They're calling it Snovid 2021!

I miss the good old days of just updating you on the quiet meanderings of our family. Lately it just seems like one 'unprecedented' thing is happening after another. As you can imagine, Texas really doesn't ever get much snow. In the 3 years we've lived here it has gotten cold enough for a few flurries but that's about it. They started reporting a major cold front coming through and the potential of snow. Then it was no longer a matter of if, but when and how much. The ENTIRE state of Texas was under a Winter Storm Warning (along with Oklahoma and Louisiana)! That's a lot of parts of the country that aren't used to getting that kind of weather.

At first it was really pretty. Us Coloradans weren't terribly concerned with any sort of emergencies because we're seasoned winter road drivers and even though 6 inches of snow was uncommon for Texas, it wasn't uncommon for us. But we quickly started to realize that the 'unprecedented' amount of snow, plus the wind-chill plummeting into negative temperatures was about to be a major problem. Did you know it had NEVER been that cold here before? Millions of Texans were without power, pipes burst due to homes not meant for this type of weather, and there were abysmal road conditions since the infrastructure isn't set up for good road clearance. I guess the power grid for the state of Texas was minutes and seconds away from a complete blackout which would have led to weeks and months without power. 

We had a pipe burst in our garage wall near the exterior hose. We were able to shut off the main water to the house (a task in and of itself), and we went without water for 2 full days before getting approval to fix it ourselves. If we hadn't done that we'd still be waiting until Friday the 26th for our plumber to come. Even after the water came back on the whole of San Antonio was on a boil water notice for a few more days. We were lucky enough to keep our power the whole time except for about an hour. We did our best to conserve energy when we had power so as not to contribute to the overloading of the power grid. We kept our house at 64 and cuddled under blankets. School and work ended up being cancelled for the entire week as well due to the lack of water and power. 

It quickly turned into a week-long staycation! I'm sure the boys enjoyed not going to school and sleeping in. But they didn't much enjoy living off of beans and spare ribs since the grocery stores were closed and then wiped of their supply quickly. We're still struggling to find some items, but hopefully now that the weather has returned to TX normal, so will the panic buyers. 

Oh! And I forgot. This is what happened to our HVAC on Sunday as the bitter cold was settling in to San Antonio. I guess since our HVAC functions as AC and Heat, it was working as a heat pump and not able to keep up with the cold, of course. Thanks to the Facebook hive mind we learned that if we put it on an Emergency Heat setting it would solve the problem. Didn't know it existed because it had never been cold enough to use it! I was so worried our heater was about to break, it sure sounded like it might.

Dan got the first early morning pics of the snow. This was monday morning

Piled up against the front door

Yay! My weeds are gone!

Icicles in Texas? Yup. Lots of snow AND freezing rain!

Funnily enough, for awhile the boys had been working towards earning an Oculus Quest 2 and we awarded it to them for Valentine's Day. Perfect timing as they ended up having the whole week off to play it! 

And, surprisingly, it wasn't just one storm that came through and stopped the whole state. Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning was all freezing rain. Wednesday warmed up enough to melt everything in the afternoon (causing more of people's pipes to burst), and then freeze that evening. Thursday it snowed ALL day! We basically replenished all the snow that had just melted.

This was Thursday afternoon the snow was back!

What a week. That week felt like a month, I swear. We are back to regular temps and recovering. I feel lucky that it wasn't any worse for us, because it definitely was worse for some of my friends and many other people in TX and surrounding states. In fact, my sister in Iowa had wind chills in the -40s. That's just plain dangerous. My dad in Chicago has had an 'unprecedented' amount of snow this winter. Each storm is dumping 10-12 inches each time, it's hard to keep up! I want life to calm down a bit, but I have a feeling we're living in the end times and these extremes will be more of the norm.

Oh! And a few alex updates to share. The first weekend in February alex wanted to try making his own pie crust and pie that everyone would enjoy. We found a recipe on Pinterest for a French Silk Pie from scratch and it was so delicious! Alex did the decorating himself. Awesome, right?

