Snow: The Happening

I woke up this morning not believing that we were going to get any more snow and yet we did! At 5:15 am I open the door to let the dogs out and as soon as I do the phone rings. It was my team leader telling me school was canceled for today :) This is what I saw out my door at 5:30 am... There was no photo shop here. This is what the city light pollution does to the night when there is snow outside... kind of pretty, huh?







The following photos are after we got back up from a nap and decided it was time to be civilized and help out the people on the street to shovel the street by hand... no plows for us!

Snow: The beginning

This is what I get for complaining about not having any snow in Indy. The meteorologists have cried wolf too many times for me to believe without seeing. But it started while I was at work.
My students looked out the windows and told me my car was completely covered. They were right! It took me longer to clean it off that it did for me to get the car warm. Little did I know this was just the beginning of me getting home safely.

This is I-70 West bound near Keystone.
Getting worse as I go- I-70 W at the north split.
Another shot.
Be sure to look at the oncoming traffic (to the left). During rush hour (this time) there is usually a sea of headlights moving. This sea of headlights was barely crawling.

Pic of the north split trying going south around my fave curve. I usually take this curve around 60-70mph... I was going a whopping 21 mph and stopping occasionally.
Almost home free... except there's an accident in my exit lane. It's amazing that a city this large with a lot more work force of DOT was crippled. This kind of snow is typical of Albion. Jeeze, people, learn to drive! It is Indiana!
The culprit: a car that didn't know that fresh snow and some mushed up snow does not equal stopping abruptly. I had a few choice words flowing through my head at this moment.
Raymond St heading West to home. Not horrible, but definitely snow covered and more drivers not knowing how to drive.
Side street bypassing all the other heavy traffic of Meridian street... Okay so I really just wanted to have some fun on a freshly snowed street :)
This is what I avoided by taking the freshly covered snow street: Idiots that would rather run red lights and slide through them instead of planning ahead!
Turning onto Gimber... Almost home!

Ahhh after 1 hour and 10 minutes, I'm finally home from work. My trip to work is usually about 20-25 minutes at the most. Fun times!

Rural King #2

Today started like any other morning: Dustin making me breakfast and lounging on the couch. We decide to head to the commissary to get some groceries since we were low on fresh items. We first stopped at Borders in Castleton and man has that mall changed! I worked at the Finish Line there when I was a freshman at Butler. I knew the mall like the back of my hand. Now they have all sorts of new stores in there and no more valet parking out front! Dustin bought the new book by Anne Coulter--Guilty. We thought it was funny that she planned for this book to come out in competition to Obama's book that came out on Inauguration Day. I love that girl and she is so hilariously honest about politics. I bought Host by Stephenie Meyer. I did fall victim to the Twilight saga and haven't found a book to take its place yet! I'm currently reading The Shack so I'm going to hurry through that and start this new one!

We then went to Trader Joe's because they sell this crack known as peanuts and almonds. It is insane how deliciously good and addicting they are!! I also got some fruit leathers and some other fresh organic grociers.

After going there we head to the Fort Harrison Commissary to pick up the rest of our groceries and head home to relax.

After awhile, Dustin and I were talking about how much fun we had at Rural King in Kendallville, so we decided to see if there was another one closer to us. We found one in Martinsville about 30 miles from us. A random trip landed us to have some interesting fun! I first found this:

Furniture for my brother Eric! As soon as we saw these matching rocking recliners we thought of Eric. We busted out laughing so hard because it would seriously sell in no time to someone like him.

Here is my first attempt at using the website called picnik.com. Eric's girlfriend, Dora, uses it all the time and so I decided to try it. So much fun and the possibilities of photoshopping are endless!!!

Here's a pic of Gracie being all sweet at the 'rents house.

Eric and his Beagle, Sadie. She used to be able to fit inside our winter coats... that was also the same time that Eric was still shorter and weaker than me.... Those were the days and oh how I wish those days I wasn't so mean to him!

Eric on the floor playing with all the dogs!

On another note, we finally took the Christmas tree down! If it wasn't me sick, it was Dustin and we've been out of town and busy every chance we get. By the time we have gotten home from work we've been so exhausted that some nights we didn't even make supper because we just ended up falling asleep.

This week should be a bit better. Monday my ladies church group meets for its semester kick off on Monday. Check out their blog at the right if you wish to check it out. Wednesday Dustin has a colonoscopy, so I'm taking a half day to take him in for that.

Unintentional 4 Day Weekend!

