Winter Storm II
Another weekend, another storm. The storm was a bit different than last weekend's storm. And, we actually had more planned this past weekend than the one prior, rendering the storm's impact on us greater.
The storm was predicted days in advance. On Saturday, we were supposed to get rain mixed with freezing rain and snow throughout the day. Where we live, most of Saturday, the temperature remained above freezing and it rained almost the entire day. The rain turned to snow at some point in the evening, the wind picked up and we had ourselves a snowstorm. The snow continued until 3:00 or 4:00 am (or so I heard. I was not awake to observe when in the night the snow stopped. It was not snowing around 7:00 am, I know that). We had no more precipitation on Sunday during the day.
I subbed on Friday, and like I had done the Friday of the previous storm, went straight to Kroger to grocery shop. I went to a larger Kroger, one that has a gas station to use fuel points. I knew the store would be busy; it was insanely busy. Like, I wanted to leave the second I saw that almost every parking spot in the large parking lot was taken. But in I went. The deli item that I'd planned for dinner than evening was gone so I had to come up with a plan B. Plan B wasn't easy what with people everywhere in the store but I managed to purchase most of the groceries we'd need for the week and something for dinner that evening.
Donnie was supposed to have a board meeting on Saturday morning and Abby and I had a wedding to attend Saturday evening. The board meeting could (and did) get canceled but a wedding that had been planned for about two years and already been paid for was not going to get canceled (at least due to weather). As it turned out, it rained almost all of Saturday. So, Donnie's firm could have had its board meeting and I could have grocery shopped during the day on Saturday.
When Abby and I left for the wedding, it was raining but the rain was supposed to stop in the evening and turn to freezing rain/ snow and the wind was going to pick up to unkindly blow the snow every which way. The wedding was in Cincinnati and I, thankfully, didn't drive. I did offer to drive but my friend who drove said that she didn't mind driving. I protested little and the four of us (my friend and her daughter and Abby and I) made our way to Cincinnati.
The wedding was in a beautiful church, the bride was beautiful, the ceremony was beautiful- everything was beautiful that could possibly be. The reception was in Mt. Adams, about a fifteen minute drive south of the church (almost in KY) and many feet higher in elevation than the church was. We had a really good time at the reception. The building that the reception was in, a former monastery (eponymously, The Monastery) turned event center, retained its historical charm while being amenable to its current function of an event center.
We left the reception a little bit before it formally ended at 11:30. We knew that the rain had turned to snow and it was time to make our way home. We had a slippery walk to our car- thankfully it was in a garage and then had the daunting task of making our way down a series of steep hills in snow covered roads with snow billowing about us. Well, my friend had the daunting task of making our way down a series of steep hills. I was on the praying committee. Yes, I literally, not figuratively prayed that we'd make it down those hills without sliding. We made it to the snow covered interstate where we had a long, but uneventful drive home. Most drivers on I-75 were driving no more than 35 mph. Visibility was extremely low. We made it home- the drive in normal weather would have been about an hour drive. The drive down hilly Cincinnati and then snow covered I-75 took two hours.
Sunday, the plan was to go to Alyssa's soccer game at 9:00 am and then come home and go to our church's late service. As of 7:00, Alyssa's soccer game was not canceled. Alyssa and Donnie went out to shovel the driveway (I was awake and probably should have gone out to shovel but I used my 2:00 am bedtime as an excuse to be lazy). Shortly after they shoveled, we received word that the game was canceled. I wasn't sorry about it just because it would make the morning less hectic. Church was not canceled so we were able to get ready for that without the worry of getting home from soccer in time.
Church attendance seemed a bit more sparse than usual. However, the roads weren't bad at all (at least the roads from our house to our church). The roads had some snow on them but it wasn't snowing/ blowing so the drive wasn't harrowing or anything. Church was good and then we headed home to relax for a bit and then we started painting both girls' rooms. We probably relaxed for too long prior to painting because we were still painting when darkness fell. But, we got the rooms done and sort of put back together. Felt good to get the paining done.
And that concluded our second winter weekend storm. Bonus that the kids didn't have school the next day because Monday was MLK Jr. Day.
Not a great picture of the church but it was really pretty- St. Cecilia's
This is the room in The Monastery where the reception was held
Amy and Abby
Abby and the bride, Kelsei
Abby and Kelsei back in 2011. Kelsei has been a big part of Abby's competitive dance experience. Kelsei has taught dance classes and choreographed many of Abby's dance routines since 2010. The first year that Abby was on the competition team, 09-10, Kelsei was a senior in high school. When Kelsei went away to college, she taught classes and dance camps in the summer. She graduated from UT with some impressive sounding degree- biomedical something or other and has a great job in the bio tech industry in Cincinnati. She still comes back on weekends to do solo practices and sometimes she comes back during the week to teach classes. Not trying to sound maudlin, but I would have driven (or been driven, best case scenario) in horrible weather just to get to Kelsei's wedding. Knowing that bad weather was coming and would likely affect our drive home from the reception was likewise no barrier to being with Kelsei on her big day.
Back to the wedding, Kelsei and her husband have a dog named Watson and they had M&M's with Watson's visage on them. So cute!!
In addition to cake and cupcakes that were catered, the reception featured a dessert table with desserts all made by Kelsei's grandma- strawberry shortcake, tiramisu, banana pudding, and cookies. Kelsei's grandma (also someone we've know for years because of dance) is a rock star. I hope that I can be as helpful and engaging as a grandma as Kelsei's when I'm older.
