Spring Break, Finally Over

...it could have taken the snow with it!

Last week was Spring Break.  We had 2 blizzards with a 40 degree day thrown in for kicks.  Glad our only plans were not foiled.  We had an amazing week planned.   Robert and I were going to go to work.  The kids were going to hang out with friends and sitters. homes.  Thank you friends and sitters!!!!

I canceled Cub Scouts 'cause it was Spring Break and nothing was going to ruin my plans, dang it!!  LOL! 

I had grand plans to go grocery shopping on Saturday but laziness won the day and it didn't happen.  I did, however, go with Nikki to Buffalo to take her daughter, Chelsey, to meet up with her dad for the weekend.   So glad she got home before the storm rolled in again!

I really should have gone shopping!

I got 4 phone calls last night telling me that school was canceled today. 

I received a call from the Snow Emergency Service - a first in the 5 years we've lived here!- telling me to not park on the Emergency Snow Route.  I don't even live on a Snow Route. 

This is what appears on the city web site:

Attention
A snow emergency has been declared until 6 PM tonight. 
Emergency travel only. 
No parking on emergency snow routes. 
Total snowfall of 10 to 18 inches expected with wind gusts up to 50 mph.
The City Snow Routes Emergency is in effect.
If you have vehicles parked in these routes,
you must move them immediately.
A SNOW EMERGENCY has been declared.
NO PARKING on City Snow Routes is allowed.

And from Sheridan Media:

More storms are anticipated throughout the week. We expect that clean up from the storms will take the rest of the week and the coming weekend.

I think I want to go just a little south of the Equator!  Salvador, Bahia, Brazil!     This is Salvador:

One of my best friends from Brazil lives in this area.  This beach is one of her favorite places.

This is the view out my back door:

 

This is out the front door:

City Hall is closed.  Robert is home.  IML is not closed.  I should be at work.  But, there is no unnecessary travel right now.  No one is going out to sample today.  UPS and Fed EX can't get out in this weather.  We will not be getting samples from them.  My stuff can stay in the oven and bake another day...

The car can move now, so I'm going grocery shopping....Wal-Mart should be open, right?

THE MOUNTAINS OF HOME

THE MOUNTAINS OF HOME by  Winna Brown Kalauli - my mom's cousin

They call to me still in the gentle feelings of evening and in the early, golden rays of a new dawn. I see them etched clearly in my mind - tall and red and beckoning to the child still in my soul. I feel them deep within my heart calling me, calling me, calling me...

"Come, climb my peaks once more. Sit on my top and listen to the clean air brush through the pinion pines and ruffle your hair. Search my caves and caverns. Pick my Indian paintbrushes and snowballs and sweet peas. Gather the remnants of others who used to roam me freely ages past - arrowheads among the sagebrush. Come, sing and whistle as you used to, little child, while you scamper over my rocks and boulders, flinging your worries and cares down my canyons and rushing winds. Sit upon my sun-warmed sands, close to Heaven, and look down and ponder on all the glories of your valley home. Then let my strength seal all these wonders in your child heart to last for eternity to bring you back to me when you are grown."

"I am the Mountains of your Home, I will stand here forever, even after you have become too old to wander my silent paths, to play among my rocks and shout joyously from my tops, I am the mountains of your home. I will be here when you return."

 

Copied from Moccasin and Her People.  This is where I came from.   I hope everyone has their own little Moccasin.  Calm, serene, joyful- my mountain home, my family.

On Street Sweepers

Robert is at City Council tonight.  It is 10:55pm.  I texted him at 10:15 or so to see if he was coming home tonight.  --  Council meetings start at 7:00pm and are held every other Monday, with the other two being taken up by Planning Commission. --  I hate Mondays! 

Robert texted me back around 10:30 saying that they are discussing the potential purchase of a street sweeper.

This is our current sweeper.  We got it a few years ago.  It does a good job as far as I can see.  It certainly makes its rounds often enough and helps keep the dust down on the streets. 

Yeah, I think it does a good job.   

So when Robert texted me back with the new street sweeper story I was taken back.  Back to Brazil.  

For those of you who don't know, I served 14 of my 18 month LDS Mission in the interior of Brazil.  I loved it there!  Robert and I met in Brazil.  Life is so much simpler there --  I did not live in any of the large cities such as Rio or Sao Paulo.   So, when I say "simpler",  think Wyoming on steroids! 

This is what pops into my head every time I hear the words street sweeper:

and for the bigger cities, Renato Sorriso, the dancing Street Sweeper from Rio.  Ok, I just found this in Google images... details!

It is 11:15 and Robert is finally home. 

While I was living in Brazil, completely submerged in their culture and seeing these people actually sweeping streets, I couldn't help to wonder how we cleaned streets in the good ol' USA.  I couldn't remember ever seeing anyone pushing a broom on our streets.  I'm sure I would have remembered had I seen it.  Then, some other American missionary would tell me that we actually used machines that sucked up the garbage and dirt.  It was just amazing!!   I couldn't imagine it!

Just like I couldn't figure out how the church has a stake center by the Sao Paulo temple that has a basketball court inside with classrooms surrounding it.  It was amazing to think about it.  Here I was in the middle of Brazil, all the ward buildings had an outside volleyball/soccer court.  Trying to draw a picture in my mind of a normal US LDS ward building was difficult. 

Growing up 21 years in the United States as an active member of the church--every Sunday, every weekday in High School attending Seminary with near perfect attendance--and within 8 months of being submerged in Brazil, I could not remotely think American.  After almost 11 years of being home, I still have issues thinking American- remembering words or phrases, thinking and speaking in the proper English structure. 

I hope the City decides what it wants to do about the potential new Street Sweeper.  Imagine how many more people could have jobs if, like Brazil, we had street sweepers! 

I suppose it wouldn't work too well in the winter, but isn't that what the snow removal department is for?