It was cold enough this morning to need a hat! He doesn’t like wearing hats as much as he used to when he was little, so I’m amazed he even put it on at all! See, Grandma Marsha, I said he’d wear it SOME day…
Category Archives: Weather
My favorite season: Honeycrisp!
Okay, it’s really fall, but one of the best parts of fall is Honeycrisp apples. Mmmmm. And is it just me, or does your mouth also anticipate a caramel apple with every bite?
Use a flashlight!
Prompted, I’m sure, by us seeing a bunch of rainbows over the past day or two…
Owen: I want to see a rainbow.
Me: You can’t see rainbows in the dark.
Owen: Use a flashlight!
Amazing full double rainbow
We were getting ready to leave Grandma Marsha’s place when Tom came running in (from packing the car) saying there was the most awesome rainbow outside…so we all went running. Of course I had my phone, and tried to get a panoramic shot as it was starting to pour down on me… It’s a decent picture, but certainly doesn’t do it justice.
As we were driving away, I kept trying to take pictures through the car window, so Tom stopped in the parking lot of the hospital a few blocks away so I could get out and try for more pictures. It was the biggest and brightest rainbow I’ve ever seen! And it lasted a good 15 minutes–and probably would have lasted longer except the sun was setting!
Snow = clapping
Grandma said it was 38 degrees. I said it might snow. Owen claps his hands excitedly (SO not my kid!) and sticks his tongue out (as if he was catching a snowflake in his tongue) and says “Like this?” 
Welcome to Michigan. Did you remember snow gear?
Okay, maybe it wasn’t QUITE that bad…but it was 51 degrees and rainy as we pulled into Grayling. I expected cooler than NC, but not quite this close to snow.
The windows are open!
THE WINDOWS ARE OPEN! THE WINDOWS ARE OPEN! Ahhhhh. I love this day after a summer full of A/C…
The most annoying time of the year…
Ah, the most annoying time of year…cool overnights/mornings so windows are open, then warm/hot afternoons that require A/C.
Yes, I realize that sounds wrong—that it actually is the perfect time of year… Except that the second floor gets about 10 degrees warmer than the first floor, so I have to run around closing windows when I turn the air on—but we don’t need air on downstairs. And I usually forget to close some windows and I always forget the close the shades early enough to keep out more of the heat…
I guess I just like the days where you can keep the windows open all day or the A/C on all day…and right now, the A/C might even win out because it would keep out all the yellow pollen (which is currently covering just about every surface in the house).
Sleeping with the windows open…ahhhhhh!
We’re sleeping with the windows open tonight—with a low of 64. It’s PERFECT.
Another rainbow!
Right out the front door again! And Owen even pointed it out to me!
Rainbow!
First we saw a rainbow.
Then it became a very faint double rainbow.
Then we saw both ends. I can’t remember the last time I saw a rainbow in the wild!
We were lucky with Irene.
I mentioned earlier that the older section of our neighborhood had more trees down, but when I finally went out and about, I noticed A LOT more damage. Even on the next street over (which is still considered the “new” section, though the houses are 1-2 years older than ours)…a bunch of houses had missing siding.
In a drive through our original neighborhood about two miles away, a lot of shingles were ripped off and trees were blown over. Sadly, the gorgeous weeping willow that was at our old house was completely demolished (and I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of it beforehand—which I was going to post about because it was SO big and SO cool looking).
So we were VERY lucky that absolutely NOTHING happened here.
The day after Irene.
Today has been about the most picture-perfect day weather-wise. No humidity, about 74 degrees, sunny, and blue skies! We spent three hours outside this morning—me playing with Owen and Tom getting the yard back in order (picking up twigs, mowing the lawn, unleashing the patio furniture and toys). If you didn’t know, you’d never guess there was a Cat 2 hurricane through here.
But then he went to check on a friend’s home across the subdivision, and said there are a crap ton of trees down everywhere, across the road, in yards, etc. We lucked out by being in a new area (where they cut all the trees down) and the older section had all the problems. People are now burning the remnants and the neighborhood smells like campfire!
Buh bye, Irene.
Well, we’re here.
