Bad at Winter

So here's the deal. We live in South Dakota. It's winter--complete with snow on the ground--for nearly 50% of the year (or at least that's what it feels like). And aside from a short stint in Iowa for college (which let's be honest, is pretty much the same as SoDak anyway), I've lived in South Dakota my whole life. So you would think I'd have this whole winter thing down. But to be honest, I don't. In fact, I'm pretty terrible at it. And that's been increasingly evident as the boys have gotten older. William will be four in April, and he has never been sledding. He's never skied (downhill or cross country), never ice skated, never snowshoed, never really spent any extended time outside in the winter for any reason. And before you think that he's too young for those "sports", rest assured that I have friends who have taken their kids William's age (or younger!) to do all those activities. Meanwhile, William doesn't even have a proper pair of snow pants. Or gloves, for that matter. The only ones he has are unlined fleece ones that get wet pretty quickly. Which we've discovered the handful of times we've played out in the front yard. And by "we" I usually mean Darrell and the boys, because I usually find a reason that it makes more sense for me to be in the house getting something done than outside playing. Which is weird. Because I grew up sledding. I grew up downhill skiing. I grew up having snow ball fights. And for the most part, I'm fairly certain I enjoyed all of those things. But as an adult, going to play outside in the winter seems like a chore. There's so many layers to put on (and no matter how many I layer on I always seem to get cold!), there's snow that gets everywhere, and there's always (always!) a mitten or a boot falling off. Plus there's all the wet stuff that gets dragged in the house and makes a mess. Not to mention the fact that buying decent quality outdoor gear isn't exactly cheap--especially with as quickly as the boys outgrow stuff.

I don't mean to be a fun-hater in the winter. In fact, I pride myself on finding lots of fun (indoor!) activities to do with the boys. But thankfully Darrell (the North Carolinian, of all things!) seems to have a better tolerance than I do for playing in the snow or my boys might really never get to experience at least a fraction of the fun that can be had in the snow.

Seriously

Seriously. Go home Spring, you are massively drunk. Although at least this is a super pretty snow and not nearly as windy as it was on Wednesday, but still. Not cool Mother Nature.

Welcome to Spring

Not Pictured: Lovely 30+ mph winds

Go home Spring. You're drunk.

SoDak Life

Fact: When you live in South Dakota in the late fall/early winter, "nice" days can be hard to come by. So when you have a day where the sun is shining and the winds are mild, you get outside. Even if the air temperature is only around forty degrees. Because low temperature is nothing a few extra layers can't fix.

Admittedly, we've had a really, really mild fall so far, and we may even have a few more days with temps near sixty--and you can bet we'll be outside on those days as well. Because I know the days are coming where good ol' Vitamin D will be hard to come by. So for the boys' sake as much as my own, we're going to soak up as much of it now as we can.

On a totally unrelated note, I figured out why I couldn't access photos from my phone for blog posts, and I got the issue resolved (yay!). So hopefully I'll be back with a Wordless Wednesday post next week--which is fortunate, because with the schedule we have for the next few weeks, it might be all I can manage to slap a few pictures on a post and hit publish.

Outdoor Campus

Yesterday was glorious. Not only were the temperatures wonderfully spring-like (bordering on summer-like), but there was no wind. Seriously. If you've been reading my blog long enough you know that is one of my biggest weather complaints about Sioux Falls. Because the wind is seriously constant, and rarely is it just a light breeze. But yesterday, it was practically non-existent (I wish I could say the same for today, but oh well). So naturally, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed outside.

Sioux Falls has an awesome outdoor recreation place with lots of trails, a natural playground, and even a large pond (full of plenty of geese--William thought they were the coolest). And unlike the bike trails that run through town (which are pretty awesome in their own right), these trails are pretty secluded, aren't terribly long, and aren't very crowded. Perfect for letting a (nearly!) two-year old run around. And run around he did. We ran, we threw rocks, we exclaimed about every bird that flew past, and we wore ourselves out. Perfect morning outing in my opinion. And I even remembered to take a few pictures!

We watched this hawk go after a snake. It was pretty sweet

Terrible photo, but oh man did this boy have fun throwing rocks (pebbles)

Those aren't shawdows on his face; it's all dirt. A sure sign of a good time :-)

Garrett enjoyed himself too--at least I'm assuming he did since he slept in the Ergo the whole time. Can't wait until he's old enough to run around with William!

Maybe?!?!

