a slippery slope...a.k.a our yard

February came in with a bang. We were hit with an ice and snow storm and people in complete panic mode.  

It started Monday night with freezing rain and ice hitting our windows.  I kept thinking someone was knocking at our window, but it was just ice pelting the glass.  Of course, Mr. Jax was confused and wasn't a huge fan of getting soaked outside by freezing cold rain.  When I would open the front door to go outside, he'd run the other way. Once we made it inside, he ran straight for the heat register. He eventually warms up to the inclement weather. In just a short amount of time , there was already a sheet of ice on our sidewalk and grass.  They came by once to salt/sand our sidewalk, but I think after that they gave up because we haven't see them since.  Our neighborhood is a thick sheet of ice...covered by snow...mashed down into tread marks by cars.

Kind of a crappy picture, but this is the doorstep to outside. 

Footprints that aren't even touching the sidewalk...pure ice! 

Icy grill...I can't wait for summer to use this again! 

Our sidewalk and yard are a complete sheet of ice. No cement. No grass. Just ice.  I need some ice skates. I'm also really starting to perfect my penguin shuffle.  Outside our front door is a good couple inches higher than normal.  I have to actually step up a little instead of just walking straight out. The poor dog just slowly slides down the slope of our yard when he is trying to do his business.  He just looks back at me all confused like,"Why am I sliding all over the place mom?"

The only thing that really had me worried was everyone talking about needing an emergency kit in case our power went out.  I thought I'd be more prepared, but it was really pathetic how "prepared" I got us.  Answer me this-if power goes out, does the water still work?  Either way, I started filling pitchers with water, Matt stocked us up with some hard boiled eggs, and I knew where the flashlights were.  40% prepared.

Tuesday rolled around and I made the trek to work. All day there was talk about the possibility of staying after our shift to work and even spending the night.  They were using vacant rooms in postpartum and other units and taking out rooms at nearby hotels to have places for the nurses to sleep.  I had my overnight bag packed and waiting. (Speaking of packing a bag, after asking Matt if I should pack a bag and freaking out about what to pack a million times, his response was, "I don't know! Pack your prom dress, and some pearl earrings, anything you'll ever need.")  Gotta love him :).

So not only do nurses not get snow days, we also may have to stay past our 12 hour shift?  I'm not complaining though. What would those babies do without us? It was actually pretty cool to see all of us just stepping up to the plate and making the most of it. A couple of us girls were a little paranoid all day whenever we saw the AR (scheduling person) or our supervisors walking around, we were for sure they were about to ask us to stay.  The night nurses started to arrive, and we were thinking we were in the clear.  Marion county moved us to a travel warning only allowing necessary travel to get home from work and emergency personnel. At 6:43 pm (17 minutes away from giving report to nights),  the hospital declared a "snow emergency".  Basically this means that no hospital personnel leaves the hospital until all units are adequately staffed (Women's AND 86th).  We all started preparing to stay all night.  I was expecting the worst- after already working a tiring 12 hour shift, having to travel over to a medsurg unit at the main house. Once again, I'm so thankful to work in the NICU. At 7:15, they called the "all clear". Yay!  I get to go home to my own bed and my poor lonely pup.

Brrrrr! 

Seriously, stop with the pictures already. 

Slipping all over Ice Wonderland

Today the roads were better and we had a break in the snow.  Lauren and I made the trip to the gym.  Yes, I am a psycho that went to the gym...hey the roads weren't THAT bad!  There were about 10 die-hards in our bodypump class.  In the middle of our class, the lights flickered and we were for sure we were done for and the power was out for good.  Well, it only went out for about 3 seconds and was back on.

I'm so glad that storm has passed and I could not be more thankful to have a garage.