One of the very best things about being in the educational field in Michigan: SNOW DAYS!! Granted, these days have to be tacked onto the end of the year, but there's just something wonderful about getting an extra day off for what would have been the last day of school before break. Of course since I'm only a sub, this means no pay for me...but I'm OK with that.
Michigan is getting pelted today. We've already had about 3-4" since 4:00 a.m. and as I look out my window right now, I can see a steady snowfall covering the tracks the dogs have made. Even Eastern closed campus today, which NEVER happens. You can imagine my surprise when I checked my email this morning and saw this message: "Eastern Michigan University is closed today (Friday, Dec. 19) due to the weather." Another weird thing happened today too. We were listening to the weather channel this morning for updates and the local emergency broadcast cut in with a message, "The Ann Arbor area is at a stage yellow winter weather alert level," which was followed by information about the hazardous roads and extra driving time. This is just weird. I've lived in Michigan for over 15 years and not once have I heard such a message. I think the big concern is the ice because it really does complicate things...but still, an emergency alert message for a snow storm??
So of course I had to take a few pictures this morning. Unfortunately I don't have my good camera because I left my battery charger in MD and both my batteries have since died, but my camera phone does OK with enough light.
Winter has certainly made herself welcome, even before she's technically supposed to be here. She's even sitting in our chairs:
The weight of the snow and ice caused our bushes to spread out so you can barely see the path to our front door. Of course this is pre-shoveling.
Even Santa, who normally enjoys a rather sheltered existence under the porch received his fair share of snow with this storm.
And last but not least, the dogs have to be mentioned. Ditto has always liked the snow, she scampers right our into it and begins the work of making tracks through the yard. Sometimes she even sticks her nose into the snow and makes a wuffling sound like she's snorting. It's always funny to me that her normally white-looking coat doesn't quite look white next to the snow.
And then there's Dinah with the short legs and low, low body. She does not enjoy the snow. She stands at the door and gives me an imploring look when I make her go outside. This morning her legs basically disappeared in the snow, which was pretty darn funny, poor dog!
My nephew got his ACT scores back late last week and he got 34 out of 36 possible points. That puts the kid in the 99th percentile nationally, WOW! I told him my superior influence during his infancy and young childhood made all the difference, but I don't think he believed me. He's a great kid and this is great news...he will probably be able to attend any college on which he sets his sights. I am very proud!
This is a photo of the carrying case that holds five re-usable bags. I included the pen so you can get a sense of the scale. This is tiny and could easily fit in a glove compartment or purse. I actually think I'll remember to bring them to the store with me because they're so portable.
We've also got a new thing going in place of plastic sandwich baggies. For Christmas Michael asked for "wrap-n-mat" re-usable sandwich bags, and several of them showed up in his stocking. These little treasures are also great! They fold up into the size of a sandwich and can also be used as an eating surface. I take my lunch to Eastern every day and it's nice to have this barrier between my food and the tables in the lounge. Prior to this little addition to my lunch hour arsenal, I used to spread out paper towels, or try to hold my food the entire time (you never know what's been on those tables or how long it's been since their last bath!) so these have been really handy. Oh, and did I mention they are also easy to use as cute as a button? :)
I'm sorry but I think everyone should have at least a few of these...my only regret is that we didn't have both of these products sooner!
Look, it's Dinah, Santa's long-lost Reindeer!
And of course Ditto, Santa's little helper
Even Santa, who normally enjoys a rather sheltered existence under the porch received his fair share of snow with this storm.
As we were cutting our tree down there was a family walking around near us. They were going back and forth about which tree to get and then the teenage daughter said to the mother, "why are you acting like this," at which point the mother said, "I'm sick of you guys picking on me...no one gives a crap anymore" and then she started crying. Around that time, the father walked over to the pair and said, "will you guys cut it out, this is bullshit!" I felt kind of sorry for them and was happy we weren't experiencing that kind of stress. Our tree is huge this year but with the use of our handy tools, cutting it down was a piece of cake.
On our way out we passed a father and son who had come to the conclusion they had the wrong saw blade. We could tell they were getting frustrated so we offered to let them use our blade. The father was coaching his son all through the process of cutting the tree. He kept calling him "buddy," which was truly adorable." With the right blade, they had their tree cut in about five minutes and all seemed happy. 
