Plenty of the white stuff 3

Saturday morning we woke up to 17 inches of snow already on the ground. By 8:00am, Jeff and I were outside digging us out. We live on a pipestem and the five houses located on it are responsible for clearing this long, private driveway. Fortunately the neighbors directly across the street from us are really awesome about doing their fair share in shoveling the snow. They are a couple in their early 60's and while they travel several months out of the year, when they are in town, you can count on them to be out when the sun is rising helping out. Together, we make an awesome team and get the pipestem cleared in no time - at least from our houses on up to the main road. There is still the lower half of the road that needs to be done, but the two houses located at the end of the driveway should take care of that. These two houses are very late risers and it would drive me nuts if I had to depend on either of them to take part of the shoveling load. I should also note that the 5th house located technically on the pipestem is the very first one you encounter. This family parks their cars next to ours and should be doing at least one-fifth of the pipestem. But for the past several years we have yet to see any of the family come out with their shovels. They have one of those enormous SUVs and just drive over anything in its sight. And, to make matters worse, this bonehead doesn't even clear the snow off his car roof. Ugh! How infuriating. But, I digress. Thank Goodness for our neighbors across the street.

So Jeff, Jim and I were out there for 3 hours and got our driveway, cars and the pipestem cleared. Within an additional 3 hours you couldn't even tell we had ever been out there. And the snow currently falling was the heaviest we had been experiencing. It was crazy. Jim and Jeff went back out there to shovel the same areas again. They were running out of places to pile the snow. You could only stack it so high on the side of the road. All told we probably received close to 28 inches by the end of the day.

I started the day nervous about being stuck indoors the whole time with so much food readily available to eat. Me, food, and no where to go, isn't a good combination for trying to lose weight. But after shoveling for 3 hours, I looked up a few calorie counter calculators online and determined I burned a conservative 1,200 calories. Plus, I was busy for 3 hours. A much better strategy for combating oversnacking.

All in all, the day was a success. The kids got outside for a little fresh air and we found out yet again, that they do not like the snow or the cold weather. Bailey loves playing in the snow and kept burying his toys and then digging to find to them. We should've put him to work in the front of the house, not the back. :)

With us home for every meal and two additional adults in the house, the dishwasher is getting more use than normal. On average I am running 2 full loads each day. I suspect this will be the next appliance to go.

Our food supply held out nicely. At the end of day 4, we still did not lack anything and have plenty to keep going for another few weeks, most definitely through this next snow storm we are in the midst of. We got word on Saturday that our superbowl plans had been canceled. I am disappointed, but understand that it would be too difficult to get to the house we need to go to. The chili I was planning on bringing still got made for dinner, but instead of doing a triple batch, I got away with the normal amount I usually make.

The other disappointment we faced was the fact that Jeff and I were supposed to go away Saturday night to the JW Marriott in D.C. We had a nice evening planned in the city and then was going to have brunch with a few of Jeff's friends on Sunday morning. Fortunately we were able to cancel our reservation and not lose any of the Marriott points we were redeeming. Unfortunately the opportunity to have my mom and Jim babysit doesn't come around very often. We will have to reschedule for another time; hopefully when they are back in May for the kids' birthdays. At least we know there isn't a chance of it snowing then.

Stay tuned for the next installment of "Plenty of the white stuff 4".