Micah Boy

AMAZING! He's more than 22 months old! Funny to think how time flies.

Snow Tubing

So, what do you do when you have days off from school? Go snow tubing! Actually, Grace's PTF had this group outing planned for a while, but it was nice that it came on a Friday afternoon-- after a whole week off school. The kids were happy to see some of their friends. This is Claire with Lleyton, a boy in her class that she talks a lot about.

It was a gorgeous day for tubing-- sunny for the first hour, and we never got very cold. The kids all had so much fun-- and so did the adults! It was the first time I'd been tubing since before Claire was born, I think. Chad's done it almost every year with the kids.

This is Claire-- check out her eyes-- this is becoming a classic Claire look. She does goofy things with looking out of the corner of her eyes. :) She's a goof alright!

The drive up to Whitetail was interesting. It's in PA-- I think technically Mercersburg. We took the Umstead's truck, so we were squished in there pretty tightly. The road to Whitetail had been closed (snow) til just that day, or maybe the day before. And we saw why. There was one spot where the banks of snow were higher than our truck cab-- lots of drifting.

However, really the worst part of the driving was the mile closest to home. For some strange reason, the plows cleared up to the plaza on Grade Road (the pizza restaurant and C-store) but did not clear well past that. It's still not down to pavement. The narrow, snow-covered 1-mile stretch before our development was rather treacherous-- big ruts and potholes. Kids said it was like Papa and Grammy's road in the summertime.

Heard we're supposed to get more Mon. Forecaster on WCRH doesn't even dare to say an amount predicted-- "light to moderate accumulation". Hah! That could mean all sorts of things. :)

Michelle

More pics

During the day today, I think we got a couple more inches. Not positive how much since it blew a fair amount also.

Listened to the radio a little today. Heard they closed many of the interstates and were just begging people to stay home. Chad's really hoping to get into school tomorrow morning to do a direct deposit for the teachers' payday. We'll see! We heard a few funny comments from the radio announcers-- like when he was getting ready to read the list of closures, "Let's take another look at the list that never ends." And another time we heard him say, "For the list of closures, please see our website. We're not trying to frustrate those of you that don't have internet access, it's just that if we read it all we wouldn't have time for anything else."

Very tough for the little kids to walk in. Jenna and Claire didn't last long outside at all-- besides the deep snow, it was windy and nasty off and on.

Katie jumped off the deck into a snow pile!

Wednesday Update

It IS Wednesday, isn't it? The days are all running together. :) We've gotten about 10 more inches of snow since yesterday. Chad shoveled 4 inches before dark, and he went out to shovel a couple more inches late at night, and this morning he and I shoveled 4 or 5.

It's still coming. This is just amazing. In the above pic, leading out of our garage this morning, you can see the piles of snow we've cleared off our driveway. Today it's windy, so we may have some blowing snow and drifting issues.

Most fascinating to me this morning was to see the trunks of our trees disappearing. Above is Micah's tree, with Claire's behind it-- and both hardly have any trunks showing. On the Accuweather map, it has a shaded area with "worst of the storm" written over it. Katie commented that it should say "BEST of the storm". :) We're enjoying this.

This is Katie's tree. Marriage conference we were going to go to at our church Fri pm and Sat has been cancelled. Of course no church at all tonight. Can't imagine having school tomorrow. And Friday's supposed to be a half day (professional day). Monday's off for President's Day. Hah! We need another day off. :) Chad and girls are playing Go Fish right now. Girls made Valentines this morning. Yesterday Katie totally cleaned out and organized her room-- totally enjoyed doing it. :)

This is looking out the front door this morning. You can see the fort Chad and the girls made the other day (blanket roof). Above the fort is Jenna's tree, and to the right of that, you see the neighbor's SUV. At least you see the mound that has a car under it. They never cleared it off from the first snow. It's a 3rd car they don't use much.

Other note-- our Venture is kah-put. Sounds like it has a cracked head or something. Would be upwards of $2,000 to repair-- partly because that van is poorly laid out-- everything is hard to get to-- lot of that would be labor. It has 216,000 miles on it, and it's a 1998, so it's not worth repairing.

At the moment we have Umstead's 4-wheel drive truck in the garage-- has been handy for Chad to get to Hagerstown a few times this week. We'll probably try to get by with only our one van for a time, and look for a car that gets good gas mileage to use as a second vehicle.

Michelle

Funny Froggies

More, more, more!

