When Disaster Strikes...

It really started when we had a horrible snowstorm last Thursday. Schools were closed and many offices in town were closed. My university was the only institution of higher education open so I had to go to work although we were delayed an hour and a half. I dug my car and later my Expedition out of a total of three snow drifts in order to get out of my driveway but I made it to work on-time and picked up a Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks on the way. What was drifting snow quickly turned into subzero temperatures.

My washer and dryer are currently located in my Art Studio so it isn't always that warm out there as it is in another building next to our house. It was actually our woodshed that my husband rebuilt for me. The washer often freezes up during very low temperatures if we don't use it regularly so I did three loads of laundry Thursday to try to keep the water from freezing, but by Friday morning we were frozen and all I could do was wait for my husband to thaw it out. Seriously, I could have done it, but it makes a good excuse not to do laundry. Plus I had to work and get my daughter to the mountain. He had been out of town all week and wasn't going to be home until Saturday and our youngest had a commitment to coach for the ski race team on Saturday so we headed to the cabin.

My husband came home Saturday night and early Sunday morning he got to work on the water and some carpet cleaning. He thawed the pipes, started a load of laundry and when back to cleaning. He went back out to change the clothes and found the place flooded with five or so gallons of water. He'd forgotten to put the drain hose back in place.

I came home thinking that I might make some cards. I didn't feel well, but I was in a bit of a crafty mood. He told me that I should probably go out and see what the damage was to my scrapbooking paper before I got too excited. Sure enough, I had been stupid enough to leave some paper out on the floor when my daughter and I were getting ready to go to the cabin. We were going through paper to take some up there. Well, the damage included about half of my paper. I was able to salvage some of it as in many cases it hadn't reached the whole 12 x 12 piece of paper. I took out my trusty giant Fiskars paper cutter from Costco and began cutting the wet pieces away from the dry parts often leaving me with a 12x6 piece of paper. Unfortunately, a lot of my ski and winter paper was a total loss, but I was able to keep some of my Stampin' Up cardstock. Well, lesson learned. Put your stuff away. Isn't that what I tell the kids. Things don't get ruined if you put them away. Had I taken the time to put my paper back in the cabinet, it would still be here and I would have had some time to make cards on Sunday. Crafting will have to wait for another weekend.

Feb 11th/223

This guy sits on top of our pool house. Yes it is a Christmas Bear Skiing and yes it is February, but it is still ski season so I would say it is okay. My youngest daughter told us that he looks a little like her dad- A slow skiier with a belly. Silly girl.

Feb 4th/330

Another frozen fog day on campus. On the 4th, I had to walk across a campus that I have been walking around for the last 11 years and saw a tree that I had never noticed before. It is interesting how one never notices their surroundings until they are desperate to find a photo for the day.

Jan 31st/334

Another day of ski racing at 49 Degrees North. The 31st was the Master's Race, my last race as race data adminstrator and my husband's last race as chief of timing and calculation for the FAST Team.

It was also a sad day as it was a day our family put a member to rest. My brother-in-law's mother's memorial service was on the 31st, but we missed it because we had to work the race. We did send our daughter instead to represent the family. We will miss Grandma Ruth.

Jan 30th/335

The 30th was my oldest daughter's 21st birthday, but she went down to the University of Idaho to visit her friends so I didn't get any photos of her. It was also a morning made up of frozen fog so I took a photo of this beautiful frost pine tree at my youngest daughter's school.

Jan 24th/341

Day 2 of FAST Blast which includes a GS and a Super G race always ends with and an amazing dinner with friends. A very good friend of ours who doesn't ski always cooks dinner for us while we are running the race on the mountain. He takes over another friends cabin and cooks all day. Dinner usually includes an mouth watering marinated brisket, parmesan rice, salad, and fruit cobbler. It is amazing and something we all look forward to at the end of a cold and busy day. It seems that the crowd gets larger and larger every year. I think the count this year was around 40 which included the TD and a couple of the coaches. The evening ended with us celebrating friendship and Chinese New Year by launching Chinese Lanterns that another friend brought over.
Pentax Optio10, automatic

Jan 22nd/343

Here is a picture of what I call "My Ski Chalet on Wheels." In the fall, it magically transforms into a hunting shack and in the summer it is our lake cabin, but on this day it has become our ski chalet for a very long three day weekend. My daughter, my husband and I have loaded the Nomad up with Race timing equipment, junk food and of course the necessities for any good ski family: Ski equipment, beer and wine. It is small at 23 feet, but it is ours and it's portable. We have been known to have had five people staying it at a time during ski trips. My youngest daughter calls it the pup tent next to the huge 5th wheels and motorhomes at the mountain. At least we don't have much space we have to heat!