We went to our friend’s house last night for a hurricane party (basically a potluck dinner!)—something that’s a bit of a ritual, and which actually has been good luck for us as we don’t get hit with much of the expected weather. By the time we were leaving around 8pm, the storm had already been downgraded to a Cat 2 from a Cat 3, so that was good news.
If you hadn’t heard a hurricane was coming, you’d probably not even have noticed—there was just some light rain and a little bit of wind. By the time we went to bed around 11:30, we could hear it getting a bit busier, though some of that might just have been since we didn’t have the TV on anymore.
I woke up about 3am to go to the bathroom and it was definitely more fierce and I slept fitfully until 5:30 when the power went off (at which time Tom had to get up and turn off all the UPS backup units because they beep to let you know they’re using internal power—we had thought about turning them off before we went to bed, but we really didn’t think we’d lose power), and then I didn’t get much sleep until we got up at 8 (when we both woke up with a start with a huge blast of wind that shook the house).
Owen was a little cranky because he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t watch his shows or play with his puzzles (iPad), so we tried to explain that the big wind and big rain made things broken. He had his snack as normal and I tried to keep him occupied with his train set, some puzzles, and a few new toys. He told us when he was ready for breakfast and he had a normal breakfast (PB&J and yogurt!), played some more, and then went down for his nap at his usual time with no problem.
Tom wasn’t feeling well and had a major headache so he was already napping when I came in after putting Owen down. About 15 minutes later—after I had JUST fallen asleep—the power came back on (noon) and got us excited…except, of course, it woke us up from our naps because the house alarm was beeping an annoying “I’m ready again” beep and one of the UPS units upstairs was beeping. By the time we got them both fixed, the power was off again. I had just fallen asleep AGAIN when Tom’s cell got a text—which beeped twice because he didn’t look at it—and he was sleeping so didn’t even hear it (and hadn’t turned it off after the last beep which woke me up—GRR). So when the power came back on at 1pm, I had to go down and reset the alarm again…and my shot at napping was over since I had been awoken three times. Tom and Owen had no problems with their naps.
So for the rest of the afternoon we just kept our fingers crossed that we didn’t lose power again…and that the cable stayed intact (I was actually surprised it was up and running). We have a small tree blown over across the street and tons of leaves and small twigs around the yard but not anything I’d consider actual damage. The only thing somewhat “damaged” was when the screen came off our sliding screen door.
We did post this photo to Facebook about our damage… :p
We haven’t even really seemed to get that much rain—probably because it was coming down slow enough that the system could handle it (usually when we get a thunderstorm deluge, the drains back up and the streets start to flood—but we didn’t even see that). The rain and wind mostly tapered off before dinner.
A surprising thing? Maggie, our scaredy cat little dog who trembles at the mere thought of rain? She apparently can sense that there’s no thunder with this system and is pretty damn calm. She even went out twice to pee!
The best thing? Other than our house is still standing with no damage…we can return the $800 generator! WOOHOO!
Prepping for Irene
So we apparently have a hurricane headed this way. 
We’ve had them before, but this one is supposedly a lot worse, so we’ve been prepping…
- I busted my ass yesterday cleaning out half of the garage so we can at least get one car inside.
- The grill is strapped down.
- The patio table and chairs are flipped and strapped down.
- All Owen’s stuff (water table, slide, playset) is off the deck and in the garage—which, when he noticed this morning, prompted him to say “Oh no! What happened?” :>>
- The freezer and fridge have been turned to the coldest temps.
- We have moved what we might want/need to eat from the big freezer to the little freezer so we don’t have to open the big one at all.
- We have flashlights and candles.
- We have plenty of non-perishable food.
- We have two full propane tanks for grilling.
- We have two cases of bottled water (and gallons and gallons of other beverages if necessary).
- Both cars are gassed.
- Tubs will be filled.
- Suitcases will be packed and pet crates readied—just in case we need to leave in a hurry.
- I’m making sure laundry is done and dishes are clean.
- We are buying a generator, just in case we have a worst case scenario. We don’t plan on actually having to use it (we can return it if it’s unopened) but we know we will feel better having it ready if we really need it.
- On a lighter note, I washed and straightened my hair yesterday. I figure if we lose power and can’t shower, my curly hair would start to look really bad after a day or so. But if it’s straight, I have at least a week of it looking good!