Snow started again today at 10:30ish. We've got about 4 inches and it's definitely been coming faster the past couple hours than it was earlier. Love the big, pretty flakes! Chad's wondering about the shoveling, tho... :)

About the time the snow started midmorning, Berkeley County announced it's cancelling school for the whole rest of the week. Now, I haven't been off our property since last Thurs pm, but Chad and the 3 piano students' families that came today all said that parts of Grade Road were REALLY bad. Big line-up of cars at that S curve (you'd think they would have straightend it all the way), and one person saw a pickup sideways in the road. There was some sort of big accident in Martinsburg today, too. I really should look it up online, I guess. Caused all sorts of traffic snarls-- called in the National Guard, someone said.

So, about our school... Grace has cancelled school for tomorrow. I think that's our last allotted snow day. Not sure what happens after that-- we were all really excited to be finished before Memorial Day this year, but maybe that won't happen!

Non-snow happenings-- Katie and Jenna are both doing a fantastic job on some hard piano pieces. You all really should come for their recital-- Mar 28! And Katie's going to be singing a vocal solo in Fine Arts at Grace at the end of February (barring a snowday on the 25th :). And Katie's working on a drama part--she's auditioning for a part in the You Are Special school musical (Grace's first big one) that'll be May 7th.

Micah's speech just expands by leaps and bounds-- we all have such fun listening to him. And he LOVES having books read to him. AND, he's gettin much better about not getting into trouble. Wonderful!!

Claire went on a date with Daddy today (and you thought snowdays meant you had to stay home!). They had a great time at Chuckie Cheese and Burger King and Dollar Tree-- great lineup, eh?

Michelle

Here we go again :)

They just announced there's no school tomorrow. Chad was at work today, and talked to the principal about the decision-- tough one! Some schools will be closed, some would normally just have delays, because many of the roads still are yucky-- but snow's supposed to be starting during the day again. Could be 10 inches more. Obviously, it's very possible school's cancelled Wed as well. And Thurs?

Kids just cheered when we announced it. They are enjoying this home time, and so am I. :)

The other day, when the snow was very fresh, we made vanilla "snow cream"-- was very good! Vanilla, sugar, milk, and snow. See above.

No school

No church today. No school tomorrow. Berkeley Co has actually cancelled school for tomorrow and Tues already.

We haven't been out yet, but we heard the secondary roads are pretty bad, and 81 is still at one lane.

Katie made choc chip cookies today. Claire and I made pumpkin bread. We shared some of each with Jessica and kids.

We played Twister; Chad played Pick Up Snakes with Claire; girls played school :) and they want to again tomorrow. I'm hoping my piano students show up tomorrow. We'll see!

Chad will be going to work, at least part of the day. We have the Umstead's 4-wheel drive pickup here right now-- have since last week. Our Venture is still in the shop. Turns out it may be something serious-- they aren't even positive yet, but Chad told them not to rush. If this is the end of the Venture, we may try to get by with one car for a while again. (We did it for 11 years, but I really would rather not again! Guess I'm soft) And, when we have to bite the bullet and buy another, we'll spend our tax refund on it. :) Chad worked late last night figuring it out-- and we are thrilled to find out the results will be very helpful with a new car purchase. There's definitely something not right about our tax system, but would we be dishonest to not take the money honestly coming to us? Weird.

Chad's reading Little House on the Prairie to Katie and Jenna right now. I wish you could observe the idyllic scene. :)

Michelle

Lookin' back to 2009...

Okay, Chad wants to create his first blog posting...

This weekend's snowstorm gave us a chance to finally publish our 2009 Year-in-Review. Yes, we know we're already pretty far along 2010's lap around the sun, but better now than never! Rather than our traditional mailed copy, we thought we'd try a blog posting since we're now so technologically-inclined (Ha).

Hmm, 2009. Maybe we'll give you the main highlights in a more bulletpoint style...

* First full year with increased living space from our house addition - thank you, Lord!

* Daily ups & downs (sometimes roller-coasterish) but overall growth as a family

* Eyes opened wider to the world as 4 of us experienced missions work in the California-sized country of Papua New Guinea, where 800 different tribes need Christ. In regard to a possible future in overseas missions, God's not giving us a sense of the immediate, but we're even more open to whatever His plan might involve.
* 44 hours in the sky round-trip through 14 different time zones
* Added perk at the end: cuddling a koala & petting kangaroos in Australia + an outdoor pool in the middle of their winter

* Chad's weekend trip to California for a rare reunion with brothers & family

* Michelle's 5-day trip to Michigan to help with cute newborn twin nephews

* God's provision bigtime for each one of these trips to be paid for almost entirely through gifts or donations!

