Nat Your Average Story: All (Almost) of These Pictures Have Snow Too!

The snow is apparently melting much faster than it normally would - courtesy of unusually warm temperatures in the past few days - but it still just seems like a ton of snow to this California born, Mississippi raised Virginian. It seemed everywhere I went this week, snow was most certainly part of the background and as I sit typing this, snow is still a large part of the background...granted, the almost 50 degree temperature outside and the rain will probably make a pretty good dent in those piles of snow.

Watson absolutely loves the snow.

He really loves the huge "mountains" the snow creates for him

So much color & so much...white...

Monday was a no work day - the snow plow didn't show up to get things cleared away until later in the day and so I couldn't get very far. Once the snow had all been pushed up into a gigantic pile, Watson spent the late afternoon begging to go back outside again...and again...and again to climb piles of snow, try his best to dig through piles of snow and hunt for the cat(s) that were obviously hiding in the snow. I think he was just so thrilled that could finally get farther than the end of my car for walks and it was all he wanted to do. I was happy to oblige as long as there was some sun shining, but as the sun went down it got cold and I wasn't really interested in taking my chances slipping and sliding and climbing over piles of snow.

How many feet of snow do you think this is?

The view out of my office - which still looks a lot like this.

I hitched a ride on Tuesday with my friend Jennie because....well mostly because I'm still trying to get the hang of not being a complete pansy when it comes to driving on snowy roads. The roads weren't actually that snowy though...ha-ha. That's probably the reason why I felt more emboldened the rest of the week to strike out on my own. Each day the drive to work was like a look and see who has begun to dig out...on Tuesday the parking lot at my office was filled with snow; the place where I normally park was under almost four feet of snow, so I guess it was a good thing I didn't drive! As the week passed, more and more pavement began to reveal itself and by the end of the week...I could see grass.

I know - I'm terribly boring. If you're struggling to hold your head up with the incredibly thrilling post, I apologize.

Wednesday night drive home...complete with fluffy pink skies.

Watson thinking "this stuff just goes on forever...."

Melt...freeze....melt....freeze....don't slip & break your knees.

Please excuse my amazing rhyming skills above - I've had a headache for most of the day and I think it's hindering brain function. The week itself passed amazingly slow to be a four day week; isn't that how it always goes though? The week was filled with work during the day (duh) and the evenings were spent watching Fixer Upper (it's an addiction y'all...it's so bad) and generally just being lazy. As I said above, I know that my life is absolutely riveting. However, when it's cold outside and there are piles of snow everywhere - the only thing you really want to do is curl up inside with a good book or something good to watch on TV. So - that's what I did for most of the week.

Tales of strange weather on Friday....

Snow - covered with some ice - because...fun.

Watson surveying the scene.

The weather on Friday was weird - that's really just the best way I can describe it. The morning started off sunny enough and en route to work I kept thinking I was seeing...something...falling from the sky, but I refused to believe it was snow. Until I was almost to work and it was coming down in buckets and I couldn't deny that it was snow... *sigh*. It snowed and sleeted for about twenty minutes before tapering off...and out came the sun! The day seemed like it was shaping up to be glorious and sunny. Around noon I went to the back of the office to tell my co-workers I was going out for lunch...when I left my desk, there was sun in the sky and blue clouds...by the time I made it back to the front of the office, it looked like a blizzard!

Now, obviously some squall lines kept moving through the area on Friday and so while I ran errands and got lunch, the snow was swirling around the car like crazy. Soon enough though, the clouds parted and out came the sun again - although there was still snow falling, even if only for a few minutes. My friend Danielle asked if I'd seen a "snowbow" and I told her I had not - and seriously, is that a real thing? It doesn't sound real....

The Shenandoah River...

Beautiful...and chilly!

Perfect footprints in the pristine snow.

The weekend passed much too quickly for my liking - it seemed like it barely started and then it was over! It seems like January is always a very "lazy" month and this one was no exception; I spent the weekend just watching movies and running a couple errands with my family. There was nothing pressing on the schedule for the weekend and while that was nice, it somehow made the weekend pass even quicker. I've never been a huge Winter person and with all these slow Winter weekends, I can say with absolutely certainty that I'm looking forward to Spring, warmer weather and adventures on the weekends.

Sunday afternoon we tried to ride into the National Park to get pictures of the snow from in the mountains, but the roads weren't 100% cleared yet, so we had to settle for the state park a few miles up the road. It offered nice enough views but the real scene stealing views were later in the evening when the sun set and the sky turned bright orange, pink and purple. So - I leave you with the views off the back porch on Sunday night and I promise that I'll try to be more exciting next week, ha-ha!