Weather

Snow is back!

2013-01-24 08.13.39After last year feeling we may have moved to North Carolina without knowing it, as we had hardly any snow, we are making up for it now!  We started to get snow on Christmas Eve and had a gorgeous view when we went to our church’s Christmas Eve singing on the town square, and had various adventures driving and having cars stuck in driveways!  Then we had a brief break to green grass in January, and then about a week ago the snow machine turned back on!

2013-01-21 09.10.502013-01-21 09.11.062013-01-21 12.27.412013-01-21 12.27.482013-01-21 12.27.57We have had almost continuous snow since Monday – one week.  I love it, but myself had various misadventures driving in it, including having to turn around and come home last Monday when conditions were impassable to pick up my mother (who was to watch Ryan the next day so I could go to class, as he had no school).  So of course there are consequences of my lovely beautiful snow that are not so lovely!  I was really shaky when I got home from that particular dark, swirling, drifting, sliding, foggy window, trip… worst I’d ever driven in!

As I have vowed though, I never complain about winter, as I hate the extreme heat with a passion and have a privilege of complaining all summer about it!  ha ha.  So as I brush my car off AGAIN and have to go 15-20 AGAIN when the speed limit is 35, or 40, or 60, I will not complain!  Just hope we are all safe driving, and that we all have a healthy respect for the elements and stay home and look out the window when we can!

These are some of the scary consequences that can happen:

 I-90 pileup in our town — I almost was there.  I was coming home from taking Colleen to Lakeland for her college classes, and the roads were extremely bad!  I decided to take Route 84 instead, a parallel route, and it was terrible too, but after I heard about all the accidents I was so glad I chose 84 instead!

Well, it is a new year, and I am busier than ever.  I, however, feel that I definitely want to blog more than twice a year, which is probably about how much I blogged in 2012.  I am going to try and blog weekly, perhaps shorter posts.  I will probably never be less busy than I am, so shall try and start.

Next week, I will post about my new classes (Math Concepts II, Statistics [actually called Quantitative Methods in Psychology, impressively, LOL – a requirement for my hopeful future speech pathology major], Language Disorders (another SPA requirement for the future), and Characteristics of Special Education.)

 

Blessings!

2013-01-24 16.55.53

Christmas, life, Uncategorized, Weather

From Christmas to just Winter

101_0120The tree unadorned, awaiting just the unassembly.  I did get the tree up right after Thanksgiving, but was a little late getting it all decorated (a week or so after Thanksgiving?)  But as always we treasured it’s beauty, and planned to take it down the 7th.  However, because Colleen was having a New Year’s party January 8, I decided to leave it up the 8th and take it down the 9th.  Life got busy and I didn’t finish until the 12th!

101_0121101_0122101_0123101_0124This is my attic, and what a super attic it is!  As you can see in the 3rd picture on the right there there is plenty of room to stack boxes 4-5 high even in the eaves.  That is my Christmas corner where everything will snooze until next November – –

This is my first year to establish a snowman corner

101_0040101_0041101_0042101_0043The lights are put away now, of course, but the merry white figures remain.  It seems to be good timing with scenes like this:

101_0096101_0097101_0098101_0099

This was the beginning of the most snow we received at once this year.  This was, I believe, Saturday the 8th, the day of Colleen’s party.  We have had snow since then for 4 days from two different systems – I believe we now have about a foot of snow – less than some snow belt areas around us and some states to the Northeast in the blizzard, but enough to remind us that it is indeed January!  I have always loved the snow.  I don’t know what it is, but snow makes me feel refreshed and energetic.  I get crabby and lethargic in the heat, and am much more active in the winter.  I hate the heat, and you don’t want to be around me if the air conditioner fails on a hot summer day!

Things continue to be about the same in our household – we are in prayer over many issues and know the Lord has us in the palm of his hand. 

