Snowed In

And I do mean that literally!

This is the view from my dining room window - it's looked like this since noon on Friday.

Paul played basketball at the church early this morning, like he does every saturday and the roads were horrible.  He took the van, because his car, which was parked out on the street, was buried and iced over.  He and his friends made it safely to and from the church but coming home the van got stuck in our driveway - too much snow.  So he spent over 1 hour shoveling it this morning.

We needed a few things from the store today (we were completely out of baby wipes) and Paul decided to brave the elements - he'd made it out ok that morning and now the driveway was shoveled, so he didn't think it would be too bad.  Wrong.  Paul only made it to the end of the street until he was completely stuck - in the middle of the road.  Within 30 seconds a teenage kid comes running up to the van, waving his arms like crazy.  His car was on fire about 30 feet in front of Paul!  Paul called 911.  Our stuck-in-the-snow van was in the way of the fire truck...so they pushed it into someone's plowed driveway.  Paul watched the car burn with some new neighbors, who invited Paul to join them on their covered porch.  After the fire was out Paul knocked on the door of the house whose driveway our van was now sitting in.  It was a nice older couple who donned their snowgear and attempted to help Paul get the van back down the street to our house.  No way was it gonna happen...but they managed, after much back-breaking labor, to get it off to the side of the road.  This nice couple, who have grandchildren, then sent Paul walking home with some baby wipes (thank goodness)  On his way down the street Paul stopped to help another stuck car.  Here is the view from our frontyard. 

And here's our backyard - notice the almost completely buried garbage can.

And here is Paul, the exhausted, frozen (almost) conquering hero.  He may not have made it to the store, but he did get the much needed baby wipes and met a few nice neighbors in the process : )  His ordeal took him several hours.

The pictures just don't do it justice.  I got Noah bundled up in his boots and coat and tried to get him out there for a picture, to give the white blur a little perspective...but the minute he stepped out into the single digit temperatures and blowing snow he refused to go any further.  Our neighborhood is a disaster and we are completely snowed in.  Who knows for how long because the snow hasn't stopped and our street RARELY gets plowed.  I'm not exaggerating.  We already knew it would be impossible for us to make it to church tomorrow (we found out later it's been cancelled) and Paul is worried about making it to the hospital on Monday.  THIS IS CRAZY!!!