Kelsei and some of the girls from dance
Home sweet home- this was my view from my garage looking out into our driveway after arriving home early Sunday morning. The car with the headlights on is my friend's car who took us home. Abby was still in the car gathering her things in the back seat.
The storm was predicted days in advance. On Saturday, we were supposed to get rain mixed with freezing rain and snow throughout the day. Where we live, most of Saturday, the temperature remained above freezing and it rained almost the entire day. The rain turned to snow at some point in the evening, the wind picked up and we had ourselves a snowstorm. The snow continued until 3:00 or 4:00 am (or so I heard. I was not awake to observe when in the night the snow stopped. It was not snowing around 7:00 am, I know that). We had no more precipitation on Sunday during the day.
I subbed on Friday, and like I had done the Friday of the previous storm, went straight to Kroger to grocery shop. I went to a larger Kroger, one that has a gas station to use fuel points. I knew the store would be busy; it was insanely busy. Like, I wanted to leave the second I saw that almost every parking spot in the large parking lot was taken. But in I went. The deli item that I'd planned for dinner than evening was gone so I had to come up with a plan B. Plan B wasn't easy what with people everywhere in the store but I managed to purchase most of the groceries we'd need for the week and something for dinner that evening.
Donnie was supposed to have a board meeting on Saturday morning and Abby and I had a wedding to attend Saturday evening. The board meeting could (and did) get canceled but a wedding that had been planned for about two years and already been paid for was not going to get canceled (at least due to weather). As it turned out, it rained almost all of Saturday. So, Donnie's firm could have had its board meeting and I could have grocery shopped during the day on Saturday.
When Abby and I left for the wedding, it was raining but the rain was supposed to stop in the evening and turn to freezing rain/ snow and the wind was going to pick up to unkindly blow the snow every which way. The wedding was in Cincinnati and I, thankfully, didn't drive. I did offer to drive but my friend who drove said that she didn't mind driving. I protested little and the four of us (my friend and her daughter and Abby and I) made our way to Cincinnati.
The wedding was in a beautiful church, the bride was beautiful, the ceremony was beautiful- everything was beautiful that could possibly be. The reception was in Mt. Adams, about a fifteen minute drive south of the church (almost in KY) and many feet higher in elevation than the church was. We had a really good time at the reception. The building that the reception was in, a former monastery (eponymously, The Monastery) turned event center, retained its historical charm while being amenable to its current function of an event center.
We left the reception a little bit before it formally ended at 11:30. We knew that the rain had turned to snow and it was time to make our way home. We had a slippery walk to our car- thankfully it was in a garage and then had the daunting task of making our way down a series of steep hills in snow covered roads with snow billowing about us. Well, my friend had the daunting task of making our way down a series of steep hills. I was on the praying committee. Yes, I literally, not figuratively prayed that we'd make it down those hills without sliding. We made it to the snow covered interstate where we had a long, but uneventful drive home. Most drivers on I-75 were driving no more than 35 mph. Visibility was extremely low. We made it home- the drive in normal weather would have been about an hour drive. The drive down hilly Cincinnati and then snow covered I-75 took two hours.
Sunday, the plan was to go to Alyssa's soccer game at 9:00 am and then come home and go to our church's late service. As of 7:00, Alyssa's soccer game was not canceled. Alyssa and Donnie went out to shovel the driveway (I was awake and probably should have gone out to shovel but I used my 2:00 am bedtime as an excuse to be lazy). Shortly after they shoveled, we received word that the game was canceled. I wasn't sorry about it just because it would make the morning less hectic. Church was not canceled so we were able to get ready for that without the worry of getting home from soccer in time.
Church attendance seemed a bit more sparse than usual. However, the roads weren't bad at all (at least the roads from our house to our church). The roads had some snow on them but it wasn't snowing/ blowing so the drive wasn't harrowing or anything. Church was good and then we headed home to relax for a bit and then we started painting both girls' rooms. We probably relaxed for too long prior to painting because we were still painting when darkness fell. But, we got the rooms done and sort of put back together. Felt good to get the paining done.
And that concluded our second winter weekend storm. Bonus that the kids didn't have school the next day because Monday was MLK Jr. Day.
Not a great picture of the church but it was really pretty- St. Cecilia's
Amy and Abby
Abby and the bride, Kelsei
Abby and Kelsei back in 2011. Kelsei has been a big part of Abby's competitive dance experience. Kelsei has taught dance classes and choreographed many of Abby's dance routines since 2010. The first year that Abby was on the competition team, 09-10, Kelsei was a senior in high school. When Kelsei went away to college, she taught classes and dance camps in the summer. She graduated from UT with some impressive sounding degree- biomedical something or other and has a great job in the bio tech industry in Cincinnati. She still comes back on weekends to do solo practices and sometimes she comes back during the week to teach classes. Not trying to sound maudlin, but I would have driven (or been driven, best case scenario) in horrible weather just to get to Kelsei's wedding. Knowing that bad weather was coming and would likely affect our drive home from the reception was likewise no barrier to being with Kelsei on her big day.
Back to the wedding, Kelsei and her husband have a dog named Watson and they had M&M's with Watson's visage on them. So cute!!
In addition to cake and cupcakes that were catered, the reception featured a dessert table with desserts all made by Kelsei's grandma- strawberry shortcake, tiramisu, banana pudding, and cookies. Kelsei's grandma (also someone we've know for years because of dance) is a rock star. I hope that I can be as helpful and engaging as a grandma as Kelsei's when I'm older.
Kelsei and some of the girls from dance
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