Deceit

A little over a week ago, I walked outside sporting a short sleeved shirt. Spring was in the air. I know that we are only on the cusp of February, but I was deceived into the promise of tulips and butterflies, dogwood and azalea blossoms. Funny how I have only spent a year and a half as an official resident of the South, but I have most definitely become a Southern girl when it comes to my thoughts and feelings about winter. I simply don't think it should exist past Christmas. I have worn my sweaters. I have adorned my coat. My scarves. An occasional set of mittens. There is no reason for winter to remain. That is why when an ice storm from a place that is not heaven blasted through our state this weekend, my body protested immensely. I laughed when my students told me about the weather man's expectation for snow. Yet, on Friday night the snow came. Then the freezing rain came. The wind. The cold.

Here's the thing. In Utah, when a storm like that comes through, everything goes on as normal. People drive. They go to school. They go to work. They go to church.

Here, none of those things happen. The entire town shuts down. No one is equipped for snow removal, people are petrified to drive in the foreign white powder, and businesses and schools close because no one will show up anyway.

Don't worry. We laugh in the face of such danger. We were prepared, so we did not fear.

Did we go to the grocery store and buy out all of the bread and milk like other Kinston residents? No.

Did we already have a perfectly stocked food storage, which meant we needed to make no such trip to the grocery store? No, not exactly...

When I found out it was going to be that cold, and that we might be trapped inside for an entire weekend, I thought of one thing: moving in with my in-laws.

Sure enough, there were nine of us plus a tiny tot at my husband's childhood home this weekend. We had a blast. It felt like an extended holiday vacation.

We played board games.

We played card games.

We laughed and chatted.

We entertained the most precious toddler I have ever known.

We curled up in front of the gas fireplace when the electric heat failed downstairs.

We ate (because even if MY pantry is not perfectly stocked, Mama Joy's IS).

We stayed in our pajamas all day on Saturday.

We watched the yard turn into a winter landscape that could easily be mistaken for Narnia: trees draped with icicles and car windows laced with kisses from Jack Frost.

When church was canceled I can't say I was sad to think I no longer had to prepare a talk for sacrament meeting.

When it was announced that school is canceled for tomorrow I can't say I was sad to think I no longer had to get up at 6:00 in the morning.

The weekend has been pretty grand, even if I am irked at North Carolina for deceiving me into wishful thinking for Spring.

Now that we are home in our cozy cottage with plaster walls, single-paned windows, and a heating system that was probably installed sometime before I was born and is (to quote our heating and air guy) "running on borrowed time," I am most definitely sure that we made the right decision by moving out during the brunt of the storm. I am also most definitely certain that I am beyond thankful that this type of cold weather is a novelty in the state that I now call home. Otherwise, I think my love and devotion for my cute house might start to waver.

Blogging Failure

So. My last post was quite a while ago. There really is no GOOD excuse for my lack of documenting the wonderful events of my life. It will be quite sad some day when I actually get around to making a hard copy of all of these posts and realize that months at a time were never written about. Now, because I have let all the fun, witty posts pass me by, I have nothing to write, so this will be my lame attempt at posting, just so I can say I wrote something. Here's a couple things:

1) We spent a wonderful Christmas with my family, and I took about three photos the entire time I was there. Somehow, a Christmas post without photos just didn't seem exciting enough. Then, by the time I decided I should post about it anyway, photo-less, the fact that it is now the end of January really makes a Christmas post seem anti-climactic. (Kind of like the Christmas cards I was going to send all of you that never made it to the post office. . . Sorry about that, folks. You still may get a Valentine's Day card if I muster up the energy to send them.) We had a grand time in Utah this year. We ate. We slept in. We ate. We were spoiled with some fabulous gifts. And we ate some more. Even now as I type this I crave the Cafe Rio that will not be mine again for months, and months, and months.

2) I've ended another semester as a high school English teacher. I think one of the main reasons I haven't posted much this year has been my extreme negativity about my job, and knowing that there's only so much I can complain about on a public forum without somehow getting fired, so there you go. I'm worn out and frustrated. Enough said. I still love teaching, but teaching somehow seems to become less and less of my job description as the months tick by, which is hard to explain unless you've ever been an employee of the public education system. If you haven't, I'm sorry that I can't elaborate. If you have, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The good news is it appears that I kept my bad attitude more concealed than I thought. On my evaluation forms this year most of my students said they appreciated my positive demeanor and how happy I always was, which made me feel a lot better about the entire situation. The new semester will start next Wednesday, so I guess it's time to just put the things I can't change to the side and enjoy the things I can.

There you go. A couple of thoughts to compensate for the thoughts that have been neglected around here the past few months.