The Saturday 7 - on a Friday!

We are leaving for Florida tomorrow so you get an early edition of this week's blog. Lucky you.

1. Well, I may have jinxed us last week by saying I hoped to wake up to my 15" ruler buried in the snow.

It's under there somewhere! 🤷

The difference between Saturday afternoon (left) and Sunday morning (right).

Stella checking out the shelf of snow that built up against our front door.

The men hard at work clearing the driveway.

According to the news, we got 24 inches over the course of 3 days. 😮 The crazy thing is that it kept snowing allll week. There wasn't a ton of accumulation, but near-constant snow falling from the sky for days!

2. Needless to say, we had a snow day on Monday. Nova came over to hang out with us, and the kids took a sudden interest in their Legos. They spent most of the day building a Lego town!

Teeth are jewels not tools, Levi! C'mon!

I asked Levi to take a picture of me on the deck with the tape measure, and this is the best I got. Lol.

3. On Tuesday the kids had school, even though I thought the roads were still treacherous. I don't think I went faster than 35 the whole way to school.

At least it's beautiful treachery!

I had already taken Tuesday off from Once Upon because I had an afternoon meeting, so I decided to brave the roads and go to Meijer after dropping the kids off at school. Once I made it to the main road, it was totally clear! So then I decided to head down to Alpine, since it's a straight shot down the highway from there. I figured the highway would definitely be clear . . . I figured wrong. The highway was a sheet of ice. I got stuck in a traffic jam at one point, went super slow the rest of the time, and ended up doubling my normal drive time from Meijer to Alpine. Stinkin' winter.

4. Tuesday night was the Once Upon Christmas party - at the bowling alley just down the road from my house. I am an abominable bowler. It's always my goal to hit 100, but I very rarely make it. So imagine my surprise, when I suddenly bowled better than I ever have!

Four strikes?! What the what?!

I got three more strikes in the second game we played, but Niki outdid me and beat me that time. The best part is that for every strike you bowled, you got $2 of Baby Bucks (money to use at the store). I ended up with $14 for all those strikes! 😂 I also won a $25 Olive Garden gift card from the raffle, so it was a good night for me!

5. We had another snow day on Wednesday. High temps have been in the teens all week (with wind chills below zero!), so the snow never melts, and the salt put down by the plow trucks doesn't work. Thus the roads are covered in compacted snow and ice. Michigan is such a treasure. (#sarcasm)

I can not wait to get out of here and feel the warmth of the sun again! The weather in Florida is looking chilly (50s/60s) for the first couple of days we're there, but up to the mid 80s by the end of the week! Bring.it.on!

6. I have spent alllll day today getting ready to leave. I had 32 things on my to-do list this morning. As of right now, I only have 8 more to go! And while I'm thrilled to leave Michigan behind for a week of warmer weather and leisure time with my family, I have been having terrible anxiety all week. My brain isn't actually that anxious. I know that flying is statistically safer than driving (especially considering some of the conditions I drove in this week!), and that thousands of people do it every day without issue. (Although some of the recent notthebee headlines are not helpful! Like this one, this one, and this one.) But my body is in full anxiety mode. My stomach has been killing me all week, and today my hands were literally shaking most of the day. 🤦 Mostly, I'm afraid of being stuck in the plane on the tarmac for a long time (the claustrophobia is the worst part of flying for me), or of having major stomach issues on the plane. (Like this - I mean, could it be any more mortifying??) But I'm stocked up on xanax, gas-x, pepto bismol, and immodium, so hopefully I'll be good. The flight itself is only 2.5 hours. I can survive anything for 2.5 hours, right??

7. I actually have a few memes for you today because we never did go back on our screen time ban. Maybe when we get home from Florida . . .