* Continued involvement in many ways in our healthy & growing church

* Chad's sax & Michelle's bassoon remain warmed-up through orchestra

* Katie is now a 6th grade middle-schooler, and loves her teachers, changing classes, and keeping a neat locker
* Katie enjoyed summer volleyball camp & becoming an official athlete on Grace's junior high volleyball team
* Katie shows giftedness in creative writing and art, as well as drama and handbells at church, and piano at home
* Katie loves to somersault all over the house

* Jenna loves 2nd grade, enrichment classes, and her many friends
* Jenna shows giftedness as a natural scientist and mathematician
* Jenna ran Power Point as she and Katie led 3 chapels at school about their experiences in PNG
* Jenna loves playing piano (especially with Mommy as teacher)

* Claire kicked off her school career as a kindergartener, and reads like a pro
* Claire shows giftedness in natural athletic ability and whacks a whiffleball with ease
* Claire is uninhibited & plain-down silly much of the time
* Claire reached the 5-year milestone of her infant heart surgery and is doing great! ...
* And Claire recently asked Jesus into her heart, so it's fixed in another (and more special) way as well!

* Micah closing in on his 2-year birthday in April
* Micah's vocabulary growing exponentially (fun!) and can practically count to ten
* Micah loves doors, buttons, buckles, and choo-choo trains - and his 3 big sisters!
* Micah always "hungy" (hungry), especially for a'mal cackers or fuffins

So there's our Wingert family snapshot for 2009. God is so good!

Speaking of snapshots, we'll soon be posting a whole bunch of pictures of our 2+ weeks in Papua New Guinea and Australia. Check 'em out at your leisure. We'd love the opportunity to tell you more.

The day after

BEAUTIFUL sunshiney day here--so bright on all the white snow that the kids came back for sunglasses after they bundled up to play outside. The driveway is now bare where the plow cleared it. Everywhere else has lots of snow. Temps are supposed to stay cold for a bit, so it should last for a while, even with all this sunshine.

No church today. Chad read some of Pilgrim's Progress for kids to us, and we listened to some Bible on CD. Great recording-- direct from NIV but with different voices speaking for different people, and with some sound effects.

Michelle

SNOW pics

These pics were all taken this morning-- before a few more inches fell.

And mixed in here, you get to see a pic of Micah's room now.

It's stopped

Snow stopped falling maybe an hour ago. It's somewhere in the 24-26 inch range. When we were out this morning, we took a yardstick and it read 21-23 inches in different places, and we got some more since then.

Kids had a great time playing in it. Micah didn't last very long, tho, since he was confined to a narrow path. He went in and watched Bob the Builder instead.

Chad and I both shoveled a bunch but had hardly made a dent in it when a pickup with a plow came along-- plowed our culdesac and then asked if we wanted our driveway done. Yippee! That was tons faster! It was esp hard to shovel because the bottom several inches were very heavy and wet. The top snow was much lighter.

I finished a 1000 puzzle today! Chad, Katie, and Jenna all helped with it-- fun to have a family puzzle once. And nice that Jenna, esp, seems to love them.

We made Mrs. Hull's rolls for supper tonight, and I invented a sausage soup that turned out pretty good (not according to the youngest 3, tho...). Jenna and I are going to make chocolate pudding creations later.

We tried watching Fiddler on the Roof last night, but it went way over their heads. Guess Chad and I will have to finish that without the kids. Will have to stick to Nemo or something tonight. Maybe Little Rascals. :)

Michelle

It's Here!

Oodles of snow during the night. We had maybe 5 inches before we went to bed. Now it's somewhere around 20 inches. We just had a purple pancake breakfast, and now we're all going to head outside. Chad and I (and the girls some, too) will shovel driveway while kids play. Chad will head out first to make a path so Micah will have somewhere to walk. He definitely couldn't walk in this snow!

It's gorgeous. We'll send pics later.

Last night Chad went out to shovel before dark, and once after dark-- hoping to make it a little easier today. We have one neighbor with a snowblower and it's not working. Hah! So many years we have no need of one anyway, and then when we do, theirs breaks. Guess we need the exercise anyway.