It all started on Thursday afternoon when I got an e-mail stating we were going to have a 2-hour delay on Friday morning. This absolutely never happens in the big city--I mean N E V E R! I went the whole school year last year without even so much as a delay! I know some people are saying, "So What?" Well... I come from a school system that always delayed and had many closings throughout the year. I was used to knowing the night before if school was going to be canceled or very early in the morning I'd wake up and listen to Stan Jacob talk on the scanner to all the other principals and decide. I was needless so excited to find the next morning after sleeping in a bit that school was CANCELED! O-M-G! H E double hockey sticks must have frozen over!
Dustin's news wasn't the best because he found his computer to be broken as you see. His attempt at providing a quick-fix action to his back light in his lap top not working... quite geekified if you ask me :) He's got a smirk on his face because this was a huge joke fest as I kept laying it on thick to him and he thought he was just brilliant!





So anyway we were going to go up to Albion this weekend anyway so we got to go up a bit earlier than expected. We left Friday around noon and got up there around 2:30 or so. The roads in Indianapolis were clean and the only problem was the negative temperatures. In Albion, the roads were pure snow/ice with a touch of brown sand specks and -30 some degree wind chills. Definitely cold and miserable. Here is a pic of the dogs on the way up north. They like to sit in my back window of the car even though there is hardly any room and it is freezing up there compared to on the seat!







Every time we go up north I love to look at this sign. It is the new Nestle plant just around Anderson. This Nes Quik bunny and sign are so cool, especially at night. We finally remembered to have the camera ready for this photo op.








My little big brother is known as little because he is my younger brother by three years. He is big because he's 6'4 250 solid. What else would he want to be but a cop. I guess he really didn't have much of a choice because his loves are guns, hunting, and the outdoors. Every time he comes home from work he pulls in with his lights and sirens on and then backs up into his parking spot in the drive way.







This is a pic from about 2 1/2 weeks ago when we were up there. Dad and Dustin thought it would be brilliant to fry bacon. They figured what the heck since they had already fried a ham and chicken wings. I swear these two can sure make some great fried food... very delicious!!











Eric always talks about this store--Rural King. I had never heard of it and the way he says Rural like ROO AWL makes me laugh. So Dustin and I need to run some errands and we ran to Kendallville to check it out. So I went for a Carhart pull over without a hood and didn't get it. Dustin just went along for the ride and got a cool Carhart flannel and a hooded flannel for only $10. How crazy is that?! This store had everything from laundry detergent to those things you hold cows in to milk. It was amazing... I'm definitely a new fan of the store!!



Dustin and I decided to make Japanese curry for the family. Here Dustin is stirring the curry mixture and I'm just being a pest in the kitchen because I don't cook! I did put the salad together though :)











So mom has this problem... she likes to dress up as if she is me. I think she is totally jealous of my looks. She's wearing my hat, coat, scarf, gloves, sun glasses, and shaking her hips like I supposedly do! She thought she was funny, but I don't think so.

My wonderful kids...

Here are just a few pics of some of my classes. I took them with my phone today while they were reading The Diary of Anne Frank play. The kids are so into it and so excited about it that I thought I'd take pics.




This student is hilarious. I thought it was hysterical that his tie zipped!!!

Sick, Sick, Sick

Happy New Year to you all. For us, it hasn't been such a great New Year, yet! We haven't had a chance to really get started in the new year! Dustin was sick with the flu the week of New Year's. I started to get sick by Friday at my parents house and by Monday I had bronchitis and a sinus infection. So Monday I went to work, barely able to talk, but didn't actually FEEL sick. I started my portfolio for the state so I had to go in. I went home right after first period and didn't go back in until Thursday. I stayed half a day Thursday and then made if a full day Friday. By about Tuesday, Dustin had come down with a sinus infection as well. So needless to say we are not having a great time being all cooped up in the house and sick!

This is the only news I have for now as we haven't done anything but try to recuperate!

New Years with the Lawson's

These are the pics I took with my iPhone because I cannot find our card reader for the pics I have on my camera. When I find it, I'll update those on here as well.



Here's Eric playing with the dogs. He made two of them, Rosie and Gracie, so mad that they bit him :) haha

Here is Amos in my arms on the love seat.


Okay so there is this running joke with mom about me. I like the hats that have the ears covered and the poms on the top. She thinks they are "gay." So these two pictures she is making fun of me with them. Poor Rosie wearing it too.


Amos and Mom.

Eric and his girlfriend Dora. We played Euchre on New Years Eve and New Years day and the second night Dora and I got into it as partners and beat the pants off the boys :)