Hello 2014

Whew. The holiday season has been a fun but very busy time for us. Lots of family time, games, and traveling. I'll have to blog about it in the days to come but thought I would at least mention what we did today.

Our friend, Joe got a job in a Chicago suburb back in October and has been living with his Aunt and Uncle during the week down in Illinois and coming back to his apartment in Milwaukee on the weekends. So he asked us last week if we could help him move on New Years Day since it was the only day it worked out to move him until February. (We agreed in exchange for his help moving us when we decide to move). Well, who knew we were going to get a huge snow storm come through the area New Year's Eve, New Years, and even into today.

 Lucky for us, this bachelor didn't have a ton of stuff so we decided to be troopers and pack him up and move him down to Evanston, Illinois.

Two guys drove the U-Haul that took a detour to pick up a Craig's list couch while the Adam drove us two girls down in a car to meet the guys there. Since we knew we would beat them there, we decided to stop at the outlets and get some sweet running shoes on sale/clearance. I was excited for my purchase but by the time we had started to make our 1st trip up to his apartment, I was wishing I had bought some winter boots to keep my feet warm. (Each winter, I feel like I figure out what I need to keep me warm. I've gotten the gloves, scarfs, sweaters, really warm coats, fashion boots that keep my pants from getting wet, but I don't have any winter boots that keep my feet from getting wet and cold… That will be next on the list with a winter like this.)

The kicker with Joe's new apartment was that not only was it a 3rd floor apartment but there is a rule that you have to use the outer staircase that is super narrow and made out of wood that was really slick with all the snow or pay a $400 fine.

Hence why the boys had to finagle this couch up the flights of slippery stairs. I wish I would have taken the picture sooner so you could grasp how hard this task was. It probably took us a good 15-20 minutes to get it up the staircase because they had to angle it up and around each flight of stairs and it kept getting stuck.

 Us girls just stood behind holding the cushions and worrying that they would fall down the stairs but they made it up and we finished unloading all his stuff.

 Evanston got about 10 inches of snow today…  This picture doesn't quite indicate that.

Evanston got enough snow that this guy thought it was a good idea to cross country ski down the city streets. We thought it was hilarious!

The day was an adventure. It took way longer than we thought because of the snow but we had fun together and now have a good story to remember. (also now I know why no one moves during the winter. My feet and hands were frozen because I didn't have good gloves or shoes ;/

The Weather in the Great White North

I was going to blog more about stuff today but unexpected weather kind of delayed that. I want the winter to end. Not because I can't take the cold- I don't care. I can deal with that. I am getting sick of snow. It makes it hard to get anywhere. We are supposed to get even more snow on Friday. Boo ; /

Anyways, back to yesterday. The weathermen thought that the snow would start around 3 pm and maybe get an inch and then dump snow on us last night. This was/is not true. It did start at 3 but it dumped on us right then and there. We had 2-4 inches of heavy snow that was still coming down and 40 mph gusts of wind when the commute started for most people. No matter which way I tried to get home, it was jam packed. It took me almost 2 hours to get home.

(halfway during my trip; No worries, Mom- I didn't technically do this while driving as you can see in the video below)

Here is a little video half way during my trip

(correction: I live 12.9 miles away from work; my bee)

No worries though. I got home and Adam had gotten me flowers, had gotten something at the grocery store that I had missed on my list, and finished our wall collage, which I will blog about tomorrow ;) He is a good one ;)

(Ignore the dirty dish in the sink. He couldn't find a vase hehe so cute)

I'm not sure how much snow we have this morning but instead of just tapering off, the lake wanted in on some action and added some lake effect snow to the already bigger-than-expected storm. I'll have to see the damage when I get outside.