When Tom gets home early today (the base is closing at noon, except for essential personnel), he has to unhook the fireplace propane tank and we need to do one more sweep of the outside to pick up anything that could go flying.
We’re not in a flood zone, but areas around us are, so if we get the 12″ of rain they’re predicting, we could be stuck for awhile (some roads around here flood during a regular rainstorm). We have no big trees directly near us that could fall and be potentially precarious.
Wish us luck. We’re not terribly worried, but it has the potential to get interesting…so luck is always a good thing to have on your side.
=> If we lose power, we lose our new home phone (since it’s connected through the computer) so we’ll have to use our cell phones. Phone lines will likely be jammed, so I will post to Facebook and/or Twitter because texts go through much easier (I will also be able to email from the phone). That said, if/when we do lose power, we’ll only have one cell phone on at a time to conserve battery power.
I thought I killed Maggie.
She likes to go out, just not for long (obviously) when it’s this warm. So I put her out and went upstairs for maybe 15 minutes (it might have been a little longer, but it was definitely less than half an hour). I came back down to let her in and she was under the patio table (in the shade) but came to the door…except she was severely panting and stumbling around and OH MY GOD THE DOG HAS HEATSTROKE.
She got a drink and I immediately wet a towel and put it on her (damn NC water won’t even get remotely cool) and she kept trying to move but was wobbly and stumbling and OH MY GOD I’VE KILLED THE DOG.
So while I’m holding the cool towel on her, I debate calling the vet, but think I just need to get her cool so I Google on my phone and basically the wet towel is one step, and another is to get her under cool running water, so I carry her upstairs and put her in the tub, but of course it’s just lukewarm water—not cool at all—and she doesn’t like the tub, but oh well and she’s still panting and she still feels quite warm and all I can think of is HOW WILL I LIVE WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT I KILLED OUR DOG. :'(
So I put a fan on and made her lay down in front of it while trying to get her to drink more (she didn’t). I kept following her around with the wet towel and after about 10 minutes she seemed to be doing okay (no panting, her skin wasn’t hot, she wasn’t stumbling anymore) and now she’s laying in her bed in the sun seemingly no worse for the wear.
Of course, I’m still freaked out that I damaged her irreparably, but logically I think she’ll be just fine.
And I learned my lesson—no going outside unless I am there to keep an eye on her. At least not until fall. :meh:
It’s cool again.
It was a pretty warm night sleeping—it was actually cooler outside than in, so we had the windows open (something I’d never have believed had you told me it would happen)—but it was still WARM. Thankfully the A/C people were able to get out in the afternoon (by which time it was 88 upstairs), and the first thing the guy said was “Man, what did I do yesterday?”
Come to find out, the capacitor blew up. Tom said it looked like it was shot with a .22 with guts hanging out all over and everything. The A/C guy said he’d NEVER seen one that bad before.
They waived the service call fee since they had just been out (yay!), so it was only a $125 repair. Only. And had it blown one day earlier or we had waited to have them out, we could have saved $75.
:**:
Enjoying the weather!
It’s a little windy:
With my boy:
Brrrrrrrrr!
If the snow squeaks, it’s too damn cold.
Snow spray!
A short video I forgot to include in the original birthday day post…but it’s cute, so I had to post it!
I had kicked some snow off a bush, and he saw what it did…so he started throwing snow in the air!
Happy 2nd Birthday, Owen!
Happy birthday, Owen! Smile for your first picture of the day!
I was amazingly proud of him at our play group today. He actually sat in the song circle for the first time EVER…for THREE songs even! And was pretty happy and smiley about it! At the end of song three, he announced loudly “DONE!” and then, surprise #2…he went to the playdough table! What? Huh? Awesome! AND THEN…he actually participated in the art project!! He put glue on the paper (and maybe in his mouth) and stuck some stickers on! And he kinda liked his birthday crown! And grandma AND dad were there to see it!
