We have to keep reminding ourselves we live in the south, which is not easy when you get this kind of snow. The first storm of 2011 gave us about 6 inches, shut down all of northwest Arkansas, and got Jacqui working from home for two days. We made a snowman (he's a Cub fan and a Bud man). Spent time coloring ( http://www.youtube.com/user/eyevid101?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/FEakx9Tf2ag ) playing with trucks, and reading lots of books (latest favorites are: Curious George, The Mitten, Sea Creatures, Flotsam, and Colors). The list changes from week to week but there's always a few favorites. The snow melted in a few days when we got back up to 65 degrees and Jack realized that you can play in the melted snow and run through puddles if your dad says it's ok (it's always ok) http://www.youtube.com/user/eyevid101?feature=mhum#p/u/1/dx-JugSf5ec .
Then, about a week later, we got another storm which set a record for the state and had Jacqui working from home for another few days. A total of 22 inches in 24 hours. Now, I may have mentioned before on this blog, Fayetteville gets an annual snowfall of 10 inches, which usually comes in storms of 1 or 2inches at a time over a 5 month period. This deeper kind of snow is unheard of here. Removing it is not in the plans for most of these people. They just wait for it to melt. No snowblowers, no plows on your neighbors pickup, no shovels. Jacqui saw a farm tractor with a plow on the front plowing the main highway.
In fact, I called the kid who cuts our grass, asking if he had a snowblower, and he said "Snowblower? I got a leafblower. It's gas powered, I could try that". So, for your viewing pleasure, I have posted a southern-style snow remover for your enjoyment at http://www.youtube.com/user/eyevid101?feature=mhum#p/u/5/kvAmt_hqjk8
Jack saw the kid working on the snow and said "Robot?". You always answer yes when there is a question about robots. We took the wagon out and wheeled around in it. Jack learned about blowing snow, cold snow, snowballs and icicles.
Jack has been working on his singing skills. He likes to sing the words to the ABC song, the Hot Potato song, the Frer Jacque song, and the BINGO song. Though with that one, he says "BINGO, no bingo, LOGAN!" and you substitute the name of someone in the song and spell their name. Good for a 45 minute drive if you don't have a headache.
I've been using my experience and training provided by Chicago's great Arts And Business Council B.V.A. program to benefit a local charity called Havenwood House. I did some grant research and found sources for over $125,000 (a huge amount down here), which I provided to the board of directors and voluteered to do the grant writing. Thanks, can you help us stuff some envelopes and run a silent auction for our fundraising event? Whatever it takes, I guess. The event was a great success and we met some new people. We determined that somebody put us at the event table together because we're all from the East (Jersey, PA and MA), AND we're all Catholics in Baptist land!!!
I've been using my experience and training provided by Chicago's great Arts And Business Council B.V.A. program to benefit a local charity called Havenwood House. I did some grant research and found sources for over $125,000 (a huge amount down here), which I provided to the board of directors and voluteered to do the grant writing. Thanks, can you help us stuff some envelopes and run a silent auction for our fundraising event? Whatever it takes, I guess. The event was a great success and we met some new people. We determined that somebody put us at the event table together because we're all from the East (Jersey, PA and MA), AND we're all Catholics in Baptist land!!!
We had our first Chicago visitors of 2011, Scott and Kristin, and some decent weather. Here they are posing with a GIANT statue of Jesus on the hill in the background.
Hope you like the pics and videos. Next up: Jack's birthday (March 6th), Bon visits, Razorback baseball, Jacqui's dad visits, and anything else we can think of.
We took them for a drive to Eureka Springs, with a slight detour up an old dirt road, which the GPS assured us was the correct way to the historic Crescent Hotel.
Around here you want to be very careful about taking those wrong turns as you may run up on a back woods meth lab or someone's moonshine operation or pot farm. We backed down the hill and made it to Eureka to walk around, take some photos and have a few adult beverages.
