2 days until spring!

Here's the accumulation of ice we had this morning:

They cancelled school for this

Although the trees and deck are covered in ice, the roads are fairly clear. Andrew headed off to Duke this morning because they sent an email out telling their students it was business as usual. Rachel, however, has a full day off of school. There's much hype about a salt truck that tipped over.



Everything is melting so quickly, however, that it sounds like it's raining outside. We're currently hovering around the freezing point, though we're supposed to warm up a couple degrees before the day is through. Tomorrow's forecast to be moderately warm. And then, with any luck, we can bid this tedious winter adieu.

Andrew wondered this morning if we'd had a single "normal" week this year—a week where he goes to school for five days a week and Rachel goes to school for five days a week. I should have put all the snow days on the calendar...let's see if we can figure this out.

Dec 30–Jan 3: Rachel was on winter intercession
Jan 6–Jan 10: Rachel was on winter intercession, Andrew leaves for NOLA
Jan 13–17: Andrew still in NOLA
Jan 20–24: 2 hour delay on the 22nd
Jan 27–31: Snow day on the 29th & 30th, half days on 28th and 31st
Feb 3–7: ???
Feb 10–14: Out of school midday on the 12th, full days thereafter
Feb 17–21: Rachel and Andrew get the stomach flu
Feb 24–28: We check Rachel out early on Friday to leave for Atlanta
Mar 3–7: My mom's here for a snow day, Andrew begins spring break
Mar 3–14: Andrew's still on spring break
Mar 17–21: Snow day TODAY

The week of February 3–7 may very well represent the only "normal" week we'll get this entire semester because next week is due to be unusual and then Rachel will start spring intercession (after using a couple days as makeup days) and Grandma will be here. Andrew's last day of classes is April 16th. Rachel doesn't go back to school until April 21st. Andrew will have finals and then he'll be finished taking classes forever!!*

And that's it. That's our schedule-shifting semester. That week of normalcy could be considered the only abnormal week of the semester.

*except for his prospectus writing class next year but that's one class

Today's snow day comes as even more of a blow because today is Tuesday! It's supposed to be Rachel's epic elephant performance—Welcome to the Jungle! They're going to have to reschedule that. They're going to have to reschedule their Sham-Rock dance that was cancelled last night. Soccer practice is going to be rescheduled. And we'll have to adjust our schedule to accommodate whenever the higher powers that be decide these events should be rescheduled. 

We're certainly ready to welcome spring and gain some more control over our calendar. Maybe.

We're also excited to welcome our little tadpoles. It's already been fun watching the little black dots turn into little brown...elongated blobs. Ah, the miracle of life!