Also, Alex has continued with piano lessons this year despite the pandemic. He does an in-person lesson twice a month and a virtual lesson twice a month. This year the big competition was also held virtually. Alex had to record his two solo pieces back to back and submit them to the judges. He should have his results this week, but I thought I'd share the video with you :)  I love how he plays! He so good at memorizing and performing!

Off to a good start!

How has the beginning of your year been? For me personally, I've had to accept that I can't be nearly as active as I once was. Determined to not waste my days away in front of the TV, I knew I needed some hobbies to keep my mind engaged. 

Goal #1: Read more! I've never been much of a reader, especially with paper books. I decided to follow my husband's example and make more use of my time by listening to audio books. I'm proud to say I listened to 7 books in the month of January! It helped that the first one was during our road trip home, but truthfully this is more books than I've read in two years combined, so.... yay!

Goal #2: Spend less time on TV. I've already shared a lot of puzzle pictures with you, but I've found that working on puzzles while listening to my audiobooks is a great way to spend my time. Not all hobbies go with listening to books because I can find myself not focusing on what's being said. Here are the 3 puzzles I've finished this month.

Dan got me this one for Christmas as a memory of the boys trip he did back while we were living in Colorado. They had a great time visiting Devil's Tower, Badlands, Wind Cave nat'l monument, Wall Drug, Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore!

Have you seen my metal sign collection? This puzzle was perfect for me! I even have a few of these!

This puzzle I decided to complete without looking at the box to help! I enjoyed the challenge.

Alex attempted to pick the puzzle up and he was able to hold it long enough for me to take a picture and then even lay it back down on the table!

Goal #3: Church service. It was hard, but in late summer last year I asked to be released from my calling as Primary President while I focus on this shift in my life. I still want to find ways to serve in my church that may not be the way I'm used to. The first way is that I have a letter writing route instead of a physical assignment of sisters that I befriend and serve as needed. I've never had this assignment, and I have 4 sisters in our congregation that I write letters to. It would be awesome to hear back from them and form a friendship, but for now I share some of my life experiences and a spiritual message with them.

The other way I've found to serve in our church is to do family history. I'm particularly good with data entry, so the Indexing program is a great way to help. You look for different projects like WWII discharge records, land transactions or immigration records and you enter in the vital information to a database that becomes searchable for those looking to find connections to their ancestors! I attempt to index a little bit every day so I made a habit tracker in my journal to help motivate.

Goal #4: Learn something new! I saw a quote online that said something to the effect of- be brave enough to fail at something new. The first new thing I tried was with Alex. He wanted to try making a cheesecake and I had never made one either! He found a purely evil recipe that was chock full of oreos! Topped off with a white chocolate ganache and homemade whipped cream, we had quite the adventure making this delicious treat. It was rich and decadent.

The other 'something new' is a hobby I had no idea I'd love as much I do! I asked for a few things for Christmas to start down the path of brush lettering and calligraphy! My sister had already paid for and taken some online courses so she gave me access to those, along with some pens and tracing paper. I quickly fell in love and have been working at it every day (and buying more pens and paper)! I find it quite relaxing and challenging and interesting enough to keep me wanting to learning more. Who knows, maybe it's something I can turn into a business somehow so I can still help earn some money for our family. Here's a few things I've been up to this month with my lettering!

Drills and practices to hone your up and down strokes

Slowly learning how to add flourishes the 'right way'!

Alex has loved my lettering, so I made him a Spiderman quote

I hope to be able to keep my days full of these things to keep me going. I am thankful that we are in a position that I don't have to work and I've been able to let things go so that I can rest and recuperate as needed. I have plenty of days that the fatigue is too much and only a little of these things gets done, but it will always be there the next time to greet me and keep me feeling productive and sharp. What are your goals for this year?

Holidays 2020- Part 2

After spending a wonderful Christmas together, Dan and the boys had another adventure planned. As I mentioned in the last blog, because we might be moving overseas this summer we are feeling the need to connect with family before leaving for three years. Dan's parents and a fair amount of his family have settled in the Boise area. There's no direct flights from San Antonio to Boise, but there are from Denver! I knew with my fatigue that doing a road trip and then flying to Boise, hanging with his family, flying back, and driving back to TX would be way too much. So Dan and the boys took off on Dec 26th and returned to Denver on New Year's Eve.