Two years ago, on the ninth day of April, we were dealing with the beginning of a massive winter storm. We'd had freezing rain most of the day, and as Darrell was coming home from work the freezing rain was turning into sleet (which would eventually turn into snow). At 7:00 that night, despite being instructed by Darrell to "stay put" for at least 24 hours, William decided to start his entrance into our lives by breaking my water.

Well, it is currently the ninth day of February--the arrival of WEBS is certainly near--and look what the weatherman has on tap for tonight:

Sure, it isn't nearly as ominous of a storm as we had with William, and quite frankly, it might miss us altogether, but still... Maybe?!? Could this be the trigger WEBS needs?

Too Early....

Dear South Dakota:

I should not be able to see my breath when I am out for a morning walk on September 12th. It's too soon for that nonsense--I don't even have a winter coat for William yet! Please return to normal fall temperatures ASAP so we can do normal fall things like go to the apple orchard and have bonfires.

Love,
Jess, William, and Baby

PS Thank you for not dropping six plus inches of snow on us like you did cities in the western part of the state. I am most definitely not ready for that.

The Sump Pump Dumps

In case you've been living in a hole (or not in the Midwest), Sioux Falls has gotten record amounts of rainfall this month. And it hasn't necessarily been a "rain a little bit every day" kind of thing; it's been more of a "let's dump an inch of rain (and hail!) an hour" kind of thing. Great for keeping our lawn nice and green, not great for flooding.

In our old house, we never worried about heavy rains. Because we had a split-level house, our basement was only four-feet under ground, and on the off-chance that the ground became SO saturated that it would cause flooding issues at that shallow depth, we also chose to install a sump pump. In the (almost) five years we lived there, I think there were only three rainstorms that were bad enough to cause our sump pump to run. So when the rain started to POUR down on Saturday night, we didn't think a whole lot of it. Our new house is also a split-level (although it may have a five-foot basement), and it is also equipped with a sump pump, which the previous owners had told us was in working condition. We saw posts on Facebook about people having to clean water out of their basements, and even went to church Sunday morning where we heard more of the same stories. In spite of all this, it still never crossed our mind to go check our basement.

In fact, the only reason Darrell actually went down to the basement Sunday after church was that he wanted to touch up the paint on some of the walls we had scuffed trying (and failing) to move our couch downstairs the night before (that's a story for a different post). All it took was one step off the bottom stair to realize that we were in trouble--BIG trouble. I'll spare you the details for now because I don't have any of the pictures uploaded, but for all intents and purposes there was at least an inch of standing water covering 90% of our basement. And our sump pump? Completely full of water and not pumping a lick. Were we shocked and upset? Absolutely. But devastated? Not so much. Here's why:

1. Because we discovered the damage on a Sunday, Darrell didn't have to take time off work to help clean up some of the water and relocate our stuff (granted, I don't think shop vac-ing 175 gallons of water out of the basement was high on Darrell's to-do list for Father's Day, but whatever). 

2. The rain we got Saturday/Sunday was not nearly as bad as the rain we got on Monday. When we called our plumber, water removal service, and insurance agent on Sunday, they were already backed up (our insurance agent was still dealing with hail damage claims from the week before!). However, given the rain and flooding that occurred on Monday, I am certain all of those people are even more backed up.

3. Despite being busy, our plumber was able to get to the house Monday morning and fix (aka replace) our sump pump, which meant that we got no new water in the basement during that storm (it makes me shudder to think how much more we could have gotten; our sump pump was running almost continuously for a solid eight hours). Additionally, Intek was able to get here Monday evening to get rid of the damaged carpet and suck the rest of the water out, which was good because it was already starting to get pretty dank smelling down there.

4. Darrell and I pretty much hated most of the finishings in the basement--the two bedrooms had industrial-style carpet, and some of the walls had some awful wood paneling. The majority of the carpet was ripped out as a total loss, and most of the wood paneling was removed because it was going to prevent the drywall from drying out. Although this is much sooner than we had anticipated re-doing the basement, now we'll get to do some of it with our insurance money (less our deductible, of course--but that's an insignificant amount compared to what it would have cost to re-carpet the entire basement). 

5. Aside from the carpet and wood paneling, there was hardly any damage (I'm certainly not going to lose sleep over throwing away a few wet pillows). All of our storage areas got flooded, but when we moved I insisted that anything placed into our storage areas was stored in a plastic tote, not a cardboard box. So no damage there. Additionally, the bedroom that was storing all of our boxes with our picture frames and wall decor items (because we haven't gotten around to doing any decorating) had a stage built into it (don't ask why), and for whatever reason when we moved in I put all of the boxes on the stage instead of on the floor. So all of those items stayed nice and dry.  However, the bottom of a few electronic items (namely our shredder and Darrell's old, old desktop computer) got a little wet, and we haven't gotten around to testing either to assess the damage. Thankfully, a shredder is easily replaceable and I'm pretty sure we moved all "valuables" from Darrell's desktop to our laptop years ago, so there shouldn't be any major losses there. 

