The Following Morning

The following morning, we were greeted with more ice. This was the storm that never seemed to stop.

Ice sure makes it hard to get around, but...

...it's pretty to look at while it hangs on everything!

A Valentine's Cake

Katie's favorite color is pink, and she thought that we should have a pink cake to celebrate Valentine's Day!

I loved our pink cake!

A Special Memory

It was ten years ago today that I finally received my referral from China in my adoption journey. It's funny how the memory of that whole day remains so strong. I hope it never starts to fade. It was a day that felt almost unreal after a lot of years of waiting. After speaking to my adoption agency, I was so excited to get the very first pictures of Katie.

When my mom first saw my face, I was a tiny baby wrapped in a lot of fluffy layers!

Now I'm getting so tall! I still enjoy my fluffy coat though!

A Snapchat Valentine's Day

Of course we pulled out Snapchat on Valentine's Day!

The Cats Try the Snow

We decided to let Mr. Limpet and General Washington explore the snow on the deck. They didn't run straight back in the house, but they didn't seem to enjoy the snow much either. There wasn't a whole lot of movement. They were happy to come in and lay in front of the fire for awhile!

The cats mostly stayed close to the door where the snow wasn't very deep.

General Washington seemed like he was stuck under the chair for awhile.

He finally made it out and then headed for the door pretty quickly.

I liked seeing the cat paw prints in the snow!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was the second holiday that we celebrated during our storm. Luckily I had ordered my gift for Katie earlier because nothing was getting down our road for deliveries. All of that work we had done in clearing out the driveway was only for us to enjoy. Our delivery was delayed for three days.

My mom got me a penguin in my favorite color, pink. It also had hearts on it!

Digging Out

When I started shoveling a path for our delivery, I couldn't believe the amount of work. When I lived in New England, I got a lot of practice with shoveling a lot of snow. We didn't have as much snow as some of those storms. The problem was the alternating freezing rain with the snow. There was such a thick layer of ice in the middle of the snow that it created two problems. 1. It was really hard to break through it. 2. It made for heavy, heavy shovelfuls of snow.

Katie ended up being a big help for me. I would shovel as much as I could. Then Katie would come along and jump up and down on the edge of where I was shoveling to break the ice for me. Thank goodness for her!

This was the core of our snowfall - a thick layer of pure ice.

I tried to pick up some big pieces for my mom, but it was so heavy that it was easier to jump on it and break it.

I decided to measure the snow.

We had about six inches of snow at that point. The snow kept coming down this day too and we ended up with almost eleven inches in total.

I loved this little stick I found with ice covering the tip!