March Madness

The weather, that is. Although, the basketball is a little crazy, too. While March isn't quite over, we've seen every type of weather that I can recollect, except a hurricane.

This is one of the tornadoes that came through town March 12. The building in the foreground is a hotel, the tallest in Springfield. The picture was taken from the roof of St. John's Hospital. Andy reports, "When there is a tornado, a hospital calls a code black. All patients are moved away from windows (or windows shuttered). All staff move to help move patients. Our buildings (supposable) can take a direct hit w/ window damage & power outage being the high risk. We drill for this 2x per year. (What really happens is staff go up to the roof to look & bring their digital cameras.)" Of course, this isn't his hospital.


Fast break 9 days in the future to March 21 for our blizzard. It dropped from 70* to below freezing. The snow was falling and the winds were shaking our house more than the tornado did. We ended up with 6-8" of snow covering our croci. Despite the low snowfall totals, by upstate NY standards, the winds made this an actual blizzard.




Within 5 days, the snow fouled out of the game. Now we're back to mud. I hear that the Eskimos have 12 different words for "snow." We're seriously considering coining more than one for "mud." There is just damp ground. Then there is slippery mud. There is also the kind that makes you sink up to your ankles. Megan actually had here boots stick in this type of mud and we had to physically lift her out. The boots stayed behind.



Lest you think I'm exaggerating, here's a close-up of the boots and the view from under the swings.





Like the post office, we're always open for business. (Although, we didn't get mail or go to school the day after the tornado.)

Drew is finishing his indoor soccer season. Baseball begins next week. He went to school today dressed as an architect for career day. Thankfully, we assumed they wear business casual so I didn't have to sew anything - like for biography day (Einstein). He's getting to be a really big help around the house. He's in charge of making sure that we eat dinner on Mondays. He gets the dinner cooked (already prepared but left with cooking instructions) and the table gets set while I have the other 3 at dance. Then after dinner it's garbage night and that's his job, too. It's great to come in the door at 7 PM to a waiting dinner!


Ellen is currently practicing for two recitals, dance and piano. She didn't have career day but she is going to be a teacher. And she's already practicing with Megan. I was all set to start teaching Megan the calendar this week but quickly discovered that Ellen has already covered the days of the week. She is a huge help with Tim. If I'm not around, he looks for Ellen and her purple blanket. She is also developing an extremely quick, dry, and cutting sense of humor. We don't know where she gets it. ;-) (Look hard, she doesn't like having her picture taken because it hurts her eyes. ?)

Megan is very independent, as evidenced by her attire. She is looking forward to the start of soccer next week. Under Ellen's tutelage, she is becoming negotiator #2 in the house. She's constantly on the hunt for what she can earn in exchange for her cooperation. Luckily, she is still pretty easy to please. And sometimes she just has to do it because we said and she's the kid. We've come to an agreement that her cooperative studies are worth 70 cents per day. She was asking what she could get instead of a Happy Meal and thought a video game might be appropriate. So, we developed a formula to convert cooperation into reasonable rewards.

Tim is learning to say lots of words. If he's whining I ask him to tell me with his words. He inevitably signs "help." We're working on getting more specific. I can't be in the kitchen that he isn't under my feet emptying his cabinet of bowls and cups. He can often be found causing hysterical laughter from a rapt audience around the dinner table with silly hand gestures. He's just discovered the art of garbage picking. Apparently the 4 top teeth that popped through last week are ready for chewing discarded apples with peanut butter. If you can't find the TV remote, he's the one to ask. He never seems to forget where he put it, even if that's buried in the drawer with all the plastic sippy cups. Football is his passion. When he's on the loose upstairs, he always steals Drew's autographed ball. He's worn out 2 Eric Carle books that had previously made it through 3 kids but his new favorite is Stomp Stomp.