Pentax Optio10, automatic

Jan 21st/344

Today was just plain cold! The only great part is that we had freezing fog which creates beautiful frost tips on the pine trees around campus. I took this picture as I was walking across campus with my middle daughter after sharing some sad news with her. My oldest daughter calls it the Narnia photo. The photo not only represents the cold spell we are having but the beauty that can be found in nature, even on a bad day. It is very serene. As one would guess this far in reading this blog, today is not exactly a good day for our family as we lost a member dear to our hearts. My brother-in-law's mother passed away this morning between 5 and 7. She was very close to my children and took care of them often. My kids actually called her grandma. She lived a long life and she died peacefully, but she will be missed. Today made me think of this passage from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 which is one of my favorites.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:..."

Pentax Optio10

Jan 18th Photo/347

Yesterday was a blue bird day but we needed to stay home from the mountain and get some work done around home, unfortunately. At least we could look at Mt Spokane from our yard. This is the view from my yard. Lucky me! Not eveyone is so fortunate to get up in the morning and have such a beautiful view.

Pentax Optio Z10, sand and snow mode

Jan 16th Photo/349

The 16th was a frosty morning. The trees were beautiful so I decided to take a picture of th pods left over pods that wer hanging on our trees. The ice crystals were beautiful!
Pentax Optio Z10, macro, digital zoom

Jan 11th Photo/354

On Jan 11th, we decided not to go skiing. We all had a lot of other things to do so we took the day off. My husband worked on the camp trailer, readying it for a ski race in a couple of weeks while the girls and I went shopping for snow boots and supplies.

Overall, shopping in general proved to be quite difficult considering all of the snow we have had in the last few weeks. Not only were snow boots next to impossible to find, but Costco was a mad house. People were everywhere and acted like they were stocking up for the next snowstorm. Apparently it was the first good weekend out and people were out of supplies and going to get what they could while they could. Some people had more than one cart. The lines were all open and the lines were a couple aisles back in the store. Maybe it was a ploy to get me into the candy aisles so I would buy more. Who knows, but it was busy so my daughter and I thought a picture of the Costco parking lot would be the best picture to represent the day.

Canon Rebel EOS XT, auto

Jan 8th 2009 Photo/357

Jan 8th led us to "The Great Thaw". Water was everywhere. We were fortunate as we haven't experienced any real flooding from the creek, but Western Washington is under water. I chose this photo in contrast to a week ago when we were buried with snow. Easy come-Easy go!

I wish I would have played with my light meter a bit more as this was on my way to the work and the white balance is a bit off in the foreground. Oh well.

Canon Rebel EOS XT, auto

Jan 6th Photo/359

Jan 6th was a real challenge to photograph. I was really getting tired of snow and ice so I looked a Becky Higgin's suggestions and still couldn't decide. Finally, as I was reading my email I decided to photograph the email from the school district, once again telling me that my daughter was on extended vacation due to snow. At that rate, I thought she might graduate from the 6th grade when she was 18.

Canon Rebel EOS XT, auto

Jan 5th Photo/360

Jan 5th brought me back to work and still the ice had not fallen. This is a photo outside of my office.

Nikon Coolpix 2200, auto

Jan 4th Photos/361

Jan 4th brought us to Schweitzer so my daughter could ski race. It was a miserably cold day that started with snow. This was her last race at Schweitzer as she is planning to hang up her bib this year and retire. I played lodge mom for the day since I tweaked my knee when I slid on the ice while I was shoveling snow one night while my husband helped the coaches. It was a fun day!

Here I go again. I can't decide which racing photo to use so I guess I will wait on the day too. I will probably use the race suit image, but it is vertical and the 365 Kit will only accommodate horizontal images. I may just print the vertical image smaller so it will fit the album and the embellish around the image.

Canon Rebel EOS XT, manual (which didn't work out so well)

Jan 3rd Photo/362

Jan 3rd my daughter had ski racing practice at 49 Degrees North and then we drove to Schweitzer for the first ski race of the year. We drove from 49 to Sandpoint to stay the night at the Super 8 so that we didn't have to get up so early on Sunday morning to drive up the mountain. Later in the evening we had dinner at Panhandler's Pies with friends and then came home and watched a little TV. What was really funny is that we were given a room with three queen beds and there were only three of us in the room.

Canon Rebel EOS XT, auto

Jan 2nd Photo/363

January 2nd brought me back to work for the first time since Dec 17th, 2008. When I came back, this photo was the view from my office window.

Nikon Coolpix 2200, auto

Jan 1st 2009 Photos (Happy New Year!)/364

Even though we had a record snowfall in Spokane during the month of December 2008, it continued to snow into January so we welcomed 2009 with additional snow and with the snow the need for snow removal on our farm. Currently, I have chosen three photos for January 1st's entry. I cannot decide which photo to use in my album. One is my husband digging out snow for drainage and to provide space for future snow removal and one is of our house covered in snow. Currently, I am favoring the picture of our house or Larry removing snow. I may wait to decide as we get more snow although today it looks like spring has come.

Canon Rebel EOS XT, auto