Does it suck to have a flooded basement? Absolutely. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy (well... Maybe a little bit of water. They are my worst enemy after all). But this is why we have homeowner's insurance, and why we had the sellers purchase a one-year warranty on all appliances in the house. Granted, we were anticipating that the warranty would come in handy on the 26 year-old furnace and air conditioner, not the sump pump, but whatever. Covered is covered. Now if only the massive dehumidifier and three industrial fans would dry up the last bit of carpet downstairs so our house stops smelling so dank that'd be great. And then I can get started transforming our basement into something I'm proud of!

How to Win Parents of the Year

Step One: Have Daddy take the day off work (yay!!).

Step Two: Decide to take advantage of the fact that the rain from the morning seems to have ended and go to the zoo in the afternoon.

Step Three: Start driving to the zoo and discover that there seem to be more storms on the way.

Step Four: Pull up smartphone to check the radar.

Step Five: Receive a tornado warning while checking the radar but establish that the system is going to be north of where you are headed so you continue onward (plus the warning will have expired by the time you get to the zoo anyway).

Step Six: Get to the zoo and realize that there are other storms behind the initial tornado threat, and these seem to be headed right at the zoo.

Step Seven: Decide that you can always take covered in a covered animal exhibit (like the penguins!) or inside the museum if it starts to rain and head in to the zoo anyway.

Step Eight: Make it to one animal exhibit before deciding that rain looks imminent and agree to wait out the storm inside.

Step Nine: Be inside for no fewer than ten minutes before the tornado sirens start going off.

Step Ten: Get ushered to the banquet room in the middle of the museum and hang out there for forty-five minutes (through two tornado warnings and massive hail).

Sounds pretty easy, right? Definitely a sure-fire way to lock in that Parent of the Year Award. Because look how much fun we were having!

They had face-painting, animal pelts, candy bars, and even people in animal costumes! I think the zoo is definitely the place to be during a tornado warning. Although it would have been nice if they had offered covered parking so Darrell's car didn't get hail damage--including getting the tail light busted out. Maybe something we'll have to consider next time we decide to go out when there is a threat of tornados.

Baby Must Have

I've started like two different drafts of "must-have" and "please skip" purchases for baby, and hopefully someday I'll get around to finishing them and posting them, but for the time being I at least want to get this one out there. Because we have loved every penny put into this purchase (which, for the record, wasn't even very many because we found it on Craigslist!)

I know you may be thinking "I'm not a runner", but trust me, you should still seriously consider getting a jogging stroller. It handles so much better and rides so much smoother than any other "traditional" stroller I've ever used, especially if you'll be using it on any surface besides flat, level pavement. We initially decided to get a stroller like this because we knew that in the summer we'd be trekking through grass and gravel frequently at my brother's baseball games and our soccer games. But what we hadn't considered? Navigating the stroller through this:

There may be city ordinances requiring people to clear their sidewalks so many days after a snowfall, but that doesn't always mean that it happens. And by golly, when we get a day with temperatures above twenty thirty you can bet I'm going to want to get us outside and get some fresh air--snow-covered sidewalks or not (and yes, I know the road is clear in this picture and that we could have walked on that, but they aren't always cleared--and definitely not as safe).

Yes, the stroller may be a little bulkier than other varieties, and yes, Darrell and I can barely get it in the trunk of our cars, but that doesn't matter in the least. The fact that I could enjoy a walk with William today without cursing out the snow-covered sidewalks has more than made up for the negatives.

Polar Vortex

There's cold. And then there's really cold. And then there's this.

Do you see those numbers? It already feels like forty degrees below zero (although does anyone really know what that feels like? I don't really care to go outside to find out), and the air temperature is supposed to drop nearly another ten degrees. Yay winter.

Thankfully it hasn't been like this all winter. Just a few weeks ago we were actually able to go for a rather pleasant walk.

And thankfully, we should be able to resume outdoor activities by the end of the week. While this polar vortex will certainly be dreadful (well, I mean, it would be dreadful if we had to go outside), at least it's not like we live in Canada or something where this is a common occurrence.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

While I'm not particularly loving the temperatures that are accompanying this snowfall (eighteen degrees with a wind chill near zero), I'm loving the blanket of white that has covered everything. Now it's starting to feel like Christmas--and if the temperatures could climb back up at least to the thirties that'd really be awesome. At least cut our tree down last weekend; while the forty-degree temperature didn't really feel Christmassy, it was certainly a better option than cutting down our tree in the ten-degree weather forecasted for this weekend.