  1. We continue to pray for Chris’s placement.  A place that will offer him autism and deafness therapy and a safe residency, covered by our insurance or development disabilities funding, has not been found.  His grandparents continue to care for him in the week . . . Continue reading “From Christmas to just Winter”
autism, children, Christmas, health, life, organizing, Weather

I never posted my 08 goals–

So thought I’d post here. I will then look over them over the next week and make up my 09 goals. I don’t even expect to reach some of these, it’s just good to have them all written down to have an awareness of them.

2008 GOALS (the year that will be over TOMORROW! wow)

HOMEWORK
• Every few weeks check Colleen’s progress on web site and follow through with teachers on items needed to be made up.
• Boys – try and get them to write their names, and spell extra, 1-2 times a week. Find computer games for them to play. Try and help Chris focus on academics a few times a week and show Doreen how to do it too.
CHORES
• Colleen to continue picking up her room and to start doing her dishes (soap squeegie!) and laundry.
• Get icon board up and done for boys’ chores.
• Try and get us in position where dishes and laundry and daily pickup gets done every day and figure out as a family HOW!
HEALTH
• Me – Weigh Down. Lose at least 20 pounds. no dieting at this stressful time.
Continue reading “I never posted my 08 goals–”

children, Weather

Ryan’s new aide —


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Originally uploaded by

criscollrj

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8 hours today with Ryan – he is really enjoying her! They were coloring outside while Rog grilled us yummy chicken, burgers, and hot dogs. Chris enjoyed a lot of time outside too and had two walks and an outing to the playground. Ryan also played at the playground for about two hours with his aide.

I cleaned half of Ryan’s room today and D helped me do the dishes. She’ll be back tomorrow!

Chris’s aide should be back in 2-3 days… D likes to help Chris a lot too – she’s a sweet new friend!

Weather

Blizzard 08


Blizzard 08

Originally uploaded by

criscollrj

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WOW.

Weekend Wallop: Flights Delayed, Malls Close, People Frustrated
Last Edited: Saturday, 08 Mar 2008, 2:51 PM EST
Created: Friday, 07 Mar 2008, 12:23 PM EST
Snow in Green, OH
Fox 8 Weather

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WINTER WEATHER: Warnings, Closings, Traffic & More
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Poll

How do you feel about the extreme winter weather that we’ve been getting lately?
Poll Results:
I’m a hearty northeast Ohioan, so I’m OK with it.
33.64%
I am sooooo ready for spring to start!
66.36%
myFOXCleveland.com Winter Weather Page
Total number of votes: 2639

Alerts:
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is using only one runway intermittently. … A rep with Continental Airlines tells Fox 8 News that all of its operations have ceased for the day. Click here for airport delays. DEFINITELY CALL YOUR CARRIER AHEAD OF TIME!

The Akron Canton Regional Airport remains open for now, but Summit County has ordered all non-law enforcement vehicles off of the roadways. … To see the entire list of county snow emergencies, click here.

Here is a list of some other random closings that may or may not be listed on our official “Closings” page, and there are many.

The following Westfield malls have closed Saturday: Southpark Mall; Great Northern Mall; and Belden Village Mall. … Great Lakes Mall and Summit Mall have closed on Saturday as well.

The U.S. Postal Service says that it is attempting to deliver mail as usual, but advises that there might be some delays.

The Cavaliers are playing and the Monsters game is still on. … The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, however, is closed Saturday.

Due to extremely hazardous road conditions, Parma Safety Director Greg Baeppler has declared that the roadways in Parma are to be used for emergency vehicles only.

CLEVELAND — Fox 8’s Gary Stromberg reports that St. Clair Avenue was treacherous, yet passable for most of the day on Saturday. Drivers who attempted to turn off of St. Clair to any of the side streets, however, ran into big problems.

The city snow plows had deposited big piles of snow at the entryway to all of those streets, and cars were stuck at dozens of intersections.

James Ruffin is a truck driver. He had trouble getting his rig into the parking lot at Kocian Meats. He was stuck, blocking St. Clair for 45 minutes.

“If you don’t have to be out here, don’t be out here,” Ruffin said. “I gotta make a living. I gotta pay a mortgage.”