So when we got home, we tried for the “official” birthday photo…and lucked out with this one:
Then he had his nap, and we got to experience this when we got up:
Then since it was pretty warm out (32!) we decided to take Owen outside. I know he doesn’t like to play in the snow, so I didn’t even put his snowpants on him. We gave him a few sled rides and you could see he didn’t really care too much. Grandma Jean coerced him up onto the porch…
…where after a few minutes, he suddenly laid down, crawled toward the bushes, and started playing in the snow between the bushes! He was digging and digging and flinging snow around—his mittens were packed with snow. Then when you thought he might be done, he’d do a low-crawl to the next section of the porch and dig some more. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to mind the cold at all!
After dinner, it was time for CAKE—and he certainly knows cake when he sees it!
And then for the day’s big finale…a BAF!
A busy day!
After breakfast, we went out to play in the snow while Tom cleared the driveway. Owen still loved riding in the sled but didn’t want to play in the snow at all—though he didn’t mind walking through it.
After his nap, we went out for lunch and then to Petsmart to get a few more “ishies” for the tank. Owen gets SO excited to see the wall of fish at the store!
Then it was off to try another shot at a haircut. He walked around the kids area and instantly noticed the frog so we put him on it…and was enjoying the sucker that Tom was holding for him.
And then it was time for the actual haircut…and it didn’t go too badly. It wasn’t FUN, but it wasn’t a screaming nightmare like it was the last time. He didn’t want the cape and he hates getting spritzed with water, so she was cutting his hair dry, which meant it was getting all over him and in his mouth so he was constantly sputtering trying to get rid of it. The saddest thing was that he kept saying “Done…done…DONE!!” because he SO wanted to be done. Poor kid. Tom was keeping him mostly in line… Here’s a short clip of what we have to deal with:
At the very end (when we got out the buzzers) there was immediate screeching and tears and boogers…but with both of us holding him down, it was done in like 20 seconds. As soon as it was over, he was fine. Then we walked down to DQ where he got a few bites of our Blizzards.
THEN…it was home for a bath—his favorite thing. Here is the fun he has when Tom changes his diaper/gets him undressed:
And then, are you ready to see Owen at blazing fast mode? When we tell him it’s time for his bath? I can barely keep up with him to catch it on video!
Sweet hubby!
Tom asked me to change my chiro appointment this afternoon because of the Tornado Watch. When I called to reschedule, I was going to lie and use Owen as an excuse…when she asked if I was canceling due to the storm. I said yes, then told her that my husband had actually called me and asked me not to go out with Owen and she said “Oh, that’s sweet.” (She also said that they were getting a lot of cancellations.)
What’s with the weather?
I am really tired of the hot and humid weather. Last I lived here, Michigan summers WERE NOT like this. There might have been a week or two of hot and humid weather in August, but it has been like this ALL summer, minus a day or six. And apparently, the first winter we were here it was the worst winter they’d seen in A LONG time. What gives? Yeah, I know NC summers are still worse, but summers were one of the good things about coming home…and we didn’t even get that.
Don’t miss this video!
Or should I say THESE videos…
December 5, 2009
December 25, 2009
Grandpa Mike and Grandma Linda brought Owen his first sled! He loved being pulled around inside the house!
December 26, 2009
In the middle of Owen’s first sledding experience. The actual sledding videos are jiggly and headache-inducing to watch, so this is what you get!
Christmas in Grayling
We went up to Grayling for the long holiday weekend. We went over to Kalkaska on Christmas Eve Day to have our Christmas with Marsha and Rob and then Christmas Day we exchanged gifts with Marge, then my dad and Linda came over for lunch and Owen time. Here are some of the best shots:
Grandpa Mike brought over a sled for Owen, in which he THOROUGHLY enjoyed being pulled around the house!
We were able to finally take him sledding outside later in the weekend. Cousins Isabelle and Gabrielle were there to help! Here are some of the best shots:
It was great being able to have the entire family together again (the last time was actually just in July, when we all vacationed together in Kentucky). Here’s the annual group shot and the Christmas shirt photo with a new inductee:
@^#$% WINTER
So you all know I hate the cold and really don’t like winter.
But I could maybe tolerate winter better if this house was built for it. I don’t know WHAT the >:XX the owners did when they “remodeled” but it apparently didn’t include INSULATING the walls. (That said, it might be something from the original build in the 70s, but I would think the entire house would have to pass some type of inspection at one time or another.)
So, what’s the problem?