Happy boy with his first Christmas tree!

And how, you might ask, is it going having a Christmas tree with a seven-month old crawling machine? About this well:

"Helping" to arrange the tree bag

Ooh, lights!!

Don't let that innocent face fool you--Mommy had to cut off the branch just to the left of him because he kept trying to wrap his hand around it and pull. Just a little dangerous

Thankfully, he hasn't quite mastered getting into a sitting position from his stomach, so we only have to have the branches and decorations high enough off the ground so that he can't reach them from floor level. He's also discovered that this strange green thing pokes him if he gets too close, so I think that has helped deter him from trying to crawl under or behind it. Now that the novelty of it being new has kind of worn off he hasn't paid it much interest, so that's good. We may have to avoid putting any gifts under the tree this year until we are ready to open them, though, because that might just be a little too tempting for him. Excited for lots more "firsts" with our little buddy this month!

Happy Snow-vember!

See what I did there? Because this is what things looked like in our neighborhood yesterday:

And that isn't even all of it; if you look closely at the picture you can tell that the snow is still coming down. I think we got six to eight inches of accumulation by the time it was all said and done. Normally I'd be complaining about that much snow in November, but this was my favorite kind of snow--big, heavy, wet flakes, perfect for making snowballs with (not quite so good for driving in, but hey, I didn't have anywhere to go). Plus it'll all be melted by the weekend.

I made the comment to Darrell last night that we were a little remiss in not taking William outside to get some pictures in his first snowstorm, and Darrell reminded me that technically (technically) this was William's second snow; it snowed pretty much the entire day he was born back in April. So it's not like I can feel guilty for neglecting to document his first snowfall. Because I highly doubt the nurses would have been too keen on our taking William outside to get pictures of him (at mere hours old) in the snow. So I'll blame it on the nurses if years from now adult William wonders why we don't have pictures of him and his first snowstorm.

"They" Don't Know Anything

"What great timing," they said of my pregnancy.

"Spring babies are the best," they said.

"Think of all the nice walks you'll get to go on," they said.

Ha. In the twenty-three days that William has been alive, there have been SIX days where the temperature has been over fifty-five degrees. SIX. For comparison, it has snowed on approximately TEN different days since William was born. Ridiculous? I think so.

And yes, I understand that I live in South Dakota and that my children will inevitably be exposed to freezing and sub-zero temperatures. But I was not prepared to battle weather like that with a newborn (at least not this time around). We certainly don't have the clothing or accessories for me to feel comfortable taking William out in this weather--and have subsequently been pretty much stuck at home. What I wouldn't give for weather that would allow me to take my fussy newborn out for a walk.

Happy May Day!

May Day greetings from South Dakota everyone!

Yes, that picture is for real. Gotta love South Dakota. I think this little meme sums it up best:

Fancy Windows

You know how some people buy those fancy frosted glass windows for their bathrooms or front doors so that they can have a little extra privacy without needing curtains?

Well, turns out you can get that same look for free with a massive ice storm.

Coincidentally, that same massive ice storm is also enough to cancel school for the day. Which, on the one hand, is pretty awesome, because this is my last week of work before baby comes, and my six weeks of paid leave will take me past the end of the year, so I won't have to worry about making this day up. But, on the other hand, I now have nothing to distract me from sitting around all day and thinking about when BOB is going to come, if BOB is going to be a boy or girl, if labor will go smoothly, etc. I suppose I could do that whole "nesting" thing and clean, because goodness knows our house could use a good dusting and vacuuming... But that just seems like more work than I want to do.

Besides, if the forecasts are right, it's unlikely that we'll have school tomorrow either (three inches of snow on top of an inch of ice plus 25 mph winds apparently makes for poor driving conditions), so I have to save myself something to do tomorrow. That's sound logic, right?

Bi-Polar Weather

There is seriously no better term to describe the current weather forecast for our area:

Is that not ridiculous? And I'm not really even talking about the fact that snow is being forecasted for April 9th/10th--I'm more impressed by the thirty degree temperature swing between today and tomorrow. Quite frankly, I don't really care if we get snow (although I could do without the 25 mph winds...); we need the moisture any way we can get it. Plus, significant drops in pressure can supposedly induce labor, so hopefully this storm will be brought in by a low-pressure system (or at least chased out by one--I tried to read some weather maps to figure out what was being forecasted in terms of pressure changes, but I couldn't make heads or tails of the maps. Meteorology is clearly not my thing).

