Battling the Blahs of Ol' Man Winter

100 posts!!

I want to begin this post by pointing out that this is post number 100!  Woohoo! It took a bit longer to get there than I would have liked, but we have finally hit the century mark! So if you have been a reader from the very beginning, thanks for sticking with us.  If you're a new reader, welcome and I look forward to celebrating our 200th post with you!

Enjoying the Big Snow of 2011

The past few weeks the Freihaut Family has been battling cabin fever.  As most of you know, a giant snowstorm attacked the Midwest during the first week of February.  It was given many names...Snowmaggedon, Snowpocalypse, Snowpalooza, Snowzilla, etc., etc.   Although it didn't live up to its hype, we did get 13 inches in central Illinois and as far as I'm concerned the only name I needed to give it was a Royal Pain in the Rear!  In anticipation of being snowed in for days on end, I headed to the grocery store on Sunday with all the other crazy people who were stocking up on necessities. 

On Tuesday the snow began and went through the night and into Wednesday.  Derek was home on Wednesday, as our roads hadn't been plowed and subzero temperatures prevented us from attacking the mountain of snow in our driveway.  At about 10 a.m. we lost power.  The bad news about loosing power for an extended period time at our house is that we also loose water because our water source is a well with an electric pump--bummer!  We filled the day with lots of book reading, puzzle doing, napping, and good old family bonding time.  Addy wasn't quite sure why we couldn't watch cartoons or why we had to layer on tons and tons of clothes, but she liked the fact that her daddy couldn't work on his computer, she got her very own flashlight, and that we were planning to camp out in the living together.  Just as we prepared our bed (at 6:00) on the floor for bedtime the electricity came back on--thank goodness.  The main floor of our house only dropped to 63 degrees, but the upstairs and basement got a lot colder.  Addy was upset when we made the decision to no longer camp out, but after a day of having no electricity we decided each of us needed our own beds! Derek and I were excited that the electricity came on just in time for us to watch the second half of the IU game, even though they lost in the last few minutes.

The first of several puzzles completed by Addy and Derek throughout the week

The dining room table became puzzle central

Testing out the hill in our new yard

Addy loved sledding!

On Thursday one of our wonderful neighbors came through our neighborhood with his trusty backhoe and plowed our driveway!  We were so thankful for his kindness, but Derek was the most grateful of all because he was not looking forward to shoveling his way out before work.  Needless to say, our neighbor saved Derek several hours of work. 

The ball pit has gotten lots of use throughout the past few weeks!

My parents had planned a visit to deliver our new couch over the weekend.  After much debate, they decided to go ahead with the trip.  They came up late Friday evening after work and stayed until Monday.  Saturday was Dad's birthday and we were excited to have the opportunity to celebrate it with him by going out to eat and having an ice cream cake!  Sunday we headed to the Chinese buffet and Addy always asks to go eat at with Mamaw and Papaw.  We ate there the last time they were visiting, so now every time we pass it on the way to the grocery store she asks if we can eat there with Mamaw and Papaw sometime.  They have a ton of ice cream to choose from, so Addy always proclaims that she wants to go to that restaurant with Chinese ice cream.  We also watched the Super Bowl together on Sunday evening.  None of us had a strong allegiance to either team, but I was glad to see the Packers come away with the win. 

Happy Birthday Papaw!



Enjoying cartoons together

 Although the last few weeks have been a little tough with the frequent snowstorms and frigid temperatures.  We have worked through our share of cabin fever and have managed to keep busy and stay somewhat sane in the house.  There is good news in the horizon as the forecast for this week is predicting several days in the forties/fifties....talk about a heatwave! We are looking forward to it! Come on Spring...we're ready for you!