If Ruffin’s 80,000 pound rig couldn’t make it in, it was unlikely Laurie Branch’s small car could either. It was stuck, and to make matters worse, antifreeze was spewing out of her radiator onto the snow.

“We gotta get groceries ’cause we don’t know when we are going to be able to get out here again,” Branch told Fox 8 News. “So we took a chance now.”

Ruffin and two others in the area helped push her car out of the snow. She drove away without getting that chance to buy any groceries.

Ray Green lives on East 40th Street. He and his father had already spent more than an hour shoveling snow from the driveway of their home when he told Fox 8 the following: “The bad part of this is you shovel all of this out and the snow trucks come by and pile it back in, so you gotta re-shovel it.”

—–

(Earlier report)

CLEVELAND — A heavy late-winter snowstorm dumped 10 inches of snow, canceling flights around the state Saturday and threatening to bring near-blizzard conditions. The storm led to a slew of early school dismissals on Friday and cancellations of a weekend farmers’ market, a St. Patrick’s Day parade and a regional science competition.

The storm, which rolled in Friday, was the heaviest along a band that roughly follows Interstate 71 from Cincinnati through Columbus on to Cleveland.

Many flights into and out of Ohio were delayed or canceled. However, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport remained open despite the walloping snow.

Continental Airlines, which uses Cleveland as a hub, canceled about two-thirds of its flights Saturday, airport spokesman Todd Payne said.

“I would imagine, based on Continental’s figures, we’ll probably cancel about 50 flights today,” Payne said.

The airport has about 250 daily flights on the weekends. Twenty-five plows have been working around the clock to keep runways clear, he said.

Winds of up to 35 mph were also possible, reducing visibility to less than a quarter mile, which would make the storm a blizzard, he said.

The State Highway Patrol said it responded to 610 crashes statewide over 71/2 hours Friday. A 20-mile stretch of Interstate 70 in eastern Ohio was closed after a tractor-trailer went off the road.

The Akron Regional Science Olympiad Competition for 400 middle and high school students that was scheduled for Saturday at the University of Akron was postponed.

Akron also rescheduled Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day parade for March 15, “when it’ll be a balmy 35 degrees and partly cloudy,” spokesman Mark Williamson said in a news release.

While some local communities have recently reported tight road salt supplies after a season that has seen one battle with snow and ice after another, the Ohio Department of Transportation’s salt barns held more than 170,000 tons of salt, an adequate supply for treating highways if the storm turned out to be as bad as forecast, ODOT spokesman Scott Varner said. Crews have shifted supplies to parts of the state where salt is likely to be needed most, including northern Ohio, he said.

Already this winter, ODOT has used more than 850,000 tons of salt on federal and state highways in Ohio, 200,000 tons more than in an average year.

“I think everyone is anxious to see spring arrive,” Varner said.

In northeast Ohio, where more than 16,000 customers still had no power after an ice storm earlier in the week, FirstEnergy Corp. was preparing for another wintry barrage while still hoping to have service restored to everyone by noon Saturday, said Tricia Ingraham, a spokeswoman for the power company.

“Snow isn’t as bad as ice, so if it’s just snow, we won’t see anywhere near the significance of what we had before,” Ingraham said, explaining that it was the weight of ice that brings down tree limbs and power lines.

More than 350 outside crews from as far away as eastern Pennsylvania were helping to restore power to hard-hit Ashtabula County, where 11,000 customers were still out late Friday morning. Most of those workers would remain in the area through the weekend, Ingraham said.
Copyright 2008 Fox Cleveland (WJW). All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.
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children, life, Weather

Beautiful Lake Erie


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Originally uploaded by

criscollrj

.

First time I’d taken Ryan up to the lakefront in a few years. He did great! We were only there about 15 minutes — had tons to do at home and also had a headache. But he loved playing on the playground and then we walked on the sand for about 5 minutes.

What a beautiful cooler day today! I don’t think often enough either that we’re very lucky to live 10 minutes from the lakeshore…