This Will Chill You to the Bone!!!!

That's right my friends, SNOW. In all it's sopping wet, freakin cold, white, white, glory. I go up for one random weekend and I just so happen to pick the weekend of the first snow of the season. Great timing, eh. It started snowing Sunday night (see it's snowing)

and I threatened to pack up and go right then. But my brother so graciously turned up the heater a degree and we piled on the blankets and dealt with it...

And woke up to this wanna be winter wonderland the next morning.

It's really only a winter wonderland when you have some sort of guarantee that your toes won't get wet or really even cold. Because wonderland doesn't have blue toes. I've been there. I know. And it says that on the box. See right there. Read it and weep.

But I'm a good sport (somewhat, mostly, kinda... maybe) and went outside the next morning and all by myself, created this guy:

I'm talking about the tall, white guy in the back (although I did have a pretty big hand in creating the short grinning one in the yellow jacket too!) His name (the white guy) is Miles after my nephew-to-be... at age 10 or so. So you know he's gonna be a cute ten year old! (or a cute, somewhat short 12 year old) I made him and then went inside and told my sis-in-law that someone stole all the snow off her front lawn.

I know you're probably thinking how could I stand to be outside long enough to perform such magical feats but just a handfull or two of the snow and you had to know that it was good pack snow. If my memory serves me right, the first snow of the season usually is. And this was baby!! It just rolled right off the carpet like that sod grass you can get (like in the movie "Dick and Jane" when the landscapers come and reposes the lawn) and into a snow man. In fact, I got so carried away I had to chip off chunks of snow from the middle piece because I made it too big and couldn't lift it onto the bottom piece all by myself.

By the end of the day the snow was pretty well gone and the snow man didn't quite make it through the afternoon. But the worst part was the next day when for whatever reason, I got a chill in my bones that I just couldn't shake. I hate that. Ughh. I even started planning on how I was going to do a fire in my fireplace when I got back to town. Which I've totally changed my mind on considering where I live and that most people here still have their AC on.

Z had a lot of fun and was a good sport about me bundling him up wherever we went.

But then again, I think he just liked wearing the Teenage Mutant Ninja (Inja) Turtle gloves everywhere!

And the weekend wasn't a waste for sure. Ape worked us like slaves down in ghetto-ville

(aka Poor White Trailer Trash ville)

And after seeing those pictures, I bet you wished it snowed before I took them, huh!

Ok so that's not actually Ape's house... it's the stuff in her backyard. But they've made a lot of improvements. And we all pretty much pitched in to help get it in order although some did more than most and others were willing to step on nails to get out of work (T-bone - you know who I'm talking about!)

See, working hard!! Can't believe you ruined your girl's camp shirt just for some paint and dirt. Sheesh.

Nothing like a little physical labor to prove you still got the guns. And in this family, oh we got the guns!

And the brushes too as you can see Ty show off his mad painting skills! (see look - he's wearing a sweater too... it's not just me and Z!!)

Ok and the one I know you were all waiting too see. As they say on Speed Racer, the following image may be inappropriate for the uninoculated and senstive viewers, my dad and his girlfriend in the bathtub.

(and if you're wondering what the heck they're doing, they're cleaning spray paint off the tub wall - told you it was ghetto-ville. Honestly the first time I ever remember my daddy cleaning a tub.. ever. And I'm old.)

And just for the heck of it, 'cause I'm prouder than snot, my bro-in-law started his first post-graduation job on Monday and I captured the proud moment of him crossing the threshold as he entered "The Real World" (no not the TV show, just that place you have to go when you finally stop going to school and start picking up a pretty paycheck)... his first day of work

(which I have on good authority that it was really very boring... sounds about right for a first day!!)