The boys were super excited not only to see more family, but to fly there! They took turns having a window seat and had fun experiencing flying in a Covid world. They hadn't flown since 2017.

Alex used his new Snoopy as a phone mount, lol

There are 4 families and 3 houses that they live in in the Boise area, and a big shift is about to happen with who lives where. Because of that, they gave each house a nickname. The biggest house has 2 families in it, and is called the Compound. Dan's parents live in what is called The Cottage. And the house that Dan and the boys slept in is called The Sanctuary. Lol. I have a bunch of pictures from their time in Idaho with only a little backstory. From what I understand they started off their days at the Sanctuary, enjoying delicious breakfasts from Sarah and even played games, loved their pets, and fed their snake. During the day they hung out at the Compound, and then ended their evenings with some one on one time with his parents at the Cottage. It was just what Dan was needing. :)

The nieces and nephews all love their Uncle Daniel

Alex is almost as tall as Nana Dee!

Ready to feed the snake?

Dan couldn't resist snapping a picture of his dad with his beard hanging out of his mask :)

I love this picture of the two of them <3

While they were spending quality time with family, so was I! I know his family wished I had been there, but I'm very glad I stayed in Colorado. The truth is that the altitude affected my ability to breathe a lot more than I expected. Like, as the altitude rose as we drove I could feel it. I was pretty worn out, and it was nice to just be able to sleep in, nap as needed, and have no agenda for the day. Some of the things I did with my mom and brother were watch movies, work on puzzles, play guitar hero, play card games and take funny pictures of the dog.

I also spent one more day in the Springs visiting with my good friend Scott who I worked with at Mesa Ridge High School. Not only was the drive to the Springs picture perfect, but so was our time catching up. He's still at the high school trying his best to teach choir in a virtual world. Man, what a crazy time.

Also, coincidentally on the day I visited with Scott I had a virtual follow-up appointment with my Cardiologist. I had had a cardiac angiogram in mid-November and never heard any results back. Turns out my heart is in great shape, but in the angiogram they could see something in the base of my lungs that has worsened since my chest CT in August. In august they told me it was non-specific inflammation, possibly infection that wasn't enough of anything to treat. This time, well here's the quote of what they found. 

"Scattered tree-in-bud opacification in the basal right lower lobe

with endobronchial debris within the right lower lobe anterior basal bronchus. There is associated atelectasis of the right lower lobe anterior basal segment. These findings have progressed in comparison to 08/06/2020 examination. Previously seen groundglass nodules within the right lower and left upper lobes are unchanged. No new nodules identified. Diagnostic considerations include infectious and inflammatory etiologies. Follow-up CT in 3-6 months after appropriate treatment."

So what the cardiologist suggested was to refer me back to pulmonology. This worried me a little bit because all this time my main complaint other than fatigue has been difficulty breathing. Despite this there has been no treatment offered. When I got back from Colorado I was able to get a virtual appointment quickly and they FINALLY came up with a treatment plan for getting this mucus out of my lungs. I am really hoping it will help. Deep in my gut I've felt that if I can get breathing better, my fatigue should improve. Cross your fingers for me!

Now back to the final celebration of our vacation. New Year's Eve was not only the official end of 2020, but it was my mom's birthday! Dan and the boys flew back in from Idaho, and as soon as they were home Alex got to work on Grandma's cake. Her request was a spice cake with cream cheese frosting, yum! 

We spent the evening eating spaghetti, watching the new movie Greenland, and then partying until the New York ball dropped. (we had to drive home the next day, so we didn't stay up until midnight like the firework exploding neighbors did!)

About 10 days after we arrived, it was time to leave Colorado. We managed to get out the door early (again!) and decided to make the drive all in one day. This time we lost an hour as we got back into Texas, so our arrival was super late. This allowed us a few days to recover before the kids had to go back to school and Dan back to work. 

We had a wonderful holiday break filled with quality time with family. I truly hope you were able to take advantage of the extra home time to spend it together. As we already know, 2021 has had a rocky start politically, and the vaccine isn't rolling out as fast as anticipated. Still, I'm hopeful that this year has to be better than the last. Happy New Year!