Greetings From SoCal.

I’m having a wonderful time. The wedding was amazing. I didn’t get a lot of pictures, but I will remember it. I’ll try to upload what I can, when I get the chance.

It’s been fun seeing so many people, and I love staying at the Krolik house. I’m totally hooked on the game Apples To Apples.

Geoff thinks there shouldn’t be an issue getting home tomorrow, but I’ll call the airline tomorrow morning and be sure. I’ve missed the boys so much, it’s really hard when I talk to them on the phone. It’ll be hard to leave here too, but at least I can say I’ll be back this summer. And 2007 has a few of our friends here coming to CO. Yay!

I leave early tomorrow morning for (hopefully) sunny California. A welcome break from snowy, slushy, yucky Colorado. I’m going to miss Geoff and Elijah, but it will be nice to be Melissa for a few days, instead of Mommy.

We ventured out into the real world as a family. Real world meaning out of our neighborhood. The roads are in pretty good shape, it seems just our neighborhood is stuck in the crap. We went out to Cherry Creek and it was nice to be around people. We swung by our old Safeway to pick a few provisions for the boys, as the next snow storm is going to hit tomorrow, we wanted to be sure to have plenty of milk and eggs on hand. On the trip home, we visited Home Depot. We were not able to get everything there we wanted. As you enter the store, there is a sign alerting you that they are out of snow shovels, snow blowers, and ice melt. What can you do.

I contacted the county to let them know my disapproval of their attitude “we don’t plow residential streets” and essentially said you better hope there isn’t an emergency on our streets because I doubt emergency vehicles could get through to us. Fat lot of good it’ll do, but at least I said something. We got mail today, that makes two deliveries since last Tuesday. Whoo-hoo! (shaking my head in disappointment). Now we just need to get the trash picked up.

Keep us all in your prayers. Let’s hope this next storm isn’t as bad. Obviously with me taking the camera to the wedding, there won’t be any new pictures of the storm in the Blizzard 2006 picture file. But I added some more today.

Gotta go spend some time with the hubby. Since I doubt I’ll get around to it on Sunday, Happy New Year!

Christmas Day was pretty good at Casa Armstrong. I was up early, and Geoff and I opened our stockings. We finished up and had some breakfast and coffee. Elijah got up shortly after that around 7:40 and he had some breakfast too. Homemade cinnamon buns (or as Elijah calls them “bums”). Then we set in for our session of gift opening. Elijah had fun, but after a while, he was getting tired of opening gifts. At one point we gave him a present to open and it put it right in the trash bag. He did seem to like most of his gifts, but I think it may have been a little overwhelming for him. Next year, we’ll just let him open what he wants, and save the rest for later. But we all got some good stuff!

By 9:30am, I was ready for a nap. I felt exhausted and looking at Elijah’s pile of books and toys had me worried. Thankfully Geoff took care of tidying up after Christmas, so the house seemed back to normal. That in itself made me feel so much better.

We took a walk around the neighborhood after lunch, since it was a beautiful sunny day. We found the best exit route for Geoff to get to work today. We then spent the rest of the day hanging around the house. We had a yummy ham for dinner, and just continued to reflect on how blessed we are.

Now for the fun news. We’re getting another snow storm coming. When? Thursday. When am I flying to CA? Thursday. Please please pray that we can get to and from the airport with ease, and that I won’t encounter any problems.

So had this storm not hit, I’d be out shopping today. As it is, I’ll be home. Geoff will go into work for a few hours to do essential magnet stuff, and then he’ll hit the Trails to get in some exercise.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I’ll close with a quote from A Christmas Story.

Mr. Parker: Where’s the glue?
Mother: We’re out of glue.
Mr. Parker: You used up all the glue on purpose!

Merry Christmas!

Bah Humbug!

Spent the day at home, Geoff baking, Elijah helping, me napping. Tonight Geoff will play Christmas carols on his violin, and stockings will be stuffed. We’ll take a family picture, and I’ll post that tonight.

We’ll be online tomorrow, and I’ll be uploading pics and videos all day.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Good Day, and welcome to Day 4.

Sigh. Argh! Sigh.