Here's to hoping we get some decent moisture and maybe a baby out of this storm system!

Spring?

Dear South Dakota:

Today is the first day of spring. That means temperatures should be higher than single-digits when I wake up in the morning. It also means that the high temperature for the day should be above freezing. Just wanted to make sure you were aware of that.

I do appreciate the sunshine though. Let's go ahead and keep that up. But can you please bring the temperature up to, oh, forty? And only light winds? I hope I'm not asking too much.

Love, Jess

Wind

I know I complain about the weather. And I know I'm inconsistent about it. One day I'll be complaining about how miserably cold it is, and then like clockwork, I'll be complaining about how hot it is six months later. As Darrell has reminded me on more than one occasion, I have a very narrow window for "comfort" when it comes to weather.

However, I've officially decided that I have a new nemesis when it comes to weather. Forget the frigid cold, forget the oppressive heat--what I hate most is the wind. I'm not talking about the nice, gentle summer breezes, or the sizable gusts that inevitably accompany a strong storm--I'm talking about the annoying, steady, 15+ mph winds that will last for days on end. The kind of wind that will pierce through even the warmest "wind-proof" winter jacket, or ruin a perfectly nice summer day at the lake. It's downright awful.

And the thing that makes the wind in South Dakota even worse? It's incessant. It never goes away. It may be lighter and more bearable on some days, but it's still there. Now, you may be thinking that, in theory, if it's regularly windy, then you would be more likely to get used to it (and subsequently, less likely to complain about it). Well folks, that just isn't the case. I'm here to tell you that there are some things that you just can't "get used to"--and constant wind is one of them (especially when it is strong more days than not).

Think I'm exaggerating about how much wind we get around here? I'm not. Want proof? Check out these graphs of wind data compiled from weather records dating all the way back to 1974 (courtesy of Weatherspark.com):

Average monthly wind speed for Sioux Falls, SD

Average monthly wind speed for Hickory, NC (Darrell's hometown)

Where do I begin? For starters, let's talk about the scale on the y-axis. The graph for Sioux Falls goes all the way up to 30 mph, while Hickory's graph only goes up to 22 mph (and the graph itself barely surpasses 20 mph at any point). Then, do you notice how the Hickory graph doesn't actually have a red line, just small amount of red shading? That color represents the average daily minimum wind speed--which means that in Sioux Falls, every day registers (on average) enough measurable wind to have a daily minimum wind speed (the solid red line), whereas Hickory has enough days with no measurable wind that you have to extend your range to include the 10th-90th percentiles to even see an average daily minimum. Additionally, Hickory's highest daily average wind speed (black line) is 7 mph, which is still 2 mph slower than the lowest daily average wind speed in Sioux Falls.

Bottom line? The wind sucks in Sioux Falls. We need to get ourselves some mountains or something stat.

Lamest Blizzard Ever

So at noon on Friday, Darrell and I were pretty set on our weekend plans--and, as usual, we had a pretty full weekend planned. Saturday morning we were going to drive up to Webster for some family time with my sister and to do some wedding planning, and then we were going to leave there Sunday morning to head to Kimball to take some maternity photos with one of my friends.

But then we looked a little bit more closely at the weather--and every news report was screaming blizzard for pretty much the entire state from Saturday night into Monday. It was supposed to start with light rain showers, turn into snow (with snowfall predictions of six inches around Sioux Falls and more than a foot in Kimball and Webster), and then the winds were supposed to pick up causing white-out conditions. So, after making a few phone calls, we cancelled all our plans for the weekend and kicked our feet back to enjoy the blizzard from the comfort of our own home.

And then?? Nothing. At least in the Sioux Falls area. The temperatures stayed warm enough to keep the rain from turning to snow, plus the warm ground kept the little bit of snow that did fall from accumulating. Which meant that by the time the wind picked up there wasn't much to blow around. It was a major disappointment--although still nice to enjoy a relaxing weekend at the house.

Granted, the storm lived up to its hype elsewhere, causing the interstates to close throughout most of the state on Sunday, so it still ended up being a good thing that we decided not to travel. Plus, our photographer friends ended up coming to town on Saturday because they had work stuff in Sioux Falls on Monday and wanted to make sure they didn't get stuck in Kimball, so we were still able to get some maternity photos taken. Definitely not what we were planning for the weekend, but it still ended up being a major win!