Winter is Here

Despite having snow for Halloween (thanks, Mother Nature!), we had no snow for most of November and December. In fact, we had unseasonably warm temperatures in December, balmy (for Wisconsin) 40s and may even warmer. 

But we're paying for it now that January is here. We had two snowstorms last week, with one actually counting as a blizzard due to the volume of snow and wind combined. The kids were home from school Tuesday, and we got a few inches of snow that day, but it wasn't as bad as forecast. So held out hope we'd have school on Friday, but those hopes were dashed when my run ended at 6 a.m. to see the texts that school was cancelled. Friday definitely was a snow day as that was our blizzard day that continued into the night. 

Fortunately I had a friend offer to take AJ to her house for a sleepover when she headed home from the office, so he got to have plenty of fun with a friend playing video games and Dungeons and Dragons. As I was chatting with Dave when he finished up work late in the afternoon, I suggested we invite the neighbors over for breakfast Saturday morning since we'd all be snowed in.

A few text messages later, and we had at least a few takers, so we thawed some meats and left extra cinnamon breads for the bakery unfrozen. The next morning neighbors showed up around 8 a.m. to enjoy sausage and bacon (of course cooked outside on the grill and griddle ... we grill year-round here), cinnamon bread, sourdough, hot cocoa, tequila sunrises and adult breakfast smoothies (aka the leftover pitcher of margaritas from Christmas with the neighbors). 

Not the whole crew, but quite a few. Teddy made himself comfy.

Teddy was so excited when the first neighbors arrived, happy to play with their 2 girls. His excitement only grew as we had 13 friends join the fun. He spent time in the basement playing with the kids, and dragged a few adults down to the basement to play as well.

It was such a nice, spontaneous gathering to make the most of the snowstorm and fact that no one was dashing off anywhere bright and early. It wasn't fancy, but it sure was fun!

 

Lost and Found

Teddy and I were flying solo this weekend while Dave and AJ spent some quality time at the land. This morning we ran errands, and Teddy sat nicely in AJ's car seat. That's not always the case, since Teddy can unbuckle himself from that seat, which is why we reserve it for short trips. I didn't have the garage door opener in the vehicle, so I hopped out to open the garage door when we got home. I pulled in, parked and took the first load into the house, shutting the garage door as I went. I dropped the load and returned to the car for the second load and immediately noticed something was missing: Teddy.

It's normal for him to remain in the car while we unload or to unbuckle and play in the garage. This was not normal.

I immediately realized he had snuck out before the garage door shut and had a 30-60 second head start on me. I opened the garage door, frantically scanned outside, double-checked the garage and quickly called in the house for good measure.

Then I sprinted around the house, looking for any signs he went into the pond. Seeing none, I dashed up front and was ready to beeline to the neighbor's open garage door when another neighbor called that she had him.

Her boys had seen Teddy walk across their yard without me right behind him, alerted their mom and went after him. He made it to the next neighbor's house, where I found her holding his hand.

Teddy and I returned home with my heart racing. He may have only been gone for realistically 2-3 minutes, but that's long enough for something horrible to happen. Without the ability to speak and with water literally in our backyard, there's an awful lot of potential for awful to happen.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case today. We returned home safely, where I promptly thanked my neighbors via texts. We have incredible neighbors, and Teddy's guardian angel definitely has its hands full.

We went to the park this afternoon to make some positive memories.