Well, like idiots, idiots who need groceries, we ventured out to Safeway this morning. True we had enough food to get us through a few more days, we were getting low on milk for Geoff and diapers. We figured the best bet was to go early, while the roads are cold and not slushy. Took some to get into the rut on the front street. Took a lot to get onto the main street in our neighborhood (it’s uphill). Once we hit the main main road that leads to Safeway, there were portions of it that were only one lane. We headed first to the gas station, which was out of all the cheap gas, so we had to get premium. Then we faced a very yucky parking lot (Safeway is going to hear about that!). Geoff said it wouldn’t be so bad if they sanded. There were delivery trucks blocking entrances/exits, so you have to navigate to find your way.

Once inside, I worried about what we’d find. Talking with my friend Kirstin (who is due exactly a month before me), she said yesterday her grocery store was out of milk. Safeway was pretty well stocked, they had a lot of milk. It was busy, but not so bad. We got everything we needed, plus some stuff I figured the boys would need once I go away next weekend. We checked out and Geoff found out from the clerk, they just got their shipment of milk last night. Once we left the store, we faced the drama of trying to get home. The only exit that doesn’t have a hill was blocked by a stuck Budweiser truck. We tried one exit, and it wasn’t going anywhere. We tried a second exit, and couldn’t get the car up that hill (the driver in front of us didn’t help that situation). So we drove back around to get to the first exit we tried. We got half way up, then we couldn’t move. Geoff jumped out to push and I tried to gun it. The driver behind us got out of his truck and helped to push. We eventually got up to the top, and Geoff kept pushing until I almost got onto the road and then jumped in. We drove to the light to do a U-turn, switched spots, and drove home.

The drive home seemed like it would be okay. We worried a little turning into our front street, and we bottomed out good (hope there is no real damage). Now we had to hope we could turn into the small path Geoff shoveled to get on the driveway.

Obviously we’re home, and we’re not going to church tomorrow.

I called the HOA, looking for answers. I left a firm message saying, look it’s in the bylaws you are responsible for the sidewalks leading to the main road, and if our street is never going to see a sand truck or plow, you better provide a means to get to the bus stop. Not even ten minutes later, I got a call back. No, our street probably won’t get plowed. It’s on the bottom of the priority list with the county. But the sidewalk is supposed to get done today by the company they hired. So come Tuesday, when Geoff has to go tend to his magnet, he should be able to take the bus. Now we have to hope things improve ten fold by Thursday for my flight.

Oh yeah, we still haven’t gotten any mail, despite the fact that the postal workers went back to work yesterday. I seriously wonder if we’ll see any today. They are supposed to deliver on Christmas Day to make up for it all. I do not envy them.

Yes, we’re stuck here. Yes, we’re frustrated. But let’s focus on the positive. We have each other, we have a warm home, we have food, and we have power. Things could be A LOT worse. We could be one of the thousands of people stuck at DIA who won’t get to be with loved ones for Christmas.

My loved ones

We’re doing fine, maybe going a little stir crazy, but we’re okay. The ruts in our street are still too much for Gary to handle, so we’ll stay homebound for another day. I’d be bummed if I had to miss church Sunday morning. But maybe we should plan on bringing our shovel to church with us, just in case. 🙂

The sun came out today, so the driveway is bone dry. I walked up to the main street outside our neighborhood to assess the situation. If Geoff wanted to take the bus to work, he’d still have to hoof it through the snow, as the sidewalk has not been shoveled. We think it’s the responsibility of the HOA, so rest assured, I’ll be taking it up with them. I expect to be sending out letters or making phones calls to the city as well.

The only good thing that has come of this storm, is it seems to draw the neighbors together. We met and bonded with our neighbors next door. I brought them some of the cookies we baked (the cutouts).

So everyone don’t worry about us we’re fine. I’ll continue to add pictures to the Blizzard album on Shutterfly.

The backyard.

The backyard. You can barely see the BBQ.

From the upstairs window, looking down the street.

The front yard.

Yesterday’s pictures were taken about 3:30pm. These are from today at 11am. And the snow is still falling. The governor declared it’s a state of emergency. National Guard was trying to get people out of their cars on the freeway to shelters. But Geoff says it’s a storm in December, so there are no leaves on trees, no danger of power lines being knocked out by branches. We have power, we have food, we have warmth. We’re doing okay.

Our poor kids though. We’ll be talking about the Blizzard of ’06 for Christmas for years and years. 🙂

*Update*-pics of the blizzard are up on the Shutterfly album. See Geoff’s shovel work that took him 2 hours.

Thanks to Roland for this.

Here’s a picture of Keith Richards, as Jack Sparrow’s father.