Well, if you remember last winter, it was always freezing in the house—especially the living room where we spend 95% of our time. We tested/tried about four different style room heaters and eventually ended up with one that seemed to work pretty well. So this year we got out the heater again and of course now it doesn’t seem to work well at all.
But that’s not the problem. The main problem is with the house.
So, what’s the problem?
I just measured the temperature at floor level on an outside wall (with a digital coking thermometer, so I could actually stick the point in between the paneling boards)…and it was…
Are you ready?
FORTY THREE >:XX DEGREES.
What the hell? How are we supposed to try and heat a house when the walls/floors are 43 degrees and you can just feel the cold pouring in? (For contrast, the walls that I assume are drywall measure 60 and the sliding glass door even measures 55!)
I appreciate that we have a nice house to live in, but SOOOOO many things are wrong with this house it’s enough to drive you insane.
A/C issues update
Well, the landlord called and said he talked to the guy and from what I had told him, it sounded like the system was working just fine. That it is typical for the upstairs to NOT cool like the rest of the house, especially when the weather is so hot. (Yeah, so what the hell is the point of A/C when it only works well when it’s COOL outside? :roll:) He even told me that THEIR OWN HOUSE, with TWO A/C units (one for each floor) doesn’t cool the second floor as well (that unit runs 24/7 while the other unit doesn’t).
He suggested closing off vents (which we have already done, which doesn’t help much at all—since most of the vents are so old and crappy that even in the closed position cold air still blows through) and setting up fans. Again: 
Then the A/C guy called me and basically told me the same thing, but added that it’s probably a ductwork issue: old house, crappy ductwork, not really designed for A/C. Go figure.
So basically we have to deal with it.
I shouldn’t be surprised, as this is just about what we had to deal with in North Carolina—the upstairs was always warmer than anywhere else, and the living room specifically was under-vented so that room was always warm, even with the upstairs A/C unit running 24/7.
Ugh. Summer.
I can’t wait for fall.
Ugh. A/C issues. Again.
Really? Another house where the A/C doesn’t work for shit upstairs? C’mon. Give us a break.
It’s a comfy 75 downstairs and a balmy 82-84 upstairs. WTF? >:XX
And here we had hoped to not even turn the damn A/C on, being a Michigan summer and all, having been used to North Carolina summers. But shit, it’s like 81 and humid, which is still uncomfortable. And we can’t have the baby’s room that warm…so we have fans going non-stop and we just turned the A/C down another few degrees to see if it helps.
And I am going to email the landlord, but I anticipate him saying “Your house, your problem” since technically that’s what our lease says. Ugh.
I freaking hate summer, no matter the state.
What a weekend!
What an amazing weekend this has been…
Why, you ask? What could have happened to make it so amazing?
Well, Tom had most of it off!! Yes, the guy who typically works six days a week, up to 12 hours a day, and who rarely gets weekends off…got Friday off, most of Saturday off (he worked until about 10am), Sunday off, and Monday off!!
When he first told me (Thursday night), I was just stunned into silence. What were we going to do? We hadn’t had that much time off together…since Owen was born! Of course all our to-do lists popped into mind, but mostly I just wanted to have family time—time for daddy and Owen to spend together!
After the first day (Friday) it already felt like we had had a week off! It was that amazing! I didn’t even mind him going into work on Saturday because I knew we still had lots of time left together! We also had lunch with cousin Lori at a new restaurant (for us) and had a very enjoyable time! When we got home, Michaels called and said our photo was done. I love love love how it turned out:
At this point I can’t even remember all that we did, but I know we all had fun! Of course we did get to some of the to-dos (the garage is now mostly organized) but those weren’t our main focus! Daddy and Owen played quite a bit, and daddy even took over most of the feedings so mommy could have a break! And mommy got to sleep in three mornings instead of just her normal one (Sunday)! (It would have been four mornings, but all of us were actually awake, so we all sat and played in bed!)
The weather was gorgeous, so we grilled each night and ate most of our dinners outside (when dad and Lin were here last week, we got the patio furniture cleaned and ready to go). Tom was able to mow the lawn. We went to the park and played on the swings (see this post on the Baby Blog).
In short, it was heaven…or, for most people, what a normal life must be like.
I wish it could be like this every weekend, but I will take what I can get!!
