No Respect

Today I am venting.  A lot.  Because sometimes you just need to if you want to keep your head attatched to your shoulders.  Rob and I had some errands to run this morning so we left here about 10:30.  Our first stop was the library and then next was Walmart.  I spent about 5 minutes at the library and we were at Walmart for about an hour.  Then we went and had the car washed and last we stopped at Home Depot.  When we got out of the Explorer at Home Depot I looked backed towards the car cuz Rob was slow and noticed that there was a spot on the rt. rear bumper that didn't get washed well.  On our way out of Home Depot Rob noticed it too and stopped to take a closer look.  Turns out it wasn't a spot that was missed - it was a spot where somebody had hit my car.  And, of course, they didn't have the common courtesy to leave a note or try to find us.  There is no respect for people anymore.  Of this I am positive.  I have noticed, however, that this lack of respect and courtesy is more frequent here in Michigan than it was in Arizona.  This is the second time in two years that someone has hit my car and caused damage to it and left like cowards.  Now I am stuck with the choice to either try to come up with enough money out of pocket to pay for the repairs or make an insurance claim which will raise my rates.  I already live in a state that has one of the highest insurance rates in the country.  I can barely afford the rates now and I certainly don't have $3000 to pay for the repairs.  But, they have to be done because this time around they cracked my bumper and if I don't get it fixed it will just keep cracking until eventually it breaks completely. 

Maybe I should just title this post "I hate Michigan" because that would be a fairer representation of how I feel right now.

sledding

We went sledding this morning.

We had some that had lots of fun

some that were cold

and some that wiped out

one that almost wiped out

a first timer

a couple slow pokes

and the long walk back up every time

but, in the end, everyone enjoyed themselves



Crop circles

I saw the most amazing thing in my yard this morning.  Crop circles.
So I had to go check them out.  I wonder what they are trying to tell me.

Why are you still here?

Leave while you still can

Swing Away.

Anybody watch Signs?

Run, run....

Don't worry.  I have hired the finest investigative minds

What?  Cerah's stuck in the snow?

Oh, it's just a stick.  never mind

Hot on the trail of a clue

And now he's lost.  Just going in circles.

Get it?  going in circles.....never mind

Don't worry Whiskey, I'll save you

Just as soon as I can see past this snow drift

Mysteries are too hard.  I'm just gonna sit here and soak up the sun

Snow day

The kids made the most of their snow day yesterday.  They were outside for about two hours playing in the snow and digging tunnels. 

Trying to scrape out snow for their tunnel.  It took them close to half an hour to think of using a snow shovel.

Hannah had her own ideas.  She made herself a seat on this pile and decided it was her throne

For a while they were trying to decide if they could use this one as a sledding hill

There's always a smile when she sees a camera

Taking a break from all the hard work

I hope she's trying to catch snowflakes

Snow plows and snow piles

We got about ten inches so far in this "monster" storm we were supposed to have.  Schools were closed and Rob only had to work half a day.  After he came home we decided to shovel part of the deck and driveway so we could walk easier.  While we were out there the snow plow came thru.  Now instead of having to clean up part of our driveway to get to the cars we had to go shovel the whole front of our driveway.  Just to give you an idea of what we were dealing with our driveway entrance is about 25 to 30 feet across.  When the snow plow came thru he dumped about 3 ft of snow in our driveway all the way across it.  So there were four of us out there with snow shovels trying to move all the snow so we could get out of our driveway.  This is what we were left with:

You can't really see it but this pile is close to five feet tall at it's highest point

It's also over 5 ft wide by about 10 ft long

Pretty dirty looking isn't it?

Here's another little pile we had

This is the pile on the other side of our driveway.  It's not as big as the first one but it sure seemed like as much work

Same pile, different view

As is this one.  If you look close you can see the mailbox just showing over the top of the snow on the left

Here are the big strong men coming back in after working those piles.  I helped too.  I just stopped a couple minutes early so I could get some pictures.