The not so snowy snow day ...

Houston had an arctic blast.

We prepared for it all week.

I bought supplies for soup and chili and any other comfort type food I could think of.  (I even made it!).

Schools announced Thursday afternoon that there would be no school on Friday and all Thursday night activities in the city were canceled.

I made jambalaya on that night in preparation for the storm.  Lots of people in Houston are from Louisiana and that is a common meal for them.  Me, not so much.  At one point Caroline suggested I was trying to cook something “out of my league”.  The good news for her is that I thought it was funny.  Otherwise she would be in trouble.  :)   I thought it was good but my family thought it was too spicy.

Houston children went to bed Thursday night with visions of snowballs dancing in their heads.

And when they awoke … what to their wondering eyes should appear?

A few icicles.  Look closely … they are there.

Isn’t that SNOW funny?

Bill and I knew things were not going as planned on the 10 :00 news on Thursday night when the meteorologist (in our opinion) totally began backpedaling.  It went from 3-5 inch accumulation to “a possibility”.  Something about a warm air layer which I think is just mumbo jumbo for … “we totally blew this one and we better think of something fast!".  We were literally howling with laughter when the reporter was leaning in front of a car headlight and going … “LOOK, I think I see a piece of  frozen precipitation falling now”.  A PIECE.

Only in Houston I tell you.  Only in Houston.

My kids were disappointed.  I was too except that we stayed in our pajamas all day long and watched something along the lines of five American Idol episodes that we hadn’t had time to watch yet.

Brittany and I made chicken tortilla soup on Friday.  Brittany saute’d an onion for me and when I came in the kitchen this is what I saw …

SHE WAS WEARING HER SWIM GOGGLES to keep the onion from burning her eyes.  I laughed until I cried and this is the 535th reason why cooking with Brittany is pure awesomeness.  One thing I know for sure …. you won’t see this on the Rachel Ray show!

While the girls and I wasted the afternoon away hearing J-Lo and Steven Tyler judge Idol contestants, Bill and Jacob worked on their Boy Scout Pinewood Derby Car.  Bill, I kid you not, went to the post office to weigh the car no less than three times.  (From what I gather, the boy scouts are pretty serious about the weight limits for the cars).  Each time Bill  would come back and hand it back to Jacob to keep sanding.

Trust me when I tell you that Jacob sanded and sanded and sanded that car.

ALL day they sanded which makes me wonder how on earth it ever would have gotten finished had Houston not had the " not-so-major” snow storm.  Check in time was supposed to be Friday at 5 PM but that got delayed to Saturday (thankfully!).

I left the house to take Caroline to a volleyball tournament at 9:30 Saturday morning and the car looked just like the picture above.  No paint, no wheels … no fancy anything.  The car had to be weighed and registered for the Derby by 11:00 AM.

What I’m saying is TIME WAS A TICKIN’!!

When we got to the race at 2:30 they began announcing winners.  In the Weebalo age group for fastest car … Third Place went to Jacob Baerg!!!!!

I cannot even tell you how funny I thought it was, shocked that I was … and proud all at the same time.  For starters, I know Jacob did the whole car himself (except for the driving to the post office part!).  Secondly, y’all have NO IDEA how much Bill hates a woodworking project.  There is not one single tool that man enjoys using … and so to pull out a third place win over lots of cars … well, that is really something.

Here is one thing you should know … the cars there were AMAZING.  One had a catapult, one had a fish on the top of it, camo cars … you name it.    Seriously cool cars.  And Jacob’s was supposed to be cool.  He had designed his car to look like a dog and it was going to be called the “Bark-mobile”.  (Is that not hilarious?).  Bill and Jacob even went to Hobby Lobby to buy felt to make the tongue for the car.

After the car was sanded and painted brown Savannah said the car looked like a Hershey kiss.  And so … WITH A SHARPIE … they wrote Hershey on the side and off they went to the Pinewood Derby.

This is where the story gets a little sad.

Bill didn’t tell me this part until the next day …

As Jacob was walking up to check his car in, he saw all the other (amazing) cars and he hid his behind his back (isn’t that SO sad?!?).  He told Bill his car wasn’t as fancy as the other cars.

And then Bill said … “well, they won’t be as fast as ours”.

Totally threw down is what Bill did.

So, you can imagine his relief when little Hershey pulled out that third place win.

And LET ME ASSURE YOU … Jacob is awfully proud of that car now.

Ladies and gentlemen … Hershey ….

So, all in all, the not so snowy snow day turned out to be a lot of fun.

Even if only “a PIECE” of precipitation fell!