Michelle

Going Slow

It's been lightly snowing since about 10 am. Just now it's starting to stick to the grass. None sticking to driveway yet. Temp is stil 36.

Estimates range from 10 to 24 inches.

Having a nice day with family at home. Katie, Jenna, and I started a 1000 piece puzzle. Chad made a tent out of sheets in the living room. We've all played Wii a bunch. Kids are all still wearing their pjs.

Michelle

Preparing for the Big One

Early in the week, I had planned to do errands Thur pm. I was looking forward to going by myself. It's practically relaxing to not have little kids along. :) However, since we found out school was cancelled for Fri due to the impending storm, I asked Katie to go with me. She loves to shop, and she really is a good help, too. And I'm so glad she came! Because she was with me, I actually had FUN waiting in the incredibly long lines.

Everyone in Hagerstown was out to Walmart and the grocery stores. We started out in Aldis, and it was quite full as well, but they had 4 very fast cashiers working-- didn't wait long at all. Walmart was a different story. We wanted to buy another remote for the Wii game Katie won, and you have to pay for those in the electronics dept, so we waited in line with a couple hundred other people there. Saw a family that used to be at Grace years ago-- had a son in K's class-- was fun to see how he'd grown.

Then we finished our other Walmart shopping and started looking for a line. For most of the lines, I couldn't even find the end-- the went back into the clothing area and snaked around in there. We were able to jump on the end of a 20 or less line that went way back between the clothing and the groceries. As soon as we got in line, the cashier came back and handed me the Land Closed sign to hold. She looked apologetic and I soon found out why-- I had to turn people away from our line... so I took to holding it behind us so people could see it. I still had to turn away a few people, but that was definitely better. For a while, Katie balanced the sign on her head, and that worked, too. :) Katie had the idea to play the alphabet game, and that was the ideal place to play it! When we finally made it to the cashier, I asked if I could get a discount in return for holding her sign, she didn't let me, but she sure did thank me.

By the time we got out of there, some of the other stores I had thought about heading to were closed, so just finished up at the grocery store. Home by 10:15-- very happy to have had fun alone time with Katie. She seems to crave it more than the other kids.

Now it's Friday! Everyone's home... waiting for snow. We have a bit left from Wed's snow, but it got up to 40 that day, so much of it melted. Current predictions are for it to start midday and end with up to 18 inches. All of our Friday and Saturday activities have been cancelled. It'll be interesting to see about Sunday. It's Superbowl! Can people handle cancelling their Superbowl parties? Probably they would brave the snow for that. Actually watching the game is a pretty low priority for us, but our lifegroup is planning to have a party... and we'd enjoy the party part. :)

Maybe my next post will have pics of the mountains of snow... and maybe we'll be laughing because everyone called off all these activities for 2 lousy inches.

Michelle

You'd think we live in Michigan

Overnight we got 4-5 more inches of snow. 2 hour delay at Grace. Our county had no school. We're enjoying it! Loved the beautiful snow sticking to the branches of the trees, but it was also nice to have Chad and the kids home for a little while this morning. Claire's been begging to stay home from school to play with Micah more, so this was her chance.

Funny thing is that the forecaster on our radio station did not see this much snow coming. AND the same thing happened last weekend-- we got 4-5 inches then, as well, and they had said we'd have "a dusting to 1/2 inch".

Neighbor told Chad this morning that we're going to get 1 foot of snow this weekend. And the almanac says we have another large snow coming later in Feb. Ought to be fun!

Last Fri, Chad's parents came so I could paint Micah's bedroom. Figured at some point he'd get sick of the pink and yellow flowers left there from when Claire was in it. I know I was getting sick of them, anyway! With their help, I got a huge amount done fast! Working around Micah's naptimes, that probably would have taken me a week, but they read Micah about 20 books, fed him, played with him, and kept him out of the bedroom. Don even helped paint (the nasty parts-- up by the ceiling and around the ceiling fan). So, ceiling and walls (2 colors-- one on top and one on bottom) were finished on Friday.

On Saturday, Jenna and I painted green grass halfway up the walls. On Monday, Katie put up the animal wall stickers we had gotten at the Dollar Tree. Then they helped me decide I really needed to repaint the yellow dresser and shelf. They just didn't look right, and I had plenty of blue paint left. That's finished now.

So, soon we'll get a pic of the room and post it.

Found out this week that my parents are going to visit in April, and Eric and Lea Anne are visiting in May. Anyone else want to come? :) We definitely have more room for people now.

Michelle