect snow vaca, I also made a promise to myself: although I love good couch time and living in PJs…. I was not going to spend my snowy escape adding pounds and forgetting how to apply makeup. So first day in – I got in some yoga, hot shower, actually got dressed and then once ALL that was done…. we ordered Chinese and watched a movie.

And low and behold…. the snow came…..

And came….

And came….

It snowed from Friday early afternoon until Saturday night…..and we stayed snowed in until Tuesday evening. The snow totaled to 39 inches in our area and the plows had just no way to keep up. We were off from work through Monday with the request that we work from home on Tuesday. So we kept our house clean…. we had some fun…. but the to do lists we had hoped (hang pictures, work on the blog, wrap up contract work) was not quite as successful as I thought because we were the snow removal team (Good news there – that totally counted as the exercise I had hoped this break would include)!!

Danny has been feeling pretty stable  – but tired and having to help remove that much snow could do some long term damage. So I did my best to be snow removal lead! And I have to say I impressed myself and my hubby with my efforts. But by Monday, when no plow had come and our neighborhood, the men folk took to the streets to be the snow clean up  team. Danny wanted to represent the Bessette’s and put in a TON of work – I could only keep him down for so long.

In our community of townhouses, there just isn’t a lot of room to put all this extra snow. So each household chose one car to dig out and one car to bury…. therefore we will be not be seeing the Honda my guess is until March (the mound to the right of the Explorer)!!

On Tuesday night we did attempt to leave home and get to Baltimore for Dan’s Wednesday appointments. We were supposed to leave Sunday night, stay over and then go to appointments all day Monday. Well that did not happen – so we tried again on Wednesday. First stop – puppy to my in-laws which is about a 30 minute drive on highways. That night it was a mess – with limited visibility, reduced lanes due to the snow banks, and a huge lack of patience and kindness from other drivers made for a VERY stressful trip just getting to their house. Plan B was put into a action: tucking ourselves into their basement on a couch with a pile of blankets and a fire, figuring we would try to get North in the AM. Needless to say Hopkins was very understanding and just recommended we reschedule. Which all worked out since my office did not open until lunch time, we were able to get me to work (hate losing those sick hours unnecessarily!!) and get Dan and pup home.

Luckily by the end of the week the temperatures have dropped and the snow is starting to melt away. It was a full storm and a lot of work to manage our own home though the winter wonderland  – but I can’t tell you the cloud 9 we were on just being in our own space, with our own little family. Picking up the kitchen or shoveling our stoop still gave me this little moment of pleasure that we were home!  Hope those of you that met up with Jonas were able to relax and enjoy a little too and that we all get ready because someone mentioned a snow storm for Feb 15……. o my!!