Stormy Weather and Birthdays

It's been stormy here. (In many ways, but I'll focus on tangible things.)

Monday was a snow day (lots of snow).
Tuesday was a late start day (due to snow).
Wednesday was a snow day (due to icy rain).
Thursday was a snow day (due to the damages of the icy rain, including no power, falling trees/branches, blocked roads, and... that's about it).
Friday was a late start day (due to lack of electricity and blocked roads).

We had no power Wednesday from about 7:30AM until 3PM... I think. I don't rightly remember when the power came back on. We kept warm with two fireplaces going (hooray for wood!) and ate what we could (note to self: macaroni and cheese doesn't work with cold water. Yuck!). Brandon was able to get to work, so he shopped for us on the way home and that was a huge blessing. When the power came back on, we celebrated by flushing all the toilets and baking cookies. (We have a septic grinder pump that then pushes all our water waste to the sewer line. Without electricity, it won't work. When it doesn't work, it clogs up. When it clogs up, the yard starts to sink in. Therefore, when we don't have electricity, we don't flush the toilets. Fun!)

The kids were so grateful for school on Friday! We all were. Even #5 got to go to preschool for the first time all week, and he was pretty excited. Here's a funny video Brandon took of him explaining how he felt about missing school on Wednesday morning:

Our superintendent had to make the call and we are making up for all our snow days by losing 2 days of spring break and going 1 extra day in June. We are also losing a lot of half days, as well. I guess we moved to PA during one of the worst winters they have ever seen. People are complaining about the make-up days and I think they're just silly. What do they expect? We've had SEVEN snow days with more expected in the future. Our kids are supposed to be in school for 180 days (state rules). I have no problem with the make up days and I don't understand why our children's safety is annoying to people, considering how dangerous our roads become (and that all our schools had no electricity for two days).

It's actually snowing right now, although lightly. More storms are expected tomorrow night, and I'm praying that it's simply small ones. So many people still don't have power and I feel very grateful we got ours back on as quickly as we did. It's not fun having no electricity! We rely on it so much for everything. I don't think I could do it long term. At least not in a cold place. Brrr!

["Welcome to winter in New England, Cheryl!"]

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Today is #4's seventh birthday!! Such a cute boy! I wrote a post last year about his awesomeness and included lots of pictures. Go read it if you feel so inclined. Here are a few photos from today:

Minecraft cake (sort of. More or less.)

(Embarrassed when the waitresses started singing to him. He loved it, though!)

(Fun birthday lunch with just mom and dad)

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I haven't found a psychiatrist, yet. I have homework for my SIL, though, and I have to call some and have an appointment by Tuesday or Wednesday and report back to her. I'm looking. I'll find one.

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This week:
*#2's 11th birthday on the 11th.
*Valentine's Day!
*Two birthday parties on Saturday for #4 and #2. Normally we wouldn't let them have friend parties because they had one last year (we do it on even birthday years, and they are both odd years (7 and 11) this year), but we decided that it's okay to have them in order to make more friends. Praying that people come!